Saturday 30 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - Final Day !

The end of the month! The end of this challenge! And I managed to create something every single day! I'm really pleased and it's a challenge I surely want to participate in again next year.

It has really gotten my creative juices flowing again at a moment I very much needed it, so I'm very grateful to Leah from Creative Every Day for organizing this!

But I'm also pleased that I can take some rest now ... ;-) I hope I can keep up the practice of creating every day, but blogging every day just takes too much of my time, I can't keep that up. So from now on it's back to 3 times a week.

Here's my last creation for this month: another miniature-painting (10x10cm - 4"x 4")


And I made a mosaic of all the pieces I made this month. Since they're all very different and the images are all different sizes, it was not easy getting them all together, but at least it gives an idea of what this month was all about ....


Thank you all so much for visiting and keeping me going this month! I plan on visiting as many blogs as I can this weekend. But now I have to get ready for the Christmasparty in the gallery tonight ... :-)

In case you missed it: I have a sale going on in my Etsyshop this weekend, and there's free shipping this weekend in my Lulushop (calendar) and my Society6-shop. Have a look, maybe there's something you like ... ;-)

Thanks for being here ♥ ♥ ♥

Friday 29 November 2013

Black Friday sale and Art Every Day Month - day 29!

I forgot yesterday to wish everyone who is celebrating Thanksgiving a joyful holiday. I hope it was happy :-)

I've been working like crazy trying to get my Society6 shop stocked. I still don't have very much in there, but I'm working on it. You can have a look here already. This weekend is also free shipping, so you might want to take advantage of that!

In the meantime I finished another one of my boxes. It is my goal to have everything ready one week before my market, instead of working like a maniac up until the morning of the market, like it usually goes .... I'm pretty much on track, thanks to the AEDM-challenge. I only have a very small stall there, so I won't need that much anyway.

It's the first time I've had this shape of box, and while I love the shape it's a bit more challenging to paint. The rectangular ones I can just put on one side and paint everything in one go before moving on to the next side. With this box I need to hold it all the time which is a bit tricky trying to stay away from wet paint ....

This is the top. Felt like making a whimsical bird ;-)

And guess what!? Last night I found out  Lulu has free shipping until Monday! So if you'd been thinking of buying my calendar NOW's the time!



AND I decided to have a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale in my Etsyshop. It's a concept that is unknown here in Australia, or in Europe where I come from. But since I sell a lot to Americans I decided to offer this sale. If you buy one A4-sized print, you get one of your choice for free! And all my postcards can be ordered as A4-prints as well! The sale is on until Monday. By the way, it's not only for Americans ;-)

And now's the time for the last weekly overview of my Art Every Day Month-challenge!

Day 23: lyricsgirl
Day 24: oneliner
Day 25: doodle
Day 26: rocks

Day 27: wooden box
Day 28: journalgirl

That's it for now! I want to thank you all so much for visiting and commenting. I love the interaction going on in artistic blogland :-) I'm linking this as always to Paint Party Friday, and also to Art Every Day Month. Hope you're having a fantastic Friday and a restful weekend. I'll be back tomorrow for the final day of AEDM! ♥ ♥ ♥


Thursday 28 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - day 28

Only 3 more days to go! A month sure flies by this way!

Again not much time today as I'm still struggling with my Society6-shop. I sent an email to the helpdesk to see whether I misunderstood something, and I'm still waiting for an answer. Thanks so much for your tips and suggestions!

Today I finished a page in my artjournal. Felt like playing with shapes again ....


I scanned the girl and added the background (again one of my paintings in progress) in Photoshop. I kinda like the contrast between the black and the coloured background.

That's it for today. Last night I had lots of trouble with the internet. Uploading my post went really slow, and when I wanted to visit your blogs it took ages to open, and then I got a message it wasn't possible to open. So in the end I gave up. I'll try to come by your blogs tonight, if not certainly tomorrow.

