Oh dear, she looks a little sad

....maybe it's because her eyes are wonky, poor dear

I've been working on this painting of a melancholy, wonky-eyed, fat-nosed lady off and on for a few days in my pair journal, and I think she's done now.....

Totally influenced by (and nowhere near up to the standard of!) the wonderful work of Marion Bolognesi

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Finally some creativity to share

I had a little time off from making stuff in the first half of this month, I think I was a little burnt out by the Index Card A Day thing - I don't think I have the energy for daily creativity.  Not if I still have to go to work every day anyway :)

I'm back on it now though, fully rested, and have completed a couple of pages in Shirley's "one word" pair journal this week, ready to post back to her before I trot off on my hols.

The "sing" page above I'm actually quite pleased with, I think it is the first face I have ever drawn/painted that I don't hate.  And I love the way Shirley's collaged background looks underneath

And here's my page for "reflect"

The only other things I have done in the book on this round are a new background for Shirley to work on:

And I added some bubbles to Shirley's diver:

Are you sitting down....?

....because I'm about to post something that is neither ICAD nor RYWF related....shock!

So here is an update on how my Collabor-ART Pair Journal is coming along

This is the shared art journal that I am working on along with Shirley (Done At Last)

I love my book already :) :)  and we are barely getting started!

This is my second round working in my own journal

First of all, I tweaked my original first page as it looked a bit plain, by adding some little label stickers that I had "splatted" on with distress stains:

Next another minor tweak, this time adding a bit of black outlining and an orange harlequin pattern to Shirley's "eye for colour" page:

Then I added straw blown seaweed and a school of fish to one of Shirley's gorgeous backgrounds:

Next, this photo of two geishas paddling is from the 1920s and has been sat in my collage pile for a while waiting for the perfect time to use it, I love it:

And last up, the beginnings of a page for Shirley to run with:

Next I get a second turn in Shirley's own book, can't wait to see what she has done to it this time around....

A couple of new pages in my pair journal....

The first two pages are fairly finished (although my pair journal partner, Shirley, may well choose to add to them):

And these two are works in progress, am passing the ball to Shirley on these ones:

Can't wait to see how they end up :)

A little catch up....

Here are a couple of bits and bobs I've made recently that have seen the light of day elsewhere but not on here....

Firstly a couple of journal pages that I used as examples in a basic stencil/mask tutorial for UKScrappers

(I'll probably put the tute on here eventually, but in the meantime if you'd like a read, it is available to UKS members in PDF form here)

The first one deals with the unfortunate fact that I'm now on the downhill slide towards 50! noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

How did this happen????  To be fair, I have got to admit that I'm enjoying my 40s more than either my 30s or my 20s - but I kind of wish I could be having all this fun in a body 20 years younger :D

The second page was a quickie to celebrate the fact that I'm booked in for a new tattoo!  It won't be happening until August, but the deposit's paid and I can't wait!

I'm having my very old Celtic style armband re-worked into a Haida  thunderbird - hence the "out with the old and in with the new!" bit...







Here's the old tattoo, done when I was still in my teens, I still really like it but it has got blurry with age (a bit like the rest of me :) ) and it doesn't really go with my Haida orca backpiece

And the bird is going to look something like this, nowhere near this big or intricate - but this gives you an idea of the general style and colouring:

My armband will become the horizontal black part of the wings (my tattooist is going to work my old design into something more "Haida-ish" :) ), and the heads of the bird will go up onto my shoulder with the tail and wing feathers hanging down onto my upper arm.

Exciting, if painful, stuff :)

And here's something completely different, over at Collabor-ART, I have paired up with the very talented Shirley.

We have each got hold of a pocket Japanese Moleskine journal (these things are very cool!  I got mine from my pal Vicki here)  and we are going to swap them back and forth adding to what's gone before until they are full (or we get bored :))

Fish by PEZ

I have already done a bit of work in mine to set the bright colourful tone I'm aiming for - and now it's ready for its first visit to Shirley's desk.

I think we are going to have lots of fun with this over the next few months.  I'll be sure to share how it develops