Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Chunky mini Owl Canvas

I was going to paint a card for  my daughter for her recent birthday and instead I did this 6x6 inch chunky mini canvas. 

It is up on the Helmar blog today, so hope you pop over there
 and see all the details.  

Have a great day
Vicki-Ann :)

Teams I design for

Monday, August 24, 2015

She wanted to see the beauty...

I had to have another go at another girl today. I wanted to try to do hair a bit better. After looking at a few pins on Pinterest on how to draw hair. I saw that hair has wispy bits, yep of course it does. I had just never thought about that before. So many bits to a face until you go to draw or paint one you never think about.


I used DecoArt Americana paints in Ocean Blue and Vivid Violet for the background and used a brayer to paint it on. Then I used a stencil with Lemon Yellow for all the little flowers. I doodled around them with my black and white pen adding little highlights and dashes. Then it was time to draw my girl. I drew her then painted her in with DecoArt Media line Gesso so the next layers of colours stand out better. I used Deep Burgundy for her hair and then Flesh tone for her face with a tiny bit of the Deep Burgundy mixed into the Flesh tone to add some dimension to her face. I highlighted her nose and eyes with my white signo pen. Added little lines of black with my black pen, in her hair to add depth. I have been sketching a lot in a new small sketch book. Think all the eyes and faces I have been practicing drawing are really helping me to get more confidence with faces. 

Have a great day
Sandy :) 

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Lettering...

Today I wanted to play around with a different style of lettering. I think I got the hang of it and it did get easier to do once I got to the last letters.  I picked a big quote on purpose. Then I just kind of fit my quote around the flower and the girl. 


I am getting the hang of people, highlighting bits of the face and hair. (hair, oh hair how you thwart me.) Oh well practice, practice and then a bit more practice. I used Neocolor II for this and my water brush. I wanted to see how the Neocolor II went in my Moleskine without adding any Gesso first. To see how it would handle the water. Well I was really quite happy with the way it worked. I used Paint pens and black pen for the letters. Little spots in the background are from the France Papillon design cube and distress ink in Peacock feathers.

Have a great day
Sandy :)

Friday, August 14, 2015

Inspired...


I get together with a few friends on a Friday morning and we chat and we work on all different things. I always seem to work in my moleskine art journal and am getting quite good at taking everything I need in a small case. The first thing is though you have to know what colours and stencils you are going to need. So I kind of always have some idea of what I am wanting to make before I pack my case. Well I love the way Nika in Wonderland recently did a face and how it was peeking out from the stars. So as I have the star stencil I thought I would draw a face and have a go at that one too. If you want to see Nika's she has a wonderful youtube tutorial. Nika only has hers on one page and my book is always a 2 page spread its just the way I have found I like to work. So I wont go into too much detail today as Nika's Tutorial will show you everything you need to know. Isn't it fun though to see something and then try and do it in your own little way. I learn so much from Youtube. 

Going to link this up at Paint Party Friday.. 

Have a great day
Sandy :) 

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Inner Child...


Another art journal page finished in my Moleskine today. This is another of my characters I liked that I did in my other Artstronaut club journal. I copied a few of them on my printer, they are made from bits and pieces of the wonderful collage sheets that are a part of the club. This time I went bright using DecoArt Americana Turquoise Blue, Vivid Violet in the background, then some Brilliant Red in the circles. I used my finger in some Snow white and just gave them each a little highlight. It was tricky when the circles got so tiny up on the left. Used the Andy Skinner stencil, Have your say for the white letters. Bit of stamping with a couple of stamps here and there. Then lots of splatters in watered down DecoArt Media line Gesso. Splatters are fun, they seem to bring it all together. I went around all the circles with my black Stabilo pencil then with the waterbrush to darken. Then around them again in black pen and doodling with a bit of the white signo pen. Just trying to add depth and interest.  Around the main character and his bit of collage that he is standing on, I used a Neocolour II and then rubbed it in to blend out with my finger. 
I am going to enter this in a challenge this month for the group on facebook that I am in called Mixing it up every day.. You have to use your fingers to paint an art journal page. Looking forward to seeing what everyone is going to create. 

Have a great day
Sandy :)

Friday, August 7, 2015

Inner Voice...


I thought I would copy one of the characters I liked that I did in my other Artstronaut club journal on my printer. She is made from bits and pieces of the wonderful collage sheets that are a part of the club. Thought she deserved her own art journal page. I picked this one because I really like the tan colours that she is. I thought I would challenge myself to work in another set of colours and not the brights that I have been sort of stuck on. I started with the torn up pattern papers. I tore them roughly and then used Decoupage matte glue to adhere them in three spots. Then I blended the colours over the top of them so they were not just sitting on top. I used DecoArt Americana Burnt Sienna and Flesh Tone and blended them together. Then I used the Deep Burgundy with the Andy Skinner stencil Shedder. I had not used these colours and I really like the way they worked together. I then used the Andy Skinner Industrial Elements stencil and stenciled the arrow and the chevrons in Lamp Black. The words are from Dina Wakley affirmations stencil. Some Washi tape alphabet tape and then my main image was glued on. I went around her with NeocolourII and rubbed it in with my finger just to blend her into the page a bit.  
I was pleased with this one it was a lovely change to go with the brown darker colour scheme. 

