Experiments In Color & Magic

I find certain magic happens in those last minutes we're in our art spaces - when there's paint left on the palette that we just can't waste, paper we'd usually never use but have close by, when there isn't much time left and we want to squeeze out the most creative juice we can before playtime is over. 

If you follow my Instagram feed (or Facebook), you get a little peek into my process (and usually the mess I make while playing!); I take a LOT of pictures while working - to gain perspective on what I'm doing, to document the process so I can repeat it, and yes...to have blog photos!  

Anyway, over the next week, I'll be sharing the work I've been giddy over - stuff I look at when I'm done and can't help but smile. It's awesome when we create art journal pages we love, but it's brilliant when we can't stop making more!  

I decided to stick with a set color palette for two sessions. Why? To see all the different ways I could incorporate the colors! I wanted to see how they behave as part of my own little class on color theory and experimentation!  

Here are the colors I used:

neon red/teal green/bright aqua green/yellow ocher/dark titanium white/white

Oh, and to paint with? Catalyst tools! Just the small and medium of the grey tools, and the blue wedge. That's it!  

Here are some progress shots of my first experiments with this all! 

And here are two finished paintings! Final details were added with gouache & I pulled out the silver leaf! I was working on ledger paper and half-finished canvases in the studio...and don't be afraid to mess something up in order to keep playing! 

Both are available, and I'll be making prints soon! 

Friday, I'll have more eye candy for you all!  

Sparkling Embellishments w/ Silks Acrylic Glazes (VIDE

It's baaaaack!  

I could write it all here, but why don't you watch? 

This was supposed to be a bonus lesson for Summer Camp, but found I didn't need to add in the extra content...so decided I'd share it will all of you!  

Really, YouTube is a passion of mine, and it's time for me to start making videos again. We'll see what happens. I'm going to keep them under 8 minutes, so they're just a little inspiration in your day, but need YOU to give me ideas of what YOU want to see!  

I'll be filming a couple more things this week to tide you over while I'm on vacation, and then I'll be making the set and developing content. Something I'm really into is products...I'm always sharing new stuff with my friends, and have a studio FULL of fun stuff you may have never heard of...and I'm a total bargain shopper, so it won't break the bank! 

Part of that success I wrote about over the weekend? Yeah, it's because of you...my darling readers and subscribers and followers and friends. I'd be nothing without your support...we're in this together! 

ALSO, if you are NOT SUBSCRIBED to me on YouTube, would you? I'm desperately close to 5k, and honestly, that's were all the cool stuff starts to happen. Just askin'!

Playing With Color Theory (+ book review!)

It's been no secret that I've been learning color theory in my art journals.  

You see, I didn't really pay attention to it until I was taking a tour of the Phoenix Art Museum with Dina and listened to her speak about color usage by the great artists and their contemporaries; she'd point out the importance of the red chair or diary in a painting, about how colors work harmoniously together, and her words swirled around me, my heart aching to create art that spoke on so many levels. 

Even if you're just playing in your art journal, wouldn't it be wonderful to just know  which colors would work together? It would take a lot of the guess work out of painting -- you could then focus on content and message and collage, rather than hoping the colors you chose would look awesome together. 

At least that's my thinking!  

I've been mixing colors for years, but have never stretched myself as far as when I did this exercise in Mary Beth Shaw's book, Flavor for Mixed Media. 

This book, while like many of our modern how-to books, surprised me with the variety of techniques and exercises within; each is inspired by the work of other artists, meaning you get lots of interviews and insights to our favorite art-makers out there! Add to that recipes for yummy food, and you have a wholly unique book on your hands.  

In this exercise, Mary Beth encourages you to get to know your colors better. By choosing three colors: a red, yellow, and blue (plus white), you then mix two of them together in all the ratios you can think of...and there are a LOT of colors you can create with just three shades of the basic colors! I thought I'd be doing a couple mixtures, but each just went deeper and deeper as I played around. Not only do you discover new colors, but you suddenly have a whole palette of harmonious colors you know  will go together, all from three little bottles. I can't wait  to make journal pages from these experimental pages & colors! 

I really encourage you to give this a try and record your results. I mixed my colors on deli paper, as Mary Beth does in the exercise, recording the colors I used with a Stabilo All pencil. I worked on watercolor paper, making little squares with an angled brush (but you can make circles or rectangles!) . 

You'll really stretch your own understanding of color and mixing, and the whole process is so calming, it's a perfect warm-up exercise to a rewarding session with your art journal! You can even glue the results in!  

This is my earthy palette, and the first I tried. Your yellow doesn't need to be bright yellow, but can be a shade. Look at that dreamy purple over there on the right! 

I was really astounded by the range of colors created from these primaries. The Nickel Azo gold may not seem like a yellow, but it is...gold!

I wanted to show you my mistake batch....I forgot a yellow, and threw in a green instead, and yeah....it doesn't work really well! Oops!

This, by far, was my absolute favorite of the four....just looking at the mixture sheet makes me happy! Expect to see a journal page covered in these colors real soon over on my Instagram account! Mmm! Mint! And lime green! And a warm pink! Yummy!

Also, I wanted to let you know I've created a little vlog YouTube channel called JournalGirlStudio. I really love making those short check-in videos from my studio (I've even made little ones and sent them to friends!) and thought I'd throw 'em up on YouTube. That way, you can just see what I'm up to whenever you want without having to be on Instagram or Facebook. They'll all be made from my iPhone....so let's see how this goes!  

Shining From Within...

I've always been captivated by the moon, that milky white light, the way it cuts through the cold on a clear winter's night, or seems to radiate heat in the height of summer. When I was younger, I set a jar of water, scented with rose oil, out during the full moon, hoping to capture a bit of its magic. I kept the jar for years, opening it every so often to smell the moon-rose water inside. 

I lost it in the move out west, the magic used up, gone, only drops left inside. 

I've found myself playing, looking at the relationship between color and shape, putting together elements in my journal that I feel would produce simple beauty, evoke emotion. There are pages I spend hours on, and others I put together over weeks, finding little bits and scraps that would work amazingly well together. 

It's almost like going on a scavenger hunt, long-winded with the prize of a loved journal page, finding all those elements that are supposed to fit, work together. Plucking pieces of the Self from a pile of papers and scraps and left-overs from other projects, bigger projects. 

It's how we piece ourselves back together after a stressful event, a long trip to our Soul Home we avoided for so long, we needed to go far, far away to find ourselves again. All those pieces of our True Self shed and forgotten, dropped for shinier, newer toys. But those new things may not be the best for us, or feed our ego instead of nourishing us, and at some point, we're left alone, grasping, in the dark, for those true bits, hoping to light our Soul Light once again, glowing bright against the darkness.

Take time today to be Silent. To sit with yourself and listen for those words of wisdom, those answers you already know. Collect together the yearnings of your true nature, put them together, shine from within.