Tangled Mermaids

Everywhere I look lately I am seeing mermaids and Zentangles, so for my 18th "29 Faces for September" I decided to combine the two.

I drew a very simple face and gave her pointy ears and "floaty hair". These strips of hair gave me the areas to "tangle" in...

 I took a fine nibbed pen and doodled like a maniac.

I have to say I was in awe of the people who practice this skill before I started...I am TOTALLY impressed now!!!

I chose a simple colour palette, 2 greens and 2 blues for her hair...

and combined them to colour the background.

After 2 weeks of quick sketching, this was an amazingly intense experience(though staring at black on white for 2 hours made me feel a little ill)

I am counting this piece for my "A Piece a Week" and my "Weekly Face on Wednesday"

Enjoy :D XXX

Sometimes I even scare myself!!!

For my next batch of "29 Faces for September" I decided (along with a group of other artists) to try a self portrait.....SCARY!!!!!

I had to take the only mirror I have off the bedroom wall and place it on my work desk lol. I was going to use photos, but I do like a challenge :D

Add to that mix "only doing 10min biro sketches and oil pastels (without an under sketch) and you have to ask yourselves...."what kind of masochist is this woman!!!??" 

 Face no.12 (piggy eyes)

 Face no.13 (sunglasses)

Face no.14 (hubby wanted to know why I'd given myself a moustache)

Face no.15 (looks about 90)

To take a break from drawing faces I then decided today I would get some cards made. I usually start with a blank card and no idea where I am going, but I wanted to make a good batch(32 cards in total). This is when pre-printed kits come into their own.

 I had bought a set of 32 printed Beatrix Potter cards(cos I loves anything BP). The artwork is soooo gorgeous I didn't want to put anything on it, but then they wouldn't be handmade cards to sell would they.

 I also recently purchased a whole 12x12 book of die-cut frames from Create and Craft, and a sentiment die by Tonic.

The frames are mirror card, but plain, so I put them through my embossing machine to "fancify" them :D

I also have BP CDs from Crafter's Companion, and used those to print out matching inserts for each card.

I used a mixture of sentiments cut from glitter card and peel-off stickers I have had FOREVER.

I love the clean and simple effect, a total change from my usual style of mating and layering. I used to think using pre printed card bases was a bit of a cheat, but I grew up and got over myself. Who wouldn't want to play with such fantastic images????

So now I have 16 6x6 and 16 A5 cards ready to sell on my craft stall....

and for Manon's Paper Saturdays Challenge lol

Enjoy :D XXX

P.S.    I did not pay the prices you will see in the links, I buy stuff randomly through the year when I see them on sale lol (hence the room full of stash)

On the face of it....

I don't appear to have been arting much lately...truth is I have been arting a lot!!! Which is why I haven't been blogging so much. 

I decided to join Ayala Art's for several challenges this summer, and now I am joining in her 29 Faces for September (again lol)

To add to the challenge I decided to use oil pastels, which are(were) one of my least favourite mediums....

so here are the first 5 faces I did for this month...

 (close up to show blending and paper texture)

I actually got to quite liking the speed with which you can work in oil pastel, but mine were way cheap. I have ordered a selection of other brands to try out(before buying the top range)

While waiting for these to arrive, I have changed up my style and am now working on quick sketches with Biro/Bic pen

This is a great exercise as you can't rub out lol, but a fabulous medium for "describing" fine curly hair :D

And just to be awkward, on one day I shared a page from my sketchbook, showing how I "collect" expressions from magazine photos

If this is too much for you to handle, why not join Darcy for her Weekly Face on Wednesday spot?

And all this while working on several other projects I will share at a later date (including card making *phew*)

Enjoy :D XXX

The final solution :D

Well here are the final pieces for Ayala Arts 29 Faces in September, and yet again I have to thank Martha for this fabulously inspiring challenge :D

I actually had to make 32 faces in total, or the puzzles would not have been complete :D

and it turned out, putting the puzzles together with the wrong side up was far easier than with the colourful randomness showing. This meant I got to be surprised by the outcome too, as I truly did pick and colour randomly, so the faces could have been anyway round on the finished pieces :D

So here are the completed puzzles....

I had edged all the pieces with black so that the faces would stand out...

haha...my fav bit is that the curly haired woman is actually staring down the crocodile's throat :D

...and the alien is enjoying having his eyeball nibbled on :D

I am really quite pleased with the overall effect, as it doesn't matter which way round they are...I may , however, now have to do one "properly", just to see how it looks :D

Hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did :D XXX

The Jig is nearly up!!!

OMG!!!! Can't believe that it is nearly time to complete Ayala Art's 29 Faces in September challenge  !!!

...and I FORGOT to blog them all !!!!

So buckle up folks...16 pieces to view!

I loaded them all at once, and blogger has randomised them :S

...so there is no point in numbering them here :(

Only 3 more pieces for the challenge, but I need 32 pieces in total to re build the puzzles, so I will get sorted and post the completed panels on Saturday...can't wait to see how they turn out :D

Enjoy :D XXX