Finished box and Facebook page ...

Well, it took me longer than I planned to post again, I honestly don't know where the time went!

But it was a productive week! I finished my wooden box, I caught up with my business-courses (well, almost...), I bought my own domain name (yes! that really feels good!), and I worked on my Facebook-page. I'm proud to say that I've almost figured it out! I'm not putting the link up here yet, because it's not finished, but I hope I'll be able to finish it this week. After that I can start making my new website and use my domain name. Big plans, yes, and it feels good to be up and running again. I've been so overwhelmed with all the information that was coming my way from the business-courses that I almost felt paralyzed to do something with it. But I found my breath again, thank goodness.

Today I bought material to make my own wooden canvases. I really want to start painting on wood, I love using a brayer, I rediscovered it by using it in my art journal, and it's very hard to use with canvas. And Conni from Tante Trulla was so kind to post a tutorial on her blog about her wooden canvases. Go check it out, it looks real easy and she says it is (though I have my doubts... For starters, I have a very hard time using a saw, I just can't get it to move the way I want it ..., well, actually: I just can't get it to move, period). I also bought material to try out some ideas with papier-machee. I'm on a roll, yeah!

And here are, from start to finish, pictures from my wooden box;

It was fun! I'm not sure how I feel about the finished box though. When I look back at the stage where there were only colors outlined with black, I really like the brightness of those colors. The doodling on top takes that brightness away a bit. What do you think?

So with my next box I'm going to leave the colors as they are and only outline them.

IF I can do that ... Because it's so much fun doodling on top that I will really have to restrain myself ...

Well, I hope you all had a lovely weekend! Here in Australia, the weekend is finished already and I'm off to bed. I'll be back soon with another inspiring artist.

Summer of color: the last week!

Watermelon ... My absolute favorite fruit on a hot summer's day .... And for the last week of the Summer of Color we may use those colors: a bright red with dark spots.

The nice thing about this challenge is that it makes you use colors or colorcombinations that you normally wouldn't consider. I tend to go back to the same colors over and over again, but now I realise that there really ARE more color combinations that I like, and will be using in the future. For instance: I have a tendency to avoid brown. But in 2 challenges we had to use dark brown, or chocolat brown. And I must admit that I like it. It gives a kind of warm glow to the other colors, and adds a touch of contrast to the bright colors I normally use.

So today I was making a kind of greenish, bright colored edge around my painted figures, and I didn't like it. So, since there's dark brown in watermelon, I decided to use that as a kind of shadow. And I like it so much better than the green edge. I will definitely be using more of this color!

This is the background I started out with, a mix of acrylics and spray inks:

It was difficult getting some contrast on there, because only very little brown was allowed. So I painted the background in different reds, and sprayed some dark brown ink on there. And then I covered the whole thing with plastic wrap. After leaving it on for about half an hour (it wasn't dry yet), I took it off and got the most beautiful patterns. I love this technique!

I saw a bird right away, although I wasn't sure I wanted to be painting over that pattern. But then I saw a face too, and decided to go with it.

And since I had a reddish page in my art journal too, I decided to make another drawing in there. Done with Inktense pencils and plain old gesso:

Well, that's the end of the Summer of Color! It was a fun challenge, and I hope next year Kristin will do it again (hint ...).

Since I have so many small paintings now, what with all the challenges I've been doing, I will focus more on painting boxes and on bigger paintings in the coming weeks. The 2 boxes I made for my customer in the Netherlands have left for their long journey yesterday. I do hope they will arrive safe and sound...

I want to thank all of you who have come and visited me over the past weeks. I so enjoyed reading your comments, and visiting your blogs. I hope we'll keep in touch, even though this challenge is finished.

I will be back in a few days with my box in progress (or maybe even finished...!)

Love to you all!

Artists that inspire me: Conni Altmann alias Tante Trulla

I only recently discovered this German artist. Turns out she was in the same Flora Bowley workshop as me! It sure is a small world ... ;-)

I love her colourful paintings and the layered backgrounds.

She inspired me to also start working on wood instead of canvas. Didn't do it yet, because I still have to figure out how to make those wooden canvases, but I can't wait to try it.

 I think this one is my absolute favorite. Those colors ... wow, they make me swoon. So gorgeous!

This is one from her Flora Bowley workshop.

And that's not all! She is one talented lady, she sews all kinds of things, like these wallets:

and her mosaics are awesome:

Her house looks like a kind of fairytale to me, so beautiful and inspiring

Go check out her blog: it's worth a look!

And meanwhile it's past midnight on this side of the world. Oops, have to dive in my bed real soon.

