Christmas Card Time

 Hello again all!

It's that time of year again! I've been making a start on my Christmas cards.

Here's what I've made so far...

The Madonna and Child image is an old Artistic Stamper stamp, no longer available. I used water-soluble crayons to add colour. 

The holly is hand-drawn over watercolour on one, and on the bottom one I painted the holly, then added sketchy black pen outlines. Lots of splatters on all of them naturally. 

I made a few of each of these 3 designs.

And here are some baubles that I painted with watercolour, then added paint pen doodled designs, and black pen outlines on some.

I made some with warm colours too. I spent a fun evening doodling in front of the TV.

Wishing you all a happy weekend. Thanks for dropping in.

Alison

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 43 - Today's Colour Palette

 Hello Everyone.

This week's prompt for 52 Week's Art Journal is 'Today's Colour Palette'. I've been out for an Autumn walk, and also visited a garden centre that had its Christmas decorations on display. So my page's colours reflect Autumn and Christmas colours.

I'm also linking my page to Tracey's My Favourite Colour is October theme at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for dropping by.

Alison

Laly Milles' Colour Challenge

 Hello All. I found another free class and challenge which was on Instagram. 

Laly Milles challenged us to use a colour we don't often use in a little series of 5"x5" abstract collages. I chose red.

Here they are in close up. It was a fun challenge. There had to be splatter of course! :-)

Hope you're having a good week,

Thanks for visiting.

Alison

Judy Woods stARTs Course Taster

 Hello All!

A couple of weeks ago I took artist Judy Woods' stARTs course taster. We created 3 large (40x40cm) abstract pieces. It was interesting to work on 3 art pieces at the same time, starting with Judy's process, then finishing the paintings in our own individual style.

We started by creating light and dark, and texture on our paintings.

Then we added some painted focal images, marks, drips and colour with collage and acrylic inks.

The next stage we used dark paint and oil pastels to create more interest.

And finally, we finished the paintings, deciding what we liked, adjusting with more collage, paint, pastels, ink etc., to hopefully create a balanced abstract piece of art.

Here are my finished pieces.

Do you have a favourite? Mine is the pink, orange and yellow one with rectangles.

Thanks for dropping by, hope you have a great new week.

Alison

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 42 - Autumn Inspired

 Hello Everyone.

It's week 42 of Raspberry Blue Sky's 52 Weeks Art Journal Challenge, and the theme this week is 'Autumn Inspired'.

I had the watercolour leaves, quote and some papers left over from Leaca Young's Life Book taster class, and I layered them with some sari ribbon and collage papers to create my Autumn inspired page.

I'm linking my page to Tracey's My Favourite Colour Is October theme at Art Journal Journey.

Happy Friday to you all, have a wonderful weekend.

Alison

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 41 - Vintage

 Hello All. I hope you're having a good weekend.

Today I'm sharing my latest page for Raspberry Blue Sky's 52 Weeks Art Journal challenge. This week (no.41) the theme was Vintage.

I used the October prompts from the Take5Art challenge on Instagram. They were Muted Colours, Crayons, Book Pages, Plants, Something see-through. You can see through the piece of teabag paper and the security envelope window. I used my Stabilo Woodys crayons for the colours.

I'm linking my page to Tracey's My Favourite Colour Is October theme at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for visiting me today.

Alison

Life Book, the Final Few

 Hello All.

Here are my final three pieces for the Life Book Taster course.

Stephanie Lee - The Shape Of Patterns. We glued down collage, sketched the flying bird shapes, then painted around them. In hindsight, some words and splatters would have made this a bit more interesting.

Leaca Young - Creative Intentions. Leaca showed us how she creates little watercolour botanical, then we layered them together with some collage papers, sari ribbon, and words.

Effy Wild - Journal Jam. We started an art journal page with a few prompts, then went with the flow. 

I'm linking this page to Tracey's My Favourite Colour is October theme at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for visiting me today.

Alison

More LifeBook Art

 Hello Everyone!

Here are a couple more pieces from the LifeBook Taster Sessions.

Kassi Martin - A fun collage of torn strips of some of my gel prints, with added yarn, and some doodled birds and flowers.

Shemi Dixon - Collage, scrunched tissue, stencils & texture paste, acrylic paint, pieces of sari ribbon, and buttons. A whole heap of fun! I finished with some touches of gold metallic paint. Definitely a favourite!

I'm linking the above piece to Tracey's My Favourite Colour is October theme at Art Journal Journey. 

Thanks for visiting me today,

Alison

A Mixed Bag of LifeBook Art

 Hello All. 

