Working with others IS awesome!

Yesterday I told you I had been playing with my friend Jeanette to create original art pieces for each other.

Well this is the piece I sent back to her :D

We each worked on a background for the other to work onto(without telling each other anything about what we were using). We only knew what size piece we agreed to use...

and this is the scrummy, textured and painted background she gave me.

The scary part is making the first marks on someone else's work....but we both intended leaving parts of the background showing through, so I went for it lol

 Pencil lines sealed with medium to stop it blending, then a thin layer of white gesso to unify the background...

 and now it was just a case of picking colours from the base and building up layers.

 She just looked such a "bubbly" party girl :D

 I just couldn't bring myself to "lose" the bee on her nose lol.

 Every party girls needs bunny ears right, and a big butterfly bow ...

 I wanted to add something "behind" her to add a bit of perspective...

 so I picked out a big blousey flower...

 deepened the tone of the background with a thin glaze...

 and added highlights of white and gold

I just love this bubbly bunny girl, and am thrilled that Jeanette loves her too :D

I am counting her as my "Piece a Week" as though I painted her a couple of weeks ago I couldn't blog til we'd swapped.

And I am entering her in Manon's Paper Saturday Challenge

Enjoy :D XXX

Freefalling

This month's "Paint What You See" class over at One Little House ning encourages us to make a background using "found" objects...

I used a collection of bottletops....

and other textured bits and pieces to build the layers of background.

 and then "found" my figure.

 I "pulled" her out of the background using soluble pencils blended with gesso...

 adding depth to the background with a rich red to give contrast...

 and a little more white to highlight sections.

 Black inktense pencil softened with a little water to add detail.

The journalling reads;

Falling ....or Escaping????

Take control of YOUR LIFE

This is my "Piece A Week"

Enjoy :D XXX

Psst!..you didn't hear this from me right!

This weeks theme at Inspiration avenue is "Talk to the Animals"...

and this pair of dodgy characters appeared while I was painting today :D 

" A little bird told me..."

though who told the little bird is another story :D

Lots of layers to this piece, inspired again by Jeanette at One Little House ning, but this is class 04 from her Paint What You See class

Acrylic paint over masking tape(applied with fingers)...

picking out shapes with red paint and blue "circles"...

Sploshes of ink and dabs of white...

black pencil blended with matt medium...

and teeny pink dots with Martha Stewart stencil :D

...And now just paint what you see!

I saw a cigar smoking dog leaning over the shoulder of a little birdie :D

I think the birdie looks rather nervous about being caught talking to this particular animal, don't you? :D

I will be entering this as my Piece a Week for Rita, and Inspiration Avenues "Talk to the Animals challenge

Enjoy :D XXX

Ever have one of those days.....

So today I decided to work from Class 2 of "Paint what you see" from OHL ning, by Jeanette House.

This involved stamps and acrylic paint. Many people have suggested using bottle tops to stamp circles with, and I had a "meatball" tray which held possibilities :D

I made a smooshie acrylic paint base layer, over my usual textured gesso layer...

and went nuts with the stamping lol

I am not good at doing "free-flowing lines" (I end up drawing), so I dipped a piece of thread into black paint and just let it fall onto the page randomly...

and this is the finished background I ended up with :D

So now to "Paint what I saw"

I call her "Startled Cow"

She makes me smile like a loon.....she reminds me of those horrifyingly funny moments when you wake up suddenly and don't feel the right way up :D

(or am I the only one who gets those?)

She is my entry for this weeks A Piece a Week for Rita.

Enjoy :D XXX

A Little House full of fun :D

I haven't ever joined a paid for class before...but One Little House's "Paint What You See" class just called out to me, and this is the piece I have created from this months class.

I call it "Greek Tragedy"

(8x12 mixed media on 140lb watercolour paper)

I am posting minimal pics as it seems rude to give away the entire process from a paid for class, especially when the person is only charging to cover the costs of the site.

The title comes partly from the list of words I circled in one of the base layers...Knife/blood/kill/natural prey/ecological...I know, too much Vampire tv :D

This is the finished background base after all the layers were applied(yes you can steal it to use if you like, just don't mass print off to sell, that would be rude and bring down a nasty curse :D)

I then turned the piece as instructed til an image showed itself, and pencilled it in...

before over-painting with acrylics and craft paint

The "greek" bit of the title is because while painting(and when complete) it reminded me of the murals painted on ancient plaster walls depicting some huge battle or disaster, with people looking on, their faces frozen in horror and disbelief for all time.

Enjoy :D XXX