LifeBook Week37: Smiling Heart

This week's LifeBook lesson titled 'Smiling Heart' was taught by Angela Kennedy, who showed us how to use coloured pencils over acrylics. I didn't know this, but the acrylic layer needs to be matte in order for this technique to work. I mixed some ultra matte medium with my paints to achieve a matte surface, as most of my paints are glossy. Despite this, I couldn't get the shading right with the pencils, so I switched to watersoluble oil pastels, which have challenges of their own! Namely, that you can't draw on them, so my page ended up a little different from the lesson, but that's ok!

The only place you can see coloured pencils are the details in her hair. I used gelli prints for the collage in the background and added some moths cut from napkins to balance the composition. She's not smiling (nor was Angela's girl) so the title takes on a different meaning than simply describing a smiling girl. While working on this, I kept hearing this Nat King Cole song in my head, which perfectly describes my sentiments behind this painting. I was going to use some of the lyrics on my page, but they didn't fit. I like how it turned out in the end, although I was ready to call it a fail several times during the process. Just goes to show, it's always worth persevering!

 

Happy Friday!

Wishing everyone a creative weekend!

WOYWW #379: Happy Mail and Back to School

Hello all you lovely people visiting my desk today as part of the WOYWW blog hop craze. I'm actually in between projects, so I can't show you much on my work desk at the moment, but I still have something very exciting to share. I received a lovely bundle of goodies from my overseas BFF Felicia along with a letter that melted my heart! Felicia is a Master of Tags and I will be scrutinizing her work, hoping to steal some of her techniques and ideas! Just look at them - aren't they the most beautiful things you've ever seen? The birdie twinkles in the sunlight and the clustering is simply amazing!

Thank you so much, Felicia! You have no idea how much this means to me! I will think of you every time I look at these beauties and every time I use the bits and pieces you sent me :))

In other news, my son went back to school this week, starting secondary school for the first time. I'm probably finding this more stressful than he does. He seems to be taking it in his stride, while I run around like a headless chicken trying to send him off on time each morning. I did this quick digi layout to commemorate the occasion of moving up to secondary school. If the next seven years go as quickly as the primary school years passed, he will be all grown before I know it!

Thanks so much for visiting today!

I wish everyone a wonderful, creative week!

LifeBook Week 36: Mixed Media Portrait

I approached this week's LifeBook lesson with Annie Hamman from a purely technical point of view. Sometimes, that's all I need. It's not a self-portrait and there's no meaning behind it, other than I wanted to practice my face painting skills using some of Annie's methods. She does it so effortlessly! I cheated a little and used a pencil for outlining - that's  partly because I don't have very fine detail brushes to paint delicate lines.

I started out with a collaged background, leaving the face blank. At this point, my background looked scarily busy and I wasn't sure if I was going in the right direction. However, once I toned down the background with some raw umber, everything seemed to have fallen in place. Of course, it's not perfect, and I can see dozens of things I could have done better, but it will do for now.

One thing I'm aware of is that I don't have much patience to work on details. Also, once I reach a level where it looks "acceptable", I tend to just leave it in fear of messing it up, even though I know it could be further improved. Well, that's obviously something I need to work on in the future, but I'm quite happy with this piece as it turned out. Here's how it started:

And here's the finished piece:

Thank you for visiting!

WOYWW #378: Altered garment tags

Here we go, the last day of Summer! Usually, I feel melancholic at this time of year, listening to Forever Autumn, but not this year! Perhaps it's the gorgeous weather we've had this past few weeks, or my excitement at future possibilities that keeps me looking ahead with optimism. But I'm not here to philosophize - I'm here to share my desk for WOYWW.

The photo below shows my workdesk (aka patio table) on Monday - I was altering garment tags that had accumulated as a result of our back-to-school shopping trip at the weekend. I first got this idea from Roben-Marie Smith - you can see how she alters garment tags here. It's a great way to make something pretty out of something that you would normally throw away.

I first gessoed the tags, then blended some acrylics with my fingers to colour them, and finished them off with some simple doodles in white ink. This is a good way to catalogue your doodles, so when you need some ideas, you just pull them out. I did some whimsy flowers for this batch, but it could be all sorts of things. Next time I will try some houses, birds, butterflies, etc.

