Collage Calendar Page

After creating a stack of green painted papers for my collage sketchbooks, I had loads of leftovers.  They made wonderful elements in my weekly planner.

 The thing I love about collage art is that I never have to hone the artwork to a place of "perfection" as there is no perfect.  I pick out a paper that interests me; I get an idea of somewhere to place it; I try it in that spot, and either I like it or I don't. 

If I feel the glow of liking it, I glue the paper down; otherwise, I try something else. 

It's a wonderful game I play with my intuition.  You might think of it as a meditation on listening to your intuition, and that having an artwork at the end is a bonus.

In the dreary gray of winter, playing with colorful pieces of paper can really brighten your spirit.  I hope you'll give collage a try!

Happy Creating!

Collage Sketchbook

I was planning a visit to Phipps Conservatory with my friend, and wanted to make a special sketchbook filled with painted pages for each of us with splashes of green paint. 

I've been enjoying videos by artist Rebecca Chapman like this one about making collage papers to use in her vacation sketchbook.  She reasons that having painted papers helps to circumvent fear of the blank page and help her make more art.

Above is a video describing how I made the collage papers, with a flip through of each book. 

I hope you try this technique!

Cardboard & Paint Postcard

Do you have a cardboard box & some craft paint?  Here's a simple creative project.

I ripped a cardboard shipping box lid into the rough size of a postcard, and tore part of the outer surface of the cardboard off to reveal the corrugations.  

The next step was to paint it with Cadmium Red Hue and Vermilion acrylic paint.  You can scrape the paint over the cardboard with an old credit card and then scratch back into the wet paint to get interesting textures.

  

Once the yellow-orange layer was dry, I added Ultramarine and Cerulean Blue splotches and scraped them over the underlying texture with an old credit card.  If you use color complements -- or colors opposite of each other on the color wheel -- you'll get gorgeous contrasts.  Bold & eye-catching!

You might choose alternating layers of red & green or yellow & purple paints. Just make sure that the first layer is dry before you start applying the next layer, or your colors will get muddy & murky.

A final touch of gold paint added sparkle.  Glitter would be good, too!

I glued on collage bits, including hieroglyphics I copied onto tracing paper from this sarcophagus in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

 

Painting the back side of the card with white gesso makes it easier to write a message, add a stamp and an address.  You can glue on collage bits, too.

Imagine how it would feel to receive an adventurous, hand-made postcard in your mail.  That's how your recipient will feel when they receive your creation.

 

Happy creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All rights reserved.

Taking on my Hobgoblin in my Art Journal

When an artist shares their work and their techniques, I always take away inspiration. The most recent example is Lynne Perrella's book, Artist's Journals and Sketchbooks.  

The image on the cover fascinated me, and I figured that Lynne must have created the bold pages by layering on acrylic paints in contrasting colors -- red orange and blue violet, for instance.

I wanted to try to duplicate Lynne's gorgeous colors in my own art journal.

I began by squirting blobs of Cadmium Yellow Hue and Vermilion acrylic paint onto a blank page spread.  Using the side of a sturdy plastic membership card, I scraped the paint and move it around.  The corner of the card made a good tool to carve back into the wet paint in places to create texture.

After the first layer was dry, I used the same technique to add Ultramarine and Cerulean Blue to the pages.  Where the Ultramarine was applied thinly, it looked black against the red-orange.

I love the contrasts of light to dark and of the orange and blue color opposites.

I did some written journaling separately about my fear of making a failure when creating art.  My Hobgoblin (inner critic) yelled that it was dangerous to make larger and more personal artworks.  As I responded in my writing, I realized that there was no danger in creating, even if I made a total flop.  I always learn from my failures.  

The real danger was in not creating that piece of art that my Muse was calling me to make.

Regretting later that I didn't make the art was much sadder than making a messy attempt that didn't come together.

I added these words using Posca paint pens.

Along with a printed butterfly and some little flowers from a Valentine's bouquet. 

Here's the final page spread.

I found the whole process of answering my inner critic with facts and logic empowering.  Rather than just listen and follow along with the noisy negativity, I had the power of truth and reason.  It made me feel invincible!

