Today I received Creative Paint Workshop for Mixed-Media Artists by Ann Baldwin and I love it!  First of all, I love her style.  She combines  collage with paint and ink in a beautiful way.  The book starts out teaching about layout and composition and goes all the way through to teach the reader everything they need to know about creating mixed media pieces.  She details paints, media, pens, and other materials.  There are several chapters with step-by-step instructions that are very detailed with many instructional pictures.  One whole chapter is devoted to encaustic techniques.

I read a lot of art books, and I usually get some inspiration from them, but this one is the best I’ve seen in a long time!  In summary, an artist I truly admire shares her process, her materials and her experience in a beautiful, spiral bound (within a hard cover), 141 page book.

I am just obsessed with drawing these days.  I’m still not good at it, but for the first time ever, I have a belief that if I keep doing it, I will get better. Today I found a great lesson on faces at Drawspace.com.  They have dozens of free lessons on everything from cartoons to perspective to shading..and on and on.  They are all free to read on-screen, but $25 if you want to download them.  They also have a few courses but those are quite expensive.  I find the free lessons to be very thorough and helpful.  The one I am currently working on is about drawing the proportions of faces.  You can see it here.

I ordered that Artist’s Datebook from a seller on Amazon.  I got a different book from them that is letters for secretarys.  I let them know and they immediately shipped my book and told me to keep the wrong book.   The secretary’s book has great paper.  Those nice, thick aborbent type.  It just so happens that I’m on the last few pages of my current journal, so I made the accidental book into my new journal!

I have never made a journal cover that I really liked.  I see others’ journals with these beautiful covers, but I just can’t get the “cover muse” going, I guess.

Lately I have been playing with watercolor pencils a lot.   As I get more practice with them I’m realizing all the ways they can be used so they are quickly becoming one of my favorite supplies for journaling.

Watercolor pencils look like ordinary colored pencils, but what makes them magic is that you can apply water over them and they look just like watercolor paint!

The Pencils

Here are the brands I have used with a little info on each one, including the price for a set of 12 pencils.  I used the 12 set as a reference for pricing, but most of the brands are available in many different sets as well as individually.  The following prices are from Dick Blick.

Prisma $12.99

These are good pencils, but I’ve found that they break often when sharpening them, and they have to be sharpened more often which means I use them up sooner than other brands.

General $9.49

I like these pencils.  They are inexpensive but work well.  The color isn’t as intense as in more expensive brands, but they are fine.

Caran d’Ache Metallic $13.79

I dont’ have these, but they are so on my wishlist!   I have regular metallic colored pencils but I can just imagine how yummy these sparkly ones will be!

Derwent $10.30

These pencils are great!  They have a lot of pigment and they are dense to they don’t wear down too quickly.  They come in lots of colors and they blend very well.    Overall, for price, selection and quality, I choose this brand.

Derwent Inktense $13.49

These are my absolute favorite!  Here’s the company description:

Derwent Inktense Pencils are as versatile as watercolor pencils, but with a firmer texture that allows them to perform with the brilliant intensity of traditional pen-and-ink. These pencils are available in strong, vibrant colors which work beautifully on their own or can be mixed together to create rich, subtle tones. The pure, clean colors are perfect for bold expressive drawings, including fashion illustration, landscapes, greeting cards, and more.

Inktense pencils can be used dry for rich, intense color or washed out with a little water to create a vivid translucent effect. Once dry, the color is permanent and can be worked over with other media

They are so yummy!  The colors are much stronger than any other pencil I’ve used.  And they blend beautifully.  And even without water, you can use your finger to smudge and blend the colors.

How I Use Them

I’ve realized lately that watercolor pencils can be for anything in an art journal.  It can be used just like paint, unless you are wanting a strong base or texture.

I like them for small areas that are more difficult to use acrylic paint in.  But you can also color in larger areas with the pencils.

Using the pencil lightly gives a nice color, but the cool thing is that the  more you color, the more intense the color gets so it’s great for shading and shaping.

I used them in my first try at drawing faces.  In this one, I created several layers by using the pencils, then covering them up with white paint and creating another pencil layer.  I color in the areas just like you would with any colored pencil.  Then I use a slightly wet brush to smooth out the color and get rid of the pencil marks.  Then if you add a darker color for shading, use the wet brush to blend the shade color in to the other colors.

Another thing about the pencils I like is just the brightness of the colors.  I created these letters with a black pen and then colored in the designs.

