21 Secrets Conversations

 I am so excited to report that I am part of the wonderful interview series 21 Secrets Conversations by Connie Hozvicka. My interview goes live today.  Click on this link to see the interview.  It was recorded months ago. Connie has asked all the artists what their journey as an artist has been like. We had such a fun conversation I am sure you will enjoy it too.

Kate

Art Journal Wisdom

I have been playing along with Connie Hozvicka's Art Journal Wisdom class. Its a free course for nine days. You can join in here

I started this page with lots of oranges, yellows and reds.  Then I did some journaling on a separate page and tore it up and glued it down with gel medium. More paint was added on top.

I first saw the lady on the right and then the other two ladies showed up.  While yesterdays work was about contrast todays has very little contrast. If I painted around the ladies in a darker color they would definitely pop more.

Here I am playing with circles and pastels, both soft and oil.  Its a fun way to play with color. Soft pastel is in the background and oil pastel in the circles. I was using a really cheap oil pastel and you can really tell.  The artist quality ones are so much better.

I am giving away another spot in 21Secrets Fall.  I am picking a winner on Saturday night. Go to this post and leave a comment to be considered for the drawing. To sign up for the course just click on the link in my sidebar.

Linking to Paint Party Friday Today.

Explorations In My Journals

I have been trying to make art every day this week. That can mean working on paintings or in my art journals. Yes I do have more than one. Sometimes I am called to a particular size or style to work in. I have been leaning to bigger and bigger journals. I still like to work in small ones though. Some of my journals were bought for classes I am taking, so I only work in them for the class. That is until the course is over with, but I like to continue using it with the concepts learned.  In today's post I show a few of my different journals and pages.






















This is an imaginary landscape. I used Inktense Blocks and colored pencils in the piece. I started with blocks of color which looked like a landscape scene so that is the route I took.  Colored pencils were used to highlight the river and grasses. I like the soft quality that resulted.

This Albino bird was the result of playing with colors. Napthol Red, Hansa yellow light, Titanium White and Quinacridone red.  This was an exercise where you paint for 2 minutes and cover half of it up and then repeat 4 times.  From Flora Bowley's bootcamp. It was fun to do. One I think I will explore again and again. Its a great exercise if you fear the blank page or are just feeling stuck.

In my sketchbook skool journal some crows came for a visit. Pencil, watercolor, a dip pen and acrylic ink were used. There is a new session of Sketchbook Skool starting next week. There are three different classes to choose from. I am doing Storytelling this time and I can't wait for it to begin.

I've been playing along with Connie Hozvicka's Art Journal Wisdom free e-course this week. This is my first page. I also incorporated Flora Bowley's idea of using strong contrast. It really made the image of the woman pop off the page. You can join in on Connies class here. This journal is one I made myself.  It has Fabriano paper in it and if you've ever worked with this paper you know what a dream it is to work with.

In what way are you expressing your creativity this week?

Kate

My Explorations In A Collage Journal

I have been working on and off in a journal that I received as a gift when I went to Sedona last year. The journal is simple, just scrapbook type papers and bound with a ribbon. Its frustrating because the paper keeps moving around. Since this was a gift from a new friend I want to keep it and fill it up. I want it to be full of great art to remind me of the giver. So I decided it might be best used for collage. Papers layered will make it a little bit stronger. Following are some of the pages I have done.

I liked the way this image looked on a black gessoed page.  Sometimes I find it hard to use images that are not in color. I added tape to make some borders around it.

This page was just random scraps of pink papers.  I cut the silhouette out of scrapbook paper, using a magazine image as my model.  I used a sharpie poster paint marker for the writing. She was fun to do.

The Quote is "We are the night ocean filled with glints of light" Rumi.  I love this quote. This was from a greeting card that I dismantled. I had collaged all the purple papers at a different time.

In this one I had the stencil sprayed on but didn't like the background. I painted it with black gesso and added torn strips of paper from a calendar. I left some black visible so that I could add some journaling.  I like how it turned out.

I used strips of  sprayed ink pages, some washi tape for the background.  I painted over the pink page with white so I could journal over it. I used some of the same scraps from the first page to make it more unified.

New Things This Week

I am starting two new courses this week that I am excited about.  Connie Hozvicka is teaching a class called Workshops, creative Circles and Retreats.  It all about learning to run your own events. It has some great guest speakers and is bound to be full of great ideas.

The other class I am taking is called Drawing and Painting What You Love with Irish Painter Pauline Agnew. I have seen some of the work coming out of this class and was truly amazed, More importantly after watching her video's it seems like Pauline is a fabulous teacher.  I really think that I am going to grow as an artist with this class.

