Being brave with my painting

Hello. Hope you are having a good week? I'm excited to say that we are going on holiday very soon, so I've been trying to tie up any outstanding work before we go, which is why you've been hearing crickets here at my blog!

I have managed to squeeze in a bit more painting though. I'm being brave and painting girls again. I think I am definitely growing in confidence with each painting.

And here's a lion. I'm showing the painting as it progressed.

What art supplies didn't I use on these two paintings! ;) I think I pretty much used everything I have! 

Paper/envelopes/scrap booking paper/letters/magasines

Tissue paper

Paint/Paint Pens

Pencils

Gels Pens & Ink pens

Golden Gel Matte medium

I'll be back blogging again as soon as I'm back from my hols. (thats's if I can resist posting whilst I'm away, as I may sneak my watercolours & art journal into my suitcase ;) )

Bye Bye for now, I'm leaving on a jet plane..............

P. S In case you missed it, I posted a lovely interview with artist Juliette Crane last week. Click here to read it. Enjoy!

Shop Update

Hello everyone. Hope the sun's shining wherever you are! I won't even tell you how long this has taken me, but finally all my new work is in my Etsy shop. I have lots of new paintings & prints to show you, oh and look! I've finally smashed my 30 painting target! Yay! :) Prints will eventually be available in my Not On The High Street shop too- that's next on my To-Do-List! In the meantime if you want to browse my Etsy shop, please click here.

Also to thank you for visiting, I've created a free calendar desktop background for you, it's at the bottom of this post. You can download it by clicking on the image and dragging it to your desktop. I hope you like it.

* Please remember that these desktop backgrounds are for your personal use only. THANK YOU! *

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Love & Light Em x

 Painting Number 30

To quote Ronald Dahl......Think Good Thoughts

I LOVE this quote & I do believe it's true. Why is it that we are really drawn to certain people? That we want to know more about them & spend more time with them? It's almost like they are a people magnet! I think that it's because whatever they are feeling on the inside reflects out onto those around them & that's what attracts us to them. We want to know their secret. We want to breath in some of their energy as it gives us a boost too. We want to feel happy on the inside too.

We need to think good thoughts too.

 Happy aliens! A new design I'm working on.

 Sleeping baby design snippets

Painting number 29. Lots of experimenting going on here! I've used paint, tissue paper, foil, pencils, scrap book paper, paint pens & gel pens! phew! 

Hope everyone's having a great week

Love & Light

Em 

P.S I'm having a big shop update soon, if you want to be the first to see what's available do sign up for my newsletter here. 

Painting Girls.....

I think I've mentioned before that I've been taking a few courses in order to learn more techniques to help with my painting. Danielle Daniel's course Her Story gave me some pretty cool sketching exercises to do- one where we had to draw with our non-dominant hand & set a timer of 2 mins for each sketch. This was a challenge as I like to keep things neat!!! But boy, was this a great way to loosen up as you really have no choice in the matter. Here's one of my sketches below. Speed + non-dominant hand = this:

I've also recently taken a few of Mindy Lacefield's courses, one specifically aimed at getting back to basics & loosening up. You can see by my paintings below that some look more primitive than others as I start to let go & loosen up. My goal for myself is to do the complete opposite of what I'm used to! I hope that this process will allow me to become a better artist. I'm not sure what style I will end up settling on but I'm really enjoying the process & all the experimentation! 

Painting number 25

Painting number 26

Painting number 27

Painting number 28

Wooohoooo! Only 2 more paintings to go & I've finished my 30 painting challenge! I hope you like my girls & I wish you all a wondeful weekend.

Love & light
Emma x

Painting Project Number 24

I hope everyone had a great Easter break, anyone go on an Easter egg hunt? We were lucky enough to go on a hunt in a beautiful wood where bluebells had started to spring up everywhere. Greens, blues & purples everywhere, it was so pretty- throw in some chocolate too & well I was in heaven ;)

I have more projects on the go. Here's a sneak peek at another 'spring' inspired design. Happy bugs & happy weather!

And I also managed to complete painting no. 24. Here it is in stages:

I went a bit crazy on this painting & played a lot with the background, there's quite a few layers to this one. I used oil pastels, chalk pastels, ink pens, gel pens, pencils & paints.

xo
Em  : -)

New Paintings

So I've been slowly working my way through Danielle Daniel's Her Story e-course. Considering it started last September it's taking me a while to complete! Lol! I'll get there, never enough time in the day is my mantra- I need to fix that- perhaps a sabbatical? (unpaid) Then I can just paint, paint paint!

Anyway the course has been so much fun & Danielle really makes me laugh, she's does have a way with words- I can see why she loves to write as well as paint.

Here are the new paintings in progress, I only meant to start with one but now have four on the go, it was just too much fun, you could hear me squealing (with joy) as I created the backgrounds!

I have also finished painting 22 & 23- now available to buy in my Etsy shop.

Painting 22

Titled 'Happy Being Me'

Available to buy here

Painting 23

Titled 'I'm Home'

Available to buy here

I've named this creature Bob. Bob can change colour whenever he feels like it. He thinks today is a lilac sort of day............

Have lovely weekend folks!

Creativity Takes Courage

Notebook from the wonderful Ecojot

I so love this quote, it really does take courage to put your work & soul out there for everyone to see & judge. I take my hat off to everyone who is bravely showing the world their creativity in whatever form that may be.

Lately I've been pushing myself to make work that makes me happy & to try not to worry about what others may think. It's very easy to create commercial work but when I do, I feel like it's always lacking in soul. I've also been realising that I am drawn to very quirky & unusual artwork & that must be telling me something mustn't it? So my goal is to not be afraid to try new things & really let my imagination take over- that way I will feel fulfilled- even if that means risking creating artwork that may not sell.

I did push the boundaries fairly recently & created a very unusual piece that I really did think would never sell & to my surprise it did & quite quickly! Another sign perhaps? 

I will try to continue to be brave & when I'm not feeling it, I will simply repeat to myself "creativity takes courage".

 Snippet of a painting 22 I've been working on

Little mixed media project on the go

Little valentines project on the go

Sketching away. Something I am trying to do a lot more of.

I will be back at the end of the week with my next artist interview! Yay! I am really looking forward to sharing it with you :)

Love & light Emma x