Original art, tutorials, and more. One, former number cruncher's journey to find her own unique artistic style. I'm going to try it all and see what sticks!
Donna Downey came out with some wonderful flower stencils a couple years ago. I have several of them and I love to get them out every once in a while and play.
This piece is similar in technique as the pieces that I've created on the past two Mondays......but this time I'm using purple instead of blues.
I've spent the past few days making prints for a purchase in my Etsy shop......then I just couldn't stop. I used this Donna Downey stencil in my art journal the other day (here's a video if you want to see it). I wanted to use it again on something so here it is......
Donna Downey came out with a new line of stencils. She's been putting up a video, by a different artist, every day all month. The stencils are great, so, of course, I had to get them.
I'll tell you a little story about painting glass jars. In my art class in high school, we had to paint a still life. The teacher had placed a box, a shoe, and a glass jar on a table together for us to paint. I just could not paint the jar. I didn't know how to paint glass. Finally, my teacher came over and painted it for me. When I took the painting home (and for years after), people would look at the painting and always comment on the glass jar. I hated that because I knew I didn't paint it. They never said "nice shoe" or "nice box"....it was always the, freaking, jar. Now, I was honest...I would always say that I didn't really paint the jar....but it really bugged me.
This is why, when my, 10 year old protege, Alicia, comes over to paint, I never, ever touch her work. She has her canvas, paper, etc. and I have mine. When she takes her paintings home and people compliment them.....she knows it's "all her".
I still can't paint glass....but....this new stencil is going to change that for me. I figure that if I can get better with the glass by using the stencil, then, eventually, I will be able to do it without the stencil. We'll see.......
One other thing.....Nika Rouss (Nika in Wonderland) did a video and my painting looks a lot like hers, because she is one of my favorites and I am very inspired by her paintings. I used different stencils and paint. After you watch my video, you should check out hers....it's fantastic!!
Supplies
11"X 14" mixed media paper
white gesso Donna Downey Petite Pot DD-108 Donna Downey Floral in Striped Vase DD-100
Golden's Heavy Body Teal
Golden's Heavy Body Quinacridone Magenta
Liquitex Heavy Body Medium Magenta
Windsor and Newton Studio Acrylic - Red Deep
Grumbacher - Cobalt Blue Hue
Black Oil Pastel
Black Charcoal Pencil
Check out my art on clothes, cellphone covers, rugs, etc. on Society 6!!
This week, things are a little different. Last week was, extremely, busy for me and I never got around to making a "real" Creative Heart Monday project.
So....I'm trying to make up for it by including 2 videos. The first one is a video of a project that I made for the Gel Press Blog a couple of months ago. The post was a "step-by-step" with photos. I filmed the project, but did not include the video in the post.......so here it is.......
Check out the "step-by-step" post on the Gel Press Blog for supplies.
Now for Number Two
I've been taking an online class by Donna Downey - Abstract Florals. I just love her abstract flower paintings, and would love to be able to create lovely abstract pieces. Over the past couple of years, I have taken several of her shorter, online, classes, and have always been very pleased. I, finally, couldn't stand it anymore and signed up for the Abstract Florals course. I have not been disappointed. She includes so many videos. She does each painting "start-to-finish" and she is very easy to listen to. I have taken many, many online classes by other artists....most I like....there have been one or two that I ended up disappointed (but it's all personal preference)....I'm sure that others were able to get more out of them than me.
Anyway.....here's my first attempt at a painting from the course. It's wack. I think that when I have the video camera on, I tend to rush thru things (which is kind of ridiculous because I can always hi-speed in editing). I'm going to be working on my flowers and backgrounds this week. As I go, I'll put some pix on my blog and Facebook, so that we can see if I'm getting any better.
Every Teusday, I get an email from Donna Downey with a new video by one of a group of artists that she has put together. It's called Artist Gang Teusday. Yesterday's video was by Denise Alloca. She creates a grouping of three paintings. They always incorporate a Donna Downey Studios product (stencil, stamp, etc.). I checked out Denise Alloca's site and found another video that she did with cute flowers. I decided to do one. As you can see......I, basically, copied her. Obviously, I would never use this design on anything that I planned to sell since it's not my own. But, it's wonderful that there are artists out there that show us different techniques so that we can practice and learn new things. I didn't have, exactly, the same supplies that she used ie: different stencils, Derwent instead of Stabilo pencils, shorthand paper instead of music paper. I also had to write the word "Truth" because I didn't have the stamp.....but I do plan to get these stamps because my handwriting isn't that great.
Here's mine.
Here's Denise's.
So, this is what I did this morning. Thank you Denise. Thank you Donna Downey. And.....
I found the cutest thing yesterday. I was on Donna Downey's site (I love her art) and, along with the many wonderful items that she sells, she had checks with her artwork on them. I went to the CheckAdvantage site and also found Dina Wakley(another one of my favorite artists) checks.