Thank you all for leaving those wonderful comments on my posts. It was a very busy weekend so I didn't get the chance to get to all of you, but tomorrow I'll pay you all a virtual visit ;-)

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Summer of color week 5!

Wild n' Reckless ... That was the color combination for this week's summer of color. Lovely colors! Greens, blues and purples. Some of my favorites, especially that blue, wow.

Getting the background ready wasn't that easy I must admit. Just kept adding layers to it and never got it quite like I wanted it.

And this week I wanted to be among the first to enter. Ha! That didn't work out! Struggling with the background took too long, so I'm again number 70 or so on the list. I really have to learn to start working  in advance ...

Anyway, that said, this is what I started out with:

And I had a very hard time discovering something in it. Do you see anything?
I held it in all positions, and eventually decided on this one. Because (with a LOT of imagination I daresay) I saw a chin, the eye of a bird, and hair...
So that's what I made of it:

Working with colors as dark as this was a challenge. I didn't really know how to lighten it without taking away the background too much. And I'm still not satisfied with it. It looks too, I don't know, grainy I think.

But hey, it was time to do a post so here it is anyway.

And in my art journal I just happened to have a page full of those colors. Which isn't that surprising really, since I always use my leftover paints in my art journal. So I played with that as well. And had so much fun! I'm starting to think about painting on wood in the future instead of canvas. Especially with these smaller paintings, for the bigger ones it could be too heavy. I love the smoothness of it, and the possibility to do anything I wish with it. Like using a brayer, stamps and collage. Much easier on a flat surface than on canvas.

Anyway, here she is, another page in my journal! Lyrics are from a song from Noa, an Israelian singer with the most beautiful voice. If you ever have a chance to see her in concert, you should go!

Well, I have a lot of blogs to visit, better get going!

Thanks for stopping by, see you in a few days with pictures of another inspiring artist!

Boxes ready and another journal page

I finished the 2 boxes for my customer in the Netherlands. Just put the last coat of varnish on them, and hope they'll be ready to go at the end of the week. I want to make sure the paint and varnish are completely dried out before sending them on their long journey to Holland.

Here they are:

I managed to get them to look almost identical to the originals. Which turned out a lot harder than I thought. Couldn't get the face to look exactly the same, and the technique of the background on the one on the left is very hard to reproduce. But my customer is happy, so I am too.

And I made another page in my art journal! It's starting to be real fun! I still don't have the patience to put too much effort in the background. I just want to keep going and then I have to wait for every layer to dry first. Very frustrating. But it's great for all my leftover paints, and it's great for trying things out.

 
I'm using all my favorite quotes in there, and I hope by the end I'll have a book that I just can read in when I feel like it. I have so many quotes and poems on my computer I've completely lost track of where my favorites are. And it's much more fun to read them in a book than on the screen.

Hope you're all having a wonderful day. Thanks so much for the comments on my work, I truly appreciate it!

Summer of color: week 4!

Well, the last few days certainly managed to fly by. Better be quick to post my entry for Summer of Color. The color palette for this week was strawberry lemonade. Don't know whether I got the colors right this time, but that doesn't really matter. The background I started with was this:

I saw two faces and a hand. Can you see it?

So that's what I painted:

Didn't really see a bird this time, but decided to throw one in anyway. They kind of belong on these small paintings I think.

I also did another journal page. A messy one this time. And I like it much better than the clean look of last time. It could have done with some more embellishments, and I might still do that, but now it's time to post so I'll post it the way it is now.

That's it for today. I've been really busy with my boxes. I'll post some pics next time.

For now, I'm wishing you all a relaxing fun weekend!
See you in a couple of days!

Another art journal page

Well, I've been playing in my art journal in between painting my boxes. Every time I had leftover paint it went somewhere on a page. I'm starting to get the hang of it. I decided to use it as a kind of practice journal for full bodied figures, but didn't feel like covering the background with gesso everytime I want to put a figure on top. So I drew my girl on a seperate page and then glued it in my art journal.

Now I don't know whether I like that. It's a bit too clean for my taste. I have some more of these girls glued in somewhere aleady, so I'll finish those, but for the rest of the pages I might try something else again. We'll see ...

My boxes are slowly getting finished. Most of the painting is done, now they need those finishing touches. Here's another sneak peek at one of them:

This one is really so much fun to make. I love using those bold colors, and now I'm going to start doing some zentangling and doodling on it. Keep an eye out for the finished box!

Tomorrow it's time for the summer of color again. I have the background ready to go!

Thanks so much for visiting here! I really appreciate your comments, and I'm hoping to get back to your blogs by the end of the week.

Enjoy your day!
hugs