Book of Days : March

Book of Days 2019 is being taught as a collaborative this year. This month, all our teachers presented a take on expressive portraits. We got lessons from Effy, Marieke Blokland and Sal Sheibe

This month I decided I would watch ALL the lessons and then do just one spread inspired by what I'd seen. Not sure if it's our changing of season to Autumn, or my change of season (aka menopause!) but my energy is very low at the moment....so this post goes to show that 10 minutes every day still = progress.

DAY 1 A couple of the lessons incorporated 2 faces so I began with spray inks blended with white gesso and brushed large ovals where I think the faces will be

DAY 2 Sketched my faces on with a watersoluble stabilo all pencil and blended out with a little water.

DAY 3 Including a paper serviette - was gifted this beauty and thought I would use more of it around the spread, but in the end she only wanted this wee piece with the bird whispering to her

DAY 4 Found words - I adore when they are found serendipitously in the background. They didn't appear until I went looking. Click on the photo to see larger : the light - the wood - the field - Go - she knew

DAY 5 A favourite pink washi tape - does well as a garment and a background layer

DAY 6 Always love stenciling - adding a bit more depth of colour as well as pattern. Also purple faber-castell pen for lips and eyes

DAY 7 Time for hair - I wanted to glaze so added some white posca paint pen curls and also for some subtle highlights on their faces. 

Didn't leave the paint pen to dry properly so when I added the glaze it kind of blurred but a few more highlights of purple and I'm happy enough with this effect. 

This is micro-movements in play : a little bit every day equals a completed spread in a week ♥ I felt like leaving the faces mostly untouched this time. This was an expressive self-portrait and it feels authentic - from the heart. Working on the spread forced me to slow down - go gently, and has reminded me to look inward and listen to my own truth. 

You can still join us in Book of Days HERE. 

Love is stronger than hate

I spent the weekend distressed and heart sore from the terrible terrorist attack on the mosques in Christchurch. On Saturday I felt paralysed, helpless, unable to art. And then I remembered a lesson from Effy Wild from November 2016 - #artistsforlove. My original version of that lesson is HERE and on Sunday it gave me comfort to create (art heals) and ease to be able to use that lesson as my inspiration starting point for the spread which follows. 
I began with colours : blue, green, gold. Blue for loyalty, strength, wisdom, trust and calm, the throat chakra for expression of truth. Green for life, renewal, nature, harmony, the heart chakra (integration, compassion) and our beautiful New Zealand. Gold for the preciousness of life, illumination, love, compassion, courage, passion, magic, and wisdom.

I then gathered meaningful stencils and printed this quote which has been uppermost in my mind

Next to outline my figure and my hand of love 

then base layers of colour 

- after these initial layers on the face I use clear gesso then blended pencils and more paint (see that link from Effy above for more of that kind of technique). I love my new NZ flower stencils and happy with the effect of them here

Pohutukawa above and Kowhai below

Then to add the quote

I really felt like this spread helped me process some of my feelings

Magazine Makeovers with Alisa Burke

It's Alisa Burke's birthday so this week all her online classes are on sale - including this new realease : 

With such a good price on the class (US$20),I had no choice but to sign up! I am never disappointed by her class content and I believe in supporting the teachers I love if that's financially possible for me. I was already inspired by her magazine face makovers last year and created my own for a while without instruction....These are my BC (before class 😉) efforts

Class started this week and is made of 3 large lessons (we get the next 2 over the next fortnight). Initially she talked about using pens and lettering without paint so I decided to take a face and see what I could make of it : 

So many lovely lines and spaces - I used a black sharpie and white uniball signo marker to play around with my own lettering and memories of our Summer holiday in Hawaii. We are approaching Autumn in New Zealand, I want to hold these memories close.

Such a fun process and I can't wait to see what I learn next ♥

A Year of Rumi : Fall in love....

I've already done an art card for our Rumi prompt for February (see my previous post) but loved Effy's original lesson so much I wanted to try that technique out in my art journal. I began with a much loved colour for me : purple

Then some gatherings of what I think I want to include - silver paint, new stencils, favourite tapa hand-made stamps and older stencils, plus some newly printed tissue paper 

I began with the mandala stencil in the background, and sketched my figure in using my new white watersoluble pencil - (note Office Max in NZ also stock the Stabilo 8052 white but not the day I went!) Then I added some more stenciling around the figure

Loving this but already know I'll have to use that lovely tissue for another project! Isn't it incredible how quickly ideas change? This is part of why I love photographing my process along the way. A bit more stenciling needed in her dress. I used the silver paint again since thinking a glaze over that will be nicer with some light detailing beneath.

Dina Wakley's heavy body paint "Night" has a purply tinge so perfect for this hair (thinned down a little with acrylic medium). Then I decided to add my other loved colour of turquoise for the glaze on her dress

and added it in a few other places too including to surround her hair. I did something different for me this time which was to add facial features with Faber Castell Pitt brush pens.

The lettering and hair detailing was done with a Pentel silver hybrid grip pen this time, and I added a bit of extra stenciling to tone down the too-bright areas in the background

Followed Effy's lesson pretty closely this time for the face shape and figure/hair position (see bottom of post), but love that this still looks like my work in the end.

Find out more about the "A Year of Rumi" class with Effy Wild HERE. You can also enjoy this class by joining Effy's Patreon account and paying monthly. See all my posts from this class HERE. This is a picture of Effy's original : see photos of her artwork so far this year HERE.

Klimt in the Garden with Rumi : Close your eyes....

The Rumi quote for February was "Close your eyes, fall in love, stay there". I think there might be two art pieces that come from this. First I'm working on my art card for my Klimt in the Garden with Rumi project. February was back to work after holidays and in full Summer. This month's inspiration thoughts for gatherings are roses, monarch butterflies, the yellow and gold of the sun, and I want to use my "The Kiss" serviette to bring Klimt together with Rumi. I used this on the box too, so a challenge to use it differently

First was to tear the serviette smaller and make some initial gatherings 

On the box, I had used beading and she held a large heart (polymer clay made by me)

I thought I'd like to repeat those ideas but in a different way

Really fun to use the longer beads on his garment this time. I found a lovely magazine image of a monarch butterfly on a flower and thought that would go very well with the organza ribbon as a hot summer sun ♥

The swirly lemon fabric ended up being perfect for the backing

Loving how every card is different but part of the whole story ♥ See all my postings about this project by clicking HERE.

Find out more about the "A Year with Rumi" class with Effy Wild HERE. You can also enjoy this class by joining Effy's Patreon account and paying monthly.