2013 coloring contest

It's that time of year again!
I'm holding my 2nd All Ages Coloring Contest!

This year there is only one image to color. Take a photo of your coloring page and email entries to MIZZLEADVENTURES@GMAIL.COM. One entry per person, please. In the email, include the name and age of the artist. All entries must be received by Friday, December 13th, 2013. Only one entry per person!


Winners will be notified by email and  announced on my blog, www.mizzleadventures.blogspot.com by December 17, 2013th.

Award categories:
Ages 4 and under
Ages 5-11
Ages 12-17
Ages 18 and older

Winners of each category will win a Mizzle doll or a Mizzle print!

There is a link at www.mizzleadventures.com/contests.html You should be able to right click and save the images to your computer. If you want the document, email me at MIZZLEADVENTURES@GMAIL.COM and I will reply to you with the image.

Happy coloring!

daily drawing

I haven't done this in a long while, but I decided to do a daily drawing.  Today, I began to introduce Dia de los Muerto,s or Day of the Dead, to my beginning students.  As we were watching a video about the culture, food, and ceremony, I began to image (of course!) what the Mizzles might look like, or what they might be doing for Day of the Dead.  So, here is Stargazer and Molly putting Marigolds around my grandma's tombstone. 

I think I want to add another Mizzle to the background.  I have to create a color version.

Clearprint Cross Country Collaboration

I have been following a few art supply companies(Koh-I-Noor USA, Clearprint, and AD Marker) on Facebook, which has turned out to be quite a good thing for me.   I recently won a few free art supplies just for responding to one of their questions about what city did we live it.  I have yet to play with those pigment powders, but am excited to give them a try. 

Well, Clearprint announced a Clearprint Cross Country collaborative art project.  Artists who sign up are sent a clearprint sketchbook to create an art work on one page and return to them.  In addition, they are sent a second book to keep for themselves.  I could not pass up this opportunity.  It seemed a much more do-able project for me to participate in.  I've done the sketchbook project twice.  The first time, I rushed through it to meet the deadline and the second time, I completely forgot about the project. 

I really love the Clearprint Vellum books.  I like how rapidograph ink looks on it.  Also, I love how you can play with the front and back to create depth.

My book arrived on Tuesday.  I'm the first person to draw in the book.  I feel a little pressure being the first one, but I feel inspired.  I finished the page today and will mail it out tomorrow.

This is my contribution to the front cover.  Of course, Stargazer has to be on the cover.

 

I took one of the daily drawings I did last year for my page contribution.  This is the front of the page.

This is what the back looks like.

I used a .18 rapidograph pen and prismacolor colored pencils.  I haven't worked in colored pencil in a long while.  It felt nice to work in that medium again.

A better me

The past few months have been all about living a happier life and working towards a much better me.  Living by the beach was the first step.  Life seems so much more pleasant and relaxing.  I was running and walking on the beach a lot, but I found a workout location to go to, Transformation Center in Huntington Beach.  It has been great!  I love my fitness trainer, Alex.  He is just the right mix of pushing us past our comfort zones, motivation, and support.  I'm happy to have found him. I think what I like most about him is that he explains the reasons why he has us train and eat the way we do... AND he gives examples.  Being a teacher, this seems to work for me. I do have to admit that I feel like I'm cheating on Brea Fit Body.  I thoroughly miss them, a lot!  But this is for the best.  I feel so much more healthier and stronger!  I think part of it is that I have nothing to distract me from focusing on creating a healthier and happier life for myself. 

Plus, I'v been showing my Mizzles and paintings of their adventures at the Santa Ana Art walk the past few months with Orange County Creatives Gallery.  Jason and Maggie Tockey have been so great to me... and to my best friend. I am looking forward to showing with them again in December.  And I might be showing some work in their new Laguna location!!!  I'm a little excited about that opportunity. 

I joined the Huntington Beach Art League in September and this past October meeting I submitted my first entry to be judged.  I entered Mizzles Camping in the Mixed Media category.  Whoever demonstrates an art technique at the meeting gets to judge the artwork.  To my pleasant surprise, I took 1st place! 

So, with all of this healthy living and positive feedback from showing my work, it only makes sense that I have renewed energy and determination to complete my children's story about the Mizzles.  I have to say I have a few doubts, but those are just compositional kinks that I will work out.  Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the progress I've been making. 

