Lost images

Hello, 

A very quick post to say that for some reason I have managed to delete all of my images. I'm still working on why that is and how I can fix it. I'm also in the process of a reboot, so keep checking in to see what changes I have made.

Thanks for dropping by.

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!

What's your signature style?

 Ruling pen and shellac ink

A week or so ago I was reading an interview with Brian Ritchie the bass player from the Violent Femmes. I no nothing about the Femmes music but was interested in what Ritchie had to say on artists who repeat themselves, in other words giving the fans what they want rather than trying something artistically different. As the curator of the MONA FOMA in Hobart, Ritchie states that ‘I don’t want to give [people] what they want. I want to give them what they don’t know they want yet. ' 

Last year I completed an online workshop to help me identify and decide if I wanted to pursue an artistic business. Interestingly once completing the workshop I found my desire to not only create art, but also sell it and create a business out of it diminished significantly. I suspect that was information overload in action. One of the key messages I got from this workshop is that successful artists have a signature style; it is a message that is repeated in subsequent art books I have read. It is something that has worried me because I’m not sure I do have a signature style. Yet what does a signature style actually mean? Is it important? Can you have a successful career as an artist without developing a signature style?

Fineliner on cartridge

My interpretation of signature style, at least initially, is that artists repeat the same type of art: same media, same colour palette, same substrate and same images. It’s something I’ve noticed in a number of artists whose blogs I follow, almost every new artworks seems to be a variation on the last new artwork, there is very little actually new about the artwork. I’ve also noticed it in successful calligraphers that consistently do the same lettering style. In fact, it’s common in all forms of artistic expression. You become comfortable in doing a specific thing and it becomes successful and then you just keep doing it. Look at all the ‘80s bands, they are reforming and performing all of their old hits because the ‘80s is popular again.

Is the variations on a theme signature style enough for artistic fulfillment? I suspect not. Personally I’d find it very boring indeed to continually paint or draw the same kinds of images. I like to do new things, learn new techniques and try something different — can’t that by my signature style. I could call myself an experimental artist!

Rotring radiograph on watercolour paper

Now I've looked at it at a deeper level, I think that a signature style is something that signifies something about you. For me it’s specific media; pen and ink, watercolour, graphite, coloured pencils and similar themes and images; freedom, flowers, women and text. While I like to experiment and see what happens with specific techniques, these are done within a similar theme. I like to think that each new artwork is different to the last, and that it tells some kind of story. So, I guess I do have a signature style, just not in the obvious sense.

What's your signature style?

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.

Going with the flow



I have this sticky note stuck to my computer to remind me to stop fighting life. I must admit it's been both a struggle and a battle at times over the last eight weeks. There's certainly a lot going on in this life. My mother would most probably offer her pearl of wisdom - you're trying to do to much!

It's true I am trying to accomplish a lot, work is at a peak at the moment with the programme I am writing needing to be ready by the end of August. My thesis is hotting up with my supervisor actually expecting me to write it *lol*, there's the time commitment with Bailey's speech pathology as well as the daily life of looking after twin 6-year old boys (I wish I had half their energy!) and spending quality time with Andrew . . .  and oh yeah I'd like to create something sometime!

With that in mind I've been re-assessing the way I do things. If this is how my life is there seems little point wingeing about it. So I've been thinking about single-tasking. I've always been a multi-tasker but lately my brain is suggesting that needs to stop. I've been trying to take in a process soooooo much information lately that my head's felt like it's been about to explode. Seriously I've been waiting for the 'This brain will self-destruct in five minutes' and then splat brain mush on the computer screen. Ewwww.

I found this blog when researching single-tasking and I must say just doing one thing at a time seems to have it's benefits, stress-relieve just one of them. So far this week it's been an up and down try, I think I've been multi-tasking for so long it's going to take some time to unlearn it. But I like the idea of being truly present in whatever I'm doing, be it family, art, work or study, to be present and attentive in the moment is a treasure so I'm going to focus on that.

Til next time. I hope you are having a great day.

