Wednesday 30 September 2015

WOYWW #330: Mixed Media Canvas 'Believe'

Hi deskers, I'm a bit late joining today as I did not prepare my post in advance last night. I did manage to take a couple of photos though of the mess while I was working on a new canvas titled 'Believe'. It was inspired by a LifeBook lesson on intuitive painting, but it is also a combination of many other influences, too many to mention!

So here's my desk as it was yesterday afternoon, and again a few hours later. I managed to complete the canvas before going to bed and even hung it in my bedroom! Sit back and relax - there are lots of photos to follow (by clicking on the first one you can launch the image gallery and just cycle through them).  I will even show you my new photography station, which I set up in the conservatory - kind of a behind the scenes peek!

Thanks for stopping by today! If you just stumbled upon my post and have no idea what WOYWW means, you can check it out here and perhaps join next week! Have a great Wednesday Everyone!

I had to cover the canvas with book paper because I messed up my first attempt!
That's a Thomas Hardy classic ripped into pieces!

Some progress made with the background by the evening














My photography station. I'm using two A1 foam boards for the background.

My canvas hanging in the bedroom.

Tuesday 29 September 2015

LifeBook Catch-Up Week 30: Letting Go

Now that I have a lot more time to create, I pick and choose which LifeBook lesson to complete in no particular order. I was really looking forward to Flora Bowley's lesson on intuitive painting methods. I have Flora's book Brave Intuitive Painting, which contains beautiful photography of her artwork and lots of prompts, but it doesn't give much away about her process. It was great to see her in action showing us how she creates her art work in this lesson.

The idea behind intuitive painting methods is to let go of preconceptions and just start painting without anyting in mind and just see where the process takes you, adding layers as you go along. This was quite difficult for me at first - I kept reverting back to my comfort zone and my first two paintings ended up looking like altered gelli prints.


I had to go back to watching the videos again for round two to understand the concept a bit better. I'm still not quite there yet, but the next lot came out looking more like intuitive paintings. I like the one titled 'dream' and I want to recreate in on a canvas and put it in my bedroom. Of course, at that point it will no longer be 'intuitive' but rather something carefully planned and executed. I'll let you know how I get on with it! For now, here are some photos of my second attempt at this lesson. The close-ups really show the underlying layers.












 



I'm linking this post to Roses of Inspiration #39

Sunday 27 September 2015

LifeBook Catch-Up Week 36: Finding Strength

Week 36 of LifeBook was taught by the mega-talented Donna Downey. I found this lesson rather challenging and I'm not sure I did such a good job with it. But I did my best, and that's what matters! I didn't have the stencil Donna was using, so I sketched my girl and turned her into a mermaid as I wasn't sure how to do her legs. Originally, I saw this version on Facebook, so it's not my idea, but it solved my dilemma.

The part I struggled with the most was the scribble writing. I used up three pieces of watercolour paper on both sides (that is six attempts!) and I still didn't like my handwriting. In the end I settled on one that I least hated and created my page. It's not brilliant, but there are parts of it I like. It's all part of my learning journey.







On the plus side, I used one of my failed attempts to create a page with the fun technique that Roben-Marie Smith showed us in week 39. I just collaged over the page using the "failed" artwork as my first layer. Now I can do this to all my failures and turn them into successful projects! Here's what I created with a little inspirational note to myself:










Friday 25 September 2015

LifeBook Catch-Up Week 35: Autumn

This is my first "catch-up" lesson for LifeBook since my return. As well as working on the current week's project, each week I try to complete one or two lessons that I missed while I was away, hoping to catch up by the end of the year. This was week 35 with the lovely Andrea Gomoll.

It was supposed be a quick warm-up excercise to get our creative juices flowing when stuck in a rut or (on the other end of the scale) overwhelmed with inspiration. This is actually my third! attempt at this lesson. It made me realise (what I'd already suspected!) that me and watercolours don't mix very well. It's not that I don't like watercolours (I LOVE watercolours!) but they don't seem to mingle the way I want them to mingle! This causes untold amount of frustration for me. I need to loosen up and just let them do their own thing.

Here's what I came up with. The excercise suggested that we stamp a word along with other associated words and build our imagery around these words. The lesson called for watercolours in the background and tissue paper (paper towels) used for textured shapes. I tinted mine with Dylusions inks and used Cotman watercolours for the background. As a finishing touch I used white acrylics for stamping and splattering.

While I'm not entirely happy with the overall composition, I love some parts of the background and the colour and texture in the leaves.  Thanks for visiting today! Don't forget to leave a comment if you have time!