Sunday Sketches

Hi guys, this week I painted my ladies from last Sunday's Sketches. If you would like to see how my lady with her eyes shut turned out I have blogged about it in my last post here

As for this post I've got my lady with the profile to show you. Not one of my favourites but a good experiment all the same!!! I think this week I'd like to tackle different skin tones and perhaps a full figured painting :0)

 I did enjoy painting the hair on this one though :0)

Hope you are all having a great weekend! :0)

Paint Party Friday - 'Breath' and 'Innocence?'

Hi everyone,

Well after an horrendous start to the week, I'm pleased to say I'm back to feeling like myself again. Just in time for the start of term our house hold was hit by the worst gastro bug I've had in years. It completely knocked my husband and I off our feet, as well as unfortunately passing it on to my parents :0(........our youngest had it over the weekend but not as bad as us and our oldest managed to miss out completely.  We are now calling him 'Superboy'!!! Phew!!! Today I'm feeling back to normal although my appetite has definitely shrunk which isn't such a bad thing for me but I'd rather loose weight in a less icky way!!

I've painted up two more ladies in my journal I'm really loving this little project I set myself it seems to have opened another creative door for me. So much fun!!!

 First up was this page that I have called 'Just breath'.......

I really love how she turned out and yes I'm going to turn her into a very striking pendant!

 I called this one 'Innocence?'......

She kind of reminds me of Bridget Bardot and a bit of 'Sookie Stackhouse' from 'True Blood'...I'm so into that show at the moment....(not to mention Eric Northman) ;0)

What I'm really enjoying about this process is that I'll have an idea in my head but each girl takes on her own unique personality as I start to paint her. I painted these two in the space of a few days but they couldn't be more different in character.......with each one I have more ideas popping into my head :0)

Last but not least I just wanted to show you one of my latest pendants which are proving to be quite popular. I sold my 'Red Lady' wooden tile pendant that I made last week, a few days ago as well as my 'Koi fish' ring!!! Such a nice feeling to see my pieces go to new homes all over the world.

This pendant is made from my painting last week 'Trust'......

 Also now in my etsy shop :0)

Hope you all had a great week and I look forward to catching up with  you all this weekend :0)

Sunday Sketches some new ladies to paint!

Hi Guys well this weekend has been so cold and wet that we were complete hermits yesterday. Actually the day before wasn't so bad and my eldest and I even got to go for a run which was nice but yesterday was a real blobby day!!! I managed to sketch some ladies in my journal that I'm going to paint this week. Really enjoying this project I set myself and can't wait to see how my picture progress.

I wanted to try a profile this time as I really haven't done many. I really struggle to get the size of everything right. I'm going to paint lots of flowers in this one. She reminds of me of someone from Victorian times perhaps?

This on is on the next page and I wanted to paint someone with their eye(s) shut, like she is deep in thought!

I'm looking forward to painting these this week! :0)

Last up before I go I really wanted to share this amazing artist with you! Her name is Penny Hehir (you can click on her name to get to her blog). She is my mum and one amazing talented artist!!! Check out her newest portrait piece it completely blew me away!!!  I'm going to try and get her to join us at Sunday sketches (she's quite new to all this blogging).....

Paint Party Friday, my new journal

Hi everyone, if you saw my last post you will have heard about my new journal that I have started. I decided that I wanted to keep a journal for my lovely big eyed ladies so that I could keep track of ideas and try new things but to also have a finished book at the end. Normally my books are filled with all sorts of idea for projects, sketches and some paintings. I wanted to start a journal specifically for big eye ladies and to have some sort of consistency for my work. So this week I've been super inspired and painted a few lovelies. I posted my red lady in my last post and today I wanted to share the others.

 First up was this naughty looking cutie........

I'm trying to explore different expressions.....

 I made my red lady into a very cute wooden tile pendant and plan on doing the same with these cropped versions of the newest ladies so stay tuned!

It is our last day of the school holidays and after this weekend the boys are back at school. It's been nice having them home but we're all ready to get back into our routine now!  Hopefully I'll be able to spend a bit more time catching up with my blog friends :0) Looking forward to seeing what you've all been up to this week!

The Summer of colour - red

Hi guys as I was catching up on some of my blog friends this morning I came across Kristin from Twinkle Twinkle's Summer of colour challenge. I have seen my other blog friends take part in this challenge over the last few weeks or so and always wanted to participate but I've been struggling with keeping up with Paint Party Friday and Sunday sketches as it is. But when I saw this week's colour 'Red' I realised I had the perfect piece :0) So I decided I had to share. This week I've been working on a journal that I plan to fill with lots of my big eyed girls. The idea of this for me was to work on some new ideas, and also hopefully create some new pendant pieces, in the first few days I've come up with 3 new pieces and I'm so motivated. I've never kept a proper journal before as I usually get side tracked and fill it with half finished sketches and ideas. So with this one I hope to remain  more focused.

 I named this piece 'Determination' as I realised she had quite a determined look on her face when I'd fnished.

