Stencil Tutorial Introduction

Hey guys! I've been wanting to start doing some tutorials a little more often around this joint, but I just seem to get so caught up in recording my new creations that I forget that you guys probably want more content than just pictures of my art. :) Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to that today, and, in fact, I couldn't do any art. I'll probably try to do a little bit later, but I don't know about that. I didn't get to go to the craft store yesterday like I had hoped, and I'm going to have to wait until Saturday I think. It feels like it's going to be taking forever, but I guess that I can wait it out. But basically this is just an introduction to my tutorial that I'm going to do for you guys ASAP. The picture above shows some of my favorite stencils with my absolute favorite on the top. It's a nice, simple flower shape, but it has practically endless possibilities. And what I like about it is that it looks cool without looking too girly. Depending on what colors you use of course. I've used pinks and purples and it does look rather girly. So I use colors to decide the theme of my page.

A good example of this would be if you look at the picture above. This is the cover page of one of my homemade magazine/catalogue journals. I think you may have seen this before, but even if you have, then you can still see a lot in it, I hope. You can see that I used the flower stencil almost right below the layer of magazine clippings. I used this with gesso, but you can also use paints, glitter sprays, spray paints, watercolors, and lots of other mediums! I'll be showing you a few different ways to do this, and we'll hopefully have a lot of fun! So continue checking in here and I'll get it up soon! See you guys tomorrow!

My Second Portrait Ever!

Okay, so I'm here with a new page. I'm trying to catch up with an online course that I'm playing around with; yesterday's prompt was to make a page that represents who you are at this moment in time. This isn't really who I am; but it's who I'd like to be. You see, I'd love to have black hair; even though my hair is already a really dark brown, I just think it'd be cool. Then the blue highlights are something that I'm considering getting. I don't know yet though. I kind of like the way my hair is now... kind of tomboyish. If I get an electric blue streak or something, I don't know if I would like it. I dunno.

Well, anyways, I really like the way that this page turned out. It's only my second portrait ever, and even though the first one turned out better, I really like this one. A lot. I love the blue color that the shirt is too. Basically I just started by sketching out a face, and then I painted it. To get the color of the skin, I lightly shaded in the face with an orange pastel, then mixed it in with white acrylic paint. There were only a few layers in the actual background, which I actually completed after the portrait was finished. I normally do a lot more layers than this, but it seemed finished quicker than normal. And that's what matters. :) I'll see you guys later!! Bye!

Creative Experiments 1.3

Well, I'm back with another creative experiments post. Yeah. I've been having a lot of fun with this series, and I intend to keep it going for a while. It seems like it's such a vast variety of things going for it, that it makes it an almost unstoppable series. So I'm back for the third time with another post about experimentation with white acrylic paint. This time I was trying to use it as a substitution for gesso (making a good base) and also as a texture paste type substance. I started with the page on the left. I just used white acrylic paint and used a brush to stroke it on very heavily. Then I used the handle of the brush to draw swirls in the paint.

I made several notes about this one. Number one being that it dried very quickly, making it very tough to draw enough texture. It just didn't work very well in my opinion. I didn't like it so well. Also, the texture was the same as paint, then the texture drawings sort of merged into each other. There wasn't that much texture after it dried. The second thing I tried was setting the white paint out for a little while (a couple of hours) and THEN painting it on in the same way. It actually had a LONGER drying time, and it kept the texture. This one I was in LOVE with.

After I'd put on the base layer/experimental layer of white acrylic paint, I decided to use red, orange, and yellow water soluble chalk pastels to make a nice background to work off of. It turned out really good. I love the way the color blend so perfectly, and the way you can totally see the texture; especially on the right side. As you can see, the left side didn't really go that well. Even after I added ONE TRANSLUCENT layer the texture started to disappear. It was disappointing, but I really like the way the right side looks. Now I know that you have to leave the white acrylic out for a couple hours. And it works just fine.

Here is a bit of a close up of the right side. You can definitely see the texture in this piece; the swirls are the parts that I scratched into the paint with the end of the paintbrush. You can see it worked just fine.

And here is the finished page. I did a TON of layers on top of it. I like the way it looks, though I may just add a bit more color in yellow or orange in pastel on top of all these layers. You know? It just feels a little dull; not very vibrant. If you look at the title, you can see the words; Feed the Flames. The journaling part says: Summer 2011; A time to experiment, create, and EXPLORE!! This was for the first prompt of a free art journaling course. You can find that here: Art Journaling Course. It's a really cool course!!

