Monthly Archives: March 2015

Sketches of a Rustic Town

View a YouTube ,  learn some fast and easy ways to incorporate journaling into your everyday life, create calender pages and discover how to pack light for travel journals.

Sketching and drawing is one of my favortie pastimes. My husband James (he likes to sketch also) took me to an almost-ghost town in Texas, Patillo.

old store James

The old store with the cow skull, buckets, soda bottles, ice chest, old windows, feed signs and rustic demeanor was my favorite. I borrowed a stool to sit and sketch. I loved the door with the OPEN sign… tape and chalkboard for messages. Definitely it was not open on this day, and since no hours were posted, I’m not sure just when it might be open.

Open or Closed

It all added to the ambiance of horses grazing in the field and birds singing in the trees. Speaking of bird watching… a beautiful red cardinal was busy watching all that was going on.

Red bird watching

I have been keeping journals for over 15 years. My book ‘Art Journals and Sketchbooks’ tells my philosophy of keeping a sketch journal and gives dozens of sample ideas.

Suz sketching

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Zentangle pattern, enjoy and create!!

Zentangle #149

manholes tile b150

Suzanne McNeill CZT

manholes pattern b150

Manholes

The Zentangle® art form and method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas and is copyrighted. Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc.  and is used with permission. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Heavy Metal – Reactive Paints

View a YouTube, Cindy Shepard CZT  creates a tangled bird using gesso, Inktense pencils and an old book page. Fun!!

My classes for ‘Heavy Metal’ – also called Reactive Metal paints – are always popular. We experiment with turning almost everything… from Art Journals to hearts, and from canvas to jewelry into surfaces covered with genuine metals.

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I use four VerDay reactive metal paints: iron, copper, bronze, and brass. An old paintbrush works well to apply the initial coat. Next I apply Patina (special reactive solution) with a spray bottle. The solution reacts to make the genuine metal particles ‘bloom’ into amazing colors… iron turns a rusty orange, brass to green, bronze to blue, copper to verdgris in only a few minutes.

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I was honored to be invited to demonstrate the techniques to the Mid-Cities Art Club. Enthusiastic members were fascinated by the outcome. My favorite VerDay reactive paints come from TENSecondsstudio.com . My book ‘Rust and Patina’ tells all about using the paints, and gives dozens of sample ideas of what you can do with the metal paints.

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Zentangle Pattern, enjoy and create!!

Zentangle #148

pinball zen2 b149

Suzy Allen CZT 

pinball zen

Pinball

The Zentangle® art form and method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas and is copyrighted. Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc.  and is used with permission. Learn more at zentangle.com.