Hello

Well it has been awhile since I have posted anything on the blog.  I have still been creating though!  I am currently taking a class called Around the World Through Art.  I haven’t had much time to do all the lessons that have been posted so far but am so happy I signed up for it.  It has some wonderful artists giving lessons using their techniques and it’s all inspired by the various places they live.  I did manage to finish this Spanish lady painting recently.  It was created based on a lesson given by Emma Petitt.  I love Emma’s colorful, expressive portrait paintings and was so thrilled to do this lesson.

Happy Friday!

Debbie

Getting My Way

I was wanting to create a painting similar to a previous painting that I had done.  The face didn’t have a lot of detail in it and that was my plan for this painting.  It didn’t go as planned.

I just kept adding paint.  At one point I did not like her eyes at all and repainted them.  I would like how it was coming along, and then I wouldn’t.

I get irritated sometimes because I have these ideas of what I want to create and then I just can’t make it happen.  I guess my muse has other ideas.

My daughter says she looks edgy.  I can understand why.  That is the way I felt most of the time I was painting her.

I did end up liking how she turned out but decided to add the triangle tattoo to her face just because it was on the other painting.  At least I got my way a little bit.  🙂

 

A Little Bird Told Me

This is a re-do of a collage painting that I must not have liked too well the first time around.  I had torn all the paper that had been glued to it off and it was looking pretty bad.  I started out by gluing down scrapbook paper.  The paper mostly got covered up with alcohol inks and paint, but the colors in the paper is what inspired the colors I chose to use in the painting.

I sketched in the girl with a charcoal pencil and painted her face and neck with acrylic paint.  Next I covered most of the paper with white acrylic paint and then started dropping alcohol inks onto the front and sides of the canvas around the girl.

I decided to use the ink on her hair too.  In case you can’t tell, I was having fun with those inks.  I may have got a bit carried away with them like I did the last time I used them.   I don’t use them often because the smell really bothers me.

I added the little bird because the girl looked like she was looking at and listening to something.  Part of the color in the bird is from the alcohol ink drops but I did also use a little acrylic paint to finish it off.

Have a great week!

Debbie

Everything Will Be Ok

I painted this girl for my cousin.  She’s been going through a very stressful time in her life.  She has always been so complimentary of my art and has a number of my girl paintings.  When I first started doing art and showed it to her, she was so excited about what I had created.  Her compliments and excitement gave me the confidence to keep moving forward with creating art.  I am so grateful to her for that.

As I was finishing up the painting, I wasn’t sure what words I wanted to add.  I keep small scraps of papers and other ephemera that have inspiring words, phrases and quotes stuck in a little flower frog on my art counter.  I went over to thumb through those scraps and found a card that read “Everything will be ok”.  I knew that was just what needed to go on the painting and I know that everything will work out for her and it will be ok.

 

 

You Tube Inspired

One of the ways I seek inspiration is to watch You Tube videos of art tutorials.  I recently watched a video by Jenny Niemi.   That video inspired me to finish a painting that I had put aside a while ago because I couldn’t decide how I wanted to finish it.

I had stenciled, stamped and painted a lot of different colors and patterns onto a 12 x 12 inch art panel.  When I saw the You Tube video, I thought of the panel and decided to give it ago.

I sketched in the girl and painted her face.  I added the waves in her hair with a Stabilo pencil and lightly activated the pencil with a damp brush.  I gave her dress a collar using pieces I had torn off of a paper doily.  I then painted around the girl with white paint allowing a bit of the colors below to show through.  Next I stenciled on some words and then lifted off some of the paint by dabbing it with a baby wipe so that the words were not legible.  I also added some texture by brushing some drywall tape with blue paint and stamping that onto the panel.

Happy to have gotten another one out of my “what to do with” pile and finished up.

Have a great weekend!

 

Before the Storm

This painting was created based on a Life Book 2016 lesson given by Gillian Lee Smith.  I love her paintings and really enjoyed learning her shading techniques and creating so much yummy texture using gesso.   My husband said it looked like a storm was coming, so I decided to name it “Before the Storm”.

I had recently splurged and bought myself some Arches watercolor paper.  It’s so expensive but I loved the way it took on all the wet media in this piece!  It didn’t buckle or pill.  Can’t wait to use it again!

Inner Wizard

This painting was created based on a Life Book 2016 lesson called Inner Wizard given by Jenny Grant.  I had created the background on a canvas panel quite some time ago.  Not knowing what I wanted to do with it, I had put it away.   The colors in Jenny’s painting reminded me of the canvas so I decided to use it as a start to the painting.

Below are pictures I took through the process of Jenny’s lesson, beginning with the background.

I enjoyed this lesson so much and learned a lot by watching Jenny’s techniques!

 

 

Character Journal – Spread 5

Here is another spread in my character journal.  I’m not really sure that it is finished but thought I would post anyway.   Things have been a bit crazy around here the past 3 weeks or so.   Sometimes it seems that everything just goes wrong at once!  But, things have calmed down a bit now and fingers crossed it stays that way!  I’m hoping to start another page in my character journal and also finish up a canvas painting I have had in the works for awhile.  I should be posting the painting soon.

For this spread I used a graphite pencil to draw in the images and then colored in most of the pages with Caran D’Ache watercolor crayons along with Tombow markers.  I think it still needs something added and that cat just doesn’t look finished.  I’m not so good at drawing animals.  I could see the outline of a cat in the background paint so I just had to add it.   I’m ready to move on to something else for now though.

Have a great week!

Meet Lucy

Here’s the first spread I did in my character journal.  It is a small moleskine journal that measures around 6 by 8 inches.  The dragonflies are die cuts from K&Company and the circle flowers are pieces of a print I had made with the Gelli plate.  I drew and painted in the character and asked my granddaughter Tena what I should call her.  Right away she said “Lucy”.  I think that the name Lucy fits her perfectly.

Here’s a close up of Lucy.  If you haven’t seen the new animate anything app, you should go check it out.  I animated Lucy on my phone and it is so awesome (although a bit freaky) to see your character come to life!  I wanted to post the animation here but it doesn’t look like WordPress supports the file.

I’m working on finishing up a larger painting that I had started probably about a year ago and am also almost finished with another spread in my character journal.  Happy creating!

Just My Imagination

I recently purchased a book called Imaginary Characters – Mixed Media Techniques for Figures and Faces.  I first learned of this book through a Cloth Paper Scissors magazine called Faces that I had posted about previously.  Karen O’Brien, the author of the Imaginary Characters book, and her girl in the red shoes character takes you on a wonderful little folktale journey.    Karen teaches you how to create your own one-of-kind characters and provides more than 30 well explained projects to get you started!   I just love her little characters and the book has many full page images for your viewing pleasure.   I have to say this book just makes me smile every time I open it.

Here is a character I created on mixed media paper after reading through Karen’s book.  Fun, fun, fun!!!