30 Days of Friendly Faces Starts Today!

Remember the original blog post I wrote for Friendly Faces? I referred to a 30 day challenge I wanted to do after, to get people practicing and jumping outside their comfort zones. Well...it started today!

It's part of the basic class, and we're already sharing drawings in the forums. But as I was thinking about it, I thought that maybe some people are already kinda confident with their faces, but would like a guided challenge to get them drawing more regularly. I like following my intuition and know these gut feelings are usually good to go on, so I decided to run the challenge itself off a private blog so others could join just for the 30 day challenge! 

Each day, I'll be posting a prompt, example drawing, and drawing/illustration tips. These may be ways to look at your drawing, pictures & artwork that inspired the prompt and/or the example drawing, or mini-tutorials. It shouldn't take you more than 15 minutes a day to keep up, and there are some really silly prompts to keep things light and fun! 

You can get access to the 30 day challenge blog for $15. Or click here to join us for the full class experience, with forums, for $28. Either way, I hope to see you there!

“I have just had the best time and learned heaps from Samie Kira about faces, especially her secret trick!”

— Jan B.

30 Days of Friendly Faces Challenge
$15

Journal Girl Ning Email

make a new dream daily (color & mark-making #2)

Here's more color and mark-making, this time, in my giant journal. 

(It's an 11"x14" Strathmore mixed-media art journal. This link has the BEST price for them!)

I originally was just using it to clean off the Catalyst tools, but then I grabbed it and started playing! Paint + my kick-ass inspiring playlist = the best warm up time ever! 

Here's my set up, including my tools. I was asked what a color shaper was -- it's the one on the far left. It has a flexible tip that smooshes the paint around. It doesn't allow for very detailed work, or even much control, really, but that was the point. 

I've been working on loosening up the faces I draw, getting away from mechanical pencils and small lines. I want to capture the emotions on a face, or the idea of a face, rather than the details. And this tool allowed me to be messy and general and get in a little shading. In fact, I even ventured outside my comfort zone and used purple to shade....imagine that! 

The palette for this spread (and some pieces on artist's board I'll share next week) was: 

•  Blick Matte Acrylics: Teal Green/Amethyst/Red Violet Deep
• Golden: Neon Red& Pink (mixed together/Diarylide Yellow/Vat Orange
• Other: Primary Magenta/Yellow Ocher/Dark Titanium White/White 

I kinda went crazy with colors, but was able to see which worked together well and which didn't, and also, which ones I thought I liked and which I didn't. For example, there was blue on my palette, but I put down a little bit and hated it, so stopped using it. My idea has been to use colors near each other on the color wheel, so have a few more combinations to explore. 

I really love how this exercise is not only allowing me to experiment with mark making & using tools instead of brushes, but seems to be the foundation of finding what colors I'll work with for the next long while. I'm working on another little woodworking project for my gouache paints, and I discovered something important tonight: I don't need to carry/use every color I own. This makes it easier to pack, knowing which you love and which you don't, and in what situation you'd use each in, and I think will make for more harmonious paintings & journal pages overall. 

Now here's the spread after I wrote on it with white gouache and a bamboo brush. Notice how opaque and matte the words are -- have I mentioned I'm in love with gouache? Cause I am! 

I could keep posting pics, but don't want to overwhelm anyone! Plus, I have 30 Days of Friendly Faces starting on Monday, and that means a whole PDF to get done & passworded blog to set up. It's part of the class, but I'm thinking I may put just this challenge up as a separate piece. Are there any people out there who want to take just the guided challenge? Let me know! 

And let me know if you're enjoying these posts! I'm in love with all the stuff I'm doing, lately, and am just bursting to share! I wish we had transporters so you could all just come hang out!

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!  

The Red Storybook Weeks #4 & 5

The first few weeks of The Red Storybook were amazing, and then week 4 hit and I drew, but I didn't do it well, and never colored anything. Okay, I didn't color half of week 3, either, but hey! I had weekends! I could catch up easily, right?

Nope. 

It's so hard to catch up when you also have that day's entry to do, and I've spent the past two weeks trying to catch up and stay on top of current entries. It was tough. But I have gotten to a point where I'm comfortable moving on. Oh, sure, I could spend forever and a day improving previous entries and getting into the details, but that isn't the point. I need to let go and move forward. 

I've already seen an improvement with how I work with the gouache, have added in colored pencils, and it's getting a bit easier to figure out what my illustration style really is. It's also awesome to be able to look back and see my weeks stack up -- I'm into the 40's, now, and can't believe I've cleared nearly half of February! 

I've also been working on a Massive Gouache Q&A post, as well as a How I Do This & With What post, and now that I'm caught up and posting all these spreads, will be back to regular blogging. 

(I'm always blogging on my Tumblr, which now has more art than Sherlock GIFs, and a few posts I haven't shared anywhere else even Instagram.) 

I'm goofy in love with some work I've done recently, including art journal messes made today, so this week's blogging will be more than just my silly drawings and words...(how else do we improve, though, but through doing and doing often?) 

