Troy – Top 2000 Blog Party – Day 6

I decided to discontinue the line I was following and post my entry in time this day. I also got away from the space theme. It’s devastating fire now. And a firebird rising from the flames. Yes, I’m talking Sinéad O’Connor. Illustrating this song has been on my wishlist for years now, but I never felt comfortable doing it until now. And I’m not even disappointed with the outcome.


Oh and I am doing good things at the end of the year. After about six years, I finally started using my Wacom Bamboo drawing tablet. Yay me. I have no idea why it took me so long, because now I wish I did it way sooner. It’s such a time saver if you do intense editing. Last night’s illustration took way too much time to turn into a digital clip art file. And that was quite a simple design to separate from it’s background. So when I started this phoenix today, I knew I had to start using the Wacom. It was a joy.
By the time I was ready to start painting the background on my page, Sinéad’s song had been on the radio, so I could feel the mood of the song, which resulted in quite a heavy image. Well, it is a heavy song. A very beautiful song, but also with a lot of anger in it. The part where she kind of promises she’ll rise from the flames (after she died killing a dragon), really spoke to me.


The fire is one big disaster and it looks hurtful, but look at that Phoenix. It’s very, very strong and very determined. Whatever the fire in your life may be, be that Phoenix!

Fly Me To The Moon – Top 2000 Blog Party – Day 5

Oh no! I’m late again! I’m starting to see a pattern here. Not one I like though. Talking about repetitions, there seems to be a theme going on these past few days. Three days in a row my page has a moon scenery. And the moon’s getting bigger every day. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.



When I first thought my page was finished, I wasn’t too happy with it. Then I started doodling the white stars and it made such a difference. It gave dept, contrast, balance and it was just the thing I needed to connect the elements. To add even more fun, I also added some white dots in small clusters. Now I am really happy with it. Sometimes when you’re not happy with the result, it just needs a little more.

Again I started with an illustration. I like to continue that for this year’s Top 2000 pages. I wish I started this the very first day. Well, can’t go back, so let’s just embrace that imperfection. They’re all in a special Top 2000 journal, so the pages from last year are also in ther  and there will be many more in the future. But for now, I like to continue this way of working.

Only two days left. The list has come to the point where it’s an ongoing bliss of the greatest songs of all kind. Pop, rock, ballads, hiphop… it’s all there.

Memory – Top 2000 Blog Party – Day 4

I’m late! Completely following my personal style. Le sigh. Yesterday I managed it just in time. Today I didn’t. I have to admit, I was in big doubt weather I wanted to do a page today at all. Hence the delayed time I started drawing and painting. I felt so tired at 7:30 PM, I seriously debated weather to call it a day and go to bed. Apparently all I needed was a cup of hot chocolate.

Today I chose the song “Memory” by Barbara Streisand. It made me think of the musical cats, which isn’t too weird since that’s where the song originates. I remember how the old cat sang the song and even though I haven’t seen the (movie of) the musical for a very long time, this song stills brings me in tears.

So I started with a drawing of a sad old cat.


After scanning, digitalising and printing the cat, I painted a night scene. Of course it had to have a big moon. I glued the cat image to the page and wrote down part of the lyrics.



I have to admit, this isn’t my best page. I do like the sad cat though. I think I would’ve liked it better when the cat was closer by. Speaking photography terms, I think it would have been better if the whole scene was more zoomed in. Can’t change that now, so I call it done.

Tomorrow a new page. Or so I think.

Moondance – Top 2000 Blog Party – Day 3

Today has almost come to an end, but I do keep my promise. I’m here with a new artwork and a new blogpost. I don’t really have a lot to talk about, so I’ll keep it short and show you what I made.



I really love making my own clip art to use in my art journals. It’s quite a lot of work to build my pages this way and quite time consuming, but I love the look. Plus I can use the same image over and over again or send it out in happy mail swaps.
Alright. On to the next song. Maybe picking a song is taking most time at the moment. There’s so much to choose from. I found out the best songs aren’t necessarily the best to illustrate.

