A couple of days ago I posted about making bad art.  I’ve thought about that a lot since then.  I don’t think I have the fear that many people have of creating bad art.  I create lots of it, so I’m used to it, I think.   I do art almost every day.  The only time I don’t is if I’m deathly sick and just can’t.

But, I do have a fear that limits me from being totally free in my art.  My fear stems from beliefs of scarcity.    Have you ever been poor?   I imagine most of us have.  Maybe when you first left home and had a job that didn’t pay much, or when you were in collge, or if you’ve been laid off your job.   Or maybe you are there now.

I don’t know what exact numbers determine if a person is poor or not, but I’m talking about having to make things stretch out.  Things like art supplies.   Mister and I have met some challenges over the past couple of years that require that we watch what we spend our money on.   I can’t go buy canvases or paint just because I want some.

So, that leads to me fearing that I’ll waste a valuable resource if I mess up.   What if I get real brave and try some outrageous colors in a paintng, and it doesn’t turn out?  I will have wasted a canvas.  In reality, I can paint over it.  But in my scarcity mind, the voice says “You’ll never be able to get another one”.

I use cheap craft paints in my art journal.  They work great and I love all the color choices, and of course the price!   I use more expensive heavy body paints in my paintings on canvas.  If I’m running low in a color, I tend to avoid it.  Again, the fear is that I’ll never get any more of that color.

This is very frustrating to me.  It stifles me and I don’t want to be stifled.   It creates this inner conflict where I’m constantly fighting myself.   I want to conquer that stupid voice.  I want to grab whatever calls to me and put it on whatever surface I decide I want to use.  I want my muse to dictate what I create.  I know that many, many artists have been poor.  But you never hear how they managed to be free to create within their budget.  I want to hear that.  Not how to make money, but how to fight the scarcity demon.

In the book Wide Open by Randi Feuerhelm Watts, she writes:

Doesn’t it seem
that you get ot a point in your lfe
where you just plain settle?

Living in places
you don’t want to live.
Staying in dead relationships.
Spending tme doing
what you don’t want to do
and wondering why everything stays the same.

Settling is easy.
It is lazy.
It require no effort
and produces nothing.
it is reoutine and
can be done
with yourr eyes close.
“Someday” becomes a regular part
of our vicabulary.

Time passes.
Days continue.

Another year goes by.
After my nap.
Tomorrow.
Eventually the dreams stop completely.
Unnoticed.

I was reading along the first time I read this, and I was identifying, but when I got to that last line.. “unnoticed”  I felt horribly sad.  How many of my dreams have died?

I am 62 years old, and I can tell you that I have a graveyard full of dreams.  It’s a lot easier to put them off for later when you’re 30 or even 40 because you know you have 40 or 50 more years to live.  But when your time left starts dwindling,  it is easier to give up and say “I don’t have time “.   But, thank goodness I had the opposite reaction.  I want to learn to draw and I decided not to waste any more time.  In the time I have left I’m going to practice and learn all I can so I can say I finally saw one of my dreams come to fruition.

Locally, there is a radio commercial where they interview a woman who graduated from college at 92 yrs old.  Assuming it took her four years, that means she entered college at age 88!!

What dreams are you putting off?  Make a journal page and list them.  Are you ready to write an obituary for any of them?  Don’t let them die.  Revive them.  Do CPR and get some life and breath back into YOUR dreams!

As you know,  I’ve been practicing drawing portraits.   I found out that Amy McDonald is offering a free portrait class at http://fluttebye.ning com, so I decided to check it out.  It is a very comprehensive class with I think about a dozen videos.  So for the past few days I’ve dug into the lessons and been drawing, drawing, drawing.  She is teaching how to draw a frontal view face.  I’ve been having problems getting the eyes right on 3/4 views so tonight I decided to try one again and see if any of the new skills I’ve learned might help even though she isn’t teaching 3/4 views.  I was so surprised at how well it turned out, so I just have to share with you all.  I really hope if you want to do somethng – anything! – that you will look where I started and what practice can do for your skills.

Isn’t this amazing?  I just look at it and can’t believe *I* drew that!!  I have to laugh when I think how I used to think “I wish I could draw people.” and then I’d think about practicing, but the response in my head was always, “I hate practicing because I’m pr

acticing making ugly drawings.  So, how is that going to help me draw well?”   And, of course, then I wouldn’t practice.  I am so grateful that I finally decided to just do it, no matter what.  No matter how ugly they were.  I didn’t show them to anyone.  I just kept trying.   And it paid off.

Please, if you want to learn something, just try!!!  I never, ever dreamed I would be able to draw anything like this.  So, if I can do it, YOU can do it!!!

I write in my journal.  A lot.  I go through approximately 50 pages a month.  So, I’ve always created pages that were backgrounds for writing.  The text itself was a part of the art.   Here’s a fairly typical page in many of my journals.  I’ve been very happy creating these pages for many years.  But lately,  the more I look at others’ pages and see how much is there and how busy they are, it makes me want to create more interesting pages.

