Life Book 2014 - Spray Ink Love

 

Six weeks of 2014 have already flown by!  I remember thinking how awesome it was that I had 6 whole weeks to do nothing but paint and play and now I have two more weeks and I am back to school!

This week's lesson was with Tamara LaPorte where she showed us how to do a side profile potrait and taught us some new techniques with ink sprays.   My ink play didn't turn out how I wanted it to, but I am happy with the effect that I got.

I loved the portrait style.  I was surprised at how quickly I was able to put my brush down and feel like she was finished.  Although Tamara spent a lot more time to achieve a stronger sense of shadow and highlights, I was content with the very minimal, soft effect that I created after very few brush strokes.  I also love how the speckles of the ink spray have come through to look like freckles!

In her hair is a celebration of our positive qualities. Still not thrilled about my handwriting but happier with this attempt at lettering than the last page.

Life Book 2014 - Sugar Sugar

 

Week 5 of Life Book 2014 is with Marieke Blokland.  Her theme was all things sweet!  Candy, chocolate, cakes and lollipops with the thought being that these represent the sweet things in your life. 

I went in a slightly different direction and used my page to highlight the struggle between making the right dietary choices, and the promise that one day the right choice will also be the easy choice.  I wish I liked my handwriting more!

Life Book 2014 - Be True To You

 

Week 4 of Life Book 2014 is with Kelly Hoernig.  She tasked us with creating a mixed media piece incorporating three things that we love and if possible including our word and colour for the year.  The three things I chose were comic books, pop art and quotes by famous people.

I was really happy with how this piece came together.  I got to incorporate my word for the year (forgiveness) and my colour (orange).  I used sprays to give the pixelated/printed look that Roy Lichtenstein is so famous for (called Ben-Day dots) and amplified that further with over sized white dots to add contrast and interest.

Life Book 2014 - A Happy Affirmation

 

The theme for Life Book 2014: Week 2 is "A Happy Affirmation" with Micki Wilde and is intended to be a quick, fun representation of the things we want more of this year.  Painted on Strathmore mixed media paper with watercolour pastels, pencils and ink.

Life Book 2014 - Inner Artist Guardian

This is the first project for Life Book 2014, the Inner Artist Guardian.  She is the protector of my artistic freedom and is there to protect me from my inner critic.  Through a guided meditation we were also led to discover our colour for the year.  I was very surprised to find my colour was orange as it's not a colour I ever really use, nor wear.   I was not at all surprised to discover that my word for the year is forgiveness!

This year for Life Book I decided to do all my work in a Strathmore Mixed Media journal.  The page is prepped with gesso and then drawn with graphite and coloured with Caran d'Ache watercolour crayons. The above is a scan of the original, for the life of me I could not photograph it without the reflective elements taking over!