Mixed Media Valentines!

Each year when the winter snows fly, I make Valentine's Day cards to give to friends and family.  

 The process always starts with experimentation, ideas, & splashes of brightly colored paint.  I try out a variety of ideas and choose one to make multiple copies of.

This is the final design. The tri-fold card has hearts cut out with an X-acto blade so you can see into each of the interior pages.

Creating Multiples of the Design

Using 12" x 18" pieces of cold pressed watercolor paper, I measured off four-inch strips of the paper and creased it to make it easy to fold the cards after painting.  

I painted the whole paper with the design -- permanent rose watercolor paint and dioxazine purple.  Once the watercolor paint was dry, I added white "snowflakes" in the pink area using white acrylic ink.

Next, I cut each larger sheet of painted paper into three segments (6"X12") and folded each one at the crease marks to make a 4"x 6" card.

I traced & cut a large heart shape from the front page, and a medium heart shape from the middle page.

I painted the final, interior page on all of the cards, beginning with splashes of warm, Azo yellow. I traced a third, smaller heart in the center of that page before painting.

While the yellow paint was still wet, I mixed Alizarin crimson and permanent rose, and filled the rest of the page, letting the colors run together.

I played with splattering paint, too.

Once the paint was dry, I inked in the center heart, and added some finishing touches with a white Posca pen.  I wanted to repeat the white of the snowflakes.

I gave myself the luxury of experimenting with final decorative marks.  I let my intuition lead the way, and discovered that adding wobbly black marks around the purple heart-window set off the white stripes, making them look bolder.

In the center heart, I used an extra-small permanent marker to make playful, vibrant designs.  I loved the result! I discovered that the secret was to slow down and let myself play rather than trying to be perfect.

In fact, I made a mantra of telling myself that wobbly, wonky art is human art.  It's authentic and real, and the antithesis of plastic, AI "creations."  Every time I made a mark in the wrong place, I celebrated my humanness.

I finished up each card by writing the greeting in the inner page, being careful not to let the words show through the heart cut-outs.  

A pencil line traced from a yogurt cup gave me a guide for the words.

I wrote the greeting on the line and set it aside to dry. The last step was erasing the pencil marks.

Now my Valentines are ready to sign & mail!

 Wishing you happy creating and a happy Valentine's Day!

Creating in my Collage Sketch Book

You may have seen my earlier posts on creating a painted paper collage sketchbook

here and here.

In this post, I'm sharing a few photos of the process and including the reference photos I took at Phipps Conservatory.

If you're inspired, I hope you'll make drawings and paintings from my reference pics!

I've always loved this little statue, and especially delighted in the sash of dried flowers she's now decorated with.  I started with a pencil drawing on a blank page.

I added in watercolor greens to the background, with yellow-green first.  When the first wash of green dried, I mixed a dark green with phthalo blue and burnt sienna.  I added a touch of permanent blue violet to make extra dark shadows.

It was fun to make shadowy leaves and then to use the shadows to "carve" lighter green leaves (bottom right area).

With the background done, I mixed a pale violet for the shadows on the statue.  

I wanted to show that she was made of stone, so I kept the colors cool and desaturated by mixing permanent blue violet with a touch of yellow ochre.  The yellow muted the purple's brightness.

I splashed in Azo yellow, permanent rose and permanent blue violet to the sash for the dried flowers.  I added a few touches of the warm Azo yellow to the background to unify the page.

I drew these orchids in with Posca paint markers.

Here is some gorgeous foliage with striking patterns.  I used a Stabilo All pencil for the dark markings on the leaves.

Here's a yellow orchid I drew with Neocolor II watercolor crayons and the Stabilo All pencil

The bold magenta color of these begonias caught my eye.  It was fun to mix the Posca marker colors to try to recreate that shade of pink. I love how the green from the painted paper page shows through in spots & contrasts with the pink.

I love the gnarly trunk and twisted limbs of this bonsai tree.  But there was very little contrast between the tree and the background.

I used the filters function on my phone's photo editor and turned the color photo black and white, then turned up the contrast.

I used both photos as references for this drawing.

Adding in the trunk first with Neocolor II watercolor crayons, I created foliage with Posca paint markers.

I found that having these painted papers made the process of drawing so much less "scary."  I realized that fear of the blank page is a real force holding me back from creating. 

Splashing paint on paper in a messy, no-pressure way is fun in itself, AND it helps me to jump into drawing faster.  Win-win!

I hope you give this technique a try!

Happy Creating!

