Silver Fox

Consider yourself extremely lucky if you catch a glimpse of this silver fox, folklore says she takes on human appearance from dusk until dawn and lives on the edge of an enchanted forest. She can be quite mischievous and likes to play hide and seek. You have to have your wits about you as she moves swiftly under the cover of night.

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As another year draws to a rapid close, it is often a time of reflection. For my family and me it has been a year of ups and downs. Recent events around the world have also saddened me to the core. I really think I have gained some silver hairs along the way!

I much prefer to dwell on the happier moments, what can I say, I am a glass half-full type of person. The wonderful news of a new baby nephew born before Christmas was one of the highlights. I am very grateful for the love, support and help of family and friends, far and wide. A simple 'How are you doing?' or 'Are you ok?' Was enough to see me through some of the difficult times.

My wish for you and your family is for a healthy, happy and peaceful 2016! Remember to hold your loved ones a little tighter, tell them you love them often, be grateful for the little things, always be kind to one another and embrace life!

Until next time, Happy Creating!

Christmas Party Season

With the Christmas party season around the corner I thought I would share this fun app you can download to your smart device called Motion Portrait. It allows you to create cool and quirky animated effects with photos or illustrations. It's amazing seeing your artwork come to life! I had to play around with a few of my images, this one of the Koala gave me the best effect. You can even make your character talk but that was a little freaky!

It also takes screen shots.

I have to admit this app gave lots of giggles and laughs, have you tried it yet?

Until next time, Happy Creating!

Halloween - Scaredy Cat

In the last month, I have been cleaning out the cobwebs so to speak. A change of diet has seen me sort and reorganise the food pantry. Some of the recommended dietary drinks and shakes would raise the hair on anyone's head, I can tell you!! Yes lots of concoctions (love that word) were a brewing.

The paint brush and rollers were out again to redecorate and bring a new freshness to one of the rooms and I am happy to say looking very summery. Here in the southern hemisphere we are waving good bye to the spring and welcoming in the summer. Although Halloween and Christmas always play tricks on my brain, thinking it should be a lot colder.

As mentioned in the previous post I went ahead and made a polymer clay piece for Halloween. I thought it would be fun to make scaredy cat on a Halloween pumpkin, from a sketch I did a while back. I had to change the facial expression slightly to show up more on the black.

Scaredy cat on a Halloween pumpkin was painted in acrylics with a little glossy accent on the eyes of the cat. It's rather cute in a kooky sort of way, don't you think?

Have you made or created any Halloween projects? I would love to hear about them.

Until next time, Have a Spooktacular Halloween!

Collaboration Time

In the last few weeks, I have been working on a couple of projects with my good friend Michelle. As mentioned in the previous post "Sculptures", one of the projects is a mini sculpture or 'diorama" box and is based on one of my illustrations "Ladybird on Strawberries".

Michelle creates adorable, unique and one of a kind fairy doors, fairy houses and tiny furniture out of polymer clay. Check out her Facebook page Inspired by Fae. Michelle sculpted the ladybird on strawberries, baked it and then handed it over to me for painting.

Once all the painting was finished, I glued the tendrils and the completed piece onto a similar watercolour background as in the original illustration.

I think we managed to get it pretty close to the original! It is cool to see one of my illustrations 'come out of the page' so to speak.

After a great afternoon of creativity, tips and chat, I went home with clay in hand to see what inspiration would come next. It is a long time since I have worked with polymer clay... but I think I can feel a Halloween piece coming on!

I have also just finished illustrating some tags for Michelle's shop. These will accompany the purchased items. 

I made a couple of small changes on the computer. How cute are they?

Now on to my next project! Time always seems to get away from me, or perhaps I have too many projects going on in the background! How about you? Do you have any creative projects you aim to complete before the end of this year?

Until next time, Happy Creating!

Sculptures

I hope you all have had a lovely weekend! I forgot to post these wonderful fun contemporary bronze sculptures by Gillie and Marc taken at one of our local shopping malls. I love the concept of these quirky sculptures and could see other shoppers were equally delighted by them. Which one is your favourite?

Paparazzi Dog

Michael "Dog" Jackson

Dorothy "Cat"

Arnie "Stag" Schwarzenegger

Dr. "Bear Evil"

Jessica "Rabbit" Rabbit

I have been involved in a collaboration with a little mini sculpture of sorts. More about that on an upcoming post.


Until next time, Happy Creating!

Sweet as Honey

The lovely Susan Wojtkowski from Irreversibly Moi has invited me back as one of the guest artists for the Fabulous and Free Art journaling Challenge. The theme is "Paint and Scraps".

