Long Time, No Post....

Wow, was it really April that I last updated this blog? Jeepers.

Well, not much has changed since that last post. I'm still not crafting. "Taking a break from crafting" seems to have turned into "completely lost interest in crafting". In fact, I'm planning to pack up a lot of my crafting stash into storage tubs and put them in the cellar. I can't see myself crafting any time soon and my craft room is a tip and needs sorting and clearing.

I have, however, still been creating. All the creative energy that used to go into papercrafting has been channelled into drawing and painting.

I'm particularly proud of the painting because it's not something I've ever really done before. I've always drawn, ever since my childhood, but never really had a proper go at painting. But I really felt like having a go so last school term I managed to find a painting class that fitted in just perfectly with my kids' school/nursery hours. It was a fabulous class, with a really great, supportive teacher, and in 8-9 weeks I was able to create two paintings.

The first was a portrait of my DD2, painted in acrylics on stretched canvas. This was my first ever proper painting and I'm so darn proud of it that I've had it framed. :)

The second painting was a full-on fantasy one. :) The theme of the class for the term was "contre-jour" (a style of painting featuring a strong light source in the back of the painting).. though this one is technically contre-nuit. This was painted in acrylics on canvas board.

Unfortunately, I can't continue with the class this term as DD2 has started nursery class at the local school and goes every day for just 3 hours, so it's not possible to fit in a class around her hours.

However, I have carried on painting at home, when I get chance, and have done this acrylics on canvas board portrait of Tom Wisdom as the Archangel Michael in Dominion (my new favourite TV show).

As well as the painting, I've also been doing a LOT of drawing. I've really enjoyed getting back into "traditional" art and hopefully the more I draw/paint, the more I will improve at it. :)

WOYWW 227

Chaos. My life and my desk this week are chaos.

 

 

I have so much to get sorted this week that I feel like I am constantly running from one task to the next and never get any of them finished... or if I do get one finished, another two pop up to take its place! :lol:

 

I'm off on my yearly scrapbooking retreat this weekend. Heading off on Friday and coming back Sunday... so hubby has got Friday off work and will be looking after the kids all weekend.

 

I'm not packed. Not even remotely. Not even started to think about it. And I've not only got to pack the usual clothes etc for the weekend, I've also got to pack whatever craft supplies and equipment I want to take with me.

 

I've also agreed to teach a tutorial during the weekend on colouring with alcohol markers. So I'm busy trying to put that together too... including an reference sheet with in-progress photos. Hence the Promarkers and sheet on my desk in the photo. I've also been printing out image sheets for folks to colour in but - sod's law - my printer has chosen this exact moment to run out of black ink. And... to make things even better... the package of replacement ink cartridges for my printer that I bought ooooooh ages ago because they were on special offer and which has been sitting around in my craft room waiting until needed.... turns out to be not the correct cartridges for my printer! So now I have to 1) go out tomorrow and buy a refill cartridge and 2) track down my original order reference for those cartridges and work out if I ordered the wrong ones by mistake or if they sent me the wrong ones by mistake!

 

See what I mean about every task I complete (or, in this case, fail to complete) spawning two more tasks for the to do list?! Argh! :lol:

 

Thanks very much to everyone who commented on my WOYWW entry last week (I did manage to get around a few of you and reciprocate). I'm pleased to say that the painting that was in-progress last week is now finished. I managed to find time at the weekend (while the kids were "helping" daddy in the garden) to work on it and I have to say, considering this is only the second ever original painting I have ever done on canvas, I am really rather pleased with the result:

 

 

Now I just need a few more hours in the day (and possibly days in the week) so I can find time to paint as a hobby as well as papercraft, and draw, and make digi stamps, and teach myself to knit (that one's on hold at the moment), and write fiction.... too much inspiration, not enough time! :lol:

 

Thanks for stopping by... see ya next week when my desk will no doubt be buried under boxes/bags/piles of stash that I've not had time to unpack following the weekend. :)

It's finished!

As mentioned in last week's WOYWW post, I've recently gotten really into painting (something I've not really done a great deal of) and had started painting a canvas.

 

Well, I managed to find a bit of time this afternoon to get the paints out again and am pleased to say my canvas is finally finished:

 

 

I'm really rather pleased with this. I drew the image straight onto the stretched canvas and then painted it. I feel like I managed to get the shading right and managed to take my time with it and get some real detail into it - especially in the eye and lips, and the shading on the hair. I like the colours and the stylised imagery with the large eye.

 

 

 

For my first "proper" painting, I'm really happy with it. I think I might even hang it up on display in my home. :)

 

WOYWW 226

I've been a bit hit and miss with the old WOYWW lately. I either forget that it's Wednesday(!!) or just don't have the time to join in! :/

 

I'm a bit late today but am going to join in anyway. :) Here's what's on my desk this morning:

 

 

The chaos has gotten worse and my bird cage of paintbrushes has been moved down off the windowsill and plonked in the middle of the desk. There is a reason for this...

