Monday, December 22, 2014

A sip of espresso + why I believe in angels



Yesterday I was out downtown and we thought we could have a cappuccino. We got out and it was pretty amazing for December: 8-9C' and almost a clear, blue sky. Of course, if you ask me, that's not normal and something 's  going on, but that's another story.


As we were hitting the coffee shop , I thought to change cappuccino and try an espresso instead. I knew it was stronger, and although diluted with water, it was still strong, but very tasty. I drank about half of the cup, while my husband was having a cappuccino. We hit back our home and I didn't felt the espresso effects until very late in the night: I wasn't feeling agitated in any way, but hour after hour have passed until I noticed it's 4:52AM! While still having an hour of sleep between midnight and 1 o'clock, at 5:50 I've manage to fall asleep again, this time thinking in my mind that I'm going to sleep until 9 AM...at least.


But no. At 6:40AM I woke up again, this time feeling more agitated than before. I already knew the reason for not being able to sleep, but I was totally blown by the fact that my pulse was slightly accelerated after abruptly waking up, as if I was having a nightmare. I know what I was dreaming, and it wasn't something scary. I then remembered that I recently {like yesterday!} saw a tv show where they were talking about angels and how angels can help us. (If you read my Romanian blog, you probably know that recently I've painted an angel in my art journal).
In the tv show, one of the people invited in the show was talking about connecting with our angels. He said that each and everyone of us have an guardian angel and we should first try to connect to our angel instead of praying directly to God. Not that praying to God is something wrong, but angels can bring our souls closer to the divine understanding.


I put my hands closer and begin to talk to my angel. It didn't last long, because my throat was hurting, so I decided to "speak" with my thoughts. I continued talking to my angel and asking to show me what is to be done in this situation, how can I calm my pulse and get rid of the  bacterial infection I believe is causing my pain in the throat, and in less than 10 minutes my pulse went down to normal and I felt so relaxed. Of course, I set myself to relax my muscles and my whole body. Of course, you may say it's a coincidence , and that you don't believe in angels. That is totally up to you. But I know that with angels or without angels, we can control the body processes, like body temperature, pulse and getting rid of light headaches. I know that because I did it only by thinking I am doing this and my body reacted accordingly to what my mind dictated. If you don't believe that, then look for the book "Mind over body" and you will see what the recent discoveries are saying. Oh, and by the way, the book was written by a Ph. Doctor in medicine.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Planning the magical 2015



As I said before, I don't make plans. At least, not BIG plans. But from time to time, especially at the end of the year (or the beginning of it, how you want to put it), I love to take some time to think ahead of what could be happening in the year to come. As you can see in the short {Instagram} video above, 2014 has been a wonderful year. Now let's take a look forward into 2015.

Aside from wanting to be healthy {an important wish, though, that many forget about}, on my wish list there are several goals I want to accomplish in 2015. The list is not long at all, but this are very dear wishes.

On the top of the list is ...learning a new language. If you know me, the Linguist inside is screaming for more languages all the time. This year I'm all about German, a language that I don't understand almost at all and that was spoken by my gran-granmother and grand-granfather. So it is something coming from my family origins. Also, my husband is speaking pretty well the language and understands it even better, so I want to be able to at least understand it and be able to have a conversation in German.

Next on my list would be rearranging my working space. I need more room for my crafts and art supplies and I'm going to do something about it. I need a new sideboard and new shelves for storage.

Third, I want to take more time to create ART and posting about it. It/s pretty hard to find time to make art, and sometimes seems impossible to write about it, even if at the moment I take step-by-step photos with the process of creating a page or another.

What are your resolutions for 2015?

Friday, December 19, 2014

No Christmas Tree This Year



The end of 2014 is just around the corner, and we are getting ready to finish our projects the best way we can, while having some time to think and consider the year that have passed by. Making plans for the next year was never my thing, I usually don't make BIG plans. I know they can change in a blink and I run the risk to be disappointed. Instead of that, I like to make plans as I go, according to the situation.

