Series: Artful Academy 2020 journal #12 The prompt I chose for this page was boundaries. Walls, fences, hedges, doors and gates have always interested me. Even here, in a very urban environment, the sheer variety in the walls and fences separating the houses from the pavements just on a single road is remarkable. Boundaries are… Continue reading Artful Academy journal – November
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #04 This one definitely falls into the category of art journal rather than art. There are plenty of things that, individually, I like about it, but as a whole, it is missing a lot of contrast and my attempts to add shading around some elements helped but didn't fix the problem. The… Continue reading Wanderlust: dandelion
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #03 Along with the weekly classes, Wanderlust also has a handful of bonus lessons from some of the guest instructors — absolutely none of which I got around to before the main course started. So, after finishing the garden of wishes lesson, I thought I'd have a quick look and see if… Continue reading Wanderlust: scribbly tiles
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #02 This was one of the lessons I was most looking forward to and to have it come so early in the course was a super motivational bonus — no abandoning everything after the first week... I love Laly Mille's style and, while the soft, romantic feel is not necessarily what I… Continue reading Wanderlust: garden of wishes
Series: Wanderlust 2021 #01 On a bit of a whim, I signed up for Wanderlust 2021 last September. I took part in Wanderlust 2019 and got about half-way through before losing focus so I hadn't planned on doing it again. But then I started getting the early bird offers and thought "why not?". After all… Continue reading Wanderlust: shells
Series: Artful Academy 2020 journal #11 Just as I got all caught up with the free art journalling challenge from Artful Academy, the rest of the year's lessons were cancelled. 2020 messed with everyone's plans and the last three months' prompts were another small thing that fell by the wayside. After a brief moment of… Continue reading Artful Academy journal – October
Alongside creating the abstract landscapes and this canvas, Laly Mille also wanted us to start to identify our art language — the colours, mark-making, textures, materials, formats and compositions that resonate. I'm starting to get a feel for the colours I like working with and texture is definitely something that is important to me. Mark-making… Continue reading Artist Soul canvas
At the end of October, Laly Mille ran The Artist Soul online retreat, a short course packed with inspiration for creating abstract artworks. I am a fan of Laly's art style and have created a couple of pieces based on classes she has run before: river and rocks from Wanderlust 2019 and the more recent… Continue reading Artist Soul abstract landscapes
Series: Mandala Makers 2020 #3 After going back to black and white basics for week two of Rachel Evans White’s free Mandala Makers 2020 class, week three drew inspiration from natural forms, reintroduced colour, and used the mandala as a frame for text. Once again, I am making no effort to plan these designs, I… Continue reading Mandala #3
Series: Mandala Makers 2020 #2 After creating the colourful mandala for week one of Rachel Evans White’s free Mandala Makers 2020 class, week two went back to basics with black and white. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially considering I had absolutely no plan at all at the start. In some ways… Continue reading Mandala #2
When I made the butterfly grid, I had a few squares and butterflies left over. I decided to make some simple panels with them which could either be framed as is, or turned into cards with the addition of a sentiment banner underneath the painted square. The kraft squares were looking a bit too clean… Continue reading Butterfly drips
Back in October I joined in with the Lifebook 2021 taster sessions. I wouldn't take the full course because there is quite a focus on mixed media portraiture and figure paintings — something I'm happy to have the occasional play with but it's never going to be my go-to subject matter. But there were some… Continue reading Butterfly grid
Another leaf. After the success of the first leaf, I decided to have a go at painting another of the pressed leaves in my stash. This time I changed up the style, dividing the leaf into blocks and choosing some brighter colours. I had a vague memory of there being a rule about the minimum… Continue reading Patchwork painted leaf
The final project from the Artful Academy Visible Image Mini Collection. This tag was inspired by the lesson from Veerle Moreels; I've always liked Veerle's style and borrowed a design from her for some of last year's Christmas cards. [Previous projects from this class include butterflies, Stampbord owls, a dragonfly and a hummingbird.] There are… Continue reading Artful Academy butterfly tag
Every month we get a subscription to ScrawlrBox. Every month they have a themed challenge to make something with just the contents of the box. And almost every month the supplies end up being added to my stash to be used at some point. The one exception was when I actually grabbed the soft pastels… Continue reading Squiggle and stripes
Crafty Rat 