Trying Out My New Pens

For Christmas I got these Tombow Dual Brushpens 18 Colour Set (Primary) and have been itching to try them out ever since. Today I finally had enough time to play!

I had already created the background using watercolour paint, so I drew the figure using pencil, outlined it using a uni pin fine liner, then coloured it using the Tombow pens.

I love how easy they are to blend and am very pleased with the final result. I can see I shall be ordering some more colours very soon!

Happy Christmas!

There’s just time for one more post before Christmas – my Christmas angel wishing you all a Very Happy Christmas!

I like to paint an angel card each year at a this time but often have difficulty getting started. So Effy’s Soul Friend Angel Mini mixed media class was the perfect inspiration I needed to create this year’s angel. Thank you Effy – the class was amazing and I learnt so much in such a short space of time.

Soft Leather Journal Cover

Ever since I started Radiant 2 and made my own Effidori, I’ve been wanting to get a leather version for my handbag journal and have had my eye on a soft leather journal cover from YarnTreeStudioUK on Etsy.

And yeah – I finally have this one – it’s so beautiful! I chose the Quarto size which is 5.5″ x 5.5″ and am loving the square shape of the pages and the long landscape shape of the double spread.

The beauty of having a journal like this is that I can choose what kind of paper to use in it and can vary the size and shape of the pages. I stared by creating three signatures from cold press watercolour paper, and am loving the results!

I used the first three spreads to do the warm-up exercises in Iris Fritschi-Cussens lesson in Radiant 2.

Creating all these drips was great fun…

…and I love how this page turned out. Although it has been pointed out that my spelling is a little off!

Writing across the face on this spread was so liberating – I usually struggle to match the eyes on my faces.

For the main image in Iris’s lesson, I went back to using my Effidori journal.

I have resisted using oil pastels for so long, but really enjoyed using the technique that Iris taught us in this class. I will definitely be using oil pastels for faces in the future!

I loved Sarah Trumpp‘s lesson and decided to go back to my small journal and use my new watercolour paints to create some quirky people.

I called the first one Tagging Along…

…and created the second one to illustrate the fall I had a couple of weeks ago. I have really enjoyed creating these cartoon like caricatures and can’t wait to do some more.

There’s a good chance that this will be my last post before Christmas – so have a good one, and I’ll catch up with you when things calm down again.

Almost Winter Solstice

It’s almost time for the Winter Solstice and I’ve been starting to reflect on this last year in readiness for the new cycle about to begin.

I’ve also been making a fair amount of artwork inspired mainly by the amazing lessons in Effy’s Radiant 2 course – I thought it was about time I posted some of the work online. I have found it really interesting going back over my work from the last few months to notice how much my work has been changing.

This is the oldest piece, and was inspired by the lesson from Tangie Baxter. I really enjoyed using her cut-out techniques to create these pages and am sure I will use this technique again in the future.

I had so much fun creating this next piece. It was inspired by the lesson from France Papillon – I learnt so many new techniques from this class. Simple, but so effective!

Nolwenn Petitbois‘s lesson inspired this piece. It has so many layers – and i got so messy creating it – great fun!

At the end of November, I treated myself to this Winsor & Newton Cotman Half Pan Water Colour Studio Set from Amazon…

…and I couldn’t wait to try them out when they arrived!

This was result of that first play with my new paints! I enjoyed using them so much that I think I’ve used them in every picture I’ve made since!

My golden haired lady was inspired by Marieke Blokland‘s class – such a comprehensive lesson – so much detail. I really enjoyed creating her – especially using the gold flakes in her hair – I love the way she sparkles!

I have a load more work waiting to be uploaded, I hope to get it done before Christmas… so keep watching this space.