Everything Circles to the End

April is gone and with it the #everythingcircles challenge.  Here are the pieces that I worked on for the last half of the month.

By now you know that I save a lot of things.  These circles were what was left of the Colorburst backgrounds that I used on the ornaments I made for my school staff two Christmases ago.  I had no idea at the time what I might use them for, but when I found them in the craft room recently I thought they would definitely fit in with this challenge.  The background on these is gouache.  

The circles on both are the same color pallet, but they look different against the different backgrounds.

A Zig brushmarker rainbow with marker mandalas.

These circles were more of the Zig markers wet.  An attempt at underwater bubbles - left out the fish and opted for fishnet instead.

Some more marker mandalas.

This is done in the large sketch pad.  The background is chains of marker circles.  The green circles are marker on some punched circle tags that I found whilst tidying up the craft room.  

I started these by drawing the circles and then wrapped the ribbon around them.  The ribbon is colored and blended with Zig's.  I added the lines in Micron marker afterwards.  I have some more ideas to do with this ribbon I hope to share at a later day.

The next day I took it a step further and added the Micron marker circles in the open spaces.

A variation done with color pencils this time.

This one is pretty busy.  I just layered these circle sprays in Arteza markers.

And this last one involves some recycling again.  Here are pieces of Colorbursted watercolor paper from Christmas Ornaments from this year.  The circles are twisted and coiled paper straw wrappers which for some reason I was saving last summer (I think in anticipation of using them for ICAD, but not entirely sure, though I'm glad to finally have used some of them).

I hope I haven't bored you with all these circles.  My art is all over the place, I know.  Some people have a niche, but I don't seem to have one.  I do enjoy experimenting with different mediums and also love repurposing things that some would call junk.  I don't expect everyone to get that either.  I just thank you for following along and hope you see something that you like.

No long-term challenges for me in May - I'm gearing up for ICAD which will start officially on June 1st with a couple of warm-ups before that.  

Everything Circles Art Challenge

Here I go, er, went again....... down another challenge path.  It seemed pretty simple, and it is really - incorporating circles into your art.  The everythingcircles challenge hosted by Birgit Koopsen. I kind of hemmed and hawed deciding whether to do this or not, but then I remembered this page in my large blank book that I had added all these circles to and the quotes that I had intermingled sort of helped me make my decision to move forward.  The limitation is circles. (BTW - this is much more colorful IRL, but being that the page is so large [8 1/2 x 11] I have to really pull back to be able to photograph the whole page making it fainter than I would like.)

And the icing on the cake was a visit to the opthamologist - photo taken whilst I was waiting for my exam. 

(As an aside, I went through this about two years ago with my right eye and now it's my left - and it's supposedly very normal for someone of my age - the vitreous in my eye is pulling away causing liquid to get in there and when it first does, you see flashing lights.  Mine remind me of the lights on a spinning ferris wheel.  Well, the lights subside but usually then you have a new "floater" of which I do.  The serious part is that if it pulls away too much, it can put a tear in the retina and that, if left untreated can lead to blindness.  Thus the trip to the opthamologist to make sure there is no tear.  And that's my PSA for that.  The picture that I've added just below is a photo of the inside of my eye.   The bright spot is where the retina is attached and if you look closely you can see the horizontal dark line which is the floater.  This has turned somewhat over the last month and now is up and down in my eye.  I thought it was pretty and the eye dr. probably thought I was nuts when I asked to take a picture of the screen.)

At this point I also made a decision that my circles were not just going to be drawn or painted.  They would be in photos - found circles.  This below is a collection of circles that I punched from reclaimed plastic pocket folders I use at work for homeroom attendance.  I give the teachers a new folder each September because even though they're made of plastic, they still get pretty beat up by June.  You know me and throwaways that might have another life......

This heart below is based on a design that I worked on about 20 years ago when I was still subbing in the classroom.  I would use the free/prep period that I might have to first go over the work that I would have to do, and if there was time, doodle.  Back then I used felt tipped markers.  This is done with Posca Paint pens.

Another Posca Pen circle design.

And yet another.

This one fell on Draw A Bird Day.  I punched some white circles out and drew some crazy sea gulls and a flamingo and added them to a scrappy collaged background with the quote "Be a Flamingo in a Flock of Seagulls".  

The one below may be deceiving.  It is less than 4" around and comes from the inside of a security envelope that I have used all shades of blue and green markers to color in.  (I've since glued it into my little 3.5x3.5" Pink Pig sketch book.)

And another small drawing for that book.  RBG and her circle of pearls and pearl earrings.  (I saw a cool card someone had made with a stamp of her but the stamp was out of stock so I decided to draw her on my own.)

Just some floating circles done in Zig brush markers and Micron pen.

A little paper collage courtesy of the mail of the day (The trees are punched from the envelope of a thank you note, and the dotted background is the inside of a security envelope.  The "ground" is a pieced of scrap paper in my scrap box.  The trunks and branches are drawn in with Zig's.)

And a quickie from last night on the road - what I'm calling some Flair Pen Caviar.

This may or may not be the end of the line for the circles.  I have a few birthdays coming up that need attention, Easter, and we're on call awaiting the birth of our second grandchild, so I'd better get busy with those other things right now!!!