Stressful day, face 30 of 29 and a bit of BODing!

or is it Moonshining?  my brain is fried right now, and I forget!

Had possibly one of my worst mornings ever! ok.. no... but a real tearful and nasty one..... My baby girl cat, who is five, went into be spayed... we have had her and her brother since they were 7 weeks (long story....) but when Bells went to be spayed as a kitten, she had such a bad heart murmur, the vet refused point blank to put her under.....
He heart has got much better... but I hardly slept last night and I spent all morning in a right fog of sheer panic.......was I a murderer... my poor baby girl, I cannot put into words how much I love this cat... you would have thought it was my daughter going under the knife the state I was in!!  Then I got a call to say she was in recovery.. and now she is home safe, sound, spayed and sleepy....... and purring her perfect little soul out at us!

So.. while I panicked all morning.. I caught up on Moonshine and BOD a bit.......  ravens have been involved lately, and they stuck in my mind...... plus one of the talented ladies in the group painted a fabulous face and raven with a tree... and I was inspired.......

So I sketched a church..... and we went from there!

Used my favourite technique of the moment... sketch, gesso, watercolour.........

and more gesso (clear this time) and then tinted charcoal pencils and pen to outline over the top

Fine art it is not!  But so much fun it is!  I love the unpredictability of the gesso over the watercolour... you never quite know if it is going to be usable or binable! LOL  If it is usable.. I adore the distressed look it gives... love painting like this!  (sorry about the picture quality.. lost the camera leads again so using the webcam!!)

So... sticking this in as face 30/29... Yayyyyyy I DID IT!!!!  So proud of me... I never seem to keep up, but I did the faces!!!!

Chuffed-dot-com

Till next time.....Toodles........xxxxxxx

27,28 and 29

........and caught up! :-)

Yesterday was fantastic at the Art Trail.. but has knocked me sideways this morning... so having an easy day.....  sat and did some sketching..... not perfect by a long shot... so I might try again, but in paint this time!

The rest of today is going to be spent playing catch up with Moonshine, Book of Days, Wolves, Portrait Candy and maybe Inner Excavation.......  or I might just make another Journal... cos I obviously need another one! :-)

Hope you have a great Sunday ...... toodles x

Face 26.....

and falling behind! LOL
Forgot to blog again last night... went out early evening.. which was great.. then got caught up in the excitement of Strictly Come Dancing.... Yayyyy.. LOVE Strictly!  Loving the line up this year.... and I am rather partial to one or two of the dancers! <evil grin>

So face 26.... made a little notebook.. cos I adore making books... covered it in old denim, and then drew a face on the cover very much in the style of Traci Bautista, whose work Ilove, and who is a teacher in Lifebook 2014... I have to take that course!

Off out for most of today at the local Art Trail......  but will try and get a face done while I am there.. running out of catch up days, and I am nearly two faces behind now!

Have a great weekend......

Day 26...face 25

Apologies.. Yesterday I was all faced out!   Having done 24 faces in 24 days... even at art club last night....faces were not happening!   Still it is 29 faces in September.. which has 30 days.. so yesterday was my day off.......  I might manage two another day to catch up.. but I am still on target!

So... todays face!

Been to an all day workshop today... it was..... hard! :-)  Fabulous, but mind blowingly hard... intense, and very very out of my comfort zone... I am Shattered!!!

We used pastels... not my favourite of mediums... pencils and sticks..... and we did real... again.. not my most comfortable... OK.. I don't do real cos I can't!  I like abstract cos I can do that....... so all in all a very tiring and brilliant day.......  learned so much.. I just hope I can remember it all...

