Inspired by Challenges

Since the beginning of this year I have been inspired by so many challenges and classes. Although I haven’t necessarily completed all the prompts and suggestions, I’ve found that having so much inspiration has enabled me to maintain a much more consistent artistic practice. I have been making art every day – and am definitely feeling the benefits.

I’ve been working in a number of different journals and have been playing with lots of different styles.

This first piece was inspired by Effy’s Book of Days theme for the month of January. The background is a created with lots of layers of acrylic paint, then I added the bird and the lettering as collaged cutouts which I created using tombow pens. I like the subtle contrast to the bold colours of the background this creates. I wrote the quotation using a dip pen and indian ink.

“Transformation” is my interpretation of Tam’s lesson from Radiant 2. I used Tombow pens to colour the lady and the phoenix and watercolour paint for the background. I added the text digitally after scanning the completed spread.

Moving on to challenges – I thought I’d try to include some male faces in my responses to the 29 Faces challenge this year – this is my first four. I’m really loving using oil pastels for the faces.

Finally, as a result of following the Journal 52 group on Facebook, although I haven’t got around to journalling any of those prompts, I was inspired by Sarah Trump’s work and checked out her blog posts. As a result I discovered the “Together We Letter” challenge by @lissletters on Instagram. This is my response to the prompts for the first four days – so much fun!

Visible collage!

It’s been a while since I made a collage that stayed visible after I completed the piece. Normally by the time I finish the image, the collage is buried under layers of paint, stamping or stencilling or a mixture of all three. But the last two classes I’ve done as part of Radiant 2, both have visible collage in the completed pieces!

This first piece was my response to Dyan Reaveley‘s class.

Her lesson was so great, I especially enjoyed the things she shared about her process – thank you Dyan. Although I didn’t have many of the supplies Dyan used, I think my substitutions have worked well – I love the result and the quotation taken from Sandra Sturtz Hauss’s poem “These are my wishes for you”.

My second piece was made in response to Effy‘s interpretation of Felicia‘s class.

I loved the process, and learnt loads from the note writing. I found it really interesting to create a second image in a different style – thank you for a really inspiring lesson Effy. By the way – if you want to look up the quotation, it’s taken from “On Joy and Sorrow” by Kahlil Gibran.

I haven’t quite made up my mind what to do next, but I think I might start making postcards for iHannah’s postcard swap ready for the end of the month.

I Begin…

The 1st of August has arrived bringing with it the start of Effy’s challenge to blogalong with her for 30 days in August. There’s still time to join in if you haven’t already, just click on the link below.

Being a little slow off the mark, I have just decided to join in Effy’s Inner Excavate Along where she is going through Liz Lamoreux’s book Inner Excavation. Effy has nearly finished, but I’m just starting …. O well as Effy says, I own the book so I can work through it whenever I like :).

Anyhow… after reading all the ideas and suggestions in chapter 1, I decided to create a word poem using a few of the words on the pages of my recycled journal. Originally I thought I’d add some joining words between the words on the page, but on reflection, I decided that would be overkill and have bravely left them stark and suggestive. I hope you like them.

I started out by very careful covering the words I wanted to use in masking fluid. Once that was dry, I covered the pages with a thick layer of gesso, then started adding layers of acrylic paint, stencilling and stamping. When I was happy with the result, I carefully peeled off the masking fluid to reveal the words, then added my theme ‘I Begin…’ using die cut letters.

I’m off to see what everyone else has been up to now. See you tomorrow!

Finished Page!

At last all the layers have dried and it’s safe to scan the finished page.

I love how the finished page turned out, and I had such fun making it. The only tricky part was managing the wet media on the thin pages of my new journal, but I managed that by starting with a thickish layer of white gesso and using the acrylic paint with a dry brush. What I love is that you can still see some of the original pages through the layers in places!

Just for a change my ‘ingredients’ list is quite short! I started with white gesso, added layers of acrylic paint, and stamped using various clear and homemade stamps with a staz-on ink pad and some distress ink pads. I printed the quotation onto plain white copy paper then cut out the letters by hand, leaving me with a stencil affect. I coloured this using distress ink pads, then stuck it to the page using a glue stick. Lastly I added some more acrylic paint using an assortment of household items!

Sidetracked Again!

Ooops! – I got sidetracked again! But this Life Book lesson from Dawn DeVries Skol was just so much fun!

I started by painting the background using acrylic paint. I decided that I wanted the self-portrait to be transparent so I printed it on overhead projector film then cut it out and stuck it down using gel medium. It has left me with a slightly streaky face, but I like being able to see the background through the image. Next I added the journalling and doodling using Pitt Artist pens and coloured the large letters and doodles using neocolour crayons. Lastly I inked round the edges of the pages with a distress ink pad. Thank you Dawn for a really great lesson!

Now I really am going to get back to Dion Dior’s 21 Secrets Lesson!

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.

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?