ARTastic in February ...

My goodness January has already left us and we are now in the second month of 2014.  I have a feeling this year is going to flash by us as quickly as did last year.

A small but select group of entrants last month.  Thank you to those who took time to create a page for us.  This month I would really like to see some more entries.  We offer wonderful inspiration pieces you are able to interpret in your own way with easy, straight forward criteria to follow.  Our design team is second to none in offering you amazing example layouts of their interpretations of the inspiration piece.  We have designers from all over the world on our team and we offer a variety of styles and techniques in our team pages.  We have four prizes to give away each month - one of which is entirely random so anyone has a chance of winning.  We put up our new challenge promptly on the 1st of every month and we announce our winners as promptly on the 15th of each and every month and I have to say the track record for many other challenges sites doing the same is not great.  So please support our efforts to bring you a quality challenge blog.

This month we feature ... 

Joshua Miels with Pretender

Criteria - paint and ink

Joshua Miels is a contemporary portrait artist who looks to capture the vulnerability of people and the emotions that people try to hind from others. Spending countless hours adding layer upon layer of paint Joshua produces artworks that are not only striking but deep and powerful. Painted with predominantly oil paint, each piece start off with a subject, but with a large amount of experimentation, each art piece has its own journey on how its get from start to finish. The Artworks challenges viewers to draw upon there own emotions and personal experiences. How each piece is interpreted differs from person to person, there is no right or wrong way to interprets these artworks.

http://joshuamiels.com

and the amazing work from the first half of the ARTastic team ...

DEB

I've “repainted” the brickwork on the patterned paper, stippled paint through a template on the background and painted the chipboard piece.  Also stamped randomly over the background and inked the edge of the photo and layout.

DEBI

This was a fantastic inspiration! But then again I find each months art work so exciting...fun to get stuck into!

Fantastic painting by Joshua Miels, but for some reason I don't like the name of this piece 'Pretender'...but that is art, different concepts for different people.

I choose to absolutely go to town with my mixed media background, using lots of stencils, paints & mists to work with this fantastic photo of my son.

ELAINE

I've used texture paint and ink for the love hearts and used the colours from the inspiration painting. 

JULIE

I found the inclusion of black in the inspiration piece to be interesting. I have been exploring again ways to create random coloured papers.  Of course the wonderful colour of our Frangipani was the starting point.

HELENE

 I used watercolors, Neo Color II and Ink.

Loved the challenge! :)


MAJA

Criteria this month was Ink! So for me it was splashes and drops. I have used
coffee, Distress Stains, India Ink and a couple of stamps to make my background. 

Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry with the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on February 28th, 2014. We'd love to see your paper, digital, or off the page submissions.  Please no back-dated submissions.  You may combine with a sketch and/or colour/technique challenge.  

Please pop back on the 8th for The ARTastic 3T's - Tips, Tricks and Techniques brought to you this month  by the delightful Tone-Lill.  You will love what she has done to inspire you.