Yup, I'm sure there are a lot of you who are or have gone through breakups. And it is not easy which I'm sure you are aware. Along with all the other projects, I'm also working on an ibook devotional for girls on the topic of heartbreak and dealing with breakups. It is going to be geared towards high school to college age. I am very excited about it.

I really feel like this is something God wants me to create. When we were given the assignment, I remembered my friend created a devo for the project and I thought that would be awesome to do. And the topic of it just instantly popped in my head. Breakups. I prayed that if this is something that God wants me to do then please guide me through the whole project. When I began the layout of what to include in it things were just coming to my mind so easily. I really believe that God was guiding me through the whole thing.

 I am going through a breakup right now and I've had my ups and downs...And I am still trying to move forward. Creating this devo is almost like therapy for me. When I created the thumbnails for the devo I just sat back and thought about how God really does care about me and how much his love is relentless and consistent. 

Today, as I was drawing the final pencils, I was looking at the cover I was creating and I just felt at peace. The day before and this morning I was feeling sad and upset because I was thinking about my past relationship that ended seven months ago. But after I finished the cover I just thought about the image and I just felt at peace. 
 

The hands are suppose to be God's hands. Inside his cupped hands is a little broken heart that was once broken but is now bandaged so it can heal. What better place to heal a broken heart then in the hands of God? 

I just thought to myself, as I struggled earlier this morning to focus, God really has my heart in his hands. He is taking care of me and he knows my heartbreak. And it's only through God that I am able to be healed. It made me think about how God has been placing people in my life that have been such an encouragement and a blessing through it all. And after that moment of thought, I felt so much better. 

And this song has been giving me so much peace. Or I should say...God has been reminding me of his perfect peace through this song 

Hey People! So, if you haven't gone to Artprize in Grand Rapids, there is still time! Its open for one more week. I just got back after a two day expedition and it was spectacular. I've talked with some great artists, seen some amazing work, and got inspired. There was a lot of paintings that were pretty boss, let me tell ya, but there was one that I really liked.   

This painting is titled: "All Things Possible" You can't tell in this picture but there are little eye holes scattered in different places. And you can look through them and see little sketches or words. I can't remember what they said which would be nice to put on this blog so you can enjoy this painting even more but sadly I can not and this sentence is really long and is probably a big ugly run-one sentence. (don't kill me English majors). Anyways, I just love how magical, whimsical, and imaginative this painting is. You can read more about it here. 

So there are many other pieces I would love to talk about but that would make this a really long post...I rather ya'll go check it out yourself. Maybe not in person but on the Artprize webpage. 

Also, I came across this entry and thought it looked like me. What do you think? (the piece is titled: "Tilley Face" see it here

ahhhhh camp memories. I am so excited to be painting something that from a little piece of me. I've worked for two years at Center Lake Bible Camp and it has been a blessing to work there. I've met some great people there who love the Lord and I love being a counselor. Being with children 24/7 can be a little wild but totally worth it. Kids are so much fun and full of energy. 

If you have seen my process work for camp memories you have seen my fat elephant about to do a belly flop in the lake above a little duck. This is suppose to illustrate the rule of having a buddy when swimming at camp. So the elephant and the duck are buddies. Though you are not suppose to jump on your buddy, it is just a fun little illustration that has a lot energy and humor. Well...I think it's pretty humorous.

So I haven't started the final painting. I am creating quite the collection of practice work for this project. Still trying to figure out watercolor paints and how they work. As you can see, I already have four different "paintings" going on. So it's been slow but once I get all the problems out, it will be smooth sailing on the final painting. 

Sailing. That sounds like a lot of fun. 

So I think the title is going to be Buddy Check! Or...Swimming with a Buddy. I can't help but think of Heavyweights, with Ben Stiller, when Larz is explaining the buddy system. BUDDDYYYYYYYYY! 

Keep a look out for the final! I hope to get it down in a couple weeks...maybes.

Okay so let me tell you about my editorial project on sleep trouble. We have to create an illustration for an article about the sleep number bed and how many people have trouble sleeping and people who sleep on awful mattresses. I am painting it in watercolor and I was off to a great start. I have the drawing on the watercolor paper which is smooth and not as thick as most watercolor paper. Tuck that fact in the back of your mind that the paper was not thick...

