Playing with mixed media

Mixed media has never been a strong point for me, but my Artist Way group loves it:  the more different kinds of media, the better! I'm more of a purist I guess. This particular meeting, we didn't really have a planned project so we got out some gel medium and "played". I'm still not quite sure what gel medium is but it sure is versatile. Along with it, I used ink, magazine clippings, and pastel crayons on watercolor paper. Here are my creations.

Blackout poetry

This blog is called  "A Creative Journey", and so every once I while, to keep my creativity fresh, I throw in something completely different: poetry!  It has been a while since I posted an activity from my Artist's Way group. This activity was so simple but very thought provoking at the same time. I always try to stretch myself creatively, and this group always challenges me with something new, and this was no exception. I am not one to actually write poetry but this was a fun way to create it without having to write.
My first piece was out of an Agatha Christie book. There was a lot of dialogue so I tried to find a page without too many gaps but other than that, it was a random page. Then I went through and circled the words that stood out to me. Sharpie was my tool of choice for the blacking out.

The Secret of Romance

My next selection was a page out of Ernest Holmes, a new thought writer who focuses on one's spirituality...quite the opposite kind of text compared to Agatha Christie! I decided to take this one a step further with both color (still Sharpie though) as well as creating a face within the text.

Spiritual Awareness

Cosmos, spraying watercolor

OK...finally left Maui and back to mainland mind. Nothing like getting back on track than my Artist's Way group. They always stretch me out of my comfort zone and try something new. This month, one of the artists in the group brought liquid watercolors in spray bottles. They were the little travel size bottles with a little pump on the top. I had to let go of any control and just let the sprayed paint land where it may. Trying not to get too much water on the paper was a challenge. Once it started coming together like a starry sky, my mind envisioned seeing the Milky Way from the top of Mt. Haleakala...oops, Maui reference.

The last couple of steps that I did was to splatter some white onto it with a bristled brush, and then spray it with an iridescent gold. It all depends on what angle the light hits the painting as to whether the gold shines or not.

I later saw this image online of NASA's largest picture ever taken and it reminded me of my painting!

Full moon inspiration

Inspired by my Artist Way group, as well as the full moon last night, I created this piece around a quote that I had found on social media by Diana Cooper.

Today's full moon opens you up to your true soul energy.

I am not thrilled with my lettering skills (done with a sharpie), but I have been wanting to have an excuse to try splatter painting with a toothbrush for a long time.

Tapping into inner child through art

I usually paint from a photo or plein air. I rarely paint straight from my imagination, but it's good to exercise my imagination once in a while. In our Artist Way group we had a meditation to tap into our creativity and childhood memories of it. What do we remember about being creative as a child and how has that changed as we became adults? Many times we fall into a routine as adults and forget to make time to be creative in our busy, hectic schedules.
I cut "doors" into either side of the paper before I began, writing a word from my childhood inside on the top, something for my adult self on the bottom. Then I created this whimsical piece with watercolor pencils and colored pencils. 

If I was to do this again, I would have cut the doors after the piece was finished so it would not bleed through to the paper taped behind,  but it is harder to cut into art that has already been created.

Process painting, acrylic

Sometimes painting is more about the process than the end product. This piece was inspired by my Artist Way group, and started with a meditation to tap into the creative flow. I was feeling artistically blocked because of so much other "stuff" going on in my life. To represent that my "plate is full", I traced a circle using a paper plate onto a piece of paper. I wrote everything on my mind out onto the "plate": stresses, worries, things to do, etc. Occasionally I would write a positive word just to raise my energy. After I had filled the plate, I glued it down onto another piece of paper. Using acrylic paint, I put down a background color. Then I started coloring over all of my negativity with bright yellow, imagining the bright sun washing away all of my worries, while letting my positives peek through.  As I continued to cover up the plate with paint, it transformed from a sun to a sunflower. I still know all the writing is under there, but I need to remember to focus on the positives!

Christmas cards (or Holiday cards!)