Time

This is another composition piece that I did for the Claudine Hellmuth collage workshop at Big Picture Classes. Am I allow to actually say that I love this piece, so much in fact that I'm actually thinking of framing it!

This is the first piece that I've done that included objects rather than just layers of paper. When I set out to do the piece I really wanted to make a piece about time and really it started with the clock stamp that I'd been itching to use. Then it was a matter of having fun deciding what I could use from my stash to create the piece. In fact that's one of the things I love about collage, you can actually use stuff from your stash rather than hoarding it.

I honestly think that the key to creating is just having an idea and allow it to grow and see what happens at the end of it.

Well that's all for now, I'm using the time between MasterChef finales to catch up on some blogging and computer work and I'm hoping that Kate wins.

Karen

Stress Relief

It's been a stressful couple of days culminating in back to school mayhem this morning. Bailey is currently doing an intensive program to help his language disorder and this is 2 hours a day for 8 weeks. The logistics of not being able to be in the same place at once gets to me sometimes. So does the enormity of the challenges that Bailey faces in the future and the flow on effects to our family. Some days are harder than others and today was one of the hard ones!

I haven't actually drawn anything in ages. But I found this image in my Oprah magazine that spoke to me. I like the essence of freedom in standing next to a fountain drinking in the water and not worrying about getting wet. Drawing feels good to me and makes me happy. In fact I often wonder why I don't draw more often since it makes me so happy. I look at my images and think they look okay (am I allowed to say that?) of course my skills could always been improved. I'd like to be able to translate some of my pencil drawings into fully fledged artwork, but often I just can't decide on a medium! But then again maybe that's just an excuse to protect me against failure!

I'm trying to work out how I can make a living from being creative and I'm planning on doing an ecourse by one of my favourite mixed media artists Kelly Rae Roberts.  I'm hoping that this course will focus my attention on what it is that I actually want to achieve. While I'm not strictly goal oriented, I do like to have a vision of where I'm heading so that I can work toward achieving it. Lately I've been feeling that I'm treading water in quicksand so anything that can help with clarity is a goer.

I hope your day has been restful.

Karen

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.

Wedding Album and Card

Hello, yes it's been a VERY long time! I've been deciding if I wanted to blog, what I wanted to make, where I see my creativity sending me - lots of questions but not many real answers.

Anyway, below is a wedding album I made for a recent wedding we attended. I'm into books of all kind at the moment and I'm working out how to make some mini-albums and waiting on a book showing me some new ways of binding.

This is the card I made for the same couple. I liked the tone on tone of this card and the simplicity of the images.

Well I'm hoping it won't be toooooooooo long between now and my next post!

A Sparkly Card

A quick post to show you a card I made for my in-laws' 50th Wedding Anniversary. I love glitter so try to incorporate it in a lot of the cards I make. This technique uses a VersaMark pad stamped around the edges, then add heat set powder and then add the glitter. The glitter I used is a light champagne colour, however because it's done on a black card it deepens the colour slightly.

I've been absent mostly because of holidays. Bailey and Nathan started prep on Friday so I'm hoping to have a little bit more time for crafting and some actual art work. I have sooooooo many ideas, but also want to de-clutter my house and give it a damn good clean, I'd also like to de-toy the house a little bit, especially as the boys have a birthday coming up. Add to that my thesis and some potential work, I'm sure those kidlet free hours will go by in a flash.

Till next time, hope your day is a good one.

Karen

Been awhile!

Yes, it's been quite awhile since I last posted. I've been focused on other stuff and have sadly been neglectful of my blog. I have been doing some stuff though and thought I'd share some Christmas goodies I made for Bailey and Nathan's kinder.

Here's a closer look at the card. I've used some heat set powder to adhere the glitter, but next time I think I'd stamp in versamark ink, then red so that I get more depth of colour.

I also tried my hand at some boxes. the first one can be used as a gift card holder and with some yummy choccies added is a nice gift to give someone.

This last box I was planning on putting some lollies in but it was just too small, so instead I stamped some gift tags and used it for to hold these. I plan to make it again but I'll re-sized it so it's bigger.

