I don't think I'm the only one who thought September rolled by in a flash - for me it was a combination of events every weekend, School Production, and lots of Basketball for our boys with Regionals, finals for Mens' League and high school competitions, and an injury (luckily not as serious as first thought) and rehab for our eldest in time for Nationals which begin this week.
Being away a lot on weekends cut down on how much I've been able to watch this month, but OMG - the P!NK concert in Auckland was A-MAZ-ING ♥♥♥
And if you haven't seen "Maudie" it's a lovely movie about the life of folk artist Maud Lewis, who painted in Nova Scotia. Really enjoyed it.
I also had a wonderful relaxing time away for a girls' weekend in Raumati. Sometimes you just have to leave everything else behind and be present with people you care about...and the beach - the beach always helps ♥
As well as writing almost daily in my Inner Work Journal, I have weekly pages that I've printed from the Planner for a Magical Year - get your 2019 version HERE UNLESS you live in the Southern Hemisphere in which case she will release our version in the next month or so....
I use mine for briefer notes of the week - like this - what I'm doing daily, rather than how I feel about it
And I continue to learn - I printed out this article and printed it to my journal then modified it as a reminder not to compare my journey/my art and also not to spend all my time researching other people's ideas on things - I do good research - I'm a librarian. But other people's ideas can sometimes be time-wasters (eg. spending time looking at how someone works in their journal instead of working in your own) or a block to what your heart already knows and is trying to tell you
In amongst all that, I still managed to make art in a couple of journals - YAY
I thought it might be fun to share new supplies monthly too....Rae Missigman's book arrived from Book Depository, and you can check out my review HERE.
Great deal at Warehouse Stationery last week - buy 2 stencils get one free....I'd gone in to buy that pen for my doodle journals project. Excited for it to get some use very soon.
I have been very much looking forward to October - school holidays for 2 weeks, daylight savings (longer days, warmer temperatures), Tam's free online summit, a couple of quilt shows to inspire, and first roses are beginning to bloom in my garden
We're heading into a week of watching basketball and catching up with friends, and hopefully some art....share again soon I hope. Happy October to you
I had 2 small desk calendars to recycle
Once I trimmed the end stands off and flipped the covers over, I have 2 spiral-bound journals with sturdy cardboard covers ready to go.
I love that they don't have too many pages so I should still be having fun by the time they're finished. The pages are glossy at the moment but paint and collage will fix that, and then I'll only need to work with pens so they'll be great to travel/couch art with. Lovely bonus that they didn't cost me anything ♥ Alisa Burke is my inspiration for these journals. See her blog posts HERE
Or be inspired by watching her on YouTube - altered magazine faces HERE and white pen doodles on painted background HERE.
I bought a LARGE chisel tip black pen, and already had a variety of others (stashed in my fabric pen case which I doodled on also inspired by Alisa Burke!)
I did a few base pages - decided to keep one journal for faces, and the smaller one for just for paint patterning. I searched for matte magazine pages for the faces
and then discovered that I really need heavy body paint to cover the glossy calendar pages. This was my first attempt - thought iridescents would be lovely - but hardly any coverage and this was with white gesso added over top while still wet - yuck!
Another layer of paint fixed it - the black is heavy body but the colours are just student acrylics.
I used the same heavy body black to fill in around the faces
I've begun doodling on one so far using a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen (click on any photo to see it larger)
She's not quite finished yet - I'll share when she is. Such a meditative and wildly fun process ♥ Can't wait to show you more.... I am leaving the covers til the end when I have got into my groove with these.
This page developed from a creative warm up lesson to introduce this FREE online summit hosted by Tam 1-15 October. It was just what I needed right now ♥ I didn't entirely follow the lesson since I already had swiped off paint from when I made my Spring Portrait
Love to take process photos so I can look back and see the evolution of a page (click on any photo to see it larger)
I am making an effort to add stitch to my art where I can - this began as a piece of recycled card from an old diary that I'd arted up
I can't seem to call many pages finished until I add words or a quote
and calling it done ♥
This lesson was Tam's warm up lesson for Life Book in January 2018, and is a good example of her teaching style. You get the lesson if you sign up to the summit.
Read more about the summit and sign up HERE.
Happy creative September days to you - Spring is here and I am so excited that our days of sunshine are lengthening and I feel like I'm waking up creatively as well. Enjoying these inspirations so sharing the love :
I am totally inspired with Rae Missigman's work at present. Her book has just arrived at my house - take a peek inside via Amazon HERE.
I just love it. It's full of her lovely colourful art and there's a lot of information with written introductions to each section, as well as great stepped-out instructions with plenty of photos.
This book is full of inspiring ideas to make marks with a huge variety of tools/mediums, and even though I'm not a new artist, I'm glad it's got a place on my bookshelf both for ongoing inspiration and just pure enjoyment of turning the pages of a lovely book. Some of her techniques are featured in a Cloth Paper Scissors article HERE. Rae is the September guest artist for Soul Journey 2018. Sign up for FREE to that FB group HERE. She shares a simple way to create artsy notebooks.
View all her YouTube tutorials HERE (including many of her series "15 minutes of mixed media") and check out her take on Donna Downey's series Find Out Friday HERE. Many great artists have featured so lots of free inspiration if you care to explore there.
Flora Bowley also inspires and has a Free offering of a virtual painting session happening in a few days HERE. You have to sign up to get the link and there'll be a replay available if you can't watch in real time.
I will work on a new large-scale acrylic painting and share tips and tricks along the way. This will be less of a specific “art lesson” and more about simply being together and seeing what wants to happen organically.
There are many year-long offerings being advertised for 2019 already. This is a FREE summit hosted by Tam, which will feature interviews with the artists who will teach in Life Book next year, as well as bonus creative and wellness activities that you can access from 1-15 October. Lucky me - it's happening in my school holidays!
Read more and sign up HERE.
Some lovely stitch inspiration on YouTube HERE.
Read more about this project with some nice photos HERE.
Don't forget you can also click HERE for my list of cheap and free online art classes for 2018 (always to be found from the link top right in my side bar).
Hope something there to inspire you. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for my annual Girls' Weekend so I won't see you again until next week. I'm doing a happy dance ♥
Effy's Canadian so for her latest lesson she created a whimsical iconic portrait to celebrate Autumn. Since I'm celebrating Spring (definitely more sunshine here lately but hoping the equinox will bring warmer temperatures to match) I am inspired by all the blossoms I'm seeing around my home city and my magnolia tree blooms
I've also just been to P!nk's concert in Auckland....A-MAZ-ING
so I'm feeling drawn to all things Pink ♥
Once I had a the base of the background done, I decided to block in the face and fill in gaps around it. I find it easier to do this earlier on since I sometimes find it hard to cover up layers beneath - in this case especially that metallic green...
I think from now on I will block the face in early if I know sort of where that is going to go, although layers showing through can definitely work for me. Cherry blossom paint for her face base seems appropriate
Loose florals for her hair
Face coming together
Not enough Pink. Glaze = transformation ♥
Also pinking up her face a bit more
White doodles add pop (and the feeling of spring blossoms for me)
Quote for Spring
And she's done.
I love this, and she looks nothing like the lesson! ♥Finding my own voice ♥ You can sign up for classes with Effy Wild HERE. See my Flickr album of all art work inspired by Effy's classes HERE.
