Wild Soul

Happy New Year! 
2013 and I seem to have gotten off on the right foot. This year I want to keep up my painting momentum and also try art journaling. Last month I posted about making a small series of hand bound, travel journals called From Here to There. I liked them very much and kept one to use for myself. I then joined Effy Wild's Book of Days art journaling class and watched the videos, that are available to members, in order to prepare for the class start in January. What I ended up doing was using what I learned in that short time to fill my Here to There journal with as much as I could from my 2012 all at once right then in December. A bit unusual in the world of journaling, perhaps. I think it turned out really cool considering how quickly it all came together and that it is in no particular order. The journal has a fun, quirky, charm to it with lots of color, textures and topics. It was a practice run for art journaling in 2013.

Staying in the "Zone"
The endeavor of getting into the creative zone on a daily basis or at least have a more regular routine of creating I decided to search for some e-classes that offered daily art journaling. I found Wild Souls Art with Effy Wild which is an art community I had discovered earlier in the year so I recalled that she did art journaling daily, and I started my search there. As I became more acquainted with her site I was amazed at how much this one person has going on! In addition to teaching her own classes she takes classes and teaches in other forums besides her own. After comparing my needs / desires for art journaling daily with her course and a few others, not that I needed to look much further, I decided to sign up to her Book of Days premium course.

Elements
After becoming a premium member of Book of Days (BOD) I had access to a whole bunch of cool art videos and I began with the self guided Elements series. Elements is a mini-course that takes you through creating a one or two page spread for each of the elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. And there were bonus lessons: Spirit, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. I made it through the Elements videos in a week or so and within two weeks I had all my pages completed and hand bound together. I'll show you my pages but I didn't want this post to be photo heavy so I made up some collage pictures using Picmonkey.

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For the first collage the first page I made is on the left hand side. It is a page that has all four elements together: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. I've made it the cover page for my Elements Journal. Then on the top right there is a green woman representing the Earth element. Below her is a light blue page for my Air element. I used acrylics, bubble wrap, sand paper, metallic paints & stencils.

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This next collage has Fire on top, water on the lower left and Summer on the bottom right. In these three I have used a variety of techniques including stencils, portraiture and abstract. While I'm not super skilled at these I wanted to go for it and get in some practice.

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This is my page for Spirit. I had this lovely photo from an issue of Vogue of Charlotte Gainsbourg. I'd had this for a couple years and knew right away that I would be choosing her for my focal point for this lesson. I wanted  the background to be very minimal; which is not an easy accomplishment for me. But, I really did not want to go overboard using techniques or embellishments for this page. I'm a person who loves movies so I picked an actress for my incarnation of Spirit. If you're familiar with Charlotte's work you'd know she is an amazing actress and singer but also a lovely person with an interesting life. I feel she's a positive influence and couldn't think of any other person who is such inspiration to me. So I decided that she, rather than a self portrait was worthy of a shrine to the divine feminine. That's my opinion and why I chose her to represent Spirit. I decided not to add any text but rather allowed the empty space balance out the beautiful image. I did add white flocking to some of the swirls that overlap the image; when the glue dried the swirls fade away into the background yet they also integrate the picture into the whole rather nicely. I added a blue rhinestone to her forehead to reinforce the idea of the divine. Photos do not do art journal pages justice they need to be seen in real life to be enjoyed. 

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 This page is my Spring page. Very green. Very whimsical. It's one of my favorite ones from the Elements course. It has lots of visual texture! I made the texture with a variety of tape strips at the base layer then by randomly rolling on paint. On a whim I drew this heart shaped face girl with big hair and had a lot of fun doodling all around and I even added text. I was going to paint her in a bit more but I every time I went to paint her face or hair I just couldn't do it. She was really bringing me a lot of joy just as she is. I couldn't bring myself to change it.This was one of those times when the muse speaks and I was present to listen. The muse helped me to be brave and to try something I didn't know I wanted to try from start to finish. I really had a lot of fun making it. This page is totally different than what I've been seeing other budding and experienced artists doing. So to create it and allow it to be exactly as it is - is more than a bit scary. But I may never be able to make another artwork like it and so I just couldn't make anymore additions or changes to this page. On the flip-side I may continue to make lots of characters like this and she could be the first of many. And with that thought I couldn't not create this then cover it up. That would be silly. Especially since I felt super happy with it as 'weird' as it is. Art is a process, there will be lots of happy accidents! I'm still learning, experimenting and finding my way to my style of creating one painting at a time! So I've made this textured super green happy spring girl in the spirit of new growth and possibilities.

