Inspired by: The Once and Future King

I've started reading this book a few days ago, and it is such a fantasy and inspiration that I wanted to draw and paint almost from the very first page :-)

Yesterday or so I found my pencils and paper and started drawing a few different creatures and things that came to my mind…

there will be more little drawings added to these and some story may unfold from it at some point!

Hope you enjoyed,

I did!

Happy greetings from Ilona

some more faces

Hi everyone! Today I'm sharing some progress works. I didn't have time to finish any of the pieces I'm working on at the moment. First comes a drawing of an owl from a photo I've found on the PMP site. The Barn owl was photographed by Mike Gullick. I'm grateful for all the wonderful photos that great photographers share for artists to draw and paint!

The owl, sketched on a small moleskin journal.

The next few pieces are done on lose paper, all Bronzino portraits with additions

(One of the old Italian masters):

1. is a lady with sheep and birds photographed by Valerie Jael. She takes a lot of beautiful photos on her walks and I got permission to use some as reference for my drawings. Thank you once more Valerie! :-)

2. a Young Man, and I gave him a set of cow-horns.

Finally I'm showing a few photos of a portrait I'm working on. She seems to grow on me, the longer I work on her :-):

3. is Lucrezia di Cosimo with flowers added.

I really enjoy drawing and I would love to do something really big, a few square yards/meters!

Wishing everyone a wonderful sunday, don't get blown away by the storm! (For those affected by the weather)

Sharing this on Paint Party Friday

and Art Journal Journey!

Bronzino study

Another visit at Art Journal Journey

As I'm working with portraits by the old masters I surely have to add another blog post with a portrait I have done lately.

Here is a study of a portrait by Bronzino his birth name was Agnolo di Cosimo (November 17. 1503 - November 23. 1572) but he was known as Il Bronzino probably referring to his complexion. More information from wikipedia.

The animals are drawn after photos from Valerie Jael. Thank you very much for the permission to use some of your photos as references!

This is a work in progress and it will be a present for a friend, who appreciates my art very much.

Have a great week!

Happy New Year!

Hello dear friends and fellow bloggers!
I miss blogging and I miss you all! So I have decided to schedule my time for blogging and other computer related time more strictly this coming year. I hope it will work!
I have been practicing faces all year long and I enjoy it very much. I have mostly done drawings in graphite and charcoal and recently I've started painting again with acrylics, which I enjoy very much. There has come a lot of color into my paintings :-)

Now here's some of my art inspired by the old masters:

"La Bella Pricipessa" by Leonardo da Vinci, this painting is acrylic on watercolor paper. I've got it framed, which makes it look like a real piece of art! 

 Isabella d'Este by Titian, graphite and pastel drawing on my favorite "drawing paper", not finished

 Catharina van Aragon by Juan De Flandes. 

I'm still working on this! It is hopefully going to hang on a wall in our local hospital in the cancer tracing/control section. I've accompanied someone last summer, who was diagnosed with cancer and it was such a dreary place. So I immediately thought it would be nice, if there were some beautiful pictures hanging on the wall. I'm going to ask the hospital, if they would like some art for their walls. Luckily the person I was with, did get an operation that was able to remove the cancer.

Wishing everyone a year of hope and with possibilities to move on in your life in a way that you wish for. Sometimes that can be hard to accomplish, maybe we need to change our point of view to be able to move or to see other possibilities…

And sometimes only the tinyest steps are possible.

My best wishes to you

Ilona

Sharing this with the wonderful people at Paint Party Friday

And also at: Art Journal Journey (which is a first for me)

A few of the recent sketches

Hi everyone!
There is still too little time to really make art with all my body and soul, just a few sketches get done here and there.

Malissa Priebe, thank you for letting me draw your portrait!

Referencephoto by Shannon Haughton Gill

Referencephoto by Dawn Albert

Francisco de Goya

I'm really looking forward to having more time for art, really splattering paint on canvases and creating collages and paint and draw and do all that funny stuff!
Hope to be around more often soon!

Have a wonderful weekend
Ilona

some surprises in the mail and some new art

Hi all!
I've told you about my bachelor-project and it is now handed in. YES I DID IT!!! :D
Now the last task for me is, to get through the oral exam… I will manage somehow ;-)

But now to the fun part - art!
When I returned home after a few days of writing-exile I found a pile of mail on my desk. First to mention a tiny (not really that tiny!) but fat envelope from Marji, who had posted a "Pay it forward"-post on her blog some weeks ago. I was the first person to sign up for some art from Marji, how could I not??? :-) She is an amazing artist! (You can still join in the game on my post: collection-of-pieces-i-have-worked-on)

Here are a few photos of her art-gift for me:

A booklet of collage and wax-paint combined, a very energetic piece.

