The Documented Life Project - Week 13

This week was probably the hardest for me - Week 13 Challenge was to ask someone to draw on your page, then to finish it myself. So I asked BB to draw something, and he did a few striking geometric shapes all connected together.

They looked so simple and elegant. I should have taken a picture, shouldn't I? But in my eagerness to get started, I forgot.

So here is the resulting page - not my best. But it did force me to do something different from my usual...  A little bit Pac Man...

More Gelli prints

Actually, this is just one Gelli print, but I think it's so pretty I wanted to share close-ups with you!

This is really easy, just cut a piece of paper in the shape of waves and use it to mask part of the plate. Repeat until you like the result!

Gelli prints

Very arty weekend: had fun with my Gelli plate:

 

left-over paint on newsprint. Will use this in all sorts of art projects

This is what happens when I have too much paint on my Gelli plate and I need to roll the leftovers from my brayer into a sketchbook. These will make yummy backgrounds for art journals.

Happy Feet

 

Fun with my new Catalyst wedges, and a circle stencil I made myself. 

The Documented Life Project - Week 12

I've left the Documented Life Project Facebook group - it got too much for me, 8000 women creating samey art and exchanging "happy mail" and showing the rest of us how many rolls of washi tape they own. It was clogging up my Facebook wall every day. I will miss the few genuinely talented ladies, but for the rest, I'm glad to be back in my own little world.

I'm still doing the weekly challenges and the journalling part though. So, here is Week 12,  "Cut up a magazine and add". For this one, I was heavily inspired by Lorraine Bell's idea. My execution isn't quite as striking. But I look forward to filling in my journal page.

And here is the original, a Boden City Classic:

Drawing and Painting Pets - Part III - I think we're done now

BB took Timber to the park, and I made good progress on this painting on the morning of the Bank Holiday Monday, 2nd of June - painting most of the face. Initially I was happy with what I had accomplished, but the more I looked at it, the more I knew the proportions were wrong - Willow's nose is just not that big. So I've spent most of the week first coming to terms with it, then figuring out a way of fixing it. Well, I say most of the week, but I have a full-time job and also I had a sick husband to look after. But I managed to make time, and bit by bit the cosmetic surgery gave Willow his beautiful little nose back.

And I did get excellent advice from the teacher on Craftsy, Pat Weaver, which helped me to achieve what I think is a good likeness of my 14-year-old baby! Judge for yourself:

This was my first time taking a proper online art class and I have to say I found it really good. So much so that I've bought a few more classes - Craftsy had a sale on, so that helped too!!

So what's next? A portrait of Timber at some stage, definitely, but I would also like to go back to watercolours, difficult as they can be!

Drawing and Painting Pets - Part II

So I've been watching more of Pat Weaver's video on Craftsy, and I've made some progress with my painting of our cat.

First I finished the drawing.

Then I liked it too much to paint over it, so I traced it and applied the outline tracing on canvas paper

Then I started painting, following the video. Now I need to watch some more of Ms. Weaver's advice before I continue on.

I'm loving it. And our little fellow is thinking about it...

Drawing Pets

I discovered Craftsy today! I think it was an ad in Facebook, for a lesson on how to paint pets, for €15. At that price, I thought it was worth a try. And I had heard of Craftsy through a customer of mine who is into knitting and crochet. I just didn't realise that they also did fine arts. 

I had done a good drawing of our cat many years ago, but I had never pursued it beyond that drawing. As he is not getting any younger, the urge to paint him has come back. And also our dog now.

So I've watched the first part of the lesson, and I'm already diverging from the teacher's instructions. There is no way I could do a freehand drawing like that, even from a photograph. So I'm using a grid system, 2 cm on the original photo, 3 cm on the drawing.

I have a good bit more to do, but I'm pleased with the likeness so far. And I've picked up some useful tips from the teacher. Some of the students on the forum are complaining that the teacher doesn't explain enough about how to draw the animals, but this is not a basic drawing course, so I don't know what their expectation was. There will always be people who moan and blame others for their inadequacies! I just think this course is great value, and I'm looking forward to the painting bit!

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The Documented Life Project - Week 11

When you're so far behind as I am, you have to take shortcuts sometimes. So when I saw the challenge for Week 11, I was delighted - Draw, Photograph or Collage a bird onto your page!

I had the perfect candidate waiting for me - a little project I had done in my sketchbook back in January - The Crow - check the link if you want the steps to this really easy transfer method using packing tape!