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This is a series of photos for the two page spread I made for Winter. It was done along with about a hundred other women on New Years Eve during a live broadcast hosted by Effy. Talk about empowering! We were all there to support, encourage and make art together! I've never experienced anything quite like it. I think so even more now than while it was happening. The idea was to write a bunch of "stuff" we were releasing from 2012. This text is the base layer of the artwork and nearly everyone contributed what they were releasing from 2012 so I did not have much trouble filling up my two pages quickly. I wrote forwards, backwards and overlapped much of the text so it couldn't be easily read. It is getting covered up anyway so it didn't have to be pretty or legible. It was kind of nice just being messy and releasing  the "stuff" we want to and  have intent to let go of and just put it onto the page.

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Next I added some color chalk pastels and gesso to cover up the text. 

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For the third layer I made an outline of my hand on a scrap page, then I used it as a mask for both pages. I outlined and colored around the hands in pink... You can see my gesso, the mask I made of my hand, paint splatters and some stencils in the background...

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For the next step I wrote RELEASE on the left to represent 2012 and all the things I'm leaving behind. On the right it says RECEIVE to represent 2013 and all the things I'm willing to embrace in the New Year. I also glued on a SUKIE iron on image of a bunny and one of my hand carved stamps of bird images on the right. There is no real meaning in using these "symbols" it's just what I had on hand, they were small enough to use and they're cute. Although many artists do use symbolism in their art I have yet to develop my own personal symbol vocabulary. If you're interested in seeing an example of an artist who does have a developed symbol vocabulary and uses it well in their art I suggest you check out Jesse Reno.

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So, yeah me and 2013 have started off very nicely with my intention to be creative every day, to use the supplies I have and to add in a few new ones. To discover new art techniques and practice them. To try new art styles and cultivate an environment for me to develop further as an artist. I already have several online classes I'd like to take picked out and many fun projects planned to fill my year with creativity. I can't wait to do them all! 

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If you're wondering what online groups I'm a part of check my side panel, on this blog, for current ones at the top and older ones nearer the bottom. And in case you notice that I haven't blogged about every single group I'm in - I like to have a bit of flexibility with what I blog about so, I may not blog about or share the work I make during my time in any particular group past, present or future. I approach blogging the way I do a canvas with a bit of whim and I create what I want. 

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I will continue to update my Zazzle and Society6 accounts with products that have my art on them so you can buy them at your convenience. And of course my Etsy shop. If you'd like to request something specific please let me know. I will do my best to make it happen!

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I also wanted to mention that my word for the year is CREATE. I didn't really have one formally picked out last year but if I did it would have been PAINT. Which I did nearly all year long. I only found out about choosing a word for the year in December when I joined Wild Soul Art. So I picked a word for 2013 that would help me focus on what I wanted to accomplish for the year. I am going to do my best to live in that word for this whole year and I will continue to post to my blog once a month & update with what I'm doing.

Thanks for stopping by and being interested in what I'm up to.... 

Happy Days, 

Stephie                                                                 Tweet

Art, Heart and Healing an e-course Review

It's September and this month I'll be talking a bit about Tam LaPorte's Art, Heart and Healing E-course.


A few years ago I started to look into on-line art classes in part because the nearest college that teaches art is about 3 hours away and I don't really want to go back to college. I've taken on-line classes before so I know the method works for me. I began by looking on YouTube for free artsy classes and after a short while discovered "art journaling" which I had never heard of before. They seemed to be a whirlwind of mixed media pieces by incorporating ephemera, painting, stamping & journaling all in one small space. I must say that at the time I didn't make scrap books or keep a journal so I was quickly overwhelmed yet strangely in awe of the concept. Art Journaling didn't quite hit the spot for me - what I really wanted to do was paint.


Some of the videos I viewed were by Tamera LaPorte, user name Willowing, and although they were mixed media works they weren't crammed into a small journal. I watched a few videos and noticed she incorporates text and that's a bit like journaling but I kept thinking that the works could stand on their own. To me the text seemed optional yet, also seemed to support the art and put the characters expressions into context. I was intrigued.


The more I thought about it the more I realized I wasn't against art journaling, adding text into my art or adding drawings into a journal entry. I'd just never been there or tried that on such a scale, so it was new to me. I needed more time for the idea to go to seed in my mind. As I searched YouTube for art videos it seemed that the art journaling was the style that I kept discovering appealed to me most because of the variety of topics, the mixed media elements and the possibility it presented.


