The Custodian

Hello friends, just a very quick post today to share my next project from Lifebook 2018, this was week 5.

This was probably my favourite class so far, the teacher was a fellow Dutch lady called Juna Biagoni, an amazing mixed media artist that does the most incredible soulful portraits. The portrait is called the Custodian, because she is the guardian of our resolves and intensions, she has her eyes closed, because she looks inward, into her own soul.

Like usual, I can't really share the techniques, but let me just say it mostly involved pastels, both hard and soft ones, layered on top of a textured base. It is so wonderful finally to use some of the art materials again that I have been hoarding for years...

Juna is a fantastic teacher and I am saving up already to do another of the classes she offers on her website. I just love her style...

Anyway, that's it for today. Hope you are having a creative week and see you next time.

Thank you for your visit like always

xxxxx

Children of the Wild part two

The course I was telling you about in my previous post is all about children and their connection with animals using loads of cool mixed media techniques (the main reason why I decided to do this course).

In the lead up to the full project, there are several practice exercises, using different materials and techniques. Last time I chose to do a child's portrait to practice (I love drawing/painting children's faces), - I am pretty hopeless at doing animals, so in a way that was a cop out. So here are my next two studies/practice pieces, this time using a wild cat....

For this one I used Kate Thomson's sample painting and just drew along with her video.I used lead pencil, Stabilo All pencil, white acrylic, gesso, black India Ink, white soft  pastel crayon. We were meant to use a white oil bar, but I don't have those, so just using what I have.

Here a coloured version, for this one I used a reference photo, again I did not have half the stuff we were meant to use, so used what I had, pencil, Stabilo All, White acrylic and various soft pastels, a white gel pen and a black permanent pen.

It's really good practice to do the same animal in different ways, you get a much better feel for them.

Thank you for indulging me with my arty efforts, hope I am not boring you to tears. The link to the course can be found in my first post on this topic.

Nearly the weekend, I am feeling a bit desperate about the results of the referendum here in the UK, but democracy has ruled and now we will have to live with the results. Hope you have a good weekend!

xxxxx

Playing with Pastels

Hi everyone and thank for for looking in here today.
Well, I am in full swing with my Christmas cards at the moment, but today wanted to play with something a little different.
A while back I discovered a new way of using pastels, you can read about it HERE if you are interested. Well, I decided to use the same technique for my cards and here is the result:

The background was created with the pastels and stamping with embossing ink. These are not pan pastels by the way, but ordinary art pastels. Love how the colours blend and bring out the stamped design. Here is a close up of the background:

For my vocal image I decided to use the Tim Holtz Layered Wing die. I painted them with Fresco in French Roast, then added Crackle Glaze and when that was dry added Snowflake mixed with a little Vanilla and then let the crackle do its magic. Once everything was dry I rubbed some pastel crayon around the edges.

The sentiment was done in the same way, but this time I stamped with Coffee archival which I then clear embossed, The star was covered with sticky embossing powder by ranger and then I added some Rock Candy Distress Glitter

Here is the finished card

While my pastels were out I decided to do a second card, this time the vocal image was a stamp:

The side of the card was run through an embossing folder and then the raised bits were highlighted with Treasure Gold in White Fire.

Here you can see a bit of the background again. The pastel became very intense so I toned it down a bit with watered down Picket Fence Distress Paint.

The vocal image was stamped first and then masked, before adding the background stamping.

I high lighted the branches of his crown a bit with a white pen and added some holly berries with Twinkling H2Os.

I couldn't help myself and just had to add a few embellishments. This time the sentiment was created just with the pastels over the embossing ink.

Well, there you are, two more to tick off my list, - onto the next ones I guess......

Hope you are all keeping creative and getting on with your own preparations, I have seen some amazing cards around and I have to say, I do love this time of year and am determined not to get stressed out.......

Thanks for visiting