Feathers for Yanik

It is wonderful to be inspired! I really love to react on inspiration instantly, because of the energy the inspiration evokes and so I did thursday evening. I had seen a video of a woman presenting  two feathers she had received from a Facebook friend of mine. I was so inspired by the beauty of the woman and her loving attitude so I tried to find out what these feathers were about. I went to her blog, where she tells all about a project she is working on. You can read about it here.

I read her instructions for the feather-project and found material I would like to use. And here are the feathers:

Yanik asks us to use a cereal box or something as a base and then add whatever we like to decorate, just make it colourful and with love. I chose some fabric in my favorite colour and added some golden and pinkish red acrylics and ink. I started out drawing four feathers onto the back of the cardboard and glued the fabric onto it. I realized that I could make at least two more feathers from the cardboard and so I did :-) 

This is the fabric I used:

And the first feather I made (and kept as a keepsake):

Sending them off today!!??? I have to get them posted nooooow! Lol

Sharing with Paper Saturday's

Beauty Queen

Hi you all! Thank you for your visits and for your comments. They mean so much to me, as this is the way I share my art. I'm not a professional artist and I don't sell my art … yet. So feedback from other creative people/artists help me get through times of doubt.

Today I share two pieces with you. They are inspired by a young woman I know, who is participating in a world wide beauty contest.
The first piece is a pencil sketch in my square portrait sketchbook. I sketched after a photograph with her natural look:

The second piece is a mixed media painting, sketching her face with charcoal, using a glue stick to smudge it out some and redrawing with a graphite stick and charcoal. I collaged the "dress" and painted the gold and white acrylic mix to the background and finished it all off with some doodles.

Sharing this with Paint Party Friday

and 

Paper Saturday's

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

A special wish for well being and healing to all of you who are suffering illness, small or big!

collaged chocolate boxes

I have been working with 29 faces and still have a few to do, but for Paint Party Friday and Paper Saturday I chose to try something different away from portraying my niece :-)

So here are:

A young man sketched free style with ink pen and added various colours.

And a linol cut I did inspired by Manon's Lottie (Manon Popjes and Paper Saturdays)

I made a print and added various colors again, the blue I added at last and it quite made my heart sing.

Seems like I'm in a blue mood ;-)

Sitting on a shelf in my study, side by side:

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Paper Saturday and Mix it Monthly

I found out today that we as a family needed a calendar in the kitchen. We use a calendar on the computer mostly. So I had a task for Paper Saturday :-)!!!

I found a piece of cardboard (from an old calendar?) that I used as the base.

Starting with a little greenish ochre and thinking of the "Mix it Monthly" challenge, and decided to combine paper art and a mixed up challenge.

I found some torn up paper that was painted and printed earlier.

I collaged it onto the background

mixed yellow and gold and added it to the collaged cardboard, the colour was just transparent enough to let the print and colours look through.

I sketched a face on top of it all with charcoal and adding grey pastel:

For the Mix it monthly challenge we were asked to use yellow green, red, violet colours and flowers. I decided to take butterflies for "flowers" and the golden colour for the ornament that also was thought to be used in the challenge.

Feeling that the background and the skin tones were difficult to see apart, so I added white acrylic:

Painting out the details in face and around the butterflies:

Here's what the finished piece looks like complete, I actually love it :D Happy to see this every day on my kitchen wall, 

only with the calendar pages hiding a good part of the painting ;-)

Hope you enjoyed the process and please hop over and visit Manon at Paper Saturdays

and Conny at Mix it Monthly!

Preparing for the show

I've told you about the show I got the chance to do together with one of my study-mates. On Wednesday I visited the place and agreed with people there on how things are run, very exiting but also I am a little more relaxed :-)

To have something achievable for everybody, I am going to make some cards with prints and splashes and paintings that might be interesting as birthday cards or a small gift.

I'm only showing one example that is finished today:

Also while cleaning my workspace and one of my shelves I found these homemade papers with models torn out of a newspaper, integrated in the process:

I made these a few years ago and remember that I wanted to add something to them, but just didn't know then, and now??? Well they will stay like they are for now.

Lastly I want to show you the finished piece of the one Face in the World II group I have worked on. It is the start by New York artist Malissa Priebe who started this and she has a strong style with expressive lines, Ayala Art added colour to the face and I collaged some firework sparkles and eyecolour and added some lines to the face.

This is it for today, please look over to Paint Party Friday

also sharing with Paper Saturday!

Paper art - collaged - repurposed - reused

First I want to thank all the kind people, who left a comment on last PPF's blogpost. The encouragement that I received was overwhelming and it tells me that I found a good place to share my art. Thank You!

For this week I have collected some of the pieces I have worked on with paper glue and colours. But first I want to share my start for an exquisite corpse I have done a few months ago. I hope I will see it return back to me soon!

I collaged a statue of Gorm the Old, who was king of Denmark around 930-40. And tried to continue the color for the face I let grow out of the picture. To add to the unnatural look I gave it red eyes and lips, which create a great contrast to the cool colors in the rest of the piece.

Below was meant to be a start to "Face in the World II"

But before I knew of it the face was there, though I only intended to make a hint for the participants to paint a face.

Below is the new start I did for Face in the World II. I collaged a piece of crepe de chine-silk onto an already painted cardboard and added more pastel and acrylic. I love it!!! 

I did a few recycling pieces. The two to the left are water colours I made about two years ago. I added some lines of pastel chalk and acrylic to loosen up the impression.

The other two are pieces done out of advertisement mail. I collaged and painted over them, which was quite funny.

The last piece I want to share today is a canvas I want to take to the exhibition.

I started painting it all black inspired by a quote, saying that every painting should start with a layer of black... I don't really remember it completely, sorry!

When the paint was dry I collaged bits of paintings and drawings I had made earlier, to cover the whole canvas.

I covered the paper with a layer of decoupage-varnish.

following a piece of paper I had painted with blue ecoline. The contrast is awesome!

Below I added one of my favorite golden acrylics.

I then added white acrylic, pastels and collaged a face on top of it all. Painted it with black and white and added lines with charcoal. The blue spots are again ecoline.

I'm quite fond of the result. It is hanging on my living room wall at the moment.

The size is: 40x40 cm or 15 3/4 square inches.

Sharing this with the fabulous artists on Paint Party Friday

and

Paper Saturdays

If you not already do it go and visit these places and artists.

Ilona 

Paper Picasso Inspiration

An hour of artsy pastime and my husband is impressed. Always at the most unexpected moments :-)
I have been thinking of a mobile for PAPER SATURDAY for some days, but needed an idea.
Today I needed to do something crafty and just started.

here come the first cuts:

But I wanted to include a face, but how to do that free hand?

Then I came to think of the "Mix it Monthly Challenge" where Picasso, butterflies and a beautiful face were included. I visited Pia Rom's blog and the path was set...a butterfly and two eyes

a pointed nose and expressive lips...

A LOT OF YELLOW! ;-)

And the mobile was finished

Inspired by my work from yesterday, I did another mobile free style - not knowing what it would end up like. It is great fun, but a little hard on my index finger ;-)

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Ilona's greeting you :-)