I wanted to see

I wanted to see if I can paint a tiny face...

...so I cut a 1" square piece of pretty rough watercolor paper. I wish I chose hot press instead so the texture wouldn't be so noticeable.

It kinda worked. I wish her eyes were not so open, but I couldn't make the tiny brush do exactly what I wanted. Who am I kidding, I can't make a big brush do exactly what I want, so I guess this is good.
My smallest painting ever :-) Made me happy.

for Bird Lovers

For me, this is the best way to relax. I created this kit in a way that everything looks good together, no matter how combined, so there is no pressure - just fun. I cut out all 77 collage bits and then combined them. Maybe there are 78 pieces... I keep getting a different number when I count them :-)

Here is a journal spread, with many places left for writing.

I've been using junk mail for bookmarks... I think these are prettier than that.

I can never tire of ACEOs. It was my first art love, and I still love their small format.

So, that's it. My first bird lovers collage kit. It's in my etsy shop, with some other new collage sheets that I recently added.

I'm about to sit in the car with my daughter - a very new driver. I'll try to be a good and patient teacher.... and then I'll probably relax with more birds, because even after making all these things, I still have plenty collage material left.

Happy weekend!

xo

It happened slowly...

It happened slowly... I wanted to see how elements of my paintings would work as repeated designs.

So I played with Illustrator and Photoshop and created papers with exactly the colors

and shapes I wanted.

And then I cut them apart and put together again... FUN!

I made many more things from them. As soon as I finish the little video I made,

I'll have a little show and tell :-)

Happy weekend!

101 BIRDS - Painting #21

Staying with marine life...

Remember when long time ago (in April) I made fake washi tape? I did it again.

I was incredibly lucky this summer to have a chance to snorkel in the warm ocean, surrounded by colorful fish. It was so beautiful that thought I was dreaming... but at the same time was very aware that it is real. I wanted to remember every second and every fish. One of the best experiences in my life.

As you can imagine - I had to put all those colors on paper, so I painted fish in my journal. And today I played with my little paintings - I scanned them, put them in groups, made long lines of fish... I filled a full page of fake fish washi tape.

The above picture shows how the page looked before I added a ton of words, some doodles and pieces of my newly made tape.

Happy colors... happy fish... happy journal page... Have a very happy weekend!

Inspired by iPhone art

What do you do when you watch TV and it's really not interesting but you watch it anyway?

I play with my phone. 

I've been working with Photoshop for many years, but was never drawn into manipulating images with it as I am with phone apps. Probably because they are so easy... push of a button and magic happens. I am constantly amazed by the unlimited possibilities to change an image. 

 I started with a blurry, dark, not specially interesting photo of a jelly fish and changed it to this:

 Layered the new image under the original.

 Cropped and changed colors.

Added more punch to it.

And finally, distressed.

And then I was so in love with the colors that I had to see them come alive under the brush. 

It didn't turn out the same (of course), but it was good exercise and a lot of fun.

Celery as an art tool

As I was cutting different vegetables to make fresh juice, I couldn't help but notice how beautiful the celery looked. Perfect chance to play with my food!

I quickly brayered some color on my Gelli plate, pressed the celery end onto it and pulled a print.

After that I used it as a stamp, adding different colors and stamping it in my journal. I must admit that the results were really nothing special. If I had more time I would have used bolder colors and played with the placement more... maybe that would have looked less than a color splat.

Still, I had fun. It is always nice to do something creative, even when the result isn't spectacular.

Did you know that you can grow a new celery from it's end? I read about it today - here.

 Next time when I have a pretty celery end, I will try it.