Linking this up over at Paint Party Friday hi everyone..

Have a great day
Sandy :)

Monday, August 3, 2015

Index Card A Day Week Seven...

I have been playing along with the Index card a day prompts and this is the Seventh week done. More info on what ICAD - Index Card a Day is check out all the info over at Tammy's. Tammy has it all sorted and so organised, just pop over to Daisy Yellow. Join in the fun as there is no rules. You don't have to follow the prompts you can just do your own thing. The point is to just do a little Index card art every day and have fun along the way. 
No 44 Focus or Blur
I had this butterfly on my desk, I had used it to mask something in an art journal page that I had been working on and it was just sitting there. So thought once I saw it that it was perfect for a focus prompt. I also had that background the butterfly is sitting on. I had used it to stamp a frame stamp to see if it was inked up. So I just glued the butterfly on top of it. Painted the Index Card with left over DecoArt paint. Most of my painted backgrounds on index cards are left over paint. 

  No 45 No Prompt
This one the background was from my little Gelli plate.  
The hat was a light fitting in a catalogue. 
Clock tummy and my hand drawn arms. The artstronaut club collage sheet leftovers for the numbers at the side. 

  No 46 No Prompt
I did this on a art journal page and had fun
 so just kept going on an index card. 

 No 47 No Prompt
I really like drawing pipes. So this was a fun one to draw. I am always trying to draw different little people. 


 No 48 No Prompt
Flowers can never have too many flower ICAD's.

 No 49 Black and White
Zendangle time.

No 50 Kimono
I drew her and she just looked so lonely on the plain background of the ICAD.
So I used some pretty paper and glued it onto another ICAD card. Fussy cut her out and glued her on. 

Tammy made us cool badges so had to pop this one on my blog..

So hope you like my week of ICAD cards its fun and I am still going even though a lot of people are finished. The ICAD still runs till the end of August. So will finish mine off only have 8 more to go. Some of the last ones look like fun to do so off to do week 54 envelope. 

Have a great day
Sandy :)

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Do more of what you love...

Today I was painting in my Moleskine art journal and using all my favourite colours at the moment. DecoArt Americana Orange Flame, Sea Breeze, Lemon Yellow and this time I added some Petal Pink. 


I started by using some book paper for the flower centres. I just cut round circles and of course there had to be three. I also cut some loopy, swirly cut outs and glued 2 of those on.  I painted the centres of the flowers orange and then got my finger in some white paint and swirled. Did the same thing with the loopy cut outs. I then brushed on the background in the Lemon yellow and the Sea Breeze. Roughly drew some flower petals and painted inside them in pink. I went around the petals with the stabillo pencil adding water to darken and then some doodling with black pen and a Unibal signo white pen. I grabbed some stencils and added some more of the Orange Flame and then some little circles with a Finibar stencil in Snow (Titanium) White. I added some more doodling around some of the stenciling in pens, just to pop them a bit. I was going to glue the words on with one of my pre printed quotes but thought this time I would write it on. So on went the words. Do more of what you love.
Over in a group I am in on Facebook called Mixing it up every day we are having an art journal page challenge. So I am going to link this up. Come and join in on the fun over on Facebook it is a great little group and its all very welcoming and fabulous to see what everyone is making.

Have a great day
Sandy :)

Drawing...

 I just realised something this morning. I have been drawing these guys for months and have been popping them on instagram but I have never popped them on my blog. So here is a blog post about all my little Kawaii characters and some other guys.  

I drew this big bear yesterday and then thought he so needed lots of little friends. I find I just doodle these guys now and that I love to figure out how they all just link together. They peek out and have all sorts of different expressions. 

This bookmark was from a tutorial from Pic candle on Youtube where I first discovered Kawaii characters. Of course I had to add a couple of different ones. 


This was my first effort at drawing Kawaii and it's when I discovered they were such awesome fun to draw. 

These were inspired by Tracy Moore. I love being in The Artstronauts Club there is always something different to see. Teesha gave us all these collage sheets of Tracy's drawings and I just love to draw some of his little characters with the one eye. I love adding the little details and it's probably why my bear at the top has little spots and marks. 
There is a link to instagram up the top of the page on the right if you would like to follow me on there. I am @sandybeachart hope to see you there. 

Have a great day
Sandy :)