"Woodlands Whimsy" painting

I was never sure what my redheaded lady was going to end up looking like.As I painted her she became less sad look and unlike my free spirited Seeking painting in the post below this one seems to me to be Earthy.I've called her woodlands whimsy...or perhaps just Flora.I have hand sewn on shimmery leaves and seed beads around her

She has a dyed trim flower in her hair,blush,eye lashes and her lippie painted on.

Her dress is shades of green with white swirls and its done up with another hand dyed flower trim and some vintage lace that was also hand dyed.

Grant looked at both and asked could he sell them on E-bay LOL....that always tells me he thinks what I have done is OK.I've no idea what to do with them myself.As they are only the second and third painting I have ever attempted I may just keep them as reference guides for future works.Anywho now I have them out of my system its into making Christmas cards en mass for me now.

hugs

Annette In Oz

Seeking...

We are all seeking...life...love...wealth...happiness...knowledge....the list is endless.I'm no different.I seek to be a good loving wife and mum and I seek to live a creative life ...sometimes I just seek completion of a project like my two canvas painted ladies.One is now done and I actually like how she turned out.I wonder what my blonde lady is seeking?.Since you saw her last she has had some "blush" ,eyelashes and lipstick painted on,

a metal vine headband added,

her shimmery wing created and now she is wearing her music dress.

What do you seek?

hugs

Annette In Oz

Canvas Ladies Hair and Brows Painted

Its nearly time to do the mad Christmas card make and send.I had one day off today and with the new air con running I was able to sit and paint some more aspects of my canvas ladies.I repainted the redheads hair as I didn't like my first try.I used some Pearl-ex to add shimmer that you can't see in the photos as highlights.My light source is from the right in this painting.

and closer

closer again.

My blonde lady also had her hair painted twice.The first time I went for a dark dirty looking blonde but it seemed to blend into the background too easily.Next I made her a yellowish tinged blonde and that worked better I think.The light source is from the left on this one.

Here she is closer

and closer again.

The eye brows are the hardest thing to paint I think.I keep trying to get them similar till I just leave them be.Our faces are not symmetrical anyway.I'll add depth and "make-up to the face and lips next.

hugs

Annette In Oz

EGGciting Ring & Who Is In The Camera This Week

Ok Ok I can't help it.....I'm addicted to making stuff with metal and in particular etching metal and using nests and eggs LOL.I had my new nest ear-rings on all day and my etched metal nest necklace.Because the ear-rings are made with sterling silver wire they have not hurt like the cheap metals do to me and they are really light as well.I've finally started to paint the hair and brows on my ladies.While the layers were drying I made another sterling silver nest ring to go with the ear-rings.I'm loving this one and have had it on since lunchtime LOL.

Now who was in my camera today?.Its Minty...Well I think she had some help getting dressed to be in there but I laughed when I saw these images.Who would have thought Jack Russel's could look so cool. :o)

I've got the red haired ladies hair and brows done and will do the blond ladies hair and brows tomorrow if I have time before work and then I'll upload both.

hugs

Annette In Oz

Canvas Ladies-Eyes and Lips

My two canvas ladies kept staring at me with thier white Alien eyes so I thought today I should get too and give them eyes to see with.This one will be a red head so I gave her brown eyes.

and a bit closer

This lady will be blonde so she has been given blue eyes.

and closer

The lips are rough block colour painted and will be refined more later.I may tweek the eyes a little more too.

hugs

Annette In Oz

And Four More

I've just got another four cards made using the raisin and eggplant coloured card stock I sprayed from the post below...four more to go.This first one is "trust is the key" and has a vintage image of a child,some stained gorgeous German scrap circular floral disks,stained lace,sewn on roses and lots of free stitching.This is for a Friend overseas.

The next two I have used two of my drawings.They were coloured using watercolour pencils.Then I scanned them and printed them on cheap gloss photo paper.After that I did the inkjet water transfer tech and transferred them onto white cotton.The boat is for my nephews birthday and the parrot :fly soar", for my Father In Law's birthday.

and lastly another Mother's Day card for my Mother In Law.It's similar to the one I made my Mum but has "true love "on it.

