I’ve done a lot of artwork during the 3 weeks since I last blogged. I hope this doesn’t get too boring! I really must try to blog more often, so that my entries can be a little shorter! Here we go!
Supplies Me online class led by Jane Davenport:
In the Gesso class, we learned about a variety of uses for this handy product. It’s often used to give pages strength and texture. It can also be used to cover over something that you’re not happy with, so you can start over, or you can use it to lighten up the colors on the page if they are too bright. Gesso comes in white, black, or clear. The clear is great for protecting one player before you begin adding more to it.
For this image, I began by applying a layer of gesso to the page, then I stuck pieces of tissue paper all over, and covered them up with another layer of gesso. This gave the page a wonderful textured look. Then I randomly applied some acrylic paint on the page, with no specific goal in mind - just seeing what painting over the gesso and tissue paper was like. The next part of our lesson was about using gesso as paint. I went around the figures and the scalloped border that had appeared with black gesso, then used white gesso to add more details, especially the dots. (I love dots!) The last thing I did was to add the faces, and I called it done.
The next supply we covered was matte medium, which is most commonly used as a glue for collaging, and so on. I began the next page by journaling across the paper with various colors of markers - just writing in a stream of consciousness manner. Then I began to apply some acrylic paint over the writing. The lesson instructed us to add a napkin layer to the page, using the matte medium. The only napkin, with a pattern on it that was suitable for this exercise, was one with a chicken on it, so that’s what I used. I put it down on the page, as well as some tissue paper, and then I added some more paint, some stamping, and I ended up with this:
The next lesson was about pens and pencils, and in it we learned to draw faces. After practicing this a bit (which I’ll show you shortly), I decided to add a girl to the left of this page. I really love how she blended into the background!
The first thing we did when learning about our pens and pencils was to test how they react with water. I applied lines to show the pen and pencil marks without water, with water added immediately, with water added after 10 minutes, and with applying the marks onto wet paper. This was a great way for me to learn which ones will react to the water and which ones will not. This will come in very handy in the future. Here’s the test page (boring, I know, but I thought I’d share it anyway):
Here is an image that I had started a while ago in my Intentions Journal, with the fish and the words “Discover Magic Moments” and some acrylic paint. I bought several packages of pretty napkins to be used for the technique I had learned, and I decided to add to this image using the matte medium and one of the napkins. I should have taken a before picture, but I didn’t. However, I was very happy with how this turned out. The fish is so cute, and looks a little tentative about heading into the mass of colors ahead of him. Therefore the words: "Be brave & go for it!"
Here are the ladies that I created using pens and markers to color:
I still need lots of practice, but it’s so much fun. I think I prefer drawing with pencil because sometimes I just want to erase things, but the lesson for this was to draw with a pen, so I did.
The next part of the pens and pencils lesson was to practice drawing, and shading, spheres. This will come in handy for future lessons about drawing faces and how to shade them. Here is my practice page, using pencils, markers, and wax pastels:
Also, from this lesson, Jane highly recommended a specific fountain pen, so I ordered one online. When I got it, the first thing that I did was draw a mandala (#12 of 100 mandalas):
Mandala Magic 2015 online class led by Julie Gibbons - Stage 1: Void:
Exercise: Used soft pastel in non-dominant (left) hand and wax pastel in dominant (right) hand, and simply drew circles on separate sides of the journal, beginning in the center and moving outwards, mostly with my eyes closed, relaxing into the process. Then I did some journaling around the images:
Exercise: Draw the void, using black watercolor paint for the background and black acrylic paint for the circle. I added some color watercolors to the background to give it a bit of depth, and when I was done, I felt pulled to surround the void (black circle) with gold acrylic paint. I then used a black pen to journal about the experience over the watercolor painted background:
The Mandala Workbook by Susanne Fincher - Stage 2: Floating Into the Light
Exercise: Mandala of Bliss - This mandala was provided for us and we were asked to color it, using light, pastel colors. I painted the babies with the pastel colors, and then wanted to use a darker color for the area surrounding them, and I picked blue probably to represent the water, or liquid, that they seem to be floating in:
Exercise: Million Star Mandala - For this one, we were simply told to draw a lot of stars within the mandala:
Exercise: Water Mandala - For this one, I used watercolor paper, which I soaked with water, then dripped watercolor paints onto it, letting them go wherever they wanted. I also used a dropper to drip some ink on top of the paint. The instructions were to let the colors spread both within and outside of the drawn mandala. In my journaling, I mention something about chaos because the resulting image brought that to my mind, and then that day (or the next), I came upon the following quote from Paul Cézanne, which I added to the bottom of my image: “We live in a rainbow of chaos.” How appropriate was that? Here is the image:
Exercise: Child’s Play Mandala - For these mandalas, I used a paper plate, randomly applied pastel-colored acrylic paints to the bottom and pushed it down onto the paper. I repeated this a few times, building up multiple layers. Very simple, very fast, very pretty, very fun.
Exercise: Rebirthing Mandala - This time we were to think about our time as a baby and small child, and try to represent the feelings that this brought up in the image. I did my best, and then I journaled on the back of the image:
Exercise: Mandala of Possibilities - For this exercise, I looked through a bunch of magazines, cutting out (in circles) the images that I felt drawn to. Then I glued these to a piece of paper, filling in the circle that I had drawn there. It was obvious to me that I feel a strong pull to nature, with positive thoughts about becoming more physically active and with thoughts in the back of my mind about our future relocation to North Carolina.
Exercise: Soothing Mandala - The name says it all! I selected some of my favorite colors from my supply of chalk pastels. I drew a circle with one of them, and then proceeded to fill in the mandala with the other colors, intuitively. After each color, I used my fingers to blend the color into the paper, an incredibly tactile and pleasant feeling. I rarely use my chalk pastels, but this was such an awesome practice, I’m sure that I will use them more often.
Random Pages:
1. Using a homemade journal that I made in an in-person class a few months ago, I put down some watercolors, and then drew zentangle patterns over the resulting patterns:
2. Feeling the urge to play with some colored pencils, I created this interesting lady:
Next Up: Mandala Magic 2015 online class led by Julie Gibbons - Stage 2: Bliss
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