"Don't Be Unhappy, Kind Friend!"

Today I just have a quick little post to share with you my latest art journal page where I created this lovely lady. I love this girls expression and the story she holds just behind those eyes. The caption that I added from book words reads "Don't be unhappy, kind friend!"

This painting started off on one of those art journal pages that I had started but had then lost interest or inspiration. You know those pages, the ones you promise to revisit another day but usually don't? Well today I did. It was all messy with paint and stencils so I added a little bit of the yellow paint you can see. I then cut out the girl's face from my sketch book and added her to the background. I have a new nightly ritual now of sketching a few different faces in a little sketch book usually using simple materials like pencil and charcoal while watching tv or whatever - it is obviously turning out to be a very useful exercise!
Using acrylic paint and other materials, I blended the girl into the page and then went ahead and completed the painting. I also used watercolours and oil pastels to shadow, highlight and contour her face.
I added the little heart above her head from paper I created using a alcohol ink marbling   technique which I will be sharing either on the blog or on my Youtube channel soon.
Here are some of the products I used on this painting:

KOI WATERCOLOR POCKET SET/24 Drafting, Engineering, Art (General Catalog)	Ranger Ink Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink Brights Singles: Sunset Orange	Ranger Ink Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink Earthtones Singles: Red Pepper
Cretacolor 3 Assorted Compressed Charcoal	Brand New Liquitex Marker Set 6/Pkg-Fine Tips	Sennelier Oil Pastel Prussian Green
DecoArt Americana Acrylic Paint, 2-Ounce, Primary Red	Daler-Rowney System 3 Acrylic Colour titanium white 75 ml [PACK OF 3 ]	DecoArt Crafter's Acrylic Paint, 2-Ounce, Dark Turquoise
Folk Art 521 2-Ounce Acrylic Paint, Lemon Yellow	Stencil 6X6 Bricks	DecoArt Americana Acrylic Paint, 2-Ounce, Spice Pink
Sennelier Oil Pastel Cerulean Blue	DecoArt 2-Ounce Orange Spice Gloss Crafter's Acrylic Paint

Let me know what you think. Or if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment :)

Happy Thursday!

Ciara x

Some Of My Favourite Art Supplies

I don't always use the same art supplies for every painting. I usually go through phases of being obsessed with certain supplies for a period of time and then I try out new ones and get addicted to using those ones.... I'm very fickle aren't I? 

Here are some of the art supplies I currently adore using....

From top to bottom, left to right

• Neocolour 11 (amazing used with or without water)
• System 3 Heavy Body Acrylic (especially in Titanium White + Fluorescent Orange)
• Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Artist Ink (great for adding splatter + drips to a painting)
• Conté Pierre Noire Pencils + Blending Stumps (Charcoal is great for drawing outlines + adding detail)
• Oil Pastels (Faber Castell are so creamy + highly pigmented)
• Ink Sprays (Adirondack + Dylusions are my personal favourites at the moment)
• Stencils and Stamps (I choose Crafter's Workshop but I also enjoy making my own)

What are your favourite art supplies? Are you currently using any of the same? 

Ciara

xoxo