Summer Holidays and New Projects

 Finally, the summer holidays are here. The kids are off school until September. Today I turn of my preset alarm that goes off every morning at 5.30, and I get to sleep in for seven days in a row if I feel like it. There will be no early morning traffic and afternoon pick up rush to battle with for the next 2 months. Sounds awesome!

 IN THE MEANTIME

I've been working. For the last few days my hands have been full of paint, and my brushes have been dirty. That's a good sign. I've been experimenting with creating backgrounds and various painting and doodling techniques. Trying not to be so cautious, and just play with the paint. I've rediscovered a style that I used to work with many years ago. So while I go off and play for a while, think.....

A P P L E S

Butterfly Art Journal

Hello Friends,

I've been taking part in Suzi Blues' latest class; FAIRIES. Art journaling, fairy style. I started out with all the robust gusto of all new students, then got side tracked and everything faded away. It was good to get back into shading and coloring faces using prisma colors. Luckily Suzi is forgiving and will leave the class open until the end of the year.

 Here's one of the fairy drawings.

Still in progress

I took a couple of days to complete this double page. If you look closely, you will see that I kind of screwed up the face with the glue, then I couldn't decide what to do with the rest of the head. Don't you just hate that? Indecision on how to move forward? The best remedy for that is to just leave it alone for a few hours or even days then get back to it.

My daughter named her Butter Plat

In the end it turned out to be something I am happy with.

Coloring and Doodling and Working

Hello Friends.......

I've been working! Working on new stuff for my "inspired by" section. Only that this is a style that is part of my artistic roots, and I'm slapping myself silly 'cause I don't know why I ever gave it up. Hmmmmm I sense there is a story coming up sometime soon. All I can say is this...."It is good to branch out and try new things but there must be one or two things you are really good at and most of all love to do. Why not dig in deep and try to perfect that one thing, even as you continue to experiment and learn new things? It is then your unique style will emerge."

Yes indeed there is a story or two in there. In the meantime, here is a doodle page in my Butterfly Art Journal  For Suzi Blu's Fairy class.

Hope you all have a productive week.

Sitting Scratching My Head

I have been struggling for a while now to work with cracking medium. I have 4 different brands of this medium, and I am convinced that I am doing something wrong. A few months ago I bought 2 bottles of colored cracking medium, and today, only today opened one bottle to find it almost dry.

I painted my page purple, and while waiting for that to dry, I mixed the crackle paint to get it to a gooey consistency. It was not spreadable with a paint brush so I used a palette knife to spread it, and left it to dry. Visiting it a few hours later, I took one look at it and walked away disappointed. Sure the thing cracked but the cracks were raised off the page and you could actually use a nail and scratch the cracks off. No clue now with what to do with this page. Can't tear it out because I have something pretty on the back. AAAARRRRGGGGG!!!!!!

Another couple of hours later I used acrylic gloss medium to cover, hoping that the medium would stick the flaky bits back to the page. It did. Left it to dry. The outcome, something like leather.
I didn't like it at all. The color of the paints, the cracks, and the leathery look. But I needed to keep going and turn it around to something I would like.

 The photo does not do it justice, and I'm not sure what to make of it.

Two 3-D liner paint pens saved the day. A few doodles and swirls and a hand made flower sticker turned it from disaster to victory. Now I just need to find some thoughtful words to add to the page. Not one of my favorite projects but I learned something new, and I did not give up!

Doll Dreams June Challenge

Adriana's Challenge over at Doll Dreams.ning.com this month is Markers. I have not done a picture in only markers for a long time so I decided to give it a go. Adriana did a whole course on using copic markers but at the time, copic markers were not available in my neck of the woods. I eventually discovered BRUSHABLES - I've never used copics, so I can't compare but I'm happy with my find.

Brushables come in a package of 4, each marker with two tips. The color, and the tint. Great for layering and coloring faces. The colors are basic; Blues, Greens, Yellows, Browns, Reds, purples, greys to black. But what more do you need?

Here's a little slideshow I made to show the process of the piece.

This was really fun to make, and I was so grateful for the template. Next time I won't be lazy. I'll draw my own doll.
Enjoy!