We are staying at the Omassim Guest house in Portugal again. It’s a surf and yoga retreat on the Atlantic coast near Ericeira. We visited last year too. The day is divided into food, yoga / surfing. In the evening there is a Yin yoga session and a meditation – which I have been doing to the best of my ability with a twanged ligament in my right knee.
Omassim has lots of fab Buddha statues …..
Last night was a new moon and the yoga/ med teacher Bella did a fab meditation which ended with us all lying in a circle, thinking about light coming down from the moon into the top of our heads and lighting up our bodies.
The weather has been a bit miserable this year and I haven’t felt like making art. After the meditation I had a picture in my head of what I could do in response to the session. I only have limited art supplies so it will be a challenge.
My first go is too dark and I didn’t leave enough lightness around the moon. I also over sprayed the image with water .
I wanted to use a moon that was similar to one I remembered as a child. I found something on Pinterest
I liked the way this one showed a bit of the dark side too.
Above is my first layer. The figures look as if they are robots from a Sci-fi movie attached to a central flower/ moon – the circles on the bodies are supposed chakras with lines of energy swirling around.
I used this image as research http://michellespalding.com/following-your-souls-calling/body-filled-with-lifht-depositphotos_9140952_original/
I made three figures, a male, a thin female and a chunky female one to represent the mixed shapes of those present. I made little stencils so that I don’t have to draw them from scratch every-time. ( I might have to do a few more copies before I get it right)
In my rough – it looks a bit like a dissolving mummy (ššš) but I quite like the effect
I sprayed the first layer with water, because it’s what I am into at the moment. Hopefully it won’t all disappear . It’s got to dry over night, so we shall see. I like the way the water disrupts the lines and adds interest – the figures are still a bit robot like and don’t really fit in with the cartoon moon…….
Sometimes things just go wrong ……
I decided to go over the design in turquoise rather than black. When I started to draw the mandala design again it didn’t really show up. So I got my child’s brush pen out
Not really liking it so I sprayed it and then ran it under a tap ……
I took a print- before I washed it and smudged the moon
I quite like the print
Loosing all the details on the 2nd attempt in the process ……
I think the paper is too over worked by the pen ………
I like the effects but will need to work on these two back home with acrylic paint ššš
What have I learnt?
Fountain pens seem to damage the surface of the paper ( trying out fountain pens in an attempt to be more environmentally friendly )
Turquoise over turquoise fountain pen is not going to work if there is too much detail in the first layer
Cartoon moons and robot figures are a bit dogey
Child’s brush pens are fine if you just stick to brush pens – the colour doesn’t really go with Lamy ink
Brush pens make fab prints if you spray them
Pencil lines with cheap Argos pencil are hard to rub out
Should have brought water soluble pencil crayon
I like making mess and taking risks with my art in guest house rooms because there is – a danger that you get blue ink everywhere (ššš) luckily everything is water soluble
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