My Finished Collage Sketchbook!

Recently, a friend and I had a winter sketching session at Phipps Conservatory, an indoor botanical gardens in Pittsburgh, PA.  I made special collage sketchbooks for us to use, and have just finished filling mine with art from that day.  Here's the video showing a flip through of my completed book!

If you'd like to see how I made the journals, check out my earlier YouTube video, 

Collage Sketch Book

https://youtu.be/Fwd8SNEjU-I?si=tFIzVyOsGbP0pSy5

 I hope this inspires you to make your own collage sketchbook and to fill it with art!

Happy Creating!

Winter Nature Journal: A Deer Friend

Last autumn, we noticed a particularly friendly young deer who was unafraid of us.  As I hiked our farm, I'd often encounter this guy.  When the other deer ran off, he lingered. I always kept my distance, but was charmed by his curiosity.

Hunger brought him up close to the house to eat where other critters didn't dare, giving me good photo opportunities.

This winter, he's been visiting my birdfeeding station and dining on sunflower seeds, so I decided to include him in my nature journal.

Here's the reference photo I used for my drawing.

I started with a graphite pencil sketch, then inked in the lines and added color with my Derwent Drawing Pencils.  I touched in some spots --his ears & around his eyes -- with a Posca paint marker that I wanted to be bold white.

 

I hope you'll use these reference photos to make drawings and paintings.

Happy Creating!

Weekly Planner: Stenciled Feathers

A recent visit to the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse (https://pccr.org/) turned up a wonderful selection of used stencils for 25 cents each.  I decided to test some out in my weekly planner.  Because I wanted to be able to write with a ballpoint pen on the page, I used watercolors.  I dabbed on the paint first with a brush, but found that it spread too much, so I tried a makeup sponge.

After the paint dried, I added in some definition and design with a few Posca paint markers.

When I looked at the finished results, I liked the design, but realized that the paint was too dark for the details of the week to be legible.  

I turned the page & started fresh with the Posca markers.

Adding a few feathers in lighter colors with Posca pens worked out well, decorating the page but not being so dark or detailed that I couldn't see what I wrote on each date.

If you create something that doesn't turn out as you like, turn the page and start fresh! You now have valuable information about what doesn't work, and probably have lots of ideas on how you could do it better.

Happy Creating!

Watercolor Flowers Class: The Power of Play

 

The sight of fresh, colorful blooms and foliage inspired my students & me in my Watercolor Spring Flowers class at the Community College of Beaver County. 

We began the class by playing with our new watercolor supplies.

The painting above is a demo I made in class, to show how to pick up paints and lay them down, how to create the background after the first washes had dried, and to show the power of putting color opposites next to each other.

I wasn't trying to make anything in particular.  I was just playing.

After class, I added more watercolors and used Posca paint pens for details.  I plan to make color copies of this painting to create greeting cards with.

Below is another demonstration painting I made in class to show the steps in painting flowers. I notice I like the parts best where I was just messing around and listening to the little voice of my intuition.

Color at this gray time of year (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) can lift the spirits and give us a way to express our feelings. 

I hope you take the time this week to pick up your art supplies and play with color!

Interior Decorating for a Goldfish

I have a new pet named Dory.  

Actually, Dory lived all summer in my garden pond, but I had to bring her indoors before the winter weather froze the entire pool.  

I didn't have a decorative backdrop for her tank, so I took some inspiration from my color journal, and created this scene during winter storm Elliott.

I started with watercolors, and after the washes dried, I used Posca paint pens to add details like the bubbles. It was a wonderful stress reliever to play with colors!

And I get to see my artwork everyday as I pass by Dory's aquarium -- a miniature mural!

I hope you find ways to display your art in your living space and celebrate yourself as an artist!

Color Journal Update

I have been working long hours lately, and find myself hungering for time to play with my art supplies.  One Friday evening recently, I tucked myself away in my studio with colorful markers and my watercolors.

I began with my Winsor & Newton watercolors in lemon yellow, Winsor blue and Hooker's green.  After those washes dried, I followed my intuition in exploring the positive and negative spaces of the page with Posca pens, Faber Castell black India ink pens, a white gel pen, & a set of inexpensive permanent markers. 

I have a voice within that says "Buy new art supplies, then you'll create masterpieces!"  

But I find that my old familiar pens and watercolors are friendly and inviting. And I can create endlessly with what I have.  

Why not dig out your favorite supplies and simply explore what they can do?  I hope you have a little play time soon!