Have My Cake and Paint It Too...

One of my most recent journal pages started out with a sweet theme and just got sweeter from there! With cake as the subject matter... can I really go wrong?

If you know me, any form of pink and teal or blue can be a predictable starting point. This time I thought I'd add a little brown and cream for good measure (a baking reference...get it!).

I had actually painted the cake on the page before the girl was there... part of my brave new strategy of just doing something and not worrying about how it will end up in the final composition. But, I have to confess that I liked it so much, I didn't want to cover it up.

So, of course when I added the girl, she had to be eyeing up that slice of chocolate cake with strawberry frosting. Mmmmmmm. I see that little smirk on her face! She's totally thinking.... MINE!

When I create these pages, I like to alternate painting, drawing, embellishing and pasting stuff on. I kinda sorta randomly pick from my ephemera pieces that just look good on the page... like this number 5 from a flash card. I think I chose this because the nicely aged cardstock went well with the polka-dotted scrapbook page next to it. And because 5-year-olds like cake!

But then i found this cute little spanish language flash card that had a 5 on it... and so I added that to the piece as well. And I just love sounding out (say it with me now...) OO-nah moó-CHA-chah.

Even more delightfully delicious ephemera kept finding its way to my cakey journal page and this one was probably my favorite. The celebratory birthday girl and boy were precisely placed over top of the music page so that the words "be good" appeared between them.

It's funny how when I'm working on a page, it feels like I'm on auto pilot. Not in a bad way. But I just make moves and then work with what's there. Then I make more moves and add more, tweak more and play more until the layout is pleasing to the eye.

But when I look back at all my detail photos, I see dozens upon dozens of carefully calculated decisions... a warm wash of paint here... some extra glitter there... a pencil scratch here... a candy wrapper there.... or the smallest of elements that really felt good at the time. And then I remember what a joy it is to create in the moment... even though my goal is a finished page.

So I guess I can have my cake and paint it too!

Valentines: Painting My Little Heart Out!

It's funny that hearts seem to keep blooming in my artwork. Perhaps there is a little love in the air this February? Love of painting that is! I've had such a wonderful time taking Mindy Lacefield's True Free Spirit online workshop and the February project was such a blast!

Quirky Girl Collage was the theme and torn up magazine pages were the basis of this mixed media exercise.

Cute little elements added a whimsical touch, like the bunny. I tried to make him look like a little ragamuffin of a stuffed toy. Kind of floppy and cute.

Her head turned out... well... a little more gigantic than I realized (until I was finished!). But I did mention the theme was "quirky" right?

I really enjoyed the process of creating this mixed media collage... (click here for a short video)... it was fun and relaxing! Something I love about making this kind of art. Art from the heart should be fun.

True Free Spirit...

I know... I know! I keep mentioning Mindy Lacefield and her online workshops that I've been taking. But that's because PLAY is my word for 2013, and they are just so darn fun, and...  I'm "trying on" lots of new styles in an effort to discover my own. Wheeee!

I had made a practice sketch in my notebook (before putting paint to canvas), but had decided to turn her into a wood burning instead! I love burning wood and it had been awhile. So I transferred my drawing to a wood panel and started my adventure!

Mmmmmm... can you smell the burning wood? Smells just like a campfire! I was totally in my element.

The flowers came about on their own, and the stars were made with a special attachment that came with my wood burning tool. A nice balanced composition was shaping up. Now for some color.

The magic really happened as I started to paint. She began to come alive! I took my time and made a point to enjoy the process, as my perfectionist side does not like to get paint on the wood burnt outlines! So I painted slowly and methodically, choosing colors carefully.

Did someone say pink and teal?

I wanted to add details and embellish the piece and torn vintage music sheets really fit that bill. I aged it a bit using Antique Linen and Tea Dye Distress Inks.

I also added a moon using the music paper, but the print really took away from the composition. So I painted a light wash of white over top to tone it down and that made it blend in much better. A pink ribbon bow on top of her head and she was complete! I love her so much and can't stop looking at her. Creating this piece really brought out my true free spirit! Hooray!

Seeing Stars (and Rainbows, and Cupcakes)!

Still finding time to play these days and so I'm catching up on another online workshop I took with Mindy Lacefield called... Frolic! Even the name sounds delightful, doesn't it?

I'm still having a blast creating these wonderfully colorful, lusciously layered backgrounds. Rain drops seem to be a common symbol for me. Not sure why.

 Maybe because raindrops make rainbows?

And rainbows grow cupcakes (just kidding!). I just wanted to say cupcake!

But really I'm just happy to be brave enough to put paintbrush, pastel and pieces of ephemera to paper (or in this case... cardboard). Sometimes the scariest part is just to begin. Remembering how to play is hard for me at times... but frolicking sounds like so much fun!

I Love Painting... No Bull!

I've been painting a lot of backgrounds lately, being inspired by the process and just really getting into the details and having fun. Suddenly, between the pasted papers, oil pastels and brush strokes there emerged a face of sorts! And... no bull... I knew just what I was going to make of it!

Combining recent discoveries from workshops by both Mindy Lacefield and Jesse Reno — as well as my own tried and true techniques — I created this primitive yet whimsical pretty pink bovine piece.

