My Pretties

Yes, again it's been awhile. It's funny, once I did the Bold for my word of the year, I had almost the opposite experience and became quite insecure, indecisive and anything but Bold. Perhaps my expectations of what I was going to achieve were disproportionate to my my abilities, I'm not sure, but I've been working through it and here goes again.

I had a brainwave about a month ago where I decided I wanted to start drawing illustrations of girls. This mostly related to my Champagne Consultant friends and another group called Champagne Chicks. I could even visualise the girl. Very chic, concave bob, ultra high shoes, ultra short skirt, funky bag. So I set about trying to draw her, and you know what I found it really difficult. Typically when i draw people I'm drawing a realistic representation of what I see. With illustrations however, it's all about stylised people, whimsical people, people who are not necessarily real. So what was I to do? Well here's where the serendipity of the internet and the blogs I read comes it.

I came across a sponsored ad on Kelly Rae Robert's website for I heart drawing online workshop by Jane Davenport. And you know what it was everything that I wanted to do. So being Bold I, of course, signed up immediately. I even started looking at the lessons immediately. Did I do any drawing? You guessed it, no. Instead of Bold I became insecure and indecisive again and it all just seemed to hard to do, to even start. But the other day I did it, I actually drew and here are the results.

The whole concept of Jane's workshop is the heart, and I love that it's all about learning the foundations first and then progressing what you've learned and developing your own style.

You know I've never really been a fashionista. Sure I like fashion, but when you're overweight you tend to glance rather than study what's hot. So it was interesting to actually look at the models, to look at how the fabric falls and where the darks and lights are, and it was sooooo much fun.

So, here are my heart pretties. I love the progression and how you just keep building on top of your foundation. Normally, if I was drawing this type of image I would be trying to make it a whole if you get my meaning to copy what I see. So I liked the fact that these girls just evolved and that although I've followed Jane's heart principle the drawings I've produced are not a copy of her drawings but an evolution of my own.

The next workshop will be all about arms and hands, which is good because mine could use some work.

I hope you are having a Boldly creative day.

Patience

Patience - Mixed media on cardboard

I wanted to try something I haven't done before and here it is. This piece is a layered mixed media piece with perhaps a tad too much glitter. This piece started out life with gel medium and the heart shapes embedded within this medium. And there it stayed hanging around my messy workspace waiting for me to play with it a little bit, it waited and waited and waited - it was very patient.

I'd been wanted to try something different as a background so I pulled out some old little square ink pads and literally dragged them across the cardboard. It was a lot of fun and very, very messy. Some of these ink pads are now only sponges, but hey that's okay they served their purpose. The thing with ink is that it takes a long time to dry so there was more waiting.

Next using a square-edged brush I wrote the word joy (you can see my calligraphy training in this, because it's italic script). Still I wasn't happy and the piece once again had to wait while I thought about what I wanted to do. Some music was added with stazon ink and a stamp roller, then I pulled out some letter stickers and added them (I think they belonged to an Ali Edwards kit that I purchased about 6 years ago!).And then came the glitter, and more glitter, and more glitter and just a bit more. I was completely covered in glitter when I finished. Still an oft-quoted mantra of mine is - everything looks better with a little glitter! 

And the piece once again waited until I was sure I wanted to take a photo, and then waited again until I was sure I wanted to share it. It's so different to what I really do, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. But finally the wait was over and here we are. So, you can see why I have called my little piece Patience. And isn't having patience as part of your repertoire  a joy!

Hello 2012

Hello to 2012. This is my word for the year - BOLD in 2012!

I haven't blogged for 4 months, and I'm sure that anyone actually looking at my blog may have thought I'd decided not to blog. No, just been busy trying to finish up a paid writing project (very important to pay the bills!) and also running in a new computer. I decided to get an iMac and I love it. The only problem is that   I haven't worked out everything on it, and most particularly, I haven't worked out how to use my new version of Photoshop Elements, which means I haven't worked out how to edit a photo! This photo was taken on my iPad, uploaded to fb and then I saved the image in my downloads. There has to be a better process!

I have just signed up for a Jessica Sprague workshop - up and running with Photoshop. I used to be able to use a very, very old version of PS, but this new PSE has me stumped. So starting as a beginner, I'll soon be able to edit and upload and then there will be now excuse for me not to post.