I'm off to Queensland late on Saturday night for a week.I'll be some classes with Jen Crossley and also seeing y Mum of course.Happy Mother's Day everyone and I'll show you all what I create when I come home :o)

hugs

Annette

Lesson Seven-Mixed Media Collage Completed

Here you go...I have finished my first ever painting.It now has her eyes(closer to the nose)decreased in length,some of the bg images moved into the hair,some collage elements added and the words.They read "sometimes the truth speaks from a peaceful place".Its something I heard on the show Dexter and it struck a cord in me and I wrote it down for future use.When I look at this lady she seems to have an inner thought coming out thru her eyes.Like she wanted to tell me something and I imagined that was what she said

As someone who is VERY critical of my own work I am utterly surprised I can look at this and tell myself "you did a good job for your first ever attempt at painting".I'm amazed someone could teach ME to paint and I am utterly thankful to Paulette Insall for embowering me like she has. ...gobsmacked I am LOL
Annette In Oz

Lesson Six...Adding Definition With Crayons

Nearly there...I have just done lesson six using Caran D'ache water colour crayons to add definition.The heat had me again here as they did not act like they do for the teacher....virtually as soon as I applied it it was dry.Paulette could blend the still damp crayons after application but I could NOT.I tried over and over and they just dried way too fast.The only way to get around it for me was to WET the applicator first.So I have put lesson six at the bottom and lesson five at the top for you to see the difference.I'm not sure I like it with the crayons BUT I do keep reminding myself this is my first ever try at painting and heck I am doing OK!!!

Lesson Five-Hair and Brows

Lesson five is done and OH MY GOSH this one I found hard!!!.I hit a bit of the "fear" here again as I wanted to aim for realistic looking hair and for my lady to have dark hair with red/brown highlights.I painted the first colour with a mix of burnt umber,raw sienna and a drop of cardinal red.When it dried it looked flat black!!!.The next few days I kept looking at it not wanting to add any more colour in case it looked worse.Then yesterday I sat down and went "what the heck" and off I went paint brush in hand.I gradually added more raw sienna and cardinal red plus a tiny touch of black and built up about eight layers of hair strands slowly lightening the paint each layer as I went.Lastly I did four layers of highlight colour in even lighter tones where I thought the light source would be reflecting off her glossy dark hair.

a little closer

and right up close

The other thing I have changed since lesson four is her nose and lips.I moved the nose tip lower and made the bottom lip fuller.As I'm working from a magazine image I wanted it to be like the person I was looking at and that is how her lips and nose are.

The Eyes And Lips...Lesson Four

Lesson four is all about painting the eyes and the lips.We weren't meant to put much detail on the lips but I had to wait several hours for lesson five to download so did a bit of shading with acrylics on them while I waited.It's surprising watching this lady evolve in front of me.I seem to zone out as I work and build up so many layers before I step back and look at what I'm doing....then I get a surprise when I step back.I took three photos of the lady getting a little closer each time.Here she is furthest away

and a little closer

and closer still

Tonight I shall look at lesson five and that means I'm caught up with everyone else in the class now yeha!!

Overcoming The Fear...aka lesson three

We all have fears.I struck mine last week when I tried to catch up with my classes for Paulette Insall's on line drawing and painting faces class.I've always been scared to try and paint properly.I had told myself I couldn't do it so many times and well for ever.I believed I would never be and was not ever going to be a painter.So I got to lesson three which was putting my faces on canvas and adding skin tones with PAINT.Okies I can do that I thought....but straight away I went "but I can't paint!!!".I mixed my skin tones with some problems due to the heat here drying the Golden acrylics as I mixed.So I found a blog that had a tut for making a wet palette to keep the paints moist and over came that.I finally got my skin tones mixed and well then I did nothing...
For the next week every day I loaded my brush with paint and hovered above the canvas unable to actually make that first stroke.I was too scared to actually try.What if it looked bad,what if my natural shake ruined my efforts,what if I etc etc .......then last evening we did some herp spotting(looking for reptiles along the roads in the rural area by torch light).I started to think of all the people who are scared of reptiles yet living with a herpetologist(Reptile enthusiast hubby Grant)and having them all thru my house I was not.I loved how they moved, their colour schemes and how they looked rough yet felt so smooth and soft to the touch.....and today my brush no longer hovered....and I painted.I mean how could paint be scary when I can see so much beauty in something that scares so many others.We wont talk about spiders though OK
So here is my first lady with her skin on...she looks a bit Alien without her lips,eyes and hair but that is lesson four...onward I go and another fear has vanished

For those of you afraid of snakes I have put the reptiles we saw last night up for you.Look at the shapes and colours not the "snake" you fear.This first one is a Northern Death Adder.Look beyond him to his colour....love that luminous yellow in his bands.

