Express Your Creativity - Week 12

Welcome to Express Your Creativity. Here you can share paintings, sketches, art journal pages, poetry, photography, fiber arts like knitting and weaving, favorite recipes, organizational and decorating ideas, and more. The only requirement is that it is something that you have created in some way. I hope you will join me here and please pass it on. Please make sure to list your posts url and not your blogs url. This makes it easier for any late comers to find your post. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, this is how it works. You type in your name in the first box and the url/link to your post, not your blog address about your creative efforts this week. When you return your name will already be populated, you just need to paste in the new posts link.

I have created a blog button for those participating who might want to post this on your blog. You'll find it on the sidebar to your right.

My Week

I have been laid low with a awful stomach flu since last Friday.  I didn't get to as many as your blogs as I would have liked.  I apologize for that. Thank to all of you who continue to post here each week.

Since I have been so sick I don't have much to share.  I have been cleaning up my studio. You know how that is at one point you just have to do a major overhaul or you can't get anything done. I am going to be doing some major work and I wanted lots of workstations set up so I can move from one project to the next. It took me two days to get it all set up.

This is a little peek into a painting I am working on.

Here is another section.  I am loving all the color buried in all the layers.

I took this watercolor background and began a mandala.  I haven't gotten very far with it yet.

After a trip to the Dentist and a Dr. appointment I needed a lift so I went shopping at Michaels. I wanted some orange paint but ended up with a lot more. The white paper in the background is for scrapbooking but I will use it as a stencil. I got it on clearance for.49. The small toned gray sketchbook was on clearance for 5.99 so I got a couple good deals. I used a coupon on the inks.  They are the metallic set which includes silver, copper and gold. I will use them for drips in paintings and other accents.  I really like adding copper to a piece.

I'd love to see what you have been doing so please share your work below.

Icon Portraits

So one of the exercises in Spectrum's offering on Nourish this month is all about seeing the divine within and painting an icon like portrait.

My first one didn't work that well. The gold leaf adhesive I use wasn't working and I didn't like the effect of the cardboard.

The second on in process for you. First I added clear gesso and some stablio pencil to highlight areas.

Next I used watercolor pencils and blended with a brush.

Then I added acrylic paint to the face and hair.

Lastly I added gold foil in the background.  I like this one a lot better.

This is one I tried in Panpastels, it really looks different.  I skipped the color pencil stage and it really made it look different.  This process is really fun.  It interesting painting on your own portrait, sometime it looks like you and other times it seems really different. I don't think this one looks like me at all.

Insomnia Art

Early morning insomnia led to creating this page.  I started with a circle to make a mandala and just kept on going.  This was fun although it felt limiting with the rectangular page.  The center is oil pastel and the outer is acrylic paint.

I don't know about you but I am constantly reorganizing my art supplies/ Always looking for a storage solution that will work the best.  I found these great plastic containers the other day at TJ Maxx. They are made in New Zealand and they are great for storing art supplies. The plastic pieces fold down and the cover comes off.  Just the right size for water color crayons or oil pastels.  I bought 4 of them which was all they had.  Now I am on the search for more.  I ordered some from Amazon thinking they were a similar size but I was way off.  So I sent them back, now I will just see if I can find them at another store. The top one is thin and a really good size for the kind of things I want to store.  I hope I find some more soon. They are really great.