Mirror Mirror Me

The Documented Life Project (August Theme Faces, the Human Form & Characters, August 29 Art Challenge: Self Portrait Journal Prompt:  Mirror Mirror) had several really great ideas to work with the prompt of mirror. My first attempt was to use a black and white photo and recolor it. But, the idea of doing a value study without worrying about having a perfect likeness kept nagging at me. So, I wound up doing it that way too. I really enjoyed pushing myself a bit and I learned a lot.

The Goddess from Avalon

This week's Life Book lesson, week 34, comes to us by Alena Hennessy and is called "Painting the Muse." Currently I am reading The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and am enjoying it thoroughly. I have been having an image of The Goddess going through my mind as I read and I chose to paint her today.

I used acrylic paints for the background with a credit card and my fingers. I added texture with the moon using joint compound which I later covered with Texture Luxe Gold. (Note to self, always remember to put a layer of petroleum jelly around the edges of jars that will glue themselves together if you don't!) I used watercolor crayons, white and black Stabillo pencils, gold and silver Wink of Stella, and some gel pens in gold.

The Documented Life Project for August 15

The Documented Life Project for this week had a Journal Prompt of  "How do I face my biggest challenge?" Well, head on with my eyes wide open, of course.

 Such great inspiration from all, but I found myself just drawn into Mystele Kirkeeng's approach to painting. No stress, no expectations, just fun!

August 12 Tags of 2015

I was drawn to the tag that Tim Holtz made for the 12 Tags of August and thought I'd give it a whirl. I tend to look at tutorials as a suggestion rather than a must do, and this is what I came up with.

With all the issues of copyright infringements, I went to Morguefiles for the silhouette. The background is an old book page. I colored twine with the same Distress Inks that I used for the background. And, in case you can't read the Small Talk Stickers, it says "Delight in magical stuff". Magic stuff always lives in books. Do go to Tim's site and see what he, and others, did with this tutorial (linked above).

Materials Used

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Saving Your Memories

The Documented Life Project, August Theme is Faces, the Human Form & Characters. The August 1 Art Challenge: Expressive Faces, with a Journal Prompt:  What I see clearly now.

I already had a double page spread that had paint wipe offs on it ready to go. I also wanted to try out the 1.75 pt tub of all purpose joint compound that I got to try as another way to add texture through a stencil. For less than $4.00 for this huge tub, I'd say it is a bargain. You do need to wait for this to dry longer than the molding paste and don't forget to clean your stencils immediately or it will dry like cement! I'm not sure you can even see that I used it on the tulips, but I did and then went over the white with nNeocolors and added some white gel pen dots. The face started from a partial magazine picture. One eye is from the magazine the other is my own drawing. Even using a magazine picture as a base, she still looks like something I would do on my own. After I repainted on her and used china markers, and Neocolors, I added some bright blue hair with Dylusions paint. Then, I went over the whole face and hair with white gesso to make her look a bit more "misty." I used some stamps and stencils and a white paint pen for the journaling.