Digital collage

I've been busy with work recently and I haven't had any time to paint my personal projects, so I've been trying my hand at digital collage! I've been meaning to do it for ages, and the commission that I'm working on now has taken me down this route so I decided to have a play about with it and create a print for my much neglected Etsy shop! I took my sketch for the painting I'm (still!) working on and merged it with a lovely old frame. I'll definitely be doing more of these, I think there's effects you can create digitally that are impossible to get otherwise, or they'd at least take you forever to do by hand! :)

The Dreamer

Hope everyone's having a good weekend! Here's a little piece that I've been working on! She's painted on a smooth edge wooden panel (8.2cm x 11.4cm) She's a mixture of acrylic paint, pencil and collage (her hair is damask patterned print, worked over with acrylic). It doesn't show in the picture but I've outlined the flowers in the background with a subtle shimmery sparkle which I've smudged slightly to give it a bit of a magical feel! Then I sanded the edges to give a soft distressed look. I'd forgotten how satisfying it is to paint on wood, it holds the paint so nicely. I've attached a vintage button to the back with a copper wire hoop ready for hanging and also I pasted on a lovely quote from T.E Lawrence:

Dream your dreams with open eyes and make them come true...

I was pleased with how she turned out so I've listed her on ebay! (There's more pics on there!)
~SOLD~ to the lovely Joy of Jamjar!

Something different to look at!

Wow, I haven't updated this blog for SO long!! You must be so bored of seeing my 'new homes needed' post - I know I am!! (Thanks for all your lovely comments about the pendants, I was really pleased!) Apologies for being so rubbish with this blog, I've had loads of work to do lately that I can't post on here for copyright reasons, but hopefully I'll be able to give you at least a sneaky peak soon ;) In the meantime I thought I'd post a couple of sketches just to get something different on here! The first is a little sketch from my moleskine that I plan to do something with soon. I've only recently discovered Moleskines. I've always felt a bit daunted by the 'glowing' white pages of a new sketchbook! But Moleskines are great because they're so small and inviting! The second sketch is a rough (and little bit crumpled!!) drawing for a painting that I'm working on now called 'The Memory'. I'll post the finished piece as soon as it's done. I'd love to keep that little bit of sketchy 'freeness' from the rough drawings in the final paintings, but it all gets really tight and detailed! I love loose, free, expressive sketches and paintings, and I used to fight against the tightness of my painted work and try to loosen things up but it always ended in disaster!! I've realised now that what you admire in other people's work isn't always what you're destined to create yourself!