What set Tam's art apart from the rest were her videos. They were short, shot with a tripod so they were steady and often times fast-forwarded so you could see the progression quickly. I also liked her friendliness as well as her art style - her characters were realistic yet not so overwhelmingly real that they seemed photographic, they were somewhere in between and seemed attainable to me. I began to feel inspired to create but I ended up putting it on the back burner for a couple more years.


When I decided to paint at the beginning of this year I kind of went through some of the same steps of looking to YouTube and rediscovering what's new in painting, mixed media, art journaling and I found Tam again. I had actually had forgotten about all of it but I was quickly absorbing the creativity because now I had time to devote to pursuing painting more seriously than I had a few years ago.


I discovered that Tam had a whole bunch of e-courses running and was successfully teaching her style of art to thousands of people just like me! How could I forget that!? Anyways, when I realized she had this free course Art, Heart and Healing I jumped at the opportunity to try it out. In part because it was free, yes, but also because I liked some of her other courses and before deciding to pay for them them I wanted to know if I liked her style of teaching and if could I really learn from her methods.


Going into the self-paced, free e-course I had no idea what it would be like or how much I would get out of it. I thought it would be a few quick videos of her painting in fast forward like on YouTube and maybe a bit about what she uses to create her art. And oh boy I was wrong! There are an unbelievable four weeks of course work with at least two hours worth of video with each lesson. She tells you what she uses, how to use it and there are several downloadable PDF's too. Tam really went all out to get the viewer involved with the lessons, techniques and provide support of any kind if you need it..... forever.


Not only does she place creativity within your reach she gives you the tools you need to be successful at attaining a creative and deeply personal work of art even if you've never drawn or painted a day in your life. Even though I was afraid to dive into uncharted territories of art and the heart I really had a good experience that was well worth the time and effort on my part as well as hers. My fears quickly dissipated as Tam has a lovely soothing style, there's a lot of simple techniques given and her videos fluctuate between a regular conversational pace and fast forwarding when she's already covered a technique so you don't feel like she's wasting your time. The videos are free and downloadable so you can review a technique if necessary.


Although she edits her videos she'll say something like "Oh look, I've made a mistake here but I'm not editing it out because I want you to see how I fix it." Which I found quite helpful. When the lessons focus on healing she shares some of her own life with you in order to show you how to take some steps to move past an old hurt and she says that all of the lessons, techniques and healing elements are completely optional and if some things are too painful then simply focus on the art techniques. She will suggest you copy her style if you like while she encourages you to try things on your own and develop your own style when you're ready.

A brief word about the Willowing site - Tam has created an online presence and art community of support for all ages, genders and geographical locations. Everyone is welcome from all walks of life and all artistic levels. The lessons are all taught in English and she encourages us, when using text in our work, to use whichever language we're most comfortable with. There are different forums on the site for sharing art, finding support and so much more! It can be overwhelming at times because there is a lot of activity. Just remember that if or when you're ready to share you can and if sharing isn't your thing then that's fine too. The forums are simply there if you want to participate or just observe. What's important is you get what you need from what is offered.


I don't spend much time in the forums myself but I know that if I do decide to share my work for a class that I am sharing in a safe place where no one can spoil my fun, as everyone is encouraged to be supportive of each other. It seems to be that there is great support and encouragements all around. If I want a critique there's a specific forum for that. I've never participated in a critique because I feel as long as I'm satisfied with my art then why would I need one? I think I'd use it if I was really stuck on a piece and need guidance but luckily I've been pretty happy with what I've created.

And that's kind of what it's all about... creating art you love! There's art class and learning the craft and learning expression through the craft. When you make art that you love that is uniquely yours and someone else loves it too then you've been successful.

I can not say enough good things about Tam, Willowing and this free e-course. I liked it so much I signed up for the other classes I was interested in but I'll talk about some other time. For this course I chose to only create one piece of art and it's quite unlike anything I've made before because I followed Tam's style. I made it in my new Molskine art journal... and while I am not a prolific art journal-er and don't think I ever will be I've come to realize that painting on any surface is painting and that it's the process of creating that makes me happy...

I hope you enjoyed reading this review and find it helpful. Maybe you would like to try the Art, Heart and Healing e-course yourself.

