My folk art and my Obsessions

Starting with the October Obsessions class with Gulfsprite, you can find out more about this and other classes here Christy's Website 
Above was week one, which is (as requested by me) lesson on collage, I think I am making more progress now, I was struggling on how to connect my collage idea's onto paper, this excellent lesson has helped me understand this concept.  Part of the lesson was to focus on something currently on your mind, I have just started to read Eckhart Tolle's book 'The Power of Now' which has so far given me a lot of much needed help.

This was Lesson 2, and focused on making art from an already chaotic background.  Again I am trying to encorporate other idea's alongside my beloved faces, I am trying to draw other things, but I just want to do faces.. and why not? I feel they can be a bit boring though by themselves.  Also in this peace are some of the folk art theme's I am learning.

Here is another exercise from the Folk Art book I am studying, I have been having some difficulties so I have some better brushes en route to help me with the strokes.  I also learnt 'stippling' new to me, and I enjoy that process.

This one is a bit of everything, the houses were taken from lesson 3 in the book of a house, the tree's from another book, my own garden idea's, and the pigs are collaged from papers, I drew the pig onto and cut out, added a bit of shading too.  I am enjoying this journal, it is very different from my usual ones with 'just' faces in, this one has lots of colour and full pictures.
I am looking into the idea of running off some prints for my Etsy shop at some point, I have looked into giclee prints but they are so expensive it may well be better for me to invest in the archival ink, archival papers and do my own.. watch this space...................  (but dont hold your breath as it might take me a while to finance this idea).

Finishing things

I am trying to drag myself away from my new love of the oil pastel and get things finished.  I started the background to this Butterfly Girl Canvas some time ago, its the second from a lesson from Andrea Gomoll's latest course for Summer Girls, you can find more details here http://andrea-gomoll.de/  This is only the second canvas I have done, the other one was in my last post of the sun.

Yesterday I also thought I would have a change from the pastels I use watercolour pencil, neo II watercolour crayons and gelato's, to create this one..

She is ok, but the hair was a disaster, so I added a little hair band for her - seems the use of the pastels is teaching me much more about shading.

After creating a very busy background and an acrylic paint face - today I finished off this one, back to my loved oil pastels, she is pretty good for me, but I found there actually IS such a thing as too much mixed media, afraid I over worked her so the background started to object somewhat....

you can see better in the close up below.  Shame as I quite liked her, might try another on the Mi-Tientes paper which does do a better job.

I do feel I am 'finally' starting to improve.  Very true what all my on-line tutors taught, it is all about practice.  From my first on line tutor, Shoo Rayner who is always telling us 'Practice, Practice, Practice', my next one was 'Effy Wilde' who I remember being in total awe of when I started her classes and she would often say it took 2 years of drawing faces every day to be as good as her, well I have done about 18 months now, most days - its been tough, but I think now well worth it to one day achieve my goal.
Currently I study with Andrea Gomoll and Gulfsprite (link on right of page) both of whom are also always telling us its all down to PRACTICE, I think I get that now.

So, today's message is one I have used before... "If you want to do something - DO IT" life is far too short not too, and you can do anything if you try, just might take a while to learn.

My Competition Entry for Gulfsprite Class

You may have already seen my mentioning my fabulous class '30 pages in 90 days' I am taking with Christy Sobolewski at http://gulfspritesartjournal.ning.com/ above is my latest page finished just yesterday, we are now on page 20 - all the students in the class are finding this sad, as we are getting closer to day 30 and we have loved our daily lessons so much we dont want them to end.

I cannot tell you just how much I have learnt about art journal process and mixed media in this class - every day has been a new technique and new process to learn.  Each page we do takes 3 lessons, and sometimes there is even a bonus page included.

You too can take this class, but not until June 1st when it opens again - you will not be alone as most of us will miss it so much we intend to start all over again so we will enjoy your company, and I'm sure Christy will be there too to lend further encouragement.
One of the other great things about this class is the teaching itself, fun and fresh and gives such a wonderful light approach, though at the same time professional - Christy has a superb knack of spreading her cheery self to others and making us all feel great for the day, whilst thoroughly enjoying each class.  This class could not have arrived at a better time for me, as many of you know it was at a time of great sadness for me, and helped to take me through those times and keep me focused.  It can be found here http://gulfspritesartjournal.ning.com/.

