Wanderlust 2024 - Weeks one to eight - Brushes and Tools

I have joined Wanderlust 2024 - the year long mixed media journaling course I have done since 2021. This year, there are star supplies which are the focus for eight week blocks. The first of these is Brushes and Tools.  We started with an overview of brushes and then I created the page above.  With life as it is now, resilience seemed like a good word to choose for the year.  We all need some of that. 

The next week was more calm with a focus on watercolour brushes, using a round brush, a fan brush and a rigger brush (with a toothbrush as well), to create the different effects.  It is based on looking into a rock pool.

Week three was all about a palette knife.  I found this quite tricky but kept on going.

Week Four we used gel plates to make collage papers, some of which we added a tea dye to.  I used a photo I had taken as my inspiration for this, but it has a few imagined details too.  I loved creating this collage.

We had to make our own tools for this one. We wrapped bits of sponge around sticks/skewers and used these to make patterns based on nature.  These then became the background collage.  The sponge sticks made fantastic splats (you can see them in the top right and top left corners).

Using a bottle with a fine liner tip was the next tool. We wrote with it and then outlined a face.  I used a stamp to start with, as my face drawing, while improving a lot, isn't quite there yet.

Paper punches were the tool for week seven.  I don't have any except for a one inch circle, but what I do have a lot of are dies. I used these for the different sized circles and to create the paper lace. My focal image is from The Secret Garden and the muted colours of the image, where Mary is finding the door in the wall, worked beautifully with this page.  I enjoyed creating the shading too, using an inktense pencil and water brush.

Week eight was an 'Artful Musings' week, where we heard about organising a studio space from a mixed media artist.  I created this page, again using collage but adding tissue paper, embossing and some stamping.  The face was a stamp which I then added to, with paint and black pen.

Now we are on to Texture, which should be fun!

Cards and flowers

 I have been experimenting and making again.  I recently bought a very versatile stamp set - the poppy in the photo above, which has two layers and which creates a lovely hand painted look.  I think this is one I will use a lot.  As you can see, its first incarnation was as a thank you card.  I was really pleased with the results.

 My friend had a birthday, so out came a card making kit and this card was duly created.  I hope she liked it.

 I have also been playing with my Brusho paints again, trying to create loose watercolour flowers.  I watched a video on you tube and thought I could manage it, but as with so many things, it didn't quite work as I had hoped.  I stamped the flower centres and then pulled the paint and water out to create the petals.  This is what I was aiming for:

(image from Sandy Allnock's blog )

 Hmm, I'm not quite there yet!  Practise, practise, practise!  The nice thing is a that practising something like this is a rather enjoyable occupation in itself.  I may try different brushes to see if that might help.

I embossed the stamens on some of the flowers and liked the raised texture it gave.  I shall have another go and see what happens.

A Triptych of Cats

 Although we had some fantastic presents for Christmas, my favourite one just had to be this triptych of our cats; Scruffy, Ginny and Gonga.  The portraits were painted by Rachael, my colleague at work, who is an amazing artist as well as being an excellent singer and an all-round good egg!

 Scruffy was the most difficult to paint, Rachael said, because he is all black.  The portraits are done in watercolour and ink.

 Ginny looks very serene and peaceful, as she does when she's just had a plate of liver or some leftover chicken or turkey. 

Of all the portraits, I think this one is my favourite because Rachael has managed to capture Gonga when he is feeling rather fed up (to say the least). He really does look this grumpy on occasions! 
The only thing is, now that we have these portraits, I rather think we need portraits of the cats we used to have too - Sammy and Mrs Cat.  I think I feel a commission for Rachael coming on...