Day 2 30 Paintings in 30 Days Jan 2017

Here we are at day 2 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge.  Today I've done a painting of a fish.............a rather unintentional chunky fish.  Artist Trading Card (2.5 x 3.5 inch) in Sennelier oil pastels.  I found the yellow was very soft and creamy and the blues harder.  I like the creamy texture but I think I need to get a blending stick - I'm using a paper talon which is okay but the tip gets rather mucky.

Till tomorrow

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday #282

On my work desk this morning is a big box of embroidery threads with which I have started to stitch my textile artist trading card with.  I need to get this finished for the end of this week so I can send it off to it's new home.  I host an ATC - artist trading card swap every month for the gallery I volunteer at Art With A Heart and one of the players Ottilia-Bogdan Cormos this month has made an ATC on perspex and I loved it so much that I asked for a personal trade and she very kindly agreed and sent me this totally gorgeous ATC - the theme for the swap was Halloween or autumn.

Here is the ATC that Ottilia sent to me - isn't it gorgeous?  The colours are so vibrant.

And here is my desk as it stands today.

Want to know more about What's on your work desk Wednesday?  Then pop over to Julia's blog The Stamping Ground for the details and to see what the other artists are sharing on their desks.

Anita

#blogtoberfest14 day 29

I'm also linking up with Claire Justine for the Wednesday blog hop

Halloween Costume - Corpse Bride

Today I've been doing my auntie duties and making my niece a halloween costume in the style of the Corpse Bride.  Having traipsed around the local market and not finding anything that was suitable we decided to go ahead and make the dress instead.  First thing to do was dye the fabric to a similar blue that is shown in the film -we or should I say I did this by mixing turquoise and ultramarine brusho powder paint in some cold water.  This was a total experiment as they're not meant to be used as fabric paint but this was the more economical way of colouring the fabric and I'm happy to say it worked.  Not sure the colour will stay if washed but as this is only going to be worn for a few hours I can't see it being a problem.  

Next step cutting out the pattern - well there is no pattern so I had to adhoc it using one of my nieces dress as a template for size.

Then onto sewing and fitting - after a few nips and tucks dress is ready to wear...but hang on it looks too plain.  Okay so we (that is I) have some skeletons in my little magic box - so we take them apart limb by limb - team effort here by auntie and niece.  

Next - they're going to look lost on their own.............okay bright spark..........lets make a bone stencil and add some along the border and waist of the dress.  Out comes silver acrylic and black paint.  Bones stenciled next step........................that's tomorrows post.

Decapitated skeleton

Sewing begins

All made up

Stenciling begins

Nearly there

Checking to see how the decapitated skeleton parts look on the dress.

Anita

Linking up with - 

Handmade Harbour - Handmade Monday

Claire Justine - Creative Mondays

#blogtoberfest14 day 27

Gelli Print Cards - #blogtoberfest14 day 23

So I've been having fun with the Gelli Arts printing plate and I've now got quite a few pieces of prints.  Now it's great pulling all these prints but what to do with them?  Well the possibilities are endless you can use them as part of your mixed media artwork, or add them to your journal pages, make paper beads with them etc.  Here I've made mine into very simple cards with a little bit of rubber stamping added to them -apart from the first card in the row of 3 which I've doodled on to creating an abstract face and fish.  

I can't take credit for this simple yet effect design.  I was blog hopping last week and I came across Shabby Cottage Studio run by the lovely Gail Schmidt and she has kindly allowed me to use her design idea to create my cards.  Please do pop over and have a look at Gail's blog and her cards as they are really lovely, she's also created matching envelopes how clever is that?

Anita

Where's The Party Tonight?

At my house on the dance floor that's where it's at hahaha.  Can you tell I had fun dressing up my skeletons?  They will be leaving me and going to a new home soon so I shall make the most of them while they are still here with me.  I might even make a few more just because I can and have a few more left over.

I managed to get these from Asda a little bit pricier than I've paid in the past but the head and legs are jointed so they do have some movement to them.  My initial idea was to dress them up in a sari but it didn't suit them and didn't have the right look so I ditched that idea and came up with this.  The skirt is made from some left over flowers from the outfit I made for my cousins wedding.  The beads I have a whole stack of so there was no problem finding something to make some bling with.  The bindis are little gems and the nail polish is actually polish from my stash.  

The Ghouls wanted in on the party to hehehe

#blogtoberfest14 day 20

Anita