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Today was a start-from-absolute-scratch day. I very much need to prep a bunch of pieces this weekend. My process is a constant back and forth, and I found that trying to focus only one one piece (with no other pieces to switch to when I needed a break) difficult.

Here's the owl evolution. I really just want to call it an owlvolution...but I won't. Maybe. I started the day planning to work on a completely different owl but this one called to be completed. What I love about this owl is how different she started. The initial idea is very different from how she turned out.  Those surprises make me like her even more.

Beginning Plan.

Trying to figure out what color to make her stomach so that it doesn't draw all the attention.

Eye problem: Solved.

Final owl with flowers and all.

Sometimes you have to spread out all of your painted papers and get them into the right color families. Time to listen to aaaall the podcasts.

This is sort of what the entire house looks like when my husband leaves on work trips.

Whatever style I have, it’s nowhere near mixed media artist Danielle Donaldson’s. But I was on one of those “grab aaaall the mixed media books” in the library, and hers fell into the pile. I’m so glad it did. First, there is something relaxing about reading a technique book that has little to no crossover with your own style. The part of my brain that is constantly buzzing with, “careful not to copy” could just stay the hell out of the room while I enjoyed reading. It was nice to have the peace and quiet and read Creative girl: Mixed Media Techniques for An Artful Life.

Donaldson paints primarily in watercolor and includes elements of paper, text and stitching. Her main subjects are cute girls although she paints way more than only cute girls. Here’s what I loved most about her book.

1. She encourages you to be creative all the time.

First off, happy one month art-full-time-iversary! Remember a few weeks ago when I got all excited about a theme for the PDXtraordinary show? Between then and now there's been a fair amount of deliberation in my studio about how to approach it. Today I tried beetles. Well, technically I've been doing beetles for awhile, but today was the first day working on them felt like true progress. I'm not sue where else this one needs to go, but it feels good to find inspiration in something as opposed to hostility. Working on this PDX Carpet (Not Carpet) Beetle struck up another dozen ideas I'll work through in the next few weeks. I've said yes to the PDXtraordinary show and I have about a month until my image is due. There will probably be a lot of beetles on the blog from now through October. You've been warned?

Image note: PDX Carpet (Not Carpet) Beetle