Spirals and Labyrinths!

Stage three of the great round of mandala, Labyrinth/Spiral, is one where I feel completely at home! I have loved every moment of this month. I haven’t got round to creating a physical dreamcatcher yet…

…but I started the month by creating this image of one using Derwent Intense watercolour pencils.

I am still waiting for the experience of walking a physical labyrinth, but in the meantime I had great fun creating this hand drawn one and then walking my finger round its paths.

Spirals came next, and I’ve been having so much fun with these. This one was created using ready-mix paint…

…and I made this one by weaving some very thick wool in a spiral. It is absolutely mesmerising if you spin it! That’s all for now, but I’ll try not to leave it so long before I post the next instalment!

Made it ….

Yeah! – I made it through the month …. and to celebrate I created this poster!

I coloured the background using Derwent Inktense Pencils, then drew, cut out and stuck the large ‘Made It’ letters to the background. I drew the rest of the letters, outlined them using a uniball eye pen, and coloured them using the Inktense pencils. Lastly I inked the edges using distress ink pads and stuck on some snowflake and star confetti.

It’s been a fun month. I’ve really enjoyed being inspired by everyone’s amazing work. A great big thank you to Leah for providing the opportunity, and a special thank you to everyone who has visited and left me comments.

Green Mandala!

Today I felt like drawing a mandala – they’re so meditative to create!This one decided it wanted to be green.

I drew the outline in pencil, then inked it using a uniball eye pen. I coloured the mandala using Derwent Inktense pencils. I originally planned to add some doodling at the end, but I rather like it just as it is. What do you think?

Peace

The other day I downloaded the latest free ebook from Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine and was inspired by Lisa Engelbrecht to create this.

I hand drew the letters in pencil, then coloured them using Derwent Inktense pencils and outlined them using Stabilo point 88 pens. After I scanned the image into the computer, I tried out lots of different coloured backgrounds, but decided I preferred the original or plain black.

Which do you prefer?

Green Goddess

I started today by painting a couple of backgrounds using derwent watercolour pencils, a blue one and a yellow/green one. While I was waiting for them to dry I felt prompted to draw a female face on the yellow/green background. So here she is – my Green Goddess!

I drew her face in pencil, outlined it using a uniball eye pen, and coloured it using neocolour crayons, leaving quite a lot of the background colours still showing through. Lastly I darkened the background using distress ink pads.

I have no idea where her face came from, but I’m quite pleased with the finished result.

Doodle Magic!

This catch-up on the Life Book Course came from Lesson 20 with Jodi Ohl.

I started out by colouring the background using Derwent Inktense pencils. For the doodling and text I used a uniball eye pen, then coloured the doodles using neocolour crayons and a graphite pencil. The two stamps were hand made using pieces of fun foam: I stamped the butterflies using a distress ink pad, and the star using a Staz-on ink pad.

I’m still toying with the idea of adding more doodling. What do you think – do you think I should?

Freehand Mandala

Playing catchup with the Life Book Course, today I followed Tam’s Freehand Mandala class from week 36.

I hand drew it in pencil, then coloured it using Derwent Inktense Pencils. When I had got to this point with colouring it, I couldn’t decide whether to colour the rest of the background in or to leave it as it was. So I scanned it in to the computer and added some digital backgrounds to see what they looked like. This is my favourite – it really seems to make the colours pop!

After all that, I decided to leave the original as it is. But it was fun playing.

Another Seed…

Here’s my version of another Seed of Life mandala from the talented Guada.

I had a lot of fun making this one! I drew it in pencil then coloured it using a mixture of Derwent Inktense Pencils, Lumiere paint, acrylic paint, graphite pencil, uniball eye pen, and uni paint marker. The colour was built up in layers which gives it extra depth. Thanks for another brilliant lesson Guada!

Celebrating!

I really enjoyed this weeks Life Book lesson with Samantha Kira Harding. Each layer had its own special meaning and took courage to cover and move on. But I’m so glad I did – the finished piece has so much depth.

This is the first scan taken after the first three layers. Layer one was journalling done using Derwent inktense pencils. This was followed by a layer of white Gesso which made all the journalling colours run and blend together creating a lovely soft background colour. Layer three was a mixture of alcohol inks shaken from the bottles to create nice ink splodges which I swooshed around with a tissue to spread the colour further, and a lino cut which I stamped over the top using distress inks.

This next scan – done on my lovely new A3 scanner – was taken after the next two layers. It took a while for me to pluck up the courage to add a layer of Gesso to everything and even more courage to start doodling over the top of it, but I’m glad I took the plunge! The doodling on the right page was done using graphite pencil and neocolour crayons followed by a flower collage and face outline drawn in pencil.The left page got a collage of tissue paper.

The final scan shows the finished piece. The face on the right page was painted using neocolour crayons. The left page had a machine stitched border added and journalling done with a gel pen. It took a few days to complete, but I’m really pleased with the end result. Thank you so much Samantha!

Seed Of Life

I’ve just finished colouring in the mandala I drews for the first part of Guada’s free Seed of Life course.

I love her classes and the meditative discipline of creating these mandalas. I drew this one in pencil then coloured it using Derwent Inktense Pencils and a graphite pencil. I’m looking forward to starting this weeks lesson.