Hello my dear friends. I have been neglecting you, for which I am so sorry. I’d like to tell again, if you want daily updates, please go follow me on Instagram (@mebearc). I’m working on something new to either replace this blog or incorporate it. But definitely to more active on a platform that I can call my own.


Since I’ve tapered down my anti depressants after a good 22 years and then completely stopped taking them (all in consulatation with my doctor of course), I’ve had a bit of a rough time. I’m still off of the anti depressants, but since a couple of weeks I’m on anti psychotiscs. Only temporary. But they’re making me very slow. I mean, it’s like those dreams where you try to run, but everything goes in slow motion. My thinking is slow and my acting is slow and therefore I get hardly anything done.


Enough with the explanation. I don’t want to complain. I’m glad I’m finally off those meds and although my body and mind are having a difficult time adapting, I can already feel I will never go back on those nasty pills. If you need them then do take them. In my case, I never should have gotten them in the first place. My depressions aren’t biological. What I need is trauma therapy and that’s what I get now.


Teddy likes to wish you a merry (belated) Christmas. Well, officially not belated according to my country. We have 2 days of Christmas.




And when it’s Christmas in The Netherlands, it’s the start of the annual Top 2000. From Christmas till the New Year, 2000 of the best songs ever made. Or at least, the songs that got the most votes. I remember listening to the Top 2000 as a teenager in my small bedroom, while making art. How amazing that these days Marit hosts the Top 2000 Blog Party, where we make art inspired by the songs in the Top 2000. You can find all the details here and please join if you are inspired. There’s still enough time.


This is my entry for day 1, which was yesterday:

And today’s entry:





I’ll try to do another blog post tomorrow. If not, there’ll definitely be a new photo on my Instagram.

Top 2000 Blog Party – Day 7 (finale)

Welcome to the very last day of 2017. Outside there’s an awful lot of noise as the neighbourhood is having fun with their own fireworks. We do have an organised firework show in the city centre, at the parlaiment building, but as long as people are allowed to light their own fireworks, I’m staying safe inside. Besides the fireworks there’s this weird tradition in my city of making bonfires wherever people like. For that one’s there’s also an official alternative at the beach. There’s even a contest for that one. Two revelling city parts (both former beach villages that are now part of the city) have been working for a whole week to build the tallest bonfire. I’ll come back to that at the end of this post. First, music!

For today I’ve chosen the song “Private Investigations" by Dire Straits. It’s been one of my favourite Dire Straits songs since my childhood. The instrumental part left plenty of room for my imagination to make up a movie in my mind. It was a bit a too high aim to try and image that movie on my pages, especially since I had to finish it today. So instead I went for a minimal approach with a big chance of success: a Gelli Plate party. When I thought about a private detective, I thought of Sherlock Holmes, who is as a matter of fact the most famous private detective. I found a very usable image at the Open Clipart website, which I cut with my Silhouetten Cameo. I decided to use the mask part of the cut out. My explanation for my colour choices: I wanted to have something that represented the old of the stories about Sherlock Holmes, for which I chose brown. And I wanted to add the atmosphere of the mystery for which I chose the purple.

#69 Dire Straits – Private Investigation

Here’s a few extra pictures for you.

Work in progress

The bonus I got out of this printing session. Left the print in my journal. Right the bonus print.

Now about those bonfires at the beach. The winning citypart is Duindorp. They built a bonfire measuring almost 30 meter in height. Pretty awesome right. The other citypart, Scheveningen, built a bonfire of a good 25 meter.

Photo credits: Ernst de Heer

Have a fabulous New Year’s Eve. Stay safe!

Top 2000 Blog Party – Day 3, 4 and (not) 5

Hi there! I’m so sorry I haven’t updated my blogposts these past few days. It was a race against time and of course I lost. I finished my page for day three at day four and only finished my page for day four past midnight. So, you’re getting a bonus in this blogpost: three days in one! Which means more artwork pictures in this one post.

I am having a blast with this combined art and music event. There’s so much great music on the radio. Some even worth checking out the singer or band to find out what else they make. And the art journaling’s also giving me tons of fun. One of the reasons I’ve run behind, is that I don’t want to rush my work process. If a page takes more time, then I give it the time it needs. For the page of day three, I added lots of layers, which took time, but with every layer the page got so much more depth. I also love to challenge myself by creating things that I’m not really used to. Like a full figurine, a ballet dancer in this case. And that hand was a huge challenge too! Let me show you the page I’m talking about.

