Over challenged

I needed a break because of too many challenges at the same time. I didn’t even finish Inktober, my computer crashed without saying bye. Still not sure if all data can be recovered.

But I did complete my personal artistic challenge!

It was the second year of the challenge, from birthday to birthday. One topic every week regardless of the amount of work or health status. I’m afraid some of the images show a lack of inspiration or mood to paint the subject of the challenge. Or exhaustion due to several other challenges on daily basis – painting forest in March and April, and Inktober recently.

I will try to focus more on quality instead of quantity next year.  

Thanks for watching my gallery!

Hugs and love,

Ivana

window

plant

food

winter

document

butterfly

lantern

temple

chariot

monster

forest

mosaic

suit

spring

night

heart

connection

market man

fragility

wasteland

sportsman

boat

fable

book

summer

hood

independence

collage

ornament

ear

postcard

stairs

insect

fountain

pearl

city

castaway

figure

battle

family

container

harvest

thief

rain

autumn

mask

laziness

mushroom

nymph

vegetables

fear

shield

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Anniversary

Two years ago in March, covid-19 came to our country, the first restrictions appeared and then the total lockdown. No one had enough experience, but good enough information was rolling everywhere. At this point, I decided to start with watercolor.

As I have mentioned several times, I have held a mental block to wet techniques since childhood. But fighting this fear was easier than dealing with upcoming pandemic or better to say with scary scenario, served by TV 24/7. So I bought watercolor paints and paper and dived into tutorials. Which really helped, because I discovered a new world.

I didn’t stop living my life except the ongoing restrictions. But somewhere inside me a flame of passion began to burn, and it burns there up to this day.

My painting success is floating up and down, I am still trying to learn new skills and have more practice. Sometimes I push it too hard, but painting is still a great pleasure for me.

I would like to thank all of you, because your encouraging support helps me to overcome weak points. You deserve to know about that anniversary. Thanks for being with me on the watercolor road!

Hugs and love,

Ivana

My watercolor set of March, 2020.

Paint a monster

Many artists paint monsters – many kinds of them, so the monster became a part of my artistic challenge too. It should be easy – paint what you want, no stress with the right proportions, it is a monster!

I was looking forward to discipline with no limits, asking my inner child for help. But either I don’t have enough fantasies or the monsters belong to the list, which is better for me to avoid. My monsters are not scary at all. Maybe bored, maybe cute, maybe a little upset. But not scary.

In fact, I don’t like scary pictures, I don’t watch scary movies, I don’t read books with monsters and a lot of blood. I don’t like violence in any form. Until I tried to paint a monster, I didn’t realize how deeply pacifism is a part of my nature. From this point of view I am happy for my naive monsters and art in general.

Have you ever wondered how your nature shapes the choice of topics, techniques, styles? It is not only skills but also our inner essence which define the art. It sounds clear but I should repeat it often for myself to stay who I am. Your comments help me too.

Enjoy the so called monsters!

Hugs and love,

Ivana

Power of the heart

Many of us have experienced a broken heart, perhaps more than once. But how to heal it? Most common answer is that time heals. Agree, but on which basis?

According to my understanding, the heart is endless source of love that springs even from a broken or injured piece. I perceive love as the emotional equivalent of blood. That’s why everyone is capable to love, without exception, without excuses.

And it is love that nourishes and heals the emotional part of ourselves, just like the blood nourishes and heals our body. Time helps, but the most important is to let the heart work and love, even for the smallest things in the world. The more love you exhale, the healthier your heart is.

People often confuse broken hearts and injured ego, which is a completely different thing. Unfortunately the ego doesn’t have a self-healing capability. The ego is more self-pitying and self-destructive. It remembers old pains and wrongs well, as if patiently waiting for a cosmic apology or satisfaction.

I believe, that we don’t become bitter because of a broken heart, but because of an injured ego that refuses to let go and forgive.

I decided to send a bunch of love into my ego today, so it would not feel rejected or unwanted. Also, a big bunch of love to all of you, my readers!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Ivana

Milestones and goals

Most people analyze the previous year and set up goals when the New Year is coming. I tried to illustrate both, remembering a game I played with myself years ago.