So.. here is my face......  not perfect by a million miles...or finished... not enough hours to get it all done..... but I am very very pleased with it...... now I have stopped growling at the paper! (yes I did... out loud, frustration got the better of me and I growled! LOL)

Yes it was a brilliant day.. yes I am thrilled with my picture........ and tomorrow.. I think I might slip into my comfort zone of abstract! LOL

Toodles xxxx

(OK.. I had a lot of help... and the image to work on.. but I am still chuffed to chuffingdom... the colouring was sooooo hard!!!! xxxx)

24/29

Hello!
GOOD day yesterday!   Very good day...  Had the docs in the morning and have a tentative diagnosis....  I feel so much better in myself knowing I am not being silly, making it all up or being a fraud!  The doc was lovely... in there ages, and she really listened to me.. really listened... at no time did I feel patronized or a time waster....  Yayyyyyyy!  Now I have an idea of what I am fighting.. I can fight.. it was the not knowing that was killing me!:-)

So.. face 24.... I have tried for a smile.... Hmmmm! LOL
But I am happy.. even if she is a bit scary!

Toodles. xxxxx

And face 23 takes us onto the home stretch!

I am going to miss this.... I will try my hardest to keep up the blogging.. I have had so much fun!  Had a good day today, been out for lunch and had a great time... plus I have the doctors in the morning, and I have a plan of action and I am feeling confident!!!! Yayyyy!!!

Right... face 23...... remember the other day (last Wednesday I think it was.. yes.. it was.. art club night!) I posted an unfinished face, gesso over watercolour over gesso.. with bright pink hair.. all smeared and smooshed and distressed...... well.. I decide although I liked her face, I hated her hair!

So I fiddled with it... using tissues........ and I coloured over her face some more with tinted charcoal pencils... these work soooooo well over paint.. love them!

I quite like her!

Till tomorrow! xxxx

  Tilted close up to show the dimension! :-)

Face 22 ...........

So near the end of the challenge.. I have loved it!
Rough day again.. so nice to have a valid reason to sit and paint...... and now having sobbed myself silly watching An Officer and A Gentleman this evening (cry every time.. can't help it!) I am off to bed......

Toodles! xxx

Face 21/29

.......and forgot to post again yesterday!   Bad me!

It was one of those days!  Rushing about for most of the morning, then decided to not feel "very well" again after a couple of days being OK.. and it all got too much for me... so cried, then went to bed early!  I hate being ill like this.. I hate not knowing, and I hate the fact that silly little things set me back so much.. it sucks!

Anyways.. I did a face...  back to pencils.. cos anything else was just too complicated... and here she is!

20/29 and sitting here rather smug!

Hellllooooo!

Well... today.. I finally plucked up the courage to take my shiny new acrylics out of the box and use them...I have cheap ones I have been using for backgrounds etc... but these are a little posher.. and pricier :-)  and I am scared of them!

So.. with plenty of encouragement from the Fantabulous Glitterhood Girls....  I played..... and I have to say, I am rather impressed with them...... she became a little more "fantasy" than I was aiming for... mainly cos I am crap at mixing colours!  So I took the fantasy idea, and let her run with it and be free....

The background is Derwent Artbars  (there HAS to be something Derwent in everything I do.. even if it is only the pencil I sketch with... Addicted!!)  I scribbled them all around, painted out roughly with a waterbrush, then spritzed with more water.. let it react and swooshed it about to blend.....

AND.. as a first go... I am very very chuffed with her nose shading!  Bit Smug!!

Yayyyyyy!

Till tomorrows....xxxxx

Hat trick for day 19!

Next month, we have an art exhibition being held by my art group, and I will be showing a few canvas's...... so I had better get some more painted then! LOL

I have a set of small square canvas's.. and today I ink sprayed them all up, and then drew out three faces to be stuck on and painted.....  I am not confident enough yet to go straight in.....

So here are the girls....... they have been rubbed right back so the lines are very faint.... and as I type, they are drying under a whole heap of glue and stuff, waiting to be beautified! :-)

Till tomorrow! xxxx

Just quick.. but 18 in the bag!

Evening...... just back from Art Group, and tonight I played with gesso and watercolour.. I love doing this.....  started a little pencil work on her, but then it was home time.. and now it is bedtime! :-)

Here is is... ...till tomorrow! :-) xxxx

Day 17, and for the first time.....

