WOYWW #290: Braveheart

So what's on my word desk this Wednesday, December 24th? Absolutely nothing, as I had to clear everything away to make room for our Christmas dinner later today. The photo shows my desk (I refuse to call it dining table!) as it was on Tuesday night, though I admit I had to stage a few items to make it a bit more interesting.  If you would like to take a look at some other crafty desks, just mosey over to the Stamping Ground to take part in an international desk hop called WOYWW.

If you're not interested in reading all the "padding" just skip to the photos! I know, I don't always have the time/patience myself, so no hard feelings, I promise!

Here's a rundown of some of the things lying on my desk:

1. I really needed a desk lamp to be able to see better when working after sunset, which is pretty much after 3 pm these days! This is a cheapo, collapsible lamp off eBay, which my husband modified for me with bright LED lights instead of the horrible, dingy halogen ones it came with. This lamp, along with the Christmas lights and the radiator makes my crafty corner rather welcoming on a cold winter's night!
2. I've just received these new POSCA pens in the post. I didn't expect them to arrive before Christmas, so it was a nice surprise. It's a pack of 12 extra fine tip paint markers, which allow you to use paint with the precision of a marker pen. I've been using the black and white ones for a while, but decided to invest in some coloured ones as well. If you are interested, you can check them out here.
3. This sketch is likely to be my next project. I don't normally make a composition first, but this time I thought it might be a good idea to plan ahead. I'll see how it goes and show you if it works out (and keep it secret if it doesn't)!
4. This is a journal page titled Braveheart, which I finished a couple of days ago. I'm quite happy with it and I'll show you some closer images in a minute.
5. A colourful calendar page for the month of January to record my feelings each day and practice lettering techniques at the same time. (I'll show you a closer look next week as it still needs some finishing touches.)

All three of these projects have been inspired by the tutorials and classes of Tamara Laporte of Willowing Arts. I'm taking part in LifeBook2015, which is a year long art journalling and mixed media course organized by Tam. I can't wait for the course to start in January, so I'm getting ready by completing some of her older tutorials. The Braveheart page is my take on her Collage, Paint and Soul class and I think I managed to put my own spin on it.

This project starts with a healing exercise and has some hidden journalling under all those layers of collage and paint. I find this sort of journalling very liberating because I don't have to worry about someone else reading it. It's just a way of expressing my innermost feelings and letting go of my anxieties. The image I created on top of my negative feelings is the positive outcome that I want to concentrate on: bravery and self-confidence.

Because this is a paid course, I'm not at liberty to show you step-by-step instructions, but Tam's got a free video which is very similar to this technique of painting over collage and magazine images. You can find it here.

However, I can tell you what I did differently: I printed the image of a lion from the internet, desaturated the colours and turned down the contrast a bit so I could paint over it with watercolours, without having to cover up the details with acrylics. Then I used a thin marker pen to outline some of the details to make them stand out more. I quite like how it turned out. My butterflies have been cut from tissue paper. The quote comes from the film Braveheart and I used a free font called 4990810 to print it.

Hope you enjoy looking at the photos below and I wish every one of my readers a Very Merry Christmas!

(Click on the photo for the gallery to launch)