Like the medieval knights had a shield with the insignia of their family, I drew the shield that best characterized me at that moment. Great time to use secret symbols or color language, great time to simplify even deep thoughts, great time to combine art and fun. Have you ever tried to make up your personal shield?

I love when my right hemisphere activates while I draw, and then comes totally different kind of thoughts. That’s why I don’t have a plan in advance, I gradually draw what comes to mind and where there is still a space left on the paper. At least when I’m trying to draw messages from the inner self.

I used the same process for the Milestones 2021 and the Goals 2022 shields. Maybe they look ridiculous, but I precisely know what each part means. This time I don’t only share my art with you, but my heart.

With love, Ivana

Wrapped well

Thank you for all the encouragement! It made me hungry to paint another topic from my 52 challenges earlier.

And because Christmas is just around the corner, I chose the topic “ribbon”. I got the result after about five hours, as I had never painted any ribbon before. That’s why it became part of my challenge 🙂

Hope you will like the gift, hidden inside. Let your imagination fly and leave me a comment on what you see under the ribbon.

With love and hugs,

Ivana

Greenery

I’m not a big fan of Christmas madness but I like greenery in all its forms. And today’s walk brought me the inspiration of a green wreath.

OK, I added little decorations when Christmas is around the corner 🙂

To be honest, this is only the second attempt to paint a wreath in my life. Maybe that’s why the wreath belongs to the items I included into my personal art challenge. Did I tell you about it?

Recently I had a birthday (happy Scorpio) and I gave myself the artistic challenge as a gift. Actually, I was inspired by the Inktober event, held annually on the DeviantArt platform.

In the original version, only ink is used, and one specific theme is announced for each day of October. My version has softer rules, but is designed for the whole year. Until next birthday.

I put down 52 creative challenges that can be processed by any technique in any order. But in the spirit of one topic per week in the hope that regular exercise will improve my so called artistic skills.

So far I have painted 3 topics on t-shirts, and I chose the wreath for this week. Simple watercolor, but I enjoyed the painting. I’m happy to see movement inside, or am I wrong?

And I’m double happy to share my little greenery with you. Hopefully it brings a smile to your face.

Love, Ivana

I became a deviant!

I have to repeat it again, because I cannot believe it. I have always considered myself as a decent woman with the only deviation – love for nature and herbs. So how did it happen to become a real deviant?

Long ago, I began to think about placing my drawings in a suitable part of cyberspace. Just to have them together and perhaps to get encouragement when I need it. And maybe my drawings could provide good mood to someone else who needs a bit of optimism.

I have checked various platforms and something kept me coming back to the server that my mind aversively refused. I would call my drawings naive, childish, non-educated, too colorful, but deviant?

I fought a long inner battle with labeling and prejudice, trying to find another alternative all the time. But the group of deviants attracted me beyond my control, so I gave up last week and became one of them. Still I cannot used to hear someone called me a deviant and my drawings deviations, but I work on it.

I slowly orient myself in a new environment and re-discover the old truth that every environment is like a pot of soup. You will find nice pieces of vegetable or meat, but also a lot of dirty water. It is  up to you what to join. And I hope to be a carrot there 😊

Although I add my pictures to the gallery slowly and you probably have seen many of them already, I would like to invite you to my small deviant exhibition here.

Thanks for coming!

Ivana

Sitting in darkness

The wind storm came last night suddenly, shortly announced by lightning and rain. After a few minutes the electricity supply went off, so the options what to do became limited. No light, no tea or coffee, no internet and unfortunately the low battery level on my mobile at that moment.

What to do in the middle of darkness besides lightning candle if you have one. First, I used the rest of battery for reading e-book, hoping to get electricity soon back. But one hour later I was still in the dark, the phone completely dead.

I wasn’t sleepy at all, so I took a paper and my set of color pencils, wanting to draw an intuitive picture, a small candle next to me. I must say that was an interesting experience!

I picked up pencils blindly and had only a rough idea which color has been used. After two hours of layering colors, I had tired hand and tired mind, but still I was sitting in dark. No chance to see the result before bedtime.

Fortunately, the electric people worked overnight and the supply was restored early in the morning and life has returned to normal civilization mode, if we can call it that.

But that leads me to the question: What would you do in case of blackout, home alone? Yesterday I really suffered from lack of inspiration, please give me some tips I might use next time. Thanks a lot!

Love, Ivana