#1371 Elton John – Tiny Dancer

At the moment I’m going through a very difficult time and it can affect my mood badly. When I listened to the radio and heared the song “Lemon Tree” by Fools Garden, I realised after hearing this song a million times before that it’s actually quite a sad song. Sometimes it takes a sad mood to understand these things. I alsways thought this was a happy song and I loved it. I still love it, but last night the meaning of the song made a shift. I found it interesting how the chorus described a happy world, while the phrases described sadness. It was that contradiction in mood that I wanted to express on my pages. And while being in this sad mood myself, it actually felt great to image the sadness into art. Bare with me as this is only my second attempt of doing a 3/4 face. The nose is better than my first attempt, but now I see the eye is way too close to the nose. I’ll pay attention to that next time. We’re learning by experience, right?

#906  Fools Garden – Lemon Tree

And just because life happens, I have just decided to totally skip day 5. I got hit by fatigue this afternoon and just had to go to sleep in order to respect my health. I’m very sorry for this disappointment. To be honest, I mostly disappointed myself, because I had a great idea for today’s part of the list. I guess that has to wait. Maybe I just save that idea for next year hehe. Trying to think smart now. Tomorrow’s another day. Only two more days left.

If you want to learn more about this Top 2000 Blog Party, go visit Marit’s blog. Here’s where you can find the information if you want to join. It’s free and fun, so why not! And if you just want to see what everyone else’s been creating, you can follow this link.

Hope you’ll be able to make something fabulous, weather you join this blog party or just have your own project going on. Or maybe you’re here because you like to see other people’s work, but are not much of a crafty person yourself. In that case, I want to ask you if you are sure about that. Many of the people I now respect for the art they make, have thought of themselves as being non creative for decades. Apparently many High School teachers have ruined our trust in our own creativity. Maybe you should reconsider their opinion. After all, it was nothing more than their own opinion. And their concept about what makes good art doesn’t necessary have to be the truth.

Top 2000 Blog Party – Day 2

Hello art lovers! Yesterday I was at my bestie’s celebrating Christmas with pancakes. Best Christmas tradition ever! Because I stayed there until way too late, I didn’t have time to prepare for today’s Blog Party. You’d think with so much work on your scedule, you’d make sure to not waste any time. Well, that would be true if you weren’t me. I stayed in bed way too long, played games on my phone, went grocery shopping (okay, that one’s a necessity). So I managed to do this one page, but right now it’s past 10 PM and I have to prepare for tomorrow. This chaotic mind of mine doesn’t really work for me. However, I have tons of fun making art while listening to the radio.

#1656 Nina Hagen – Unbeschreiblich Weiblich

And my mind may be very chaotic, it’s also quite creative. Look what sollution I came up with when I wanted to add ink splatters to my page. I took my art journal to the bathroom, layed it on the floor, did the messy splattering and afterwards it took me less than a minute to rinse the ink off the floor.

Now back to making more art!

Top 2000 Blog Party – Day 1

Merry Christmas, everyone! Outside it’s grey, cold and windy. Inside it’s cozy with Christmas lights shining and the radio on, because like every year the Top 2000 has started this Christmas day. Until New Year’s Eve the radio will play the 2000 most voted songs of all times. It’s always been my pleasure, but ever since I discoverd the event Marit Barendsen hosts, it’s a bliss. Follow this link to check out Marit’s site where she explains everything about her Top 2000 Blog Party. It’d be fun if you’d join in!

For this first day I managed to do two songs.

#1897 The Beatles – Yellow Submarine

#1821 K’s Choice – Everything For Free

Fun fact: I took this photo of K’s Choice lead singer, Sarah Bettens, at last weeks concert in my city.
Also on this page: some stamps I carved for Julie Fei-Fan Balzer’s Carve December.

Have a fabulous day, whatever you do. See you tomorrow with at least one new page!