This year, for the very first time in a life time, we decided it's time to make a change. We don't welcome a Christmas tree in our living room anymore. The main reason is that we want to make our friends aware that our resources are not unlimited at all. Earth as we know it will soon change for ever. I don't want to seem cynical or hypocrite. I know that we are far from recycling the way we should to make a difference, but that is precisely the reason I want to start with this little step. I see cut trees all over the place, in all markets and at the hypermarkets entrances. They are cutting so much for the profit, without thinking that one day there will be nothing left. And we keep hearing this every year, but we never take measures. We say - if the trees are already cut, why not buy?

And there is another problem: Many families with children taught them that Christmas means having a Christmas tree, how to change that? Well, when very little, children don't know what a Christmas tree really is. My niece, who's only 5 months old, doesn't know it for sure. When children are growing a little bit, they can be explained why there shouldn't be a Christmas tree in the house.

But where all this Christmas tree tradition? After all, Christmas trees were not so popular until 1848 when Queen Victoria convinced her husband to have a Christmas tree as he had in his childhood. This tree was featured in an illustrated magazine at that time and suddenly the Christmas tree became very popular. People felt an incredible urge to copy the queen, so the demand for Christmas trees, as well as Christmas decorations grow incredible large.

I grew up having a Christmas tree every year. I can't remember not having one. But after the last two years when we had a Christmas tree in a pot {we lost one and the other is beautifully in our country yard}, this year we are going to say "No" to having a Christmas tree.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Pears and Apples - Art journal page {video}

As the fall steps in and we are getting closer and closer to Christmas, all I want is to draw and paint every golden-red leaf and red-orange-green items, like trees, pumpkins and....apples!



These days my art journal asked for watercolor play! And what better way to practice your bliss if not drawing and painting some apples?



I also did this with six pears and got the same stunning effect. You can choose whatever item you like, just start drawing and illustrate that item in as many angles as possible.


Choose something simple, so you won't have to elaborate the drawings too much.
You are going to love the result, no matter how bad or good you think the drawing has come out..



And you know why you're going to love it? Because you created the page!

To see the making of these apples, I uploaded a video on YouTube:




Enjoy!

Hasta pronto,
Cristina


Thursday, October 23, 2014

Creating with unconventional materials

For an art journal maker like I am, it's great to have all the materials you need to create at your finger. But that's not always the case, because where I live, they are hard to find.

Only in the past few months I have come to discover several online stores with art supplies that I can actually use for art journaling. Of course, I had paints and colored pencils, watercolor pencils, oil and soft pastels, etc., but so little few stamps and stencils! And when i did find some interesting stamps in physic stores, they were sooo expensive that I wonder if somebody ever buys them! Not to mention the ink pads!





Even worse when it comes to stencils. I could barely manage to find 2 or 3 a year ago at a local store when I was looking for something totally different. I'm glad that I can now say that stencils are very much getting on the shelves and many of them can serve perfect for creating art journal pages! 

But even if I have about 20 stencils or so, I always want more. And I found this sink plastic protection when I was just "browsing" a dollar store shelf. I thought I would be a great stencil and I was right! Look at the result:


Gorgeous, isn/t it?

Friday, October 3, 2014

What's on your art table?

Following the example of Roben Marie, here is what's on my table today:



I've started with a simple drawing...

Intended to use only watercolor, but I cannot help adding acrylics...

And working on the background with stencils...

Here is the final result ;) 
Her torso as well as the other page will serve as space for journaling!


See you soon!



Thursday, October 2, 2014

21 SECRETS is up and running

One of my quick watercolor faces I did in my mini-art journal ;) 



Yesterday I unwrapped 21 Secrets e-book and watched some of the videos! My first pick? Dion Dior! She is a great artist and the videos are so much worth every penny!

I was familiar with many of the techniques presented there, but viewing those only made me want to paint more and reinforced what I already knew deep inside: we are all unique creators, and we can unfold so beautiful to release the wonder inside each and every one of us!

I wanted to have 21 secrets FALL 2014 to learn new tips and tricks, but also to support the amazing artists and their creative flow.

Also, I would love to win a LIFE BOOK 2015 free spot because I find LIFE BOOK even more exciting!

Friday, September 26, 2014

Getting messy is great for the soul

I haven't posted around here in a while, but I was around! I did some painting and drawing and sketching! And it;s hard sometimes to balance between creating and writing. I love both, but many times I run out of time while I try to make them both.


