Indian Groom

Finished the Indian Groom portrait! Finally! It took me quite some time, but I'm very pleased with the outcome. I hope the commissioner will be, too ^_^

Indian Groom
Acrylics on canvas
60 x 50 cm

New Studio

Whoohooo! My new studio is done! I'm very much in love with it. As well as with my husband, who helped to make this possible. Yay!

Excuse the wonkiness, I used Photomerge ;)

Journal Spread 6

Trying to mix fine art with mixed media. I really want this to take a couple of steps further, but for now, this was a fun experiment. 

Inspire Create
Mixed media on journal spread

Indian Groom WIP5

Fixed up the face. I actually quite like it. And after just two tries! I'm getting there, yay!

Indian Groom WIP5
Acrylics on canvas
50 x 60 cm

Wedding Gift

A former colleague got married and is pregnant, so I made her a little something.

Love
Acrylics and yarn on canvas
Three times 10 x 10 cm

Indian Groom and Tiny Still Lifes

Feeling productive today! Other than creating art, I also formulated plans to rearrange my studio. I hope I'll be able to switch more easily between projects then, since I do both fine art as well as crafting.

Lots of fun and energy!

Teeny Tiny Still Lifes
Cobra oil paints on mini canvasses

Indian Groom WIP

Acrylics on canvas

60 x 50 cm

Art Journal Fun

Having fun in my journal! Still trying out new toys and techniques, but also getting rid of some ideas. I hope to turn some of these spreads into canvas art at some point.

Mixed media, too many to name, but I will tell you that the coffee was done with soft pastels. In case you were wondering :)

Imagination is more important than Knowledge
Mixed media on journal spread

Morning Coffee
Mixed media on journal spread

Art is Messy

Made another journal spread: Art is Messy, because, well, it is! Since I discovered ink misters, and the Distress ink range, my hands look like a mess all the time. And gosh, I love it!

Art is Messy
Mixed Media on journal spread (handmade paper)

Valentine Tag Walkthrough

Made a Valentine's Tag, inspired by 12 Tags of 2013 - February, over at Tim Holtz's blog. I'm not sure I followed the rules, but the stamp that's used in the example is one that I don't have. And since I have spent way too much money on new supplies recently (there was an awesome arts & crafts fair here in NL not too long ago), I couldn't afford to buy the queen of hearts stamp. So I improvised! 

Most of the supplies you will see here are new and bought at the fair. Now, down to business! (Scroll down to see the end result.)

Valentine's Tag

#8 Manila tag dragged through Distress Inks.
Colors: Fired Brick, Tattered Rose, Spun Sugar.

Distressed the sides with the distresser
and colored them with the blending tool and Fired Brick.

Added Script to the background with Distress Ink Fired Brick.

Created a label from pink card stock and punched a heart from it.
Stamped hearts on that same card stock and cut them out. 

Colored a piece of string, because the original color
of the string didn't fit the color scheme I was working with.

Because I don't have stamps in the Blue Print line (yet),
I decided to draw my own and colored it with Copic markers.

I glued the separate elements on the tag.

Because I felt that the colored hearts didn't
fit the color scheme and because I wanted to ad
some glitter, I went over them with
Twinkling H2Os: Jasmine and Love Struck.

I also added the string and glued hearts at
the ends, because the ends were ugly looking.

Finally, I added a string with beads to the top.

New Toys and Productivity

Been playing around with my new toys. That is to say, all the stuff I bought on a 'local' arts & crafts fair. I spent so much money there, it's not even funny anymore. But it's awesome to play around with all my new supplies. As the images below testify :)

Love and Art
Journal spread
Mixed media: Acrylics, collage, stamps

Turn and Turn
Journal spread
Mixed media: Ink misters, acrylics,
water-soluble crayons, stencils, stamps, label

Wonder Always
ATC
Mixed media: Ink misters, acrylics,
water-soluble crayons, stamps

Indian Bride II

Finished it! And I'm actually happy with the results. Yay!

Indian Bride II
Acrylics on canvas
60 x 50 cm

January Art Envelope

Trying my hand at creating art videos. I love watching them, so I thought, why not make them myself as well? Maybe they'll be useful to others.

Anyway, since it's only a try-out, this one is just about adding a bit of text to a previously created altered envelope. Hope you like it anyway!

January Altered Envelope
Mixed media on envelope
A5

Indian Bride III WIP

Added more details. I like how it's turning out, finally!

Indian Bride II
Work in progress
Acrylics on canvas

Address tags

Joined the Art-a-thon over at illustratedatcs.com and made two address tags. I have currently collected 4 addresses of other traders and the ring I put them on is way too big, so it looks rather sad. Hence me making tags instead of ATCs.

The Mentalist and Husky
Acrylics on watercolor paper
2,5 x 3 in

Slight changes

Just some slight changes, visible in the close-up. Didn't have much time to do more, unfortunately. I started with gold paint on her dress and added details to her veil and armbands. I hope I can get more done tomorrow.

Indian Bride II (detail)
Acrylics on canvas

Courage

Finally found the courage to continue. Portraits are hard! But also fun and a very good teacher in many ways. I should keep that in mind next time I get the jibbers ;)

Indian Bride II (WIP)
Acrylics on canvas
50 x 60 cm

Who Are You?

Joined the online workshop Who are you? and this is the result! Had a lot of fun doing them!

Sketches on canvas
10 x 10 cm

Live Laugh Love
Acrylics and mixed media on canvas
Three times 10 x 10 cm 

Plein inside

Tried doing some en plein air painting, but it was way too windy (stupid coastal area...), so I went about it slightly differently ;)

Upper sketch: soft pastels
Lower sketch: Artbars & white acrylics
Painting right: Cobra oil paints

Indian Bride II

Working on a second portrait. Another Indian bride. I love how much I learn from these!

Indian Bride II - step-by-step
Acrylics on canvas
50 x 60 cm

Step 1: Sketched a rough outline on the canvas.

Step 2: Filled in the background color with one color, to hold the painting together. In some areas the background color will show through, creating a whole. When it was dry, I drew the figure in more detail.

Step 3: Blocked in the red parts of her dress, keeping shadows and (high)lights into account.

Step 4: Blocked in her veil, again accounting for darker and lighter areas. The veil is translucent, making it very hard to paint. I will likely come back to it at a later stage.

Lionrock

Finished it! Happy with it, too. It's stylized and I need to practice more to make it more alive, but I'm getting there.

Lionrock
Oil on canvas