One last picture before I leave today; a close up picture of the center of the pages so you can sort of see the comparison. See the difference? I love it, even though it's just an experimental page. I hope you guys liked this post; thanks for looking!!

Collecting Collage Images

One of my favorite things to do in mixed media is sift through all of the images. I love to collect them too. They're really fun to find too. When you start mixed media, you'll find images everywhere. It's just bound to happen. This post is for those of you who are just beginning mixed media, and are trying to find pieces to use in your artwork, OR for those of you that just want to find NEW places to find images. As you advance in your artistic journey, you will start to open your eyes to the things all around you. This is just a short list of suggestions for image locations, and don't be limited to these. Here is a short list however:

• Magazines. This is the most common place that people will look for images. This is the most referred to reference, and these work well for larger, glossier photos.
• Junk Mail. This doesn't sound like a good idea, since a lot of this stuff is JUNK after all. At least that's what they'd lead you to believe. I love a lot of the images you can find in the junk catalogues.
• Catalogues. These have tons of textures and images of people in them. Amazing for mixed media.
• Online Collage Sheets. These can be free or paid for. Either way, these are excellent sources. Sometimes they have color images, and sometimes they have black and white sketches. A lot of the images shown above are from free collage sheets.
• Old books. A lot of books in general have really nice, vintage looking images in them. A lot of them are black and white.

These are all I can think of right this minute, but I hope they help you with finding some things to use in your artwork. Remember. Images are everywhere. You just have to find them.

ATC Background Tutorial

A little while back I did a tutorial on ATCs. I love to make the backgrounds a bit different on each card. These are some of my favorite backgrounds to use, and they're so simple. They only use a couple of supplies, and they're really easy to make. The photo above shows what they look like. You can make these in any colors you want, but I recommend darker, more vintage looking colors. The style of this technique just goes better with those types of colors.

These are the supplies needed for this technique. I actually designed/developed this technique in order to use up older, dried up old baby wipes. So you're going to need one of those. You'll also need an ATC blank in white, a spray bottle full of water, and ink pads in two coordinating colors. With the inks, I recommend Distress Inks, since they react with water, but if you know of another brand that does the same thing, feel free to use them. I'm using Aged Mahogany and Vintage Linen.

Here's the ATC after I've already put the lighter color (the Vintage Linen), and am starting to apply the darker mahogany color on top of it. I like to use two colors, since I think that it adds more color, texture, and dimension to the finished piece. When you apply the color, either dab the ink on, or rub it back and forth on the pad. Then rub it lightly against the paper in light circles.

Here is the ATC after both layers have been applied. You can see how on the edges it is a bit darker. I like it better that way. It seems to add dimension. I don't know about you, but I like it. You can also make it more even if you like; it doesn't matter to me. I like the look of it. :)

Spray/mist the ATC back with a bottle of water, making sure that some of the dots of water are bigger than others. Let it sit for a minute and...

Scrape or dab it off with the baby wipe. This is what the finished piece looks like! I love it!! I hope you guys try out this technique, and, if you do, feel free to post it in the comments. I'll come and visit you!

Note:: This technique can be used in any way you like; in an art journal, mixed media, ATCs, or any other thing you can think of. It doesn't matter! Just play around. That's what matters.

I hope you guys enjoyed today's post, and I'll talk to you later. Bye!

Creative Ideas 6.1

Hey all! I'm back with yet another blog post for all of you. I was thinking that maybe once or twice a month I could post on here with a few different creative ideas to use in your art. I think that it could be a cool idea, and you guys could post in the comments with your discoveries and blog posts showcasing your finds. We'll see how this goes. I think that it's a good idea, but I guess I'll never know until I try, right? So here we go. Tell me what you think.

• Make an art journal page that you stamp with acrylic paint and bubble wrap.
• Scrape some paint over a page, then let it dry. Scrape another color over top and let it dry as well. Spray with water, then after a minute or so, scrape the water off.
• Paste a bunch of different sizes and shapes of book paper all over the background of a page, then scrape paint and layer over top
• Stamp with ink on top of Mod Podge, then smudge it gently.
• Experiment with lots of layers; try collage, stamping, acrylic paint, color scraping, tissue paper, wax crayons, watercolors, water soluble pastels or crayons, etc.

Tell me what you guys think! Does this sound like something you'd like to see regularly? Or does it seem boring? Let me know!!