Bold was a word I chose at a recent session I had with some friends - we call ourselves the Champagne Consultants! We all work for ourselves in similar fields, so the chance to talk about our plans for 2012 was a great opportunity. I decided that there are quite a few things holding me back from what I want to achieve and being BOLD seemed to be the way to move through some of these scary things. I did consider doing Ali Edwards' One Little Word workshop at Big Picture Classes, and I might still enrol because sustaining something like being BOLD could do with some prompting.

Well, my goal for blogging this year is for it to be more regular and maybe opening up on more about what I think on things. Til my next post. Enjoy the start of 2012.

Simplicity

Lately my creative brain has been bouncing off the walls, exploding with ideas. Yet whenever I have tried to translate those ideas onto paper it just hasn't worked, the image in my head and the image on the paper are disconnected. I thought it was perhaps that the technical abilities of my head far outweigh those of my hands, but in fact I think it's been my tendency to overthink things.

I picked up a fantastic lettering book recently by Michael Clark (an amazing lettering artist) and one of the first quotes I read was:

If we lose simplicity, we lose drama. Wyeth

Or course it was beautifully lettered!

When I simplify my artistic process and allow it to happen rather than having elaborately planned out ideas, not only am I happier with the process, I'm happier with the outcome.

This piece came about after I was looking a some artwork on Donna Downey's site and although her artwork is vastly different to mine, it was the words that spoke to me: 'It's all going to be okay.' and 'You are exactly where you should be.' specifically spoke to me. And this is the artwork that followed. I love flowers and I love pencil. In this case soluable graphite pencils mixed with a bit of windsor and newton watercolour blocks. I toyed with adding words but feel that in this case less is more.

The joy I experienced doing this artwork was fantastic. I was completely in the moment and it just flowed. This is, I feel, how art is supposed to be.

It is a truly gorgeous day in Melbourne today and as my son, Bailey, said to me this morning, the sun is shining and that makes me smile.

Bubble Lady

Remember I mentioned the bubble lady, as I like to call her. Well here is the collage I created using that particular piece of artwork. I printed the artwork onto canvas paper and then did some fussy cutting to get a good outline of her.

I've used the script to create the horizon. This script is based on a 1929 font by Jan Tschichold a very famous font designer. I've been reading a book on Edward Johnston for my MA and this font was discussed. I love that it's modern and rounded sans serif and a bit funky. I'd like to play around with it a bit more and really develop a script from it - oh to have the time!

I haven't had a chance to look at the last week of the collage workshop notes because I'm trying feverishly to get some work finished before the school holiday onslaught. I'll hopefully get to it soon, and I've gotta say that I'm going to miss the workshop and the interaction with other class members. But I have a plan! Ali Edwards has been mentioning doing her Week in a Life project again and this time I think I might just go along. I've been a bit slack taking photos of the family and I'm finding I'm much more productive when I have a project to complete.

Till next time I hope you are enjoying your day.

Karen xx

Composition and Collage

 I'm into my second week of a four week Composition for Collage online workshop at Big Picture Classes. The class is being run by Claudine Helmuth, who is a seriously cool illustrator and collage artist and an excellent teacher. I love to learn and I must say that this class has really challenged me, mostly because I often don't think of composition before I do something and also because I normally draw or paint rather than collage. It's been fun though and has inspired me to think about different ways of putting art together.

The first composition I did I used lettering as my starting point. It's an asymetrical composition.This was fun because I haven't done lettering for ages! This lettering is actually a copy of some brush lettering in one of my calligraphy books, except I've done this with a chalk pastel pencil. I've done the lettering on some leftover Basic Grey scrapping paper, and have added depth with a brown Conte Crayon. The embellishments and letters are from my scrapping stash - collage is a great way to use things.

My second collage is a horizon composition using a low horizon. I seriously struggled with this because every time I thought of something it included a real horizon like grass, sky, etc. In the class we are given downloads that we can print and use or use digitally. Many of them are black and white and have a 1920s feel. Now while I love Vienna Design in the 1920s, I don't immediately love photographic images. So, instead of deliberating for too long I scanned in one of my own drawings and re-sized and printed and used it for the basis of my collage. It was fun because I'm still using my own stuff. Everything I do seems to have to have a story and I think by using my own images I'm able to relate the story better, maybe because I feel connected to the artwork I've previously created.

