H is for HOT Inchie

As usual, my life guides my art.  When I read "HOT", I immediately thought of Hot Wheels.  I know... weird.  But, my husband is a toy collector and for most of his life he hascollected Hot Wheels.  Heck, he had me out searching for a particular Hot Wheel TONIGHT!   Some people call it collecting.  I call it mental illness, but... I love him.

So, I knew I wanted to do something with the Hot Wheels logo.  I tried just going with flames but couldn't really get the look I wanted.  I ended up using my colored pencils and my super fine black pen to create this little guy.  I knew I couldn't fit "HOT WHEEL" into the logo with that tiny little canvas, so I went with the next best thing... INCHIE!

I can't believe I managed to get this done on Monday!  My life has been CRAZY... this is probably the busiest time I've ever experienced in my working life.  Sometimes I feel like I can't even find the time to just breathe.  I have to say that stepping away and spending some time working on these Inchie projects feels really good.  I'll keep making time for this.  It's a good feeling. 

H is for Head Inchie

Well, I guess we can all agree that I'm no Flavia, but here is my first watercolor attempt.  When I read "head", being a beer girl, I immediately thought of a pint with a frothy head on top.  This is pretty much exactly what I pictured in my head at that moment, well except in my mind the pint glass was actually the proper shape for a pint.  The "head" is made of micro-beads.  I love those!  Enjoy your week!

If I don't demonstrate better time management skills and soon, we might have to change

  EVERY INCHIE MONDAY to THURSDAY!  YIKES!

G is for Gold Inchie

I sort of feel like this is the hardest one so far.  To me, portraying gold seems really hard... just the capturing the true color.  I thought of gold coins.  I thought of a golden ticket.  Gold bars are on my sketch pad.  But, then I thought (besides jewelry) how has gold been a part of my life and I had an "AH HA!" moment.  Again, this seemed hard for me, but I decided that when I think of gold, (besides jewelry) I think of gold prospecting because I spent many years of my life mining for gold.  I know, crazy, right?  But, I was once married to a man who had gold fever.  I've sluiced for gold, I've dry washed for gold, I've dredged for gold and I've panned for gold.  This is rudimentary and if I didn't tell you what it was, you probably wouldn't even know (the husband thought it was a plate of food), but it does bring back some memories.  Voila!  My Gold Pan.  And just so you know, green IS the most common color for gold pans, although my favorite gold pan ever was a burgundy color.  I think I'm rambling now, so I'll stop.

Yeah, I know there isn't much gold in that pan, but trust me that's more than you'd actually find!

Alright, Every Inchie Monday, you did NOT stump me, even though you tried.  haha

G is for Game Inchie

Oh, so many things ran through my mind for Game for this weeks Every Inchie Monday.  How do you pick just ONE game???   Well, I didn't.  I fell back to my old favorite medium of the collage.  I finally dug out a bunch of scrap-booking supplies and found a lot of fun things.  I'm even kind of inspired to maybe make some photo albums... we'll see.  But, I found some fun goodies and put together this inchie for your pleasure.  I kinda like it.  Hope you don't mind the funky angle, but it shows all of the aspects best.

F is for Figure Inchie

Yes, I'm late again. I had promised myself I would work ahead when vacations were coming up, but unfortunately I had to do that in all areas of my life and art got pushed to the side. BUT! Better a little behind than blowing it off, right? "FIGURE" really has so many connotations that could send you in a lot of different directions, but the first thing I thought of was how you learn to draw people by using shapes: circles, triangles, ovals, etc. I decided to create a start of a figure with those shapes like I learned when I was just a youngster. Except, once I got to that point, I just kept going. She's not super defined, but here is my figure. I call her Woman in a Mirror.  Just a little pencil and paper.

Again, thank you for inspiring me Every Inchie Monday... I might be late, but I'm stickin' with it!

F is for Forest Inchie

So.  Forest.   I immediately thought about Emily Carr, a Canadian artist who was famous for her paintings and drawings of the Canadian forest.  I first learned about her when I read The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland.  Inspired by the historical novel about Emily Carr's life I started searching out her art and really fell in love with the vibrant colors and chunky brushstrokes used to bring the forests of British Columbia to life.  Oddly, I never did read any of her writing... I need to do that.  When I visited Victoria, BC, Canada, I was disappointed to find that her home which is a museum was closed... BOTH TIMES!  But, I did get to see some of her work in person at the Royal BC Museum (which I HIGHLY recommend visiting if you are ever in Victoria, Canada.  It is an outstanding museum.)

While I don't do a lot of drawing or painting... it's not really my strong point, this challenge made me want to pay homage to Emily Carr with a colorful forest drawing using my new colored pencils that I've been itching to play with!  I actually did a good handful of forest drawings - you know, when it's only an inch you can be left wanting more sometimes!  Then it was hard to pick which to go with, so I just played a little more tonight and created a couple more.  I decided to go with this one because while it's not really anything like an Emily Carr painting, I like to think it has her essence with my streaky colors.  If not, we'll just pretend.

I had a lot of fun with this Every Inchie Monday, so thanks!

E is for Engrave Inchie

Well, I have to give a lot of credit to the husband for this one.  I was feeling super stumped by the 'Engrave' theme, but he immediately said, "you have to do something with a dollar bill". OF COURSE!  THAT is the number one item made via engraving in the world!  Well, paper money in general.

So, I'm back to my usual style of collage building, even though I just stocked up on pens, pencils, paints, etc.  I thought about going crazy with a lot of little pieces, but I like this.  I guess this is one bill that won't find it's way onto WheresGeorge.com, but that's okay.  It's worth it!  Oh, and I'm actually posting my Every Inchie Monday TIMELY!!!