My Creative Sunday . . .

"Listen To Your Dreams"

mixed media on 9x12 canvas board

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Yesterday I had a great time speaking in Philly at a women's cancer symposium. Although it was 6 hours of driving round trip it was worth it. The event had a good turnout, I met some lovely people and even got to sign some of my books! I truly feel grateful for those moments when I get the opportunity to inspire others through sharing my cancer survivor story.

Today I enjoyed a quiet morning painting the sketch from my last post. I used the water soluble crayons again (love them . . . I still need to order the caran d'ache!), watercolor pencils, graphite pencil, my brayer, white acrylic paint, and some new stamps I bought.

I have to say that I had a bit of trouble with layering my background. Only because I didn't quite like how it was coming out. I didn't wait for my stamp ink to dry (it was taking very long!) and when I added the next layer it was smearing all over and mixing in as color. Anyone else have this problem? Any tips? So I used the brayer and added more white paint to cover what I didn't like. I just tried to go with what was happening realizing that no matter what I could always fix it.

I am happy with how she came out. Those words popped into my head as I was painting. I outlined them with graphite to make them blend into the background.

All in all a nice way to spend part of my Sunday!

Tonite is dinner with my hubby at our favorite local italian restaurant!

Hope you are all having a lovely day!

Open Your Heart . . . Mixed Media

"Open Your Heart"

mixed media on 12x16 canvas board

This painting was done for Tam's free class Art Heart and Healing. I sketched her out first. You can see the initial sketch in this post. In that post I shared my frustration with painting on a journal page. So I decided to paint her on a canvas board. I really had fun with this. It is my first painting incorporating mixed media techniques like layering, stamping, and collage.

I only used water soluble crayons for the entire piece as Tam does. The only paint used was some white acrylic for the background and a bit to mix in with the crayons on her face. And I only had student grade cheapie crayons in standard colors. I loved using them! It made shading the face so much easier for me than when I have used just paint. I may have to invest in some of the caran d'ache crayons I have heard so many good things about! I used my graphite pencil for shading which blended nicely into the color. Using a brayer is also new to me and how fun is that?!

If you haven't joined us already please do! Tam is great and I love her style of teaching! You can sign up for this free class over at Willowing !