Going Tonal

I'm so excited, I have just started an art journalling e-course found on A Beautiful Mess. It's full of 52 different challenges, with 52 suggestions of prompts to use and you just work your way through at your own pace. It's nice to do something creative again I used to do a lot of stuff when I was a teenager but over the years life has got in the way and I seem to have lost some of my creative flair. 

So far I have only done one challenge which was to go tonal, pick a colour just 1 and work with whatever you had in that colour. (I obviously picked orange). Now I can't say I'm overly chuffed with how it turned out, but it's a start, and do you know what, for the hour and a half that I was doing it I completely lost myself. The time flew by and when I had finished I felt quite content, it really was quite therapeutic. 

Whether I make it to the end or not remains to be seen, I don't seem to be very good at seeing things through. But I may share a few pages in the future if I'm particularly happy with them.

Are you like me in a bit of a creativity funk? Give the course a go it's good fun.

Brighton Tattoo Convention

This weekend we did something a bit different, we took a trip to Brighton to attend their annual Tattoo convention. 

Brighton Tattoo Convention

It was held at the Hilton hotel in Brighton, and was jam packed full of artists doing their thing. The loud buzz of the tattoo guns was overpowering as you walked in, with two floors full with artists from all over the world.

Our only complaint would be that there seemed to be a lot of people doing the same thing, I understand that the traditional Sailor Jerry style is very much in fashion at the moment and so where the money is,  but it would have been nice to see a bit more variety.

By Paco at Gilded Cage Tattoo

One stand that did impress was Gilded Cage Tattoo a lot of the designs were so intricate and detailed. I fell in love with the above print and had to have it for our home. There was actually a girl getting this tattooed on her leg while we were there, beautiful.

I was even more surprised to find out that they are actually based in Brighton, think a visit may be on the cards in the not too distant future...

We picked up a few other business cards too, saw some friends who were manning the Sailor Jerry stand, and Alexis Camburn from Holy Cow Tattoo she was engrossed in her work so didn't get to say Hi. Overall it was a great day and I'm really glad we went, not sure we'll be there next year but you never know.