Virtual Reality!

I’d been reading online about Tilt Brush the new virtual reality 3D painting app by Google, thinking that it looked like a lot of fun. So I was really excited yesterday at work to be given the opportunity to try it out – absolutely awesome!! This is a picture of me creating my 3D landscape – totally oblivious to the world around me!

Back in the real world I’ve been busy creating lots of physical artwork as well.

When I finish work late at night, I often play with paint in my everyday notebook just to let off some energy and get messy. This is the result of one of those playings.

This next image was completed over a week – playing with the techniques taught in Effy’s Book of Days week 18 lesson.

I really enjoyed learning these new techniques and found the whole process very therapeutic.

Back to the notebook again…

… I had great fun using the wrong end of the paintbrush to scratch some texture into my image.

Staying with the same colour palette, I moved over to my small art journal…

…and had some more fun playing with textures.

This next spread was inspired by Tracy Verdugo‘s lesson from the Spectrum 2016 course.

It was an amazing lesson and I loved the process. I really like the Alan Alda quote that I found to go with it too.

And finally, I’ve just finished this last spread, inspired by Effy’s Book of Days week 20 lesson.

Following the BOD prompts this month has really taken me on an amazing journey and I’ve been continually surprised by the synchronicities that have appeared in my world as a result. Thank you Effy!

Anticipation

I’m really grateful for the inspiration I have had from Effy Wild and Sarah Trumpp this year. This page was inspired by both of them. The idea for the spread came from my response to Effy’s Book of Days prompt for the 29th April, and Sarah’s week 18, Journal 52 video inspired me to try drawing with my watercolour paints.

Although it’s not perfect, I’m just loving the result and will definitely be using this technique again. Thank you both for your combined inspiration!

At last my postcards for the iHannah DIY postcard swap are ready to send.

Here’s a quick sneak peak at them before they start winging their way across the ocean.

This next image is a bit of digital wizardry.

It started out as a photograph of some bare stems in the evening light. I desaturated the colour to make it black and white, then inverted the colours. I really like how it turned out.

Nearly May

Nearly May – and the weather’s still no better. We’ve had a mixture of snow and hail storms this week! But it hasn’t stopped me making art.

I’m really loving working in this A6 journal – it’s perfect for those days when the big journal is too intimidating!

I created this spread using watercolour paints, tombow markers, a stencil and a gel medium resist.

This spread started out as a collage which then got covered up with layers of paint, ink and paint markers. I love the richness of the colours.

I started this next spread by covering the pages with washi tape, then used thin washes of acrylic paint to colour the page and create the ‘green girl’ on the right.

My ‘I Believe’ spread was inspired by Effy’s Book of Days spreecast about wonder. I really love how it turned out.

In this last spread I decided to play with some rediscovered hand made funky foam stamps that I made quite a few years ago. I had so much fun – I’m planning on making some more stamps to add to the collection!

I’ve almost finished making the postcards for the iHannah DIY Postcard swap so keep watching for some pictures of those once they’re done.

April Showers!

So far this month has been living up to it’s reputation for April showers. Puddles like this have been everywhere. But we have been blessed with some wonderful sunny days as well.

I began April by creating a couple of backgrounds in my new A6 art journal.

For this first one, I started off by using watercolour paint, then used some stencils with acrylic paint to add some interest and depth. I love the way it turned out.

This next spread was created using just watercolour paint and a stabilo all pencil to outline the circles.

Sarah Trumpp‘s quirky lady in her spread for Journal 52, week 14, inspired this next image which I created with a mixture of watercolour paint, acrylic paint and stencils.

I created this last spread in response to Effy Wild’s Book of Days class at the beginning of the month. The image was inspired by a combination of the Kuan Yin Oracle card I selected for the month and a photograph of a peacock displaying his beautiful tail that my brother uploaded to Flickr. I’ve been working on the spread for just over a week now, using a combination of tombow brush markers and Posca paint pens. I’m really pleased with how its turned out. I may well add some text to it later, but I haven’t quite decided yet.

That’s all for now, but I have a pile of postcards to prepare for the latest iHannah DIY Postcard Swap. So watch out for some more artwork soon!

Changing Focus

Since the end of last year, my focus has been changing. I have been working more playfully, experimenting with new techniques and materials and am in the process of developing my own unique portrait style.

Creating this image, I discovered that my new Tombow pens don’t work very effectively over the top of sprayed on distress ink. But I still like the finished effect – what do you think?

From the beginning of the new year I started following the prompts from Lisa Sonora’s 30 Day Journal. I chose to illustrate each day with a quirky figure, and started the year off by doing some pencil sketches in my everyday journal.

Then I decided to start adding some colour into the mix using my tombow brush pens. After a couple of weeks I found the discipline of following prompts too exacting and reverted to creating more spontaneously.

I had fun creating ‘Zag’ and decided to leave her incomplete without any hair.

I’d been meaning to play with oil pastels to create faces for a while, but just hadn’t got around to it because I’d been having so much fun playing with my tombow pens.

Finally I got around to it and this is the result. I really like the richness of the oil pastel colours and the sheen they leave on the paper.

I may not have been very consistent in following any particular set of prompts or programme, but I have been consistently making art every day this year which I am very pleased about. So there’s loads more to show you, and I’ll try to get round to posting some more very soon. Keep watching!

P.S. I’ve just signed up for the 29 Faces 2016 challenge for the month of February so that should keep me busy!! Why don’t you give it a try? Just sign up over here on the ayala art 29 faces site and have some fun!

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!

More Inspiration from Kelly Rae Roberts

I started reading Kelly Rae’s book nearly two months ago and have been meaning to have a go at making the art journal in chapter one for ages. I finally made a start this weekend! I started by making the fabric tags for the spine.

I’ve been using wonderweb and iron on interfacing to create material collages for some time now, but I had never thought to paint on top of it! You need the clear gesso as a base, but once that’s added – it really is like painting on paper.

The letters were added using a black Sharpie and a white Sakura Souffle pen. The eyelets were added using a Cropodile Big Bite. I really love this process and the way the tags feel!

Next I made a start on the front cover of the Journal. I was a bit nervous about adding a person, and wasn’t sure which media would be best to use as I don’t have any oil paints …. but in the end I plucked up my courage and just used my acrylic paints.

Considering it’s my first attempt at anything like this – I’m quite pleased with the result 🙂

This is the inside of the front cover all ready to be written on!