Also, Friendly Faces is all up for self-study with some pretty satisfied students! 

And the winners are....

Thank you ALL for your lovely comments! There is so many favorite, varied techniques in the comment thread over there, you should really check it out. 

The winners are:

Beth Lunney 

&

Diana Caho!

Congrats, ladies! Your books & little gifts will be in the post Friday!

Thanks again to everyone who commented & said they'd be grabbing a copy & congratulated me. I wouldn't have gotten here without all of you! ♥♥♥

The Red Storybook - Week #3

They say it takes three weeks to establish a habit, and we're at week three of my project for the year. While there was a period of about ten days where I simply wrote and did a quick pencil sketch, I've come to restructure my evenings around my storybook entries. I'll pull it out while watching an hour or two of nighttime tv to write and sketch, then head to my little desk to color the drawing in with my box of gouache before grabbing a book and snuggling with my pup in bed. 

Actually, I'm getting to be earlier than I have for the past couple of months, and spending less time at night watching tv (well, I don't count an episode or two streaming on my ipad as tv time, since I'm at my desk listening to it...). It's helping me get into a steady rhythm with my sleep schedule, which is insanely important when you have fibromyalgia. Who knew a nightly art habit was all I needed! 

I'm also becoming more confident with gouache, and am feeling less guilty about buying it because I use it every day...I'm sure you have a hoarded supply you wish you used more  or feel guilty about all the money spent on it. Well, using it every day not only helps you become more skilled with it, but you use it up faster!  

My plan is to share a few of my favorites from the week. I have to allow myself to keep some back, or else my perfectionist side will come out with each one, and instead of allowing myself to experiment, I'll be worried about if it's "good enough" to share!

(I'm also blogging them each week as a way to stay accountable...if people are expecting me to post, I'd better have something to share!)

If you have any questions about this project, or the supplies I use, leave 'em in the comments and I'll do a big post to answer them all. 

PS. There's still time to enter my book giveaway! Comments close tonight at midnight, MST! 

PPS. I'm using my Tumblr a lot as a little scrapbook of art I love, discussions about chronic illness, & Sherlock gifs. C'mon over if you have one, and let me know yours so I can add you back!

PPPS. Friendly Faces starts tomorrow! Woohoo! I'm spending the day getting everything ready. You can join at any time!

I co-wrote a book! (dream come true storytime)

Yep, that's right! I co-wrote a book! 

101 Mixed Media Techniques (it's back in stock on Amazon!)

Last spring, I got an email from an awesome and sweet editor looking for someone to write the art journaling section of a book she was working on, and of course I said yes!

(I also love several books this publisher's done, and know they do quality work!)

I poured through my art journals from the past seven years, and let me tell you, narrowing down years of techniques to just ten is pretty tough, but I managed to do it! I created some of my favorite pages while creating pages for this book, and am just tickled pink that they're published. Not only that, but one's on the cover! 

In celebration of this awesome dream come true, I'm hosting a give away of two copies of my book! There are tons of awesome mixed-media techniques by some really amazing artists in this book -- I know I'm going to be playing with quite a few of them! And since there's different technique on each page, you can use it as a great prompt tool -- just flip open to a random page and get playing! 

Simply leave a comment below by Sunday, January 27th & I'll send you a signed copy & a little gift in the post. 

Hrmm...let's see....why don't you share what your favorite art journaling technique is! What would you be able to narrow down to from your own journaling past?

Please note that I have moderated comments, and yours won't show up right away. Also, PLEASE include your email address so I can get in contact with you if you win!

PS. Don't forget that my newest offering goes live on Monday! Friendly Faces is for those who don't think they can draw, or want to develop their own style via children's book illustrations and mixed-media self portraits. And it's only $28! Sign up now!

Thoughts Like Wispy Clouds (from the studio)

Here are a bunch of random thoughts & photos…

Last week, just before I left the studio for the weekend, I mounted a gelli print I adore to a canvas and set it to dry under a heavy box of paints (Monday and Tuesday were a jumbled mess of doctors’ appointments, so I didn’t have a chance to hit the studio). Pulling it out today, I realized I love it too much to paint over it, even a little bit. 

And then, whispered in my ear, I heard oh darling how I love you! 

I got my new-old journal last week as well — I found this book in a thrift store, when I wasn’t even looking, for $2! I had to show the girls right away, and asked Tangie’s husband Dave, who is super talented at bookbinding, to rebind in some watercolor paper. I’ve been art journaling for years, and this is the first time I’ve found one of these! 

(If you want an uber-awesome journal, you should totally hit up their Etsy shop!)

The cover was kind of lacking, so I decided to paint in some of the details with my acrylic gouache. Yes, it took a really small brush and lots of patience, but the end result was so worth it! 

Am I the only person who finds tons of cool scraps and pictures that would be awesome to collage in my art journal, but they never make it in, so they just pile up? I found the pile beautiful. Now if I could just start gluing them into my journal and get them off my table, that’d be great. 

Final thought: what do I do next? I adore this piece, but don’t know what should come next. Handwriting? Drawing? Girl? What would you do?