I can't do them all AND that iS OK. One thing at a time, please :) 

Now here is my latest painting using mixed media. I wanted to create something free of any judgements and here is what I came up with. And to tell you the truth, the inner critique spoke to me at some point saying: "what's that craziness over there, girl?" But then I said: WAIT, at first it will look crazy and meaningless until it gets better and....better. And Nicer.  If I could paint like a child, I would. BUT I can paint like a child IF I let go. And I believe you can, too!

With no further introduction, here is the result. NOT final. I don't know what's missing, maybe more work on the background...who knows?! Maybe one day I'm gonna go back and add to this piece.


Friday, September 19, 2014

Life Book 2015 giveaway from Jeanne Oliver






Today another wonderful creative soul is offering a free spot in LIFE BOOK 2015. And you have a chance to win if you leave a comment at her blog right here:  http://jeanneoliverdesigns.com/blog/2014/09/19/life-book-2015-teacher-line-blog-hop-giveaway/

If you want even more chances to win, then all you have to do is to share the link above on Facebook and Pinterest to get extra chances! Isn't that fabulous?!

Are you still here?

Get your buns on Jeanne's blog to enter the giveaway!




Drawing and painting on the go

On my way back home from a fantastic September vacation, I had my mini sketchbook in my purse, so it was easy to surrender to the urge of drawing something. SO I grabbed my pen and sketchbook and started to draw after a brochure I had picked earlier from the mall.


So I created this little black perfume bottle...


And this makeup set...
...
And kept on drawing...



And painting with watercolor...


And I love the result! I had to use a small amount of water, because the paper is not suitable for water media, but in the end I closed the notebook and pressed to flatten the pages. 



Monday, September 15, 2014

EFFY WILD LIFE BOOK 2015 GIVEAWAY!

You/re going to love this! Effywild is giving away a FREE SPOT in this LIFE BOOK 2015! 

LIFE BOOK is an online ART CLASS appreciated by so many young artists willing so learn and discover the creative muse for one year round starting January 1st, 2015!

I have never been part of it, but I would love to learn new tips and tricks from the creative souls that are teaching in this 2015 LIFE BOOK. 

http://effywild.com/2014/09/15/kermit-flail-life-book-2015-squeee/


If you want a chance to WIN a FREE SPOT, you can enter EFFYWILD Giveaway!

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

September breeze

I'm on vacation. It's a lovely September weather, and it feels like there it's June, not September. I can hear children screaming on the beach, the waves slowly hitting the shore, the sun is terribly shining on the sky, and I'm having a frappuccino in my hotel room.

It's too hot to stay on the beach, and I'm not allowed to stay in the sun when is that hot and burning. In fact, none of us should stay out in the sun at the evening hot hours, although many are looking to get as much sun as they can get, forgetting that a nice healthy tan can be achieved only at the early hours of the morning and right before the sun sets in the evening. No need to burn your skin, ladies!

On the other hand, here are some vacation photos I did till now. ;) and there are many more, but it's hard to post them from my phone! :) Enjoy!


a sketch after a photo <3 p="">

the perfect sunset ;)

an a view from the hotel room

...and me!



Saturday, August 9, 2014

Drawing Human hands

Hello dear ones!

 I've been away for quite a while now, the reason for that is called Bubblews. I've been writing and posting in there a lot. But I do know there's no place like a Personal Art Journal {Therapy} BLOG, so here I am with what I've done lately when it comes to drawing.

 I did went further with my drawing adventures and, even if I didn't take any drawing classes, my pages are really starting to look gorgeous.

Well, more or less. I have to say I'm proud of these hands of mine. Of the hand itself that did the drawing{my right hand}, and of the hands that are laying on my Art Journal pages.


This is my left hand, 15 minutes to draw it, a pleasure all the way. It is not perfect, but I have enjoyed every minute of it. 



As you can see, this one was sketched on June 20th, and it's again, my left hand from a different perspective. Being right-handed, it comes easy for me to draw my left hand....

