"The Best Things in Life Are Free"

I pay good money for art instruction and inspiration--purchasing books and magazines, enrolling in classes and workshops, and even my once-in-a-lifetime (thus far!) retreat experience.  

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So I don't feel quite so badly about focusing for a post on some freebie resources that I have accessed, which you can access as well. I can be a bit of a miser at heart, so finding high-quality, inspiring, and instructive resources for free can really make my day!

Just yesterday on Facebook, a post appeared for Sketchbook Skool, which seems to have been created and facilitated by the wonderful Danny Gregory and Koosje Koene.  While there are many different Kourses (they love to spell everything with the letter "k"!) available for purchase, this Facebook post offered a free eBook entitled, Create with Love: Ideas to Share Your Love Creatively.

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Just in time for Valentine's Day, Nelleke Verhoeff offers fun ideas like creating faces from hearts, and incorporating them into collage-style postcards; doodling with lips and kisses; creating a "personal pie" (you'll have to see the eBook to understand!); creating sticky note love doodles and a love garland. There are projects for poems and patterns, as well as alphabets and abstracts.  All fun, all free.

After I signed up and received my free eBook, I received an email inviting me to take a free Sketchbook Skool Kourse.  It didn't take long to watch through each of the lessons, and with the unlimited access, I can go back and take my time, working through the exercises that were presented. There is a fun exercise about recording your day in the style of a comic book, instruction on sketching using negative space, as well as instruction on continuous line drawing.  These are all great exercises that could keep a beginner sketch artist (and a veteran, too, I would imagine) busy for quite some time as they began a "sketch habit."

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The Sketchbook Skool blog also offers a variety of free inspiration and instruction through the text, pictures, and videos incorporated into its posts.  

Finally, I made a list of all of the instructors mentioned throughout the Sketchbook Skool web site, and discovered that plugging them into a YouTube search uncovered hours and hours and hours worth of free videos offering their instruction and inspiring looks at their own sketchbooks.

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I think it is very important to support art instructors' effort to offer quality instruction through their for-sale products.  But I also know that costs can sometimes be prohibitive for people who want to explore different or unfamiliar fields of art or creativity.  I continue to be excited about all of the resources that these same talented and dedicated artists have made available for us for the low cost of an Internet search.

I just couldn't keep these free resources to myself!

Alternatives to Rubber Stamp Carving

On Black Friday, I treated myself to some discounted online workshops from North Light Shop, which carries products and classes for Cloth Paper Scissors.  Among the {ahem} eight downloads I purchased, was Playful Printmaking with Dina Wakley.

I've been putting her class instruction to use in my art room, finding some interesting alternatives to carving my own rubber stamps for making original prints on papers for my art journaling and collage creations.

Without giving away all of her workshop secrets, I wanted to share some of the new things that have found their way onto my work table.

First, I created some monoprinting tools by cutting shapes out of thick watercolor paper (Dina used tag board, otherwise known as manila file folder, but it didn't prove thick enough to make a good print for me so I opted for something thicker) and gluing them down onto pieces of tag board.

My experiment with tag board-on-tag board

My experiment with watercolor paper-on-tag board

By applying paint with a brayer, the tag board creates a kind of stamp for monoprinting onto art paper.

My first run was more about trying the technique than producing something I plan to use for a specific project.  Some of the papers were kind of pretty, though some were a bit of a hot mess.  I think I need to spend some more time looking at Dina Wakley's work to see how this style of printing works with her art journaling style.

Next, I tried using a pen to press designs into regular old foam, like I find in the kids' section at the craft store.  I found this technique a little more promising. I could use some of the same designs I've used when carving stamps into rubber, only this process is MUCH less labor intensive!

Both of these are designs I've carved into rubber before.

It sounds like these stamps should last for quite a little while, making impressions for months and even years to come (whereas the tag board stamps don't stand the test of time quite so well).

The main thing for me has just been getting back into my art room!  I'm not sure what causes the procrastination; what crazy person puts laundry and house cleaning ahead of art time?!?

At the risk of dooming my intentions to failure by making them into New Year's Resolutions, I'd like to see 2017 be a year of increased art-making, even if it's only an excuse to get my hands into their preferred state of paint-y and glue-y-ness!

2015: My Year to FACE IT!