My creation for the journal spread was inspired by a recent trip home to Ireland to care for a loved one. I came to realise even though our lives are very busy and it is a long way to travel from Australia, spending time with family is even more important in times of crises. My journal spread is about working together and looking at the positives to bring about the best possible outcome, instead of dwelling on the negatives.

Very often with mixed media, we are left with lots of paper scraps on our art table. Instead of throwing them in the garbage, I wanted to show how to incorporate even the smallest of paper scraps into the artwork. I thought warm earth tones would really suit the feel of this art journal spread.

I brought out an old favourite in the form of a synthetic sponge to create the background. It is not only quick but gives a real honeycomb look, don't you think? 

I went through my folder of scrap paper searching for papers with lots of texture and interest to suit my hexagonal pieces. I even included three hexagonal pieces cut from dictionary pages that have the words and descriptions for Change, Family and Time. Brown watercolour marker created a shadow and made the pieces stand out more.

After stamping with script stamps, I spread textured paste mixed with acrylic paint randomly over the pages and squished my hexagonal cut scrap pieces into a honeycomb pattern.

The bumble bee girl was painted with acrylics and watersoluble crayons. Details on her beehive hat were enhanced with a watercolour marker. I added flecks of metallic blue in her eyes. I thought giving her blue eyes would be a nice contrast to the warmer tones of the overall spread. The feelers were added to her beehive hat as a cute accessory. Back to the dictionary pages for her wings, which includes words associated with the bumble bee and then a light blush of colour completes them.

Once the girl was finished, I went around the double page spread stencilling flowers with acrylic paint. Hole punch scraps in various sizes were used for the middle of several of the flowers. On the first page, I stuck down the bumble bee and honey bee silhouettes adding some embossing powder to mimic pollen. On the opposite page, I drew three honey bees buzzing around the girl and outlined them with a black marker. 

I painted some oozing honey and then exaggerated the drips with sepia mod podge dimensional magic. After transferring the quote and going over it with a black marker, I gave sparkle to the painted dots around the pages with a gold paint marker.

So there you have my "Paint and Scraps" challenge creation. Also you have an excuse for not throwing out all those paper scraps, magazine pages or old book pages! I love how all the layers turned out, there is something to savour in every texture and element. I hope you like it too.

Until next time, Happy Creating!

Frida in Full Bloom

Look what I managed to get my hands on...an edition of the 'Womankind' magazine featuring Frida Kahlo! Isn't the cover just glorious? It was created by the remarkable illustrator and visual designer Charles Tsevis. I only recently discovered this new magazine; Frida is issue #4. To quote Nicola Medrano on the Womankind magazine Facebook page "It is filled with interesting, thought provoking, inspirational articles and presented beautifully". I couldn't agree more! It is a beautifully-designed, ad-free magazine for women.

My sister introduced me to the wonderful art of Frida Kahlo many years ago. I fell in love with Frida's surreal self-portraits, her intense stare and striking look, and was captivated with her extraordinary story. Really, I actually bought this magazine as a gift for my sister - but not before I took a five minute break to have a flick through its pages. Shhh! Don't tell her! After all, its share and share alike I say!

Issue #5 is available now at the newsstands and I couldn't pass it by, I just had to buy it. The cover art, another exquisite Charles Tsevis mosaic, is filled with Celtic and Irish symbols and objects. How could I resist?

I am looking forward to putting my feet up and reading the magazine at leisure over the weekend. I hope you also manage to get some time to relax and take pleasure in doing something just for you!

Is Womankind magazine available where you live? If you have had the opportunity to read any of the issues I would really love to read your feedback.

Until Next time, Happy Creating!

Watching Clouds

Well...It has been an exhausting and exhilarating two months. I am back in Australia; the trip home to Ireland was not for leisure but to spend quality time with a loved one who is still recovering in hospital. There were very sad times along with some heart warming moments, having the love and support of family and friends really helped.

I have always enjoyed walking by the banks of the river, parklands and woods near where I grew up. It is one of those places I liked to go and spend quiet reflective time. Listening to the sweet sound of the birds, the rush of the water over the rocks, the fragrance of wild flowers while embracing all the sights of the countryside. It's a pure delight for the senses.

I thought I would share photos where the inspiration came from on this trip to Ireland, for my illustration "Watching Clouds". It was hand drawn and painted digitally a couple of years ago and holds some lovely childhood memories for me.

 

Do you have a favourite place? Somewhere that holds a special place in your heart? I would really like to hear about it!

Enjoy the rest of your week.
Until next time, Happy Creating!