Getting Messy!

Today I’ve been working on Danielle Daniel’s class, part of the 21 Secrets 2013 course. I had great fun and got very messy creating this background.

I started out with a collage of printed papers from my earlier artwork, then added acrylic paint using a variety of techniques. Next I added journalling followed by more acrylic paint! I still have more to do to finish – there’s at least one person waiting to be painted – but I really like how it looks right now, so I thought I’d share it with you.

When I finished painting, I had rather a lot of leftover paint on my palette, so I created this in my notebook.

Then I decided to see what it looked like with a bit of digital blending. I quite like how it turned out so far, but I have a feeling I’m not finished with it yet!

Totally Addictive!

The trouble with playing digital is that it’s totally addictive! I’ve always loved kaleidoscopes so I had to have another go.

Using the same original images as yesterday, this is today’s version! I think this is my favourite so far. What do you think?

Playing with Blending!

I’ve been so busy drawing and painting lately that I haven’t had time for playing with digital blending. So today I thought I’d rectify that omission!

I started out with an artwork scan and two photographs. This was the first result. I really like this one, but decided to have a go at making a kaleidoscope style mandala.

This was the result! Which one do you prefer?

Blending and Faces!

I’ve been playing blending again! I made a stained glass window image inspired by Jodi Ohl’s Just do it – Free Art Friday post.

But unlike Jodi, I didn’t doodle on my painting, I scanned it and played digital blending with it!

Then I thought it might be a good idea to finish face #16 which has been lurking accusingly for a while now!

I’m glad I did – I’m quite pleased with how she turned out – she’s definitely one of my better faces! I drew her in pencil and coloured her using acrylic paint and watercolour pencils. Now what shall I do next?

Blending and Faces!

Today I played digital blending as well as faces.

This started as an abstract created using Twinkling H2O’s. Then I scanned it and played digital blending with a photo of sand patterns. This is the result.

Todays face got the works!

I was so determined she wouldn’t have any strange paint marks today that I gessoed the page before I started! Then I had to draw her face on the gesso. I hate pencil drawing on gesso! – it smudges everywhere!Luckily the putty rubber does a good job of cleaning up! To stop further smudging I started off with an acrylic wash base, then coloured her face and hair using watercolour pencils. I added some background colour using Twinkling H2O’s. I must admit – I’m quite pleased with the final result. What do you think?

Snowflakes

Seeing all Leah’s snow pictures last week got me thinking about snowflakes, which in turn inspired me to get some paper and scissors and start cutting! I know snowflakes are supposed to have six sides, but mine has eight – call it artistic license!

I coloured the background using Inktense pencils then cut the snowflake out of white paper and coloured it using distress ink pads applied with cling film. I stuck the snowflake to the background using gel medium then added more colour to the background using the same distress ink and cling film technique.

After I scanned it into the computer I started wondering what it would look like if I played digital blending games! You need to click on this one to look at it large.

Let us not…

I’m still ploughing my way through my pile of leaf prints from the end of September. Today I decided to add a quotation using digital text to this one, and a bit of digital blending for good measure!

The original image had an acrylic paint background with acrylic paint leaf prints on top.

Digital Blending!

Today I felt like playing digital, so I started out with one of my leftover acrylic paint creations and a photograph I took showing the beautiful autumn leaf colours.

Then I played digital blending.

You really need to look at the big version to see the full effect of the final result, but I really like the result. Do you?

Magic!

This piece has magic built into every part of it from the background to the magical font making app.

First of all there’s the magic of the water-soluble neocolour crayons and the way the colours blend together when you add water. There’s the magic of what happens to those wet colours when you add sea salt crystals and leave them to dry. Then there’s the magic that happens when you add digital elements and start playing with blending options!

But do you know what the biggest magic of all is? This iPad app at iFontMaker that enabled me to create my own font. A big thank you to Elsie from A Beautiful Mess who blogged about it last week. I was so excited when I read her post – I bought the app and sat up till 3 O’clock in the morning playing with it! It was so much fun!

If you like the font in the image click on the link Funtime font to download it.

Altogether a truly magical piece!

Playing…

Today I felt like playing digital! I took the last two hand drawn mandalas that I created and played digital blending with them – great fun! I think my favourite is the top right one. Which one do you like best?