Mosaic of the 29 faces challenge and Liebster Award!

I had fun making a mosaic of all the faces I did in last months' challenge. It makes you realize how much you've created. The very first face I did seems such a long time ago.

Here they are, all of them together:

And just for the fun of it, here are the faces from the previous challenges:

September 2012 (I was short on time but really wanted to participate, so I made only oneliners):

May 2012:

And the very first one: February 2012!

Sad that it's over, but glad I have more time for other things now ....

And to end the challenge in a really lovely way: Maria from Cozydoodle rewarded me with a Liebster Award!

Maria also participated in this latest challenge, so go have a look at her lovely blog! Thank you Maria for nominating me, I'm honoured.

So now I have to nominate five blogs that I love,which is a bit hard for me because there are so many blogs that I love. It was hard to choose, but these are the ones I came up with:

Marianne from Marianne's Blogje: she makes wonderful cards and journalpages, but I'm absolutely crazy about her painted faces. Multi-talented and very creative.

Michelle from Pigment of My Imagination: love her dry humour and her wonderful characters, always accompanied by some "crazy" quote.

Anne from Kuvia Matkalta: very creative and original art pieces, often a combination of painting and digital art.

Joyce from Joyful Art Stuff: beautiful colourful faces in a variety of techniques. She also started a bead journal project in January and makes beautiful jewellery.

Caryn from Catty Cards: she's a "veteran" like me in the 29 faces challenges, I think she also did all 4 of them. She makes quirky digital art, very unique and special.

I hope these ladies accept the award and pay it forward. Please have a look at their blogs, it's worth it!

Thanks for visiting and for leaving your lovely comments during this challenge, it really helped me to keep going at times when the going got tough ... ☺

 That's it for now. I won't be blogging every day anymore, but at least 3 times a week. I'll be back on Wednesday with a new "artists that inspire me"-post. Hope to see you then!

and then to end the challenge: a oneliner!

Face #29 ! I must admit there were days that I thought I wouldn't make it! It always amazes me how much time it takes to really create something and blog about it every day.

It was fun though. There was one week that I was really sailing through it, with loads of ideas. This last week went a bit less smooth. Too busy with trying to set up my Etsy-shop, and as a result: getting stressed .... Which is a big creativity-killer ...

So for the last day I made a oneliner. I also painted today, but don't have much to show for it yet, so I'll share that in tomorrow's post for Paint Party Friday.

I can relate to that quote .. ;-)

In the weekend I'll post all of my faces together, also from the previous challenges. Thanks so much for visiting, and Martha, thank you for creating this challenge! Even though sometimes it was hard, I already know I will participate again next time!

Please check out all the artists that were in this challenge here. Lots of eye-candy!

See you tomorrow ♥

Face no.28: it is such a secret place

Finished one of my new miniature paintings today. These are so much fun to make, but until now I hadn't been able to find the little canvases here in Australia. I could only find the ones with the deep edges, but I don't like those so much.

And now all of a sudden I found them in 2 shops, the "normal" ones that I always used and brought with me from Belgium, and also some on canvasboard. Which I'm very happy about, because now I can make some for my Etsy-shop that can be sent as a letter (which is a lot cheaper ...). So the coming weeks will find me busy creating these little canvases (they are only 10x10cm or 3,9x3,9", which is very small for me). I also sell them in the gallery in Redcliffe where I sell some of my bigger paintings, and last week there were only 2 left.

This is the 28th face, so only one more left! And that's okay. I'm looking forward already to making a mosaic of all the faces I did this month. I've done this every time I participate in this challenge, and it really shows how much work I got done in a month. It stimulates me every time to participate again the next time.

Late again, so I'll just make a dash to some blogs and then it's off to bed. Hope to see you tomorrow again with the last face! Thanks for visiting!

Face no.27: let me grow young

I painted a little bit today, but didn't get anything ready yet, so I also made a lyricsgirl. Luckily, painting went a lot smoother today, although I had to struggle through some very frustrating "aarrghhh"-moments in the process.

 When this happens I always have to think about my workshop with Flora Bowley, and how she says her paintings go through the "ugly teenagers phase". She says it takes time for paintings to figure out who they want to be when they grow up, and it takes a lot of patience and courage to get through this. I love that analogy. And it is so true! Every painting I make, whether it's a small miniature painting or a big canvas, goes at least once through a phase where I think I'll never get it right. But if you work through it, it will get better, really! To remind myself of that, I've started to make pictures of my paintings whenever I think nothing good will ever come out of it, and I feel like throwing the paintbrush out of the window, together with the painting. Sometimes I can't believe how ugly they've been before they get better. It really helps to stick with it and work through it.