Thanks so much for visiting! Linking this to AEDM. Tomorrow is Paint Party Friday again, and I'll be back!  Hopefully I'll be able to share my Society6-shoplink! Stay tuned ... ;-)

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - Day 27

I got very little art done today. Although, in between finally getting up-to-date with all my paperwork and quenching little fires all day long, I managed to work a little bit on my boxes. And one of them is (almost) finished. Still need to do 1 side and the inside, but it's as far as I've gotten today.


I also uploaded some images to my Society6-shop. But it turns out that, although the resolution of my images is big enough for large prints, it is not big enough for pillows and totebags and mugs.... Huh!? I have my camera on the highest resolution setting, I can't make it any bigger, so I really really wonder how the other artists do this. When I scan my images in a really high resolution I can do it too, but I can hardly scan my bigger paintings. Plus a lot of my work is gone already, or is in the gallery so I don't have it with me.

Hmm, a bit frustrating, I'd hoped to get it stocked this week. We'll see, I might be able to get something in there, fingers crossed ....

Linking this as every day to AEDM. Thanks so much for your visits and your comments, it's greatly appreciated ♥

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - Day 26

Finished 2 more rocks today, but only now that I see the pictures I notice that they are a bit blurry. And since it's night already, I can't take any other ones, because then you get the glare from the flash. Oh well, I'll make new pics tomorrow, but I'll post these as they are for now:



Working away on my boxes too, so hopefully tomorrow one will be ready ....

I want to start another mosaic as well, but I don't have time, boohoo! Could it be that I try to do too much? I just wish I could create from morning till evening, without having to worry about household duties and other work.... When I got back from holidays, after not having created anything (well, almost) during 4 weeks, I had a really hard time getting into it again. But now that I'm doing this challenge, the ideas flood my brain and I can't keep up with them.

But still, I'd rather have it this way than having no ideas at all. I'm linking this again to AEDM, and hopping over to your blogs now to have a look at your creations. Thanks for your visit and comments! I'll be back tomorrow  ♥


Monday 25 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - Day 25

It looks as if I'm getting back into my doodles :-)  A few months ago I was sick and tired of them, but since I finished the last one a week ago I feel like drawing and doodling them again. So here's another one:


I've also been working on my boxes, but they're all still in progress. My art table looks like some kind of explosion happened there. Paints and boxes and magnets and canvases and rocks everywhere .... The nice thing about doing so many different things at the same time is that each day I can choose what I want to work on.

Today I brought 2 of my paintings and my mosaic to the Redcliffe Cultural Centre. They will be on display in the foyer there from the 25th of November until the 23rd of December. So if you're in the area: hop on in! These are the paintings I brought in:

 "Celebrate yourself" - 60x60cm (23,6" x 23,6")- acrylics on canvas
You can see this painting from start to finish in this blogpost here

"Still, like air, she'll rise"- 60x60cm (23,6" x 23,6") - acrylics on canvas
You can see the "birth" of this painting in this blogpost ....

That's it for today. Linking this again to AEDM. Thanks so much for visiting today! See you tomorrow :-)

Sunday 24 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - Day 24

When I don't have much time to do something creative, I usually make a lyricsgirl or a oneliner. Since it's ages ago I did a oneliner, I chose that for the 24th day of AEDM.

Don't remember how I did the background, I had these pages prepared a long time ago and then forgot all about it. For those new to my blog: oneliners have this name for 2 reasons: the drawing is made out of one line, meaning the marker stays on the page the whole time until the drawing is done. I can go over one line more than once, but I can't lift the marker. Second reason is that they are all accompanied by a oneline quote (well, okay, sometimes two lines ... ☺).

The reason I started making these was because I wanted to learn to draw "ugly". I tend to be a bit too perfectionist when I'm drawing, and with these girls I can't, because I have to work really fast, and when one line isn't good I still need to keep going (I work with ink on watercolour paper, and when I stay too long in one spot I get a big black dot ....).

Anyway, this is my contribution to Art Every Day Month. Thanks so much for visiting, I'll be back tomorrow!