Of course, I make creative messes all the time.  I once read that if you like everything you make, you're not trying hard enough. I take these "failures" as signs that I am a creative explorer.

If you find that taking on your inner critic feels overwhelming to do on your own, a therapist's support can create a safe space for these investigations. 

I hope you find time and space for creativity just for your own joy this week.

Happy Creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All Rights Reserved.

Wanderlust 2024 with Kasia Avery

If you've read recent posts, you'll know I've been taking inspiration from UK-based artist Kasia Avery, through her Care December and other online classes.  Her enthusiastic & encouraging teaching style makes art journaling exciting.

 I signed up for Wanderlust 2024, a year-long series of weekly art journaling lessons & downloadables, to keep the inspiration coming.

Here's a step-by-step look at my first Wanderlust class with Kasia!

We began by selecting a color scheme for the first spread.  Kasia provided a great deal of background information and tips on picking colors to make pleasing art.  She went into depth on brushes and techniques for each step of the process as well.

Once we had our materials and our color palette, we began with a relaxing technique for writing our word of the year in India ink all over our blank page spread.

As soon as the ink was dry, we added acrylic paint in big, sweeping strokes over top of the first layer.

We selected an area of the spread to make our focal point, and added more intuitive brush strokes.

More paint, some scratching back into wet paint and a little collage came next.

As I added more colors and marks, I kept some music sheeting and junk mail scraps on hand to spread excess paint onto rather than rinsing it away in water.

Acrylic paint is basically plastic, so it's best not to flush it down your drain as it can build up and clog pipes.

I found that having extra papers painted in my chosen colors made it easy to add collage bits to the spread to create texture.

I finished with some hand-stamped words.

I'm learning and enjoying the unfolding process of art journaling.

If you're interested in joining Wanderlust 2024, there's still time!  

Follow this link: https://www.everything-art.com/p/all-courses-everything-art

Scroll down through the courses to Wanderlust 2024.

Of course, you don't have to join this class to create an art journal. Art journaling can be as simple or complex as you want to make it.  You can tear pages out of old magazines and glue them down, paint papers, and layer on different media from watercolor pencils to ink to acrylic paint. Simply follow what interests and inspires you in the moment.

Happy Creating!

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!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley. All rights reserved.

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!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley.

Art Journaling: Altered Transparencies

I found a fantastic book by Traci Bautista, Collage Unleashed, that's full of ideas for creating art journal collages in unusual ways, including making transparencies of your own artwork.  

Above is a drawing I did of The Ink Queen, with ink on an old book page, and then photocopied onto transparency film.

Traci gives instructions and ideas for using your own drawings & doodles to make altered transparencies for your art journal.  

The most important tip is: use the correct transparency film for your copier or printer.  If you use the wrong film in a dry toner copier (which uses high heat to make the copy), it can melt inside the machine and ruin it.

Once you get the right sort of transparency film for your copier or printer, 

you can print your artwork onto the film, and then add color with acrylic paint as below:

 I painted the back of the transparency.

And flipped it over to reveal The Ink Queen in all her colorful glory.

I added the painted transparency to my art journal, gluing it in with Yes! paste, a clear, archival adhesive.

Here's one I colored with alcohol markers.

Alcohol markers allow you to blend two or more colors together, and even move the toner around (I used a dry toner, black-only copier).

I warmed up Marion by placing her over an art journal page painted with peach acrylic and white gesso.

I hope you take some time this week to play with collage, transparencies, or just to make doodles.  

When you create, you make your artistic vision -- how you see the world -- visible to the rest of us.  

If we each make art and share it with others, we can spark inspiration and 

celebrate our unique artistic view of the world.

Happy Creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2023

Happy Valentines Day!

One of my favorite holidays, today is a day about love & eating chocolate, so it has long inspired me to make cards for friends and family.

I painted a variety of papers with acrylic paint, stamped with handmade heart stamps and commercial stamps, and created collage cards.

