I'm working on another graphite portrait - and having some teething troubles! Just not happy with the lips so they will have to be re-done.
Also having teething troubles with my latest girl, who is on one of my favourite backgrounds. I have just had to completely paint over her head as she was looking too comic-booky for my liking. So am re-working her at the moment to try and get her looking the way I want. Zen breathing Mel, zen breathing. It is so frustrating when I am fitting in my art stuff in the tiny little snippets of time I have to myself, and then I stuff something up and have to start over. But I remind myself that it's all part of the journey, there's no point carrying on just for the sake of it, if I'm not happy with it, as it will just always annoy me...Much more growth for me to be able to take a few deep breaths, step back, and think, hmmm, how can I change this, what can I do to this that will make me happy :)

It was funny, something that I found a little annoying, was actually a good insight for me - I showed a good friend of mine a couple of my paintings and drawings, and she said, "Oh, you should be an illustrator, do childrens books!". And that was so flattering, but I also thought, no, that would be too easy for me. My biggest problem is getting caught up in tiny details, and that is what I am trying to work through with a lot of my art. If I was to do illustrations, I could just focus on little details, but I want to break out of my old patterns, and stop always looking at the details, and just be with something, let it grow organically, then re-assess...that is where my journey lies....

OK. So here it is. My first blog post.

I am working on a few projects at the moment. In between being a full time single mama to a 4 y.o. boy, R and 2 y.o. girl, A. I have been creatively inactive for basically my whole life, I have always worried too much about whether I could make some perfect and beautiful, which is, of course, a lot to live up to! I have bitten the bullet, and decided to just get to creating, and if I like what I see, well, then that is great, if not, well it's still fun, and the flow-on effects of being creative are just too great to ignore :D
I have done no drawing before, so please be kind :)
And sorry this post is fairly heavy on pics, there's a bit to catch up on!
Here is what I have been up to lately:
Willowing's Art Heart and Healing course,

Willowing's Fabulous Faces graphite portrait, I was really happy with how this one turned out - was a pleasant surprise!

 Fabulous Faces, Front facing portrait. I really love this face, although the eyes are uneven and I don't like the hair , I am happy with her shading - as that was the most challenging thing for me to get my head around, the details I can work on!

 A random pic from the 21 secrets course :)

 I am also doing Juliette Crane's How To Paint A Girl, here is one of my backgrounds:

 And another background:

 and another....

 
And my first girl. I think she looks very sweet, I have named her Primrose, might have to add some more flowers and *stuff* to the background...

Oh and I made my own journal, loosely based on a couple of youtube vids, I hand printed the paper I put on the cover, and filled it with lovely 300gsm watercolour paper :)

So that's where I am at so far, I am currently practising a few more girls to put on the backgrounds I have done. And my other homework is practising sketching faces from photos, but, yes, haven't got to that yet...
Love and art to all xx