She Blooms in Ink

Hello dear blog friends, I hope you are doing well during this busy season.

All is well here and I'm super excited to be taking a 7 week workshop with Tamara Laporte of Willowing Arts - She Blooms in Inks.      Lots of doodling and inkiness along with whimsical/stylized faces.  Below are my two journal pages from Week 1:

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day,
Shirley

Quirky Birds and an Update

Hello creative people, I hope you are all doing well.  It's been a while since I've posted here and I'm sorry that I have not been around to your blogs.   

I won't give you a book version of the past year, but life has brought challenges and we have changes coming our way. 

I have not been in my craft room for a long time, I've either been too busy, too tired, or not in the frame of mind for creativity.    I would like to get back creating art as it is meditative & calming. 

Last fall I discovered on line classes with the lovely and talented Tamara Laporte of Willowing Arts.  I love her whimsical art and have enjoyed learning from her through her video workshops.    I joined the Lifebook 2017 course, but have only managed to download lessons the last two months which I can work on the in the future when life is calmer. 

However I created these Quirky Birds with one of her lessons last fall and thought I would show them to you today.    Some of the words are appropriate :)

Thanks for stopping by, I'll do my best to get around to your blogs soon.
Cheers
Shirley :)

Whimsical Mermaids

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well.   We have been enjoying unseasonable warm temperatures, the foot of snow is rapidly melting.

I recently completed two different on line classes with Tamara Laporte of Willing Arts, both featuring whimsical (or stylised) Mermaids.   These are mixed media pages that I've drawn and used collage and different mediums to paint.

A friend pointed out that the heads are large for the bodies.... yes I know that, it's intentional.   I understand that this kind of art isn't for everyone, but it sure is a lot of fun to create.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.
Shirley

Merry Muse

Hello creative people, I hope all is well.   It's VERY dreary here but milder than normal due to heavy cloud cover.    I'm starting to feel like a sponge as we have not seen the sun in quite a while.    Normally January brings in cold but sunny days.

I am keeping up with Lifebook 2017 lessons, but today I'm showing you a mixed media piece that I did between the weekly lessons.   This is very much inspired by Tamara Laporte of Williowing Art - the Merry Muse course, it's the same layout but my girl & dove look different.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend,
Shirley

Pink Lady

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well.

I'm taking a break from Christmas cards today to show you another face drawing and painting.  I'm a little obsessed with sketching faces lately but I won't bore you by showing everything. 

I created this page using techniques learned in Tamara Laporte's of Willowing Arts, Fabulous faces self study course.    I wasn't following anything, just having fun practicing drawing and painting with mixed media.  I'm a gardener and love flowers and so I like to doodle draw them as well. 

This is a different colour combination for me.   The hair started out with copper acrylic paint and I didn't like how it looked.  The beauty of acrylics is that you can easily go over top when dry :)   So then I decided on Magenta hair with a few copper highlights.  I was a bit 'stumped' as to what colours should surround her, but eventually made the decision on blues and pinks.   The background has a few layers including stenciling.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.
Shirleyx

More Inspiration from Tamara Laporte

Happy Weekend everyone, I hope you are doing well.

I have another practice page that I drew and painted while following Tamara Laporte's of Willowing Arts self study web course called Fabulous Faces.  I'm having so much fun playing and looking forward to starting Life book 2017 (weekly art journal lessons) on January 1st.  

I hope to keep up the practice to develop my own style.   I am also sketching faces but I won't show everything.

This is a mixed media piece with a simple background with stenciling and painting.   

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend,
Shirleyx

Inspired by Tamara Laporte

Hello everyone,  I hope you are doing well. I have something completely different to show you today and not a Christmas design!

I drew and painted this page while following a self-study mixed media course by Tamara Laporte of Willowing Arts.  The short course, "The Happy Traveller"  is part of her Life Book 2016.  It was up on her web site as a free sampler for a short while, but I see it's gone now.    I've signed up for several courses including the Life Book 2017 which I'm very much looking forward to.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week,
Shirley