I really enjoyed getting into the details and puzzling out how to make the painting work as a whole. I was loving the battle of chaotic elements inside and outside the figure and used different techniques to balance them out. I brought the face together with a light wash of pink. I added red to some of the feathers, but kept some of the imagery in others...

I'm very fond of that seredipitous peek-a-boo stuff! And I love all the texture that was created from the many layers beneath. Rubbing out the oil pastel outline really helps emphasize that.

The body was a little trickier. I wanted it to be pink, not just because the face was... but because it was also a nice contrast to the blues and teals of the background. But the pink looked really dull and plain. I had taken a soft shade of blue to re-paint some of the flower elements inside the bull and it gave me an idea... to fill the body with scribbles, doodles and graffiti of the same shade! I now love this technique and will definitely use it again!

The elements outside the bull were the perfect contrast and so I didn't mess with them very much. Adding a slight dark shadow around the animal was all it needed to stand out against these delicious, obnoxiously bright swirls of color!

Alternating shapes on the painting — like these squares here —really helped balance out the overall piece. I definitely have a tendency to go on and on and on with a single shape and try to break out of that habit whenever I can.

I am overly ecstatic with this piece and wish I could make another one just like it! But my process is so organic, I don't know if it would ever come out the way I intended. I guess I'll just have to play around and see if that ain't no bull!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

Since taking Mindy Lacefield's Paint Your Story workshop, I've been playing around with creating backgrounds. I've been loosening up, letting go a bit more, learning to cover my mistakes, and getting lots of do-overs! Being a "recovering perfectionist" this has been a huge leap for me, and I thought I'd take you on a little journey of what my brain thinks when I'm on such an adventure. So, here we go!

I think the house was standing out too much, having black in it... so I outlined the clouds and numbers in black oil pastel to balance it out. And, after watching a marathon of American Pickers and seeing Mike Wolfe trying out an old-timey highwheel bicycle... well, I had to add one in my painting...

Whoa! What the heck happened here? Well, the clouds were looking a little too childlike for me. Too cute, I guess. So I tried to cover them up. But they were actually created using bleeding art tissue paper (new to me too!), which — as their name suggests — bleeds through the layers and layers of paint you put over it! So first I tried scribbling in the clouds with black oil pastel, which worked. But I hated it. So I just found the darkest color I could that wasn't black, and masked out everything but the rainbow. I added stars into the new night sky. I kind of liked it.

Well, damn, if I liked it... what the hell happened now? Sheesh! I "pulled" the blue paint down into the white section that led up to the bicycle and the house. I tried to lighten the navy by overpainting some lighter blue over top. But I didn't like that and expressed my frustration across the whole sky, writing with red oil pastel! It says, "this is so hard for me. I just don't get why I'm having such a hard time making backgrounds. But I'm not giving up yet." I also changed the orange dots on the left to red, and the red dots near the bottom to pink. Okay... I like that. But that big blue spot under the rainbow...

Hey! Now what? A skull? Yup. I was so angry at how things were going that I thought I'd make a skull right there under the rainbow. Didn't like that at all. Not sure why... but it just didn't go. So I tried to cover it with red paint and that didn't work. So I let my primitive brain take over and just made marks and lines down the side and a cool banner thingy across the top. Okay, well that stuff I like. Now what to do with the sky?

Yes! That's it! I'll just cover the whole thing up! I didn't mean to. But I used my fingers to add a lighter bluey-aqua paint over top. I had to add several layers because it was so light over that dark background, but I love the way it still shows through. I balanced out the bottom by bringing the pink all the way across and added a few stars in the upper right corner for visual balance. And I haven't touched it since, because I love it just the way it is. But I'm still not sure if I'm done.

This is my brain on art.

Thoughtful Thursdays: Playing With Symbols!

I've been playing around with symbols and mark-making in a primitive, childlike way lately — thanks to my online workshop with Mindy Lacefield. It's interesting when you're actually given the assignment to find out what kinds of symbols you like and what kind of marks you are drawn to! (hee-hee.... get it? drawn to)

So I finally signed up for a Pinterest account and I looked for various examples that sparked something in my brain. I realized that I like stars... scribbly springy marks, houses, flowers, and the use of text as a design element.

I like rainbows and clouds and hearts... as well as childlike scrawlings of letters and numbers.

And swirls. Boy do I love swirls! Especially with my non-dominant hand.

Oh, and raindrops. I'm having way too much fun with raindrops.

Oh, and... well... I'm not sure if food is considered a symbol... but you know me! There's bound to be some sweet treats in my art.

I have to admit that although it is fun to uncover where my tastes lie when it comes to symbols and mark-making... it's a little tough figuring out how to incorporate them into a piece of art and make it cohesive. I'll let you know how that goes!

In the meantime... what are some of your favorite symbols?

Thoughtful Thursdays: Play Time!

As an artist sometimes you want to take a break from doing your own work... add some new techniques to your repertoire... and, well... just have a little fun! And that's what I'm going to do. Mindy Lacefield — an artist I've admired for some time now — is teaching an online class entitled Paint Your Story. In it, she'll show you how to paint from your uninhibited 7-year-old's perspective. To let go... to be free... to play!

I had actually entertained taking the class when she first wrote about it. Funny thing is... she ended up in the Jesse Reno class I recently took! Seeing her work in person and getting to know her a little better made me think... oh yeah... I need to learn these playful techniques. Classes start on April 9th and I'm so excited!