Happy creating,
Stephie                                                                     Tweet

Aurora Leaves the City Behind, a painting in stages

Painting on the brain...
I've been working on my painting skills over these past few weeks. I struggle though. The struggle is not just to find time to paint but to allow myself have the time and space to paint. Not sure what your take on painting is so I'll just speak to what it is for me, at this time. I like painting and I'd like painting to be one of my regular hobbies. I know that it isn't just a hobby but a skill that needs time, patience and lots of practice.

Express...
A painting can be an expression of an idea, a place real or imagined, a dream or be completely random and spontaneous. I usually creatively express myself in other ways like sewing or baking. Maybe it's because I prefer making something that I've had the most consistent successful results with. I should persist with painting because in time it too will begin to have successful outcomes...

Learning to relearn how to paint...
I've taken drawing, painting and watercolor classes years ago but I feel like I've forgotten much of what I once learned mostly because I didn't regularly paint. I only occasionally painted. So this year my New Years Resolution, a first for me, was to paint more. I don't make New Year's Resolutions so I thought if I do make one it will have to be a resolution I'd actually enjoy doing. A resolution that would bring back something I would like to welcome into my lifestyle; something that would enhance my life as an artist. In deciding to paint more I needed to find at least one on line painting class. And this painting (below) is from the first class I took this year by Juliette Crane called How to Paint a Girl.

Take a break...
One thing I'm beginning to understand is that I'm just like any other person who struggles with creating. There are times of success, times of frustration and sometimes downright failures. Some days I have a clear direction for what I'm creating. Other days I'm totally lost and muddling through. I'm learning to identify and accept these cycles as part of the process. It's difficult to KBO (Keep Buggering On) so when things don't work out I'm learning what works for me... taking a few minutes, hours or days away from a painting can be helpful. Working on more than one project at a time can be helpful. Get involved in something else like gardening can help to change my perspective. Taking the opportunity to get past a mental block can be a great way to help me work through these difficulties so I can get to that next level of creative freedom and expression. The more time I work on and work through these moments the more I will begin to have successful outcomes; just like I do with sewing and baking! Truth be told even though I do have a lot of experience baking and sewing there are still times they don't turn out no matter what... so yeah all part of the process!



Using an existing skill for a new purpose!
I love taking photos! One method I've begun implementing is to take photographs of my painting at different stages. Using photos in combination with painting is a new tool for me! I'm enjoying it because I can see how my painting evolves. I like seeing the progression from an idea to where I struggled and it's cool to see where I discovered elements that helped my piece become successful. It is kind of hard to see one idea get covered up by another but by taking photographs through the stages I can always look what I've lost and use the idea for another painting in the future so that's kind of cool. When a painting seems like it's not going anywhere or like I'm not having fun anymore taking a color I like and painting in a playful way helps. These photos are a great way to take a step back from the work. Seeing how the colors are balanced and work together, how the elements are balanced is important to see where the piece is going and what possibilities are waiting to be discovered! Photographing my paintings seems an especially helpful tool when I'm struggling.

Here's the first idea I had for this painting, a fairy girl in a garden... So I put a bunch of paint and ephemera on the canvas and started to carve out shapes but when I stepped back I wasn't liking the uneven wings, her hair or the ephemera after all... So I snapped a photo. Then I took a color that I do like and painted over all the stuff I didn't like. I kept at it and putting other colors on the canvas overlapping them and dripping paint all over and scuffling in some new shapes... 

As you can see a lot has happened between that first idea and this next photo. I applied many layers of color I turned the painting this way and that so I'd get interesting drips. I added trees and that big grey cloud. I added more detail to her face and dress. And with some time and energy and perseverance the whole thing was a lot more appealing. And although it is quite different than it began I really liked where it was going.

This is the finished painting! I really worked hard to get this girl to emerge. It was hard but I spent several days painting her, the path she's on, the trees, the shading, the cloud, the cityscape and the snow in order to get them to look as they do. And I believe the work I put in payed off! This is one of my more successful paintings and I couldn't be more pleased. It may not seem like much but from three simple photos it's easy to see where I started and how far the work has come. 

Change is good!

I ended up changing the initial theme but really this snow scene suits me better. I really love the blues and greens together. Her dress is such a cheerful green and the belt, which is really a bit of ribbon, is so sweet! To me there's something very magical about snow and shadows. The city and the cloud is a bit gloomy but it's behind her and with each step into the forest she's leaving the city behind. And what a coincidence! I moved from the city to the country! And I'm much happier for it. I know I can always go back to the city for a visit. Maybe someday I could even live in a city again but for now being in the country and seeing the stars and smelling the fresh air is so completely magical that it rejuvenates my soul everyday!

