Life Book 2015: Week 12 - Bonus lesson with Tamara Laporte

This week was an artist interview with Jenny Doh - a very interesting interview and inspiring to say the least.  As an 'extra' Tam brought out a lesson from last years Life Book.  I fought with this lesson - several pieces of paper went in the rubbish bin as I just could not get her out onto paper.  'She' being my Inner Artist Guardian.

I left it for a few days and then one of the students posted a painting that she had done - not as part of a lesson but just for her own personal development.  She had done it on canvas - maybe I could try that.  

I used a similar technique and similar colours and I thank Carol Fielhaber for her inspiration and encouragement.  She came easily and I am in love ...

I still cannot believe she came from my hand, or more correctly, from my heart.  She did not want to be put into a book, she wanted to be on the wall.  

Inner Artist Guardian I adore you and thank you for showing yourself to me.

Life Book 2015: Week 13 - Happy Painting with Juliette Crane

Who would have guessed that a circle and a rectangle could create almost any animal you want.  I love this new found freedom in creating whimsical animals thanks to the lovely Juliette Crane. 

Juliette got us creating our own little menagerie of whimsical creatures which was just magic.  Here are just a few of my little creations.

Just very quick pencil sketches - one day I'll have a go at putting these into paintings using the techniques Juliette taught us as I think they'll be heaps of fun to do.  In case you don't recognise them they are - a rabbit, a cat, a cow and an elephant on the left hand side and then an owl, a sheep, a racoon and a pig on the right.

Anyway, the actual lesson for this week was to draw an owl.  Most of the painting was done with a palette knife and my fingers - right up my alley - getting mucky.  So here's my finished owl.  Rather well fed and contented me thinks.  I love how my background came out and I even included some gold leaf randomly placed to make it look crackled.  Very happy with this little cutie.

Watch this space for the rest of the paintings at some future date.  In the meantime, thanks for popping by to check out my artwork.

And thanks Juliette for a fabulous lesson and fun playing - just loved it.

Life Book 2015: Week 11 - Inner and Outer World with Jane Davenport

Oh wow, this week was challenging in that we had to add the start of a figure to a face, but very satisfying. Jane Davenport set us the task of exploring the following questions and then using our responses to create a collage upon which to build our creation - how our inner world creates or influences our outer world.

What makes you tick? What lights you up? Who lights you up! What is your favourite food? Colour! Place! Think about yourself and the things, people and places that you feel gratitude for. What makes you feel like celebrating? Small moments and big events you hold close to your heart. 

For me those things are music, robins, dolphins, butterflies, water lilies and, of course, the colour green.  I also brought in a little turquoise and cerise as accent colours because they are so very vibrant.   The clock is representative of how important time is to me - to make the most of what time I have, to make the most of life.

I started off with putting down a collage base and then adding some base colours.  The figure was added in pencil with the face having been cut from another painting I did and then photocopied and glued onto the collage.  The body was then drawn and everything outside of the figure was given a light coat of gesso thereby helping to define the figure.  Her hair was given a light wash of colour.  The skin tones were added to the face and body with the photocopy being painted to blend it all together and then the eyes, nose and mouth were defined.  Her dress was then given a wash of colour as well and linework added to define the bust etc.  Shading was added to bring the figure off the page and add dimension.  To finish I added the quote and a few lines to create wisps of hair.

I just love how she has turned out - thanks so much Jane.

Life Book 2015: Week 10 - Layers of your Heart

This weeks lesson came from Tamara Laporte.  We were to create a layered heart combining several collage elements.  She gave us two options as to how to do it - one being to make a fan with the hearts and put them into a pocket, the other being to have them stacked and pivot on a brad to reveal people/things I am grateful for.  While I loved the various techniques on the hearts I had some technical issues when it came to placement of the gratitude texts.  It's all there, but is now hidden under subsequent hearts. 

The text in the background is lyrics to a song from when I was a teenager about things I nearly forgot to say thank you for.  It seemed appropriate for this particular assignment.  I love the border.

I'd like to try the other option and see how that goes as I was not happy with the overall look of this one once finished and don't know that I want this particular piece in my completed Life Book.  It is growing on me however so time will tell.

Life Book 2015: Week 9 - Favourite Favourites with Lynn Whipple

Oh what fun, creating a jar and including on it all of my favourite things.  Where to start.

The shape of my jar is similar to a family heirloom that is handed down from eldest daughter to eldest daughter in my family .  I just love the shape and so used this for my jar of favourites.

What to add was the dilemma as it is hard to think when put into this type of situation.  I think I have covered the obvious things but I am sure I will think of a lot more I could have added.

After I finished I realised that I had spelt the word "favourites" in both the American and English way - oh well, never mind.

I finished off the jar with a butterfly charm and a piece of thread and love the overall effect of the jar and the background.  The frame around the outside makes the picture feel complete for me.  Thanks to Lynn Whipple for a fun lesson.