Dreamy Girls Eyes

I am taking an online class over at Doll Dreams and this is my practice sheet of eyes. I think I am getting the hang of things. I really am loving the slope of these eyes and watching her video tutorials are rather helpful, especially when she starts to paint her dreamy dolls. I really love the lashes she creates on her gals too.

Have a wonderful day and blessings to you.

Emotion Series

"Fear"


"Take Captive My Thoughts"


"Who Am I"


"Depression"


"Fearfully and Wonderfully"


"Worry"


This summer pages have been coming out of me one after another after another and they are all regarding emotions. As you read in my last post I am creating pages with images that go with emotions that go with scripture that describe what I was feeling with each one either with image or word. They will all go into one book eventually.

I hope it is nice where you are, I understand Hurricane Irene has come and gone but I do not know the damage that has been done. I pray that it is minimal and that everyone is okay. Hugs and many blessings to you all for your day.

Why Worry?

I am a self-taught artist and I am teaching myself how to use watercolors at the moment. I am also taking an online class of how to draw these 'dreamy dolls' (just at the beginning stage of that one so more to come later).
I think I am self-taught mainly because I am stubborn and impatient and fear I will lose my creativity if someone teaches me how to do something the 'right' way. Do any of you feel that way? But on the other hand I lack the basic knowledge of certain things like how to mix colors and what to use with what to make such and such flow nicely. I easily get frustrated and much of it is of my own making.
I have the desire to learn more but the lack of time right now I guess. I have heard that when you are 65 you can go to University for free ~ maybe I will go then:)

No, just kidding. I will learn and take classes when the opportunity presents itself.

I really enjoy some of the online classes because I can use what I am comfortable with and skip what I know I will not use (for example, if something is not my style)or go back to certain things and view the video tutorials over and over again until I get them right! They are wonderful tools and in this instance I am thankful for current technology that makes things like this available ~ as for the rest I will not admit anything further:)

Today's piece of art is called "Why worry?" I am trying to teach myself how to draw different emotions for the sake of expressing the emotions I went through in my depression and placing them with the scripture that I turned to during that time. Emotions are difficult to capture actually, I tend to make everything look really sad whenever I try to capture a particular emotion. I will research it further.
This was done on watercolor paper with watercolor crayons.

I Pray that your brand new week will be a very blessed one! See the sunshine for what it is, God's light shining over you!

Hugs and blessings Dear Friends.

Hmmm... I have a problem

My very troubling problem is that I do not like this piece of art!

It was supposed to look more like my first one...



The problem is that a friend of mine was moving away and I wanted to give her something of mine ~ so I gave her my first circle mosaic. (FIRST PROBLEM)What I didn't do was check with my hubby first~ um...ya... little-did-I-know that this was my hubby's favorite piece of my art work! Why didn't he say so before now? I guess he didn't think I would ever give it away!

Anyway, to make a long story short I decided I would make him another one! (SECOND PROBLEM) I soon discovered that a lot of work went into said first piece and I did not have enough stamina to create an exact replica, nor did I have the same color of papers. Sooooooo... instead I grabbed a whole new set of colors and went to work... which leaves me with the (BIGGEST PROBLEM), both hubbub and I do not like the finished product! Yikes-a-doodle! Now what am I going to do? I didn't choose the correct coloring of papers for this mosaic, it just doesn't sit well with me. I am thinking I need to start over and work at it a little bit at a time? What do you think???? Back to the drawing board I'm thinkin!

Hugs and blessings to you - HAPPY FRIDAY!

By the way... here's the piece for Madelyn all framed-up!

I Have To Share A Beautiful Site With You

Copyright Valerie Sjodin 2011

I have just come across a beautiful blog called Visual Blessings by Valerie Sjodin
and I had to share it because it spoke so deeply to my heart. She is one gifted lady and you will be very blessed by her work.

Here is her blog entry for this piece:

Set Free is the second piece in the current series I'm working on. The first was posted on April 25, 2011, I Want to be a Visionary (image shown below). The inspiration for this series is taken from my journal and journey, and are for me a type of symbolic visual devotional. So I'll include here some of the Scripture that inspired the painting and my writing.
The symbolism in this painting is more straightforward. When working on the bird I read an article telling about how finches were taken from the wild because of their red plumage and captured to be sold as domestic birds. Eventually, it was found out and they were set free. So I chose red for the color of the bird wings, symbolizing us as humans who are also made to be free. The cerulean blue of the word freedom and outlining of images is to reflect the freedom and open space of the blue sky.

Psalm 124:6-8 NIV
"Praise be to the LORD…
We have escaped like a bird out of a fowler's snare;
the snare has been broken,
and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the LORD,
the maker of heaven and earth."


"Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." - 2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV


"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free…." - Galatians 5:1 NIV


"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of the life set me free
from the law of sin and death."
Romans 8:1-2 NIV


The Spirit of truth will set you free.
from John 8:32

So go check out the rest of her beautiful work if you have time and be blessed.

Valerie Sjodin

Hugs and blessings everyone.

