I'm late, I'm late........

....for a very important date.

Yes it is Paint Party Friday again......so soon after last week.

I have been working on a piece of mail art over the past few days which I can't share with you at the moment as the blog friend it is intended for may see it and it will spoil the surprise. But today I have been having a play with some moldable foam stamps.

If you haven't come across them before they are blocks of foam which when heated with a heat tool can be pressed into a textured surface which results in some truly individual stamps.
Now like a lot of things I buy they hung around for a while before I actually got around to trying them. At first I wasn't too impressed and I put them aside. But I had tried to draw a pattern onto them but it just dragged the surface. Now I realize the correct way is to impress the pattern into it and now I am loving them.

Once you have used them you just heat them up and the surface returns to its original state ready to impress a new pattern into it and 'hey presto' you have a new stamp.

I have only got as far as 'mark making' with them because I wanted to at least have something to show you today but can't wait to get started on a project.

This was a leaf shape which is what I had originally drawn on as mentioned earlier and because it was scraped into it, it stayed visible after I heated it again and then I impressed some coiled wire over it.  (But when the pattern is impressed into it it does disappear when heated again.)

Here are a couple of more prints.

For those of you that visited last Friday you may remember an untitled mixed media piece featured in that post. Thank you to everyone who left such kind comments. Some of you even had suggestions for a title but  the lovely Mo of  'Twinkletoes2day blogspot came up with the perfect one.

Contemplation

 Thank you, so much, Mo x

Linking to Paint Party Friday.

WOYWW 279

 I've not joined in with WOYWW for a while owing to my blog break. Fortunately or unfortunately for WOYWW my desk has just had an overhaul so doesn't have a thing on it today but here is the latest piece I have been working on.

Charcoal pencil and paper on card

Please go and check out what's on other peoples work desks by clicking on the badge in the side-bar.

Thanks for visiting. x

Changes?

In my last post I said I was taking  some time out  from blogging for a couple of weeks. Well, it has been a whole month so I thought I would pop by and say hello.

I was hoping to take the time to take stock and make plans of how to take my art to the next step. Maybe go down the route of offering my work for sale. I had plans to revamp my blog and maybe open an etsy shop but unfortunately, as sometimes happens, 'life' got in the way.

Having said that, I have found time to complete a couple of  pieces one of which I would like to share today.

  Untitled

mixed media on 5' 'x 8'' card

I am still working on a title but I am sure one will come to me soon.

So it is back to the 'metaphorical drawing board' for me.

Thanks for visiting. x

Linking to Paint Party Friday. 

Taking a Break......

Today I have made the decision to take a break from blogging for a couple of weeks.

I can't explain why but it just came over me today.  I feel like I need to take some time out to do something different. Rest my thumb which is still giving me trouble, sort my work space out ,take in the changing seasons (I am looking forward to Autumn  now) and come back, hopefully, with a clearer head. Refreshed and raring to go again.

Before I go I want to share this charcoal sketch I did today intended for the 29 Faces Challenge Which starts today and runs through September. Maybe I will join in next time round.

Thanks to all my visitors and for your lovely comments. They really mean a lot and will continue to encourage me during my break.

Hope to see you back again soon, x

She's in Her Sunday Best.

Recently on a Sunday I have had this urge to sit and create something that I don't have to think much about. Just sit and doodle and see what comes out of it.

Coincidentally, I came across Sunday Sketches  hosted by Alexandra over on her blog Blue Chair Illustrations and I thought I would join in.

Sunday Best

Pencil Sketch on paper.

I used coloured pencils for this which I don't work in very often and I'm not sure whether I like using them or not. The jury is out on that one.

Thanks for visiting. x

Linking this post to Sunday Sketches.

Paint Party Friday

I have just completed a small card. I intended to send this to someone but I ended up using my oil pastels and as I do not have any fixative I think it will probably smudge in the post. I usually use hairspray on my charcoal pencil drawings but it doesn't work on the oil pastel.

 Her dress is a piece of citra solv paper. I used mostly oil pastel and a little watercolour pencil (without the water).

I am linking this post to Paint Party Friday. Why not click on the link and take a look at what other people are doing this Friday.

Thanks for visiting. x

WOYWW

Whats on my work desk?....... Well not a lot.

I have been doing some citra solv papers, which I posted about here, and what you can see here is an idea I was just playing around with.  Its a doodle on some scrap paper and a piece of citra solv paper. You can't even call it a WIP because it is just paper laid on top of a doodle face but I managed to get a picture of it which I quite like.

I think I will work on this idea and create something that is more presentable.

Here is a little doodle girl that I did in charcoal pencil.

This little doodle was inspired by a photo of a young cotton mill worker I saw in a documentary called 'The Real Mill' about Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire England. Which is the mill featured in the wonderful television drama The Mill.
I think the use of the charcoal pencil really evokes the feeling of the industrial age in Victorian England. I have been looking at photos from that era and carrying on from an earlier post about my ancestors working in the tin mines in Cornwall  I feel drawn and inspired by them and hope to use their influence in some of my future artwork.

Thanks to all who have taken the time to leave comments here recently and thank you for visiting.x

Linking this post to WOYWW.