My elderberry syrup failed me this holiday season, leaving me with a sinus infection over Christmas and plenty of time to rest and consider the upcoming year. 

That was my silver lining for spending over a week feeling sick and tired!

I read an essay by Julia Roberts (not that Julia Roberts) entitled, "Be the Mother of Reinvention" in the book Forty Things to Do When You Turn Forty, edited by Ronnie Sellers.  In Roberts' chapter, she suggests having an unpregnancy--nine months to give birth to a new you, and to a life that fills you with "curiosity, excitement, and energy that can only be achieved from a true sense of purpose and a giddy enthusiasm."  Just as a woman's life changes dramatically during the 40 weeks of a pregnancy, a woman's life can change in equally dramatic, though completely different ways, during the 40 weeks of an unpregnancy. 

I was intrigued by Roberts' nine-month model for success, transformation, and reinvention!

Right after reading the essay, I discovered a half-price opportunity to sign up for the online art course entitled Radiant: Faces, offered by Effie Wild.  It was pretty uncanny: a drawing class with nine teachers, nine styles, nine characters. 

I decided right then that in place of a Word for the Year, as I have done in the past, I would have a nine-month artistic journey to learn how to draw radiant faces.

 

2015 will be my year to FACE IT!

 

(In my head, the phrase ABOUT FACE comes to mind about equally, so that might end up being how I think about my focus.)

I have already watched a valuable lesson from Effie about using a notebook to get the most out of the online art courses that I take.  The photo above shows my chosen notebook.  It has a gorgeous aboriginal design on the cover, and was a gift from Australia brought to me by my niece-in-law.  The first several pages of the book contain images and messages from the various family members who celebrated New Year's Eve 2013 with me, when I received the book, and the rest of the book will contain my notes and sketches from the 18 lessons of Radiant: Faces. 

 



The following pages from my art journal have nothing to do with the class, since I haven't begun the lessons yet, but they are two little ladies I drew using ideas and images from my Drawing board on Pinterest, which has been a helpful drawing resource in these, my pre-instruction days!

I have already begun to watch Jane Davenport's workshop in the Radiant: Faces class, and am willing myself to not feel intimidated before I've even begun.  I have nine months for this journey, and can't wait to see where I am, come October!

ROOT Art Journal, Part 2



In my last post, I shared some of the pages from the first half of the art journal I created while following the prompts from Lisa Sonora Beam's online class, ROOT:  A 30-Day Journal Project. 

This page didn't actually respond to one of the class prompts, but the page elements kind of fell together in the mess of my art table, and I knew I had to include them in my art journal.  Sometimes the mess pays off!

Today, I thought I would share some pages from the second half of the book.  

Simple journaling over top of a watercolor wash, with some happy stamping around the sides.

When I got started, I decided to use one of those 5.5"x8" Strathmore Mixed Media Visual Journals because I enjoyed that size and paper quality when I was doing the Art Journal Round Robin last year. 

Also, I had a book with some pages already prepared with watercolors.  That prompted me to go through and slap on some watercolor paint on several different spreads as preparation for whatever future journaling and collaging might come. 

Playing around with a writing font called Bungalow from one of my lettering books.

I discovered in the process that even the least artful page gets a bit of a boost from background color!  Putting a wash of watercolor, or some combination of colors, immediately eliminated that "blank page" factor that everyone is always blogging about. 

Sometimes when I would come to a spread that I had not yet prepared with watercolor, I would try to move forward without the background, and almost invariably I ended up grabbing my watercolors to go back to that basic background.  Everything else just built up from there.

Actually, for this page, I drew the doodled hand first before filling in the background with watercolor paint.



A page with a little flap, hiding the journaling beneath, and making space for more journaling on the back of the flap. 

I accidentally stamped the "k" backwards, but couldn't have picked a better place to make that mistake!

What a neat thought/connection this is!

Ahh, Dali...telling it like it is.  It's a message I can stand to hear over and over again!

I like the look of the silver pen on the watercolor background at center, with journaling all around.

I like how even the simplest drawing can add interest to a page. 

I don't like gold much in general, but I liked the look of my gold Sharpie on a paint-washed, ink-splattered background.



 

You've seen most of the pages I created as a result of Lisa's journaling class.  In a future post, I'll show you some of the final pages and spreads I created to fill out the final pages of the book.  Thanks for visiting!  Please leave me a note to let me know you were here.



