Faces 11 and 12

Face 11

I have got a bit behind, so it is catch up.  The drawings are of my friend’s children, Gloria and John.  I based the sketches on photos she took last year.  I used watercolour pencils and only one colour for each, as I want to concentrate on form, and colour can distract from that!

Face 12

Peace

The prompt at Art Journal Journey this month is Peace.  What a big subject, my mind went into a frenzy of ideas. 

In the end I decided to do a take on peace that is true, whether it is world peace or personal peace.  Conflict arises from misunderstanding and non-compromise.  We are all the same under our surface differences, which is why I chose to illustrate a cat, bird and dog having a peaceful conversation.  They are natural enemies but they can coexist.  A calm environment helps to ease the agitated mind.  When we are calm we can talk and sort differences out, even if it is to agree on our differences!

For this page I used my new bound art journal – it the first page so the subject of peace is wonderful. I used pencils watercolour and acrylics and markers.

Linking to

Art Journal Journey

CreativeEveryday

Showand Tell Saturday at Artists in Blogland

This and That

Face 10

For my 10^th face I have chosen to honour an inspirational young lady.  This girl was drawn from a picture that I pulled from a magazine years ago, with the intention of drawing her, she so reminded me of a young girl my cousin adopted from Rwanda.  I first met her when I was living in the UK not long after she was adopted, and this little 4 year old insisted that they grew strawberries in the orphanage in Rwanda.  At 22 she is still very strong minded and determined. She has since made a trip back and found her mother and sisters and is able to make their lives easier.

The prompt for illustration Friday is storm.  This is great, as I need to do a drawing of a storm for Mystery in Arcadia.  I am using Blurb to publish it.  Which has been a lesson in itself; I didn’t have enough drawings to spread out evenly through the story.  So, I have to get to and draw and draw.

So have a great week creating lovely art everyone and thanks for your visit, I appreciate it.

Linking to Sunday Sketches, 

Illustration Friday and 

29Faces

Dreams are made of this

Face 9

Do you sometimes get a line of a song that keeps on repeating in your head, it won’t go away and it drives you crazy?  I have been getting the lines “dreams are made of this..” all day long, for the life of me I can’t remember who sang it.  All I get is The Eurythmics and Annie Lennox!  I am most probably wrong as I went through all my cds of them and nadda!

So to get it out of my head, I thought I would do a journal page for my 9^th face using these words.  I have some butterfly stamps I have never used, and as I seemed to have seen a lot of butterflies on blog posts today, I thought I would join in. As it is almost Valentine’s Day I thought I would do a romantic piece, well, romance and dreams go together.  I used the stamps, markers, watercolours and chalk pastels.

Linking to 
29 Faces
Art Journal Everyday

Finished!

Sisters - Face 8

Finished! Face no 8. I counted one of the sisters as my first face in the 29 faces in February challenge at Ayala's. So I am counting the second face as my 8^th. When I posted originally I wasn't sure about the colour scheme, I have changed it a bit, taken away some of the green and added more blue/purple. Also at the time I wasn't sure if I wanted them to look so sad and anxious. I mediated on that and decided to go with it, as it is an anxious time for my sister and I as our Mum has severe Alzheimer's and it is hard to deal with. So, I think this is finished for the time being. When I find that I am starting to overwork the faces I know it is time to stop!

I am on a roll I also finished the hills painting I started about 2 weeks ago.

Hills - Tararuas

I am very pleased with it. I find that I am looking at the hills every day now and getting inspiration. I am not going to start another landscape oil yet as this month I am concentrating on Faces for the challenge. But, I am taking my sketchbook out with me and my trusty Windsor and Newton watercolour travel box with me when I go on my daily walk to the local nature reserve. Here are two sketches I did this week.

Eastern Foothills

Eroded Cliffs

 I like the abstract quality, as it allows me to play around with colour combinations.

Happy PPF everybody.

Linking to Paint Party Friday and 29 Faces in February

Friendship

The prompt for Word Art Wednesday this week is Proverbs 27:9.  While I was mediating on this I did what I often do to help understanding, I looked up the various translations, and they do differ.  The first part is the same in most translations – the sweetness of perfume and how it gladdens the heart and soul.  The second part varies from the above which is the King James Version to - Perfume and fragrant oils make you feel happier, but trouble shatters your peace of mind. Good News Bible.  My favourite is from God’s Word - Perfume and incense make the heart glad, but the sweetness of a friend is a fragrant forest.

Close friendship is so important to us, I once heard someone say, “Your friends are the family that you would have chosen.”  True friends understand and accept you for what you are. They know you at your worst, they are stay your friend even when you act like a 10 year old, when your house is in a mess, and when you are in a mess.  In a sense they are revealing God’s grace to us, and wherever God is, there is a sweet fragrance. An unconditional friendship is like the unconditional love of our Father, God.  Their love surrounds us, protects us and feeds us. Indeed a fragrant forest!

The oil painting above, I did towards the end of last year, I have been waiting for an opportunity to use it with scripture and I feel that this scripture was made for it.

Linking to Word Art Wednesday