Betsy's Bliss Art Blog: Care December

Showing posts with label Care December. Show all posts

Monday, January 1, 2024

Happy New Year Art Journaling!

Even though December is done, I continue to enjoy Kasia Avery's Care December 2023 art journaling class. You can access it for free anytime here:

https://www.everything-art.com/p/care-december-23

The prompt that I loosely followed was the New Moon prompt from day 4.

I picked out a page spread, gathered some Prismacolor colored pencils in shades of blue, and began intuitively making swirling lines across the page.

I had just been flipping through old nature journals made when I lived in Ohio, and revisiting those journals allowed me to revisit my favorite park there, Oak Openings Preserve Metropark. Going out into nature then, as now, helped me to relax, feel grounded, and to connect to nature and my creativity.

As I recalled my afternoons wandering the park with my nature journal and Prismacolors, my art journal page organically grew into a representation of the Oak Openings sand dunes that I loved.

I found that as I listened to the quiet, tiny voice of my intuition, that inner guide suggested colors (yellow ochre) and ideas (draw winter grasses & dead weeds).

I listened and sketched, all the time remembering the joy I felt in nature hiking the Oak Openings trails, reliving the gratitude I felt for time to spend in my favorite park.

The memory of a nature escape brought up the same feeling of refreshment that I felt all those years ago.

What a powerful practice nature journaling is to provide a well of renewal to dip into again and again!

May the new year bring you opportunities for renewed creativity!

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Care December: Coldness

I love the idea of tuning into the coolness of the color blue in this prompt.

Blue looks cooler when you put it next to warm colors like spots of yellow and orange

by the candles' glow.

This morning, I set up in my studio at dawn with a hot pot of tea and my art supplies to take on the Care December prompt:Coldness.

I had prepared a page spread of vellum paper with clear gesso, so that I could easily draw with Inktense colored pencils and NeocolorII crayons.

A wet brush moved the pigment and brought the colors to life.

I love how the vellum looks like stained glass when held up to window light.

I hope you get some time to create -- this project took me about 15 minutes. Even a little time spent creating can be great self care.

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Care December: Gratitude

Today's Care December prompt involved thinking of the people that make us feel loved and the places that make us feel at home, and feeling gratitude for them.

I began with this page spread, and picked out some paper bits that made me think of my best friend. Just the thought of her makes me feel loved and grateful.

I collaged on a stamp -- my BFF and I write lots of letters -- and some tea-stained papers because we love drinking tea and chatting for hours.

A variety of acrylic paint colors added their brilliance.

After the acrylic dried, I painted on a layer of clear gesso so I could easily draw with colored pencils.

A heart with two teacups finished the pages for me.

I hope you'll join Kasia Avery's Care December, too,

and take some self care art time this week to create something just for your own joy.

Happy Creating!

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Care December: What Makes You Feel Joyful & Fluid?

I've been taking Kasia Avery's online art journaling course, Care December, at my own pace. I love that I can have days that I jump right in and follow the prompt,

and days that I take time off and save the session until I can savor it.

Today's prompt invited us to think about what makes us feel relaxed, fluid and joyful.

We used string and blue ink, and I luckily had some of both,

from the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.

We dunked the string in the ink bottle, then flopped the inky string on the page, closed the journal and pulled the string slowly out.

I love the wispy, swirly lines that this technique creates.

The designs looked like the engraved drawings of seashells found in vintage science books.

Relaxing by the ocean is one of the things that makes me feel fluid and joyful, so I kept the "seashell" marks and added ink washes & colored pencil lines around them.

The blue, Serendipity ink ($2 at PCCR) has lovely, shimmery qualities when it dries,

and looks red in the photo.

Interestingly, I bought the white Prismacolor pencil at the PCCR, too.

If you haven't joined in Care December yet, there's still time to participate!

Even if you read this post long after December 2023, you can still find the course on Kasia's website.

I hope you take some time to make some art just for joy, just for yourself -- For self-care!

