Experiments

Hello!

Well I realise it's been a while so first let me apologise for that. It has been a busy few weeks! I have been feeling very inspired lately to experiment and play with new things and go back and try my hand again at old things that I haven't done for years!

One reason for this is that recently I applied to go on 'The Big Painting Challenge' on the TV (this is a series that has a different challenge every week and one artist gets knocked out each week) Don't get too excited, it doesn't look like I have got through but by just applying got me experimenting with different types of paintings and with different mediums that I haven't reached for in ages.

Here are a few of the experiments!

This is my cat Biscuit! This was done on watercolour paper with brushos. I use brushos all the time, love them for adding colour to my paintings and mixed media projects but I have never tried to paint an image with them alone. I was really pleased with how this came out!

This one I did in only 10 minutes and with pen and brushos again. I wanted to it to be a bit freer and more expressive. It's simple but effective I think.

This one (again on watercolour paper) is done with brushos, pen and watercolours. I love how this one came out, it is definitely my favorite of the three. I really enjoyed using watercolours, they are not usually my 'go to' paint but this has led me into a bit of a watercolour phase at the mo. I am doing loads of experiments with them. I have never been taught to use them and never had the inclination to try until now. I will keep you posted with my progress!

I have many other projects on the go at the mo, including a new mixed media canvas and an art journaling workshop that I am running this week with a new group, which fingers crossed will lead to lots of workshops in the future! 

I will try and post again this week to show you more recent work. Until then bye for now! xxx

Finished painting of my daughter

Hello All!

I have been so busy and so inspired over the last few weeks. I have been finding time to do something creative most days which has been fantastic. On top of that I have been speaking to a group based in Chesterfield called Straight Curves about the possibility of running some workshops there. That is all looking really positive. I will let you know when those start to take place!

Today I thought I would share the finished painting of my daughter. In my last post I talked about starting one of her and had done an initial sketch. Well here she is:

I can't tell you how pleased I am will how she turned out! It was a challenge but I enjoyed every minute of it. It really captures her cheerful bubbly nature. I am looking to start one of my youngest daughter next and I will keep you posted!

Bye for now xxxxx

Portrait Practice

Hello All!

Today I thought I would share some of the portraits I have been working on. I decided after watching 'the big painting challenge' on the BBC that it was about time I practiced painting 'well known' faces. I have never had a problem painting people I don't know very well, but the more I know the person the harder I find it to capture them. Family members are difficult but the hardest by far is a self portrait.

Well practice makes perfect and so practice is what I'm doing!

I started with my mum. I did a sketch of her first:

That went well and once I have done a sketch I feel more confident that I can translate it into paint.

So here she is. I am really pleased with how she turned out and it is the best painting I have ever managed of her! With this boost in confidence I tried to paint myself:

I enjoyed working in monotone for this one and it looks quite effective over the wash of colour. I look really serious but that is because I was looking in a mirror and concentrating! It didn't turn out too badly but doesn't look entirely like me. 

I am now on to the next one and I have really set myself a challenge by choosing to paint my daughter! Not only a face I know as well as my own but a child's face which in itself is difficult to do. So far I have only done my first sketch but so far so good;

I hope you enjoyed looking at my progress so far. I'll keep you posted on how the latest one turns out!

Bye for now xxxx

Getting Back To The Little Things

Hello All,

Sometimes it's the small scale projects which have the biggest impact. I love working on either index or post cards. They are a small piece of creativity that can be done when you don't have a lot of time for anything else and the results can be really exciting. By restricting yourself to a small area you can really focus on a particular medium or technique and I love seeing where they take me. Here are a few recent cards

In this one I added modelling paste through a stencil then used inks and metallic paint to add colour and gel pens to bring out some of the pattern. I found the text in a magazine which suited it perfectly.

This one is an experiment of adding layers of circles using different mediums and techniques. I finished it with some bottle top art (an even smaller canvas to work on!) and again some text from a magazine.

I hope you like them and hope they inspire you to go out and buy a pack of index cards to have a go!

Bye for now xxx

Some Recent Art Journaling

Hello All!

