Weekly Planner: Collage Papers

A friend recently gave me some beautiful art papers. For this week's planner, I combined some of them with a test piece of watercolor paper that I had used to try colors out on.  

I love the wild & free splodges of colors on test papers, and try to reuse them in other projects. The colors on this piece of paper matched the art papers I had chosen.

I love how laying out the colorful papers immediately transforms the blank page!

My advice when working with collage is to quickly pick out a few papers that appeal to you.  Don't overthink it!  Then lay them out and glue them down when they start looking interesting to you.  Don't try for perfect (it will never happen!).  

I glued my papers down with the heavy duty Yes! Paste, but you could use a glue stick or your favorite paper glue.   All that was left was to add the days & dates.   

 

I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate it!

Happy Creating!

The Magic of Mixed Media!

I recently discovered artist Wendy Solganik of Willa Wanders on YouTube. 

On her website, https://www.willawanders.com/, I found a wonderful and free tutorial on making funky, artful cards from a larger piece.

Her activity is called the Mixed Media Madness Mother Board Project and you can find it here: https://www.willawanders.com/resources

The project begins with loose collage bits glued onto a larger piece of heavy paper.  I used a 11"x 15" piece of 140# watercolor paper, and glued on papers with Yes! paste.

Then, following Wendy's instructions, I added layers of stencils, stamps, mark making, etc. 

Finally, after everything was dry, I tore the paper into postcard size.  Looking at each postcard, I added a few words cut from old books and some final marks.

Each postcard took on a personality & message of its own, and the whole process was uplifting and easy.

These were delightful to send to the people I love.  I tucked them into envelopes to protect all of the little paper bits from being peeled up by postal machinery.

You could frame favorite ones, turn them into greeting cards, or just prop them on your desk to help you feel inspired.

I hope you check out Wendy's tutorial and give it a try! 

Happy Creating!

Collaged Journal Cover

I bought this small, lined journal at the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse for 50 cents, and am using it as a writing journal.  

The cover had a corporate logo on it I didn't want to see, so I personalized it with my own art.

 A rummage through my collage basket turned up the painted papers I used to create this simple design.

The blue piece of paper is from an old shorthand text, painted with acrylic paint.  I love the texture that out-of-date textbooks create with shorthand, type and music notes. Thin layers of acrylic paint allow the text to show through, and provide their own brightness.

The papers were glued to the journal cover with Yes! Paste.  When the glue dried, I painted on a layer of acrylic matte medium to protect the design.

Quick, simple art projects like this can buoy your spirits in the gray winter.  Here are some tips for creating collage designs:

• Don't wait for the collage to be 100% perfect.  Get it about 65% of the way there, and glue it down.  When you step back, you'll see the beauty that caught your eye when you first selected your papers.

• Gather papers with a shared color palette.  Here, the repeated scarlet swaths on the blue paper, and in the heart connect the papers and lead your eyes to dance happily around the composition.

• Pick a focal point, even something simple.  Here, it's the little, red heart.  You could write a word, select a small image, or pick some other bit of collage that's meaningful to you. Help it stand out by creating contrast around it -- light on a dark background, bright color against a white background, etc. Here, the white music sheeting and the blue background paper help the little red heart to stand out.  Your artist's eye is likely to do this naturally.

• Above all, be experimental, and allow yourself to play!

Happy Creating!

 

Mixed Media Concertina Sketchbook

My cat, Grover, kindly posed for sketches in my latest accordion-fold sketchbook.

I love to read in the evenings, and have been delving into Jane Stobart's Extraordinary Sketchbooks, where I got the idea to make a collaged sketchbook like architect Karen Butti.

I used a base of 140 pound watercolor paper, and glued on painted papers & old maps with Yes! Paste. 

Below is the cover of the sketchbook, decorated with music sheeting that's been painted with several thin layers of acrylic paint.

 

 The surface of these papers is slick, which would make it difficult to draw on top of them with graphite, charcoal or colored pencils.  I applied clear gesso over both sides of the sketchbook to add a layer of grit without obscuring the designs underneath it.   

My cats were hanging out in the studio when I started sketching, so they fill the first pages.

I love that I can sketch with rich, black charcoal and white pastel pencils.  The painted paper underneath adds another layer of pattern and color.  It feels exciting to have a new sketchbook with a variety of colorful papers

The songbirds hunting seeds in the flower box outside my studio window fit perfectly on the map of Glacier Bay, Alaska.  

