Illustration Friday - Magnify

This week I found the theme a bit of a challenge. It's a great word but I had too many ideas floating around in my head and then when I would try and put them to paper they just wouldn't sketch out right. So this was the idea I settled on in the end. Not the word exactly but pretty close.

The writing says 'Her beauty was magnified by her sadness'.

I used a rose stamp for the background to give it a bit of texture. Her hair is inspired by a friend who recently went that colour and I thought it would look great in a painting instead of the usual hair that I would do.

Normally for Illustration Friday I would do it in the style of 'children's art' but this week my idea took me somewhere different. I'm not really sure what you would call this but it is another entry in my new journal that I just started. Anyway hope you like it!

Journal page

Well I've been wanting to start my own journal for a while now after being inspired by lots of my blog friends. So last week I went hunting for a journal. Now I'm not sure what sort of book people use but when I went to a few art shops in town they didn't really seem to have what I was looking for. So I ended up buying a visual diary which I was told wasn't the greatest to paint on but I thought I'd take my chances anyway. What sort of books do other people use?

Anyway, I'm not sure if there are any 'rules' to keeping journals but I decided to start mine off with a piece that was inspired by the wild weather we've been having over here. A few nights ago myself and my husband and two boys were lying awake for hours while the power went on and off and we could hear the wind howling outside. Quite scary for the kids as we felt that the roof would blow off.

So this is my first attempt in my journal. Painted in acrylic paint I used that crackle paint effect as I was practising for my canvas in my previous post. I also used some coloured pencil and black pen.

Lady in red.....

This is a canvas that I have been working on for another couple of friends who've recently had a baby girl. (There must be something in the water over here as there are a lot of our friends who have had or are having babies.) I think I must have been inspired by Little Red Riding Hood for this one. I used the crackle paint effect again and this time I got a much better result. I'm going to varnish the painting when I'm happy that it's finished too. I'm just not sure if it needs something else? Or if I add anything will it over do it? Any suggestions would be welcome as I don't want to wreck it now...oh decisions decisions...... :0)

Illustration Friday - Caution

Tilly the tight rope walker had been performing her act for a number of years but each night she would take that first step on to the wire with great caution. Then she would perform the most amazing tricks, somersaulting through the air and landing back on the wire, it was amazing!

Flower lady - Canvas

(I also thought I would submit this to Mixed Media Monday as the theme is 'together'. I think my flower lady is longing for a partner but for the moment her best friend would have to be the butterfly).

Today I had great fun experimenting on this new canvas. I bought some Decor Crackle Medium, which is, if you haven't used it before this medium that you apply on top of your back ground colour then you paint over the top of that when it's dry and when your second layer of paint dries it creates a crackle effect. I think that my first colour in the back ground wasn't enough of a contrast though and I'm still working out how best to use this new material but this is my first try. I also bought some butterfly stickers from the craft store and thought I'd see how they looked on my painting. I have been inspired by many of my blog friends that have used these effects in their work so thought I would give it a go today. Does anyone know if a gloss varnish will work ok on top of the crackly effect?

I think I might try and take a photo of this canvas too as it didn't scan very well as it is slightly bigger than A4. It seems much brighter in real life and not as crisp in the scan.

Flower lady

This is just an idea that I had that I'm thinking of turning into a canvas. I quite like it. Spring is definitly in the air over here now thank goodness and I'm getting inspired by the little blossoms I've started to see appear around town. I can't wait for the longer warmer days and lots of playing outside with the kids!!

Pinocchio

Yesterday I made my son a costume for a parade they are having at school. They are reading and learning about fairy tales at school at the moment and so he wanted to be Pinocchio.

I don't think my effort was too bad considering I was battling the flu while I was making it. He was happy with it. His little brother wanted to get in on the dressing up so he insisted on posing with him in a photo. Shortly after it was taken Pinocchio went to give skeleton a brotherly hug but accidentally poked him in the eye with his gigantic nose......poor skeleton...Pinocchio was well intentioned though!!! :o)

Mixed Media Monday - Stars

Today the theme for Mixed Media Monday is 'Stars'. I used a canvas board, and a mixture of iridescent paints as well as acrylics and coloured pencil, with some newspaper for the stars to create this image.

I hope you like it!

Check out all the other creative people at the Mixed Media Monday website!!!

Illustration Friday - Wrapped

Just a quick one this week in my diary. When I saw the word for this week I immediately thought of 'pass the parcel'. It takes so long to wrap the thing up but once they start the game your master piece ends up all over the room within minutes. I also think that if you watch a game of pass the parcel with little kids you can see the impatience, and cranky faces on the ones that just never quite get it at the right time....oh it's hard being a kid sometimes hehehe.

This was done in pencil with some acrylic paint and coloured pencil on top.