 Well that's it. I'm hoping to post a bit more often. I'm just putting the finishing touches to an Advent Calendar and I've been playing around with some glass baubles, which is lots of fun.

Till then. Hope you are having a good weekend.

Scrapbooking Party Page

A quick post today. This is a scrapbook page I did for a workshop recently. Just playing around with some stamps to see what would happen. I've got a whole wish list of stuff I want to get, including a DSI xl, which of course is a high priority!!! Still I'll keep plugging away and you never know what will happen.

Hope yours is a good day.

Nature's Delight

A quick post today. Last Friday we had a stormy day and Bailey was hiding under the couch (he's not a fan of rain, or dark clouds) he kept looking out the back windows and was super excited to see this rainbow. When we wento out to the backyard to take a photo I realised that there were actually two rainbows, one almost gone and one brand new. Rainbow's to me are nature's special gift. I hope you enjoy and should be back soon with some cards.

Father's Day

Hello, today I thought I'd share with you the frame I did for Andrew for his Father's Day present. I've use Boho Backgrounds stamp to stamp the small stars and then used a scrapbooking kit for the rest.

Bailey and Nathan also did their own cards for Father's Day at kinder, and here they are:

This one is Bailiey's card.

This one is Nathan's card.

I haven't actually done much cardmaking recently, I've been focusing on de-cluttering, which I never seem to win with, and spending money on more stuff! I also recently started an online course with Kal Barteski on nurturing creativity, and I'll share some stuff I do with that course as well.

Butterflies

Hello. Another month between posts. I've been busy trying to declutter the room I use to make stuff in. I'm a little overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that I actually own! So I've started a box for the don't need but not sure what to do with stuff, and in the mean time I try to use up the stuff I want. Still the new Stampin' Up catalogue starts September 1 and I want soooooo much more stuff out ot that. Onto some cards.

This first one I did awhile ago and I don't think I've posted it before. I've created the butterfly with a mask using a buttlerfly punch. It's quite effective, although difficult to see in the crappy photo I've taken!

The next card is also butterfly themed. I love butterflies, they are a gentle and beautiful gift from nature and on a sunny day to see them floating in your garden is amazing. This card is based on a design by another of my favourite cardmakers Andrea Walford. My sister, who's birthday it is today (happy birthday Jenni, and Mum!), suggested it looked very much like a birthday card for her, so I guess it is! Again my crappy photo doesn't show up all of the glittering goodness found on the butterfly's wings.

I've been working on a Father's day craft project for Andrew, but can't post that, so my next post might include some Christmas cards designs I've been working. Until then happy thoughts.

Some busy cards

I have decided, at least for the moment, to continue blogging even if it means I'm unlikely to get any comments - sigh! - I admit I'm jealous of people who have lots of comments.

Although the info on the side-bar says I'm a calligrapher and mixed media artist, but at the moment I don't seem to have the capacity to do much. Twin boys who at the moment are seriously pushing the boundaries leave me tired and with very little capacity for creativity. Add to this a 40,000 word thesis that is going along at a snail's pace and I'm thankful for stamping and card making. I can finish a card in 30 minutes and feel like I have achieved something creative and that makes me very happy. So to some cards.

This first one is a bit of a departure from my normal style, but that's okay. The style is a case from Kristina Werner (one of my fav cardmakers) and although I'm not unhappy with it, it's a bit busier than I normally like.

The second one is also a case from an SU demonstrator Sue Rowe, although she used ovals and circle and I have used a sizzix tag-die. Either way it's a cute card.

I hope you like these cards and I hope that I get at least one comment. Till next time . . .

Okay . . .

 . . . so after posting about the comments from porn spammers, the only comments I received were fromt the said spammers - I think this is trying to send me a message!! So after doing some research on blogger help I have decided to make comments available only to members of this blog. What that probably means is that I won't get any comments at all, but hey at least I won't have to constantly delete Tawainese/Chinese porn links from my blog. If that doesn't work then I'll be shutting my blog down and rethinking what I do.