day 11 and 12 - Portraits and Desk Shot

as you can see, I am rather tired looking from my above picture, so I let my portrait slip yesterday, sleep got ahold of me instead. I did play in my journal today though to try and catch up.

a soft girl, trying to master bodies still, and they still get the better of me, but I keep trying anyway as one day they will be drawn with ease and without thinking.

not sure if i like her background though I might try and fix that aspect up later, but overall I like her.

and a quilt long necked girl, I have a think for red heads it seems! I want to do alot of line work in her background but when Im not so tired!

a shot of my copic marker box, and my favorite pencil case, giving to me by my darling besty  It comes with me in all my handbags, filled with my current colour palette. She made it herself, after we picked out fabric together many years ago now, but I love it just the same.

and a page I'm working on, when I'm not drawing faces, sometimes I like the simple pages of my life with photographs, simple painted backgrounds and a little text.
have a lovely evening
xx C

Day 7 - Tag me Lovely!

Day 7 my darlings! and I must say I lost my mojo, I spent the day sewing up a storm to get a few sewing projects worked on, and before I knew it my day was almost over, I tried a portrait in sumi ink, and liked her..till I tried to add colour, then it all went shit-tastic! so I started again. 

I saw some of my blank tags in my odds and ends box, and grabbed one, and started sketching in an inky pen.

little watercolour marker and a touch of white pen, and I thought she was simple enough and cute enough, I will start incorporating her into the page, maybe some text/journalling above her eyes, and she will be a cute addition to my journal.

here is my desk shot, do you see the bunch of tags up the back in the odds box hehe

above shot

I painted this girl a few days ago and never got the share her...so here is my latte skinned beauty.

xx Courtney

Faces In May - Day 5

Afternoon my darlings! its day 5 in the faces of May challenge, and since I enjoyed playing with the monotone of yesterdays girl I thought I'd play with some pink acrylic ink and gesso and see what I came up with! below is my face for the day and what she developed into. Two pics from our day today.

I thought since I, working at my desk everyday this month, I'd do daily desk shots, so you can see how things morph and merge as I create.

on our outings today, I was looking for some new storage for my copics, my old square vase finally had no room left, so a quick trip to ikea, and now they all fit nicely into this one container..with dividers. once I fill that up.. I'll get a couple more!

how is your Saturday shaping up?

xx Courtney

Faces In May - Day 3

We are off and running in the 29 faces in May challenge, and I've got to say, I'm getting really excited about it! I started stockpiling portrait photos that I liked from pintrest as reference points for my drawing. The quirky old man, was one of those photographs. He is my day three, I've been working on him all through my day even during the time I went shopping, having a tea while I was out, I sat and coloured him with my markers.

the woman opposite him was just a girl that developed while I was sitting on the couch, not sure if she will be day 4 or if I will go looking for more photographs to sketch!

a close up of my old man, he is predominately in greys, I used two shades of brown copic marker, and a prismacolour pencil as  highlights around the eyes and the shirt.

and a close up of my blue haired beauty!

how are your faces going?

xx Courtney

JOINING IN! 29 Faces in May

I need a pick me up, something to get excited about, and I saw this on Gulfspire's Blog and thought I'd join her! 29 faces in may, shouldn't be too bad I got two completed just yesterday!

 I think I can give this a good go! anyone else want it pop on over and join in, leave your blog in my comments so I can have a bit of a looksie at your lovely drawings!

xx Courtney

Face for the first of may (since its the second here)

and I did tell you I got two finished didn't I...

well here she is

enjoy your afternoon and do join me, I love looking at your art! 

guess you'll see daily posts from me for the month of may!

xxx Courtney

Creative Art journalling!

A starry Thursday to all of you! I've been busily working in my art journal, doing a few things here and there, went to visit my family on the weekend, and am getting over a cold the little ones brought home from school...alas here I am in my green ugg boots and my stripy cardi getting a post together!
so inside the little journal that could are some random odds and ends.

playing with the scanner, old letters and other sketch books of mine to create artworks to rework in my current journal..this girl has won a place in my heart because of her sad little face.

always trying to get my fashion figures sorted out, still tripping over on that task but I still try every few days, this is my current sassy girl

a whimsy long necked girl that was a sketch in my journal for so long, and while I was away at my parents as we caught up and chatted I sat and coloured, listening to the sounds of my family cackle and recount old stories.

I've been getting mail lately, which isnt bills! and as the mail arrives from Miss Sophie.
I glue things into my journal for later use. An old photo and some washii tape never go astray, oh..can you spot my course work for the new class I'm taking at the moment Painted faces with the beautiful Gulfsprite. Printing out her templates and drawing some of my own ready and waiting to get into the painting!

and of course, a random scrappy collage page that I've just started working on, needs some ink and watercolours me thinks...just not sure what to draw..it will come, it always does

so thats my creative space and my journal progress!!
what are you doing in your journals lately?
xx C

My Creative Space - The rain

With the rain coming down since yesterday afternoon, its that kinda day where you get into your favourite pair of socks, and just sit with the silence and your art journal. And that is exactly what I did, I rummaged through my drawers to find my only pair of hand knit socks made by a dear dear friend put them on and sat down with my journal.

the weather is perfect for daydreaming, and staring off into space listening to the rain hit the roof. My little black cat curled up on my lap, was a lovely moment.

still playing with lots of colour making sure my journal is a rainbow fest when you open the pages!

documenting my days with little photos scattered throughout my journal to remind me of little things that you would usually forget, I will keep doing this till my Project life stuff comes for my birthday off my mum (I'm stupidly excited about that)

that's all from me! this cold autumn day!
I'll be back tomorrow with some more art journal odds and ends
xox Courtney

make mistakes.

