I'm back...

No I haven't abandoned my blog. Sorry I have been away for so long, it wasn't what I intended. My back yard project took a little longer than expected. Once you start a big project sometimes little ones keep popping up that need seeing to first so then you can finish off the big one. It is a little like starting a painting and some sections taking longer than you imagined they would. Eventually it all comes together at the end. I also had a few health issues crop up like a sprained wrist that kept me away from the computer but that is all cleared up now and I am back in the studio again.

I will post my latest Life Book pages today.

This lesson was about a realistic style face. I chose an old photo of myself. The painting looks ok but I don't think it really looks like me. I think I will stick with whimsy style faces for now. This mixed media piece is acrylics, pan pastels, pencils and markers. The butterfly is a stitched on charm.

The lesson for this week was a calendar page and another face page next to it. We were meant to be honoring our present and for me that was the garden I was creating in our back yard. I decided not to do the face and wanted to do the flowers (grevilleas) I was planting for the birds that visit our garden. Then I decided to combine the pages together into one piece. It is probably my favourite page so far. The whole page is watercolour except for the calendar entries that are done with marker and pencil.

The next lesson was a doodling exercise. I am not really a doodler of abstract style images. When I doodle it is really little sketches of realistic images so that is what I did on my page. I started with the quote so I could make sure it fit on the page. Then I started sketching the flowers with pencil on the right hand side and up to the top of the page. I went over the flowers with pen and decided it was taking too long to do it with pencil first so I sketched the rest of the flowers with the pen only. I went around each image twice to give it a sketchy look. I haven't done that before but I like the way it turned out. The colour was added with Twinkling H2O watercolours. It sparkles in the light.

The last lesson I have to share with you was inspired by the artist Audrey Kawasaki. It was with Rhomany and again is about the present. When I looked at the original inspiration I was amazed. Audrey does the most beautiful work and her cut out designs are gorgeous. My finished piece ended up being a combination of Audrey's and Rhomany's work. It is pen with coloured pencils.  I did the name like Rhomany showed us then drew the flowers and grid myself. I added a quote to the border.  The whole page was cut out like Audrey does with her pictures and a few spots of colour were added behind the grid.

I am very happy that Life Book has moved away from only doing faces. I like to explore other subjects for art. I will be back later in the week to share other pieces I have been working on for a different class I am doing with Jane Davenport.