 

Last weekend there was a paint-a-thon at ATCsForAll.com. I was away from home Saturday to Sunday (going to my school reunion! :D) but I loved the idea of painting some ATCs and I found time to join in on Friday and Monday. I was really really pleased with the cards I painted and found myself not only enjoying painting but actually feeling like I was producing some decent images.

 

Yesterday the school teachers were on strike in England so I had DD1 at home with me... but DD2 was at nursery for the day so for once we got to have a bit of mummy and daughter time, just the two of us. DD1 loves to be creative (takes after her mummy! :D) so we took advantage of both my recent interest in painting and the opportunity to get creative without DD2 charging around like a bull in a china shop. ;)

 

So I got my paintbrush pot down and selected some brushes and took my tub of paints into the kitchen and got DD1's pre-mixed paints out... and we spent an enjoyable afternoon getting painty and creative.

 

I worked on this:

 

 

Am really pleased with how this is going. I've managed to get the shading on the skin with just enough contrast to give some contours to the face without too much contrast. And I'm pleased with the detail on the eye and the shading on the lips.

 

And DD1 painted a grand total of 7 pictures - and drew 3 more! Here's her take on Mickey Mouse:

 

 

Not bad for a 4 year old eh? This was done with zero input from me (I was busy painting on my canvas) - she chose all the colours and painted it all on her own. Think she's definitely inherited mummy's creative gene. :)

 

The weather's miserable here today so am hibernating at home with DD2... might see if she wants to do some painting this afternoon and have a painty/crafty session with her too. :)

 

Paint-a-thon

I like making ATCs. And I like swapping ATCs. And I like getting involved in swaps and personal trades and various other fun and games over at ATCsForAll.com.

 

And this past weekend they had a "paint-a-thon". From Friday to Monday the idea was to make hand-painted ATCs. There were a few prompts you could choose to follow but they weren't compulsory. The idea was just to have fun and to create and to share your creations with fellow ATCers.

 

I was away from home Saturday to Sunday for a school reunion but I was really taken with the idea of the paint-a-thon and I managed to find time to join in a bit on Friday, on Sunday evening and on Monday.

 

I should say that I have never really considered myself as being any good at "art". I can draw okay and used to draw a lot when I was younger but I was never really any good at painting... however I do think in recent years my papercrafting - particularly using Promarkers etc to colour stamps/digi stamps - has really improved my skills in using colour on images. So I took the plunge and got painting... and, d'you know, I loved it! :)

 

I'm actually really *really* pleased with the results - some more so than others but I like all the cards I've made in their own different ways...

 

Acrylic paints on watercolour card
One of the prompts during the weekend was "Autumn"

Acrylic paints on patterned paper over watercolour card

Acrylic paints on oil card

Fineliner pen and watercolour paints on watercolour card

Acrylic paints on watercolour card

Acrylic paint on watercolour card

Pencil and ccrylic paints on watercolour card
This is one of my real favourites - I managed
to get some proper fine detail onto this card

Biro and mica watercolour paints on plain card
This card has an amazing light-reflective shimmer
that the scanner sadly doesn't really pick up

Watercolour paints on plain card

Mica and watercolour paints on plain card

Metallic and acrylic paints on plain card

Metallic and acrylic paints on watercolour card

Acrylic paints on watercolour card

I found painting these cards so enjoyable and so inspiring - I have a gazillion ideas for more painted cards and could happily have carried on with the paint-a-thon all week! :lol: I'm definitely going to carry on making hand-painted cards. I actually feel like I've made proper "art" here, rather than "just" papercrafting. :)

 

"Proper" Art!

Just lately, I've been doing more and more drawing... and remembering that I actually used to be quite good at it.

 

I've been thinking for ages about making an original canvas - as in drawing a design from scratch. With my new venture in making and selling my own digi stamps, and my recent re-addiction to ATCs, I've been rediscovering my drawing mojo and so last weekend I finally took the plunge and had a first go at making my original canvas:

 

 

I used a pre-prepped canvas board and drew the image onto it, then painted in the image and the background and added inks and texture gels and embossing paste and gilding paste and built up patterns and texture and highlights.

 

It's not perfect but for a first go I am fairly pleased with the results.

 

It has a lot of texture and shimmer that the face-on view doesn't pick up:

 

 

 

I'm not entirely happy with the shading on the face but hey, practice makes perfect, right?

 

Much as I love papercrafting and stamping and the like (and I still totally do!), I feel like this is quite an exciting step for me, creating my own original art from scratch, all completely drawn and coloured etc by me, rather than working with other people's images, in the form of stamps or papers etc. It feels like "proper" art, if that makes any sense?

 

I'm already planning my next canvas... a bigger one this time, I think... :)