I got together with my Artist Way group to make Christmas cards. They really go all out with materials and supplies, because they love to experiment with different processes and multimedia. I'm more of a purist myself but it's good to get out of my comfort zone once in a while. Here are some Christmas cards that I created. I actually started with a sheet of watercolor paper that someone else had started with a blue and green wash. She said it didn't turn out like she wanted, but I thought it would be perfect for a background (and I hated for it to go to waste). Then I added more paint and stamped them. The first two are my favorite...

  For this last set of cards I really went out of my comfort zone with stamps and glitter! (It doesn't show up well in my photos though)

Although I call them Christmas cards, only this second to last one says Christmas, so I suppose "holiday cards" is a more appropriate title...good for EVERY occasion!

Experimenting with watercolors

I taught a class about water coloring to my Artist Way group, focusing on different effects that can be created with watercolor. We started by talking about the different consistencies of the paint, depending on the water-paint ratio: tea, milk, or cream.  Start with tea, and work your way up to cream.  We discussed the nature of water always going to where it is dry...going from wet brush to dry paper, or wet paper to dry brush. I showed how to do washes and wet on wet blending of color, as well as resist with crayon, blotting, and even trying a salt effect. Sometimes I think I know just enough to be dangerous! It was just a fun night of playing with watercolor. Here are a couple of pieces I created...there was no plan, both of these just developed into something from trial and error.

Experimenting with pan pastels

It has been a while since I have posted a blog, but life gets busy! Being inspired to try something new by my Artist's Way group, I experimented with a new medium, pan pastels...basically pastel powder packed into a container. It is applied with sponge applicators, and I also used makeup wedges. It is challenging to get any sharp lines, but it works great for blending. I was using some scrap paper, so it wasn't a very heavy weight.

 

 I started with a basic landscape, adding layers of color, but I should have combined it with some pastel sticks to incorporate some detail. Even with the smaller sponge applicators, I just couldn't get a sharp line.

 This piece actually started as my "sponge cleaning" paper, just to get some of the extra pastel off the sponge, but then I started creating something out of it, using a big pink eraser, which picked up the pastel quite well.

Overall it was fun to play with these pan pastels, and I could see using them in a mixed media application.

Angel of light and love

My Artists Way group gets together once a month to be creative in some way or another, as well as getting us out of our comfort zones sometimes. This month we worked on collaborative projects to be donated to Collage for a Cure. It is a fun process working on a painting with another artist, bouncing creativity off each other yet practicing having no attachment.  I worked with fellow artist Teresa Rodriguez on this piece, using acrylic on watercolor paper. Acrylic is still not my favorite  medium,  but it sure made the process different  as we built up layers of paint, very unlike watercolor.
I also have to give credit to Tina Greene for coordinating the donation process, and helping with the framing!

Ink doodles...zentangles

Just some ransom doodles, the specific process referred to as zen tangles, that we worked on at my Artists' Way group. I have always been a doodler, but this was a fun new way of looking at different patterns, styles, and techniques.

Meditative art with Artists' Way for the New Year 2014

My Artists' Way group got together to bring in the New Year with some meditative art. We laid background color first, just whatever inspired us. Then we came up with one word that would be our intention for the year 2014 - I picked JOY...I can always make a situation better by looking at it from a state of joy! With this word in mind, we went on a guided visualization/meditation.  This is what came to me...a big oak tree (no surprise since being out in nature always brings me joy!) with a little door...kind of adds that little bit of curiosity to what is inside?  I did a quick sketch with a ball point pen just to get my ideas down and then went to work on the canvas. I love the bright colors that I created in the background before I even knew I was going to paint a tree! I get more comfortable with acrylic every time I work with it.  Quite unlike my Empowered Kids logo which took over 6 months, this was done in less than 2 hours.  I think I captured my sketch very well with the painting.

 I used a gold paint for the word "joy" so it really catches the light, I love it!

Here are some of the other creations made by the others in the group...what a creative group we have!

The background with some texturing added in

Here is my intention on the canvas

Cardboard, glue, and foil...simple enough for kids, but fun for adults, too!

