Lifebook, sketching and faces...

Wow, is it already more than a week ago since I wrote on my blog?!
Than it is time to show you some projects I've been working on!
I have signed up for Lifebook, a year long lessons all about celebrating and self exploring myself. Two lessons a month: one from Tamara Laporte and one from a guest teacher. I've done two lessons so far and I love it!!! In between these lessons I've been following the first three lessons of Tamara's online class Fabulous Faces. She is such a great teacher.
So, I got a whole new virus in me...it started a few weeks agon with drawing some portraits, inspired by the girls of the dutch art journal forum and because of Tamara's lessons now this virus grew only more and more. It's unstoppable!
I started with his portrait in graphite, after lesson one of Fabulous Faces:

It is ok...but not perfect yet....

Lesson two of Fabulous Faces was all about a front facing portrait, in colour:

I like it but because it looks too much on the example Tamara made during the lesson, I'm not satisfied. Still, it was a very good practice in mixed media: Neocolors II, graphite pencil, acrylic paint and Inktense pencils! So next time, I want more 'me' in the portrait...

Lesson three of Fabulous Faces was about a 3/4 portrait. I combined this lesson with the first lesson of Lifebook: my goddess superpowers! (Which was also about drawing and painting a 3/4 portrait.)
I consider this Lifebook-thing as something I do only for me, myself and I...so I'm not going to share all of this on my blog. Of course, I'm gonna show you parts of it...like this page:

The whole page measures 40cm wide and 30cm high. I folded a part of it to create a flap.

On the inside of the flap I wrote my goddess super powers: the qualities which I think are my good qualities! When the flap is unfolded you can see the rest of the goddess too, which is partly representing me. The back of the page is collaged with old bookpaper. The white letters are traced and painted with acrylic paint. I'm very happy about this page!

And last but not least...I spend the weekend with my family in a holiday park. A short break from art journaling and internet! I left all my art supplies at home so I could spend all my time with my family, instead of in my journal...I only took a sketchbook, a 2B pencil and an eraser with me, to fill some spare minutes while sitting in front of the TV etc.

These are the results:

I practiced my drawing skills some more....I admit, I was pleasantly surprised by the faces that came out of my pencil!

Now I'm working on lesson two of Lifebook, about drawing some full body goddesses, which have to represent my inner dark and light. It's a tough one but I'm on my way!!
To be continued!

TFL!
Sandra

Happy Birthday, mom!

My mom turned 70 today! Happy birthday, mom!
Here is the card she will get from me today:

No..it is not my mom in the picture! Just a picture I found in a magazine!

TFL!

Sandra

Finished!

I finished my Inspired by Nature journal!
Here are the last pages..the flaps:

This last page consists of two flaps. These are on the inside of these flaps, hiding the page behind it.:

Of course, I made a new art journal flip, so you can see the complete journal:

If you want to see all the detailed pictures of each page, I recommend you to go to my photostream on Flickr: here .

I already started a new journal: Random Collage! More about that later this week when I finish the first pages.

TFL!

Sandra

Drawing portraits...

I love this new virus in me...it makes me want to draw portraits! Why? I don't know! Just doing what I like, experimenting with materials and practicing my drawing skills...
This is my 4 y.o. daughter Laura. I drew her yesterday evening with only a 4B pencil, some watercolorpaper and a picture of her. It took me one and a half hour and I'm so happy with the results!! My hubby told me I had red cheeks of excitement! (lol)

(size 16x17cm)

TFL!

Sandra

Something different...

After doing a lot of collaged pages lately..which I love...I felt like doing something completely different yesterday. I wanted to 'something with paint'..splash some paint on paper and make something out of it...
Because I had nothing specific in mind I followed the advice of Creative Jump Starter Karen Grunberg to just sit behind your desk, put all your things on the table and just start to create.
This is the page that I made:

I created a lot of layers, like I had learned in Julie's workshop at the Mixed Media Circus in Hamburg, working with stencils and adding handpainted details. Funny detail: the picture comes from a magazine I got in the plane to Hamburg! The title is from a song of Adèle. I love what happened!

I had a lot of ME-time yesterday (yeah!) so I made another page in the evening. I was inspired by the work of Ilse and Alda, who are following the Life Book workshops right now. They painted some beautiful goddesses! I wanted to draw a portrait too!

No paint this time, no glue, no collaged elements...just a picture, a pencil, some watercolor paper and...pastels. It was a cheap brand of pastels, which I had bought a few weeks ago, just because I loved the colors so much...I didn't know how to work with pastels so I just sat down, sketched the face (with a picture from a magazine as an example!) and started coloring the face with the pastels.

This was my example:

And this is my page:

It is not perfect but I'm very happy with the result, after working with pastels for the first time.

I love it that I succeeded in creating shadows in the right places. I had only one pastel in skin tone, so I had to add very soft touches of red, pink, brown and the white pastel did the rest.

I'm not completely satisfied about the eyes..too big and too close to eachother.

I don't know if I will work with these pastels again...after a few strokes I immediately noticed the bad quality because of some hard pieces in the pastels itself. It felt like I was working with a 4H pencil instead of a 4B. I had to turn the pastel over and over to find some soft edges to work with...

Maybe next time I try drawing a portrait with color pencils or aquarel paint, because I loved the drawing part!

TFL!

Sandra

More pages...

...in my Inspired by Nature journal.
I love filling the pages in this journal, especially now it is almost full. But at the same time I  noticed that I feel a little hurry also to finish all the pages. My mind is already working on a new journal and I really want to finish this Inspired journal first! (I know myself..if I don't finish it now, it will never be finished..). Ok, I'll be honest...I've already started this new journal, called Random Collage and I can't wait to work in that one...
So, in case you  think that my pages show that I was in a hurry and that I forgot little details...I'm sorry..and you're right!

(Tao of Pooh)

(I try to translate this journaling but I'm not sure if it is a good translation.

I'm sure you understand what it says though..:

 If you always have headwind, you must change your direction.)

(You never get a second chance to make a first impression.)

This last page is in fact two pages/flaps. When you open these flaps you see the page with the snake appear.

Only four more flaps to go! To be continued!

TFL!

Sandra

New pages 'Inspired by Nature'

Happy New Year to all of my blogreaders!

I start this new year with two new pages in my Inspired by Nature journal:

TFL!

Sandra