Saturday 23 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - Day 23

Well, weekend again, and you know what that means if you're a regular reader of this blog: not much time for art ....
But I managed to finish a lyricsgirl, so I'm still keeping up with this challenge. Yes ;-)

Lyrics are from Adele. I love her lyrics! Well, I love her songs too, but especially her lyrics. Don't remember which song this is from though. Girl is done with markers, background with panpastels.

I'll be back tomorrow. Thanks so much for visiting!

Friday 22 November 2013

Paint Party Friday and Art Every Day Month day 22

Phew, I did it. I finished my mosaic! I have to bring it in on Monday for the exhibition, and still have to paint the back and put a hanging system in place. And I won't have much time this weekend (what's new ...!?). So I'm very glad I finished her. I was getting sick and tired of it, and now that she's finished I'm not sure I even like her. Probably had an overdose of her this week ... ;-)

Here she is:

It's hard to get a decent picture as long as she's not hanging on the wall. Usually I use a white foamboard to put underneath my projects when I want to make pictures, but I lent it to my daughter for her jigsaw-puzzle ..... I'll post her again when the hanging system is in place, or even better: when she's at the exhibition. Here are some details:




I don't think I like her face. Something about it bothers me. A lot.  And I won't start another mosaic figure until I find out what it is and what I can do about it ....

Anyway, like every week, here's an overview of all my AEDM-projects:

Day 16: lyricsgirl
Day 17: magnets
Day 18: intuitive painting
Day 19: doodlegirl
Day 20: some summertops
Day 21: miniature-painting

Got a lot done this week. And getting into the habit of doing something every day really makes things easier in the end.

About my question last week: thanks to everyone who tried to help. I finally got a usable answer from the fourth person I contacted at Society6. He said they currently don't charge taxes on sales. Simple answer. Why it took them so long to give me that answer is beyond me, but hey, I'm happy. I've already registered and hope to find some time next week to get my shop stocked. Stay tuned ... ;-)

Well, that's it for now, gotta get ready to bring my daughter to gymnastics-training. Thank you so much for visiting! I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday and Art Every Day Month. Go have a look at all the wonderful links on these sites, it's worth it!

Wishing you a wonderful Friday and a relaxing weekend ! I'll be back tomorrow ♥ ♥ ♥

Thursday 21 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - Day 21

I got confirmation today that I'm accepted for a market stall during the Christmasparade in Brisbane! That will be on the 13th of December, so I still have a bit of time, but still, I better finish some more of those small miniature-paintings.... ;-)

So here's the next one:


I used to make these mini-paintings with a combination of acrylics and inktense pencils. Now I made it with acrylics and glazing medium, which works a whole lot better, but I might have made my paint a bit too transparant this time. Next time I think I will try to make the text on her face less visible. What do you think?

I've been working on my mosaic in between other things. It should be finished by tomorrow, hopefully I'll get it done.

Linking this to Art Every Day Month again. Tomorrow I'll be back for the Paint Party and the 22nd day of AEDM! Hope to see you then! Thanks so much for visiting!


Wednesday 20 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - Day 20

And now for something completely different ....


This is what I've been doing today .... Probably not really "art", but I created them so I'm counting them as good enough entries for AEDM :-)

When we were in Belgium for a family visit 6 weeks ago, one of the first things I did was run to my favorite fabric store and purchase a whole lot of brightly coloured fabrics. Here in Australia I haven't been able to find a store with that kind of fabric for reasonable prices. And since I usually make my own clothes I've been really frustrated with the lack of choice here.

Look ... :-)


Aren't these fabrics gorgeous? It makes me happy just looking at it.

Summer is around the corner here in Queensland, and I really "needed" some new tops for the coming hot days. So I made 3!


I just love wearing these loose, long tops. Perfect for the hot summer days and evenings.




This is my entry for Art Every Day Month, day 20. Only 10 more days and November is over! Can't believe it. Thanks so much for your visits, I love having you here!

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - Day 19

Thanks so much for visiting and commenting! I find it fascinating to read about the different things you saw in my little painting. I call this intuitive painting because I have no idea what I'm going to paint when I start out. I just throw some colours on there until I see something emerging. Sometimes it's a very small thing, like an eye, or a hand, sometimes I see a complete figure right away. This style of painting is so relaxing, because you don't have to wonder what you will paint, you just let it come to you.

