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Gratitude Friday is a weekly ritual I started in order to focus on all the small and big positive things that happened during my week. I invite you to join me, you’ll see how much being thankful can change your life. If you want to know more about it, read my introduction post.

Hello !

I won’t lie to you, I am not really in the mood of writing a Gratitude Friday right now. But I decided to do it anyway, because it is important to me and I hope it will help me shift my mood a bit.

This week, I am grateful for:

• My mom’s surgery that went well. Now waiting for the results in a few weeks.
• My body is a mess, it hurts and i can’t help but hating it right now. But at least I can feel it.
• My husband who is supportive and trying to help.
• My mom received what we sent her for her birthday and she loved it
• His job, thanks to whom we’ve been to the movie for free watch Harry Potter yesterday, and his colleague who accepted to look after the girls for a few hours.
• I am happy to grow as an artist and to refine my voice.
• I am happy to sort out who is my friend, and who is fake. Surprised that it does not hurt that much anymore.
• I took a selfportrait picture I really like (still doing my 365 selfportrait challenge)
• I’m watching and enjoying great movies at home with my husband
• I am about to order the plane tickets for my mom’s visit at the end of the year (yaaaaaay !!!!!!!!)
• Nori snacks
• I ordered some paint and spray ink in England, costs an arm but gets me excited (can you believe i am more more more happy to have new art supply than new shoes ?)
• I am alive

If you wrote your Gratitude Friday on your blog, don’t forget to enter your NAME and URL below so I’m notified and can come to read you (you can also join by commenting this post):
[linkme]

You may know that I was one of the hundreds (or more) of people who signed up for the first e-class Kelly Rae Roberts offered last year. At the time, she was becoming a mama and had no idea if she would run the course again.

It is called “Flying Lessons” and is packed with advices, tricks, tips help you overcome the fears and blocks of making your passion your business. During 5 weeks, you will connect with amazing artists who are also in the class, read interviews filled with things you maybe had no idea about before.

It was a real investment, a step to myself saying “I am serious and I am ready to show the world what I create, who I am“. And this class changed everything. I talked about it several times on the blog already. Like here in my review for example.

I know this is a lot of money.
The chance you have and I did not have is that you get the ebook included in the package 😉 200 pages ! SO this is more than okay if you need time to digest, because you’ll have everything in the ebook.

So, are you ready to spread your wings and finally fly ? (click on the image to learn more about it on Kelly’s website).

Hello Gorgeous !

If you are a “fan” of Inner Voices on Facebook, you already know I received my Sketchbook for the Art-House’s Sketchbook Project 2012 last week. I hesitated about signing up for this year but seeing all the great sketchbooks at the exhibit in Seattle and knowing they will stop in Vancouver this time, I could not really resist.

This year, my theme is “Monochromatic”. Despite what I thought, it can open many creative doors.

Last year, I looked online for ways to rebind the sketchbook. Until this year, they sent us a small Moleskine, and i was not confident enough to take it apart and do something by myself. But this year is different. They changed the journal and the pages were simply stapled together with the cover. Easy to pull out. So I kept the cover and get rid of the too thin pages (I kept them to make something else with it, though.)

The cover is very nice. And as I have to keep the bar code I wanted to stick with it.

I SO wanted to record the whole process but that day my camcorder’s battery was dead and as it what it is, it takes hours to be useable. And I was too excited to wait for the next day (when inspiration strikes, I try not to shut it down). So sorry, but you’ll have to do with only pictures.

I used Stonehenge paper, 90lbs, the fawn color (which is like a warm greyish beige). It is smooth, not too thick nor too thin. I created three signatures of three folios each so it is manageable for me to fill it completely. It was ready long before I actually received the sketchbook itself.

I separated the front and back covers, I painted them very simply. I used self-adhesive book-tape (bought at Paper Source) that I sprayed with shimmery mists. I love the kraft-y look of the cover so I did not entirely paint it, by doing that, some of the original color can still be seen in some spots.
I took care of lining it well so there is the right space for the text block, cover the inside with another piece of sprayed book-tape (a contrasty color this time).

