Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Hello again!

Hi there lovelies,

It has been a year since I last wrote a blog post. Time has flied! I had to let go of some of my interests for a bit as we moved to Saudi Arabia for a time to teach English. It was a crazy time for me and I was just not able to cope with teaching full time again and all the other things I used to do. Who new.

I am also just human and not a robot. :) Maybe something I also needed to realize. We tend to see ourselves as super woman and want to do it all. We just cannot. I am not sure if I would want to write a post about my Saudi adventure but even though I feel like it was the worst six months of my life, it also held some special moments and some new adventures. Emotionally I am still detoxing and trying to make sense of it all.

Due to all the sudden changes, I went through, I also just took a lot of time resting and doing absolutely nothing as much as I could. Well not nothing but in my mind, I was not being very productive. I spent time with my family and my husband. I caught up on lots and lots of sleep...not that you can really get back the lost sleep. Stress and lack of sleep took its toll on my body, so obviously, my mind also needed to rest. In the meantime, I read up a lot and did research on all the things that interest me. Including arty things of course.

Then one day I suddenly felt like sketching again.

I did a couple of artworks that I would like to share with you. I hope you like it. Just the fact that I took the time to do these has made me emotionally detach from the negative experiences I recently had. Art is such a wonderful way of dealing with emotional loads that drag you down. I can truly recommend it.

First sketch: Baby in bloom - I used watercolors, gelatos and pencil. This was just a little warm-up, but I am quite happy with it.



Second sketch: Firewood - also mixed media. I added oil crayons to this one too. 


Third sketch: Hope flutters

A couple of days later I did the third sketch: This one I loved doing so much. I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink and stencils that I cut with the Silhouette die cutting machine a while back. I also used my butterfly stamp that I love so much. I used pastels and watercolor for the rest. Just love the outcome. 





My first self portrait:

I have always shied away from doing real portraits. My impressionistic style suits me better and I think I was just afraid that I would be really bad at it. Once again I needed to remind myself that any artist should only compare themselves with their own progress and not to compare it with anyone else.

So the final sketch was a self portrait. I thought that if I would try it, I should at least start with drawing myself. If it went south, I could blame it on the difficulty of drawing a true likeness of oneself. If it was a success, it would give me confidence to try other realistic portraits. 

So here goes....

First just the pencil.... 

then the color version: 



Products used:
1. Paper: Daler Rowney Mixed Media Papier Multi-Techniques
2. Jovi Watercolor set
3. Colorbox Petal Point pigment - purple
4. Tim Holtz Distress Ink minis: tumbled glass, ripe persimmon, crushed olive 
5. Rolfes Soft Pastels
6. Mix and Match gelatos and brushes by Faber Castell
7. Butterfly stamp
8. Snow white acrylic paint by Americana
9. Rolfes oil crayons and Pritt kids art crayons
10. Faber Castell Pitt artist pen (Indian ink) - Black 199***
11. Steadler Wopex HB pencil
12. Derwent pastel pencils: burnt carmine P610, carbon black P710, crimson P160, saffron P050, titanium white P720
13. Cretacolor Marino - tan light 241 31, cyclamen 241 34
14. Artline 440XF Paint marker - white 1.2 mm

All products can be purchased at Jimnettes in Lynwoodroad, Pretoria. 


Till next time ...
Beeeee blessed