Watercolor Practice

A few years ago, I wanted to learn Sumi painting, because I want to try EVERYTHING to do with art, so I ordered a small set of 12 Sumi watercolor pan set, a brush and ink set, and a book. It was before we all had home computers. 😊 I never mastered Sumi painting, but I enjoyed trying!

Anyway, I've used up most of the pans water coloring in my art journals, and I love them. Despite my having several watercolor sets/tubes, these are my favorites, so I broke down the other day and ordered this set of Kuretake 36 watercolor pans. It's a different brand from my small set, but still sumi paints. The pans, which can also be bought individually to replace empty ones, are smaller, and the larger box palette is kind of awkward (I could hold the smaller one in one hand), but I like the colors, and the pans can be lifted out of the box, so that's a plus. They also come in larger and smaller sets.

So far, I've only used them in a mixed media sketchbook with a round water brush to make a color chart and a couple of quick sketches from imagination (below), but I like the way they handle. 

I sketched them in with a black gel pen and let it dry first, and have since lightened th sun on the last one. Looking forward to playing more with them!

There are so many awesome artistic things to learn and do online, and I love so many of them. I can't choose just one long enough to master it, so I just play in all media! Nothing wrong with that, is there? 😊

Don't stop experimenting, learning, and having fun with whatever brings you creative joy!

Weekend Gelli Print Fun

I was in Gelli plate printing heaven over the weekend! Multiple layers of acrylics on different papers! :)

Practice Sketches-Women and Birds

Still can't get back into painting and still haven't cleaned off my workspace so I can paint when I can get back into it! In the meantime I've managed to do some sketching every now and then. These are the last ones I did a few days ago.

Quirky doodle sketch that took a few days to find these images amongst the water soluble pencil marks,  softened with a water brush...

then in photo editing I added a sepia filter and I liked it!

I had been wanting to try pausing an image on our large screen TV and doing a sketch for a while, but hubby is usually watching it. The other day he was outside for a bit, so I found an image in an old movie and tried doing a quick sketch of her. Next best thing to sketching from life! I meant to do a contour drawing of her, but it didn't quite turn out that way. Not a great job, but I like her!

These two sketches are actually the same character from a different movie. I love cloaks with hoods, so I quickly sketched her, hood down and hood up, before hubby came back in. I loved the practice!

Hope you are all having a safe and happy Labor Day! Let's keep practicing our creative skills and doing things that feed our souls and make them happy! 

Playing Around With A New Blog Design

I can't seem to come up with a design that I'm happy with.  I'm trying to get a header picture sized to where it doesn't take a long time to download for you guys. Still not happy with the design, but I need to stop and catch up on some other stuff for now. 👵

I'm in a bit of a painting/creating slump again, I'm afraid. I have three class project paintings in progress, plus some non-painting projects that need finishing. I need to finish going through my mom's things, and so many other things that need doing, and I can't want to do them. Plus, my work space is so piled up again that I have no room to work, and I dread trying to clean it up and re-organize. It's necessary though, as soon as I get some energy from somewhere. 💪

See! I'm not even joking! This is too cluttered to work, even for me! YIKES!!!

Hope we all have a wonderfully creative weekend! 💖

PYH&S 2018 Class 26 Lucy Brydon-Creative Collage- "Cooter"

This was a fun mixed media painting inspired by Lucy Brydon's class in Paint Your Heart and Soul 2018 (link on sidebar). It's painted in my mixed media sketchbook/journal, but now I wish I had painted it on canvas. :/

Lucy painted an owl, but I decided to use an original photo of the billy goat we used to own, named Cooter. He had an awesome personality and made us laugh all the time. It broke our hearts to have to let him, as well as all of our other livestock, go. But we hear that he's happy where he is, in a field full of nanny goats!

The steps I have gone through on this piece are not necessarily those of the teacher! For instance, citra solve was not involved in her lesson at all!

I used original gelli prints, torn up, to collage on the background with gel medium, and I also covered the top with clear gel medium, which was a mistake, because it kept the next layer of paint from absorbing into the papers.

I put 4 different colored glazes, drips, and runs on plus a layer of thin white gesso. I then wiped most of the gesso off and sketched Cooter over with a blue charcoal pencil.

The background was painted in with blue and greenish acrylics, although the green isn't showing up too much in the photo.

Face and black fur were added. 

The background needed something else, so I layed a stencil of grapes over it and used Citra solve on a baby wipe to remove the paint, leaving the collage showing. Also, I took some of the paint back off the body, face and horns of Cooter with the Citra solve, and worked more on his black fur and features, then used a ribbon to stencil tiny bluish squares on his body to lighten up.

I added an ultramarine blue glaze over shadowed fur, a magenta glaze over grapes, a hooker green glaze over leaves, and a burnt umber glaze over the shadow on the horns.

I added some lighter colors to the white fur and horns, purple to the grapes, and worked on his face more. I used some colored pencils on a few parts.

After some overall adjustment, I sprayed him with fixative and called him finished! I wound up covering up more of the collage, especially on his body, than I meant to, but the technique was fun, and I will definitely try another one!

Cooter has gotten more likes, loves, and comments than anything I've ever painted and shared, which makes me feel really happy! I hope you enjoy him too! :)

Original Greeting Cards with Gelli Print Beginnings

These mixed media cards started off as gelli plate prints made with open acrylic paints. I started them last year, but got sidetracked and left them to percolate. Last week, I decided to finish them in mixed media.

I used a piece of rubber backing to make the texture over the print on this one, then a grape stencil over that, which I used acrylic paints to fill in. I didn't like those grapes, so I used iridescent acrylic inks to paint over that. Liking the card much better!

The buildings were the 2nd pulled gelli print on this one. I used an original cut stencil to make them. Last week, I added the red watercolor background, with a smattering of salt, and sun, added doors with a black gel pen, and windows with a ribbon full of little square holes. There are whole little worlds going on behind those closed doors if you look hard enough! :)

The same stencil was used on this card for the first pull, but I accidentally printed it upside down, which made the card open wrong, so what did I do? I turned it into a window tapestry by adding a blue watercolor sky and metallic gold stitching and tassels. Again, with a little imagination, there are different worlds thriving in each section!

I sprayed them all with clear sealer and called them done!

I have a few more that I gelli printed and worked on, but I haven't decided how to fix them yet. Stay tuned!

Feather Journal Pages (altered book)-Keep Looking Up

I did another spread in my altered book journal trying to get back into painting and working on my classes.

I love these eyes that I found in a magazine, so I tore them out and adhered them to the gessoed pages in my book and let dry.

I used indigo to paint the whole background, and before it was dry, I spritzed it with water, causing it to run and removing some of the paint. I was experimenting, and was going to add some other paint and marks, but I liked this, so I left it.

The writing and white dots were added with a Posca white paint marker. Not happy with the writing, but it is what it is. There was a natural diagonal line across the eye on the right side, so I added a black line with a Posca marker, which I hated, so I covered it with starry indigo washi tape, which I liked much better. There is also a vague number 3, which is my favorite number, next to the diagonal.

After it dried, I put a light coat of cold wax on it, let it dry, then buffed it to keep the pages from sticking together.

Keep looking up, despite the chaos and darkness that may be going on around you!