When it comes to drawing my right hand, here begins the show! :)


It was a little bit harder to draw the right hand, because I had to leave the pencil down and look at my hand then immediately draw from my visual memory. Challenging! 

But I am really glad I did it, because look at this piece! My two hands facing one another, as if I was trying to read my palm...

PS. Using sketching pencils from Daler Rowney {set of 12 assorted pencils}


See you soon,
Cristina


Sunday, July 20, 2014

Watercolor portrait art journal project


I'm only getting started with these watercolor portra A6 art journal. I love the fluidity of the water running to the paper. It makes the think of a light summer breeze on a sunny beach. I'm not at home, but unfortunately not on a beach, and not being in my studio is the reason why I'm using watercolor: you need very little to start painting with watercolor, just the watercolor palette, a medium brush and a journal is all you need. Oh, and of course, a glass with water! 

Watercolor semi-realist portrait art journal weekend project by Cristina Parus @ creativemag.ro

Start by ading color to the sketch. This time I did the sketch before hand, and to be honest, I wasn't going to add color to it. But yesterday I thought it would be nice to try again my Car an d'ache watersoluble crayons. I only have 10 colors with me, but among them you can find the skin colors. 

Watercolor semi-realist portrait art journal weekend project by Cristina Parus @ creativemag.ro


Continue adding color until you cover the whole face, now it's time to add water....


Because this is a sketching journal, the paper is going to bend when adding water, but if you use just enough to activate the color, then you'll have no problem with it.
Below you can watch a video with {almost} all the process - but bve careful, I filmed using my smart phone, and having a camera in one hand while painting with the other aint easy at all! 


Here is the YouTube video:

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Whimsical girl with hazelnut eyes art journal page

I have to tell you I've been waiting for some time to return to soft pastels. But something wasn't quite right or I wasn't in the mood to try them again...until today when I grabbed my soft pastel Koh-i-Noor brown set of 12 soft pastels and some other nice bought in open stock and started to draw a face.

At first she was meant to be an watercolor sketch I started a week ago and didn't quite finished it. But since I wanted to play with soft pastels, I thought why not do transform this page into a gorgeous soft pastels whimsical page?


And I think the result came out pretty surprising, considering the fact that I started with a bare sketch and ended with this page!

And this time I wanted a hazelnut brown eyes girl in my journal, a different face from what I usually draw - fantastic girls with blue, green or greeny-blue eyes. I thought that if my eyes are hazel brown, why not pick this color, too?

And to make things even more interesting, I have captured her on camera! Here you can see the video on YouTube:





        Hope you like it, and if you do, please LIKE IT and SUBSCRIBE! Thank you!



See you soon,
Cristina


Thursday, July 3, 2014

Watercolor matching watermelon

Today I had my first slice of watermelon this year. It was even more delicious than I've expected! And then I remembered that I once saw some amazing art journals with watercolor illustrations of watermelon slices, and I thought, why not give it a try?


I took my Canson A5 art journal and started to sketch two slices of watermelon. I didn't work after a model, because the slice I had in front on my eyes on the table was too thin and ...didn't look that well as I wanted. The slice you see in the photo here was cut after I actually sketched the slices, just to take the photo. 


And after I sketched very lightly with a pencil the slices, I went to my favorite part: adding watercolor to it!  This is how it turned after only 10 minutes! I think anyone can draw and paint like this with a little bit of exercise. 


So what do you think? Next time when you have a slice of watermelon, why not beautifully "match" it with watercolor in your art journal?

Till next time,
Much love xx
Cristina

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Art journaling redheaded girl

Hello dear creative soul!

Earlier today I've managed to upload and publish a video on YouTube with my latest art journal creation! This time it's a semi-profile gorgeous redheaded girl that turned out so precious.


I have worked a lot on the video for this page, I guess I had 6 or 7 videos to merge and create one final file. But the result is stunning! I am very proud of it, although I haven't managed to add sound until now, the image and annotations help you follow the whole process from the start to the end of it.



I am working in my handmade art journal, just the same as I did here, made out of an old calendar paper, the one that you usually throw away at the end of the year. I had my eyes on this one, as it has thicker paper and as I thought, it proved to make a great art journal. I just have to add gesso and there we go! 


