Painting faces

I felt like painting another face, completely inspired by Megan.  This time I painted it in my art journal:

Journaling: Speak your mind or shut your mouth

I also added my previous painted face to my journal:

I glued her on a background and added the quote. I got the quote from Ilse's Art Journal Guide (for Dutch art journalers). I love the combination of red and green!

TFL!

Sandra

Sometimes...

..it is hard to walk up right when you have to much on your head...
I always wonder how my subconscious works. I had a lot on my mind the last few weeks, things that I was thinking over and over again, figuring out what to do and trying to keep myself together. I grabbed my art journal to stop worrying, hoping to give my brain some time to relax. I love making collages..you all must know that by now (lol) so I just started cutting and shoving pictures and than this happened:

I had no intention at all to journal about all the thoughts and worries that made my head feel heavy..but somehow my subconscious did the work for me. It felt weird when I saw all the parts of the image coming together! This time I didn't have any problems with the text I wanted to write next to the picture...

I cut out the head from a map of Paris. My son and my hubby went to Paris two weeks ago. (Lucky guys!). On the map she was 'wearing' the Eiffel Tower, binded on her head with the ribbon. I cut away the tower and replaced it with a pile of rocks, gave her a body and a pair of legs.

Recently I bought  a couple of Perlen Pens. I added some green dots in the uppercorner. Love the effect!

Yesterday while I was bloghopping I bumped into Megan's blog: Make Art & Live Happy! I loved all the faces she paints and felt the urge to make one myself. So I sort of copied one of her paintings:

Not bad for a first attempt, huh? I don't like copying artwork from others without giving it a touch of my own but this time I simply couldn't resist. And because I have no intention of selling it or pretending I designed it, I think I can publish it here on my blog. By the way, I learned a lot while I was painting because I haven't mixed skin colors before, nor have I worked with shadows to make a face look more realistic. I had fun. I felt relaxed when I was painting and I learned more about my paint (for example: it was too thick, so next time I have to water it down..) and about my Inktense pencils.

By the way, I used the back of a cereal box as a background instead of working in my art journal. So now I have to think of a way to incorporate it in my journal. Just glueing it on a page is too easy!

To be continued...;-)

TFL!

Sandra

Out of the Journal Challenge week 3, part two

A little bit later than I had planned but here is canvas number six in my series Fairytale Diva's:

Again, I love my background. It was done in only a short time. And again...my image is a bit boring...It seems I'm running out of great pictures in my stash. The inspiration was there but I just couldn't find the right images. For example..I wanted to give her a bigger head, a little bit more out of proportion.

I now noticed that working with a theme is..of course!...less freedom.

I'm now thinking if I will continue with this series or just do something completely different for week four in Dina's and Samantha's Out of the Journal challenge.

You will find out later this week, I guess!

TFL!

Sandra

Out of the Journal Challenge week 3, part one

The first canvas of this week for the Out of the Journal challenge:

I love the background but I think there's too much journaling and the image is fun but a little bit boring....

TFL!

Sandra

Out of the Journal Challenge week 2, part two

Did I already tell you I love this Out of the Journal challenge?!
I have so much fun creating my 'Fairytale Diva's'!!
Here is my second one for this week:

Size: 24x30cm

Background: acrylic paint, TCW stencil Sunburst, Perlen Pen and TH stamp

Image: magazine cut outs

Journaling: alfabet stamps (Kars and Studio G)

I love it when everything works out at once and comes together like I had in mind. Yesterday evening I collaged the image with magazine cut outs. I found 'her head' in a magazine for 55+ people which I got from my mom's neighbor. The body comes from a big glossy magazine about fashion which I found at the sale of my local bookstore for only 1 euro. As soon as I combined the head and the body I knew what journaling to add...and of course I had to glue that little dwarf to her bag...(lol).

This morning I did the Big Paintmarker Attack and stamped the text.

TFL!

Sandra

Out of the Journal Challenge week 2, part one

My third canvas for the Out of the Journal Challenge of Dina Wakley and Samantha Kira.

Background: sewing pattern paper, yellow tissuepaper and acrylic paint.

Images: magazine cut outs.

Journaling: alfabet stamps.

I'm not completely satisfied this time. Again, I can't say exactly what is is...It is more a feeling...I think it is something about the background that I don't like, but you know what: 95% will do for me too!

While I was working on this third canvas I challenged myself some more. Because the challenge is about creating two canvases a week during the month of August, I will end up with at least eight canvases. They are all going to be the same size (portrait 8,5x11 inch).

So I decided to work with a theme to make a series of these canvases instead of eight individual pieces. You have probably noticed the 'fairytale-ish' theme already...this wasn't planned but somehow it happened by coincidence...so, what do do think about 'Fairytale diva's' ? I would love to hear some suggestions from you!!

TFL!

