I've Been Framed Guv!

Well actually I haven't personally but remember the painting of Amber, aka The Angel and The Unicorn?  The painting made it safely across the pond and yesterday I received an e-mail and a photograph of it nicely framed ready for a certain little girl's birthday.  I am actually quite proud of it and pleased that it has made someone else happy too.

As for my more recent canvas....that is still very much a work in progress.  I fell out of love with it big time.  The bead gel and the self leveling gel didn't give quite the effect I was aiming for.  However, having left it alone for a couple of days I started to tweak it last night.  I figured it wasn't going up on the wall as it was and seemed destined to go in the garbage anyhow so anything else I did to it couldn't make things any worse!  And would you believe I'm starting to like it.  Bit like Cathy the other day... her painting "got past the uglies", I now know exactly how she felt!  So that will be photographed when it is done.  Lastly I am just so excited to by starting Tam's on 17th.  I have got no less than 4 BIG canvases, 18 x 24 inches, and having never painted anything that size I can't wait....SO EXCITING!

Calling ALL Blogging Pals! FUNDRAISER!

Recently I came across a beautiful calendar made by Jessica Doyle on Etsy, showcasing her beautiful art work.  I have made calendars in the past, for family using photos, I think we've all done that from time to time.  Anyhow I got to thinking.  I have made some great friends here on blogger, some of us budding artists, some more established artists and you may also have seen a recent post on my other blog Simply Pleasures about Cathy Bueti.  Well, this idea I had, wouldn't it be great if we all got together and maybe 'donated' a picture of a piece of our own art and made it into a calendar to be sold and all the profit go to cancer research?

My wonderful brother, Jay, back in the UK is currently making me a template onto which I can insert said pictures as we blog!  Once done I can give specifications required for the picture.  If you would like to join me in raising some funds for much needed research into a disease which has touched most of us at some time in one way or another please either leave a comment, or e-mail me for further instructions!!  This message will self destruct....ha ha!  sorry  got carried away then!  I know it may seem like mission impossible so near to Christmas, but trust me I think we can pull this off!!!

An Experiment

Today I did my usual little bit of blog hopping and stumbled upon Cathy's latest post.  I too had signed up for Heart of Art, with Tam but as yet had not gotten round to doing anything.  The last two days I have met a creative block, two projects I had in mind were proving difficult for various reasons.  One project is something I simply sorta made up in my head but like all experiments things didn't work quite how I planned and I found I needed to put it to one-side until I was able to get to town again to get supplies.  The second one didn't even get to the experimental stage simply because when i found out what I needed to acheive the desired result I didn't have those either!

original photo of me!

Downhearted I started to watch one of Tam's tutorials, if i couldn't do what I wanted then at least I could learn something.  So inspired by what I watched I started to sketch a whimsical style face from a picture of me on the wall.  I quite liked the sketch and decided maybe I would try out some water color crayons I had been given.  Not wanting to waste my last canvas if it didn't work I decided to do it on watercolor paper.  i have used the crayons before but not properly with water.    A couple of hours later i emerged with this, feeling quite pleased!  It's not 'finished' by a long stretch but I am fairly happy with what I've learned from this piece:1. maybe next time try over Gesso on canvas; 2. be a little more confident with the crayons and the layering; 3. watch Tam's tutorial again to make sure there's no technique I've missed!  Of course I haven't even started the background, that's for the next one!  Also not sure of proportions, not quite right, but again next one!

First draft!

So...Thank you Cathy for inspiring me and thank you too to Tam for her lovely tutorials!  What a lovely lot of arty bloggy friends we have!