My heart isn't in it!

I have had a mare of a day......  I hope none of you have had the same problem.....  I have been bombarded with spam PMs on facebook since Sunday.... hundreds of them.. they are popping up faster than I can delete them......  Today we thought we sussed it out, and after TWO HOURS of clearing Pm's... I got another 30 off of the buggers...... I am so Arrghrgrhghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Anyway... My shelves are up! Yayyyy (got 17 pms during the twenty minutes they took to put up too!!)  and the new arty creation station is almost under control... just a couple more boxes to sort.....

So todays face.... I hate her.. but tough.. she is as good as I am going to do tonight as I am just not feeling the love....... but I do still adore my tinted charcoals.. it is just what I am doing with them I am less than thrilled with!!

I have gin.. I have chocolate marzipan Ikea cakes.....  I am halfway through a Martina Cole I found in the charity shop and I hadn't read (and I am now having trouble putting down!!)..... and I am off to wallow in the bath!   Then I am off for an early night with another very good murder book on the Kindle!  (yes I multi read...... I refuse to take Frazier (my Kindle Fire) near the bath.. and I can't bath without a book.........  If we are going to be strictly true.. I am reading four books right now cos I am still reading Euripides, and I am reading Woman Who Run With Wolves too......   they are both "doorstep" books and which one I grab depends on my mood at the time of grabbing!  And yes I have doorstep books cos I haven't quite quit the evil weed, and I don't indulge my cravings in the house!)

Toodles! <3 x

Arghrghhhh... I forgot to blog #16!!

So quick.. here she is!  Where did the evening go... bad me!

Same face as number 15, but finished.....

Over the gessoed watercolour paints I added my favourite pencils of the moment.... Tinted Charcoals...  I love these.. they are so much fun to use and produced such lovely results and colours......

For her hair I used two Graphitints and then a water brush to swoosh the colour around....

I like her! :-)

Till later on today with face 17 :-)   xxxx

15/29 ... Halfway point!

And how quick it has flown!   Thrilled that with all that has been going on, I am still up to date (even if I did push it a bit on one day!!)

Had a mad busy day today... was due an Ikea delivery of my new Arty Workspace between 10 and 2, and they would phone an hour ahead of delivery.......  So imagine my surprise when my phone goes at twenty to eight!!!   Yes.. twenty to eight.. on a Sunday!   Thankfully, having been up half the night with my sore throat, I was already up and downstairs with a cuppa!!!

There was a very apologetic man on the other end of the phone...... the roads were totally clear and they were ahead of schedule... was that OK.. see you in 40 minutes!!!

Panic and get dressed then! :-)

SO ... by half eight.. all my new stuff was in the house, and operation assemble it all began.

Just waiting on the drill to charge to put up the shelves..... but here we are so far.... and I am THRILLED!!!!

Obviously.. the first thing I sorted was my pencils..... Feeling Very Happy now I have them all back to hand!!  It felt like part of me was missing!

But.. I still needed a face..... so I resorted to a much loved technique of the moment... which I discovered by Happy Accident (but you all probably know!!)

 A little while ago, I painted a watercolour face.. luckily onto gesso.. and hated her... so in an attempt to save.. I gessoed over the whole lot, ready to start again.....  Hmmm. watercolours "do their thing" with water.. and gesso is wet!!  It smears and smudges and goes all magical fantastical......

So.. I sketched a face.. rubbed it out so it was very faint.. then gessoed over (cos I love pushing watercolour about on gesso!)  Then I painted her.. and when it was all dry, out came the gesso again....  I LOVE this effect!!!

She is not finished.. but I read the rules.. that is OK..... so here she is.....   to be finished for tomorrow.. I hope!  (cos I have to start filling my beautiful new units too!)

Hope you like......  till face 16...... toodles! :-) x

14/29 and feeling.....

BLURGH!!!!


OMG... no wonder my daughter has been whining all week..... I feel a bad mum for not being a bit more sympathetic!!!  I feel (and look) like shit!  This is NASTY!!!!

