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Earlier this week, I watched Tam (aka Willowing) work on an Art Journaling page.
For the few years I’ve followed her work, I’ve always fell in love with her messages. I remember watching back to back videos on her Youtube channel when I discovered her (i think it was in 2008). She was that girl speaking her truth, sharing her process, and telling me us that it is okay not to be a fluffy bunny all the time.
She was different than the other artists online, I felt like she could be my big sister.

You’ll see, but I should have never used my brayer. Big mistake. But eh, it happens ! I don’t know what crossed my mind at that precise moment… ahah.

I accept that she is simple, my almost6yearsold daughter does draw better 😉

I’ve been wanting to use again my Neocolor II (for me, the best watersoluble crayons) but I don’t know why, kept forgetting to do so. I used to only color my faces with them and white acrylic paint, and loved it.

It is quite the same story with my Twinkling H2Os. If you this does not ring a bell for you, they are shimmery watercolor in a cake form. But until last week, I did not know they needed to rest before being used (you spray water on it, and wait for 10ish minutes before using them). This is a trick (click to watch her video in another tab)I’ve learned from Jodi Ohl who, for me, is one of the experts with them.
I keep telling you: I am a shimmer girl. Love them. And I love what Luminarte does. I use some in her face (the pink/purple), I use the same color on her hair for the highlights, for her dress, and wrote with it around her hair.

I really like the journaling around her hair.

I did some free hand journaling, just letting the words flow without thinking about them. Just accepting my hand to move and let go of whatever may come. I don’t even remember what is there (and the red sharping does not show that well, which is good).

I notice that my desire to share with you a weekly art journaling video pushes me to go there, and do it. I kind of lost myself at a time where I did not do anything for several months in a row in my journal, focusing on my paintings only. I knew there was this «i miss it» feeling floating around, but I always found an excuse not to go back to it. I don’t regret it, I guess I needed to go through that phase without it. However, right now, I still feel lost. I guess my process changed so much in my paintings the last few years, that I approach my art journal differently now. Less perfect. Starting a page where there is some leftover from my stencil uses is something I could not even consider before; and is now something I do a lot (wasting all that inky goodness when spraying ? no thanks !).

Here is the video for you:

What I used (if you have any question, please feel free to let me know):

Dylusions Creative Journal Blazonry 6×6 T-Bird Turquoise Scallop Flower 6×6 Burnt Umber Moon Shadow Spray Chunky Chevrons 6×6 Wake Me Up Before You Go Gold After Midnight Dylusions Spray Neocolor II Watersoluble Crayons Stabilo All pencil Black WIne & Rose Twinkling H2O Hunter Grey Twinkling H2O Baby Breath Twinkling H2O Warm Pecan Twinking H2O Honey Amber Twinkling H2O Blick Matte Acrylics Sharpie Marker

To see all my {In Motion} videos, I invite you to go over my Youtube Channel.

My Fibromyalgia has been kicking my ass more than usual in the past few weeks. It seems like the flare takes more place than the rest in between. And everything is tangled together. Everything is either a cause or a consequence of another.

Even if diagnosed a while ago now, I feel like my life is a constant adjustment. Finding my new “normal”. Accepting that it will never be the same.
There IS a before and an after.

I love what I do. But I don’t like the guilt that comes when I actually can’t go paint in my studio. I have not been able to paint in more than a week now and I hate that. I hate that this illness keeps me from doing what I love.

I guess I should do a couch package as my friend Samie does, so I could still do something in my art journal from the couch…

My husband is amazing and dedicated some money to offer me an iPad mini.
So today, as I could not move properly and go downstairs to finally paint again, I played on it to do some digital art with Procreate.

I don’t have stuff on my tablet yet to use for collage, but it is just the beginning.

Here is my first creation:

If you follow my adventures on my Facebook page (if you are not a liker of the page, I highly suggest you to become one if you want to be first to here from me about what’s happening in my part of the creative world), you already have seen snippets of this new Nixies over the last few weeks.

Since my husband helped me clear up my Studio, I have this big pile of «never finished»+«ugly» paintings in a box. They need to be reworked… or be entirely redone.

This is what happened with this painting. I had this huge (16×20″) painting, dated from July 2010, made on canvas board. It was ugly; I was in my «grey face round eyes» phase (don’t get me wrong, I love some of what came out during this phase, but definately not this specific one).
Okay, trying not to be ashamed (it is all about the Journey, right ?):

The start. July 2010.

I told you…
I did not start with any other intention that create another Nixie based on the January painting from Mindy’s True Free Spirit class (allow me to shorten it to «TFS» please). So I started to play around with paint, creating blocks of color to hide what I really hated, but still preserving what I liked in it.

After a few layers

I also used this hexagon stamp I love so much, and went around it to highlight it with one of my favorite color of Oil Pastel (my preferred brand is Senellier).
Still with oil pastel, I did some marks (for example the drops on the top right corner).
I used heavy gesso with a stencil from The Crafter’s Workshop (should I still say it ? you know they have my heart). I used one from Studio Calico, too.
The bright pink pieces are simply tissue paper. The brown part with line at the bottom is tissue paper, this thing used when you sew your clothes yourself you know (a pattern ? I’m not sure of the anglophone term, sorry). The beige part in the middle-left part is tissue paper too, but the wrapping kind; it has kind of a scene design on it. I don’t get tired of using it, because it adds pop, because it is semi-translucent (more or less depending on the color of it).
And last but not least, I used some other stamps (some from Hero Arts for Studio Calico, some from Christy Tomlinson by Unity). I need to check the manufacturer of this circle one I love so much, but I think it is Bo Bunny though.