I have two more ideas for horizon composition, one using Bubble Lady shown in this post and one using lettering. The problem at the moment is time. I'm trying to organise my Masters stuff - how is it I accumulated so many random pieces of paper! I also have work I'm trying to churn out before school holiday. So we'll see how it goes. I also have another book to show, this time a Baby Book. So until next time. Happy creating.

Some artwork . . .

Today I decided that instead of cleaning the toilet I would do some drawing. I've been looking at this image for a while and thought it would look nice. I decided to use soluable graphic pencil, which are really cool, except when you don't use watercolour paper (doh!), so I might have to have another go!!

This is another drawing I've done recently, I love working in pencil, although I have visions of her ending up in another media! Forgive the quality of the photos, I really need to work out a better place for taking photos.

Sadly, the toilets are still there to clean, so off I go . . .

A quickie

A very quick post before Bailey and Nathan go feral on me. It's been over a month since my last post - sorry about that - life just seems to be sooooo busy at the moment, I'm sure you can relate.

This is a frame that my coz Jane embellished for me. It is a quote that she wanted to have in her bathroom to get her started each morning. I did the quote in word and printed it on cardstock. The layout is not perfect and if I did it again I'd do it in calligraphy. Jane did one for herself and then with her spare frame used some of my scrapbooking paper, stamps and inks and embellished one for me.

This is a preliminary sketch for a piece that I want to finish (this seems to be a problem for me at the moment - lots of ideas, little time to implement!!). My plan is to calligraphy words relating to freedom, liberation, etc and have them behind the figure. Still working out how I'm going to do that and when I'll get the time.

Must run boys are getting feral. I promise to post again soon. K

Surrounded by stuff

Pencil on cartridge

I did this last Friday while the boys where being batman - both of them! It's been awhile since I did any drawing and this started out as something very different. I'm thinking of transferring this to a watercolour, but for the moment I'm happy to just sit with it.

I'm trying frantically to push myself to organise and declutter, which is not natural for me. I am literally surrounded by stuff and since my addiction to Stampin' Up began that means more stuff! I also attended a workshop recently and that meant I 'had' to buy some more paper. I think that stuff is taking over my life, but I am trying to control it.

It felt good to draw again and just let the pencil flit across the paper and see what happens. I've felt in a creative rut for quite awhile now, lots of ideas but no motivation to follow through on them, it's been frustrating and I've spent a lot of time looking at other peoples' art, which can be both inspiring and frustrating. On top of this I've been working, which if I had my way I wouldn't, but reality bites! I've been loving the research aspect of my MA, it's been cool finding new information, translating stuff from German, but now the reality of that has sunk in, I must do some actual writing on my thesis. The words sound fantastic in my brain, but not so good when added to paper - if only there was a way of plugging a USB into my brain and downloading my thoughts!

Settling in

Watercolour on canvas

This is a work-in-progress. I'm still undecided if I want to add anymore text to the spirals and the heart needs some more definition, I'm just not sure what kind. This is something I've learned recently about the creative process, sometimes you just need to be with the art work before moving on. You need to let it go, come back to it and then decide if it needs anything more. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither should my art work!!

Life is changing around here. I'm now back in paid employment, initially casually for 12 weeks and then hopefully on a permanent contract. I've done my first copy-edit in about four years and I love it. Yes, I know you thinking What The! I love having my dictionery and my style guide next to me, using the correct copy-editing marks, and I lurrrrrrvvvvveeee my red pen!!! In fact I love copy-editing much, much more than Instructional Design, but sometimes to pay the bills you've gotta do both.

I've also recently become a Stampin' Up demonstrator and I'm trying to get my head around that, playing with the stamps and thinking about running some workshops. I'll start posting cards and layouts as well as artwork as I progress. So, if you are interested I'd be happy to take an online order.

Bailey and Nathan are growing up. We have now moved onto Lego, which I think is very exciting. At this stage they are using Lego that belonged to Andrew, so that makes it VERY VERY OLD. I'm sure that no doubt we will continue to grow this stash and make more clutter in our house.

Time to pick kidlets up from kinder, have a fantastic day!

Sadly . .

. . . the death toll has now reached 108. May something good come out of this tragedy.

Hope: Prisma colour pencils on black cartridge paper