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It’s good to be a beginner

 

I am continuing the slow process of learning to express myself in 2d…..through pencil, ink, paint. I want to combine it with journaling (in the ‘art journal’ journaling sense) but right now I’m just smack dab stuck in a ‘face’ obsession.

I can’t seem to stop…I started with the girl and cat a month or so ago and since then this is what followed (in part…)

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The last one is on a post it note at work!!  That is how much I can’t stop – even on less than a 5 minute break at work — I’m sketching a face, or a part of a face. Playing with proportions and shading and style.  I sketch at night if I’m watching tv…. it’s really interesting to be learning something new again. Being a beginner is SO GOOD for creative growth!

SO far I’ve just been making it up as I go along, but I did try one sketch from a photo…not as much fun. I did just find some youtubers who share their processes of sketching faces so I’ll be tuning into those for a while and then hopefully bringing it back around to painting/mixed media.

I’ve also gotten some time at the bench recently which is nice – especially since I have a show coming up on the 5th of December – come out to the Creative Alliance in Baltimore for Merry Mart if you’re in the area!

I may have some big (and I mean BIG) life changes coming up…can’t really share just yet as nothing is set in stone yet —  but my ability to be creative and blog etc may be cut to almost nothing so I’m going to try to do as much as I can while I can!

 

Pursuing creativity

Living a more creative life

Part of my ‘tagline’ or motto recently has been about living a more creative life. Now that’s a very broad statement really – it means more than just the ‘arts’ – it includes things like problem solving and organization and household stuff. It’s really all encompassing and I’ll share more of that in another post but right now I wanted to share a rather literal outcome of this creative life philosophy.

I treated myself to an online class.

I’ve never taken an online class or purchased an online tutorial so this was totally new for me! AND, it’s not metals related! It’s painting with a little mixed media thrown in there. And its WATERCOLOR. (!!)  I’ve dabbled in acrylics and I like to do a lot of abstract work. This is so far from that. This is literal. And it’s WATERCOLOR. Yikes!  Watercolors have always seemed very mysterious to me. And they don’t exactly mix on the paper like other paints do. But I was intrigued and I felt the NEED to do something a little different. To stretch a part of my creative side that I wasn’t tapping into.

And here’s how unaware I am.

I signed up without ever giving a thought to WHAT we would be painting. I mean, yes, I saw the class samples but it didn’t dawn on me that I was going to have to DRAW. Say whaaaaaaaat?  Silly me, I hadn’t even thought of that part!!  There are 6 lessons (I think) with each lesson having several hours of teaching divided into several videos. And they ALL have an animal or person or both.

And you have to draw/sketch the layout first.

And did I mention that it’s WATERCOLOR! ?

Oh my stinking heck what did I sign up for??

Deep breath.

Everyone does the same subject – first up, a cat and a girl.

GULP.

here we go.
learn to paint

  I have to say, following along with the video this was relatively easy and I am really pretty surprised with how well this turned out!!

The cat looks like a cat and the girl looks human – I’m impressed!!!

Of course we were all allowed creative license so there are some differences in style of hair or shirt and whatnot AND, not all of us have the same supplies as the instructor – so that really comes into play when you start adding color.

I have VERY limited watercolors. Only a few colors and not at all the same palette as the instructor so I was really intimidated to move forward from the sketch. In my head I knew I didn’t care if the colors weren’t the same, but I got really psyched out thinking about how it would affect the shading and depth etc. and even though the sketch isn’t anything spectacular – I liked it.

I didn’t want to ruin it.

and I was afraid I would.

There, I said it.

Afraid.

Fear.

I was letting FEAR get in my way.

I had to remind myself of something I posted quite a while back on Instagram:

fear

So I put on my big girl panties and I painted.

I tried hard to follow along, to wait for the instructions, but I did find I was moving ahead, anticipating…wanting to fill in here and there. I learned I need to wait. There is an order to things, espeically with my supplies – for instance my black ink pen is not waterproof. OOPS.

So first there is color added. And I was kind of disappointed, because it looked so FLAT.

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But then the next stage was adding details and shading with an ink pen and  some fluff here and there and more background texture.

and wow, ok, I’m officially impressed. Not with myself, but with the instruction that led me to THIS.