Art Journal Goodness

Hello! It’s been such a long time since I posted anything art related, other than photography. I am terribly sorry for my absence lately. If you’d like to see my work on a more regular base, please follow me on Instagram. I’m mebearc over there.

I’ve been quite busy making all kinds of art projects. Sometimes inspired by challenges, sometimes just inspired by whatever comes to me. I’m not going to bore you with small talk, because I know you are here to see art, right? Well, let’s go then!

In February I made two series of ATCs (Artist Trader Cards) and with each set a matching card for the host of the swaps.

ATCs

A6 size card

In April I made something for Dina Wakley’s monthly challenge in her Facebook group. The prompt was to make something from recycled material. Like all the challenges in Dina’s group, there should be used at least one visible DWM (Dina Wakley Media) product in your project.  I made this art journal page with the Scribble Birds stamp set, which was the start of a new project: a complete art journal made from recycled carton packages.

Since I made the page for Dina’s challenge, I haven’t stopped making new recycled pages. For all the pages I start with a Gelli printed background that I glue onto the carton package (cut to size) and from there I start building my page. And when I feel like joining another challenge, I simply incorporate it with this recycled journal.

This page was made for a challenge in the Miss Kate Cuttables Facebook group, which was to use at least one of her files and make something with the animal theme. This cute cat really spoke to me. In the PNG file the cat was grey, but it was easy to make him a ginger cat when cutting the parts with my Silhouette. Of course I had to use him with a photo of Teddy. This photo was taken short after Teddy came to my home.

After the challenge expired I decided it wasn’t quite finnished yet, so I added some extra details until I was satisfied.

Some days I just made a bunch of backgrounds, that I could work on later. At this poing another project started: recycled coasters. I’ll come back to this in a later blogpost as there is a secret mission with these. Here’s a peek at some of these backgrounds.

 

On Pinterest I collect quotes that appeal to me for whatever reason. I mostly save those I think will come in handy when I’m looking for words to add to my art journal pages. A lot of them are quite sarcastic. It’s my kind of humor. I think they go perfectly together with those women I got in a digital kit by Tumble Fish Studios.

There’s a page about Teddy’s Easter shoot. On this page I used the most adorable easter washi tape by Hema (Dutch brand) and an image by Miss Kate Cuttables.

Sometimes I just go through my stash with ephemera and use what appeals to me. Like this image transfer of a foal that I did years ago as a first try before doing an image transfer on a large page. It was in my stash all these years and now I found a good place for it.

With my new stencil by Dina Wakley I created this background.

And it resulted in this page. The colours may look different, but that’s because I took the first photo in the light of a lamp. The stamp is of the Scribble Girlies set by Dina Wakley. You’d think I get sponsored, but nope, I’m just in love with her gorgeous creations and a big fan of her art. Her books are really amazing, wheather you’re new to art journaling and mixed media or have been doing it for years.

Alright. Well, I’m going to finish this post now. Otherwise there’ll be too much graphics which will make the page slow to load and we don’t want that to happen. I have plenty more to share and am making new stuff on a daily base, so don’t forget to subscribe as a follower to this page or to check and see if there’s any new stuff up. Like always, I’m giving a shout out on my social media when a new page is up, but I’m very much aware that not everyone gets to see my new messages due to Facebooks ever anoying algorythms.

As I’m finishing this writing, Teddy is getting very impatient. It’s an hour past his feeding time and he’s making clear he’s very hungry. Depeninding on what part of the world you’re in, have a great day or goodnight (it’s goodnight at my part of the world).

Much love!

Sketch A Day

Practice makes perfect, or so they say. I’m not too sure about the perfect part of this saying, but one thing’s for sure: practice makes better! If you want to learn something, you need to practice on a regularly basis. So when I saw the #sketchaday event on Instagram, I thought it would be great to join to see if I could make this into a daily routine. My goal was not to finish a sketch or drawing every day, but to sketch something, anything, everyday for at least 10 minutes. It’s been a fantastic experience and I love it so much. Because of the 10 minute time limit, I don’t have to feel guilty if 10 minutes is all I manage to force myself to work in my sketchbook. And even the sketchbook isn’t a necessity. One day I just grabbed a piece of paper from my art trolly (you know, the fabulous Raskog one by Ikea). I needed something for my art journal and started a sketch of a squirrel on a piece of scrap paper. I’ll add a short video of the finished art journal spread in this post too.