Sandra

Out of the Journal Challenge week 1, part two

I finished my second canvas for this week for Dina Wakley's and Samantha Kira's challenge Out of the Journal. I had a great creative day today and I managed to make the canvas from start to end on one day! (Long live the heatgun!! Lol!). I was up and dressed at 7am...yes, it's still school holiday here...walked the dog at 7.30am and started my canvas right after that, while all the kids were still asleep. So I had done most of my messy background by the time my youngest came downstairs...which was my goal because as soon as she sees my paint, brushes and ink she yells: 'Me too! Me too!' and I'm not always in the mood for that...sigh...Now I was just finishing my background with some black and white paint!
My collage, the journaling and the Big Paintmarker Attack was done during the afternoon, in between doing the daily shopping, having lunch, walking the dog again, taking care of the kids, get the birthday cake for Laura and more...
But I'm more than happy with the results!
Here is my canvas, size 8,5x11 inch:

The background is done with Adirondack colorwash (lettuce, sailboat blue and butterscotch).

I used a Kaisercraft wooden flourish to create the swirls in the background. I used it in two ways: as a mask and I used it for the 'ghosting' technique. (I sprayed the swirl with water and stamped on my layer of colorwash. After blothing it with a papertowel the swirl ends up lighter.) I loved the effects! Unfortunately the wooden flourish was too delicate to handle all the inkspray and water...it sort of fell a part, so I had to throw it away after I was done...

I added accents with black, white and golden acrylic paint.

The base of my collage was an add for a perfume of Thierry Mugler (Alien), which I found in a magazine. Again, I had a lot of fun collaging this image!

I finished with the journaling. For the big letters I traced some chipboard letters and colored with white paintmarker. The smaller letters are clearstamps (brand unknown...).

Some details:

I love the effect of the glasses and the eyes!

A close up of the layers, with the masked flourish and the ghosted flourish.

Because the tail of the original picture of the mermaid was covered with letters I put her 'feet' in a teacup and added the fish.

Tomorrow will be a day without crafting. My youngest daughter is turning four tomorrow!!! Time flies!!! A lots of friends and family are coming and I have to do some cleaning and bake an apple pie before they come....Probably my punishment for not doing any of this today...

TFL!

Sandra

Out of the Journal Challenge week 1

Dina Wakley and Samantha Kira started a great challenge this month: Out of the Journal. They challenged their selves and their blogreaders to get out of our art journal and make two canvases per week in the month of August. I love a great challenge and I love working on canvas so I decided to give it a try! And the best part is that they will draw a winner at the end of the month for a free spot in one of their classes!
Here is my first canvas, size 8,5x11 inch:

Background: acrylic paint, Adirondack Colorwash and TCW stencils.

Image: collage of magazine cut outs

Letters: Kars alfabet stamps.

I finished the canvas with paintmarkers.

Here are some details:

 The key was in my stash for some time. It was attached to a jeans designers label.

 I added some rhinestones with my Hotfix...which was catching dust for some time now....

On to my next canvas for this week!

TFL!

Sandra 

Some people feel the rain...

...others just get wet.
A new page in my art journal. I'm not completely satisfied about this one. I love the collaged images but still, there's missing something...I would love to hear what you think of it!

TFL!

Sandra

An art journal page...and some fun...

Yesterday I made this page in my art journal:

The quote is from Loesje.

For my international blogreaders: the people behind 'Loesje' just want to make the world a more beautiful and better place. They do this by spreading their quotes (posters, adds, billboards, etc,). Quotes that make you think twice...and I love that!!!!

It is hard to translate the quote above but I'll give it a try...a very literally translation:

If bad luck is in a little corner, will luck be in the rest?

The background is (again) inspired by Kate Crane. After seeing her DVD's I made a few backgrounds on an inky, painty and messy afternoon. The image is a collage of magazine cut outs. I love to puzzle with my stash of cut outs and I had a lot of fun making this one...It felt like all the pieces of my puzzle fit at once. When I started I had no intention of making a woman, who 'fell' in a bucket...It just happened! I would love to show you the process behind creating this collage, but I was in a sort of creative flow. The parts of my image were already cut out and glued down at the moment I realised that I should have made some in-between-pictures. Hopefully I can do that next time!

Talking about 'in between'...We had a fun family hike yesterday, in between my creative me-time.

We decided to take our sweetest puppy Timo for a hike in nature instead of his normal round in the boring village we live in. Because Timo is only four months old we can't walk long distances with him yet. He is growing so fast, we have to give him all the rest he needs, especially with a giant breed like his. So we walked about half an hour but had a lot of fun..a great day for some pictures:

My most recent and good looking picture of the two of us was more than a year ago, so it was time for a new one! (Things like that happen when you are always behind the camera..)

And look what we found, hidden in the woods??? 

(I couldn't resist some Photoshop fun..)

And a big 'Smurf'-icecream afterwards!

TFL!

Sandra