So sometimes it's really relaxing to do a lyricsgirl. Although, when I do something wrong here, it can't be fixed anymore. Markers are very unforgiving. In this lyricsgirl I'm not happy with the way I did the lyrics, but hey, I need to post something, and it'll have to do. The lyrics are from Heather Nova, background is done with pan pastels.

Two more faces! Only two more faces! Can't believe how fast this month has gone by. I'll miss the challenge, and at the same time I'm feeling relief that next week I won't have to post and produce every day anymore. I need to focus a bit more on other things now, like getting my Etsy-shop in order. But I hope I can still hold on to the habit of doing something creative every day. 

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back tomorrow with face #28!

Face no. 26: we're women .....

Well, a oneliner it is for today. I tried drawing some faces, because my miniature paintings are almost all sold, and I need to make some new ones (they're pretty popular ☺).

But it was that kind of day again. You know, where nothing seems to come out the way you want it to, and you get all frustrated in the process. After the floor under my table was covered in eraser-residue (or how shall I name it ....) I called it quits, and drew a oneliner.

It's strange how this happens almost every Monday/Tuesday. It's as if the weekend is really bad for my creativity... By the end of the week everything seems to come so much easier. Weird ....

Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow. For now I feel better already because I have been reading through my "funny quotes"-file. That never fails to make me smile ☺.

Off to visit some blogs, still have time before it's bedtime. Thanks so much for visiting, I'll see you tomorrow with face#27! ♥

Face no.25: Please don't ask me where I'm going ...

Today it's time for a lyricsgirl again. I kinda like going back and forth between different styles and materials.

But I must admit it's getting hard creating a new face every day. My other work is staying a bit behind. and since I'm planning on opening up my etsy-shop by the end of the week, you might get quite a few oneliners or lyricsgirls for the next days ....

Todays lyrics are from Corinne Bailey Rae, and I have no idea who that is and even whether I like her songs. But sometimes I'm just picking random lyrics because I like them. And these lyrics seem to sum up pretty good my state of mind right now ... ;-)

Okay, it's way past my bedtime, not a good way to start a new week, so I'm off to bed once again.

Thank you so much for visiting and leaving comments! I'll be back tomorrow with face #26!

Face no.24: get the facts first

Well, it's weekend so time for the one-liners again ;-)

Sunday is the only day in the week that I can sleep as long as I want, so since I'm a night -person and hate to "have to" go to sleep because I have to get up in the morning, I want to take advantage of that and stay up as long as I like ....

But I'm finding I can't! I'm almost falling asleep behind my computer and my legs are starting to tingle .... And that's all because since a few weeks I have to get up at 6.30 every Saturday to bring my daughter to gymnastics practice. 6.30! AM! On a Saturday!! Djeez .... I wonder how my daughter can even run around at that ungodly hour, let alone do a backflip. I walk around in a zombie-like state half of the day, and at night when I'm usually wide awake I can't keep my eyes open.

What a shame! Fridays and Saturdays were always my most favorite evenings of the week, and now I can't enjoy them anymore. I might turn into a morning-person if I have to keep this up....

So I'm off to bed.... I hope tomorrow I'll have time to visit some more blogs.

Meanwhile, I hope you're enjoying your weekend! Thanks for visiting and I'll see you tomorrow with a new face!

Love is all around

Finally finished my painting! And it feels so good because now I know I can start another one! I'm not sure yet whether it'll be a "Flora"-one or an entirely different one. Maybe both ....

My head is swimming with ideas at the moment and I'm sure that's because of the 29 faces challenge. When I'm "forced" to create every day, I'm getting into a kind of flow that's sometimes very hard to find when I haven't been creating for a while. So I should take advantage of that. Sadly, a day still only has 12 hours ....

I had a hard time coming up with a title for this painting. I had something in my head about protection, but then it would (in my opinion) put the emphasis too much on the male in the picture, while he's just one of the many beings surrounding her.

But when I woke up this morning, the title was right there in my head. So simple, how come I didn't think of it before? I'm calling it "love is all around", because for me that's what this painting is about. If you look hard enough, you can find love everywhere. In the people surrounding you, in the animals, in the beauty of the nature. Of course, hate and doom is all around too if you look for it, but I choose to look for the positive ☺

I'll just take you through all the different steps this painting went through (there are a LOT!)

I forgot to take pictures from the very beginnning, so there are some layers on here already. Mainly started with cleaning my palette from leftover paint

just making random marks

stamps, stencils, marks and drips ...

very hard to draw on there with all the different marks .... This is a sketch I had in my sketchbook, so it's not something I "saw" in the painting.

starting with pulling out the figure

From here on you've seen most already in previous posts

too green for my liking...

 too pink for my liking ...

ah, better .... And there's the male ....

way too domineering ....

phew, glad I got rid of that shoulder ....

This is where I stopped last week

 Continuing with working out the fish, and starting on the bird (forgot to take pictures in between ...)