Madelyn ~ Take 2 - Finale

A few additions here and there. The first was the inside of the lower left flower. Madelyn's Mama told me the meaning of her name... Faithful Follower of Christ (Girl of God) and Wellspring of Life, so I finished the flower with these words over and over again in the circle.




The second thing I added is a third bird. Angie from AZ's comment was that the top left hand corner looked a little bare and I fully agreed. She suggested adding a third bird so I drew it out and right away saw the space fill in perfectly. I was having a hard time with the white space in the picture as I do not usually have white space but fill in every little space of white! So this was new to me in a lot of ways.



And this is the final page complete with extra bird. I really enjoyed creating this extra girlie page for baby Madelyn, she is just over 18months old I think. I think she will like the Princesses dresses and the blue birds the best!

Thank you to all of you who left me such wonderful, helpful and fun comments ~ I appreciate them so much and I am truly greatful to have such wonderful women in my life to help my creativity and inspiration - YOU ARE AWESOME!

I pray for many blessings for the rest of your week.

Hugs

For Madelyn ~ Need Feedback Please

Hello everyone. I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend.

I have a little request... would anyone like to give me a little feedback?

I am creating a picture for my friends daughter Madelyn, her bedroom is pink/brown and white. I created the picture with those colors in mind. What I am wondering is... do you think it's finished or is there still something needed in the background. I didn't want to make it too busy~busy, but not too bare either. Do you have any suggestions for me?

I would so much appreciate any feedback. Thanks so much all you lovely blogger friends of mine. Blessings to you for your brand new week!

Mystery Revealed

I was reading through Colossians this week and I came to the verse 1:26 "... the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations but is now disclosed to his saints."

I pondered this for awhile and suddenly this beautiful vision came into my mind of the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. I thought about the three as one, separate but overlapping each other... I thought about them as a tree (as I often do) branching out over the world, the symbol of "Fishers of Men" holding them together, or binding them together because God sent His Son to the world to save the world. The heart around the world showing His great love for us. This page came together so quickly and I received such peace from meditating on this scripture.

The most beautiful thing in this world is the fact of how great, how deep, how wide and how long is the Father's love for us.

I pray that you are all having a very blessed week.

Much love and blessings to you all.

Fearfully and Wonderfully

I hope you are all having as wonderful of summer as we are here in Calgary, Alberta. It has been beautiful, sunny and hot with the occasional thunder/rainstorm now and again. We spent all Saturday at a lake not too far away as my boys experienced Banana Boating (basically a banana-shaped inflatable device towed behind a boat) and Chariot racing (which is basically the same thing but the kids kneel and hold on for dear life!) It was an awesome experience for them and for us as we were able to spend time with the youth group and some parents.

Today I am having a very quiet day and was able to get out some watercolor crayons and watercolor pencil crayons for this piece I call "Fearfully and Wonderfully".

Here's to a good night sleep and fabulous new week to everyone in blogland.
Hugs and many blessings.

Look Inside

My mind has been consumed with healing art journaling and the journey I took to healing from depression and many other things. Many memories are coming forward allowing me to process them and get them out onto the page. This page came forward when I began to think about the emptiness, desperation and loneliness of depression. I felt like I was invisible, someone without meaning or purpose. I felt lost and useless. My friends saw who I was on the outside not realizing that the real me was trapped inside unable to get out.
This has given me a whole new perspective on depression and the people who suffer with and through it. So much desperation and pain... so very sad.

I am so thankful that God healed me of my depression and continues to heal me as I work through some of the remnant of lost emotions that went with that period of my life.

Many hugs and many blessings to all of you.

Introducing Debbie Horton from the AKOA Blog Hop

Hello everyone. I hope you are all having an amazing summer. I thought I would share with you one of the artists from the AKOA blog hop, I haven't done this in awhile. As I was browsing through I was at #527 Debbie Horton of Cherry Hill Studios and found the above Art Journal Page. Isn't it gorgeous? If you go to her blog you can read all about it! She says this is her FIRST art journal page ~ WOW! I can only imagine how beautiful her next ones will be!

So just a short little post to say - "Hey, I hope you are having a wonderful Summer!"

Many Hugs and many blessings to all of you lovelies!

PS... just a note regarding the AKOA blog hop ~ I am cleaning house on some of the blogs that are no longer available so your number may be changing - HUGS!

Who Am I?

Have you ever wondered, 'Who Am I?' I have many times. I remember as a teenager I would stare in the mirror looking deep into my eyes hoping to see a glimpse of my soul ~ I hated my teenage years. No matter how hard I stared I could never see that person inside of me. Years later when I came back to Christ I finally understood who I was supposed to be, not someone pretending to be someone else... but God revealed to me His idea of who I should be. He showed me who I am in His eyes and it was beautiful. If you are in Christ you are guaranteed many things; forgiveness of your sins, acceptance and adoption into the family of God, eternal life with the Father, you become a child of God, one of His Saints. Isn't that a beautiful picture? It blows me away sometimes. We are the "Bride of Christ" and one day we will be presented to the Father as holy and blameless in His sight. This page reflects just a few of the benefits of being in Christ Jesus. To understand more look up John 3:16 and you will understand. We are His beloved. Oh what a glorious thing that is!

Happy week to you, may it be full of the Lord's blessings.