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.

 

Etched metal book

I did a workshop last week at Scraptivate with Jen Crossley. It was etching stamped metal with chemicals. I chose to use beach themed stamps for my book. The metal we were given to work with was brass.

The front cover had little dots all over it but I liked them. I thought it helped add a little visual texture to the vast area of sky. I added charms later. The little bottle has a local sea shell that I crushed with a hammer in it.

The back cover is a set of Hero Arts tile stamps. I like the was they turned out and if I was going to do it again would like something similar.

We were given white and craft paper to use for pages but when I got home I used my own hand made paper to make the signatures and put the book together. I like the way the hand made paper looks. Some of it has shiny inclusions that make the pages sparkle.  You can never have too much bling, lol.

Mermaids...

Last week was Mermaid week on the willowing course called "Mythical magical makings". I did two journal pages before starting on the larger painting. The person who was used as the inspiration for this week was Marc Chagall but I didn't like his surrealist style and really struggled with ideas for this one. I ended up reverting to my own style and the ideas flowed after that. I think I have to really like an artist to be able to copy their style.

The first page was to give me ideas for the large painting. I thought I might put a lot of fish or seashells around my mermaid so I drew a few different ones in my journal. I drew some bubbles which gave me an idea for the final painting.

We also had to do a whimsical mermaid. I like the childish look she has. Again I was trying out a  few ideas. I thought I might put sea horses into the large painting but after the mermaid was done I couldn't figure out where to put them.

The finished painting. I did a whole bunch of bubbles instead of the fish. The red paint is iridescent and shines when you walk past it. The background was done with splattered paint and glimmer mist sprays so it also sparkles in real life. The shading is more pronounced on the painting but the camera always seems to blend the colours more. I wish I could scan these big pictures instead but you still get the idea.

Christmas cards.

A few more cards I made with the Kaszazz demonstrator. These ones have embossing as the main technique. My favourite is probably the first one.