However, because one side of the paper is glossy and the other one is not that much, when you paint on the glossy side you should be careful to add an extra layer of gesso, as the colors tend to peel off the page. unlike the page linked above, this time I'e worked on the glossy side of the paper and at some point I have peeled out some color when I pressed too hard on her eyes and hair. But as you probably know, that is not a problem and the situation can be fixed with some acrylic paint. 



Now let's see the video! It speaks more than I can write about it in here. And I'm sure you're going to love it! Please LIKE IT and subscribe to my channel to follow my artful adventure!



Till next time,
Cristina xx

Friday, June 27, 2014

Tonal painting

Hey guys! How are you? I been trying to post more often here, like maybe every day, but yesterday I had a super-crazy day and all my time went in so many directions. You cannot control when your sister enters labor and you cannot control rain and not even a flood in the basement. But you can control your nerves while trying to do them all perfectly! :)



I have posted a photo with this project on Instagram, and then never said a thing about it. I know you're curious to see how that page turned out, so here is how I started.


This time, my page was blank. I was inspired by some angelical drawing and paintings I saw on YouTube and wanted to try myself and see if I can do this. In the end, the result is not as I expected, but I still love her!

This time I don't have that many photos with the process. I guess I was too absorbed into it to stop and take photos. Maybe next time, and believe me, it will be a next time! 


In no time, from those watercolor and ink splashes I ended up with this little creature on my journal page. Imagine I left my brushes and colors on the table and did my daily chore and then returned to her and started to paint again. 

But painting becomes even more beautiful when you do it between the lines, when you barely have time and there are lots of other things going on around you. Or maybe this is just me, this time I could just concentrate on this page and not thinking too much about the rest. But most of the time I love working in silence, without interruptions and all that. But who doesn't, ha? :)


Open your heart for this creature! I don't know how to call her. It has some wing, but it doesn't really looks like an angel wing, so I don't know what to say. I call it a creature, a fantastic, unreal creature of my imagination. Isn't it what we are artists do when painting? When it comes to mixed media and art journals, we create something that only exists in our imagination. 

I think this is called tonal painting, but I'm not quite sure. I just find this style very appealing. 

I did some journaling on the right side of the drawing, I felt that the page needed some explanations when I come to her later on.

Please take a moment and tell me what you think of this creature :) I would Love to hear from you!

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Turn an "old" journal page into a beautiful new one!

I know you all are anxious to see the final result of the girl I've posted the other day on Instagram. The truth is that I've been waiting to draw on that journal page, as I'm waiting to paint on the rest of the pages that are not blank. I think the color splash, stencils, stamps or just cleaning the brayer makes the page more interesting and gives depth to the drawing, painting or whatever you add on. And when you work with watercolor, the colors behind show, altering the result.

Here is the page where I started to draw some flowers with a black permanent micro pen:


And I continued with a larger flower that I didn't liked so much at first, but then it started to look amazing when I added the face:


And look at it! The page already looking pretty good, isn't it?
But wait, I had to continue adding more color until I could add water to it, so here is how I did it:


Here is when I started to really really love it! Her hair growing longer and the combination with the flower on her neck and face give her a mysterious look. And the locks of hair - just a suggestion to how her hair looks like and how long is it.



But the fun is only now about to start, because this is the moment when I added water and all the colors turned to magnificent creations! Oh, how I love these ink pencils! Inktense pencils from Derwent are delicious to try. Chocolate of art supplies or maybe a chocolate cake. But to define this drawing/painting I had to make use of my neocolor 2 watersoluble crayons for the white of the eyes...


And after more layers of color on her face, I came with this result. I'm not really sure if this is it, because her hair looks a little bit incomplete, but hey, I don't want to add too much color on her hair and make it look too busy to the eye. I shall see! But for now, I just LOVE LOVE her look! 
As I said, I've used neocolor2 for the white of the eyes, which is not really white, but a light cream called light lemon yellow. In my opinion, this color has nothing to do with what you think when reading lemon yellow, it's rather a very light cream - like vanilla white - than a lemon yellow.

Well, that's is it. I'll leave you enjoy it. 

See you soon!
Much love,
Cristina