This art practice is so easy to fit in your daily schedule. You only need paper, a pencil and for your convenience an eraser. So, when I had an appointment for a full checkup on my wheelchair, I took the essentials with me and made this sketch of an alpaca. Or is it a lama. I always find it hard to tell the difference.

This is the squirrel I made for my art journal.

 

Like I mentioned before, I didn’t intend to finish a sketch every day. This cute little fox baby was done in two days. I had to find some YouTube tutorials on how to draw fur. Once you know the trick, it’s actually not that hard at all. I’m very pleased with the end result.

 

This polar bear cub was also done in two days. I love how his expression changed once I added more details. It was quite a challenge to add the texture of the fur, but still give the bear a white appearance

 

The inspiration for this hedgehog mum and baby came from a periscope of someone showing her pet hedgie. I’m totally in love and want a hedgehog for as a pet myself now. I’m realistic though, so I’ll just keep drooling over these cute pictures and videos I see on the internet. My cat isn’t even an adult yet and I’m very happy to have him in my life and take good care of him. The spines on these hedgies may look difficult, but they are just a bunch of V shapes. What I also love about those two photos next to eachother, is how you can see the difference between the first raw lines and the final drawing. Every piece of art has it’s ugly stage and you just have to keep going to make it look better. When I’m drawing sketches, the ugly stage is right at the start and when I see what’s on my paper, I’d rather tear it out of my sketchbook, because how could I ever make that into something not ugly? But as you can see, I kept going, adding details and texture and in the end it’s not that bad at all. And even if the end result isn't what you desire, it’ll still be useful as you always learn from the things you practiced.

And there she is. I really love this hype of making beautiful faces. And as the incredibly talented Dina Wakley says, if you want to learn to draw faces, just go for it. Draw or paint a face for 100 days and you’ll see the amazing improvement between your first face and your 100th. For now, my faces are quite okay. They’re not perfect, but I kind of like them. The real struggle starts when I want to add hair to my girls. I ruin every face sketch as soon as I give her hair. It’s very clear what I need to focus to get better, but I really don’t want to keep drawing nice faces and then ruining them every time. So I thought of a solution. I’ll make a sheet on my computer with just six times this face, print out a bunch of those sheets so I can focus on practicing the hair.

Here’s a short video to show you the spread in my Gelli Printed art journal on which I used the squirrel sketch.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ve already started a new sketch, starring my darling red furr ball, also known as Teddy. So make sure to follow me or check this blog regularly. I always announce a new blogpost on Instagram and Facebook, but that last one doesn’t like me a lot, because it’s algorithm makes my post disappear for most of my FB friends. Instagram is way more reliable. And of course there’s also the following option from Blogger, which you can find in the side bar. Have a great weekend and don’t forget to make some art or anything creative. It’s good for your mind, body and soul!

New Beginnings – An Art Journal Page – Happy New Year

First of all, I’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year. May it be a good one for you and your loved ones and may it be filled with fun, joy, health and happiness!! If you have a creative spirit like me, I hope this year will be filled with creativity and you’ll improve your skills and keep enjoying the process of creating!



Finally I can show you a page I’ve been working on first half of December. It was part of a secret surprise project, we made with a bunch of women for someone that has been given a lot to us these past six years, but now decided to stop her business and spend more time with her family. About fourty women made a page on a A5 sized piece of paper/cardstock and one lady put the hole bunch together and made it into a great gift box.

I’ve shared some sneak peaks on social media, because I did want to share what I had been working on, but still needed to prevent the surprise from being spoiled. I think she must have seen all the pages by now, since she received the present last Friday, so I think it’s safe to share my page now.

Because of the sneak peaks, I’ve made quite some detail shots of the page. I’m happy I got those shots so I can show you all the details on this page. Many layers of yumminess. I tried some new techniques, new bought products and worked on it for several days, because I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to make and there was a deadline, so I just needed to start. And you know what, often that’s the best approach, just starting and looking what next to add when the page evolves. And as the great Dina Wakley always says: “it’s just paper and they’ll have more of it!”

