still of the night

i actually completed a spread in a day, start to finish. for me, this is an accomplishment! especially as it is that i have recently rediscovered my creative self less than a week ago. it wasn't all that bad though, i had already built the inspiration for this spread before i finished the last one. it makes things go much smoother when that muse is already flinging ideas.

i've seen whimsies done by many an artist but i had never tried onr myself. always putting it off, never brave enough. i knew it was going to have to be a whimsy. for those of you who do not know, a whimsy is a term i've seen used in the style of a whimsical girl.  features are exaggerated and/or diminished; big head/small body, big eyes/small lips, elongated necks and extended limbs. tamara laporte has a short offering on whimsy girls in her free online course; art, heart and healing. she also offers a class that i have been dying to take called, ultimate world of whimsy. this spread has sealed the deal,  i am buying that course as soon as i have money.

so then, i happened to be looking into another class that i actually have access to, which is christy tomlinson's she art workshop, for ideas on another spread. when i stumbled across the she art phrases pdf. i have found quite a few phrases that i'd like to build pages and/or cards around, this one included. i've also started rebuilding my lists of lyrics as i love to build pages around my favorite song lyrics or lyrics that mean something to me.

so, without further delay, to the art!

my large eyed whims-me girl

i knew my girl would need a companion.
i contemplated another doll or a pet and settled on a kitty.
we'll call him nermal.

sketch complete, time to start coloring!

 

here i've watercolored the girl, kitty, and moon;
and then i have touched them up with my prismacolor pencils and blender.

 

a collage is the first layer of the background.

 

a few layers have been added. on top of the collage is water color crayons.
on top of that is white acrylic paint. once that dried i stamped some images in black permaink.

 

this picture was snapped after a few more layers.
on top of the stamping i added another layer of watercolor crayons and an additional layer of white acrylics.
after the white had dried i prepared to have some fun!
i placed white and black down to mix into gray and added some purple and blue and i intend on using my trusty
old credit card to scrape the paint all over the place.

this is actually after quite a bit of pushing and pulling the ink around for a while and then wiping some layers to give it the look i wanted it to have.

 

the finished page after refining many of the lines, shading, highlighting, stamping and writing my phrase.

well let me just say that i loved drawing my whimsical girl! i actually have another spread on the next page that i started sketching while paint was drying on this page. i will share those later, perhaps tomorrow!

my phrase was "she loved the stillness of the night". i love this phrase, it totally applies to me. i will often slip outside into my darkened yard and just enjoy the quiet stillness that is the early morning hours.

between now and friday i am going to try to complete one more spread, but i don't expect to have any posts to share over the weekend. there may be art, if i find time.

and with that, i am off to bed!

goodnight moon.

 

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edited 12:52pm 9/17/15

after posting my picture on facebook a friend brought it to my attention that i had misspelled stillness. *insert sheepish grin*

so i've uploaded the fix. :)

see! i can spell, i promise. just not at 2 a.m.!

 

successful spilling

another late post. however, i feel rather accomplished, i have "spilled" daily and posted the results almost daily since the night i cleaned my desk off.

i've been busy tonight and i should be sleeping but i spent a relatively lazy sunday cat napping on the couch and watching football because i wasn't feeling well for the most part. so, now i'm not tired.

i have a few classes i've paid for and made very little headway on in the past two years, but i really didn't feel like taking on those challenges tonight. tonight i decided to tip-toe my way into a free class offered by the very awesome tamara laporte called art, heart, & healing in hopes of providing my brain with a much needed refresher of many very basic techniques.

well, here's what happened.
but first, for fun...

mmmmm a brand new knead-able eraser. you know you want to smell it!

the beginning of the first project requires one to write down all the things your inner critic says on one of the two pages of the spread. all those nasty hurtful things that make me feel a whole lot less like a barefoot glittery princess. i've shared the spread but only after covering the page with gesso, because, while i love to share my art with people (because if i can do it, so can you), i am much less keen on the idea of sharing just how nasty and mean my own inner critic can be. plus, the idea here is to write it down, get it out of your head, forgive the inner critic, and then cover it up with paint and make something beautiful out of it.

so, onward!

yay for putting the smack down on the inner critic.

opposite page of the spread is where i start my drawing. i am supposed to draw a girl that represents me. represents. she will not look anything like me.

ugh, i haven't drawn a face in over 3 years.

face complete, sorta...

i had A LOT of trouble with the nose, this trouble did not relent.

i really like to draw stylized and whimsical girls, so that is where i am headed.

yeah, mitten hands. what about it? i can barely draw a nose and you want hands? pshya!

so, my watercolor crayons, acrylics and i just aren't getting along whilst i shade this face. time for some... fun!

one of my FAVORITE mediums, prismacolor pencils and a blender.

after much more back and forth on the face, i reached a stopping point that i was relatively happy with. now you can see the direction i am going in.

done! (for tonight)

sure, she is far from perfect and there is A LOT of work to be done still. but i am a happy girl at the moment and my inner critic has been (mostly) quiet all night.