It seems that the specific location I moved to is filled with people who hit a "rock bottom" and are finding themselves, or finding ways to make them a better version of themselves.  We are all creative types, who enjoy living by the beach.  I can't help to think how perfectly meant to be this all has been.  I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for me!

Summer ends, School begins

Summer has sadly ended and the school year has begun.  But before I had to go back to my regular scheduled program of being an art educator,  I was able to have some architecture/ art fun with one of my best buds, John. We explored the Architecture and Design Museum, where they had designs of buildings that were proposed for various locations in Los Angeles, but were never accepted.  Some of the design concepts were extremely futuristic, but it gave an interesting perspective of what LA could have possibly looked like.   During our adventure we saw the Wall Project, which are grafitti'd portions of the Berlin Wall.  It was really cool seeing it up close.  I remember being in middle school when my brother told me he was helping with taking the Berlin Wall down.  I thought it was the coolest thing that he was apart of a historical moment.

Then we went to the Geffen Contemporary, where we saw a great Architecture exhibit.  The structure below was one of my favorites.  It looked like it was made of the mesh material from lawn chairs and light/patterns were projected onto it.  Standing in the structure had a calming effect.

 

In August, I was asked to show my work at the Santa Ana Art Walk with the Orange County Creatives Gallery.  They did a really nice blog write up about me. Orange County Creatives

 I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a good experience. The gallery was extremely busy the whole night.  I seemed to attract a lot of visitors and I met a lot of interesting people. 

 

 

It has just been confirmed that I will be there again on Saturday, October 5th!

 

 

As for making things, I had made a lot of new Mizzles and Mermizzles for the show, but I have been working on a few paintings here and there.  Since Operation Relocation, a lot of the Mizzles have been exploring the beach life along with me. 

This first one is not one of my favorites.  It still needs a lot of work and turned out to be more yellow than I had planned.  I might have to redo this piece, but I thought it would be fun if the Mizzles had a beach bonfire.

After looking at this piece on the computer screen, I feel if the background was darken more then perhaps it would unify the piece more.

 This piece was a commission from one of my new neighbors.  She bought a Mermizzle for a friend's baby and wanted an artwork to go along with it.  This is probably one of my favorite pieces.  I have a lot of fun drawing the Mizzles exploring underwater life and meeting sea creatures.  I began by inking the outlines of the characters with a .18 rapidograph.

Then I used Derwent Inktense pencils to paint the foundation colors for each character.

  I used regular watercolor paint to develop the shadows and background.

 I mounted it to a 4"x 12" canvas and coated it with gel medium to seal it all in.

 This is the doll and painting together.  Since I loved it so much, I plan on recreating it. Hopefully, I can remember the correct color schemes I used.

 

I seem to finally be in a good place to begin working on my book again.  I spent the last weekend working on a few pages.  I'm trying to not let life get in the way of my goals.

 

 

Beach life

Since "Operation: Relocation", I have been enjoying my new life...the beach life.  I find it very surreal.  It is not something I'm used to, but I'm becoming very accustomed to it quickly!  I have been enjoying my runs/walks on the beach with my occasional shell collecting; riding my rust-bucket bike; hanging out with my new neighbors; listening to lots of music; and making art.

This has been my life:

My first time at the US Open of Surfing

The crowd after the Modest Mouse concert @ US Open

The trees around here are amazing!

Favorite part of my workout is taking my shoes off and then walking in the water.

I love these birds.  Someone told me it's called a Long Billed Curlew. 

Hiking Bolsa Chica wetlands

more of the wetlands

If you look closely, you will see a squirrel friend :)

Listening to local band, The Originalites

As for my artwork, I've been working on random things.  It's been a bit challenging to get into a work habit that has been successful for me.  I know when I'm like this it means I'll be producing some of my "bad and ugly" artwork.  So, I decided to just paint.  I had attended the Kustom Kulture exhibit at the Huntington Beach Art Center.  Here were some of my favorites:

Mark Ryden

Audrey Kawasaki

Shag

The Pizz

I decided that my first painting would be a reproduction of the Tiki guys in the car.  I bought myself a travel watercolor set.  I'm so used to using watercolor pencils that I needed practice.

Here are some other paintings and drawings I've been working on:

a daily sketch

A sketching day with my best bud, John.

Wow, my perspective is off.

The past few days I've been finding solace drawing in the courtyard of my complex.  This is becoming a favorite spot of mine, especially because my neighbor has been having band practice or playing around with his music.  It's like having a private concert each day.