This is the first detailed photo I shared on social media. Don’t you just love all that texture! I started by making marks into the wet gesso with the back of a brush. It was quite a thick coat, so I left it to dry overnight. The next day I added some pretty shades of blue with a babywipe. I did some background stamping, some reversed stencilling (Dina Wakley inspired), I stencilled some white paint through a piece of punchinella. I stamped some stars which I bought at Hema (Dutch store) in a pack of Christmas stamps and embossed them with golden Wow embossing powder. I now know why they called their brand “Wow”, because that was exactly what I said when I melted the powder. I added splatters of golden ink by Winsor and Newton and some black splatters with Liquitex acrylic ink.

Another detail shot. I found a quote about new beginnings using Google and typed the text on my vintage typewriter. It was such a lucky find! It only cost me 17 euros. A year later I saw those new vintage like typewriters by We Are Memorykeepers being sold for 200 dollars! So, please first visit some thrift stores or something like that, because those oldies really just work fine and you can still buy the ink ribbons online. They were made back in the days where manufacturers thought their products should last forever. I traced the outside of the cut out text with a black Micron pen. With a black Fudeball pen, I wrote down the text “Here’s to new beginnings” at the side of the collaged woman.

As you can see in this photo, I did some collage with bookpaper and a piece of Gelli printed paper, which I ran through my sewing machine before adhering it to the page. I added a piece of washi tape to make the figurine stand on something and wrote a quote under the washi tape saying “the best is yet to come”.

And finally, here’s the whole page! To make the page more personal, I decided to use a photo of her. I turned her into a smashing looking royal lady. The body parts are from a digital collection kit by Tumble Fish Studios. I doodled on it for some extra texture, because it was looking too flat without the decoration. The white marks are done with a Signo Uniball Broad (the best white pen you can get!) and the other colours are done with my Molotov markers.

Stay tuned, because I have a lot more in store to share with you, as I’ve been very busy during December and I have photos of my projects and adventures to show you!

Pink Floyd and Queen – Top 2000 Blog Party

There we go. This is my last blogpost for 2016. Outside there’s already quite some fireworks and my Teddy, my eight month cat, has reached the point where he doesn’t like the banging anymore. He’s hiding under my bed or under the couch. Poor little thing. It will get so much louder than this.

With the last day of the year, we have also come to the last day of the Top 2000 series on the radio and thus this is also the final day of Marit’s Top 2000 Blog Party. A little sad on one side, but on the other side, I’ve been so bussy those last couple of months, it would be good for body and mind to take it a little slower. Although I had planned to make a December Memories Album (in stead of a December Daily, which I tried two times and failed both years). I have taken tons of photos, but I haven’t touched my scrapbook supplies at all yet. And I know if I don’t start it soon, it will be another December soon and another project failed. So, maybe january will be for massive photo editing, so I can have all the pictures printed.

Back to the Top 2000 Blog Party. I had a lot of trouble finding a song that I could work out into an art piece. These top of the list songs are all very beautiful and a lot about love and life. Not the topics that I find easy to translate into image. Finally I made my choice for Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. I carved a diamond stamp and with that I, at least, managed to carve one stamp for the #carvedecember event on Instagram. The picture doesn’t show it very well, but the blue paint on the diamond has real sparkles, just like the blue washi tape and the golden harlequin shapes I added with a stencil by The Crafters Workshop.

20: Shine On You Crazy Diamond – Pink Floyd (31st December 2016, 9:45 PM)

 

And this one, you might have seen before, if you are a regular visitor of my blog. I made this about a year ago, but never submitted it for the Top 2000 Blog Party, so I thought I might as well add it now. The background was made following the techniques in Kate Crane’s DVD’s. The collage elements are from Tumble Fish Studios.

171: The Show Must Go On – Queen (31st December 2016, 7:30 AM)

 

 

I’m going to wish you a splendid New Year’s Eve (if you haven’t already entered 2017) and have a happy, healthy and artful 2017!!!!