Artists that inspire me: Francis Kilian

Today's inspiring artist lives in the Netherlands. I've discovered her years ago, and was fascinated by the depth in her work.

There are so many layers in her work, and I remember staring at it and wondering how on earth she managed to do that.

I even sent her an email once to ask whether I could do a workshop with her, because I really wanted to learn the technique.

I received a nice reply, that her way of working was not really "teachable" (is that even a word?), that it's just layering and layering until you have the feeling it's "done".

Now I understand better what she meant. On her website is an interview with her, where she says that when she starts a painting she doesn't have a clue what's going to come out of it. She just starts, and lets the painting speak to her.

She has a very specific style. There are often birds in her paintings

and I also like that sometimes there's a kind of angel watching over the woman.

Mmmm, such yummy colours....

Francis is having an exhibition on the 28th of October in Nieuw-Amsterdam in the Netherlands. If that's too far for you (I know it's waaay too far for me ...), go have a look at her website. The site is in Dutch, but you'll be able to see more of her beautiful paintings there.

Well, thanks for visiting and I'll see you on Friday for the Paint Party!

Some sketches and a one-liner

Thanks so much for your visits and your lovely comments. ♥ ♥ ♥

I have been sketching a bit today. That was such a long time ago that at first I didn't even know how to start anymore ☺ But once started, I realized again how much I love sketching. Just seeing a face arise from a blank page is so much fun. I used coloured pencils as well, and decided to finally use some the pictures I took from my in-progress canvases as a background.

Here are 2 faces I made:

This is a drawing I made today, first with graphite, then with coloured pencils. And then I scanned it and pasted the background in with Photoshop.

This sketch I did a while ago, but today I used coloured pencils on top, and then again scanned it and in Photoshop pasted the background from one of my paintings in progress. And added the text  as well.

I'm playing with the idea of making a calendar out of these girls. I did one like that last year for my family, and they were very enthusiastic about it. I will have to hurry though, since I see calendars everywhere in the shops already, so if I want to sell them I can't wait too much longer. But at the moment I'm also trying to make a diary, and that has to be finished first.

And then there's my website .... Almost finished, have to add some more photos.

Lots to do, I'm not bored ... ☺

 But I did a one-liner too! Promised I would now and then, right ☺ ?

That's me sometimes ....

Thanks for visiting, I'm hoping to be back on Wednesday with another inspiring artist-post! ♥

Painting in progress

Well, I didn't get to finish my painting this week. But at least I managed to take some hurdles on the way, and I even know how I want to finish the rest of it. Just didn't have time anymore.

This is where I stopped last week:

And these are the stages it went through:

started painting the face

started wondering what to do with the background

Wanted to make some waves at the bottom, but didn't like it ....

But I still felt this painting has some ocean-like feel to it, so I added some coral instead. Better than the waves I think ...

This is how far I got.

And I managed to do a one-liner too!

She looked a bit too sad to write a funny quote next to her ☺

I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday. Don't forget to check out all the other artists there!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you all will have a wonderful weekend ahead of you! ♥ ♥ ♥

Artists that inspire me: Dar Hosta

Well, today's artist is a little different in more than one way. First of all: she doesn't paint women (at least not that I know of ☺), and secondly I only discovered her this week!

Dar Hosta paints birds! And as you know birds are my second favorite subject to paint. But her birds are special. They are "cranky birds".

I found Dar through Carla Sonheim's blog. Carla is doing a blog hop to promote her new book "Imaginary animals", and Dar is one of the contributors to that book.

I LOVE them! How they look, the things they say or think. I think it's hilarious! They're so human ...

Dar was a student in Carla Sonheim's online class, and she came up with her own brilliant series of cranky birds. So simple yet so genius.

And the nicest thing? In this blogpost she shares very generously how to make these birds! And she invites her readers to join in the fun and send her the cranky birds they made. I might have a go at it myself ☺

Hahaha! Look at that bird! It really does look constipated  ;-)

And this is my absolute favorite. He's a kindred spirit, since I could've said this myself.

When you visit her website, don't forget this link: the who-what-why-where-when-how. Fun fun fun. You can find more cranky birds on Flickr.

Hope you enjoyed these cranky birds. I sure enjoyed sharing them with you!

See you again on Friday for the Paint Party! Thanks for visiting! ♥

All my faces together!

It was fun to put all my faces together in one picture. When you do that you realize how much work you've done in only 1 month, without even realizing it. This sure is the way to create lots of new stuff!

I really enjoyed the challenge, and I want to thank all who have taken the time to stop by and comment. I'm going to have a look at all the participants today to see their last faces.

Well, here's what I created this last month:

And just for the fun of it: these are the 29 faces from the challenge in May:

And these are all the faces of the very first challenge in February:

It's turning into a series! A very big thank you to Martha from Ayala Art for organizing this! And I hope next year the challenges will continue! (hint hint ☺)

For one thing it's good that the challenge is over, and that is that I don't have to post every day. Not that I don't like that, but I always tend to stay on the computer, visit the other participants and not do anything else. And I've set myself a new challenge now: FINISH THE DAMN WEBSITE! I want to have it finished by the end of the week! Because I also want to set up an Etsy-shop, and I've another idea brewing in my head since a few months that I really need to work out before the year is over.

So, lots of plans. But I'll keep posting at least three times a week, and I won't give up on my one-liners. Hope to keep seeing you here, it's been great having you visit! ♥♥♥

Last face!

Well, last face for the challenge anyway. I'll still post faces of course, I just won't do it daily. I can't keep that up, and neither can my followers I think ☺

So here she  is:

I'll admit I sometimes feel like this ...

It was fun, this challenge. Got to meet some very talented people, which is the nicest thing about these challenges. Ayala Art is planning on having another one in February, the month it all started. I'm in then, for sure!

Tomorrow I'll  post a mosaic of all my faces together. Hope to see you then! Thanks for visiting and enjoy your Sunday ♥

Face nr.28: I can never find words

Only one face left to go! These challenges sure have a way to show you how time flies...

Here's today's girl:

Do you have that too? That you don't know how to put something in words? I have it all the time. Especially when someone is nasty to me and I can't come up with a speedy reply. Until after I get home. Then I find all the right answers that I should have given. Very frustrating. Might try this getting drunk next time. It sure beats getting frustrated ;-)

Hope you're having a lovely weekend! Thanks for stopping by, and for all your wonderful comments.  See you tomorrow with my very last face! ♥