A face a day

I have been reading Pam Carriker book called Mixed Media Potraits which is a wonderful reference and guide to learning to draw potraits. She has a great set on stencils for getting started with portraits available with Stencil Girl but since I am in Nepal and shipping is difficult right now with a fuel shortage I watched her youtube video on front facing portraits and bought her book for my Kindle. I know I will order a hard copy of the book when I come back to the states because it is filled with great teaching on drawing faces and visual references.
One point from her book that hit home for me is to practice daily drawing faces and work from photos and just using the proportional guides from her book. I made a goal to do a potrait pencil sketch a day and threw a sketch book, pencil, eraser and black pen in my purse for times I am sitting waiting. Does anyone want to join me in a challenge of drawing a portrait a day for a month? Or do you have a book you love about drawing portraits?

Painting canvas purse

I painted a piece of gessoed canvas with ink for the first layer teal and some sienna brown. Then I painted with acrylics the squares and circles and my final layer was doodling with posca paint pens. I sealed it with a layer of gel medium which I found out activates the posca pens and the started to run. So I quickly blotted with a paper towel. I really enjoyed this process and now have it for sale. I will have more available in my etsy shop posh pachyderm. Has anyone else sewn painted canvas? Recommendation of a good varnish sealer product?

God will bless the work of your hands

For several weeks, I have been thinking about Deuteronomy 2:7 "The LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through the vast wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything." It has been a very difficult season for me as my Mom died who was as inspiration to me as an artist and my family has been through some difficult times. I have been sick with gastricparesis so it gives me great comfort to know God is with me and it has been in my art journaling this past week that God blesses the work of our hands and creativity is a gift from Him.

Pug puppy introduction

Hello my beautiful creative friends,
My husband and I have a new member to our family. Meet our pug girl named Chameli! Chameli is Nepali for Jasmine flower. She has so much puppy energy and has become my walking buddy. She is sleeping on his teddy bear that she drags around everywhere. I have a new drawing I am working on that includes her that I will share soon.

Have Courage and Make Art

My first two whimsy girls that I drew as I am working to capture the happy memories of my difficult childhood. I don't have many memories and most of what I can remember is abusive so I have been praying for healing and joy in my artwork. I started writing in my art journal all of the happy things I could think of to shift my focus from the pain towards healing and new thoughts.

In a year, I will wish I had started my blog today

I want to share my work and build a community of art creative friends to share and grow in our creative journey. My hope is to have a community of like minded creative artsy people who want to explore new techniques and share creative endeavors. I have a bachelors in Fine art which did not help to build my confidence as an artist but instead was a very critical experience that left me not sure if I wanted to pursue my artwork any longer.

I did not create work for many years after receiving my degree until I realized that I was blocked as an artist and started working through The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Her books inspired me to take my artist self on play dates and to journal all of the fears, hope and lost dreams that I had in my heart, mind and soul about being an artist. I have new art work and inspiration because her process has helped me to unlock the creativity that God has given me. I have found new hope, dreams and goals for my work and courage to try new techniques and take risks with my personal art journey.

I am blessed to be a part of Life Book 2015 by Tam from willowing. I had so much fear about sharing my work in a large group of artists with so much amazing talent however Tam has a wonderful kindness and heart of healing that made me feel so comfortable with different forums and places to share your work that I have posted my work. Life Book has a wide variety of teachers with so many different ideas and techniques that it has brought me inspiration in times where I felt that I was empty of new ideas. I hope you will join me in my journey as an artist and that you will come be a part of the community I am building through my blog!