Thank you so much for this treasure, Marji! I'm preparing your piece, almost posted a WIP, but stopped myself just in time ;-)

Then I received my journal page from Audrey Breed! She is an artist from Tennessee. Since I got into the artist-groups on Facebook, Audrey has been part of my artist existence. She is an experienced person in art and life and always ready to give advice and share her knowledge. You see, she is amazing! :-)

And here is her beautiful and quirky piece of art already on my wall:

Also in my mail was my traveling journal cover I had prepared, to protect the journal pages. Unfortunately it was too bulgy and made mailing more expensive :(

I asked Manon to mail my journal without the cover. Manon was so kind and sent the cover back to me and with the cover she sent some of her lovely paper dolls:

Wow, thank you Manon! I'm looking forward to "building" them together with my daughter! As if that wasn't enough I also received a painting from Manon:

"The Lady-bird Keeper"

I love it! Thank you Manon!!!

Now a little bit of my own art work:

You know I love to draw faces and I'm drawing faces almost daily. Here is one of the latest works:

Graphite sketch in my faces-journal.

The last piece for today is a little mug I like to use for my coffee:

I painted with derwent art bars on water color paper. The mug is from a pottery in Denmark (Fanø).

The painting is partly inspired by Marc Chagall, but mainly it is inspired by Conny of Mix it Monthly and it is my contribution to the May challenge with the theme Coffee/Cafë. 

I'm sharing this on Paint Party Friday

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

collection of pieces I have worked on in the last two weeks and Pay it forward

The first two paintings are my contributions to two of the traveling journals I joined on Facebook.

I have made a page with information/links to all the participants' blogs.

The hen is going to be for Audrey. It is still a work in progress:

The second one is for Lauri, who asked for our ideas on "positive headspace".

This is, what I have come to until now with her journal:

Below you see the head of a cow. She is painted after a reference photo from a new group I joined on Facebook, where we post our own photos and give permission for other group members to use them for their art. That's a pretty cool idea and there are a lot of wonderful photos of animals, nature and also some people. 

This cat is also drawn after a reference photo from the Fb-group:

And finally "Snowwhite" in graphite (in my sketchbook):

And I will add a little game today. I joined Marji's "Pay it forward" challenge and offer my own work now for the first five people, who comment with "Yes I want in"

Here are the rules:

* Pay It Forward Art-making Project for 2014 *

I promise to make a small work of art for the first five people who comment on this post and say "YES, I want in". A 'like' alone is not enough of a commitment, nor is a comment about thinking Pay It Forward is a great idea.

You must in turn post this as your status update and make something for the first five who comment on your status.

The rules are simple:
– It has to be your work, made by you, and the recipient must receive it before 2014 ends.
– It can be anything art-based: a drawing/illustration or a conceptual work of art, a photograph, a knitted item, cross-stitch, paper maché – or anything in between.

I'm paying this forward thanks to Jack Oudyn.  Yes, you can be on each other's pay it forward lists.

First five, GO!

PS. It doesn't matter if you aren't an artist, try something out, google/ YouTube how to make stuff, step out of those boundaries.

 Step 1Copy&Paste this (see below) as your latest entry on your favourite social website (in my case, its this blog) 

 
Step 2For the first five people who comment on your blog entry saying they want to participate, you will do an art trade with them that must be completed by December 31st 2014. I would count as the first person so technically you only need another four. If you find your friends are keen you can do as many as you want. 


Step 3All forms of art count including creative writing , photography, digital anything goes!
 
If you have any more qustions, just email me and let me know

29 Faces in February 2014

I made them through the month and posted them in the Facebook group 29 Faces. And now I'll show them to all my blogger-friends and foes ;-)
No, seriously! I'm studying again and have a hard time keeping my mind at it. Making art is so much easier for me. And I would love to do nothing else, but hey, this education was started for a reason and it's only a few months before I've done it. I can get through these months without the regular party with you all! Somehow…!

I used graphite, water colour, charcoal and art bars for my portraits. I enjoyed doing these a lot as a welcome break from the studies.

So here they are:

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, miss the blog and you all and visiting your beautiful places and spaces!

Sharing with Paint Party Friday :-)

And here's the link to the one and only: Ayala Art Thank you for putting this up! It has connected me to wonderful artsy communities!