Monday Mantra - and Art Geek Video

gosh I'm a bit of a fail blogger! set out all organized and huzzah! before I know it, I'm flailing around like a guppy on a sidewalk! Alas, I'll keep chuggin, maybe it will sort itself out.

I think I need to recap, and re evaluate where I am at the moment, back to list making I think! otherwise I lead myself astray!

image via pintrest.
I need to start actually setting time for work, time for play, time for my exercise, time for the kids..and of course time for the housework ( rolls eyes )
How are you coping this year? still on track...or running around like a chicken with your head cut off like me?

and a bonus for you this monday, if you havent already seen it, Ive made a new video for Art Geeks,

 

have a lovely monday

xx Courtney 

 

Watercolour my Heart Day 7 Blogtober!

Big weekend is coming to an end, and I am one tired little lovely, but I know I said I would blog...so here I am! nice short and sweet blog post today, so I can go and have a long relaxing hot shower.

Its a weekend for kissing deer shoes...I heart them so much!

right! onto the reason that you stop by for! The supplies! now my next supply cost me $10AUD..that's right, its the one supply I get asked the most during my videos..ohhh that watercolour set..where did you get it from...I have been asked that more times than I care to count for you..and my reply..a chain store called BIG W. Its a budget set in the art section by a low price art brand called Micador. you can get them in a smaller size than this one..but value for money, this size beats the other 10 or so colours. The colour range is very very good for its price, I give them a good spray with my water bottle let them get juicy and away I go, worked wonderfully with an aqua brush as well. Very bright vivid colour. Just because they are cheap doesn't meant they have crappy pigment.  As you can see, my palette has had some use...and broke in half lol...but doesn't stop them being used and abused on a day to day basis. The following pages have ALL been created with the 10 Dollar wonders.

this page here, the faces in particular were all done using the watercolours, the background green is an acrylic ink...which will be a supply for another day.  But all face colours and the lovely yellow hue..is all the watercolours I speak of.

using the colours not so wet and juice, using just a damp brush this girl below was created. This girl is just on normal fabriano 300GSM paper, no watercolour papers are used in my journals (too pricey lol) you can see that you can get varying shades of the same colour just by going over them a few times, the colours blend well aswell.

 this girl was painted with no pencil drawing, all done with watercolour then outlined later with a black pitt pen. You can do bright and vivid..or soft and subtle. This set is a fantastic set for people who want to play with watercolours but dont like the pricetag of the fancy ones ( I lust after the fancy ones..but on my mumma budget, out of my league)

 

The below image is my traveling watercolour set...yes you heard right this is my Peerless watercolour. They are my expensive ones, that were a gift from my boyfriend. They watercolour comes on a card and each card is a different colour, so I followed the video by the lovely Jane if these watercolours intrigue you do click on the link in Jane's name..it will take you to a video she created to highlight the wonderfulness of these watercolours. My palette slots into the back of my journal ready to be accessed at anytime while I'm out and about!

If you have any questions about any of my supplies please do ask

of if there is something I haven't covered yet and you are dying to know...do ask me! I'm always happy to give readers what they like, But don't get me wrong, if you ask about something and I don't use it...I will tell the truth. There are a lot of supplies I just don't use...I am a budget artist for sure. 

xx have a lovely night

Courtney

Day 6!!! arty play and white pens.

The weekend is in full swing here at the Brook-Diaz house with daylight savings about to hit us, we have been packing boxes and de-cluttering for our impending move! I thought I would start my post with a quick snap of my dinner! garlic prawns, fresh strawberries a few almonds and a few roasted coconut chips! it was..devine. We are a paleo family for 2 months now and I can never see us looking back.

 

 today I jumped onto the Gulfsprite Ning to have a look at the beautiful Stardust course, Christy had urged me to give it a go, so I looked it over, got the image printed for it, and will be doing one on canvas, and a smaller version in my art journal. Can never have enough face drawings by the lovely Christy in my life.

my eclectic art journal is bulking up! I love flicking through to see the miss matched papers and the splashes of colour that are in my boarder bits.

