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!

Rubber Cement Resist: Gift Tags and Greeting Cards

Once I tried the rubber cement resist technique, it was hard to stop.  My mom had the idea of creating gift tags with the approach, and I tried it on some folded blank cards that I had in my crafting stash, and I had a chance to see how it looks on a smaller substrate.

First, I t ried some folded gift cards, using the same approach I used on larger watercolor paper:  painter's tape around the sides, multiples layers of watercolor paint and rubber cement as a resist. 

I think the results are pretty, and worth the effort.

For the gift tags, I used regular shipping tags as a template, and cut them from watercolor paper.

I was feeling more impatient for this project and left less drying time, so you will notice a bit more smudging of the colors.  And I completely forgot to lay down the painter's tape along the edges, so that changes the finished look as well.  I think they still look pretty, though.  Maybe a little more "edgy" than your standard gift tags.

Do you still need some creative cards or tags for Christmas?  There might be just enough time to give this fun rubber cement technique a try before the holiday is upon us!

Merry Christmas to all!  I look forward to seeing you after the holiday!

Good Advice from Dina Wakley

Isn't it great when someone offers a piece of advice that is SO obvious and SO logical that you should have been doing it all along, but you needed to hear it in THAT MOMENT to really hear it for the first time?

I read an excerpt from Art Journal Courage by Dina Wakley in the Create Mixed Media eNewsletter about taking the leap to draw in your art journal by starting with simple shapes: circles, petals, leaves, hearts, stars.  "Get your hand in the habit of moving and making marks on your page," she writes. "You're not making a masterpiece here, you're practicing your drawing on a journal page."

If I want to start including personal drawings on my journal pages, rather than my usual "go-to" collage approach, then I am going to have to pick up my pencil, pen, or paint brush and start making marks on the page!

Obvious.  Logical.  And something I have NOT been doing!

So I used the background pages I have been painting, and drew a leafy vine with a black Stabilo pencil (which I didn't even realize I had, and completely love using!)

I used a mix of acrylic and watercolor paint on my leaves, and wet the Stabilo lines with just a little bit of water to darken and solidify them.  When I finished, I realized how perfect the design of a little plant and the sentiment "hold on to life" were for that day.  My girls were watching "Wall E," where a little tiny plant growing out of an old shoe holds promise for new life on a dying planet, and calls people back home to Earth to start their world anew.  And in the midst of some troubling medical information that sent me reeling into "worst case scenario land," those words carried a special encouragement for me.

Sometimes it really helps to hear the obvious.  If I'm going to draw, I need to pick up a pencil and put it down on the page.  I need to move it around.  I need to go to the next page and move it around some more.  "You're not making a masterpiece here, you're practicing your drawing on a journal page."  Thank you for the reminder, Dina!  My little leafy vine is a lot more satisfying than a painted page with nothing on it!