Last but not least.  By joining this site http://gulfspritesartjournal.ning.com/ you can even take FREE classes to enable you to see how you enjoy the teachings. Above is the Scrapy Journal I made at the FREE class offered by Christy, there are others too.  If Art Journal is not your thing there are other courses on painting faces, which is another class I do (when I can find some time) this too can teach a lot about how to paint faces using mixed media, though unlike me I would recommend you take class I first!  Thats the one I want, along with all the rest on offer.
This blog post is my entry to Christy's giveaway, in which I could win another of her fabulous classes - how cool is that? I could take the painted faces I class, or the other journal classes ... how on earth would I choose?

just having arty fun

So much for keeping up with the blog! Its ten days since my last post.  Far too busy having fun.  Above is one of my recent pages from my "30 pages in 90 days" course with Gulfsprite.  I did this one last week to celebrate my birthday, we made the whole page ourselves first, its not collage stuck to a page, all the students are sad as we are just passed half way in the course, we love it so much we dont want it to end.  My birthday was good, the photo shows me opening my 'gelli plate' that I have wanted since January when all my pals in the USA had them, we now cannot get the larger one in the UK which is a shame, and to order from the States would be another £13 in postage and £18 in customs fee's so totally priced out.  But still, a smaller one is better than none at all, and I am having plenty of fun with that.
Also featured in my page was my very special gift from my best friend Julie, who painted a portrait of my dear Alfie, she is very talented.
I was also lucky enough to receive a few extra pennies so I could order some faber castell pencils, here is my first sketch with them I did last night.

I have been having a lot of fun with page 16 of our '30 pages in 90 days' course, its 'fabric paper' I am totally covered in ink and matt medium, and glue gun.  The glue from the glue gun is from something else though, one of my blog buddies 'Suztats' http://suztats.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/fun-with-gun.html was making stencils with the glue gun yesterday, I kept meaning to have a go at that one, so had a go earlier, I think I might need a bit more practice.... but it was fun.

Another reason I havent done much blogging is I was injured, found out my acute shoulder pain has been a trapped nerve, so I finally did some research on how to sort that one out, should (and may well) do a blog post on that one, as learnt some very interesting facts on how to sort out my shoulder without too much expense or delay.  I'm half way there, at least I can spend a bit more time on the PC now than I could.

Hope everyone in the UK has stayed safe after the dreadful winds we have had, one of my neighbours woke to a damaged car today.
Also much love to our friends in Boston after the terrible bomb attack, and to those in Texas from the  explosion there.  So much sadness in the world just now....

Never Enough Hours ....

Never Enough Hours in the day!! that is my motto.  I think with Alfie's illness I forgot to mention I managed to obtain my first CUSTOM CARD ORDER !!! How exciting is that? .. and for 20 cards, certainly kept me busy this week.  I couldn't understand were all my time was going, then I worked out with Alfie being on lead walks only, my total dog walking hours per day has now doubled to 4 hours a day, he is not so fast either and we do a lot of stopping.  Once you add the usual household stuff to that, and that 'sleep' thing one is meant to do - very little free time in a day left.

My intention was to do so many cards for the order and one for the Etsy shop, best laid plans and all that.. I had all on managing one or two cards per day.  Having said that, I have also started a new art course with Gulfsprint, called '30 pages in 90 days' the idea is I can actually keep up with this one, but I seem to be getting behind already, the thing is I am enjoying the course so much that is all I really want to be doing - you can find details on Christy's ning site here http://gulfspritesartjournal.ning.com/ though registration is now closed for this particular course until the end of May.

Whoops, managed to digress again... anyway, I have finally finished said card order, just need to stick the 'made by SimJaTa' stickers on the back of them all (today's task was sorting those out, from design to print), slot in the card inserts and post off to customer - as you can see by two of the cards shown, she is a fellow dog lover, but requested a selection of cards so they are not actually ALL doggie ones, there is a selection of varying topics and some suitable for males too, so hopefully she will be happy.

If anyone finds out were that time thief is hiding out, please let me know - I could really do with at least another 8 or so extra hours per day to catch up...

The Scrappy Journal

As promised yesterday I said I would show you my new 'Scrappy Journal' which I learnt to do with Christy who is 'Gulfsprite' on youtube etc, you can find the details here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gryc1964y-w to make this journal and to join in with her ning site and further art classes.  I am also taking her 'Portraits' class.

In short, the journal was made up from all scrapbook papers with card front and back, then bound together with twine.  I really enjoyed the process, and am looking forward to decorating my front page and starting to use the art journal.  I did the binding last night.

Today, I have managed quite a bit for me.  I have made a knitting bag and a carrier bag holder, and started the undercoating on the chest of drawers unit and small desk unit.  I am at a bit of a standstill now as half way through cooking tea and no sign of the 'other half' to eat it as yet, so work stopped for now.. hoping to do some of the art journal this evening... and as I type he appears as if by magic!!! so back to the kitchen for me.........