Some Favorite Art from 2021-Part 1

Hi everyone. Happy day 2 of the new year. I hope you can't complain about the new year so far. 

Today for Second on the Second  over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog I want to do  look back and share a few of my favorite art pieces from 2021. I like to look back because it reminds me of all the things I attempted.   It is amazing how much art I made and although it is always "my style", it's surprising all the different techniques and topics I played with during the last 12 months. 

I'll start with this drawing page I made back in January while working through one of the classes at Creative Jumpstart.  I think I did accomplish many of these goals shown on my page, and I really like this idea.  I  will do similar page for 2022.

I spent a lot of last winter drawing and coloring patterns which was not only relaxing but a fun way to play with color combinations and shapes. In this next piece, I used  ink dripped on a piece of  filter paper to make the moon, and then I stamped and doodled the dancers.

And using cold colors in winter helped me create these next couple of pages ( the one above and the one below). Although I must say I only like about a month or 2 of winter, I do seem to like making winter themed pages.

It had been a long time since I'd done any Citrasolv transfers. I don't usually have very good luck  with that process, but the statue on this next page came out great. It made the perfect base to create my travel page on.

And this next page is one of my more favorite drawing based pages. It does have some stamping and paint added to it. I need to get back to making more drawing pages. Making them is the only way to improve drawing skills, and I still have room for improvement. I really like the big brush on the right.

This sheep page started with a drawn pattern that I didn't really like. Gesso and watered down pink paint  over the pattern gave it a nice look to make this stenciled sheep page. Note to myself: you can make a page you really like starting with a mistake.

I also made some little folded books based on another Creative Jumpstart class.  The books were fun to create, and even more fun to fill in in February.

In one book I watercolored the background and then painted these big black circles with acrylic paint.

Then I made a shape based book that used lots of numbers.

And the cool watercolored background  in a third mini book worked well with red hearts for Valentine's Day.

I also created a larger stitched book with a spring theme since nice weather was calling to me.

I really like the effect of stamping over the light splatter background.

And that project lead me into making another soft covered stitched book with a children and  garden/spring theme.

Another note to self: make  more little books in 2022. 

I'll share a couple more pieces since this post is starting to become long.

Although I really like this (above) page, what I really excited me was using painted wax paper scraps to make the background.  (Along with a black ink pad rubbed over them.) I love the textured look it creates.

And this next page with all the silly dogs has to be in my top 10, maybe even top 5, favorites I made last year. (And the fact that I added my 2 pups, Maddie and Pete to it only made it better.)

And lastly, I can't forget all the fun I had making tags. This one was cut out of black watercolor paper, a favorite supply I discovered in 2021. I stamped in white and with the added details it reminds me to use black and white with only 1 color more often.

Thanks visiting my blog. I always appreciate all your kind comments. I'll be back another day to share more of my favorites from 2021. And I'll be back tomorrow with new art for 2022 too.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.