Painting 2 at last

It's taken a long time and I'm not sure if it's finished. I'm brave enough to put up a second painting and I feel ok about this one. I used more watercolours and water soluble crayons for the background and then added more printed tissue paper as this worked so well before. She was also done in my large white journal too which I like a lot. I've used my own words too this time. It was a "poem" that I wrote years ago about being alone. I used to write a lot on an American diary site called Diaryland, an easy, basic way for beginners to blog their thoughts. I wrote regularly there for around 5 years before going back to writing just in paper journals again. I did however keep a copy of the entries and some seem as potent now as they did when I was in my twenties.


For the workshop I seem to have stalled however. I have not moved onto Lesson 4 yet as I have no wood to paint on at the moment. I also feel that I need to stock up on supplies for Week 4 and simply do not have the funds for that now! I will have to compromise on some parts of this lesson I'm sure.

However I have been practising my faces and features and I'm so pleased that I have learned to draw such pretty girls. I did not imagine that I could have done that just a few weeks ago. I'm also really enjoying seeing the work done by the other members of the workshop. There are some outstanding paintings being produced that really fire my imagination. Such an inspiring group of people.

Mixed Media Beginnings

It has taken me a lot of time and a lot encouragement to get to this point. Thanks to Tara and Linda for their comments. I'm still not entirely happy with the result so far but I have made a start and been brave enough to post it! It seems very dark but that may have been a reflection of mood as much as anything.

So this is my Lesson 3 painting. The words are actually lyrics from a favourite Sarah McLachlan song. I found myself singing the line about not being a disappointment several days in a row and it seemed so appropriate somehow. I used the brilliant printing on tissue technique that Linda shared on her blog. It worked really well for me. I used lots of scraps of pink and red tissue. paper. I don't have glaze medium or transparent paints so I used acrylics first. I later used some watercolours and water soluble oil pastels for more colour. The fish stamp is one of only a few that I have but I love it. Maybe because I am a Pisces! I thought the painting would turn out to be a blustery day at the beach but this did not happen.



Anyway, it's a start.

Mixed Media Nightmare

I'm really struggling with the Mixed Media part of the Suzi Blu workshop. I'm not happy with any of the pages I have done and despite the time spent they look ridiculous. In one the paint is too thick and heavy and another just lacks a certain something. A certain Suzi something.
Even Suzi's fabulous videos apparently can't help. A part of me wants to blame my supplies, a lack of a stamp, or the wrong sort of paint. In my heart I know it's just that I'm not trusting myself to let go and experiment with the supplies that I do have.
I have to try and just have fun.
Instead I have paralysed myself with fear of making something awful - and that is what has happened.
So - no pictures today.

Modify for Illustration Friday

Lesson 3 of Suzi's workshop rolled up and as usual the videos were so inspiring. However I guess I just don't have any talent for mixed media. I am embarrassed by all my efforts and simply could not put them up here or even send them to Suzi for help. I'm not too down though today. I just wanted to have some fun, so that is what I am going to do, regardless of the results.

Illustration Friday gave me "modify". I wanted to draw how our hearts modify everything. All our wishes and dreams and fears and loves. Everything comes out different once it's been through the heart. It modifies everything. Well mine does anyway...