Inspired by Water and Moon

If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. ~Loren Eiseley

Watercolour Works

I'm sorry to make such a short posting today. I'm trying to shoo away a flu that found me this week. Besides resting I have actually painted a lot with watercolours. They are a meditative medium for me. :)

Harmillisesti tämäkin julkaisu tulee olemaan lyhyt, koska yritän taltuttaa flunssaa. Tällä viikolla, levon ohessa, olen nauttinut vesivärien hiljaisesta soljunnasta. :) Meditatiivista, vaikka paperi on ala-arvoista. Jospa taidetarvikeliikkeeseen pääsisi jo ensi viikolla...

A Face for Two Challenges

Here is the second face for the 29 faces challenge as well the first one for Teemakuu-challenge.

Tässä toiset kasvot 29 faces -haasteeseen. Samalla otan tällä työllä osaa Teemakuun 9 kasvot -haasteeseen. Jälkimmäinen haaste olikin minulle uusi tuttavuus. Jäin miettimään yhtä kysymystä: Voiko Teemakuuhun osallistua myös itse tehdyllä digipiirroksella vai tulisiko työt tehdä perinteisesti käsin?

Teemakuu 1/9: Our Moment / Hetki yhdessä
Kuvan kasvot saivat alkunsa, kun katselin teemukiani, ja ajattelin piirtää siinä olevan muumihahmon ihmismäisemmäksi. Alun perin Runoilijana tunnettu hahmo muuttui luonnosten välissä maalariksi, ja seurakin vaihtui Niiskuneidistä hiljaisen erämökin kissaneidiksi.

29 Faces 2014 #16, 17, 18 and 19

This evening I was somewhat tired and decided to amuse myself with some doodled faces.

I used black ink with very thin brush for drawing the characters and coloured them with watercolours.

Feeling little better - animal drawings can be fun! :) Also one gentleman included - he's probably amazed by why he's there - it's because of the moustache, of course!

#16: A friendly lop-eared bunny

#17: A cat named Safir

#18: An English gentleman

#19: A sleeping mermaid

It is soon bedtime for me - I'll try to dream about being mermaid. ;)
Thank for looking!

29 Faces 2014 #12 and #13

Continuing with some random new drawings...

Face #12:A dancing fairy. Aimed for ATC-size (2.5 x 3.5 inches) but result is about (6 x 8 inches).

Face #13: an ATC-card that didn't turn out as I had hoped, although it looks better on screen. :-)

29 Faces 2014 #10 and #11

Hello! I hope your Valentine's day is better than mine. I'm behind the schedule because got some kind of infection this week - My doctor gave some antibiotics but feeling weak anyway. Hopefully the doctor soon finds out what this infection is and whether I have the right medicine.

Well, I'm taking easy, and keeping things simple. Today I tried to continue the challenge by re-drawing two old pencil drawings of mine. Used colour pens on black paper.

Now back to bed - I hope I can catch up everyone soon! x

More Sketches of a Fairy Painting

Hello again! Last October was quite a stressful month in work so I've rested a lot and let blogging wait. Now was as good time as any to break the silence.

The only craft project I worked on was a painting for a Finnish drawing competition. I hope I have a chance to win some quality drawing products. ;-) I actually sketched a lot for it. Here's two pretty advanced sketches - one that is in my art journal, the other on a single sheet.

As you might guess I started with acrylic colours. It required a gesso-based background paper. I really wanted to work little details more. and enjoy some drawing, so I changed the medium.

This one is less dramatic but more interesting on details. I added some of them with oil pastels and watersoluble metallic pens. This paper is 200 g/m2 and recommended for mixed media but it couldn't absorb all the water. In nature the background colour actually looks as dull as in here. I'm glad I tested it so I knew the final work would require more heavier stuff.

I think I'll show the final work later. I'm not sure when I hear how the competition went, but I tell as soon as I can. :-)

Art Journal Tryouts

After last months intensive face painting & drawing I decided to take few days break from artist stuff.

But I have to confess that the break did not last long. ;) I have been trying out some new stuff on my art journal...
The gesso based pages are not made for watercolours but the effect looks fun!
The upper one has a thick gesso base and the lower a thin layer.