 



ROOT Art Journal, Part 1

The cover of my first art journal for this year

For the month of January, I participated in Lisa Sonora Beam's free online journaling course entitled Root.  While she intended it as a journaling experience, I could tell from the Facebook community that a lot of us were making it an art journaling experience as well. 

Title page

Because I have a tendency to sign up and start things, then watch my commitment peter out sometime after the first week or so, I am happy to announce that I stuck with her prompts and almost completely filled an art journal for the month of January.  (My February additions have since filled up the remaining pages!) 

Ahh, love that art journal side view!

The highlight of the experience for me was the fact that I really focused, probably for the first time, on the act of creating pages rather than on the outcome. 

Paint, stencils, and journaling.  I thought the stencils--a Christmas gift from my sister-in-law--suited the root theme.

I didn't worry about creating anything complex.  I brought out paint, rubber stamps, stencils, and even stickers to make my pages. 

Some mind-mapping, a little journaling, some bright colors.  A simple spread.

I seldom spent a lot of time crafting what I would call "an artful page."  Sometimes I responded to her prompt with my own thinking, and sometimes I recorded her inspiring thoughts to mull over later. 

"Go gently."  I thought Lisa's important advice could stand alone for this spread.

Lisa chose really inspiring quotations to use with each of her prompts, and I enjoyed that she included several different questions or sentence starters so that we could "run with" whichever one caught our fancy.  It's good to have options! 

Not a favorite page, but I liked adding a little pocket for more journaling in the lower right corner.  And I always love Buddha imagery on my art journaling pages!

And each prompt linked to a blog post in which she shared her own journal pages and reflections on the prompt, which provided a further creative jump start for our own responses. 

A color palate and collage imagery that suited Lisa's root theme

I followed along with the Facebook page, but didn't participate very much in that community.  Lisa has an interesting policy, in which she asks participants not to offer any comment on the pages that are posted.  She doesn't even want people to say, "I like your page!" though she consented to allow people to use the Facebook "Like" button.

Collaged music papers, gesso, paint, and tape.  The background became an incidental backdrop to my journaling.

It's amazing how hard it was for me to think of something to say to build relationships in a social forum without offering compliments and affirmations; I guess I just didn't know what to say!  An "opportunity for future growth" for me.

Sometimes I have to respectfully disagree with a quotation, as with this one from Audrey Hepburn, whom I adore!

I looked back over my pages, and was pleased to see some substantial journaling throughout.  Sometimes when I focus more on the visual aspect of my spreads, my writing is incidental and, frankly, a bit inane.

This was one of my favorite techniques I used.  I had a stencil that I created from a magazine image, so I used the negative space and filled it in with wild pen lines to fit the theme of "chaos," which the quotation tells us is what gives birth to a dancing star.  Very poetic words from Nietzsche!

I appreciate all the work that Lisa did to create this course for us, and her generosity in sharing it with us free of charge.  She put me back on the track of an almost-daily art journaling practice, and for that I am very grateful!

I am well-armed to face the day when I'm armed with a full night of rest!

I'll share with you several pages and spreads from the second half of the journal next time I check in!

Art Retreat!

I am extremely happy to announce that I will be attending the 2013 CREATE Mixed Media Art Retreat in Somerset, New Jersey, in July!

I thought that I would have to wait for a "different season of life" to go to an art retreat, especially since they all seem to take place on the other side of the country, in California, Oregon, and Washington State.  When I found out that there was a retreat taking place just an hour-and-a-half from my home, I jumped at the opportunity.

I have all my preferrred classes picked out for Saturday, Saturday evening, and Sunday morning--along with alternates in case I get closed out of any of my first choices--and am poised for registration at the end of this month. 

I plead with all of my online friends on the East Coast to come together during the weekend of July 19-21.  (The retreat actually begins on Wednesday, July 17, but I can't leave my home and family without maternal guidance for quite that long!)  How exciting would it be to meet face-to-face, and to take classes with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Seth Apter, Joanne Sharpe, Jodi Ohl, Michelle Ward, Jane LaFazio, and other "superstars" from our online world?!

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I hope you've known about Nathalie Kalbach's Creative Jump Start Summit 2013,

taking place this month.

