Airfield

Airfield

The Documented Life Project - Week 7

The theme for the Week 7 Challenge was to draw a shape, repeat it and add colour. I was tempted to do circles, but looking at my pile of gelli prints, I thought rectangles would work better. And I was busy with Happy Mail this week, so decided to keep it simple

Here are my steps:

1. Pick a page with a gelli print brayer leftover background - I wanted an urban feel
2. Cut a few bright Gelli prints into small rectangles
3. Move them around the page until I liked what I saw
4. Glued them all on
5. Added a bit of shadow with a Faber Castell PITT marker (sepia)
6. Started drawing an urban landscape with the same marker
7. Added more shadow with my Neocolor II pencils
8. Cut a round moon from a leftover Gelli print - my Gyro-Cut was giving me trouble despite the new blade, but I managed it in the end - the bottom of my moon is a bit flat! 
9. Glued it to the page
10. Added a doodle border - sepia and white, keeping the same rectangular theme
11. Pencilled in a little bit of light on the horizon (I was inspired by a post on Gelli Arts' facebook page by an artist called Kathleen Pequignot). I used my good old Caran d'Ache pencils - I already had those when I was still getting colouring books for Christmas presents - I do have a tendency to save my beloved art supplies. Somebody calls it hoarding!
12. Called it done
13. Then I added my to-do list for the day on the opposite page. 
    
1. Picked a page from a hotel notebook (my favourite hotel in New York)
2. Wrote my list
3. Added pencil colour all around
4. That's it!

Do you get the feeling that you can never complete even half the tasks on your To-Do list?

The Documented Life Project - Week 6

I nearly didn't get to work on this week's challenge - between work and dog, life is busy. So I decided to keep it simple - not so many steps.

1. Find a Pinterest pin that inspires me. That's the challenge. And yes, I'm still 12 weeks behind everybody else. And despite the long weekend (May Bank Holiday), I won't get to do much more. So I started digging through my thousand + pins - I was looking for ideas around a lovely plant from the umbelliferae family, for which I had quite a few pins actually. The one that I decided to use was a pin on a board entitled Hogweed and Cow Parsley, and it is a piece of textile art by Kirsten Chursinoff, who makes beautiful pictures with thread and fabric. Since I am not about to embark on yet another art form, I decided to interpret the idea with a hand-made stamp
2. As usual, I picked a page that I had already painted with left-over paint from Gelli printing. This one has a simple polka-dot theme from a free stencil I received from Gelli Arts when they sent me my Gelli plate, or was it from the UK distributor? 
3. I then got to work on my stamp with my carve-a-stamp kit. This is the most intricate stamp I've ever done - yes, I'm a beginner - so I was worried that I might make it too chunky, or, cut through a stalk in my attempt to carve intricate detail. But it all worked out, and I'm rather pleased with the result. If it wasn't for this challenge, I don't think I would have tackled such an intricate stamp. So my thanks go to the ladies from Art to the 5th for their inspiration, or rather for helping me convert inspiration into actual art!
4. I applied paint onto a label (with Distress Stain (Jim Holtz)), which I glued on the page
5. Attached a cute little butterfly from a pack of Japanese stickers a friend sent me
6. Glued a Japanese stamp
7. Stamped "bank holiday" with a new set of Urban Stamps I got in town last week.
8. Added doodle dots
9. Attached cute little labels - these are from my attempt at gelli-printing onto a page of self-adhesive labels - for the most part, it was a failure as the labels became unstuck from the backing sheet when I lifted the print, but a few of them turned out ok
10. Then, an after-thought - added a bit of washi tape - I think the red polka dots bring a little bit of colour to the whole thing
11. I called it done! 11 steps only!

My carved stamp

Testing the stamp

Testing the stamp - I think I'll use this one in another project - too pretty to leave in a sketchpad

With the washi tape

More holiday watercolours

Once more with feeling. (don't ask!)

Holiday watercolours

I do get distracted, don't I?

One day I'm talking about sketching, and the next I'm on to the next best thing since slice bread, The Documented Life Project. And I've long forgotten about my series of monoprints of the sea at Killiney. But I haven't, you see. All these projects happily co-exist in my head. There aren't just enough hours in the day to get them all done. But some day, some day, I'll finish them all. Let's hope I don't die young!!

So, here is a little watercolour to bring us back to our wonderful holiday - just a few roots and twigs on the beach. These are the things I notice and remember.