This is a delicate pretty Ariel hovering Banded Tree Snake.He is calm and an expert climber.See how he holds his banded curves erect in mid air...amazing

I HATE photos of me(another fear there folks)but I'll overcome that briefly to show you a File Snake I'm holding.They live in the creeks feeding on fish etc.He feels like a file but is soft and warm at the same time.He isn't scary and doesn't bite.

So there you go I overcome my fear.I painted that scary ole face and I hope I paint more...what about you :o)

Lesson Two My Backgrounds

Darn why does life have to get in your way when you need to find time for other things?.Ive only just finished my backgrounds on canvas for lesson two of my class and I'm still a week behind to everyone in the class.The good thing is I have tomorrow and Wednesday off so hope to do lesson three and then lesson four.I've used acrylics on canvas before but not in muted pastel tones so I went for brighter backgrounds then others in the class.I also like actual texture allot so I added some texture paste elements on my canvas's.The first two are straight acrylic paint canvas's

This one is one of my own backgrounds using Adirondack colour wash sprays over white gesso and then stamping done with white gesso.Before I sealed it I splashed drops of water around and then dabbed the water off to create white splotches

My little houses that I made for the retreat have gone missing and they never got there in time.Aussie post can be ssssooo disappointing at times.I even drove them 60kms into Darwin so I could use the platinum mail service.It is a so called guaranteed overnight delivery by courier to post codes listed in its network service.Darwin was a listed postcode as was the destination address.After four days of them not arriving I used on line tracking to see they had been signed as delivered the day before(so much for overnight delivery!!!).The lady receiving them says she looked the day after this but they were not there.7 days later I am still unaware if they have turned up at all.Such a shame as I worked hard on them.As my older brother often says SH&%T happens...but it still hurts!!

Drawing Faces Lesson One My Attempts

It took me 6 days to finish my 50 little house and get them sent on time.My second eldest daughter Melissa got "employed" on day five to help cut and stick down the words.Then I forgot to take a photo of them all before they left.I'll definitely take a photo of the returns though when they come.I'm sure it will make for a funky colourful village.Doing the houses meant I couldn't get to my on line class with Paulette Insall till last Wednesday though.
The other class members are on lesson two already.The first lesson was all about drawing faces.I used to be able to do them OK 20 plus years ago and some of those old drawings are in a post here .I've never had lessons to draw but used to draw alot when I was younger and just got better with practice.I stopped drawing when I got married and have just started to want to draw again recently.So late last year I did a basic how to draw class with Jessica Wesolek.It opened the door for me to again start drawing even though my initial steps in that class were very simple.Those attempts are here .
A friend then told me about Paulette's classes which teach you how to draw and paint faces.Now I'm learning how to draw them properly for the first time and that first lesson taught me so much.Here is the first sketch I did.Paulette suggests trying to draw faces straight on but I loved how this ladies side profile(from a magazine)looked and tried with her first.I traced the face on tracing paper first on this one.

Next I did a freehand lady sketch

This one is a freehand sketch of a young lady.I liked how her hair fell at the side.I've just fixed her eyebrows after I loaded her here as I had not realized they were lopsided till I put them on my blog LOL

The last one I did last evening and its also done freehand.Its from a magazine image and I was in awe at how symmetrical this ladies features were.I shaded areas as her true features are so fine and chiseled.

I'm off to do lesson two now which is making a background on canvas.After that we get taught how to put a portrait on the prepared canvas and paint it YICKS.Lesson three is posted on Tuesday(my time)so hopefully I will be caught up with the other class members by then :o)

My Class Has Begun and Is It A Scanner ??