So, I got out L.K. Ludwig’s “Creative Wildfire” today and was loving all the fun pages showcased.  I like the pages that are “messy” looking.  You know the ones that look like there was no planning and yet they are very visually interesting and fun?  I’ve been practicing today making those type of pages and it’s been fun but way out of my comfort zone!    Even though I was collaging paper elements on to the page, the general rules of collage art don’t really apply.  My friend Kris said I’m thinking too much and need to let it flow.   That sounds right but when trying something I’m not familiar with, I find it hard to be loose.

As with drawing, I imagine that just doing it will help me get more comfortable and find my own style.

Here are a few of my new pages.

I have printed images for art journaling and collage for years.  I scan items I find or download then when I want a certain paper or image I print it out on the type of paper I think will make it look the best.  Today’s post is going to be to introduce you to printing out images on different types of paper.

This is one of the printable sheets I sell in my shop.  I leave the background white on most of the sheets because when printing white is actuall “clear”. Whatever paper you print it on will show up. For instance, if you printed this image out on red paper, anything you see here in white would then be red.

I like to print these “strip” images on kraft paper for my journal.   It ends up being like tape.  Kraft paper is the paper that grocery sacks are made of.  You can buy rolls of it at craft stores.  It comes in rolls about the size of gift wrapping paper.  If you are going to use it often, a cheaper alternative is to buy it in the paint department at walmart.  They sell a roll that is 36 inches wide and probably about 60 ft. long for around $5.   It is sold to put on the floor while painting.   As an aside, I sometimes use this paper for making journals.  It holds up will to water, paint and gesso.

This image is another one I sell.  Since it’s already got the color of the vintage ephemera,  I would print it on regular copy paper, because you will be cutting each image away from the background of the paper.  The colors of the images will actually print out in that color.

This is the newest image I’ve got in the shop.  These are old images used in astrology.  I just love hands for some reason.   Since we have a white background, but the images are olden, I would want to print them out on something that looks old.   A great paper for this type of image is newsprint, but it’s quite thin and flimsy.   I found an alternative at Dollar Tree.  If you don’t have those stores near you, hopefully your dollar store will have somethng similar.  It’s a tablet sold in the children’s art supplies, where the crayons, etc are.  The front of the tablet says Scribble in large letters.  It’s a top bound, tear-off tablet.  The paper is a brownish, creamy color and things print beautifully on it.  The paper is sturdy.   So sturdy, in fact, that I’ve made journals with it.  It has 100 sheets I believe and it’s only $1 so it’s a great thing to keep on hand for printing vintage images.

I have a few sheets of old photos in the shop.  This one has images from the 40′s and 50′s.  Since they have white edges on the photos, they are most likely they shiny type of photos we are used to, rather than the matte, beige ones from earlier times.  So, I like to print these on glossy photo paper.  That way you have an actual photo to use in your collage or art journal or whatever you are using them for.  Be sure you let the ink dry completely before using them, though, because the glossy surface will cause the ink to smear if not completely dry.

I copied this right from Keri Smith’s blog today.  I love this.  Especially since I’m trying to learn to draw and paint portraits.  I’ve made some bad art lately!  lol  I think I will print this out and hang it up as a daily reminder of what’s really important.  And to start right now, I’m going to post some really bad art right here!

Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, grasping,…Stop it and just DO!…

Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool. Make your own, your own world. If you fear, make it work for you – draw & paint your fear and anxiety…

You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to DO!…

Try to do some BAD work – the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell – you are not responsible for the world – you are only responsible for your work – so DO IT. And don’t think that your work has to conform to any preconceived form, idea or flavor. It can be anything you want it to be…

I know that you (or anyone) can only work so much and the rest of the time you are left with your thoughts. But when you work or before your work you have to empty you [sic] mind and concentrate on what you are doing. After you do something it is done and that’s that. After a while you can see some are better than others but also you can see what direction you are going. I’m sure you know all that. You also must know that you don’t have to justify your work – not even to yourself.

excerpted from a letter from Sol Lewitt to Eva Hesse

I wanted to learn to draw portraits and I kept hearing that if you practice you can learn.   I’ve never been a practicer.  That’s why I don’t know how to play any musical instrument or do any sort of sport.  I hate practicing anything. It’s boring!  But I got to the point where I wanted to learn portraits bad enough that I was willing to try.

So, here are a couple of the first ones I did.  I was so proud of these.  In fact, if I remember right, I think I put them on my blog.

But I kept practicing.  I would find magazine pictures and try to copy them.  And I got a little better.  Here are some of the later ones.

I was improving, right?  So, I wanted to learn to paint portraits.  I studied other artist’s work.  Especially Misty Mawn.  I love her paintings!   Here are a couple of my first attempts.

It was hard going from drawing to painting, but this I really wanted to learn.   I painted so many girls in my journal.  I painted over many of them, but eventually I got brave enough to try it out on canvas.   Here are a few I’ve done the past 6 mos or so.

