"Yellow Cat" Art journal, cut paper collage
I can fritter away a lot of time doing stuff on my iPad (playing word games, checking Facebook, reading potato-chip news) while sitting in -- ahem -- a certain very small room in my house. I, like many people, do like to have something to read while ... you know. But with my iPad in hand, I end up sitting in there much longer than necessary. So, as part of my efforts to change my habits, I decided to keep an art book in said room, and forbid myself to take my iPad in there.
The first book I chose for this purpose is called Realistic Collage Step by Step. In essence, it's about using paper to create representational images. One of the suggested excercises: a Matisse-like still life using papers cut "free hand." Well, that sounded like fun.
I had to include a pear, of course.