Sat and felt very sorry for myself today...... and done a little sketch....  I am not so much getting bored with pencils, (shock horror.. that could never happen) but I feel the need for colours......  so I also had a rummage in the boxes and found my paints... tomorrows face is hopefully going to be more than black and white shading! :-)

Right....  I have made it to 7.15..... and I think that is a suitable bedtime for such a poorly Artistic Goddess!!!!

Toodles! :-) x

Nearly forgot..... Friday the 13th

and face 13

Stroppy attitude bi-atch.......  Matches my mood perfectly!

Roll on tomorrow!!! xxx

Pushing my Luck a little for day 12

OK.. Look.. I have been so proud of me.... against all the odds.. I have blogged a new face everyday.....  so I figure I am allowed a cheeky little moment now and then!

Said a teary Goodbye to my beautiful cupboard today... for a number of reasons she had to go, and new stuff is coming (Sunday!!!!)  but at the moment, I have gone from this.....

To this......

And all this is behind me un-gettable at!!!!

Sooooooooooooooooo... with that in mind, and considering it has been an emotional day saying goodbye.... and pushing my luck here to the limit.....  todays face!

And that my friends... is as good as it is getting!!!! PMSL

Hopefully tomorrow I will be back on track! :-)


Toodles! xxxx

Never Forget 11/9

Thoughtful day today..... remembering the hundreds and hundreds who lost their lives so tragically, brutally and unnecessarily twelve years ago.....  I still remember the disbelief I felt at the time.....  I was watching a DVD at home, hubby was off work and doing the decking in the front garden........ and when it finished,  I turned it off and thought I was on the Movie Channel or something watching some awful second rate action film.... then I realized I was watching Sky News and an airplane had just hit the Twin Towers..... in sheer horror I screamed for my hubby and just after he came in, the second plane hit.....  I will never forget the feeling of sickness and the heartbreaking realization that it wasn't all an accident..... my heart then, and now goes out to all who were affected on that terrible day....


I had art club tonight... and while I was there, I drew todays face.....  I tried for pensive..... I may or may not have got it, but I did get pretty......

Until tomorrow... she will do nicely!  Toodles <3 xxx

#10...... La Loba ....

Another day another sketch..... very proud of me.. we are a third of the way through and I am still on target!

I have a poorly daughter today, she was off yesterday and is off today with a rotten raw and inflamed throat, and will probably be off tomorrow too..... so I was still up at the crack of dawn to phone the school, and decided to do a bit of reading.

As you know I am doing the Fabulous Book of Days and Moonshine with Effy..... well, I am also in another group and we are reading Woman Who Run With The Wolves, and journalling our thoughts and inspiration from the book.  Now it is not the easiest of books to read, I will admit.  Very deep, but very enjoyable and very thought provoking.....  I am only on chapter one, and this morning I was reading about La Loba.... The Wolf Woman

Combining the magic I have learned in Moonshine, with the thoughts and research we have been doing, and my early morning reading ..... (and a quick Google search for image inspiration) this lady appeared in my journal.  I am rather pleased with her.....

Now I am off to empty the last of my cupboard and find the screws so I can put the outer doors back on!!

Till tomorrow! <3 xxx

Day 9

and trying very hard to think of Snappy Heading and failing!!!!  In fact, failing to think of very much at all today!

Packed away more of the unit today ready for it to go and the new system to arrive..... so before they got buried in the pile of stuff, I grabbed my pencils and did another face......  tilting to the other side this time, and added a bit of colour to her hair using tinted charcoals....

Very seriously looking forward to getting my art space..... I am missing painting! :-)

Until tomorrow.......  Toodles! x

....and onto day 8 .....

Hello Fabulous People!!!

Another day .. another face.... have been watching the Moonshine Videos and still learning lots... loads of lots...and I really do feel I am learning, actually taking in on board and using it instead of just watching and carrying on as usual!!!  I am thrilled with how my faces are turning out!

Been busy again, emptying the cupboard out, but took a bit of me time to play... and here she is......