The best thing about collage is that you simply allow your right brain to nudge you towards different colors, materials and shapes.  My mantra was "There's no such thing as perfect."  

Get your creation close to "perfect," and start gluing things down!

Wishing you a Happy Valentines Day!

Self Care: Enchanted Tea Party

 

One of my favorite self-care tricks right now is the Enchanted Tea Party.  I brew up a pot of herbal tea, put on a fun outfit, and create! 

Recently, I took inspiration from the bold & contrasting colors in Lynne Perrella's book Artists' Journals & Sketchbooks (Quarry Books, 2004). 

I pulled out my art journal & art supplies, and began layering bright acrylic paints and bold markers, then glued on some text and hand-wrote a quote.  All while sipping delightful Elderberry-Lemon Balm tea.  Time drifted away, my body and mind relaxed, and I slipped into creative mode.  

The bold, bright colors spilled sunshine into my soul, and freed up my mind to play.

I even incorporated the quotes from the tea bag labels into my page spread.

The beauty of creating in my art journal for me is that I allow myself liberty to create anything I want to.  There are no rules, only techniques to explore & materials to play with.  If I don't like some element of a page, I can paint or collage over it.  Each layer adds interest.

I found a quote, and felt the rich vermilion and carmine reds invited such bold thoughts, so I wrote it in and added some decorations with permanent markers.

If you would like to join me for an in-person course in creating your own art journal, follow this link: https://ccbc.coursestorm.com/category/arts?page=2

For information about my upcoming in-person art classes, follow this link to the Community College of Beaver County website, and click on the "Arts" button: https://ccbc.coursestorm.com/ 

I would love to see you in one of my art courses!

Find Your Joy Taster Course with Louise Fletcher

I've begun the Find Your Joy Taster Course -- a free online class offered by abstract landscape artist, Louise Fletcher.  The assignments are exciting to do, and they uncover so much within me -- what I like, what I don't like, how I feel about failure, why I paint.  

The instructions for the painting above were to take a 22" x 30" sheet of heavy paper, tape off the edges and tape off 6 "windows," and then paint as if the whole paper was your canvas.  For our palette, we were to choose one each red, yellow & blue plus black and white.  Then we were instructed to set a timer for 30 minutes and paint what felt good.  If it didn't feel viscerally good & make us happy, we were to stop and choose some other approach.  

Louise said to act like Kindergarten children and simply play with the paint.  Let go.

I gessoed up my sheet of illustration board, squirted out some paints, and let loose.

Holy cow!  The experience felt fully engaging, empowering & joyful.  I loved the sensation of swirling the brush thick with paint over the illustration board.  Bright color contrasts and quick scraping back with the brush handle felt natural and expressive. I fell in love with this form of painting.

I recommend that you check out Louise's YouTube page here and her website here.  Watching her YouTube videos has helped me shape my own art.  Maybe it will help you too.

Coffee Shop Fridays

When the third wave of the pandemic reached its worst last winter, I found myself longing to sit in a cafe, to drink tea and sketch or write.  Just to be around people as I used to do was a dream.  

So, I dressed up in an artsy black dress and boots, put on the tea kettle, and poured myself a hot Moroccan Mint Green Tea.  I even used a paper cup -- a relic of holding in-person open studios before the pandemic.  

I found coffee shop music on YouTube, set out my acrylic paints and paper, and embarked on an evening of playing with my paints.  Hours drifted by, and I was surprised by what came out of my paintbrush.  

Some weeks, it was abstract art in black and white.  Sometimes, it was collage pieces.

And, sometimes, it was more colorful or realistic.

With the leftover paint on my palette, I felt free to experiment.

I have heard other artists talk about the process of creating in an art journal, and the way that certain types of images just showed up as if out of nowhere.  I didn't think that would happen for me.  But Coffee Shop Friday Nights made things pop out that I didn't know were inside me.  And I enjoyed every bit of the process.

One day soon, I will be able to return to a coffee shop and spend an hour sketching people or writing, or chatting with a dear friend, even.  But I may just keep having my own Coffee Shop Friday Nights for the sake of self-care, exploration and play.