Think I'm Finished??

Classwork status-
I worked more on this yesterday - changed the colors in the 'balls' by rubbing gray and/or coral soft pastel over them and rubbed it with my fingers - there's so much texture in those areas(used the end of a paint brush to scratch back into the still soft oil pastel/paint sticks) so the under colors still show, and the color is dulled by the pastel. I added the stitching on the pattern pieces and across the kimono - it's oil pastel also, scratched back out nearly with an xacto knife. Added a little more collage on several flower petals, and just over all cleaned it up. I didn't want to loose some of the original color or the multicolor edges of some areas, I personally like some of the unfinished look, but I do fuss over things too. But I THINK I'm done. My friend Laree and I are going to Alpine on Monday to let our instructor(talented watercolor artist college instructor Carol Fairlie) see what we've been doing for our class. Have to be finished in 2 weeks!!! YIKES!!!

Collage ramblings-
I also took pictures of some old work - 2 oil pastels on roofing paper and a c. pastel on newsprint. I'm going to use these in the newbie ATC's as background papers - I'll probably make them b/w and hand color them, or turn them into 'colorbook' drawings and handcolor them....or something. Old sketchbooks make awesome 'stuff' for backgounds, xeroxed on cool papers. I have an hp 1210xi all in one, and I have yet to find any paper or cardstock thickness paper I couldn't run through it - I have run painted papers and watercolor paper and of course my pattern tissue. Forgive me if everyone already knows all this!! I feel I have 'discovered' all this on my own - but of course - great minds think alike, so many of you may be doing the same thing!
I am trying to only use only my own images and family photos, I LOVE collage, I like to xerox until the detail is nearly gone, then xerox onto weird papers, old stuff, maps, etc. Also, I do like to make my own stamps. If you haven't tried the blue stuff - made by Penscore - you need to - you can make and remake your own stamps, using old medals, jewelry, words written with hotglue, cardboard letters, etc. the stuff is only 3X5ish, but you can overlap and connect in 100 ways!
Misc. stuff-
Thanks to whoever recommended Blogarithm.com - it is awesome!!! Several of you posted to your blogs yesterday and I got this handy little email with a direct link to your new entry! Fantastic!!!
Have a great weekend!!! Deb

Blogger Help Group

Went there to get all my posts to show on the page, so for at least a while all my carefully chosen words will show! I'm so proud of myself!!
I also found several art teachers who use the blog as a class webpage...what a cool idea for those of us with no knowledge of these things! And those I've seen have LOTS of pictures and info - eventually, I want an interactive webpage, with printable assignments and rubrics, syllabus(syllabii?) for every level, etc...but I don't know how to do it myself, and don't really want to learn either, I just want to know what I need to know to change or update it, FOR FREE of course! Art $$$ don't stretch far enough, I am always using my own money for things. Tech people say 'someday', and computer/multimedia teachers don't have time for it either. This is the most fun I have had in a long time - thanks for all the help out there!

Still having some problems

I lowered the cookie thing for blogger.com, so it would allow me to have add ons, like links - but it still takes FOREVER, to look at comments on my blog. It usually doesn't load the page at all. We have Norton Antivirus, and I can hear the popup blocker thing, very faintly, but it's catching some kind of 'poo' - we put it up higher since my little girl(19) has MySpace, and all that stuff, so we have had to do the hp recovery thing several times in the last 6 months - lost LOTS of stuff last time, but the computer was completely down, and that's all we could do...my little girl is also an artist, and taking classes at our local community college - her skills are so much better than mine were at her age, I can only imagine where she'll be when she graduates. I'm so proud of her. She is amazing.
We are leaving at 6AM tomorrow for Corpus, I can't wait! Have a great weekend out there folks!

Is it still Thursday??

I HAVE to take some pictures of my artwork to post - I may try the Art Techniques (Yahoo group) newbie ATC challenge. Question - how do you get such clear closeups? Just cropping? I wish my studio was finished, I either work at school or on the kitchen table and both of these are temporary solutions... I have a 10X20 building that needs to be resided and redone inside(I'll take before pictures - it is a mess right now!!) I've sanded most of the floor, and I have some cool ideas for the walls - I want to collage over the old icky paneling, not too fussy, but maybe old sketchbook drawings, xeroxed family photos, pattern pieces, maps, etc. and some old picture frames painted bright colors with cork inside, so I can pin up everything nearly, because I really do suffer from BSS (Bright and Shiney Syndrome) I am so easily distracted by ANYTHING!!! It's a joke, but then again...and then there's a terminal case of OSOM(Out of Sight, Out of Mind) - if I don't see it, it doesn't exist(guess my mental developement stopped at Peek-A-Boo when I was a baby!)
Well, time to spend an hour in the garage - have to make a stickie note(I LOVE STICKIE NOTES!!!) or I'll forget to go get tortillas for fajitas and my medicinal chocolate(Russel Stovers mint patties - awesome)

More Thursday ramblings...

It finally worked!! I'll be adding pictures of my art work, classroom, studio, travels, etc. I really think it would be imposssible to keep up with this during the school year, but I will try...it's fun, that's for sure! It will be a good way to keep up with family things, once I get it going. And I hope to have a real webpage for my art department this year too. Most folks out there don't care what I'm doing here in West Texas, but maybe a few fellow teachers and artists will be inspired by the links I'll have eventually, and the art tips and workshops. That's my hope anyway. Is anyone out there??? ^_^