 I decided this cropped image would look great as a pendant.

I received some new supplies the other day of wooden tiles and epoxy drops which I've never tried before I really do love the way this turned out! :0) This is bigger than a scrabble tile and quite striking with the colours.

I'm off to check out everyone else's red pieces :0)

Sunday Sketches and what I've been up to this week!

Hello blog friends. I didn't get to post a Paint Party Friday piece but I have a few other things to show you that I have been working on this week. First up I thought I'd try something completely out of my comfort zone, oil pastels. They have been sitting on my desk for a looooong time but I've been reluctant to use them as I'm not confident. I think the problem that I have with them is that I find it hard to create detail. I tried sharpening the ends which helped a little but that also wasted a bit of them too. Anyone got any tips?

I decided to keep it simple as I was struggling with details so I created these two pieces. I really enjoyed creating the texture and experimenting with colours it was a nice change from paint :0)

Other things I have been working on this week are some pendants and rings made from recent paintings of mine I have added  these to my shop!

 I really love how these cute rings turned out :0)

 The Koi fish worked well as a pendant too!

It's funny sometimes I don't realise that I've actually had a rather productive week until I look back on it and blog about it! :0) I also found time to finish an angel art box which I've had sitting on my desk for quite some time :0)

 I used some of my Japanese paper to line the bottom of the box. This has also been added to my shop :0)

Last but not least I thought I'd show you a sneak peak at an oil painting I've been working on today. I've gone as far as I can with it I think today so just need to wait for it to dry before adding more detail. It's on a canvas board. I need to tweak the eyes for sure as she looks like she's staring pretty hard heheheh but I'm having fun experimenting again. I'll be popping over to visit you all as soon as I can. I've got two boys on school holidays at the moment so we've been going to movies and having lots of play dates so I haven't been on the computer as much lately so bear with me. Hope you are all having a great weekend :0)

Sunday Sketches - Koi Fish and a work of art made by my hubby! :0)

Hi guys, Well I really didn't think that I would have anything to show this weekend as I've been working on a painting for my living room. Hubby has been nagging me for some art work since we had our house renovated last year. I finally made time to work on something and have had a really productive Sunday. I didn't get out of my pajamas til about 2 o'clock as I  was too busy painting. Hee hee!!! Such a great feeling to get 'into the zone' which doesn't happen all the time so I thought I'd make the most of it.

So here is my Koi fish first up I have a work in progress shot. I used the tissue paper and texture paste then painted a few layers of colours in the background then drew on the Koi Fish with marker pen.

I laid down my basic colours for the fish and built it up from there. My inspiration for this piece comes from Japanese tattoo art. I just love it!  :0)

I'm so pleased with this and really really enjoyed painting it. I've been asked to do a dragon for another wall (hubby has one tattooed on his arm) so watch this space I think I'll give it a go :0)

In the meantime Rick decided that he wanted to work on his own piece of art. I am amazed at the results! :0) For as long as we've known each other he's always maintained that he is not an artistic person but I've always seen him as being creative when it comes to food etc (as you will have seen from my previous posts about what he's been cooking up lately.) So yesterday he went off to the hardware store picked up some paint and 3 canvas' went outside in the freezing weather and created his first master piece :0)
I think he's done a fantastic job. I told him he did a 'Pollock' and I had to google him so that I could show him what I meant heheh then he said 'no Pollock did a me' ;0).

It goes really well with our decor in our house and gives it a really modern feel. I'm very proud of him and excited to see him trying something new and hope that my creativeness has rubbed off on him a bit. He's already talking about ideas for his next piece :0)

Paint Party Friday - Fire Dancer

Hi Guys

This week I have been working on a painting for my lounge room (hopefully I'll be able to show that one next week). I managed to do this latest painting at the beginning of the week.

I used the same texture technique that I have been experimenting with but this time as I painted my layers this pretty temptress appeared ;0).

From the look in her eyes I can imagine her dancing around a bonfire catching the eye of some lucky young man :0).

 I look forward to seeing what you've all been up to this week :0)

'Riding the wave' has been included in this lovely Treasury on Etsy

Hi guys just a quickie as I wanted to share this treasury that I have been included in! :0)  Hope you're having a great week. I'm still making my round all the lovely Sunday Sketches!!! So nice to see what you've all been up to!

Sunday Sketches on the beach

Hi guys, I just got back from a wonderful weekend down the coast with the family. We took the boys to the zoo and saw some beautiful animals, Tigers, Lions, Red Panda's, snakes, giraffes but to name a few. My favourites though were the chimps such beautiful creatures who were just as curious about us as we were with them.

This zoo was very special because of it's breeding program for endangered species and is one of very few in the world who's managed to successfully breed a silvery Gibbon. I will be going back again with the boys as we loved it so much next time I'll make sure that we take lots more photos!!  I had a little time on the beach this morning to do this picture in the sand so thought I would upload it for Sunday sketches. I'm off to bed now soooo exhausted but will be catching up on all your wonderful work in the morning!!! :0)