I'm really excited as my on line class with Paulette Insall has just begun.I'll be learning how to draw and paint faces on canvas.Lesson one is downloaded but I'm madly making 50 faux glass mini houses to send for a swap that is nearly due so I can't look at the lesson yet WAH.I drew this a while back and it was on my blog but I deleted "that post" so here she is again.I will try to share my journey thru the class as I go.I'm hoping my ability to draw faces gets better and improves from this humble try....maybe she should be called "Eve".Oh my I have never really painted before so this is going to be very interesting to say the least.

My scanner/printer broke and I mentioned to my 13yr old son Tim that I had read some place that someone turned their old scanner into a light box.I then explained that you use a light box for tracing stencils as the light shone from underneath the glass so you could then see where to trace on the stencil.Tim loves making stuff and has draws full of Dick Smith bits and pieces.He went off into the bedroom with the old scanner/printer and came back half an hour later with my recycled but usable light box just for his Mum.

OMG I didn't realize my image is reflected on the glass above LOL.Tim put a new switch upper right and it runs on a 9Volt battery

That's how it looks with the light on...perfect

Ancient Kakadu,Frogs,Flowers and A sketch

We live just 3hours drive from the World Heritage Listed ancient Kakadu National Park.There are some really gorgeous spots out there and we try to get out there at least once a year.We just did a quick overnight stay to go frog spotting with a reptile/frog enthusiast from down south.We stayed in Jabiru at the Crocodile Hotel...it is shaped like a crocodile with a large pool in the centre/stomach.In the day time we visited Nourlangie to have a look at some Aboriginal rock art and go on a bush walk...at Nourlangie there are really old Aboriginal rock art works done in ochre on the rock faces .

At night we went spotting to Nawalndja which is the next mountain and it has a steep inclined rock face that has numerous worn away spots were the Wet season rains have eroded the surface over a hundreds of years.As it is Wet season now it is the perfect time to frog/reptile spot.The next two photos are of a gorgeous cave gecko that has yellow blotches

The proper name for it is Oedura Gemmata

and here is a little frog in a Pandanas tree.Grant tells me his proper name is Litoria Personata

This is a larger type of frog known as the Carpenter frog as his call sounds like someone hammering in a nail.

We saw another one called Litoria Coplandi but the photo of him didn't turn out so good.We drove home again the next day.Behind our block is a Lagoon full of frogs,birds and at this time of the year probably a croc too.Grant took this lovely photo of a cute frog down there known as Litoria Bicolour

On the creative side I did another practice sketch in my A4 sketch book.I have gone over this in black ink so that I can trace it and transfer it easily to a canvas.I'm not good at drawing or painting but I do hope to keep practicing and get better.

At the bottom of the sketch I wrote "put wax print flowers on canvas here".I want it to look like she is burying her hand in flowers.I have allot of those real flower looking stamps and love using my Crayola Portfolio water soluble crayons to stamp them onto canvas and card backgrounds.I do this by rubbing the colour directly on the stamp and then I hit the coloured stamp surface with the heat gun(you can see the colour go from mat to wet looking as the heat liquefies the waxy crayon colour).Straight away I stamp onto the receiving surface repeatedly moving slightly each time forward and then back to graduate the colour and give the piece more depth.You can usually stamp up to three times before you need to apply more colour.The stamp is easily washed with warm soapy water afterward.

This card was made last night very quickly using the wax stamped flowers idea on a an acrylic painted background.I then added some dragonfly brads,painted dressing gauze,printed "Journey" ribbon,some flourish rub ons and a bit of silver gel ink to make a dragonfly trail.It took just ten minutes to make.I don't know why I thought to even try this way of colouring,heating and stamping the images but I love the effect it gives.Of course you don't have to use flowers...any stamp will do but not detailed photo stamps etc.
Before I race of(I'm in my BUSY work week...8 evening shifts in ten days...then three days off next week yeha)I just wanted to say thanks to all of you who saw my last post and sent me e-mails/comments.I do appreciate it,I do feel OK now about it and yes I am over it now.Quite sad its happened to so many others though.

hugs

Annette In Oz