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!

My Story and Spooky Images!

A few weeks ago I attended the last of a series of Person Centred Expressive Arts Workshops with Dinah Brown up in the Lake District. One of our tasks over the weekend was to create a loom from natural materials into which we wove words from stories we had written. This is my story loom.

Going back to messy paint, I’ve managed to create a couple of rather spooky images in the last few days.

This first one was created using collage, washi tape together with some distress ink and fluid acrylic paint. When I had finished playing I noticed this strange looking person looking out at me so I used a white posca paint marker and some light coloured very dilute acrylic paint to bring the figure out from the background. Then I noticed three more shadow people standing by.

This second image started out as just playing with tombow brush markers distress ink spray and dripped fluid acrylic paint. I decided to make the drips look 3D by highlighting and low lighting them with posca paint pens. When I’d finished, I noticed that I’d created another spooky image. Not my usual style – will there be more?

The last of the Faces

I can’t believe that a whole month has gone by since I last posted anything here. I’ve made plenty of art – just haven’t got round to sharing it. So here goes. I’m a bit late uploading them, but here are the last of my faces for 29 Faces 2016. Yeah – I made it!!

They’re created with a mixture of watercolour, oil pastels and pencil. I really enjoyed the challenge of drawing so many faces.

I’ve also been playing along with the Journal 52 prompts. This is my response to Sarah Trumpp‘s prompt for week seven using a mixture of tombow brush pens and posca paint pens – called “Nerdy Love”…

…and for week eight using a mixture of fluid acrylics, distress ink, collage, tombow brush pens, posca paint pens, stabilo all pencil and calligraphy pens – called “Listen to Crow”.

This next spread was created in response to the prompts for week eight of Effy Wild’s Book of Days. I created it over the course of a week using tombow brush pens and computer generated text, and was amazed by how it all came together over the course of the week.

I was continuing to think about spring and all the new growth starting to appear while playing with acrylic paint which led me to create this spread. I just love the vibrant colours on this page.

I love the word emergence, and had great fun creating this spread in response to Effy Wild’s prompt for week ten of Book of Days. I used acrylic paint, fluid acrylics and a collage of computer generated text to create these pages.

I have lots more work to share so keep watching … here’s just a sneak peak of something a bit different that I’ll show you more of in the next post.

Having Fun and Getting Messy!

I thought it was about time I caught up with posting some images; I’ve spent so much time having fun and getting messy in my art journals that I’ve not got round to uploading any of my work.

This image was inspired by a Journal 52 prompt to pick a zany word and illustrate it. I chose ‘exuviate’ which means, apparently, to shed or cast off a covering. I liked the idea of emerging into a new reality.

Returning to the 29 Faces 2016 challenge – I can’t resist playing with the oil pastels. I created the colourful background using Tombow brush markers – I just love those bright colours!

Effy Wild inspired this next piece with her class, based on Nolwenn’s lesson, taken from the Radiant 2 course.

This last piece was created in response to two Journal 52 prompts – ‘above your head’ and ‘below your feet’. When I saw these two prompts it occurred to me that depending on how you looked at things, they could either be pointing in opposite directions or the towards each other. This was how I saw it.

I still have more to post – I’ll try to create another post tomorrow. Keep watching!

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!

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!