A pleasant surprise.

I came home from shopping the other day to find this card from the person who reads our electricity meter stuck in my front door. It put a big smile on my face. It is always nice to receive compliments, especially about my art.
Usually meter boxes are placed on the front or sides of homes in Australia so they can be read by the service companies. We have a gas and electricity meter on the porch near our front door. Normally they are painted a plain colour to blend in with the house.

About 10 years ago I kept looking at that big blank square, every time I entered our home, thinking it would be a great place to do a painting. Then one day I got out my paints.  I first painted the bricks on to blend in with the real bricks and then added the birds and animals. Over the years a lot of people have commented on them because it is very unusual but because I painted them so long ago and have seen them hundreds of times I tend to forget how unique they are.

 

 
The photos don't really show how well the fake bricks match the real ones but I have seen one meter reader look at the porch area then go around the side of the house to find the meter, only to come back to the porch with a confused look on his face. Now that I am looking at them again I think I would do a much better painting if I did them today but for now I am happy to leave them as they are.

I love drawing!!

This is the latest art journal page I did for my "I heart drawing" course I am doing with the wonderful teacher Jane Davenport. She has removed any fears I had about drawing and now it is one of my favourite things to do. Merry Christmas everyone.

Playing with atcs

I made some atcs yesterday with embossing powder as the main feature.

 

This one is a miniature version of my journal painting. The scroll on the right is cut out with a cuttlebug machine then heat embossed with Opals brand embossing powder. It covers the writing that was too small to read on this little painting. 

The seahorses are cut out with a cuttlebug then embossed with copper coloured Opals embossing powder. A stamp was pressed in the embossing while it was still hot. The background is distress inks smoosh technique. 

My final atc is a "Twiddly bits" butterfly embossed with purple and green embossing powder. The background is sponged gesso coloured with glimmer mist sprays.

More fun with friends.

I went to another Kaszazz workshop with my friends yesterday. I liked the cards we made but if I was allowed to I would have chosen a different coloured paper. I don't work with pink very often. I don't like the overall effect when it is teamed with the black. I would have preferred a blue or green with the black, just my opinion. I find it interesting that we all have our own preferred colours that we like to look at. Some colour combinations just don't work for me but I know others love them.

Inside reads....it is your birthday.

Did I really do that myself?

Sometimes I finish a piece of art and wonder if I really was the one who made it. That is how I felt yesterday when I finished my latest journal page for the I heart drawing course I am doing. I am quite happy with the way it turned out. Wonderful Jane has been teaching us the start of the clothes and a lot more poses for hands and arms. I found a photo of a dancing lady for my model. I liked the way she had her arms.

The background was sprayed with mica dyes and then stamped with watery distress ink. The girl is mostly acrylic and pencils although her hair is watercolour. At one stage I spilled a large amount of water over the page and after cleaning up had to redo the background. Luckily I didn't have to redo the girl.

Right now I feel like I am dancing to the music of my dream to become a better artist. It really is a lot of fun.

New online course

I have been slowly becoming more and more obsessed with online art classes. It started with Supplies Me with the lovely Jane Davenport where I learned to draw faces in a way I never have before. I did a couple of others after that and am currently doing I 'heart' drawing, again with Jane. This time we are doing the whole body and clothes, like fashion illustrations.

The first week we were experimenting with different body shapes.

The second week involved learning to shade a little. I will probably do more shading and patterns on this page when I have a little more time over the Christmas break. I am still amazed that I am actually learning to draw. I have never been able to before.

Transparent ATCs

I used acetate this week to make these transparent ATCs. They are stamped on one side then coloured with alcohol ink on the other side. I then placed another piece of acetate on to cover the alcohol ink so it doesn't rub off. On the back of the second piece of acetate I coloured the images with alcohol based markers. It adds a lot of colour and makes the images stand out more. The acetate is then sandwiched between two frames that have been coloured and decorated in various ways.

 

 The fuschia one is my favourite.