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!

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!

Baltimore Orioles & Mixing Greens in My Nature Journal

A hike down to the state park lake on a quiet Monday afternoon felt magical with the sunlight streaming through the new leaves.  Birdsong everywhere brightened my spirits.

Reaching the lake, I immersed myself in sketching the bushes on the far side of the lake.  The late afternoon sun lit their foliage, picking them out from the shadowy hillside background.

I first drew with a permanent Faber Castell Pitt pen.  When the ink had dried, I painted in washes of sap green and a cooler green made from Hooker's green and French ultramarine blue.  I mixed up a few different greens:

• Yellow Ochre added to the blue green mixture dulled it a bit.
• Winsor lemon mixed with sap green brightened it for the weeds along the shoreline on the right.
• Phthalo blue mixed with burnt Sienna created the deep forest green in the hillside behind the bushes
• I occasionally added some sap green to the phthalo blue-burnt Sienna mix to alter the hue in the background
• The ripples in the water were made with the phthalo blue & burnt Sienna mixture. I used more burnt Sienna to make brown-green lake water.  

After I had finished painting the lake scene, I noticed a male Baltimore Oriole perched in a sapling just 12 feet away! I sketched him in pen as he sat in different positions.

His plumage was so intensely orange, I used a technique called glazing to recreate the glowing orange color of his feathers in the sunshine.  With glazing, you layer in a bright, often light color underneath another wash.  Painting in layers and letting each layer dry, creates a bolder effect than simply mixing all the colors together at once. 

Here, I painted a wash of warm azo yellow and let it dry.  Then I brushed in a mix of azo yellow and warm Pyrrol red. Yellow is often the color I use in glazing beneath other layers for bright leaves, bold birds, or colorful flowers. Yellow adds a sunny effect, and the finished painting seems to glow.

I hope you take some time to play with your art supplies this week and try out these techniques!

Happy Creating!

Making Black Walnut Ink

I have read of making a lovely, brown ink purely from the nuts of the Black Walnut tree, and have been curious to try it.  I recently found a mature Black Walnut tree whose nuts had been pilfered by squirrels.  

The hungry squirrels sat at the base of the tree to peel off the outer hull of the walnuts in search of the nut within.  They left behind a big stockpile of the part I needed -- the hulls.

All I had to do was don some latex gloves to keep my hands from getting stained, and collect a bucket full of the dark dye stuff.

It's also a good idea to wear gloves to protect your skin as some people get a rash.  I didn't have any ill effects. 

I found an old pot that I use only for art projects and filled it with the hull pieces, topped them off with water and set it to simmer for an hour or so.

I stirred the pot with a wooden paint stirring stick, and had to be careful to keep the pot from boiling over and splattering the kitchen with dark goo.  I kept the vent fan running and the room ventilated.  

If you try this, keep an eye on your pot to keep the water from boiling off and burning the walnut hulls or the ink.

I tested the ink on watercolor paper (first photo) and pulled the concoction off the stove when I was happy with the color.  Using an old pillowcase, I strained the ink from the Black Walnut hulls, and collected the liquid in a bucket.

I strained the ink outdoors to keep from staining my kitchen counters and floors.

You can see the earthy, brown color of the ink here in the bottom of the pot.

I cleaned out the pot and returned the liquid to it to cook it down a bit, and condense the liquid into a darker ink.

As you can see, Black Walnut ink also dyes cloth!  If you try this project, make sure to wear old clothes and protect your carpet, counter, floor, etc. from being stained.  Also take care not to discard the hulls in your garden as they can kill grass and other plants.  

Here's a test of the ink after I cooked it down a bit.  I like the darker, richer colors of the ink after it was condensed.

I used the ink right away to write a letter to a friend.  A simple dip calligraphy pen worked beautifully.

The ink darkens as it dries.

After the ink cooled, I poured the ink into jars, and added a capful of vodka to each half pint to keep mold from growing in the ink.

I have a few artist friends I plan on giving some ink to.  A simple, inexpensive gift that invites creativity.

If this sounds like an exciting project to you, 

I recommend you read The Organic Artist, by Nick Neddo. He provides instructions and inspiration for making Black Walnut ink and a variety of other art supplies for free directly from nature.

Wishing you many happy art adventures!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley

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!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley. All rights reserved.

 

Armchair Travel Painting Part 2: Remote Cabin

In an earlier post, I described the inspiration I took from YouTuber Steve Wallis and his video Overnight in Remote Cabin.  

The cozy wooden cabin that Steve spent the night in inspired me to create this journal sketch just after watching his video.  The warmth of the planks of wood siding, by lamplight, and Steve's joy in finding the cabin, all called out to be painted in watercolor.

Many thanks for the inspiration, Steve!

Coffee Shop Fridays: Ink Flow Paintings

In my coffee shop painting project, I have found a voice within myself that steers me towards a particular medium or color, that demands time to create, and that leads me down paths that make my heart happy.   

I actually feel a sensation similar to craving chocolate when this voice says to paint.  And when it's satisfied, there is no regret. I feel fulfilled, delighted, grateful for the time spent. 

Tuesday evening, after a Zoom modeling session, I felt drawn to the vivid colors of Dr. P.H. Martin's Liquid Watercolors. 

I cut a 9" x 11" piece of 140# watercolor paper into strips, then painted clean water over the areas I wanted to bloom color into, and touched droppers full of various colors to the page.  

How fascinating to watch the colors spread onto the wet page, mixing into other colors & evolving. 

I painted the entire page with clean water, then flowed in a single color.  Adding water to the intense blue ink, and sprinkling on table salt created a view into a starry universe:

What if a window of dry paper was left when the colors were dropped in? A rectangle of light within a slice of oceanic blue.

My voice kept guiding me back to Cerulean Blue, even when my brain said Saddle Brown. I am learning to listen to that voice.  When I do, I love what I create. 

I finished up by creating abstract landscapes.