The Documented Life Project - Week 5

Week 5 challenge was to add a doodle border. So here is what I did:

1. Chose a page with paint left over from a Gelli print. The facing page includes a sellotape transfer from a Gelli print - this is my favourite way to clean my Gelli plate 
2. Doodled with my dark sepia Faber-Castell PITT artist pen (love those pens). I wasn't sure where I was going, but isn't it what doodling is all about?
3. Coloured the doodle border with Distress Stain (Jim Holtz) - tarnished brass and broken china - love the names of those colours
4. Wrote a few words - bad hand-writing - will have to practise more
5. Printed two photos of me in sepia
6. Doodled around them - I think the simpler the doodles the better
7. The left-hand page, the one with the sellotape transfer, was a bit bare, so I added some vintage photo Distress Stain
8. Then I sprayed some Adirondack dye through one of my flower and butterfly Dealz stencils
9. Doodled on that page too
10. Glued a section of washi tape I bought in Art & Hobby shop yesterday - it was discounted too!
11. Punched little flowers with a little punch I got in Art & Hobby shop - don't know the brand - it's got a big X on the side - and glued these in a couple of places
12. Glued a felt flower from another one of my Dealz kits
13. Also applied a little bit of a label I painted on - not too successfully - will have to explore that technique again
14. Stamped a word (found lovely alphabets from Urban stamps in Art & Hobby shop in town - was delighted to get these. I don't have a clear block to apply them to, but I found that a clear CD jewel box cover did the trick quite well)
15. Called it Done!

 

That's our 14-year-old cat!

The Documented Life Project - Week 4

Week 4 challenge was to write a secret message then paint over it to hide it, except for one key word.

(PS: Having started so far behind, I haven't actually started doing any of the planner pages. But I was watching one of the videos from their workshops, by Roben-Marie Smith, and I'm really inspired to give that a try too)

So, here we go:

1. I chose a plain page with turquoise paint left over from a gelli print
2. I wrote the words of a song with my white pen
3. I circled the words I wanted to keep (I could not decide on one, so I picked four)
4. I finger-painted over the rest of the lyrics with Reeves acrylics - a lovely lavender and a tender pink
5. I cut circles in paper with my Gyro-cut and used the paper as stencils to paint through
6. I circled around the circles with my Neocolor II pencils, and added a small tissue paper circle to one of them
7. I used one of my favourite stencils, a Japanese wave pattern from Artistcellar, to apply white acrylic paint (again with my fingers - I'm enjoying this finger-painting business!), creating a border effect
8. Added doodles in white pen for more borders
9. Cut circles from an old Gelli print with the words of the song and glued them to my page, adding white dots and black circles to highlight them
10. Cut circles from Japanese origami paper (I have accumulated quite a stash of origami paper from trips to Japan and presents sent by friends - I find it very hard to use them, they are so pretty) - at this stage, I think the theme of this page is starting to emerge clearly - subtle I am not
11. I felt that my key words were a bit lost, so I cut ovals from what remained of a gelli print I used for another project and glued these to frame my words
12. I added a few doodles
13. I glued a stamp I kept - I love these Irish stamps showing Irish fauna
14. I printed little circles with a cork, but then decided they were not clear enough and I carved a circle stamp and applied little white circles (I must use my heat gun to set them - 24 hours later and they are still not completely dry). While I was at it, I applied half circles in green as a border on the right-hand side
15. I glued a little bit of ribbon from Dealz
16. I called it done. What do you think? Quite derivative of Roben-Marie Smith, but it's got my own twist, I think!

Inishowen Peninsula

I wasn't expecting much, but the Inishowen Peninsula has a wild beauty that's hard to describe.

Can't believe it's nearly a year since we were there.

The Documented Life Project - Week 3

I didn't think I'd manage to complete another one this weekend, but here I am, at Week 3 of my Documented Life Project - I am quite inspired.

Week 3 is "Add an envelope from your mailbox"

Lots of steps in this one, so I'm going go for a numbered list:

1. Pick an envelope - that was easy: a friend of ours had given me this lovely envelope from Florence with opera tickets months ago. It was so pretty I kept it. I knew I would find a use for it some day
2. Pick a background - a gelli print leftover in red and pink
3. Glued the envelope to the page
4. Decided to use one of my donut stencils. It was originally just a plain piece of paper, but numerous gelli prints made it into an ancient seal! 
5. I wanted to use a similar donut shape around the page, so I cut my own stamp (I use plain old erasers that I carve with a little toolkit I got at Christmas)
6. I drew little donuts in any space that I felt needed it
7. When you have an envelope, you have to put a card in it, you can't leave it empty. So I cut a card from a donut gelli print that wasn't quite good enough to stand on its own
8. I wrote Happy Easter 2014 at the back of the card. But that looked a bit silly.
9. I drew lots and lots of little donuts on the back of the card
10. I called it done!

And now, a few more pictures: