At last a page..

I recently had surgery and while the operation itself was straightforward (keyhole) the anaesthetic really knocked me for six. I must have had some sort of reaction as I was really ill for about a week and feeling pretty grim for another 2 weeks. During that time I did nothing, no art at all. it felt very strange to be doing nothing. I had packed a bag of art stuff to have next to the bed, but none of it got touched. 

I have been up and about and pretty much back to normal now for a week, but I have struggled to find my mojo/inspiration/motivation.. I have been taking supplies around the house to wherever I was sat, but then I have done nothing. 

I really needed to get on with a journal page in Miriam's journal, so I had a serious word with myself and made a start.. 

The bottom layers are all PaperArtsy Fresco paint in browns and neutrals. 

Next I added PaperArtsy Infusions, sprinkled onto areas of Satin glaze. 

I then added stamping still keeping with the browns and turquoise scheme. The stamps are all PaperArtsy Urban Snapshots. I also sketched a hand and arm, then whited this out. Once i had my blank shape I could start to add pinks and browns to shade the skin. 

All this was done over about 3 weeks, so apologies for lack of details regarding colours. I didn't make notes on them. 

Using just a regular pencil I sketched in the details of the hand. 

Now to add the butterflies, these were sketched onto smooth white card and cut out. 

Now to add colour. I started with Prima watercolours. 

Then I refined and blended with Prisma colour pencils. 

and finally added some texture and highlights. The texture is Crayola Slick Stix and Distress Crayons through small stencils. 

The butterflies were glued in place .. 

shadows added under the butterflies and legs added. 

and finally the quote was printed out and glued in. 

I especially like the green butterfly, that one turned out the best. 

Now I just need to crack on and catch up with all the other pages and projects that I should have been doing. 

Darcy x

Hands of Friendship

One of my lovely friends Catherine recently took part in a circle journal, when she got her journal back there was still an empty page at the back so I offered to do a page for her. It sat on my shelf for a couple of weeks as I just could not think what to do.. I even asked her, and she said do something about friends/sisters or family or bringing people together... 

and then I knew what to do.. 

I started with Neocolor II crayons, adding 2 layers of blended colour. 

Then I switched to PaperArtsy Fresco paints in Bougainvilliea, Captain Peacock and Tango. I used 3 fabulous stencils by Seth Apter.. and I did literally use every bit of each stencil. For covering a page like this these stencils are perfect as they are already in a collage style. 

As much as I loved the background, it was never meant to be bright. I wanted to use busy stencils as I knew they would peep though the next layers perfectly. I added white with a brayer.

and then a little Blush Fresco paint. 

I started to sketch

and to shade..

adding more hands..

and more...

until I had joined the circle of 8. Catherine and I belong to a group of 8 friends, hence the need for 8 hands. 

I used some Blueberry fresco paint watered down to add a wash of colour to the outer spaces, and just a little in the centre. 

the quote was added using a dip pen and Parker Quink.

and here it is all finished and ready to send back to Catherine. 

The best bit for me is seeing the stencilling peeping thru the layers. 

A circle of hands, a circle of friends. Hope this fulfilled the criteria for the page. 

Darcy 

Weekly Face on Weds #4

Sorry no step by steps this week, just a quick sketch..

Just using a regular HB pencil..

if you are joining in leave a link in the comments. 

P.S here are the last of the free templates generously drawn by Jay, get them HERE...

Hello Wednesday, it's been such a long time since I have played along, almost 6 months in fact since Ian broke both his feet. He is on the mend now and should be back at work by the end of the month...fingers crossed.

So here is my desk, it is pretty tidy...a rarity for me, but then you can't see the floor lol All the usual stuff on there, plus my Art Portfolio that I have just made. It is on there as it is quite big and I haven't found a permanent place to keep it yet.

If you would like to see how I made it, I posted all the instructions with lots of photos in four blog posts.

PART ONE.

PART TWO.

PART THREE.

PART FOUR.





I have also started a weekly word prompt, all the words so far are IN HERE. Each Monday I post the new word prompt and questions to think about and on the Friday I post my finished page. I would love it if you join in...if you do please let me know so I can add your name to the side bar.

last week I drew this little robin, he turned out a bit angry looking. I didn't mean him to lol



I first applied a wash of watered down acrylics..



and then added all the shading and details with Derwent coloursoft pencils.



Do any of sketch,draw or paint?????? then you might be interested in joining a new blog that I set up. It is a monthly prompt blog for drawing, you don't have to be good at it, the whole point is that by doing the prompts it makes you practise and you get better.

Here is The blog , please take a look at the first prompt/challenge. If you join in we also have a Flickr group... HERE.... where you can upload your challenge pictures.

Hopefully I will get to visit lots of blogs today, but I also have to make cakes as it is Ian's birthday today and it is my birthday tomorrow.

Have a great day.x

Sorry for lack of updates, I haven't really made much, mojo packed up and went on holiday. But today I had a baking session. Egg and bacon flan, corned beef and potato pie and a mahoosive chocolate cake, with courgettes and pistachios in it.

These cupcakes I made a couple of weeks ago, top left is lemon, top right is beetroot,fruit and orange, bottom left is carrot,cranberry and nuts,bttom right is beetroot and chocolate. I gave

them all away to friends.

last night I made a birthday card for a friend who is a dancer. I started with a sketch, what witht he missing mojo I found one on deviant art that I liked and copied the basic shape, then modified it .

Next the outlines done with a fineliner.
I then took a large blank card, C5 size, matted blue card onto it, then made a background with promarkers which I matted onto the card.

Finally the main image is coloured with promarkers, then cut out and stuck onto the background image and matted card.

I also made this sock monster as a birthday gift, this is his story...

Originally from the planet 'GHLUTZshone',this monster is a political prisoner.He never understood his arrest,everyone hates the governement right?

Ok so he may have used a little Uranium, and some politicians may now glow in the dark,but surely that's not an arrestable offence!

Whilst being made to harvest giant man-eating tulips in the AABriki desert,he managed to steal the guards spaceship.He had heard about the infamous Guy Fawkes,and headed to Earth to join him.Unfortunately he got lost in the space-time continuum and landed some 400 years too late.

Upon discovering the delights of minty toothpaste,he decided to stay,though he is not too keen on the lack of two-headed females. His real name is impossible to pronounce unless you are willing to have each of your teeth split in half. The nearest equivalent name in English is 'Wilson'

Not much happening this week, I decided to draw a giraffe for the G page of my A-Z book, so I have been researching pics of giraffes online. Had a lovely day out with friends from down South yesterday and started a new dance class. I already do one tap class a week and one jazz/freestyle class, on Monday I started a latin/ballroom class. I used to this style of dance years ago, did all my grades and competed but at the time I hated it. I was forced to dance 4 times a week, and it was seriously uncool lol so i stopped and vowed i would never do it again..well here I am and Monday night's class was brilliant.

anyway last night I picked up this photo that was taken of us and 2 friends a few months ago by their daughter. I have never been any good at drawing real people, but thought I would have a go .


















This is as far as I got, it's just a prelim sketch,if I decide to carry on working it there will be lots to do to it. Not entirely sure about it.