Engraved Truth

You need to look closely at the painting to actually notice this word. I simply engraved/scratched it whil the paint was still wait. I love the contrast of the warm colors showing through that grey block.

Finally working a bit on her face. She is composed of plenty of layers, very thin layers after layers. This is always the part that scares me, even if I am getting more comfortable in my technique. I think I only have one solution for it: learn how to traditionally shade a face, and go from there. I will.

And a dozen of details and layers after, here she is:

«Fae».
Prints available in the shop.

«If you are not willing for the unusual things, then you’ll have to settle for the ordinary.» Jim Rohn

Here is Fae’s story:

Fae’s look is quirky. Unusual. She has beautiful fragile yet still strong shiny wings. Her hair seems to be all over the place.But she doesn’t care because she knows deep in her heart: she makes One with everything and everyone around her. She is both the Sun and the Moon. The stars in the sky that are still there even when you don’t see them.She is a perfect Being, image of what is.

I love new products. It can be pretty bad for my bank account, because it is often (really) hard to resist buying new art supply to play with, discover and maybe adore.

Background building is maybe the part I usually prefer in the creative process. Because I don’t know where I am going when I start, I just grab what is calling me, what I feel like using on that specific moment. And see where I am told to go. Listening to the Inner Voice(s) and letting myself be guided. This is when I feel the most connected to the Source.

Trust is essential. Add a sprinkle of faith. A dollop of courage. And you got my recipe for a good painting (when I say «good» I mean «one that leaves me satisfied»).

For 2013, my guiding word(s) are TRY {Be Daring}. I even started to put them into action in December. I want to be less shy. I want to do all I can to be discovered. This is how I ended up talking with Jaime from the amazing brand The Crafter’s Workshop and received stencils and dies to try, play and make a project she could use in their booth during CHA in Anaheim »(if you are not familiar with it, CHA *Craft and Hobby Association* is a huge trade show that happens twice a year; it is when the craft and scrapbooking brands share their new lines and products, and stores can order them).

The dies I received are some words, some beautiful ones that could become part of a background, and most of them are really nice for your Project Life album. I wanted to find a way to feature both the dies and the stencils, and came up with the idea to make a hardbook. I had little time to make it on time so Jaime could get it for the show (thank you Deanna from Clipper Street, my local scrapbook store, for taking care of the delivery for me !).

What I love is the versatility of stencils in general, and the ones I got had good space to be used with gel medium or any heavy medium so I could play with textures as well.

There dies are simply amazing and you can use (for lots of them) both the negative and posititive (you can see I’ve played with that on the spread with the arrow). You’ll see more of them in my Project Life pages for sure. The size is perfect, neither too big nor too small so it does not outshine your picture and you can still clearly see it on there.

Just an important note: these are «snapped in the moment. in progress» pictures of my project. I don’t have pics of the finished one yet.
Click on the thumbnail to enlarge.

I would love to know if you’ve seen it in person if you were attending CHA somehow. Let me know.

Thanks again a lot Jaime for the opportunity. Learned a lot along the way.

Here are the pics:

Items I have been playing with:

Stencils: Confetti, Honeycomb, Cell Theory, Quatrafoil.
Dies: Solace, Circles, Mini Dots, Blank 4×6, Blank 3×4, Horizontal Chevrons, Chicken Wire, Top Five, Arrow Here, Everyday, Today Is, Right Now, This Week, Love this, Today, Now, Hello, Sweet.

Good morning/afternoon/evening !

I am so happy to share with you this new video. I want to make and share more of them this year (which mean accepting not to look for «perfect» and do shorter videos as well).

Reilly is part of my Nixies created in Mindy Lacefield new year long class called True Free Spirit. I may share quite a lot of what is going on for me in this class this year (be prepared). We have a lesson a month, but I am doing plenty of paintings around it to practice and enjoy.

This month is about creating a character with a tilted head. Which is out of my comfort zone, as most of my Nixies are facing us straight. But I love challenges, and learning. So it’s all good. And I can always ask for advices on our group, which I did for Reilly, as there were some points I was not sure where to go with her. This is priceless.

«To live is to suffer; to survive is to find the meaning in the suffering.» Frederich Nietzche

I created her on GessoBoard. I truly prefer to work on a hard surface, like wood panels for example, because of the first layer that usually is collage. Applying the paper on a hard surface is easier, especially when you need to press with your tool to get the gel everywhere so it won’t bubble.

I surprisingly went pretty simple in my first layers of papers, using only three different scrapboking papers, and two tissue paper (the dark one is bleeding tissue paper, the other one is pattern for sewing).

I used my stencils with different media for this Nixie: heavy matte gel medium and extra heavy gesso. I decided to switch to the gesso to add visual contrast with what was already happening. The paint and ink react differently on them, which is fun (but you have to keep that in mind though).

I love using items to create my marks. This time, I wanted circles and used a cork lid dipped in the acrylic paint. So much fun ! At this stage, I was loving it. The colors, the patterns, everything. It became more of a struggle after…

Seeing my character emerge is always a magical moment for me. Seeing them appear in the background and them pushing them forward. But it is something harder than it seems (this is when I think that having a sketch to follow, as I did when I began, would make my life easier ! ahah).

You’ll see in the video, I went back and forth between her face and the rest of the painting. This is my tactic when frustration strikes right in my face. Her face is composed of layers upon layers (and I did work on her after I thought she was done, so after the end of the video).

Reilly.
Prints available here.
Original available.

This arrowed spiral is one of my favorite symbol and I was happy that it popped into my head. AND it was the perfect spot for Reilly’s message 😉

Here is the video. I hope you’ll enjoy: