29 faces challenge: face nr3

Ever since Robin inspired me with her "weird" faces in the last 29 faces challenge (you can see them at this link), I have been wanting to do something similar. She very kindly offered some PDF-sheets full of eyes and mouths and noses to use in collages like hers, but I felt I couldn't use these without imitating her, and I didn't want that. So I have been making weird faces all over my sketchbooks, and I think I finally found a style that's me. I might still use the PDF-templates Robin offered, but for now I'll just play with these figures a little bit. Here's the first one:

I have collected so many of these funny quotes, and they're perfect to use in combination with these figures. I painted it with bright watercolours, but somehow my scanner doesn't pick up these colours. It's nice to use watercolours again, I'm not very good with them since I only have limited experience, but they're a bit easier to use when there's only limited time. You just need a waterbrush and some pans.

Thanks so much for all the wonderful comments! I'll be back tomorrow :-)

29 faces challenge: face nr 2

As long as I can keep it up, I'l post on my blog every day during this challenge. Today I took a small canvas that had been laying on my desk for ages. It had some layers on there already, and I saw a face in it. Love it when that happens :-)

Here it is how it looked before I did something with it:

Rara, can you see the face?

Here she appears:

She has a bit of a weird long neck, but that's how it is when these figures emerge: I draw them mostly as I see them in the paint.

See you tomorrow :-)

29 faces challenge: face 1!

Not sure whether I'll be posting every day, but I figured the first one needs to be posted on the 1st of February :-)
I've taken the habit again of sitting with my daughter for half an hour before she goes to sleep, and in that time I'm usually sketching. So here's my first face:

If you want to join in with this fun challenge, you can find more information here. Try it, you might like it! Thanks for visiting! ♥

Almost finished (but not quite ....)

This week I managed to paint on 3 days, which is quite a luxury I must say. My large canvas is nearing completion, but there's still some details that I'm experimenting with. So for this week there's only some sneak peeks.... I promise to show the whole painting next week :-) It should be finished by then.

Didn't do anything else this week. Although no, that's not true. I did sketch a little bit in the evenings, as part of my plan to do some art every day. Before the start of February I should  have a routine in place, because you know what starts in February, right!? Yes, my favorite challenge :"the 29 faces". This started exactly 4 years ago, because it was also a leap year then, and the purpose was to make 29 faces in 29 days. Since then it has been every year in February and in September. You can find more information here.

I'm joining again this time around, but I made a deal with myself. I just need to do something every day, but I don't need to produce a finished face every day. The challenge isn't about that anyway, but until now I always forced myself to finish my faces (more or less...). Now, when I don't have time, I'll just draw a circle with 2 circles inside and a line and consider it a face ;-) No need to pressure myself, there's enough pressure around already. So, are you joining? Hoping to see some familiar faces there!

Linking this to Paint Party Friday and, since I have two faces from my painting in this post, also to Kim Dellow's "Show your Face". I don't know yet whether I'll post every day during the 29 faces challenge, but I will definitely post an overview every Thursday or Friday.

And as always, I'll finish this post with a funny:

lol

Thanks so much for your visit! Hope you're having a great day so far, and that the weekend will be sweet. See you next week ♥ ♥ ♥

having fun

After a few hours of frustration and not knowing how to proceed, I suddenly had fun again painting my large canvas. It's finally coming together in my mind's eye. Not at all finished yet, but it's getting there :-)

Here's another sneak peek:

Yes, an owl ... I had to google it, because while I recognize an owl instantly I had no idea how to paint one. And of course, it's not really realistic, but so are none of my figures for that matter.  They don't need to be either, I'm happy with fantasy-like creatures :-)

Here's how the whole canvas is looking right now:

Can't wait to paint again! Alas, this weekend I will be painting walls and doors in our new house, so this one will have to wait ...

I also made a journalpage for Colour me Positive. This week it was all about living life to the fullest:

Still haven't figured out a way to make art a daily practice, but I'm working on it :-)

I'm linking this up to Paint Party Friday and to Colour me Positive. Lots of great work to see in both of these! And here's to finish on a funny note:

 lol :-D     shared this one on Facebook already, so here's another one:

 :-)

Okay, that's it for this week! Thanks for your visit! Wishing you a wonderful day, and a creative and stressfree weekend. I'll be back next week ♥ ♥ ♥

slowly getting somewhere

I only had a few hours to paint this week, so not much changed on my large canvas. Here's a sneak peek from another part (it's BIG (1mx1m), so lots of spots to choose from ;-) ):

And here's the whole canvas:

It was really dark weather (again!) so this picture doesn't really show it well, but it'll have to do for now.... Not sure at all what I'll be doing with the bottom left corner, I see so many shapes and figures in there, but none has really spoken to me yet. Hopefully by next week I'll be able to figure it out.

I also finished another doodle:

I am looking for ways that I can make art every day in an easy way, meaning even if I only have 10 minutes I want to do something. Now too many days go by without any artmaking at all, and I miss it and I also miss the practice. Still haven't found a way though, so if you have any tips please share them with me!

I started the "Colour me positive"-challenge that I told you about last week. This week's quote was all about being brave and taking chances. And I was very happy to find a journalpage with a quote that fitted perfectly :-) Okay, I made it a (long) while ago, but still .... Here it is:

Have any of you joined? There's already almost 2000 members!
I'll end with this week's funny:

hahaha! Look at him :-) So relaxed and enjoying the company. Love this ♥

Thanks for looking! And wishing you the most wonderful day and a trouble-free weekend! And a happy Paint Party Friday! See you next week ♥ ♥ ♥

Finally painting something else than walls and doors ... ;-)

This week the school started again, and I decided to take a little break from painting doors and walls and sanding floors, and work a bit on my large canvas. It's more than 2 weeks ago I did anything with it, and while a saw several figures the last time I worked on it, they didn't speak to me anymore, and I decided to play a bit more with the canvas. And before I knew it almost all of my figures were gone....

Never mind. I soon found new ones. And started bringing them out. Oh, it was so much fun finally getting somewhere with this canvas. Seeing images appear and bringing them out is my most favorite part of this intuitive painting process. Here are 2 sneak peeks:

At first, these figures and one bird were the only images I saw, so I decided to just start with them and see how it developed.

And then I started seeing birds everywhere.....

Here's how the canvas looked when I started bringing the images out. Can you find them on there? (okay, it's bad quality so it's not very clear, but the weather is just so dark here, it's impossible to get good pictures)

Didn't do anything else creative this week ;-(  But I want to tell you (in case you haven't heard about it yet) about a new year long artjournal challenge "Colour me positive". The aim is to fill your year with positive messages and creativity. When you sign up (it's FREE), you get an email every Friday with an inspirational quote and a small challenge, that you can use however you like. Each week there will be a featured artist to inspire you, and sometimes there are prizes to be won too! Sounds good, doesn't it!? You can find more information here. Go ahead: sign up, there are already more than 1000 participants!

I'm linking up to Paint Party Friday. Looking forward to seeing you there! Thanks so much for visiting, I hope your new year started out well and will continue to be good to you!

Here's my funny for this week:

Hahaha! Doesn't that look comfy :-D

See you next week ♥ ♥ ♥