This is a doodle I did and then outlined with a sharpie.  In both of these, I didn’t use any water, this is just the color of the Derwent pencils themselves.

I hope this inspires you to try watercolor pencils if you haven’t already.  If you need some great inspiration check out Milliande’s videos. They are great!

I have some of my art for sale.  A couple of my favorite paintings, a necklace made from monopoly pieces and some really cool and funky crosses and frames made from beads and broken jewelry.

Check it out here.

Materials needed:

Sturdy paper
Watercolor pencils
Gesso
Small or medium brush

A good way to learn about shading is to copy over something that already has the shading painted or drawn in.  I’ll take you step by step through how I did it with a napkin.

I used a cocktail napkin that had a fruit design on it.  AT the time I didn’t have any gel medium, so I coated a page in my journal (which is a book of text) with gesso, then laid the napkin over the page.  I like some wrinkles so mine is totally smooth.  However, if you prefer a smooth surface, start in the center of the napkin and begin to gently smooth toward the edges.  After you’ve smoothed it all out, use a brayer to repeat smoothing and be sure the edges are down securely.

Whether you used an adhesive, or gesso to glue the napkin down, you then need to paint over the napkin with a wash of gesso.  Mix some water with the gesso, to make it transparent enough to see through.

Outlining

After the gesso has dried, outline the shapes or objects on your napkin with watercolor pencils.  Use  a medium color that matches the object.  You will  need at least three shades of each color that you’ll use.  Outline with the medium color of the three.  (You’ll also need a dark umber brown or black, and a white).

If your napkin has a background, don’t worry about that yet.

After you design is outlined, you’ll start filling in the color.  But first, a few tricks to keep in mind:

o   Round objects are created by the outer edges being dark and the center being light.

o   Find the light source of your design.  You will see shadows somewhere.  Sometimes they might just be to the right or the left, but usually they will be to the right and lower or above.  In this napkin, the shadows are to the upper, right area of each piece.  That means the light is shining from below and to the left.

o   Since our subject is still, the light source remains constant, so the shadow will be in the same area on every object in your napkin.

Filling in the Color

Start by softening the edges of the dark outline.  You don’t’ want it to appear that you drew a line around it, so softly color it in toward the center, but not too wide.  Occasionally, smudge the color with your finger.

After you’ve made a smudgy outline, you can begin coloring in the whole object with the lighter of the three colors.   Color it in fully, but don’t press too hard so the color won’t be too dark.  When using this color, go ahead and color over the outline also.  This makes the colors blend and begins to give the shape to your object.   Use your fingers to blend and smudge the colors.

Create Shadows

Now use the darker of the three colors to color in the shadows.  Your gesso is transparent so you can see where the shadows are in the objects on the napkin.  Notice, as I mentioned above, where the shadows are.  This will help if there are areas where you can’t readily see the shadow on your napkin.

To color in the shadow fill in gently the area.  On my napkin the shadow was to the right, upper area of the fruit.  So I imagined each oval or circle as a square, and started in the upper, right corner and gradually came out from that corner.

Hopefully, you can see the beginning of the shading in this picture:

Finish the shading on all your objects, and if there are areas that are darker, use a black or dark umber brown color to make the shadows darker.  Do this sparingly so you don’t prevent the objects from having the color they need.  Once the shading is done, find the highlight area.  This will be near the center on a round object.  It will also be opposite the shadows.  So in this example where the shadows are upper, right, the highlight will lower left.  Since my objects are round the highlight is closer to the center than the extreme lower, left.

When all is done, go back with the lighter of the three colors and lightly color over all the shadows and highlights to blend all the colors together.  Do this lightly and smudge with your fingers as you color.

For the background, pick a color and fill in all the background areas.  In the background areas that are small, which would have a shadow cast under the fruit I used the brown to darken that area a bit.

If you feel the pencil marks are too obvious and/or if you need to blend more, you can use a small amount of water on a brush and blend the pencil.  Be careful in doing this because it begins to move the color around and you’ll move your shadows and highlights if you aren’t careful.  Also, use water sparingly because it will cause the napkin to tear if it gets too wet.

Hope you enjoy and learn about shading!

Zura

I’ve created an art community on ning.  I’d love to have you come join in the fun.  Go to http://funart.ning.com .  If you are already a member of ning, use the same username and password. If not, just sign up and request to join Fun Art.

We have a few sub-groups for certain art media, and can add more according to what everyone’s interests are.  I’ve posted a journaling prompt and will keep that feature if it’s popular.