Then, I wanted to secure it. So i machine sewn it. SO. MUCH. FUN !!! I decided to sew around the barcode as well, to be certain it won’t go anywhere while handling the journal.

Finally, I attached the pages to the cover with a simple long stitch, but I noticed in Seattle that we see the spine where all the books are patiently waiting to be picked so I wanted to make it more attractive. We are advised not to hang anything so I just put some pretty beads. It adds a nice little touch.

I had a blast rebinding it, and it was intuitive, each step coming easily after the other in my mind. I love how it looks, with all its imperfections.

Hello !

I am sorry for not posting a Gratitude Friday today. I got out of bed less than 30mn ago, I was forced to stay there until the strong headache and nausea that stroke me went away.

This blogpost will be shorter than usual, but if you have any question, don’t be shy and leave me a comment I’ll answer with pleasure (here or on the YouTube video itself).

Last Wednesday, I just wanted to record a painting from start to finish. Not knowing what. It is a simple mixed media artwork on a 8″x10″ canvas board. I used my favourite media:

• acrylic paint
• PanPastels with embossing ink
• Color Shots

I think I finally pinpointed what was missing in my faces and how to give them more depth and character. Do you perceive any difference ? I do.

Here is the video (with a special guest appearance):

1. First of all, I applied acrylic paint with my brayer. A quick and easy way to get the color on with great texture.
2. I found it was to bright so I added white with my hand *blissful*. I allowed me not to have a color that was too flat.
3. I first perceived the hair on the left, this is where I started sketching with my graphite pencil, then the rest of the face appeared easily from itself. I realized I just need to see a face feature and then go from there. I go over with a watersoluble graphite (my charcoal pencil seems to be dead).
4. I painted the face with acrylic paint and the watersoluble graphite (blessed be the person who invented this !).
5. Then, I stamped a rubber stamp with clear embossing ink in the hair area. This is only when you go over it with the PanPastels that you can see it. As my Grenouille said: «WOOOOOW this is magical !» 😉
6. The cloth is colored thanks to Lindy Stamp Gang’s color shot. It is a pigment bomb loaded with beautiful shimmer. I thought it was too pronounced so I put a tissue paper on top of it while still very wet, and it created a beautiful texture (look closer to your tissue paper, it is not flat at all).
7. The background looked too present for me, so I went over with Zinc White fluid acrylic. I love this color as it is not opaque as Titanium White is.
8. I did the eyes and then finished the painting by writing my thoughts with my nib pen and ink (old school way). It says «Being creative is not about making pretty things but more about listening to the Song of your Soul.»

This is also my participation to day #6 of Traci‘s «Get your art ON» challenge 😉

This artwork is for sale, email me if you are interested (there is the contact info in the right column =====>)

As usual, I am behind. I am happy I changed the rule and it is okay for me not to blog everyday about it.

Day #2 was a Saturday so I have not done anything really creative that day (maybe except cooking).

On Day #3, I simply used some of my working-table-paper (I cover a big board with paper and when I feel like it, I just change it. But as I love what it usually looks like, I keep it for re-use. I love packing gifts with it) to wrap my daughters’ gifts for my Mamounette (aka Mom)’s 60th birthday.
I used two different washi tapes and voilà.

Simple but pretty and not that usual.

As I am writing this, I realize I have not really taken a picture of what I’ve done on day 4… I started a 8×10 painting, just the background and the sketch of the girl. I scanned it but with Photoshop and did not save it as it before playing with it (I think I should be able to get it back as I saved it as a .psd and got all the layers there. Wait…).

Here it is:

I simply applied three different acrylic paint colors with my brayer and then sketched with a graphite.

I’ll do another post for the art I created for days 5/6/7 and then I’ll try to post everyday, would finally be easier to keep track I guess 😉

PS: don’t forget to head over Traci’s blog to see what she is up too, and the other participants as well, in the comments.