And I'm also preparing for Halloween-time... :)

29 Faces: the remaining ones

Time to publish the last faces of 29 Faces challenge. This month has gone more quickly than I thought. I've enjoyed the challenge very much! It gave me a reason to explore what I can do, more self-confidence and many interesting blogs to visit (also in future)! Big thanks to Ayala Art blog for making everything possible!

In this last post I show some experimental faces and present even the ones I don't like. But it's now or never to go for all the crazy ideas. :)

The process was unlike anything I normally do. I started with acrylic colours. First I spread two colours on a large plastic cover, and before they dried pressed a paper on top and lifted it quickly. Although I tried to create something that would look like a face, it went quite badly. In my second attempt I used only one colour. I spread a thick layer of it as evenly as possible and drew lines in wet ink before pressing a paper into it. That went more like I wanted - not a total mess.

#23: From the first attempt. Because it didn't look like a face, I painted the black and grey areas afterwards with liquid ink. Still, this just doesn't look good.

#24: Second attempt. The frail lines I drew with the wrong end of a paintbrush.

#25: Number 24 quickly redone with my cheap image editing program. Normally I use the program just for turning images straight... :)

#26: Another one from the second patch. Painted the lines with paintbrush and fingers.
Afterwards lifting the paper I saw the ink blots. Didn't mean to make her cry, sigh...

#27: The last one from the second patch. Tried to leave some areas unsharp.

 #28:Continued the #27 with acrylics that I thinned down with water. I really like how the undertone and texture are dimly visible. Even though the area of mouth looks odd this seems better than the original.

#29: Finally I present an experiment of another kind, one that cheers me up! I mixed up two medium, oil pastels and watercolours. I also spread the pastels with some linseed oil. (I think she looks a bit like Lena Headey, the actor of Cersei Lannister in GoT.)

Thank you for all who have been visiting and commenting! You have made my day more than once and been very supportive! I hope I'll see you around. :)

Faces of Nature

Glad to be back after lovely weekend!
I'm little late with the 29 Faces challenge, but fortunately inspiration still keeps flowing. :)

11th beastly face, a werewolf I guess...

12th, face of Spring:

13th, a feline face:

Drew these with watercolour pencils and spread colours with water.

Thank you for visiting, x

ATC - Inner Beauty

Woke today to intensive light coming through curtains - Spring is soon here I think! Can't wait to get outside. :)
But here's an ATC for these two challenges:

Inspire Me Fridays - Anything goes
Inspiration Avenue - Breast Cancer Awarenes

Inner Beauty Makes You Shine

I coloured the background paper with watercolours and orange gel roll pen. The woman I cut from an advertisement. The gleaming areas I created with gel roll pencils, plus a hologram sticker.

Wish you all a wonderful Saturday!

Lonely Mermaid

Hi!
Taking part to Sunday Postcard Art's challenge "Silhouettes". Very inspiring theme!

Here's my mermaid card:

For this card I used water based acrylic colours, water colours and water colour pencils. The mermaid I drew to transparent vellum and cut it to use as a sablon. Then I coloured the background paper with water colour, leaving some white between brush strokes. The algae I drew with the pencils. After this I applied different acrylic colours through the sablon. The shell is also made with acrylic colours, but just freehanded without planning ahead. Finally I spread some colour areas with water.

Thank you for looking.

Make a Wish

Here's my entry for Take a Word -challenge. Their theme for this week is Fantasy.

This ATC card is made with ink and watercolours.

I think the fairy and the bunny are making a wish for this year... What could it be?

Thanks for looking, x

Gaia

Here's my entry for Take a Word's challenge blue. I was inspired of different blue elements in nature...

Tea for fairies

I take part to Inspiration Avenue's challenge "Fairies".

I read also about their blog party, Fairies Tea Blog Party.
Maybe that's why the hot tea smells fairylicious? ;-)

This was the first time I participated for Inspiration Avenue. I think I'm gonna visit again to see other great challenges.

Thank you for looking!

Fly away with me

Here's my entry for two challenges...
Sunday Postcard Art: Quirky
That Craft Place: Things With Wings

The card size is 6 x 4 inches. I used watercolours and water-based metal colours for the picture, and some ink for the text.

Thank you for looking! x