(found via pintrest)

You know when you fall flat on you face, and you think to yourself, I'm not going to get up, just incase it happens again. Well artistically speaking, I think I went through that. I pulled back from creating, just because really... and now to try and get myself going again, I started gluing in photographs adding papers and watercolours, tape and inks, no drawing of people no pressure to be perfect...just creating pages for the purpose of recording my days till I get back on the horse and take off into the arty sunset.

so I fired up my printer and printed out some of my blog images, no rhyme of reason just ones that I liked, taped them down, and went from there. If I didnt like it..I gessoed over it.

there were pages that I didn't like in my little singer sewing art journal, and they stunted me almost. I couldn't get past them, so I didn't do anything. Today I decided to excuse my french 'fuck it' covered it up and started again, found a picture of my man, which makes me smile and taped him down...to remind myself to breathe, smile and don't get bogged down in the silly details of things.

so I had some fun, and used bright colours and just played, its nothing award worthy but who cares...I need to learn not to care and just enjoy...for art is about enjoyment...

I promise I wont back off my blog again, I was going so well, then plummeted oh well..I'm only human, and my life isn't a pretty vignette, its a messy corner, and thats ok too.
xx Courtney

just little tidbits

I did a little more work on my fairy girl today, adding layers of colour and some white paint pen.

still unsure of what to put on the opposing page..but I'm sure I'll get a lightbulb moment sometime or other.

it was nice just using paint and some coloured pencil here and there... I've been so worked up with my other drawings, going back to a face was like a nice big sigh.

I spent the afternoon reading to finish the second book in the Flowers in the attic series... enthralling books, its made me happily read in my spare time and in the mini trips we take in the car.

tomorrow...its me and the pile of fabric ...and the sewing machine.

xx Courtney

back to common ground

It seems that I have the memory span of a goldfish, Monday came and went, and I didn't even think about the Monday Mantra! I've been in a bit of an art funk, not sure what happened, I think I was trying to cram so much into my brain, learning new things, looking at all the courses I've been in, and want to do, I got overloaded and just fizzled out...so I'm embracing this.

I sat at my art desk, staring at the journals I've started and gotten bogged down in, it seems there were pages in all my journals that didnt seem to hit the mark with me, so I just stopped arting. I just sat there going through pages I'd already completed...my way of re reading. So I went back to basics and just went to something familiar...faces... she isnt finished but here is my progress so far.

its a double spread, so tomorrow I might sit down and try and get the pages finished, and maybe then I will be over my little funk, ready to take anything on again.

a shocking photo, but alas here is the newest member of the nook...little raven.
I had to nab this photo whilst she was still enough to capture on the ipad. Tomorrow I'll use my cannon and hopefully have a better shot of my little black beauty.

xx Courtney

On My desk - Art Journal Love.

It's been a week, indeed it has, I just needed a little time to get used to a few changes. So even though my journal was with me everyday, I didnt put pencil to paper, I could feel the void though...so yesterday I started...

there are many layers to this spread, as the original layer I didnt like, there is a full girl under there hehe I finished her and then started covering her up with magazine images. Paint, gesso, inks, stains and some drawing...and this little thing emerged.


this is my last assignment for Jane's Supplies me course, I've learned a heap, and I've also signed up for her I heart drawing class too, to continue to learn more formed ways of the figures and faces.


enjoy your Friday, I might be back tomorrow with more art, depending on how I feel!
xox Courtney

Side Faces and Acrylic Paint.

Over on Jane's lovely little art nook, its acrylic paint week, so the last two days I've gotten into the spirit of things, using mostly paint and a little bit of inky pen and a smidge of prismacolour pencil for acents.

I've always said, side faces make me their minion, I've had the desire to draw girls from a different view than side on for longer than I care to admit.

so here is my little mermaid inspire sea goddess.

I used alot of acrylic paints watered down and layered over and over, distress stain for her hair mixed with watered down paint, some inky pen for a few little detail touches, and a little pencil for some shading where I felt it needed it.

also a hand made spray ink background, tomorrow I will add some more, I'm off to watch the last harry potter on the couch with the boy, yes I've already seen it but I don't care!


enjoy your night
see you tomorrow with more art.
x Courtney

Paint she said!

I needed to shift gears with my journal, I didnt want to become stagnant creating the same looking thing over and over... So Christy told me to paint my girl today...so I got my paints out and did just that..

she's not as refined as my copic girls or my pencil girls...but I like her. a little verbal mummy rant on the other side covered with random flowers... and the page is pretty much done.

tomorrow I want to try and tackle a full Jane body...I've been putting it off for a couple of weeks now because I feel my bodies look a bit retarded lol... but I'll try see how I go.

enjoy your Tuesday!
might go sketch in the sunlight, I need a bit of vitamin D
x Courtney