So I started the illustration by brushing on a watercolor masking fluid. The masking fluid is for masking areas that you want to remain white. After its dry, you take a rubber cement pad and rub off the the masking fluid after its dry. I used it before early this week and had no problems. So I brushed it on my illustration and let it dry. 

After it dried I painted the table, curtains, lamp, dresser, and picture frames. and then used a hair dryer to make the paint dry faster. Hair dryers are so so helpful! Once that dried I painted a blue wash over the whole thing. The masking fluid did its job by resisting all the paint that was brushed on. 

So everything was going well until...I decided to remove the mask. *sigh* So I took the rubber cement pad and began to rub it away and when I started to peal it away, the masking fluid took the top layer of the paper with it!! I felt my eyes grow wide and my jaw just fall as I just watched myself destroy my painting...It was like trying to peal a Band-aid that didn't want to come off...

This is what it looked like:

See all the little bits of paper?! I can't paint over that because it will look like garbage. And I did try to paint over it and it looked like, well, garbage. So...I had to start alllllllllllllll over from the beginning. But the good news is that I think its looking a lot better the second time around. I just decided to paint all around the spots I wanted to remain white which is a pain in the butt.

I looked on the back of the bottle of the masking fluid and its not for thin paper...lesson learned. You can see all my process work for this project here

Okay so coffee is for drinking. I drink it pretty often. I recently drank Michigan Cherry coffee...soooooo good! And it smells amazing. And if you don't already have a Keurig you should invest in one. It makes drinking coffee so much easier! Let me tell ya.

Anyways thats not what this post is about. What I really want to talk about is my coffee painting experience. Have you ever painted with coffee? I found out that I really like how it looks on paper. And the smell makes it so much more enjoyable to paint with. Let me explain my set up: I used a pad of watercolor paper to paint on. I went to Hobby Lobby and got a little cheap pad. A watercolor paint brush that is a size 4 or 6 round. And two cups. One filled with soaked coffee grounds and the other with brewed coffee. I lied, three cups. The third is filled with water. 

So I did some research on painting with coffee. I found out that the longer the grounds soak, the darker the coffee paint will be. Thats about how much research I did and it all I remember right now. haha So I just went at it. It was really my own experiment. 

I started with a pencil sketch. Then I dipped my paintbrush in the brewed coffee. This is after it cooled btw. And then I just painted where I wanted color. It dried very light. So I just layered it up. And where I wanted spots to be dark I used the soaked coffee grounds that had a little water in it. I basically painted as if I was using watercolor paints. And then I added detail with a waterproof ink pen. 

I wanted also to experiment with using coffee filters. A Keurig doesn't have these...so I went and bought some, obviously. haha. I soaked some of them in brewed coffee but it didn't absorb much color...I think I need to break out the old reliable coffee maker and brew the coffee through the filters. 

This is how my first one turned out

So not to bad...? Yeah? So I've learned a lot from this experience with coffee. I like how it looks on paper. It almost looks like brown watercolor, I know, but painting with coffee is a little different. Its much thinner for sure. And another thing I learned is, if you are drinking coffee while painting with coffee, try not to get your drinking cup and your painting cup mixed up. =]

If you want to see my other coffee illustrations click here!

If you are up for trying something new in the joy of painting category, try this! 

I am currently at school trying to get this website up and running. I am currently working on watercolor projects and I am pretty excited. Pictures to come! So keep a look out. I am going to try my best to take process photos of my projects and tell you all the problems I am facing and how I want to pull my hair out and run my hands over with a lawn mower! (okay so I'm not that dramatic) Right now I am just getting a little frustrated at my watercolor practice. I think all I need to do is work on better watercolor paper...then my small problems will be solved. 

Like I said I have some projects that I am going to be working on and I'm excited! I've been experimenting with painting with coffee. mmmmmmmmm it smells so good! So it's really nice to paint with because of that but still trying to figure out a technique. I also want to try my hand at paper cut-outs. I love the look and I hope to create some awesome pieces.

I'm just going to end this blog because I don't know what else to tell ya

Well, let me just let you know a few things about myself:

1. I say awesome and cute more than necessary

2. I put the word "pretty" before a lot of words that really don't need it

3. Don't ask me how to spell something because I most likely won't know how to spell it

4. Nothing can make me smile more than a good pun or joke (okay there are more things that make me smile then just those things..)

5. And if you see me and say "Hello" to me It will always make my day. If you just walk by and try not to make eye contact with me I will feel sad. Say hello! =D