Until tomorrow!  Toodles! :-) xxx

So...Face number 7

Had a better day today..... and a busy one...... 

Assembled what felt like a million boxes.. Ok.. it was twenty, but they were assembled using itty bitty fiddly fussy nuts and bolts.. and my fingers HATE me right now!!!

Having assembled the boxes... I am trying to condense this......

 Into this........

 and I am losing the battle!!!!!

I have so much stuff I don't use.. so I have a huge 'to be sold' box growing too.....  and money from that will go towards scrummy new pencils!!!

So been busy..... then it was the Partnering on Strictly..... and it is Last Night of the Proms..... so my day has been full!

Managed a quick face for you though.. cos I am being a good girl..... and here she is.....

Lets hope tomorrow is calmer...... although I MUST get the cupboard empty! Gulp!!!

Toodles! xxxxxx

Difficult Day this Day Six.......

Hello  Bloggers..... day 6 of 29 faces.. and yup still going!

Been a difficult day for me.....  First I spent ages and ages on the phone trying to get through to the doctors this morning to get a follow up appointment after my scan... but no luck getting through.... I had to go into town.. so went in and saw them... first available pre-bookable appointment is 9am Friday...... Hmmmmm ..... Good bit though.... I have a different doctor this time, much as I love my doctor, he has admitted I have him stumped.... so maybe a new set of ideas will uncover something.....

So from the doctors..... sadly I had a funeral to attend.....  Very sad, and very unexpected.....  beautiful service, but I wish, well .. .you all know!  And any funeral you go to gets you thinking..... about your mortality.. that of your parents, aunts, uncles, friends, children, even the cat.........  Death comes to us all, and the ones left behind have to deal with it.. arrange everything, and cope with it all......  from the booking of the funeral, to the music, the gathering, the invitations, the buffet and the wine.... everything.. all on top of soul encompassing grief......


Funerals....... Now I have a problem here..... I am in no way saying any of this to be difficult, cause offence or start a fight...... but I have an issue with..... God... sorry!   Jesus, I totally get.. a man walking around...saying be nice, be kind, accept and don't hate..... and persecuted brutally for his beliefs.... has anything changed?!?!?  But his Daddy.. I am sorry, but I have too many questions to be able to accept with any certainty.....

I did a course with the OU a few years ago..... The History of Religion..... FASCINATING course..... I learned so much and I enjoyed it so much, but it still left me with 100s of questions.  At the end of the course, I bought more books and did more research on one religion that really caught my attention and my compassion, and I am happily leaning very very strongly towards Buddhism..... most of my questions are answered there... and Buddha was real, he lived, he loved, he was... I can accept that!  I can also easily accept a lot of their philosophy and their guidance..... I am rereading the books I have and investigating more about it the older I get......

So the funeral today..... it bought out mixed emotions in me.... and when I got home, I dug out a face I started a couple of weeks ago on holiday using tinted charcoals.... Derwents of course... but didn't finish..... today, It needed to be finished... and here he is.......

till tomorrow! xxxxx

Day five and....

Still going strong!

Been an interesting couple of days...... Been to Ikea today and bought loads of boxes to unload the craft cupboard ready to say goodbye and hello to the new system.............

Other than that... Doing Moonshine with the fab Effy... well... I am starting to embrace more of the content as well as the art side....  Yes, I am adoring the art.. but some of the prompts and deeper stuff is sinking in.....

For the past two days... I have been reading Euripides (yeah... nice light reading...  circa 431BC.. easy on the mind!!!!!) But.. I studied Medea when I was doing my degree.. and all the Mother mentions in Moonshine instantly bought Medea to mind..... Yes she was a cow... but I can't help having a grudging admiration for her, despite what she did, the poor girl was driven mad by her husband.. and as I am married to a Jason.. I so get her!!!!! :-)  (although I wouldn't go quite as far as she did!!!!!)