Sorry it has been a while! I kept meaning to blog but life has been busy lately, and I have been distracted with various things. That all said I didn't mean to put it off for so long! I will hopefully make that up over the next few days as I have loads to show you. Today I am going to start off with some recent art journaling:

This first one was an experiment of bold colours and lines. For the lady I used a magazine cutting which I then painted over and I tried to keep to black and white to match the boldness of the page. The whole thing I felt had a confidence about it and so I found the text from a magazine which was in keeping with this. 

This page is in my altered book journal and you may see some of the original text coming through on the right. I have been playing around lately with a lot of portraiture and this is one is a self portrait. Again I stuck to black and white and I think it works well here. This again has an air of confidence and is all about being self assured. 

For this one I really enjoyed playing with layering stamps, ink, pigment powders and tissue paper. I loved the yellow streak running through the page and this is what gave the inspiration for the text. To me the page has a warmth and feels quite happy and relaxed.

Finally this one, done in my small journal, is a bright warm very happy page about my recent family holiday to Crete. It was the best holiday we have ever had, we all had such a good time. The holiday was to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary (we went to Crete for our honeymoon) and it couldn't have been better. It was a memory I had to journal about! The colours have a warm glow to them and the image is my youngest daughter paddling in the sea.

I hope you enjoyed these pages, I will be back with more very soon!

Bye for now xxx

Product Review For 'Coloring Notebook'

Hello All,

Recently I received an email from a company called 'Coloring Notebook' asking if I would mind reviewing their product. A week or so later I received my notebook. Up until now I haven't really gone in for the adult coloring craze, preferring a blank notebook to doodle and sketch in myself, however this differs from a normal adult colouring book because it also contains blank pages. You can choose from plain, lined or dot grid. I was sent a lined notebook. For what I would use it for I would probably choose plain but I like that you have the choice.

The notebook is A5, hard bound and the paper quality is nice, printed on 100g/m. It has 176 pages and a pocket at the back.

In amongst the blank pages are about 50 quite intricate designs for you to colour in. I think the designs are some of the nicest I have come across and are really varied. Here are a few of my favorite ones;

I couldn't wait to have a go and decided to try out a few different mediums. See the image below, from left to right the mediums used to colour in the trees are metallic pencil crayons, water colour crayons, fineliner pens, gel pens, and standard pencil crayons.

 I like both types of pencil crayons though there is very little difference between them, they went on smoothly. The water colour crayons is a good way to make the piece look painted however with the addition of water they did bobble the paper slightly. The fine liner pens went on nicely but did come through slightly. The gel pens went on like a dream and were really vivid. I did try a fibre tip felt tip on another page but that soaked straight through and hid a lot of the lovely details so I wouldn't recommend using them. I would stick to pencil crayons or gel pens both of which were lovely to use.

Here is an example of a page I completed with gel pens:

Next I really wanted to test the notebook out with a spot of art journaling. this is most likely what I would use it for so I wanted to see how it would cope with the addition of paint and ink etc.

  I coloured the feathers  in with pencil crayons then prepped the blank page opposite with gesso so the colours didn't soak through. Once dried I added acrylics and ink as well as a few stamps and some text. I was really pleased how this turned out and like how the journaling sat nicely in juxtaposition with the colouring.   Here is another example:

This was least favorite design as I have a fear of buttons but I decided to use that as part of the journal page. I only coloured in a portion of the buttons using pencil crayon (note the purple button which was the attempt with felt tip!) Again I prepped the opposite page with gesso and then added mixed media and a poem I wrote about my phobia. I really like how by art journaling with this notebook the designs act as prompts for the page. This is definitely how I will continue to use this product. I did enjoy the 'colouring in' aspect a lot more than I thought I would and found it very therapeutic. I think it helped that I really liked the designs. I think the combination of designs with the blank pages makes the product really versatile and I can see that it this would appeal to many people. I certainly would recommend this to anyone. 

If you would like your own here is the company's website ; https://coloringnotebook.com/

I hope you enjoyed this review and found it useful.

Bye for now xxx

Finished Painting - You are only as old as you feel.

Hello All,

I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed getting by teeth stuck into a portrait these last few weeks! It has been a challenge but I have loved it and it is always exciting to see them appearing in front of you as they take shape. Here is the final piece:

I wanted to keep the background quite simple but fun. When I came across the photograph I loved how despite initial appearances she is clearly young at heart, wearing her boppers. I hope I have managed to express this. I do believe it's true what they say... that you are only as old as you feel!

Bye for now xxx