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This was an experiment. I was feeling relatively blocked and unmotivated when, in ceramics class, one of my tutors -- knowing me quite well by now (have I mentioned the amazing tutors we have at my course at Banbury College yet?) -- brandished a paintbrush and a set of watercolour underglaze for ceramics. Seriously? Wow, why hadn't anyone shown me these before? So I played around with them on a tile I'd made of paper clay. I'm not all that happy with the end result but loved the process and am planning on making and painting more, with relish.

I shall have to consider adding some of these to my own private stash of paints. Meanwhile have a fantastic week. Cheers.

New projects, a new blog, and back to College I go tomorrow for a new year. The exciting news? I have a whole year in which to work on illustrating for children, and it's all been accepted as part of my work for the course this year, so there's a lot of fun waiting to be had. Just pop over to my new site for a look and follow me there! Just click here: Mariana Black Illustration.

I've been working towards this dream for years now, so it's truly wonderful to be sharing this news for you. A lot of visualization and a lot of hard work ... and the possibilities are unlimited. Dream big. Cheers.

Yes, I've been busy. Finishing up with final projects of course, and then setting up for our exhibition at We’re Here Now - Banbury Creative Arts Show 2015, over at Castle Quay Centre. Read more about it at my Floating Lemons Art blog.

We also held a preview evening that went extremely well - with wonderful art by my very talented classmates, plus summery drinks and goodie bags ...

For a glimpse of some of the work on show, head over to my college Floating Lemons Art Blog. Here's my final triptych piece titled "A Matter of Identity", and under it is a detail from the centre panel:

First time I've ever been involved in an exhibition so I've learned tons, and had much fun while I was at it. If you're anywhere in the area and are considering popping by, please do! Just click here for more information about the show: We’re Here Now - Banbury Creative Arts Show 2015.

Have a fantastically creative week. Cheers.

I'm back from a last-minute holiday, jetlag, and then general panic as I try to catch up on my artwork for college. So here's a peek at what I've been working on, just a couple of the many ideas and sketches that I've been scribbling out so that I have a better idea of what my final project will be. Which is due far too soon for my liking ...

The bird probably won't make it to the final piece, but the drippy dots might, in a slightly different form. I'm very tempted to place them, as is, on some clothing over at my PAOM store though ... if I have the time. Will keep you posted.

Have a fantastic week. Cheers.

It's been a hugely busy month, and I'm trying to keep up with everything. So here's another little glimpse at what I've been doing at college ... loads of experimenting in my sketchbook. Here are a few pages where I'm playing around with watercolour and masking tape, working on different ways of perceiving self-identity, for my neuroscience project:

Striving for a loose, fragmented background to reflect the loss of memory and lack of self-identity experienced in the short story/case study that I've decided to illustrate. Still a long way to go, I'm afraid. But it's a great feeling just trying out different ways of expressing disconnections.

Meanwhile we've begun learning to print on textiles and I'm having a wonderful time mark-making and printing onto calico ... I started off tentatively, using fabric inks and oil pastels:

After which I got into the swing of things and enjoyed myself:

Everything I'm doing recently is just so different from anything I've done before that I love it. Not that it's either better or worse, it's a learning process and that's exactly what I needed to do, learn and add some depth to my own creative perception. It feels absolutely right.

Wishing you a wonderfully creative week. Cheers.

It's the holidays! I hope you're all having a fantastic time with friends and family. I've taken a couple of days off after finishing up projects for this first term, but now I'm back to work. College has been wonderful ... so far it has been a huge, rewarding, re-learning curve, and I'm still digesting the feast of new creative ideas that I've been fed.

One of them was learning how to rubber stamp. I'm pretty hooked, and am contemplating getting my own carving bits and pieces so that I can experiment further at home. Here, though, is what I managed to get done in class using mini erasers:

And here's a look at one of my college projects. Definitely out of my comfort zone, and I'm a bit uncomfortable with the end result, but love the fact that I'm doing something so new to me. Eventually things will come together, I'm sure. Meanwhile ...

I was given 3 words: shoes, woven and dissect, and after much research, hair-pulling, distracting red herrings, and tons of experimentation -- all loads of fun -- this is what I came up with. Very childish and simplistic I know, but there are a lot of layers and depths hidden behind this sweet creation, so I'm more than happy with it. It's a good start ...

Enjoy the holidays! Cheers.

I've been busy. I've even gone on a couple of short trips recently, to get things in order and to meet up with family. So I'm a bit behind ... the slow internet connection doesn't help much but it seems to be behaving today, so am taking advantage and posting a few more pages from the sketchbook ...

This (very sketchy) illustration was based on Aesop's Fable, The Crow and the Pitcher. The crow is standing on a little booklet that tells you the story but if you'd like to read one of the (many) versions online, you can find it here.

And here are some 3D pieces I've worked on, a woven case for the ketupat (Malaysian rice is cooked in this for festive ocassions, read more here), and some metal-work that I thoroughly enjoyed. Might make a pendant out of one -- or all -- of those.

Yes, the theme for the moment is shoes. Well, sort of. More on that later. Meanwhile, have a fantastic week.

I'll be posting the final "I Choose" free printable next Saturday, and that will be available (along with the previous 11 from 2014) till the end of December to all subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter. After which it will be gone, and I'll be thinking up something new for you for 2015. If you'd like to sign up for the newsletter and the free printables, just click here.

This is one of the projects I've been working on recently, for an art college class. Yes, birds and mail art. Wonderful. Loads of cutting, slicing, collaging, and then drawing and painting, was done. I ended up with a couple of options to work on, and liked them both but ended up picking this one below for the final review.

I went through a bit of exploration and research and managed to develop quite a fascination with ravens, sifting through poems such as Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven', folklore, fairy-tales, fables--almost picked Aesop's The Crow and the Pitcher--so it isn't too surprising that I went with this pair in the end ... In Norse mythology, Huginn (from Old Norse "thought") and Muninn (Old Norse "memory" or "mind") are a pair of ravens that fly all over the world of Midgard, and bring information and news back to the god Odin. Flying messengers. Perfect.

I've depicted them as a white and black raven, and addressed the envelope to them. Their names are written in ancient Nordic runes just above their respective beaks. Yes, there's a message inside as well, written on rice paper 'parchment'. Private, of course. Let's hope that the envelope will eventually be returned to sender (me!) with a postal mark to show that it's been in the system. Here's a glimpse of the bit of mess I made while researching and working on the project ...

Here's the back of the envelope with a depiction of the Nordic mythical Tree of Life, Yggdrasil ...

The ravens and the tree were paper cuttings (my sketch book suffered somewhat) that I painted (watercolour for the birds and some marker pen on the tree) and collaged onto the envelope. On the front I'd also glued crosswords (to symbolize thought, naturally) onto the original white envelope, and then placed a thin sheet of rice paper over the whole thing so that it looked like parchment, slightly aged. I quite like the result, what do you think?

The other attempt at mail art was slightly a different one: I made an envelope from black paper and then cut straight into it, collaging and shading only the white bird on the front. Then I placed white paper inside the envelope so that it showed through the snipped out leaves, flowers and insects.

Simple, but I think it's quite cute. The back is a more abstract representation of a (meaner) raven and its wings, can you see it?

I did like this black and white bit of mail art, but once I'd begun on the research for the winged messengers of Odin, I fell in love with them and that was pretty much that. I think I made the right choice picking them as my final piece, what do you think? There are infinite possibilities for both options though, and I may end up using them somehow on cards and other goodies, so keep an eye out for them up at the Floating Lemons shops in the near future ...

Meanwhile, I wish you a fantastic week. Cheers.