I want to make this a fun place where people can come share, get ideas, encouragement, inspiration and learn things.  So, feel free to give me input on how to make it a place you’d like to hang out.

Am I the last person ever to hear of this concept?  Just in case I’m not, let me explain.  Apparently many creative types use a board to tack or glue words, images, etc of their creative ideas.  From my research it seems to be a mainstay for fashion designers and interior designers.  But lots of artists apparently use them, too.

I have a composition book that I put ideas and inspiration in.  I paste images, write things, and do color schemes.  So I was thinking how cool it would be to have a huge board of some sort in my studio that I can attach these things to.  How much better it would be to see it large, right there in front of me instead of hidden in a book.  And I wouldn’t have to spend time gluing everything in that dang book!

So, do any of you use a mood board?  Before I decide what to use for mine, I’d love suggestions from you.

My nephew’s wife who had a brain tumor removed is doing really well.  She got moved out of ICU and is walking and doing great!  Thank you to all who offered prayers.

Laddan called me today to tell me that he found two guinea pigs in the alley behind his house today!  They were just running around tormenting his dog.   This is so bizarre!  What scenario can explain why two house pets would be scrounging around in an alley?  The only logical explanations are too sad to even consider.  He caught them and put them in his dog’s kennel and is going to give them to his nephews.

I’ve just discovered this site which is basically an art blog.  But what I really like about it is their weekly videos.  This feature is called, “Dialogue”. Each week they interview artists on a specific topic.  The one below features a discussion on gender in art.

Watch this and then go check out their other episodes.

Design For Mankind – Dialogue Episode 6 from Design For Mankind on Vimeo.

http://www.designformankind.com/category/dialogue/

As you probably read, my brother-in-law passed away a couple of weeks ago.  Then this past friday we found out that my sister (who just lost her husband) had to go to Dallas because her daughter-in-law has a brain tumor and is having surgery to remove it tomorrow.  She and her husband have three young boys.  Please keep them in your prayers.  And also my sister as she is going to keep the boys while Jen is in the hospital, and while she adores her grandchildren,  this is a very hard time for her.

My family is small.  My sister and I have no other siblings, and our parents both died when I was 20.  We have two children. My sister’s husband had no siblings so I’m her kids’ only aunt.  My kids have only one uncle on their father’s side.  So we are just about all each other have.  We all are very close, and times like this that makes me so grateful and proud of my family.

Tonight my younger son, Laddan, acquired a conference call for the whole family, who is spread out over TX and OK.   We met on the call and offered prayers and encouragement to Jim and Jen for the surgery tomorrow.

Hard times are part of life, but without family, I don’t know how anyone survives them.

I have done so much art this past week.  More than I’ve done in a very long time.  I got this surge of wanting to do nothing but art.  But I find myself at a stump.  I feel something coming, like a shift in what I’m doing.  Maybe pushing me to a new dimension.  But right now I’m not satisfied with anything I’ve done.  And yet, I can’t stop!

For the first time ever, I took an online art course.  I took Traci Bautista’s monotypes and drizzles class.  It was great to inspire me and get me to doing something each time we got a lesson.  But I have to admit that I didn’t learn a lot for the amount of money I paid.   I had hoped to get a lot of new ideas and techniques, which I didn’t, but as I said, it was good to inspire me just to make art.

I also, for the first time, looked at a lot of videos by various mixed media artists like Millande, Willowsong and Suzy Blu.    I am so impressed that they a) know how to make a video and b) are willing to share their process with everyone.   Millande, especially, was very inspiring to me.  But the thing I noticed about all of them is that they draw a lot.  I can’t draw.  Well, I can but only in pencil and only certain things and only when I work and work at it.  It’s not something I can just do quickly on a canvas like they do.

It seems that successful mixed media artists have a very distinct style.  Claudine Hellmuth – poppet people; Kelly Rae Roberts – girls with big skirts and tilted heads; Traci Bautista – graffiti like, multilayered paintings.   I have  my own style, in a sense, but I have several styles.   I like the simplicity of dresses done in only two or three soft colors with lots of texture.  I also like bold colors with lots of smudging and messiness.  And I do a lot with neutral colors accented with dark browns and blacks.  So, I wonder do these artists really only do the one style?  Or do they only  market one style so that’s all we see?

I’m wondering if a “real” artist has such a distinct style that all their work is very recognizable.  If so, maybe I’m not a real artist.  Maybe as I continue to create, my styles will merge into one unique style.    In the meantime, I’m going to continue to paint and glue and play – creating what I’m inspired to create.