Early Riser

I've always been an early riser. Being a young mum and housewife filled every minute of those mornings. And later, when I had a regular job, preparing for that consumed my time. Now our children have gone, and my work is irregular I've decided to put my dawn chorus risings to good use and do something for me :-) Something arty. 

Yesterday I painted a face in my journal, (see yesterdays post) that set me up for the day... I felt happy and inspired and peaceful the whole day. 

Today's page ....

A lovely background, painty, stampy and splattery. I added a quote. 

Satisfaction guaranteed :-)

FaceTime

Woke up early this morning thinking of Dina style faces.

It's ages since I painted a face so I went with the feeling and produced "Thinking Girl"

She still needs a little work but I've been distracted by the paint that's all over my PJ's! Oooops. Clean up time. 

Bonjour!

It's been so long since I blogged but I'm just gonna jump straight back in, no explanations, no excuses.....

We're just back from a lovely holiday in France, a secluded place called Poulmarvezen, near Ploerdut.  Complete bliss. A couple of days before we left I received some brand new Dylusions stash, including the custom ink pad, although I could take only limited art supplies due to space (lack of!) this was calling out "take me, take me!"
I inked it up before I left with lime, turquoise and London Blue baby!

Also among my stash were Dy's new skellybob stamps and of course the handbag size journal (LOVE)! I also took my gelatos (for you Gemma Maggs) prismas, a few word stamps, pens - can't forget the pens!

Here's what I made.

A fun page, we saw an elderly gentleman riding to the boulangerie every morning which put this page in mind... Skeleton Queen with wings - riding or flying?

background made with gelatos and the new neon coloured montana pens

I took a few collage elements with me and also found the heart image while we were there  ...it seemed to fit the the skeletal frame 

background made with Dylusions custom ink pad -  c'est magnifique! and stamps

Rough translation of the quote -"It's all I can do is to dance" - almost looks like the 'walk like an Egyptian' dance - except we were in France :-) 

background - again the Dylusions custom ink pad and a few stamps

Like I said, the heart lends itself to this page very nicely I think, it was right there, in a pamphlet, waiting for me to come along and purloin it for my journal needs :-)

I enjoyed creating these pages, they put a big smile on my face and added to the relaxation value of my holiday... along with the sunshine and the wine :-)
Dylusions goodies, gelatos and FABULOUS neon coloured Montana pens, all available at the wonderous treasure trove that is  Art from the Heart. You need to check out those Montana pens - all the colours.... go back to the first pic and check out the background again, spot how those lines make the page pop. I love them! 

Up and Swimming...

My mermaid book is painted and I'm raring to go!

Keeping up to date

I'm feeling quite proud of myself with the amount of blog posts I've managed over the last week!

Not faces this time but here's my April Calendar for Kate's challenge... bright and zingy, trying to chase away the last of the cold winter weather here in the UK.

To get the fabulous background colour I used Dylusions spray inks (the best) and I'm continuing a theme in this years calendar of using Teesha Moore images which I've had for over a year. I kept looking at them and not wanting to use them! Silly, I know! 

Anyhow, they are being put to good use now and getting me in the mood for my upcoming online class with Teesha herself along with Jane Davenport. It starts next Monday and I'm getting excited now..... I'm looking forward the new challenge.

Faces workout

My third face in four days. I've set myself a challenge with these faces. I'm determined to get better so I got up early again and tucked myself away for an hour....
Feeling happier with this one :)

Roll up, roll up......

I am over the moon with myself.... I've booked onto my first online workshop and its with the one and only Teesha Moore in collaboration with Jane Davenport. Mermaid Circus is the name of the workshop so I think I might be in for a wacky treat! 

I'll be posting what I get up to so watch this space!

Meanwhile, I am consolidating what I learned in the physical workshops with Dina Wakley.... another mop up page in my Dylusions journal ....

I drew the oval shape with my Stabilo All pencil, halved the shape vertically and horizontally...

drew eyes, nose and mouth....

I scribbled in some hair and then painted out the whole face in white

Now its time to add the shading, first dark - I used golden's raw umber... looks scary doesn't it? 

....next I painted over with flesh colour..... yesterday I mixed my own (rather unsuccessfully!) but today I found out my Dylusions skintone (sadly no longer available but I live in hope!) I added a little red and raw umber to get a darker colour

.... next I added white to the forehead, cheeks, nose and chin...

 ..... painted with the flesh colour again.....

... its a matter of keep going until you're satisfied with the result.... 

I ran out of time so I've done her a disservice by rushing.... the whites of her eyes are definitely wrong and I think her mouth is too small. But its my learning curve and I'm enjoying it :D

I will add some journaling to the page to help finish it off. Dina style scribble of course! 

Practice......

I mentioned in an earlier post here, that to get good at something takes practice, practice and more practice.....

As you know I recently attended the 'Faces' workshop at Art from the Heart with the very wonderful Dina Wakley, Well,  I found myself with some time on my hands this morning, so I got out my Dylusions journal and my stabilo All pencil and drew this face on a mop up page ....

.... now I had a lesson a couple of years ago with lovely Chris Rowe and surprisingly I remembered quite a lot of what she taught me (along with what Dina said in class) and that has really helped in this process. Not that my faces resemble Chris's in any way! (Go here to check hers out) 

Its also the actual painting of the faces that I like - you can see here I most certainly have NOT mixed up a skin tone colour at all, but I'm not too worried about that.... its the shading of light and dark areas that I'm working on, and also the brush strokes. 