'Longing for Summer'

Still stuck in the thick of winter I day dreamed today whilst in front of the tele on a day off from the kids. Rhys is in school and Riley went to day care today. He goes once a week as I feel he needs that interaction with other kids and to be used to being away from me for a while. He's 3 in about 2 months so is getting bigger. I feel sad when I leave him there but he has a great time once I'm gone. Normally I end up cleaning and catching up on stuff around the house. But today I made sure that I knuckled down and did some art.

This was a page in my diary which I had stuck some textured paper onto and painted over it. I did that last week and didn't really know what I was going to do with it then I did this doodle in front of the tele whilst catching up on episodes of 'The Dollhouse' ( I love Joss Whedon). Perhaps that's what inspired this lady. Either way it was very relaxing. Now I'm off to pick up the children. Happy Friday!!!

New Canvas

Today I finished another present for another friend who has just had a baby. This one was a bit of a challenge for me as I normally do girly pictures even though I'm a mum of two boys it always seems to be mermaids and fairies that I gravitate to. I'm quite happy with this result and like my little robot. I'll be varnishing it and giving it to my friend next week when I meet her new little man. I hope they like it!!!

Another Award

My lovely and very talented blog friend Annette Quirke has given me this award. Thank you Annette for thinking of my blog for this award. I just love visiting all my blog friends as you all inspire me to keep going with my dream. Sometimes if I'm feeling stuck or not very creative I'll pop over to see you all and it really helps to push me further as I just love to see what you have all been working on. So I award this one to all my blog friends and thank you all for making such fun places to visit. Thank you!

Thank you Shirley!!!

Wow, I have just received an award from the wonderfully talented artist Shirley. It is called 'The Bella Sinclair Award'. This award is named after an amazingly talented children's book illustrator, and artist, Bella Sinclair

Thank you Shirley, it made my day and I would just like to pass this award onto a few artists who I have recently discovered and who I have started to visit as often as possible. They have inspired me to try new things and to keep working on my dream. So thank you guys!!

These artists are:

Lisa Lectura Creations

Natasha May Artworld

Serena Lewis

Thanks guys your kind comments and lots of encouragement have really made my day at times. I really appreciate your visits!!

Illustration Friday - Impatience

When saw the word for this week I straight away thought about my own impatience. My mum and step dad are away in Europe at the moment and are half way through a 10 week trip. I'm really happy and excited for them that they get to spend some time with my brother and his family as well as catch up with lots of family and friends in Wales and see lots of new places too. But on a selfish note, I can't stand them being away. I'm extremely close to my mum and like to say that I feel the same way about my once evil step father (lots of teen angst on my part there but that's a different story). Nowadays they are two of my closest friends and I miss them alot when they go away. Also as soon as they left for this trip life here seemed to become very stressful, (but that's a whole other story too). I can't wait for them to come home and feel like I'm watching the clock and the calendar very closely and time is dragging. I'm becoming very impatient. Only about 5 weeks to go though so that's good. For some reason I was very inspired by Alice in Wonderland when I thought about being impatient with time and it made me think about when she falls down the rabbit hole. Anyway hope you like.

New Canvas- (Mixed Media Monday 'blues and greens'

( I thought I would also enter this piece for this week's Mixed Media Monday theme which is 'blues and greens'. I really liked her sparkly blue eyes and her sparkly green dress.)

Well this is my first picture using my new paints. I really feel like my background is much more interesting with those paints on top. I worked quite differently with this one, I painted the back ground with acrylic paint, then when that was dry I used different iridescent paints over the top, when that was dry I painted the lady on top of that then used some textured paper on top and painted that with the sparkly paint. I might have over done the sparkliness a bit but I was having fun.

I also used a canvas board for a change which was probably some where in between A4 and A5 size.

I'm in love!!!!

With these new paints I found today. I went to the art store in search of inspiration and found these great paints. I'm sure everyone else has heard of them except for me but I'm glad I found them today.They are iridescent paints.

I also bought some canvas boards to have a play with and I'm working on a painting right now using a combination of my acrylics and the iridesccent paints. I love the sparkly colours. I've been feeling like my paintings are lacking something lately and perhaps this will give them the pick me up that I need. I shall post my new painting as soon as it's finished in the mean time this is a little painting/doodle that I did on my black paper. I thought they would come up lovely on black and I like the result.

Mixed Media Monday - 'Nature's blues and browns'

This week the theme brought to mind Mother Nature for me. I loved using the blue tones in her face and the leaves for hair. I've always loved putting browns and blues together as I think they go together so well and really compliment each other.

I also enjoy matching my pieces to quotes and have come across some great quotes on the net.

I had lots of fun with this one and managed to find some Autumn leaves in the garden to add to her hair.

Illustration Friday - Modify

'Riley thought that if he modified his bike he might finally be able to fly. It never quite worked of course but he had lots of fun trying.'

This was inspired by my nearly 3 year old Riley. He's a right little 'Mr Fix it' and loves to play with his tools and 'works' on his little bike for hours. I can picture the plans that might pop into his head as to what he might be able to do to improve it.