Sunday 28 June 2015

Wanderlust Shroom

I am going to be away for a few weeks and I do not know how often I will be able to post pictures during this time. I will do my best though to come up with some interesting art for you to look at when I am back. Todays Shroom fits very well into the travelling theme of the recent days and the next few weeks...

The Wanderlust Shroom is named for its desire to travel the world. Since it is rooted to the spot, it will grow impressive displays of city stickers in the hope that someone will pick it and take it on an international journey. The Wanderlust Shroom is chronically depressed because most people will just take pictures and leave without it. If the Shroom indeed does get taken on a journey it usually is left behind at airport customs, sad and lonely. 


Friday 26 June 2015

Red Study

And today I got to do some arting even though my kids came home from school early, from now on they will be at home all the time for the next two month (sob, sniffle). I hope to be able to get anything done during the summer break and I will try and post as often as I can. 
But for now the time has come for


Thursday 25 June 2015

Green Study

And of course we can not leave out green, I think green is the colour of which I have the most shades. This double page also features a lovely flower that I found in the flower bouquet my husband gave me for my birthday. And it was all green...


Wednesday 24 June 2015

P&P Study

And welcome to another colour study. I went for a double page this time, hopefully the picture fits in the blog area...
The flower is one that I bought last year, unfortunately I forgot its name, but it is not a lilly. I think it is some kind of clematis, and this is the first time I went "into the wild" for sketching. 





Tuesday 23 June 2015

Yellow Study

I have always wanted to make studies of my Inktense pencil colours. I did dread doing it, as I wanted to make it interesting for myself to make and look at. Then I stumbled on a tutorial on YouTube, where a lady demonstrated how to fold and cut one single sheet of paper (any size) to make a little folded booklet, or a journal. I gave it a try and ended up with a folded journal made from watercolour paper, 12 pages long, each page approximately 3.75" square. You can choose to only use one side of each page, then my way of folding would have given me 6 pages, but I have decided to use them front and back.

I proudly present to you the colour


Monday 22 June 2015

Eyeball Shroom

I just realised that I completely forgot to post a Shroom yesterday. I had avery busy day with my family and since I do not want to deprive you all of a Shroom, here goes.

The Eyeball Shroom might not be very pretty to say the least. It is very affectionate to its owner, though. The Shroom will follow its owner through the room by swivelling its eyeball cap, and if it ever gets sick, a little cuddle will work wonders. Remember: an Eyeball Shroom is not just for christmas!


Sunday 21 June 2015

Altered Rolos

I was recently asked by one of my regular trading friends, if I was trading altered Rolodex cards as well. In case you don't know what those are, they are index cards usually used to keep business contacts at hand on your desk. You can however also use them for creating art, trade them with other artists and then store them in a practical holder so you can show them off to anyone willing to have a look (thehehe). I can not get them here easily, I have to order them online, and so my friend who I will not name (you know who you are) actually sent me a bunch of blank Rolodex cards, Rolodex alphabetical index cards and - best of all- a punch for punching the holes into diy Rolodex cards. Thankyouthankyouthankyoueversomuchiwillshowyouhowgratefuliaminjulyandbelievemeitisgoingtobeawesome...
But now to some Rolodex cards I made recently, you can just about make out the holes at the bottom of the second picture.

Front


And opened up



Friday 19 June 2015

UDO finally finished

I had an Unidentified Doodling Object lying around my work desk now for a few months. All it needed were the finishing touches in the colouring. I used some Zentangle designs for it and now (tonight) I finally sat down and finished it off. It measures about 8" x 8".




Thursday 18 June 2015

Mehndi a little different

I have been drafted for some kind of swap I had not heard of before. Altered Envelopes. Participants in this swap are being paired off with each other and decorate envelopes that are being sent to the partner. There is nothing inside these envies (except a bit of cardboard for stability), just a pretty envelope. I was very concious of the fact that I use mainly watercolour type pencils and that ordinary store bought envelopes might not survuve the use of water on them, so I literally made my own from thin watercolour paper.