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Care December: Setting an Intention

I have been participating in Kasia Avery's Care December art journaling project. If you'd like to join this free online class, you can find out more here:

https://www.everything-art.com/p/care-december-23

The first day of Care December involves tuning into your own heart about what you want to focus this self care art journaling time on.

I wrote out my thoughts on a sheet of paper, decorated it with some watercolor paint and paper bits, and then jumped into painting the pages of my journal with acrylic paint.

After the paint dried, I added clear gesso.

Acrylic paint is smooth & slick when dry, so it's hard to draw or write on top of it as is.

Clear gesso goes on looking milky, but dries clear and adds grit.

A layer of (dried) clear gesso over top of acrylic allows you to draw with colored pencils, add pastels and makes ink "stick" better.

I added colored pencil lines, collage bits, and penned a shortened version of my intention statement:

Hear my Intuition &

Follow Her

Create for Joy

Celebrate & reflect on my art

I have found that when I focus on the tiny voice of my Intuition while creating, I worry less about what other people will think of my art, and less about making "perfect" art. Of course, we all know that there's no such thing as "Perfect." Humans are by nature messy beings -- delightfully imperfect.

When I create out of my Intuition, I feel joyful, curious, and playful.

I feel happy, calm, and as a side effect, I usually like what I create.

Something I've recently begun to do is to reflect on my art. I have always propped up my journals and paintings where I could see them after completing a particularly satisfying project, but recently, I've begun poring over art journals and handmade books, looking over what I created and reflecting.

This reflective practice magnifies my self-care art. I get the boost of creating it in the first place, and then an extra boost every time I look over and consider how good it made me feel while I made it.

In effect, reflecting on my art creates a positive upwards spiral, and makes me want to create more art for self care. Life feels more sparkly.

And isn't that what we want out of our art practice?!

Wishing you many happy hours of creating and reflecting!

Monday, December 11, 2023

Painted Collage Papers for Care December!

I recently discovered artist, teacher and art journaler Kasia Avery on YouTube. She has a delightfully enthusiastic teaching style that makes creating easy & fun.

If you haven't seen Care December, her free art journaling class yet, you can check it out here:

https://www.everything-art.com/p/care-december-23

In preparation for participating in Care December, I followed two of Kasia's YouTube videos on making papers of your own design and colors for art journaling. These are the videos I followed to create all of these painted papers.

Video 1: https://youtu.be/78hXnnl8fdU?si=DGuh25Km8VmQNK7D

Video 2: https://youtu.be/ki9E6mQPxgw?si=sXCrQRdX24cF23hh

Kasia uses a lot of different supplies, but a person can just use what they have on hand and have success.

I used office papers and forms from The Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse, my favorite thrift store in Pittsburgh. They sell everything from fine art materials to vintage items, photography equipment, fabric, jewelry & scrapbooking supplies and lots more.

I spent a lovely afternoon splashing acrylic & watercolor paint on a variety of book pages, magazine pages, pieces of graph paper, used gift wrap tissue paper, music sheeting, old maps, etc., and turning them into colorful papers for art journaling.

I worked on a big piece of kraft paper on the floor to give myself lots of room to paint. I turned on some inspiring music, brewed up a hot tea, and experimented with lots of different techniques and materials.

The beauty of this approach is that I didn't have to drive to a store and purchase anything new. I used what I had, and the items I had found secondhand at PCCR.

Each piece of brightly-painted paper was made in my own intuitive style, so it will match my art journal. And, I got to spend an afternoon playing with paint, listening to music, lost in the hum of creativity and joy.

I hope you'll join me in doing some creative self care this December!

Sunday, December 10, 2023

An Upcycled Art Journal for Care December

I love creating with old, worn things that have a history and a previous life. They add depth to my art and inspire a greater satisfaction than anything shiny and new.

I made this art journal mostly out of materials that I purchased at my favorite thrift shop:

The Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse!

PCCR has a wide variety of papers -- from old office paper, to decorative scrapbooking sheets, to music sheeting -- as well as fine art supplies, fabric, vintage items, jewelry, and heaps of other treasures.