Thursday Theme: Trees!

I really thought I'd be continuing the purple theme this week.  My Ravens are going to the Superbowl!  WOOOOO!!!  But there is something I've been working on with and without color, and it's not always purple, but it is something I'm doing a lot with lately and that's the whole point of Thursday Themes.  So, in case you didn't read the title of the post, this week I bring you TREES!

I don't know why I've been so into trees lately.  Partly it's a squirrel thing.  You know, because squirrels live in trees and all.

Like this little guy.

But it's not a season in which I normally think about trees, since they're all dormant or spiky (conifers being the spiky ones...).  Still, trees have been stuck in my mind.  Maybe it's because I've been using the Froud Meditations:  Pathways to Faerie app and all the meditations start with leading you to an old oak tree that then acts as the portal to the faerie realm (yes, I'm totally into that stuff).  Maybe it's because I got a new alarm clock that has bird chirping as one of the sounds you can select, and yes I absolutely use the happy sounding chirpy birds to wake me up, and birds make me think of trees in the same way squirrels make me think of trees.  Cos, you know, they live there.  I don't know.  Whatever the reason, I've been tree-centric lately.  And luckily, I have that spiffy Tim Holtz stamp that I used for these, which you saw last week:

Nope, still haven't finished them.  The little one still doesn't even have a hole at the top.

I finally got a brilliant idea for using stamps on canvas, because I love the texture and presence of canvas, but stretched canvas is bloody hard to stamp on because it's not rigid.  And my first idea for executing this bit of brilliance involved the same stamp:

Can you see it?  The secret is tissue paper.  Shh.  Don't tell.

Fancy-pants Instagram closeup!

It's still a work in progress, as I want to add more layers of stuff and textural elements and paint to it.  I'm loving the Liquitex Super Heavy Body gesso, though.  That stuff + Michelle Ward's stencils = texturey patterny goodness.

Alas, my mixed media stuff is not all that portable, and I can't always be at home playing with it.  So I'm still carrying a sketchbook with me in my enormous handbag of holding.  And with my recent tree-nspiration kicking, I've spent a couple of lunch breaks sketching these guys:

Really just playing around with making the branches look like they might actually grow in those directions, and with how to taper down to twigs.  Not great.

Today I decided to have a little fun and get a little fanciful with it.  So here, a fantasy tree.

I'm still feeling the tree vibe, so there may be more trees to come.  There will also probably be more purple.  Really, I'm super psyched about the Ravens going to the Superbowl.  If you're not into football, please be patient with my fellow fans and me; everybody gets excited about something, and this is super exciting for me!  What are you excited about lately?