I first wanted to paint another bird in between the two heads, but then decided against it. I wanted something to unite the painting, so I started adding circles and bubbles.

And tadaa ... the finished painting:

This photo is taken outside, so the colours are more like they are in reality (most of the other ones were taken in my kitchen while I was painting).

It was a long journey and I'm glad it's done. Up to the next one!

Since I already used the 2 faces in this painting for the 29 faces challenge, I needed to make another one.

You might think these are two faces, but in reality it's only one. I painted it on a separate piece of paper and then cut it in half, glued it in my art journal and collaged the eyes and the body.

Here's face # 23! Only 6 more to go!

Didn't have time anymore so I added the text in Photoshop, but I will write it on there (might even choose another quote if I find a better one☺)

Well, this was a very long post, hope you made it to the end :-)

Thanks for visiting and for taking the time to comment. I really enjoy hearing your thoughts and ideas about what I make.

And if you haven't already, go have a look at what other people create in Paint Party Friday and the 29 faces challenge. I promise it's worth it!

Next week is the last week of February, which means I'm almost on my deadline to open my Etsy-shop .... Stay tuned ... ☺

See you tomorrow with face #24!

Face no.22: sketch

Maybe I've had enough colour to last me for a day, because today I felt like making a simple plain sketch in graphite.

Or maybe my thirst for colour was satisfied because today I also finished my painting. Yes! From next week on it's back to the Flora-style paintings! Looking forward to it!

Only 8 more days! I'm going to miss this challenge .... I like how it pushes me to create, and I'm going to try to keep this up. Not posting every day but creating every day. The more I create the more ideas I get, the more things I try out, the more things I discover ... Such a pity that the days are so short :-)

Well, I'll see you tomorrow for the Paint Party, where I'll share my finished painting and  of course my new face!

Thanks so much for stopping by! ♥ ♥ ♥

Face no.21: colourful girl

I have several folders with all kinds of scraps and pictures and jottings in it, to inspire me when I need it. Yesterday I was looking through one of these folders and came across a drawing I made when I was in highschool. And all of a sudden I felt like playing with markers.

This is the drawing I made in highschool

I just needed to "translate" it into a face ... ;-)

I asked my daughter whether I could borrow her markers, and started making lines. It was so much fun, it really was playtime. I glued some painted eyes on her face, dotted a bit and doodled her hair. What can I say? Once I start going crazy there's no keeping me back ... That's what play is all about, isn't it?

All the colours make me happy. Hence the words in her hair "Colour your world". Make yourself happy. Wouldn't it be nice if the world had more colour in it? Wild, crazy colours, no more grey or drab..... Okay, I'll admit: it doesn't always have to be like that. Sometimes soft and calm colours are needed too. But bright colours remind me of sunshine and laughter and fun and being alive. I could never live without colour in my life.

But I guess that's quite obvious when you see my art...☺

Thanks for visiting me! I'll be back tomorrow with face # 22!

Face no. 20: get out of my hair!

Technically, I have 2 faces today. But I'll only count it as one. I didn't mean for it to be two. But when I wanted to start drawing her hair, I saw 2 eyes and a mouth. And, well, me being me, when I see a face in the background, I have to draw it. Can't help myself ....

The colours came out all weird when I scanned it. It's painted on one of the backgrounds that I made when experimenting with my self-made gelli-plate. Here's the post about it. For this background I used some of my daughter's really bright neon-coloured paints. And in the scanner, somehow, all the neon got lost. I managed to get it to look a bit more like the original by playing with the colours in Photoshop, but in reality this is much brighter, more neon orange and pink

I am still playing with the idea of putting a quote on there, but for now I'll just leave it as it is.

Thanks for having a look, and for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it ♥

See you tomorrow with face # 21 !

Face no.19: negative painting

I love negative painting. Sometimes I have these great backgrounds in my art journal that would be a shame to paint over. I never really paint my backgrounds deliberately, I always use leftover paint to scrape randomly in my art journal (with a creditcard or with my fingers). Sometimes it needs a whole bunch of layers before it looks remotely acceptable, in which case I usually paint over it, but sometimes happy accidents happen. And this page was one of them.

I don't even remember how I got this result. I do remember that at some time the pages stuck together and got ripped. But that only contributed to an interesting background.

So I decided to make a negative face, meaning I painted around the face and not so much in the face. A little bit of course, to get some shadows and some features, but not much. I like the contrast between the black and the background that's left.

And I scribbled a bit with the back of my brush, so that the background came shining through the little scratches.

Might make some more of these, it was fun!

It has been pouring down with rain all day today. Time to snuggle into bed with my new book ;-)

After I visit some other blogs of course ....

Thanks for visiting! See you tomorrow with my new face! ♥