A few more drawing exercises and a canvas

It's been a busy week/weekend and

 I had hoped to get more photos up before now

but life just kept on getting in the way!

 I think it was Friday that I worked on these..

This one was done using charcoal

showing tones with just black or white.

I've used a mid-tone as well 

as it didn't look right to me!

Time: 1 hour (22 Feb)

It was my daughter's 17 th birthday on Sunday. Sarah had asked me if I could take her and some of her friends out to the beach on the Saturday while the weather was still warm enough for swimming. Though I knew I probably wouldn't get time for any art, it was lovely to get out of  "suburbia" for a few hours. I was a bit annoyed with myself as I forgot to take my camera...duh! *slaps forehead* 

Sunday was spent doing food prep and cake making.
We had family and friends over for dinner.
Sarah said it was a really nice birthday
and she had had a lovely weekend.

With all that going on though, it didn't stop me "thinking" about my canvas project. It's kind of my Project X...or another one, as I'd thought about doing this canvas project back when I had finished the Travelling Egg. I wanted to use some or all of the materials I'd used for my TEP on a canvas with a focus on New Life/New Beginnings. So all weekend I had the canvas sitting there on my desk and I came up with the idea of including a koru which I ended up cutting from this painted back-ground I did in August, last year. Every time I walked passed, I dream up a little more and by the time Monday came I was rearing to go LOL!

First, I applied a coat of Gesso.

(The paint and background paper 

had been adhered before Christmas)

I purposely left some of the paper show

through as the words represent my thoughts,

many of them...constantly "talking"..

I try to block them out, 

just like I have here with the gesso.

Blocking out the messages I received

and believed as a child...

Then I draw and cut out the koru 

from the green painted background

I just LOVE my koru...

I love the texture, colour 

and design...very happy with it!

....and I like the fabric heart

with the shell button.

But some time after this things 

started to "go wrong"

For some reason I choose black paint 

for the wording HEAL THY HEART

with ART! Then I did the stamped border,

arrows and small text to the left of the heart. 

PLUS I decided to ink the sides of the canvas.

...and SPRAY it with hairspray to seal it.

BAD MOVE...

I watched with HORROR as the ink bled! 

My heart sunk..and I just wanted to cry!

I think it's all that black that doesn't work for me.

 I wanted the colours to represent my 

emotions but I think it's over-powered 

by the wording. I don't know. 

I ended up ripping the paper off the canvas

and will repaint it and start over...

I'll be interested to hear what Rachel, 

my TLC mentor has to say.

We are going to be having a catch-up 

by phone early next week.

Time: 6 hours (25 Feb) 

(includes photo editing/uploading to blog)

Getting sorted so I'm organised!

For a long time I have felt in a muddle

and I recognise I function way better 

in an organised environment...

So this is what I've been doing today
Getting Organised!

 This was my children's first school desk.
They are all too big for it now *sniff*
It is on the left on the dining table where
I (usually) sit to do my art work

This was my eldest daughter's desk.
It became Cameron's, when she finished
home-schooling and now that Cam is at
school..it's become MY desk.
My "other" desk...a girl can not have too
many surfaces to do art  LOL!

It's opposite the little desk, on the
right-hand side of the dining room table
so very accessible and handy..

 ..and the table, well...half of it
I've put all my drawings and inspirational
ideas/photos etc into my journal and the
scrapbook on the table is my "new" one...

Resource 4: Drawing For All 
Your Worth #4 (FORM)

 I photographed a vase to draw

..changed it to B/W
I'm now doing some drawing
of it and of my hand.
Be back with some pics later...

Time: 4 hours (Thurs 21 Feb)

Fabric Painting Lesson....Resource 4: Drawing for all your worth #4

Twice a week I give craft lessons. 

Usually it is sewing but occasionally

I'll do something "arty" instead.

Tuesday's lesson was experimenting 

with Fabric Paints.

The girls and I had fun!

We cut out shapes out of sliced potatoes

and also trying printing with leaves.

I hope to experiment further in this area

so watch this spot *grin*

Once the girls had been picked up 

I watched more of the Resource 4 DVD

and made a start on #4 exercises

My 3 Dimensional doodle

I tried drawing my hand.

Didn't work for me

so I took a few photos

then I changed them into B/W pics

Drawing from a B/W photo

seems to work better for me.

I "see" the tones better

for some reason...

Time: 4 hours (Tues 19 Feb)

Resource 4: Tone and Atmosphere

Drawing for all Your Worth #3

Exercise 6

Adding paint to one of my ink backgrounds

I was inspired by my purple apple and
thought half of it would work really well.
..I'm really happy how this turned out!

This pamphlet was the inspiration 

for one of the other ink background

I used pastels for this and love 

both the paint and pastel picture.

Must do this kind of thing again...
it was really enjoyable!

Time: 2 hours (Mon 18 Feb)

Resource 4: Drawing for All Your Worth #3

I've had a good a productive weekend.

I worked some more on my Koru on Saturday

and Sunday spent the afternoon working

on Resource 4 exercises.

Before adding the pastels..

..and after.

I plan on adding text but I'm not sure what 

or how. I have to admit to being afraid

of "messing it up" so I will put it to one

side until I know for sure.

I had to watch the DVD again today to 

comprehend the exercises in the resource

 and found it to be really visually helpful...

 Playing with ink and wet paper...

 Swirling the ink...

Blobs and strokes

For the first drawing exercise I
decided to try sketching my foot

I used this photo...

cropped, enlarged it and
turned it grey scale

my sketch - using tone and
shading to define shape

Playing it "safe"...but I'm happy with it

 Wooden fruit - more tone/shading

Inspired by these photos...

a kauri pear half

..and an apple

I found it really enjoyable and

satisfying drawing these..

Still playing it safe though!

edited on my computer
to intensify colour/tone

"Pushing the boat out" with a 

quickly-sketched pastel drawing

(and trying to loosen up!)

It looks a bit weird now that 

I've photographed it ..it looks
a bit like a mustard pot...lol!

So then I changed the colour
of the apple...

..and "pixilated" it.
This was my inspiration for the grid
exercise recognising tonal structure

Doesn't really look like an apple
any more does it? LOL!

Saturday-2 hours

Sunday-6 hours

Total: 8 hours (16/17 Feb)

It's been a bit of a artistically frustrating day to. 

Got some ideas gelling though so guess that's good.

I've got a thing for Korus. 

They are symbolic for new life..

New beginnings...

On one of my recent googling sessions 

I came across this

so I cropped it, rotated it

 and printed it gray-scale

then traced the shape onto a sheet

of paper and cut it out

...and applied some glimmer mist

 but it dried all wrinkly 

so it went it the bin

..but back to the words...

I'm wanting to make a label/tag

 ..trying free-hand lettering

...and stamping

I made a cardboard stencil/mask

..and got side-tracked by the shapes

positive and negative areas

the shadows...

the way it "sprung" up

So...yeah, got a bit side-tracked

but think I made some headway 

into exploring ideas and concepts.

Time: 3.5 hours (11 Feb)

(includes 1 hour 

editing and uploading pics)