Only a quick supply post tonight, White pens...as an avid doodler I use my black and my white pens, so many times a day, for those little details...highlights outlines and so forth. I have more than these three white pens, I just cant seem to track them down! so for now I'll talk about these ones. The sharpie poster paint with a fine tip is my fave for my finer details, the eye highlights mostly, there have been a few spillages because I've pushed too hard (be gentle handling this) next is the Sakura brand Gelly Roll white gel pen. This is a japanese brand of pen and is beautiful to work with! If I could buy a stack of these pens in different colours I would in a heartbeat! when you first start using the gelly pen I thought omg its not working! but as it dries it goes a beautiful stark white...also gives a little raised feel where it has been used so lovely for the textural factor. The last pen is my dot maker. a Posca paint pen, with a big chunky round tip. Posca make their pens in different colours and I am yet to try them, but if they are as good as their white pens, I'm all for them. Like I said I use this pen to make my dots and for my chunky highlights.

and a quick peak at my pencil case that goes everywhere with me, a lot of black pens of varying sizes and inks, a few bright coloured sharpie pens, a couple of highlighters, my white pens, a mechanical pencil, a little eraser, glue stick, scissors and a bone folder.

these things go everywhere with me, so that I can draw, and add quick details and pops of colour with no problems at all, meaning I can create art whenever I am out and about and have a spare moment to myself.

enjoy your night loves!

xx Courtney

Foam Stamps of Win!

Hello hello!!! lots of pictures today, got carried away with images representation of my supplies. Today while I sat again avoiding my workout...I was in my scrap bind and found some fun foam. Now I only have this because of an art geeks video I watched quite a while ago now! but I thought why not have a play, so I started cutting...and using a ballpoint pen to indent a pattern into them.

above is just cutouts..and below is using the pen to make a design etched into it. I backed the foam onto some thick chipboard and away I went! making random prints for the basis of my eclectic journal.

I used paint with them first, but wasnt crisp enough, my favourite was using a black stazon ink pad with the 'stamps' they came out much clearer almost tribal like.

 

I am also low on patterned stencils, where its just a pattern not just one element....so I thought to myself, make my own very diy basic one out of scrapbooking paper. I mean its pretty rough but it was fun playing with it. little bit of paint and a sponge and you've got me entertained for a least an hour.

I did crack open my raindrops stencil which doesnt get used often but sometimes I give it a run

 

 And today's supply...is Markers! yes I am still a novice when it comes to markers! as I only learnt to really wield them last year I think...but I do have a small collection of them due to an awesome marker club I used to be in, getting 7 colours a month shipped to me...so I have a little stash.  Now dont get me wrong...markers are flippin pricey! the copics which many call the creme de la creme range from $9 to $11 AUD depending on where you are buying them! and for me...thats pretty epic. If I wasnt in the marker club..doing it monthly...I would not have as many as I do, I was lucky.

there are many cheaper just as awesome brands that are now readily available...such as the letraset markers and the spectrum noir pens, also distress markers have busted onto the scene just recently. 

all fantastic and great quality. Much of a muchness. 

 I store mine lying down in an ikea tub, which isnt ideal but hey what you gonna do. My collection is all copics except for a few Touch markers I got from an aussie art store. They are dual tipped, a brush tip and a chisel tip. very very juicey and very vibrant. (can you see a theme here with my supplies it has to bust open with colour or I'm not interested)

 

 see dodgy photo of the tips, the light is shocking but you get what I mean. I have several shades of the one colour family to help with the blending aspect of these markers, and blending is where they come into their own. Miss Jane Davenport taught me how to use markers in Supplies me..and I've grown from there here are some of my works using my markers both alcohol based and watercolour based

 laying the colour down then using a slightly darker shade they blend on the page as you work, giving your drawings depth and a richness that I cant go past.

 I worked alot with these markers in my fashion drawing class with Jane, I loved how solid and deep they looked at the same time, I use them at least once a day even if its just for a little doodling on my page.

above are some of the Touch markers I own, costing me around $6 on sale at the time.

Some of my first faces during my learning of them...using up to 4-5 shades in the one face! it blew my mind when it all started coming together.

and leaving you with a face that was part of a gulfsprite course but was hand coloured by me with my markers.
If you are considering markers, and you draw portraits, my suggestion is to get a few base skin colours and an eye and lip colour. Don't think you need the whole range, start with a few colours get your bearings learn to blend them and then expand your collection...these markers are an investment and they arent cheap...but they are beautiful
xx Courtney

Art Geeks!

enjoy the video, and get snapping and glue and laying down that colour

have you heard of Art Geeks.

 Photographs and Art, are like hot tea and a biscuit....

I live my life through photos and art, by merging the two I create journal pages that are uniquely mine.

So Art Geeks... if you haven't you should find out! I have been asked to be a teacher in the online art group Art Geeks, I was very nervous to begin with, but I think with time..I could do alright at teaching art journal pages. We have some very talented teachers in the group, one of them being the lovely Gulfspite who you hear me talk about heaps! There is a blog too, I know alot of my followers are artists, so if there is a moment u have spare, check us out...at the moment I have set up some homework (yes even before my glass has started) to get the artists ready for the little things I'm going to teach in the following months!!

want to make personal art journal pages...come find us at Art Geeks

 enjoy your days my dears I have a cold at the moment, so Im under my alice in wonderland quilt drawing with my art journal and sipping green tea.

xx Courtney