Do you take classes that will get you out of your comfort zone?

Challenging Yourself With Your Art

One of the things that taking courses with Connie Hozvicka taught me is that I can paint anything.  It doesn't have to perfect.  I always wanted to paint or draw my sheep but never really got the nerve to try. This is the first attempt and painting my favorite sheep Gabrielle.  Its not a true representation of her but it looks like a sheep and reminds me of her so that is all it needs to be. I used an old photograph as my reference photo. This is on an 8 x 8 gallery wrapped canvas. I am encouraged by this. I think that it would be fun to do a series of 3 or 4 of these, all the same size canvas but of the different sheep I've owned.

I often find it easy to work in my art journal or participate in small swaps or other similar things with groups. When I do this though it doesn't seem like I stretch much as an artist.  I am trying to break out of this habit.  I have a few more ideas in the works, I've started another painting that is long and narrow. I am using the size of the canvas as a challenge in itself. I initially thought I would paint something horizontal but now decided to turn the canvas and put a long figure on it.  It will be fun and expanding at the same time.

Do you easily try new things in your own art? Or do you have to push yourself to take that next step.  Tell me in the comments, I'd love to hear your experiences.

Using A Sketchbook Again

Many of you know that google reader is going away.  I have used Net News Wire which is only for the Mac and Bloglovin which I think works for both systems.  I am sure there are others out there.  Lately I have just been putting all the blogs I read in my link list and just go to them from my own blog. It doesn't tell you about updates so that won't work for everyone.  If you've found an awesome reader please share.

My journal is full of backgrounds and often I don't know what to do with them. The backgrounds are so beautiful I think simple is best.

This page started with a spray ink background with the birch trees stencil.  I added decorate tissue around it and then some images. I am not sure if this is done yet.

This was painted newspaper. I saw this turtle and butterfly in my stash and loved it on this paper.



Another shot at the painting, I am sure you are getting tired of seeing this.   I promise the next pic will be the last.  I added the tree, made the square stones round and covered up the barn. I am not sure what I will add in that green area, more animals, flowers, my hammock nothing seems right yet so I will sit with it for awhile.

For awhile I have been toying with the idea of doing a sketchbook again.  Inspired by my friend Lynn's book, "One fish taco and a half an order of guacomole" I thought of drawing in public again and trying people this time. About all I did was think about it though. I am in a group on Facebook with April Cole and they are going to do a sketchbook challenge in April. So I thought I might take part. There is nothing like a challenge to get you moving to do something you keep thinking about. Then my friend Connie did this post on her sketchbook and I took the plunge. I had a book I got at Hobby Lobby last fall that is perfect.  Its like a moleskine with sketchbook paper, it opens flat has a pocket and all that jazz.  So I decided not to wait till April and begin now.  I am using pen like Connie suggests, these are rough drawings, just a part of my day.

What was on my messy desk was my first sketch.

The next day it was my mug at a coffeeshop and a quick sketch of my kitty sitting on my lap.

A kitty again and some scenes from my yard that I might eventually add to a painting. I am really enjoying doing these simple sketches.  Maybe its time you picked up a sketchbook again.  Why don't you join me and share bits of your sketchbook too!

Turning To Art

Its been quite a week. First I had to put Lucky to sleep and then Flynn has had 2 seizures today. The first at 2 am was pretty bad but the second around noon was short. He seems to be recovering but it is still pretty scary. It been hard to focus on writing so i have turned to art. Here is what I have been doing this week.

In DEEP the course I am taking from Connie Hozvicka; we are playing with oil pastels. This was created on charcoal paper and has layered colors and scraping with a stylus. The entire background became her hair.  This was fun to do.

I have been missing my kitty so last night I drew this little kitty to represent her. You know I really felt a whole lot better after doing this piece. It was like I put all my feelings into all the scribbling.  I used Portfolio oil pastels for these first two pieces

These next two are in my Canson mixed media journal. They both had scrapings from my palette as a starting point.  I added gelatos oil pastels for all the color in the background.  I also used some liquid acrylic. This is so vibrant in person. It annoys me that I can't take a good picture of this to share her.

This second one is created with the same materials.  Early on is started to look like an Abalone shell so tried to go with that. It is more vibrant in person.  Both of these pieces were very organic in their creation.

This last one was fun. Ink has seeped through from another page. So I started adding Portfoilio oil pastels. I had these 2 orange circles so I kept adding color and then I thought that looks like a mother and a baby, so I drew simple faces and kept going.  I am loving working with oil pastels this way.