Find the light

I finished my painting! Well, looking at the pictures I saw it needs some tweaking here and there, but overall I can call it done :-)

It took quite a while to finish. The background was darker than I'm used to, so it needed more layers of white than in other similar paintings.

Also, I didn't like it when it was really white white. So I painted over it the second time using off white instead

I decided to call it "Find the light". Because for me it represents an innocence and lightness one can find when being surrounded by nature.

"Find the light" - acrylics on canvas - 50x50 cm (20'x20')

I need to make better pictures, it was already getting dark by the time I took these. But, you get an idea, right :-)

Here are some progress pics:

drawing on a busy background with mostly drips

Starting to bring out the figures by painting around them

see how the white doesn't cover it very well? Some parts I had to paint over 4 times!

And here's my weekly sketch!

I'm really enjoying making these weekly sketches. It's a good practice and I'm building quite a collection. I already made more sketches this year than the whole of 2017!

Linking this to Paint Party Friday, as I always do, and looking forward to seeing what everyone's been doing this week.

Here's some funnies :-)

And the ones that require some thinking ....

in light of the recent tragedy in the US, people might need to keep this in mind ...

Thank you all for being here. Have a magical day and stay safe. See you next week ♥ ♥ ♥

my head's a hurricane

Yes! I'm back into painting! So much so that I just want to paint all day and do nothing else. Which is not possible of course. But I enjoy every minute that I do have time. I finally continued on my larger canvas. Here's a detail that's about finished:

I did two layers of white already, but in some places I'll have to do 3 I'm afraid.... I will now first work on the figures and birds, and I'm hoping to get it all ready by next week!

I also did a new journalpage. It started like this:

text and words written on there in different ways

adding a bit of collage and paint

more text written all over the pages, and random black lines painted with a small stick I found while walking the dog

I kept seeing this figure in there and a very big arm, so I brought them out

two birds of course too ....

trying to quieten down the background, and adding some more collage

finished!
Do you see how that fluo orange on top and in his arm has disappeared? That's because of the scan (the other ones were pictures), it is still there in reality. I've only just noticed it now. My scanner always does that, it never shows fluo colours. Which is a drag since I love fluo colours. Guess I'll have to remember to take pictures instead ... 

And last but not least: my weekly sketch :-)

Felt like giving her some freckles but it's not very visible on the scan.

That's it! If I keep up this almost daily creating I'll be very happy :-)

Linking to Paint Party Friday, thanks to Eva and Kristin who keep this party going!

And thanks to you who visits here! I'll end with my range of funnies for this week :-)

And the more serious ones:

That's it! Hope you're having an amazing day! Take care and I'll be back next week ♥ ♥ ♥

Another month

February already! I had been meaning to make a new wallpaper, but I didn't get around to it. February just came so fast all of a sudden.

But, I finally took up a paintbrush again! I experimented with some lessons from Juliana Coles in "Extreme journaling". And I'm keeping up with my weekly sketching!

This week I felt more like making a kind of fantasy girl:

I like to switch back and forth between more life-like drawings and these big-eyed girls :-)

And here's how my journalpage started out:

Lots of black (not my favorite ....) and lots of text

doing an assignment and then incorporating what came out of that into the journalpage. For me these images represented what this page was about

trying to quiet down the background. Not easy with all the black

so out came the gesso!

for me this page was to be about Australia, and how homesick I sometimes feel for this beautiful country that I've lived in for more than 3 years. So I used colours that remind me of Australia

adding the blue of the oceans and the sky

and then suddenly finding another creature in there

And this is the finished page:

In Juliana's workshops text plays an important role, which is also the reason why I like her work.

Someone on Facebook commented that I should "fix the eye and get rid of the fish". But every single thing on this spread has a certain meaning for me and a reason why I made it like I did. Extreme journaling isn't about making pretty pages, it's about digging inside yourself and letting out what's in there. And I just loved how everything came to me while I was working on it. Definitely a great way to journal!

That's what I did this week. And now I want to show you a surprise I got in the mail from a dear friend of mine: Jackie from "creating without crayons". She makes the most beautiful stuff, and is always so inventive in how she uses her materials. Take a look at her blog, she always shows progress-pics and it's great to see how her creations are "born":-)

Beautiful tag with a real flower on there! (good thing that I don't live in Australia anymore, it would never have gotten past customs ...)

And look at that gorgeous paper! I'm going to scan it and use it in future projects :-)

So I was a very happy girl :-) Thank you Jackie ♥

I'm linking to Paint Party Friday once again. I'm so happy that this party keeps going. It feels as if so many people stop blogging, and going instead to Instagram, but I still like to read and see a bit more and get to know the person behind the art. 

Well, this is a long post already, but I'll throw in some funnies anyway :-)

And some sweet / wise ones:

Have a great day and thank you for paying a visit! I'll be back next week ♥ ♥ ♥