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