This was meant to be a little more fantastical then mine came out. . . I am struggling with my inner voice that leans towards realism even though I love abstract. This was just a little confusing to my brain. And I know it may look like a 5 year old did it – but I’m happy.

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I may never be skilled in this area but it uses a different part of my brain and even just being a rank beginner in a virtual room full of more experienced artists – it’s really good for me!!  I have taken a huge step back in so many areas of my life over the past year and a half and this fits right in with that, I get to sit back and be taught. I get to learn with no pressure, no expectations. I don’t have to lead or moderate or worry about anything other than my own little self.

And I’m SO looking forward to starting lesson 2 !

What about you? Have you ever tried your hand at painting?

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Art Journal? Do you?

 

Well, now I do!   🙂

Art Journaling - Beginner

I have just purchased my first art journal !

Somehow I’ve picked up the bug of Art Journaling. I ran across a video of someone creating a ‘mixed media’ journal page or piece of artwork about a year ago. It really piqued my interest and I was amazed by her talent. And she made it look soooooooooo easy! And it wasn’t mixed media like I thought of it – it was different than what I thought of – and I like it (a lot!)

However, I didn’t pursue it at that time, in fact, I forgot all about it.

More recently though I bumped into some other videos and blogs about ‘art journaling’ – mixed media – and again – so intrigued!

So what exactly is goes in an Art Journal?

Well, it seems it can be many different things. It can be a journal of artwork – a premade empty book that one fills. Or it can be a binding of pages that you make. It can be an actual ‘journal’ of sorts meaning you fill it with art that follows what is going on in your life, events, feelings, etc. You can write in it. Or not. Or it can just be randon artwork.

Art Journaling, Mixed Media

Mixed media can range from paint and markers to markers and crayons and paint to paper, glue, paint, fabric…..you can draw, paint, stamp, glue, cut, spray, drip, etc etc. I think what I am learning is that there are no rules.

That can be altogether freeing and terrifying!  (blank page phobia meet too many options freakout)

the only real ‘rules’ that I am trying to understand aren’t really rules – it’s more like properties. What mixes with what, what can you layer without smearing/sealing, what turns to mud while others don’t mix, what can act as a resist, etc . And then, how to use all of that, not to avoid necessarily, but also to create…to blend or fade or resist completely.

I’ve only competed a couple of pages and they weren’t themed going in, they just kind of evolved. And I’m OBVIOUSLY still learning, but I’m pretty happy with the outcome so far.  My plan is to begin doing some pages based on quotes and maybe also start a book that incorporates actual journaling ala Aaron at ImperfectImpulses.

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Each of these ‘layouts’ is two pages but I ran the work sort of across the page and in the photo you can hardly tell that it’s two pages. 🙂

The book itself is fairly small – maybe 5×7 when closed.  . . . ?  I’ll show the outside in a later post.

So tell me – are you into art journaling? Mixed media artwork?  Let me know, I’d love to see what you’re doing!

Fun for Father’s Day and more!

I ran across this cool little item a while back and put it on my Amazon wishlist.
When I needed to order a few things the other day, I popped this little cutey into my cart. 🙂
I love a tool that does double duty and this little Xyron sticker maker has such potential, it was a great score at just 8 bucks !
This cool little tool takes your item – a drawing, cut out, picture, and turns it into a sticker.
You feed your item in one end….

 

Pull it out the other end

 

 Lift to tear it off on the serrated edge
 Then rub to ‘set’ the glue

 

 Cut and peel off the top plastic

 

 

 

And you are left with a STICKER!

 

 

Peel off the sticker whenever you’re ready to use it

 

 

And they stick pretty good!

 

 

 

you can’t go wider than the opening, but you can go smaller

 

 

Hello little cutie-pie!

 

 

 And you can go lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnger.

 

Now, these examples aren’t exciting.

Not at all.

But think of what you can do –  food labels, stickers for your kids, stickers OF your kids – stickers for DAD on Father’s day – drawings the kids make, turned sticker would be a great gift for him!  or for Grandma, or yourself. Or your kids can make stickers to decorate their notebooks or laptops.

I can use it in my studio – for labels on packaging, to thank you stickers, or as a piercing guide.

I am sure I will come up with other uses too…..what about you – what can you think of???