Today I finished another doodle. And it was only after I finished that I realized her head is rather big. In fact, it's pretty gigantic ...


Oh well ..... Nothing I can do about it now .... I made it in my artjournal, scanned it and added the background (one of my paintings in progress) in Photoshop.

That's it for today's AEDM. And it's bedtime again .... I'll be back tomorrow! ♥

Monday 18 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - day 18

I felt like making a more intuitive painting again. But small this time, since time is limited. So I bought some 13x18cm (5"x 7") canvasboards and started throwing paint at it. Well no, not really .... I used my gelliplate, without much succes, and then tried to get a bit more colour with my spray-inks. This is how this one came out:


The only thing I could see in it was a long neck, shoulders and green hair. But it was enough to start with ...

It went through a few different stages, which I forgot to take pictures of, and ended up like this:


Not much left of the original colours, but, who cares ... ? I had fun creating it. I'm longing to start a bigger canvas again, but alas, that'll have to wait. In the meantime I can make these little ones, lots more are waiting to be finished.

This is my entry for the 18th (whaaat ...!?) day of Art Every Day Month. And today I hope I'll be able to visit some more participating blogs ....

Thanks so much for coming here and leaving comments, I love and treasure every single one of them. I'll be back tomorrow! ♥ ♥ ♥

Sunday 17 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - Day 17

Jeezz, the day's been flying by again. Can't catch up. Finished some magnets, and managed to work a little bit on my mosaic, but that's it.


And now it's almost midnight in this part of the world, so I better get ready for bed. Thanks for visiting, I'll be back tomorrow (I hope ....) ♥

Saturday 16 November 2013

Art Every Day Month - Day 16

Weekend again, so little art-time. Managed to finish a lyricsgirl though.


Again lyrics from Heather Nova. Love her songs!

Didn't get to work on my mosaic, and I'm getting a tiny little bit nervous ..... And tomorrow we'll have visitors, so probably won't get much done again .... Hmmm, who knows, I might have to do some night-work this week ;-)


Trying to catch up with your blogs, so off I go. Thanks for visiting, and I'll be back tomorrow!

Friday 15 November 2013

Paint Party Friday and Art Every Day Month - Day 15!

We're halfway through the month already! I'm still keeping up with the AEDM-challenge, and so happy that I'm creating every day. It really is THE best way to get out of a slump ....

Today I finished another miniature-painting. It's only 10x10cm (4"x4"), but it's a size that I still like to do. ATC is a bit too small for my liking.


And, like last week, I'm also showing an overview of my Art Every Day-week. It makes me feel good when I see how much I got done and motivates me to keep going ;-)

Day 9: painted rock (and I just remember I forgot to do the backside ...)

Day 10: sketch
Day 11: magnets
Day 12: another sketch ...
Day 13: painted rocks

Day 14: doodle

That's it for this week! Well, for the finished works that is. I still have way more stuff that's still in progress... Next week my mosaic should be ready, because I have to bring it in for an art show.

And now I have a question for those of you with a Society 6 shop. I would love to get my art on different products, like pillows and mugs. I've looked at Zazzle, but because it's a US-based corporation, they require non-US-sellers to do all kinds of complicated things with signed tax-forms in order to be able to pay them. And I hate tax-forms .... One time a year doing a tax-return is about all I can handle .... I just want something simple to try out, so I was wondering whether it's the same for Society6. I can't find anything on their website about it, and my writing to the helpdesk didn't result in a clear answer. They probably didn't understand my question......

So if there are visitors out there with a Society6-shop who are not American, I'd love to hear from you!

Okay, I'll stop my babbling now and wish you a lovely Friday and a beautiful weekend, wherever you are. Linking this to Paint Party Friday and to Art Every Day Month. Two links you should definitely click on! So much eye-candy over there!

I'll be back tomorrow! Thanks so much for visiting ♥ ♥ ♥