So here is another creation inspired by a Pinterest post. You seemed to enjoy the last one on Baby Wipe Painting! This one comes from a blog called Make It...a Wonderful Life. Our Artist Way group chose this project to work on to help us get creative though different mediums. It was a two step process. The first step was to create a basic design using glue onto a piece of cardboard. From our experience, chip board works better than corragated because the corragated pattern comes through on the completed product. I also found that the "basic design" is all relative because even small details come through in the end.  I used a toothpick to feather some of my glue lines. Sorry I didn't take a picture of the completed first step.

After the glue has dried completely, cover the cardboard with foil. Either the shiny or matte side works. For my project I used the matte side of the foil. Tape the back to keep the foil from moving around. Using your fingers or cotton swabs, rub the foil until the design from the glue comes through on the foil. Then you can add in more details with a pointed object like a pencil (Not too sharp as to puncture the foil though). This will add in some texture that wasn't possible with the glue.

Last, we put shoe polish on and rubbed it around to give it an antique look. It was hard  to work with the shoe polish and it didn't move around as well as I wanted it too, but it does help accentuate some of the details.

Photograghing this piece was a challenge because of the reflective surface, but you can get an idea of the detail  work as well as the areas left smooth.

Baby Wipe Painting

I'm always willing to try new things.  A friend of mine from my Artist Way group told me of this process of applying paint with baby wipes of all things. "Forget the brushes!" I thought, "Let's give this a try!" On a 3/4 inch thick piece of plywood (8 in x 10 in) I used the baby wipe to apply two different colors of acrylic paint. and within 5 minutes, I had created a sunset (or I suppose it could be turned upside-down for a sunrise).  The moisture of the wipe helped spread the paint on the untreated wood.  The grain still shows through to give it that ethereal look. I also applied paint to the sides of the board for a more completed look without a frame.

Artist's Way

The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron, is a book focused on the spiritual path to higher creativity.  It helps artists discover what is blocking their creativity and connect (or reconnect) to their art, and the process,  in a spiritual way. I took a 12 week class focused on this book and each of its 12 chapters from Vina Parmar of Awakening Creative Arts . At first, I wasn't sure if this was a class for me, but my wife convinced me that I should at least try it.  After being in the class for 10 minutes, I knew that this was going to be a wonderful experience. 

This was a piece I completed the first night of the class using colored pencils on black construction paper.  I used a layering effect that I had been working on with my watercolor to create texture in the trunk of the tree.  I am not sure where the idea of the eyes came from, but apparently I was thinking of a self-portrait. 

The great thing about this class was that each class exposed us to a new kind of creativity. Everything from colored pencil drawing to poetry writing, dance, vision board, and even sand art!  Each week was an adventure in creativity, and learning not to be afraid of something new. It was the inspiration behind this blog!

Check out upcoming classes in 2013!

http://www.awakeningcreativearts.com/artistsway.htm

Introduction

Ceramic Cookie Jar -College Ceramics Class

 Welcome to my Art Blog.  I've been getting back into my art this year after setting it aside for 20 years. After leaving college, I went out into the real world where I had to get a paying job which left little time for much else!   As an art major, I had all of these resources available to me, whether it was sculpting, ceramics, painting, or figure drawing.  There was also a lot more time to dedicate to my art back then. 

Bronze Horse - College Sculpture Class

Now that I have a family and a full time job, the time and resources seem to not be as easy to come by.  With a new realization, I have found that I need to make time for both! When I first started back out to paint,  I began by being inspired by nature, specifically the American River Parkway right around the corner. All I had was a simple watercolor kit and some brushes to start "Plein aire" painting - which means outside on the spot. One day while seeking some inspiration, I happened across another couple of artist's painting along the river, and they told me about a Meet-Up group called Plein Aire Painters that met regularly and welcomed me to join them. 








This blog is my story of getting back to my passion and my art, working though my perfectionism and fear of failure (or maybe the fear of success?), and the story that goes behind every piece of art that I create.  My goal is to post a new entry several times per month, with the hope of becoming more prolific as I continue my process. Enjoy my creativity!

College Life Figure Drawing Class