Dark-Eyed Juncos scratch on the earth for seeds, so I put black oiler sunflower seeds in my flower beds for them. It's a protected spot, and it brings them closer for me to draw.

Collaging colorful papers onto a plain sketchbook adds a playfulness and imperfection that invites doodling.  If you're feeling anxiety facing the blank page, maybe a collaged page would help you push past that feeling and make drawings.

The beauty of drawing in a sketchbook is that your artwork doesn't have to be "pretty" or "perfect."  Truly in this world, there is no such thing as perfect, so try looking at drawing as an exploration, a voyage of discovery. Every drawing teaches you something.

Happy Creating!

Weekly Planner: Collage & Hearts

Another week, another planner design.  

Collage is a great way to get back into creating.  You don't need to find perfection, just gather some papers that feel sparkly to you, and piece some of them together loosely.

Remember, you're not going for precision.  Try for 50% chaos and 50% control, as my friend Ryan McCormick says.

 I like to use the tiny leftovers from card-making that would normally end up in the trash.  They get a new life as art, and I get interesting shapes.

Happy Creating!

Turning a Sketch into a Painting

I've been making sketches of Wise Wildwomen of late, and I wanted to size this one up to fill a canvas. 

There are lots of ways to do this. 

I used a video projector, connected to my laptop to project a photo of the sketch onto the prepared canvas. 

Turning down the lights in the studio helped me to see clearly to copy the projected image onto the canvas.  

If you use this approach, it's important to take a few minutes to adjust the projected image so that it's the right size, in the right location, and is in true proportion.  

My canvas was tipped back slightly on the easel, so it took a little adjustment on the projector to take out the "keystoning" and make the image flat and undistorted.

I traced the projected image onto the canvas with a burnt sienna colored pencil, then worked in more colored pencils, added some washes of watercolor, and used watercolor crayons to finish the artwork.

I initially prepared the 18" x 24" canvas by pasting on a variety of papers that had been treated with rust and vinegar. You can learn about the rust-staining process in this blog post.

After the paste dried, I covered the surface with clear gesso to give a little protection to the papers and add a touch of grit to make drawing easier.

The rusty colored paper created a toned base to work on, so I could add highlights easily with a white colored pencil or watercolor crayon.  I like the effect of using old book pages, music sheeting, etc. to express emotion, thought, and the complexity of being human.

If you like to draw or paint faces, remember that you don't have to make them look like anyone in particular.  They can simply represent a character, thought or quality you are curious to explore.  Drawing faces can help us express emotions, and navigate transitions in our lives.  We can express a part of our personality or a quality we admire.

Happy Creating!

Hand Made Christmas Cards

I have this old Speedball block print that I made years ago.  It's my favorite holiday card design. 

When I needed cards to tuck into Christmas gifts for my family, I dug this block print out.

It was lovely not to have to go out to shop for cards!  Instead, I played beautiful music, and printed up a stack of cards.

Once you've carved a design in a printing block, you can make all the prints you like, even years later.

  The process is easy.  

You squirt a blob of ink onto a smooth surface like the enamel pan above, then roll a brayer back & forth through the ink to form a smooth, uniform layer.  As you roll the brayer, it picks up a smooth layer of ink onto its rubber roller.  

Once your brayer is evenly loaded with ink, roll it over the block print, then lay a piece of paper on top of the block.  You transfer the print by rubbing on the back of the paper.  I rubbed with my fingertips.

I used water-based Speedball black ink because it's easy to clean up.  I printed onto 55 pound vellum paper. The thin paper picked up the ink beautifully and had fewer missed spots on the prints than heavier papers.

After the prints are dry, you can trim up any uneven paper edges. I used a paper cutter to get straight sides.

You can layer colorful papers under your print or just glue it onto a blank card.  I used Yes! Paste, a thick, archival glue that you spread on with an old credit card or palette knife.  The paste is thick enough so that the paper doesn't warp or wrinkle as it might with liquid glue.  You could also use a glue stick.

Make sure you sign each card you make!  I signed the backs.

If you'd like more details on designing and cutting your own block print, you can read this post.

Happy Creating & May Your Yuletide be Artful!