Don't it make you gitty? Chunky books with thick papers, photos, writing, and paintings. Real paintings. With care and attention as anything we would hang on a wall. This class is called A Lovely Dream and is unlike other journal classes out there. We aren't just making background pages, we are making Fine Art Paintings. We are writing Soulful Words. We are Creating Beauty. If you want more from your art journal experience then you will love my class. Even if you are a beginner and can't draw you will learn techniques to transfer images of faces and take it from there. This class is ongoing and a new Painting Page Video is put up every month. Join now and make pages all year!
Here are some of my students work they have done so far.
Tove Tove does not have a blog or FB yet so I can't link this to anything. But its awesome!
Post this ridiculous badge on your blog - link back to me - and on Thursday morning I will use random.org to pick a winner of a $50.00 Gift Certificate from Novica.com
This is Houston. She stayed with us for a week while her mommy went on vacation. Sweet sweet doggie. She likes to play and cuddle and loves to wear clothes.
I grew up with small dogs so it was neat to have her so big like a person to hug and kiss!
I thought it would be cute if gigi rode her like a horse and as patient as gigi is she didn't feel like a rodeo today.
Finney's favorite thing is to take a nap and he does it well.
But he couldn't help waking up for the large poodle that was now in the room!
Cute Cute!
This is Matilda from Matilda's Mouse. I spelled it wrong in the video. Very cool store and they dress up the dog different for every month! She is 13 years old and loves the attention.
Here is my art journal page. It's not finished but it's a good start. Don't be intimidated to draw from life. I don't know how to draw a poodle but there she was right in front of me. Draw your Life! I used Faber Castell Aquarelle Water Color pencils because they are permanent when they dry. (Great for layering). Draw an image as best as you can then smudge the lines with a wet brush. Spray water over it and make it run to look messy. I am not finished with this page - I know want to add scrapbook elements like photos and journaling. I will post more pics when I have them.
I send you 100 Gigi Kisses for Easter! Now don't forget, post the ridiculous baby head badge on your blog, link back to here and post your blog post and Thursday morning there will be a winner! For the blog challanged copy and paste the html below into the html part of your blog and you are good to go. Don't forget to come back here and comment and put up a link to your blog!
Leave a comment before sunday at noon and I will use random number generator to pick someone to send a stamp too, courtesy of Unity Stamp Company!
* I'm not entirely sure the tape I used was from ClearSnap I am finding out. I was just sent it and its quite quite wonderful. So very strong. Liz Hicks will know!
Oh Finney what has been done to you! Witchy Gigi has turned you into a Piggy pig. But what a cutey Piggy pig you are. (Keep clear of Elena)
Oh the madness of it all! Finney is no Tiger. He is a small and gentle being. Gig is MAD with power!
Now, you are out of control. Oh who will control Witchy Gigi? Soon she will make us all pumpkins. And then eat us!
Yay Scary Witchy Gigi is gone and underneath it all is a sweet sweet pup pup who would never growl at anyone and certainly not chase after them when they walk by the house and attack their ankles.
I didn't know where I was going with this painting. Although I spent my teen years draped in it I am not a fan of black. Not in my work. Black is tough to work with and I discourage my students from using it right away. Black is flat. Of course, you can mix your own black from other paints and create a black that is not as flat, but there is no getting around that something that dark dominates a painting. And the soft dreamy look I aim for is lost once I add black. But it's halloween. Halloween has black!
So after much craziness and depression, I went to star bucks for chocolate therapy. Why I put the kids in the car with me I had no idea. But I needed everyone to get away from the black. We needed room to breath. (feeling clausterphobic in Gypsy Wagon and wanting craving SPACE but that's another post on a day you don't mind hearing about it. Which isn't today).
The next day I decided to print out what I had and draw over it. Make it a journal page. Just let go and play and then throw the painting away. That was fine. As long as I could get a journal page out of it. And I did.
It creates a decal. You can put it over glass or ceramic. I glued it to my art journal. Its very nice for making praintings on wood and things. I didn't even use it the right way but it prints out well and is plastic rather than paper. I covered it with Clear Gesso to create a ground over it, then played. Your art journal is a great place to explore ideas for things that you can do on a painting. Sometimes we have to have the freedom of not messing up the real thing. To step back and see hey, what is going on here that I don't like. On the gesso'd paper I was able to add color pencil and tone down the black, got rid of it altogether with the bow, and broke up the flat areas on the babies hats. Gold pen broke up the flat black of her mask. It just toned everything down and gave it more interest.
I put words on her skirt, in the journal, and then said yeah this looks great I'll do it to my painting as well. Of course, you can go places in your painting that you can't go in your journal. Yes, you can add beeswax to your pages, but you have to be careful not to bend them when the wax cools. Not nearly the same as applying it thick over canvas or wood. Here you can see the wax finish I applied over the painting to seal it. It adds a dreaminess that a flat paper journal page cannot have. (unless its a journal you won't be handling too much.)
Wax is neat. In the sun at an angle you can see the texture. But when you hold it straight only color comes through. It is a varnish and seals your work. You can also buff it with a soft cloth to make it shine.
This original painting will be available on eBay shortly.