Every day in January, I get a video tutorial sent directly to my email account with fantastic lessons that have, without exception, made me want to make a beeline for my art room!  You can find a list of this year's contributors here.  At this point, I've only watched about five of the videos, but I have until mid-year to catch up.  Last year was filled with such inspiration, and Nathalie has "done it again" with this year's line up.  (And if you need any more incentive, there are plenty of giveaways to enter!)

 

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One final thought:

After preschool this morning, my 5-year-old daughter Katy told me, "I only painted a short time today, because holding the paintbrush the right way messed up my painting."  I asked her to show me what got messed up, and this is her picture:

She made the little red fish on the left "her way," but the teacher aide told her to hold the paintbrush a different way before she tried to paint her orange fish, which she decided she couldn't do.  I asked her, "So, she said there was a right way to hold the paintbrush?"  "Yes."  "Show me how she wanted you to hold it."  (She held it like a pencil.)  "And how did you want to hold it?"  (She showed me the paintbrush gripped in her hand held like a fist.)  "And she told you that you couldn't hold it that way?"  (Katy nodded.)  "Hmmm, I never really thought there was a right and wrong way to hold a paintbrush.  But I guess we have to listen to what our teachers tell us to do."  Katy then asked if she could sometimes disobey her teachers.  Wow, those are tough conversations!

So, what do you think about her teacher telling her that there is only one way to hold the paintbrush?  I understand that the children have to learn how to hold a pencil properly to write, but I didn't know that translated into rules for painting.  I am curious to hear your opinions!

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Enjoy a creative weekend!

 

I will be back to post soon so you can see some Valentine cards and collages I have prepared for sale at Gabby's Jar in Wayne, PA!

 

Working in a Sketchbook

I have long admired the work of Alisa Burke, who often shares "peeks" into her sketchbook on her blog.  Truth be told, I have often been a little overwhelmed by her seemingly unattainable talent!

I used watercolor and marker to re-create a page I saw in a newsletter from a local public garden.



Detail

Recently, she offered a free mini-course called "Finding Your Muse." After watching it, I was as impressed as ever by her work, but somehow it seems more accessible now that I had watched her in the process of creating her sketchbook pages from start to finish. Prompted by that video, and an offer of $10 off her classes, I signed up for her Sketchbook Delight eCourse. 

Detail

I have a rather bad track record with online classes: I have signed up for a couple that I've never made my way entirely through. (Thank goodness for the "unlimited access" feature of so many classes!) Alisa's class, though, has captured my imagination like none other, and I have no doubt that I will make my way straight through her lessons, which are chock-full of videos, still images, and invitational "homework assignments." 

I used watercolor to draw a recently-purchased aloe plant that sits on my kitchen counter.

Her main emphasis is on turning off the computer, closing the magazines, and looking to our own lives for drawing inspiration.

A closer look

Meanwhile, she has us trying out our supplies to decide what pencils, pens, and paints work best for our personal style. She has us exploring patterns and shapes in the objects around us. And she offers great advice for making a sketchbook page feel "finished," such as the frames she often places around the edges of her pages and the way she fills in open spaces with watercolor backgrounds--two pratices that I've already adopted in my own sketchbook.

I created a reference page to explore some of my pen and marker options for drawing in my sketchbook.  I've actually made quite a bit of use of this page as I've worked on other pages in my book.

I find myself looking forward to grabbing my sketchbook and working on a page each day with an enthusiasm I haven't really felt about any other creative pursuit. There is such a wonderful simplicity to working with a book, a pencil, a few black pens, a waterbrush, and a set of watercolor paints. Maybe it sounds like a large list of supplies, but in reality, it is all remarkably compact and mobile.

I created a reference page for my black pens, which are indispensible in the creation of my sketchbook pages.



Finally, I created a reference page for my pencils, exploring their varying hardnesses and shading capabilities.  They represent the first step in each of my sketchbook pages.



I love how the shading on these little balls turned out!

My daughter is mesmerized by Alisa's videos, as well as my own sketchbook efforts. She sits with me and watches as I draw and paint, sometimes re-creating elements of what she sees me doing on her own drawing paper. I never would have dreamed it possible (since drawing has long seemed completely out of my reach), but a daily sketchbook practice feels like something I could definitely adopt as part of my creative life!