Anyway... along with pre biblical prose..... I had a song creep into my mind and stick too....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZJiGu6Gz8E

This course is getting to me.. and we are still Week One... yeeeeehaaaaa  11 more weeks of this wonderfulness to go!!!

OK... 29 faces.... started this lady last night at art club, and finished her today..... I am starting to develop something... and I am THRILLED!!!!!

Oh.. and Good News..... the rest of my Tinted Charcoals turned up today....... so hopefully tomorrows lady will be in colour! LOL

Now... having played that song again...... I am off to watch American Werewolf in London..... Once I have the small pink person in bed!!!

Laters my lovelies! xxxxxx

(oh.. and having finished Medea and adored it just as much this time... my bath reading is Hecabe, not read that before.. so will be interesting!!!   Maybe if I read enough Euripides, I might eventually be able to read past the first page of Dante's Inferno...... which I am desperate to read.. but bores me silly!!!!!) xxx

4/29

and still on target!!!  Which after last night actually amazes me.....  Had the best evening.. so funny and rather liquid, and very late ..... done very little today other than sulk about my slightly fragile head and sketch!  Which considering I was up at half six as school started today, I think is very good going!

Have Art Club tonight..... first night back after the summer break... so if I stay awake long enough, I will be doing some more sketching and shading!

OK... I am spotting a theme here with my faces.... but practice makes betterer.. so apologies if I am boring you...... I will do different styles for the blog-along, but right now I am sooooo in love with this shading it is untrue..... That Effy-Lady is a brilliant teacher!

OK... till tomorrow..... Mwah! <3

Day 3.....

Going past rather quickly!!!

Just a little post today you will be pleased to note! :-)  Very busy as getting sorted for the back to school in the morning..... so here is my face....  I am rather pleased with this one.....I think she is so pretty!

Got a friend round tonight... wine will be consumed..... wonder what tomorrows face with built in hangover will look like!!!

Toodles! xxxxx

Day 2, and Moonshine Magic!

Hello... here I am, present and correct for day 2 of 29 faces......

Before I say anything else.. can I say a HUGE Thank You for all the lovely comments..... I was blown away when I saw them!  I am so used to my other blog being pretty much ignored, I was floored by the amount of wonderfulness I found on yesterdays blog post..... I really do Thank you all!!!!

OK.... as I mentioned.. I am also doing Moonshine with the Fabulous Effy Wild..... and this morning  .. not being a very good one for me.... I sat and watched one of the Boot Camp videos on face sketching to take my mind off my impending hospital appointment (which was 100% clear by the way.. so another reason I am feeling so ill crossed off the list and we are still none the wiser... Hey Ho!)

I watched, and listened and copied as Effy showed us how to shade..... using just a couple of graphite pencils, blending stumps, and in my case, a whole variety of erasers of different shapes, sizes and consistencies!!!

And this lady emerged from the page.....  I am Thrilled with her.... I am so chuffed with my shading... OK  she is still pensive, but beautifully shaded and pensive! LOL

Having so much fun..... See you tomorrow!!!! :-) xxx

OK... back again..... Just did another one.. I think I am addicted to the magic you can create with a couple of good old pencils!!!  I could have saved her and blogged her for tomorrow... but I am so chuffed with her, I couldn't wait.. plus I am sure I will do more!!!
Made her mouth smaller this time.. I am happier.....  Liking her lots!!

See ya tomorrow! xxxx

29 Faces......

Hello!
Ok.. I have set myself a challenge...... on top of Book of Days, and Moonshine which starts tomorrow, and the fact I am a muddle head right now with no sense of direction...... I am going to do 29 Faces

Whats that?  Simples..... 29 faces in one Month..... as September has 30 day, we get one day off to panic and catch up!!! :-)

So.. starting as I mean to go on...... here is todays face..... I drew her this morning sitting in a freezing cold caravan awning, trying to wake up, and realizing my shading skills leave a fair bit to be desired!
And I noticed, my faces always look a bit sad......  Going to try for Happy Faces during this blog along......

Anyhows.. here she is...... see you tomorrow! :-) x