Thanks for stopping by. Please feel free to leave me questions, comments & feedback about my painting, Aurora Leaves the City Behind.

Enjoying the sunshine,

Stephie

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Happy Valentines Day!

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays! For me it is more than a day for me and my husband to indulge in romance, flowers, jewelry and sensual foods. I see it as great opportunity to tell my family & friends I love them too! Here's what I have planned: I've got a cute heart bunting that I made and put up next to pink tulips and paper whites and I'm planning on making a yummy steak and heart shape potatoes for dinner & I know Bill will love that! A can't forget a decadent dessert! I'm making heart shaped Boston cream cakes for us to enjoy together. Of course I'll  be wearing the new earrings my husband bought me! He also got me some cherry jam, cherry maple syrup and a jar of cherries when he was in Sturgeon Bay / Door County, WI yesterday. I do hope you have some wonderful plans for today too.

                                                                          

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Nothing says I love you more than a hand made Valentine! And here's mine! It's painting of me & my Valentine! Titled 'Be My Valentine'

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Made with acrylic paint, book pages, a variety of papers, liquid gold leafing, red flocking & Collage Pauge.\

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UPDATE: I thought you'd like to see a couple of pics of some the yummy food we ate! =)

Baked Potato Hearts with Piedmont Steak & Salad

Boston Cream Pie Hearts & espresso

Happy Valentines Day,

Stephie

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Topiary Girl

Hello! I wanted to tell you about this on-line painting class I'm taking & where it's taking me!!! 

In early January I signed up to take a class by Juliette Crane called How to Paint a Girl. It's not my first on-line class so I was not terribly nervous about how on-line classes work and whether they'd work for me. I was only a little bit nervous but really I was more excited to get over my fears: getting past muddy colors, sharing my art work with other people & painting faces!  It's been two weeks and already I'm making decent progress in these areas. Check out Juliett's sneak peek of How to Paint a Girl & an Owl!

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Here's my painting

Topiary Girl

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I dunno if you can you tell but I really like orange & green together!  Here is one of my 'girls' and I don't know about you but my favorite part of the girl is the skirt! I really love polka dots!

Honestly it took me a while - I worked on and off for days - to get this Topiary Girl accomplished.... but before I took this class I would have been discouraged when I got muddy effects from over painting. I would have either set it aside or worse yet thrown it out. Good thing Juliette talked some sense into me because I've learned how to avoid getting muddy effects. And if I do, and I did get them, I learned to walk away , let it dry, then apply a new color that I do like and continue on. Sometimes if I don't want to wait for the paint to dry on it's own I'll get the craft hair dryer out and speed things along.... my craft hair dryer is really just a travel sized hair dryer... ;-)

For my painting Topiary Girl  not only did I have to over come muddy colors but another more alarming obstacle for me was that I didn't know that I had selected a page with Crackle Glaze on it. I thought it was simply a sparse background of color. I think it was over a year ago that I put that page away. More than enough time to forget that it had Crackle Glaze on it. So, once I started painting everything got crackled needless to say I had to walk away.

I knew that the one thing I didn't want was a girl with cracked skin, or a crackled background. But, maybe I'll use that effect in the future but for now I had to work hard to fix it up. And yes it got muddy and a couple of times and when I went to blot at the paint it horrifically peeled off to the bare paper in some spots - this was unexpected and kinda ruined a few things I was liking. =(

I walked away though and let it dry. I knew I had to keep at it. I'm guessing that's how crackle acts when you water log it and poke at it too much? LOL! But eventually the crackle either came off or got buried under lots of layers of paint and I painted new things that I liked and forgot about the stuff I lost. The only place the crackle looked nice was on the skirt.

I think in two weeks I have come a long way, not just in dealing with my fears of painting faces and sharing my art with other people but in managing to make a difficult painting work by persevering and seeing it through to something that is successful and cute. =D

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Here's what I used: acrylic paint, chalk, origami paper for the dress top, security envelope for the belt & an atom from scrap booking paper for the belt buckle & applied a gem with mod podge. A variety of brushes including: round, flat, sponge, and a stencil brush loaded with 6 different colors for the rounded effect on the topiary I think it really made the topiary's leaves look great!

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I'll make her available at my Etsy shop soon but in the meantime you can let me know what you think!

Happy Days,
Stephie

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