Just a quick post with the link to ATC Flip-Through. Here you can see all 31 ATCs that I did in July.
Lucy’s coloring book
Color me brightly
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The watercolor month is over (I just finished another ATC, LOL! It does not seem to be over for me, but at least I am not counting them any longer.) and I’ve started doing other stuff. Actually, I am continuing with other stuff, which is mostly my coursework… One new thing that I started some weeks ago is a ‘She Thinks Positive Journal’. One day I was in the Art shop and innocently looking around in the paper section and I saw this fabulous spiral bound Fabriano sketchbook… Now, you must know one thing about me: I am a sucker for 90g yellowish drawing paper. I’ve been buying Canson sketching blocks for ages and using them to make my hand-made journals. It does not matter that I always use watercolor on those journals and that 90g paper wrinkles. I love it even more for that. So, even though I have still a lot of Canson 90g paper and I could make several hand-made journals, somehow when I saw this one, I had to have it. Besides, it was only 2.5 EUR! Hey! That’s a lot of happiness almost for free!
So, I got home and started with painting. Actually I was pretty much in a state over something and very emotional and all and that’s how the idea was born to make a kind of let it out but don’t let it show (my specialty) journal. Here’s how it works: I start writing my heart out in pencil on those beautiful yellowish pages. I pour my negativity and sadness and bitterness and all the unanswered questions and unfulfilled expectations and all the stuff that may reside in me and may or may not want to come out (I am an introvert, remember, I do not bother people with my stuff), so I squeeze it all out and then I cover it with a layer of white gesso. That way I empty my negativity on there and get a beautiful white page for painting (gesso also helps to firm the pages a bit so they do not wrinkle so much). Then I write an affirmative thought, which must be something positive because no matter how negative I may feel, there is always something positive I can find. If I cannot think of anything, which is rare, then I pull an oracle card and take it from there. Oracle cards are great way to get a positive thought for the day! I write down the thought and then I draw a face. No erasing, so they are far from perfect, but that’s the whole point.
Enough words, I think, let me show you how it looks. There are 60 pages in the book, so there will be 120 faces and affirmations. Quite a lot, but it goes nicely for the time being. Here are two of them for today:
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I finished the challenge two days ago and today I am sharing my last ATC. I am also adding a lesson from Life Book with Jane Davenport which fits nicely because it’s done in watercolors. Here they are:
I’ll have to try to catch up with all the course work until end of my holiday. Well, not all, because that will not be possible, but the main things… Ah well… I have to stop buying courses 🙂
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Finally I am back to normal. It’s rainy and cool and I can sleep again. The only thing that I miss about the seaside is my early morning swim. But a good night sleep is much more appreciated.
So, today I actually finished the last of my 31 ATCs, therefore I have accomplished my challenge. I will save that one to post tomorrow though because it’s still drying.
Today I am posting my work done over the past couple days of my seaside holiday. One is an ATC done with only two colors and the other one a larger piece done in my 5×8 Strathmore journal. Here they are:
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It’s my last day of seaside holiday and I am so happy to go home tomorrow and so looking forward to peaceful and cool nights in which I will actually sleep. I’ve been doing my ATCs every day, so here are the three for today:
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I am on holiday in Croatia and the weather is so terribly hot that it’s hard to do anything. I did paint an ATC and some other things every day but it’s far from satisfying because of course I had big plans for holidays… I can hardly wait to go back to the continent. The seaside without an air conditioner is definitely not for me. Besides, my internet is rather slow and it’s driving me crazy because it’s taking ages to upload photos. Anyway… Enough complaints 🙂
Here are three ATCs I did in the past three days:
These all started as partly stencilled backgrounds for some future ATCs, so I decided to use them now. It was quite fun to work with watercolors on top of modelling paste and then continue around it in the same pattern, so in the first and the second one it’s hard to see where the modelling paste stops and my shapes continue. Stencils are quite a solution if you are out of ideas of if the heat melted your wits… 🙂
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Ok… I had a major emotional break-down and missed a post or two I think. Anyway, life goes on and I keep painting because that’s keeping me… No, I should not say sane, because that I am definitely not. It’s keeping me going. Yes, that’s the word.
There was a small bundle of happiness waiting for me in the office yesterday morning:
I am really happy to get these. I never had a Strathmore journal before. I also never had Daniel Smith watercolors. I also bought 12 empty half pans and filled them last night and placed them in my Schmincke box, which conveniently came with 12 half pans of their basic colors and empty space for 12 more of my choice. How great is that!?
So last night I tried some of the Daniel Smith colors. Here’s the ATC I made:
They are very colorful and rich and I will definitely love them. I haven’t tried them on my new journal yet. But I am going on holiday in a few days, and taking it all with me. Oh boy!
The second ATC I made the day before, but I was too emotionally knocked-out that I did not post it anywhere until this morning. Of course, the mood shows well:
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Today was my travelling day, so I am exhausted and ready for bed after sharing this with you. Yesterday I did some watercolor mixing experiment that went wrong on two ATCs and almost on the third one as well. The third turned out pretty nice after all, I made some mud, but actually I like it because it has a rusty old feeling to it and if you look closely the colors are really beautiful.
The two failures, I gessoed over and today I painted on top of the gesso. I love how gesso gives texture under the watercolor and how one can see the layer below. Gesso helped that the first layer of watercolor does not bleed through to the second. I may do this on purpose in future 🙂
I think this one might be my favourite… I am quite in love with her.
And, of course, the video:
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I had a busy day, but not so much doing art as with other things that needed my attention. So, I have only one ATC to show you which I did yesterday. I did another one today, but forgot to take a photo, and now it’s dark and it will have to wait until tomorrow. But I also have a video from yesterday for you! Surprise, surprise, it’s a seahorse!
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I spent lots of time doing the lesson for Ever After, but I did not miss a day of watercolor. ATCs are quick and I need around 30 minutes to do one. This is perfect to get my daily dose of color and flow therapy! So, here is what I did:
This is ATC No. 14. Again a little intuitive face. I was so in love with the greens and blues that all my pieces in past two days were in this color combo. I did not use any yellow – what appears yellow is actually sap green.
ATC NO. 15. Same colors with a bit of gold. Ahhh… Makes my heart sing! I filmed this one, here’s the video:
And finally, because I was so excited about the seahorse that I made in my Ever After lesson, I had to try one more which is a bit closer to my current style. It started beautifully, but last night I just screwed it up with the dark frame, so I am really not happy with it.
This is a larger 5×7 cold pressed fabriano artistico paper. I really like this paper. So, that’s it. Of course, I started a new seahorse today, in different color combination and this time without the frame… You will see him soon.
Lucy’s coloring book 