The thing that I love about the LifeBook course is the different types of art that is on offer. Here are 3 totally different styles, with different mediums.

Tiare Smith - Colourful Posca paint pen flowers on a black background. Tiare used blackboard paint, but I only had black gesso, which worked perfectly.

The quote reads...'May you always be the one who notices the little things that make this life pour through, and may they always remind you there is more to life, and there is more to you.'

Jenny Manno - We masked off the circles and some strips at the bottom, then used water soluble crayons and white gesso to activate them. Then we took the masks off and used watercolour paint, then added white gel pen writing and soft black pencil outlines and marks. Interesting techniques.

Rachel Kentish - Mindful Watercolours. The little packs of cards are colour coded prompts for colour, shape, and line & pattern. I picked out monochromatic colour, but I used the circles and line patterns that Rachel used. We added small circles of metallic watercolour (I used gold), smudged soft black pencil outlines, and white paint pen dots.

Thanks so much for coming to see my art. There'll be some more tomorrow, as I catch up with the many lessons.

Alison

More Life Book Art

 Happy Sunday Everyone!

Here are a few more pieces of Life Book art.

Holly McLaughlin - Mindful Art. I'm not really into meditation in art, but I did enjoy creating this abstract piece, and adding all of the marks.

Emma Petitt - This class blew me away. Using a magazine image for reference, we painted in the shading first in a very abstract way, then added the facial outlines and details. I love how this turned out, and I'll try this technique again. I had to add some splashes of paint, just to make it my own 😉

Dyan Reaveley - Art Journaling with Prompts. On top of a simple painted background (I used a Gelli Plate to create mine), we cut some small phrases from magazines, then wrote in some thoughts relating to them. To hide the journaling a little, I created a flap, and added some of my hand-carved stamp creatures. I'm linking this page to Tracey's My Favourite Colour Is October theme at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for dropping by today,

Alison

Life Book 2022 Taster Sessions - Laura Dame

Hello All.

Here's another of my Life Book pieces.

Laura Dame - Collage, texture paste, acrylic paint washes and drips, and marks with oil pastels. Loved this class! 

I'm linking this spread to Tracey's My Favourite Colour Is October theme at Art Journal Journey.

Wishing you all a happy weekend.

Alison

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 40 - Sunday Morning

Hello All.

Here's my Sunday Morning page for week 40 of Raspberry Blue Sky's 52 Weeks Art Journal challenge.

My Sunday mornings involve an early walk, then after breakfast it's our church zoom service. The church has opened up again, but fortunately they are still showing it online for us vulnerable folks.

My page started with some torn collage fodder, then I used oil pastel pencils to sketch Autumn trees and leaves for our walk, and a cross to symbolise church. I wrote the title with black and white ink, then finished with black and white ink splatters.

I'm linking my page to Tracey's October Colours theme at Art Journal Journey. 

Some of you asked about the hedgehogs on my last art journal page. They were indeed the stamps that I carved myself. 

Thanks for visiting today,

Alison

LifeBook 2022 Taster Sessions - A few More Pieces

 Hello Everyone.

Here are a few more pieces from Tamara Laporte's LifeBook Taster Sessions.

A Quirky Lady with Toni Burt. Graphite pencil sketch with watercolour paint.

Altered playing cards with Shay Michelle. Collage and inspirational quotes with Tim Holtz phrase stickers.

Creating perfectly imperfect flowers with Francisca Nunes. Using dead flowers as inspiration, and using water soluble pencils, charcoal, and black ink. I added washes of diluted coffee, and some splashes of coffee and ink.

We ripped up the pages to create collage fodder.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 39 - A Chance For Discovery

 Hello All.

Here is my week 39 page for Raspberry Blue Sky's 52 Weeks Art Journal Instagram challenge. 

I love this time of year, discovering the delights of Autumn. 

I'm linking my page to Tracey's October Colours theme at art Journal Journey.

Thanks for dropping by!

Alison

October 2021 Art Journal Calendar

 Hello All.

Here is my October calendar spread, with some lovely Autumn colours for Tracey's 'My Favourite Colour Is October' theme at Art Journal Journey.

I used a brayer to apply the acrylic paint, yellows, reds and oranges and some luscious metallic gold.

I used one of my leaf stamps to stamp a border with red acrylic, then added punched blue gel printed journaling squares. Well sometimes we get blue skies in October?! I used Darkroom Door alphabet stamps for the title, and added black pen outlines and numbers. I finished with red and gold paint splashes.

Here's my September spread, all filled in with lots of walking and arty time.

Have a great October!

Thanks for visiting,

Alison