It amazes me that without taking a class,  I could improve this much.  It is true that practicing really does improve your skill.  What I’ve noticed is that at first If it looked anything like a woman I was pleased.  But as I went on, I started noticing details of the images I was painting from.   For instance I started noticing features that all noses have in common, and that helped me learn how to paint more realistic noses.

I hope this will encourage you to believe you can learn something you want to learn.   And if you need encouragement,  tell me.  I’d love to be your cheerleader!!

Sue at High Strung Beads!!!!  Congratulations, Sue!  I’ll be emailing you shortly.

To everyone else who came by  and helped me out by sharing my link.  I’d like to give each of you a free pass to download any three collage you’d like from my shop.   I have to figure out how to do coupons, so it may be a day or so until  you hear from me, but stay tuned!!

Since I’m selling digital collage sheets in my new shop, I thought I’d share how to use them for anyone that might not be familiar with using digital images.

Digital means, basically, not paper.  At least in this case, that’s a simple way to look at it.  You buy them and download them to your computer.  From there you can use them in any image editing program.  Or you can print them out, in which case they then become just like collage sheets you buy at a scrapbook store.  But the beauty of buying digital collage sheets is that you can use them forever!  You have the file so you can print it out as many times as you want.

But, the best part is that you can edit them.  And that’s the part I’m going to show you here.   The first thing to understand is image resolution.   This is how many pixels are in an inch.  You know when you blow up an image on your screen how you can see the tiny little squares that make up the image?

The more pixels there are in an inch are better, because obviously then the pixels are smaller.  And that makes the picture smoother and more realistic.

So, a resolution of 72 is lesser in quality than of 300.   Pictures posted on the web are generally 72.   It’s called “72 dpi” and that stands for dots per inch.   A dot is a pixel.   The reason people use 72 dpi for web pages is because the images will load faster because their file is smaller.   But if you are going to print an image you want a higher resolution which means a larger dpi number, at lest 150 dpi.

Don’t worry too much about all of that.  It’s just giving you the basics so you know why we do what I’m going to show you how to do here.

So, you download a collage sheet from me.   It is a 300 dpi image.   Let’s say the sheet has an image you like and want to use in your journal, but it’s too small.   The image is a 3 x 5 inches and it’s a 300 dpi.   You want it to be a 5 x 7 inch size, but you know if you enlarge it, you are going to get pixels showing like in the image above.   The cool thing is that you can enlarge the image, if you decrease the resolution.  Mathematically that lets the resolution stay the same, or at least close

To do this type of image editing you will need a program like Photoshop.  Gimp is a free program similar to Photoshop.  You can download it here.  The steps below are using Photoshop, but it should be similar in any image editing program.  If you want, you can go to my shop and download one of the free collage sheets to play with for this tutorial.

Here are the steps:

1.  Open the image you want to enlarge.

2.  If there are more than one image on a collage sheet, and you are wanting to just enlarge one of the images, you’ll want to crop it down to that image.  Find this symbol in the tool bar.     After you click this tool,  select just the one image you want, then hit enter.  Now you should have only the one image.

3.  Go to Image in the menu and choose Image Size.   In the window that opens you’ll see, for example,  Width 3 inches,  Height 5 inches,  Resolution 72  dpi.   You may additionally see the size listed in pixels, but that will automatically change when you change the inches.

4.  Change the 3 inch width to 5 inches.   As you make that change, you will see the height automatically change.

5.  Before you close this window - change the resolution to 150 dpi.

Now you have a larger image to use, and 150 will print out just fine.   300 dpi is necessary if you’re printing photgraphs or art work, but for collage images and art journals, 150 or 200 will work just fine.

As confusing as this might sound, it’s really very simple.  If you’ll do this just a few times, you will start to see how it works and it will become quite easy.   Just remember if you enlarge the image, you must decrease the dpi.  So, if you have an image that’s 72 dpi you really can’t enlarge it because going lower than 72 dpi is going to leave you will a very poor quality.

Okay, here’s the big giveaway to celebrate the opening of my new shop!!!  You can enter to win either ALL the digital products in my shop OR an original painting.

How to enter:

1. Leave a comment here telling me which prize you want to win. (that’s gets you one entry)

2. Share this blog post on Facebook. Here’s the url to share http://www.creativeclown.com/227  Then come back here and leave another comment posting the link where you shared on Facebook. (that gets you a second entry)

3.  Share this blog post on Twitter. Here’s the url to share http://www.creativeclown.com/227  Then come back here and tell me your twitter name that you used to share the post. (that gets you a third entry)

I really would appreciate you helping me spread the word.  It’s hard to get word around about a new site, and I know all my readers have friends that either like graphic images for their art, or that love original artwork, so hopefully it’s good for all of us!!

The winning names will be selected at random on Thursday,  March 15th.  Be sure you include your email address when you sign in to leave a comment so I can contact the winners!!