Two coats of gesso

Blend some acrylics with fingers

The colours I used

The colours are stronger in this photo I took indoors.

Complete with white doodles

My catalogue of whimsy flower doodles

Before I go, I'd like to share this rainbow maker with you that we have hanging in our conservatory. It used to belong to my mother-in-law, who sadly passed away last summer. We kept it, so that we can think of her every time we see a rainbow! It's a lovely reminder of a lovely lady and we see lots of rainbows on sunny days! She liked cats too!

Speaking of cats, here's a shot of Oreo high up in the tree yesterday. I tried to get him down, but he was holding on tight. He managed to get down by himself eventually. I have to learn not to interfere!

Thanks for popping in today!

Happy WOYWW!

LifeBook week #34: Whimsy Flowers with Roben-Marie

I haven't been able to create much in the past two weeks due to holidays and other family commitments, and this fun LB lesson from last week by Roben-Marie Smith was just what I needed to put me back on track. I'm a big fan of Roben-Marie's loose style - scribbles and all! I thoroughly enjoyed the process and had a great time creating this page for my LifeBook.

It includes collage pieces from my gelli prints and book pages, lots of gesso, some fluid acrylics and Stabilo All watercolour pencils for scribbles and outlines. I wrote my journalling on tissue paper and attached it with matte medium. Halfway through the process, it looked rather messy and non-descript, but it all fell together when I toned down the background and added some colour and outlines. I also added a piece of altered ribbon to the top of the vase, which was a leftover piece from another project, matching my colour scheme. Working on this page made me so happy!

 

Thanks for visiting!

Have a whimsical weekend!

WOYWW #377: Holiday Part Two

What a glorious, late summer morning! Quite a treat for us here in the UK at the end of August, even though I'm not a big fan of the heat that much. At least I can hang out all that washing we brought back from our holiday. This is part two of my chronicles, linking up with WOYWW to let you all know what we've been doing.

I haven't had a chance to get back into the swing of things artwise yet. Today I'm sharing a lovely watercolour painting I picked up from one of the galleries we visited. It's only a print on a card but lovely, nevertheless. I couldn't track down the artist, P. Hatchley, otherwise I would gladly link to their site. It's called 'Summer in a Pot'. I adore the colours in it and would love to be able to paint like this.

I also brought back a handful of shells to remind me of the sea and perhaps use them in a project. I looked for some driftwood as well, but couldn't find any - only seaweed! Perhaps next year! Here are some artful shots of the shells I took yesterday, trialling my new macro lens.

Last week I showed you the highlights of the first four days of our holiday. On Day 5, Wednesday, we went cycling, which felt more like boot camp than a holiday! On Thursday, we walked miles along Bournemouth beach (as if we hadn't had enough exercise the previous day!) and on the last day we visited the historical docks in Portsmouth, which was fascinating! There's a new exhibition of the Mary Rose that opened just a month ago. I was captivated by the tragic story of this ship that spent hundreds of years under the water and is now on display in a museum! Here's part two of my visual diary - we took a lot more photos, but I won't bore you with all those! 

Day 5: Cycling in the New Forest

Day 6: Walk along the beach near Bournemouth

I would love to own one of these beach huts!

The wreck of the Mary Rose in Portsmouth

We had a lovely holiday, but we were so looking forward to returning home and seeing Oreo again. We couldn't get him until Sunday morning because the cattery was not open on Saturday afternoon. Every time I felt sorry for him locked up in the cattery, I thought of Cupcake, the cat who spent 8 days in a cardboard box when her owner accidentally posted her with some DVDs. Compared to that, Oreo had a luxury time in the cattery! He didn't seem grumpy at all when we brought him home - if anything, he's more affectionate than he used to be! He starts purring if we just look at him and constantly wants to sit on our laps. Here he is lounging in the shade yesterday afternoon.

Thank you all who visited last week! I hope I managed to get back to all of you in the end. I will be a lot better organized this week and I hope to get back into arting as well - just as soon as I get the laundry out of the way! Happy WOYWW!