So all that was left to do was to prepare a flap on which I can add my journal diary for next week. I found the Dealz blank postcards very useful for this - they're not too thick, but yet they take paint quite well. So I made circles - from the blog Me with My Head in the Clouds - very soothing - on one side and applied green paint with a brayer on the other and doodled dots and dates on the other side.  A little strip of washi tape to attach it to the page, and I called it done!

The Documented Life Project - Week 10

Week 10 of the Documented Life Project challenges was to make a list of the things that make you you.

I used my usual background of acrylic paint applied with my brayer - as you know I hate to waste paint. I applied little photos that describe me and I surrounded them with lots of little marker golden dots.

Then I decided that I wanted to keep that page personal, so I added a flap - this time using tissue paper (I still haven't got around to buying deli paper, and I'm a believer in using what I have rather than buying more art supplies). Again I had used that tissue paper to use up the paint left on my brayer after a gelli print. I stamped my initials and also the stamp that I made for Week 6.

I called it done!

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The Documented Life Project - Week 9

This week's movie title - The Time-traveller's Wife

Week 9 was to use something recycled and collage it - I decided to use a page from the Golden Pages - we always get the new edition in May, and the old one goes into the recycling bin.

1. So I picked a page that was meaningful to me and applied it over a Gelli-printed page. The Gelli print was done using big bubble wrap - one of my favourites. I like it so much I actually have two bubble-wrap Gelli prints framed in our hallway
2. I added a few words with an Urban stamp alphabet
3. Doodled around some of the bubbles
4. I had a wonderful time making circles, using an idea from a fellow DLP artist, Mary, from Me, With My Head in the Clouds - using the same Golden Pages page. I glued a few of those on my page
5. On the calendar side, I glued a few lines from a cake wrap - beautiful pink and white, all fluffy and yummy. But I liked my bubble-wrap print so much I didn't want to cover it all.
6. So I had to resort to adding a flap to the page - since I've discovered flaps, I can't get enough of them. I used a blank postcard (from a Dealz pack - € 1.49). 
7. On the calendar side, I've applied pink with my Neocolor II pencil - not very elaborate - we'll have to see how it evolves over the week
8. On the art side, I just had more fun with painted circles
9. That's about it (a few doodles here, a few round stamps there, ...). So I called it done.

The Documented Life Project - Week 8

I love it that the ladies from Art to the 5th came up with all these ideas to inspire creativity. So, I've now completed the Week 8 challenge - add a flap to your flap. I was glad of the tutorial video from Roben-Marie Smith, because I was really not sure about the technicalities of this project.

So here are the steps - deep breath, there's a lot of steps:

1. Chose a page with colour on it - again left-over paint from a gelli print, applied with my brayer
2. Chose a flap - I was thinking of using a postcard, then I found this card while tidying up - it was a thank-you card from a friend's daughter. I decided to use it because I thought it was really sweet she sent me a thank-you card - I didn't think the youth of today even knew how to post a letter. And also because I like the green and blue
3. I cut a circular tab so I could insert a little message - thank you Roben-Marie Smith for the idea and instructions
4. I glued a few little cut-out flowers (punched with a flower punch - the paper is a paint colour chart - I will be frequenting my local DYI store to raid these as often as I dare!)
5. I cut an origami square with a print that I liked - these little arrows are gorgeous, so delicate - and glued strips in a couple of locations
6. I cut my own arrow stamp - not quite so delicate, but pretty all the same.
7. I applied a little Thank You note I found in my Japanese paper scraps
8. I used a lovely set of dye inks I got in the Art&Hobby shop - I know dye inks are not archival quality, but they are so pretty, I couldn't resist.  And I printed arrows in lots of different locations
9. I glued a beautiful Japanese stamp - you can never have too many Japanese stamps!
10. I tore and glued bits of green paper from a craft set from Dealz
11. I applied a tiny little Japanese sticker
12. I added a personal note on the main page and a note to friends and family on the flap
13. I hate throwing things away, so I glued the semi-circular cutout from step 3 to the back of my flap, and drew a few more arrows
14. I applied washi tape to fix my flap to the top of the main page - again, thank you to Roben-Marie Smith for excellent video instructions on how to do that!
15. I started my journal page on the other side - Neocolor II pencil, white dots, little stickers with numbers from an Urban Stamp rubber stamp kit, more arrows, and a few items from the start of my week. The rest of the week will be work work work, but it's nice to get a good start
16. I called it done!

More photos below:

Piglets at Airfield

Go to Airfield before these cute little piglets grow up!