I like this grungy/arty way of getting a face in my journal - and yes, there is a lot of room for improvement but I am going to settle in and enjoy this journey! Keep checking back to see how I'm getting on :D

P.S. You might be able to see what wrote on the page ...... "I like the process but not yet the results"! 

Sillouttes, Faces and Gelli Plate backgrounds

I've just spent a wonderful three days at Art from the Heart with the very fabulous Dina Wakley
It's not my first time under Dina's tuition (in fact its my fifth!) and I can tell you it won't be my last! 

Can you tell I'm a big fan? hehehe


The silhouettes class

I got to sit with my dear friend Janeyb which was a nice surprise as I didn't know she'd be there and its always good to meet up with old friends right? :)

 My second class was faces, Dina style.... she took us through her way of drawing faces in stages .... well I'm not quite there yet and I suspect it will take oodles more practice but Dina gave lots of encouragement  so I'm being brave and letting you see mine.....

first attempt....

painting the face... its all about light and shadow.... 

....painting the page in blocks of colour and then drawing a face.... 

free time.... I'm out on my own....

There's lots to work on here but I really enjoyed this class and will certainly be drawing more in my journal :D

And then it was the Gelli plate class - much fun was had and much mess was made in the making of these backgrounds....

and the very best of all was that my beloved joined me for the day! He had much fun too :D

Its preview day at Art from the Heart this Saturday (23 March) and Dina will be there doing a book signing of her inspirational book "Art Freedom".... I encourage you to come along if you can  - there are copies of the book to purchase in the shop but if you have already have your own, bring that along (and if you don't  own a copy, trust me, you really NEED this one!)  

Lighter, Brighter Days!

I'm oh so glad that Spring is around the corner.... I feel so much better when the days start to stretch don't you? 

First up on the creative front is my art calendar journal page for March.... spring colours.... I used Dylusions ink sprays and stamps and Teesha Moore images, adding the "Spring has Sprung" quote to go with the birds. 

Yesterday I was invited to a Playday with some friends and Kate Crane was a guest tutor, she showed us her ways with stamp cutting.... mucho fun.... we cut our own stamps in the morning and used them on a page in the afternoon.... here's mine.... can you spot the 'homemade' stamps? 

And Art From the Heart preview day is approaching so I've been busy getting ahead with a couple of projects (and earning a few brownie points from Our Ben) here's a sneak preview....  using the gorgeous new Finnabair papers they have in stock at the moment

....and the black and white Prima papers which I teamed with Kraft paper.... lovely!

Put the date in your diaries - 23 March - there will be projects galore for you to choose from, something to suit everybody!

Little Arty pieces

Fast Forward

So, my intention to blog more regularly didn't happen in January because here we are nearly at the end of the month! Life just seems to be on fast forward sometimes...  going by in a blur of fuzzy images hehehehe.

But I am keeping up with Kate's art calendar challenge, here is my take on February....

I used Dylusions ink sprays, stencils and stamps, a Teesha Moore image and various other images from finds in magazines plus montana pens and oil pastels - mucho fun was had in the making of this product!

I'm also posting on Facebook in the art journal group so I might see you there too.

It's been so long...

Oooh, I wanted to carry on singing that old song by George McCrae... It's been so long since I've seen you....

Life's been busy since we moved way back in June of last year and although I haven't been blogging regularly, I've still been creating :)

It just takes me longer to finish a page!
Our visitor's rang to cancel tonight because of the snow so Andy and I had a romantic meal and a glass of vino and I even had a little doodle on my January page for the art calendar challenge.

Dylusions journal

Well I got my hands on the fabulous and rapidly selling out brand spanking new Dylusions journal. And boy do I LOVE it! You might have a gazillion journals but you NEED this one :-)

Here are a few pages that I started. I just had to do a bit of mark making on those pages - although when I first got it, I did sit and flick through the pages, stroking them tenderly - after all, they are going to know my secrets over the coming months!

They are works in progress... I just wanted to get some colour on the pages :)

Preview Day

This coming Saturday is Preview Day at Art from the Heart in Harrogate. Come along and enjoy the fun - it's a great day out with tea and scrummy cakes, a shop full of arty goodies to purchase (or indeed to drool over!) plus a great opportunity to take a taster workshop with Marie, Kate, Kaz or myself.

It seems like ages since I blogged and I confess I am struggling to juggle my new lifestyle, fulfill commitments and keep up with the things I enjoy doing! But just to show I have been doing a little arting, here are a few sneaky peeks of my upcoming workshops at AFTH over the next couple of months....

If you book a workshop (or two or three!) on the day you can justify your spend - there's a 10% discount!

Atempts at a Dina-esque page

You attend the workshops, then when you go home you almost forget what you learned.... well if you're like me you do! 

But the thing is, its still there in the back of your mind, it keeps niggling at you, until you have to have a go at home. On your own. Sometimes it works and other times not. But you have to keep trying. And I will.

I'm a fan of Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, he  writes about people who excel, all manner of people from the Beatles to Bill Gates.  To get good at what they do, in other words, successful, they practised and worked and practised some more - Gladwell's research led him to estimate a figure of 10,000 times. Yes TEN THOUSAND! 

So here is my number one attempt at a technique taught by the fabulous Dina Wakely. 

 When I first attempted drawing this kind of face in Dina's workshop, she was there, urging me on..... sadly, she was not with me in my art room today! It's not what I want it to look like but its a start. Only 9,999 more faces to go!

Looks like she's got a cold, or she could be related to Rudolph! as in the red nosed reindeer :)

I used Dylusions paint and spray inks, Dina's stamps and what Dina calls, a 'magic' pencil, all available here