Front:

And back:



Wednesday 17 June 2015

Mehndi Series part 3

These two cards were made for a personal card trade I did with a great artist. The difference between the previous Mehndis is that this time I added green, a colour usually not found on natural henna Mehndis.




Tuesday 16 June 2015

Mehndi Series part 2

When I started drawing and colouring the Mehndis, it was important to me to keep them in the natural henna colour range. I decided to use only 4 colours with a "skin" coloured wash for the background. 




Mehndi Series part 1

I recently did a few Mehndi inspired trading cards. A Mehndi is a drawing with henna paste on skin, shading can be achieved by varying the thickness of the henna layer. The colours can vary from pale brown to deep and rich reds, I went so far as to add some green for good measure. Some Mehndis depict flowers and blossoms, while others go for geometric designs, the possibilities are endless.




Sunday 14 June 2015

Annual Fanfare Shroom

The Annual Fanfare Shroom is an extremely popular gift to forgetful husbands. Once planted, it will display its trumpet-like flowers to the day every year, hence it is used as a reminder for anniversaries. It will also make sounds with its trumpets, but to describe the noises as "interesting" would be very generous...


Saturday 13 June 2015

Tree of Life

This particular piece was a request from a very good friend of mine. She was recording her own album of songs and she asked to included something from every track. I will not yet go into much detail here, but that she seemed very happy and delighted with the final result, so I hope to have hit the mark.



Mermaid

I have no talent whatsoever for drawing people. Shoulder lines, hands and faces always look like some genetic experiment gone horribly wrong. Now I came into contact with a lady that likes merpeople. I really wanted to oblige her, since she went to great length to host quite a complicated swap. And alas! I found a way around my drawing impediment...


Thursday 11 June 2015

Zentangled Animals

I have been way too quiet these past few days, sorry about that, sometimes life just keeps us busy. So today I thought I might post several Artist Trading Cards I made in the past few days for swaps. This series is for zentangled animals, and if you have been following my post a bit you know I have been doing just that already. I really like doing the "finery" butterflies...










Sunday 7 June 2015

Gemini Constellation Shroom

Today is Shroom posting day and since I happen to be a Gemini starsign and we are currently within Gemini "time", I am posting the Gemini Costellation Shroom. As the name suggests it has intricate patterns on its hat, with differently coloured spots marking the astrological sign of Gemini. You might need to look up the constellation in a starchart or, if you don't have any of those, on Google images to locate it on the Shrooms hat...


Saturday 6 June 2015

Koi Fish

I did a personal trade recently and my trading partner requested Koi fish. I had to look around on the internet how to draw proper Koi, and there is no shame in that, other people look at drawing books in the local library. I think they turned out ok and I used them on the Koi Shroom as well.
I admit that I am posting an older card today because tomorrow is Shroom posting day and I did not want to split up a series of 4 swap cards. 



Friday 5 June 2015

Swan IV

Ok, we gave them a day privacy, so let's check what is happening with our poor sad swan.


He was hungry after all...

Wednesday 3 June 2015

Swan III

Well, he might be lonely after all. So I thought to myself: let's give him a mate, it might cheer him up a little bit. Also a nice romantic full moon (with a tiny spider on top) should really help things along...
But the moon seems a bit freaked out by the little spider.



Tuesday 2 June 2015

Swan II

And then I thought, maybe the swan is not lonely, but hungry. I can feel pretty sad when I am hungry. So I sent him on the search for some food...


Monday 1 June 2015

Swan I

I am currently taking part in a spirit animal swap. I will not divulge here what my spirit animal really is, but with the invitation for the swap came a link to a "test" we participants could undergo to find out what animal we were. This was a multiple choice test, the kind we all know from our teenage years, and it was fun to take - in a way. The result for me was swan and so I made a couple of Swan cards, showing swans in all kinds of daily situations. This one turned out a sad big fella, maybe he is lonely?