Watercolor Botanicals & New Stickers!

I thoroughly enjoyed our Watercolor Leaves and Florals for Beginners class at CCBC. 

Rather than focusing on creating perfectly realistic paintings of flowers, we made our version of roses, coneflowers, phlox, violets and lilies.  We even invented flowers and leaves.  At the end of the class, I had created so many demonstration paintings, including the gratitude journal I shared in a post here.  

When an email deal from Sticker Mule for 4"x 6" sticker sheets came through, I snapped photos with my cell phone and jumped on the offer. 

I love printing my art and giving it away or using it on stationery.  Seeing my art as a greeting card or a sticker pushes back against that harsh critic. The Hobgoblin is proven wrong when I  give someone a sticker and see the joy on their face.  We can uplift others with our art!

Happy Creating!

Celebrate Your Artwork!

When we create, we might hear the voice of the inner critic telling us all of the things we are doing "wrong."  Sometimes creating is fun and easy, other times, we push against that critical voice all the way.

But the good news is that if you keep drawing, painting, & creating, you will eventually make art that you like.  Even if in the moment all you hear is that negative -- and incorrect -- voice, when you set your artwork aside and wait a day, you will see it with fresh eyes.

I invite you to give your artwork a day of rest, and then prop it up where you'll see it when you pass by.  I use this bookshelf as a gallery.  

My cat uses it as a napping place, so I put out a blanket for him.  Cats are my coworkers in the studio!

As I painted this orange,  all I could hear was my inner critic, the voice I call my Hobgoblin.  I knew that if I pushed on, I could at least learn something in the process.  I did it for the experience of painting, not to create a "pretty" picture.

After I took a break from looking at the little painting, I propped it on my bookshelf gallery. I could see the way that the shadows created dimension, and the way the feathery backruns created a texture I liked.  I am at peace with this little orange, and grateful for the experience of painting it. Overall, I like this painting and am proud to prove the hobgoblin wrong!

Give your art a break, and then please celebrate it by setting it up where you can see it.  As you look at it, think about what you like, what you'd change if you made another version of it, and what you learned in the process.  These questions can help navigate around the inner critic's blanket statements.

And please don't believe that inner critic!  They are notoriously wrong!

If you struggle with an inner critic as artists throughout time have, I recommend reading Shut Your Monkey! by Danny Gregory, about how to stop listening to your inner critic so you can keep creating art.

Remember: no one else in all of history has created the art that you can or sees the world as you do. Your art is valuable and unique.

I hope you push past any hobgoblins you might have and

Keep Creating!

Morning Painting in the Garden

Earlier this year, I typed up a list of watercolor projects I wanted to take on, then propped the list up where I could see it.  

 When I have time & want a new project, my list encourages me to try one of the items and stretch in a new direction.

I took my paints out to my garden on a recent gorgeous morning to try number 3 on the list.

I started with a pen and ink sketch, then added watercolor.

I found that the light and shadow of early morning in the garden created beautiful contrasts to paint.  I enjoyed using permanent violet mixed with ultramarine blue to make dark purple shadows with spots of bright green leaves to mimic the way that some of the leaves caught the light, and others disappeared in darker areas. 

In the second painting, I skipped the drawing and sketched directly with watercolors, beginning with a loose, wet-in-wet sketch of the bright blooms, then adding in the foliage and shadows.

I have a good friend, Ryan McCormick, who teaches drawing & painting the Pittsburgh Center for Arts  and Media.  We were talking about being self-critical versus self-critiquing with our paintings.  

Ryan likes to challenge his students to name precisely what they don't like when they hold up their work and say, "I don't like it!"

Ryan replies, "What precisely don't you like?"

Once you ask this question, you can figure out how to fix that problem and steer your art in a new direction.  You have grown as an artist.

Also, you can ask this question:

What precisely do you like about your art?

I took this approach with this second art work, at first feeling frustrated by some white spots and hard wash lines in my painting.

Rather than giving up and saying "I don't like my painting;" I stood back, noticed exactly what I didn't like, and then addressed those problems.  

I also focused on what I did like -- in the flower scene that initially inspired me, and in my own painting.

I discovered that I was drawn in by the way the flowers caught the morning sun, and contrasted vividly against distant tree shadows.  So I tried to mirror that in my painting.

I also realized that I liked the loose flower shapes and the way the painting was really a negative space painting.  I was focused on defining the flowers and their leaves by painting the spaces around them.

It was fun to simplify the scene and not to get as detailed in the positive space as I had in the earlier painting, where I painstakingly left little white sunlight reflections in the blackberries

Now it's your turn to make some art, step back, and ask yourself those questions:  

What do you like?  

What don't you like?  

Be discerning and precise, because the answers will help you to grow and make discoveries as an artist.

Happy Creating!

Taking on My Hobgoblin Update: Painting Large

In this blog post, I shared the story of my inner critic's fear that painting large was "dangerous."

After writing about the subject in my daily journal, and then creating in my art journal, I plunged in and made this 24" x 30" painting.  

I am delighted to report that painting large is in some ways easier than painting small.  It allows freedom of motion as you paint, making sweeping motions more natural.

I started with this fiery orange-red underpainting to employ the power of color contrasts.

Orange and blue are opposites on the color wheel.  When you place them side-by-side, they create a vivid contrast that attracts the viewer's eye and creates a dynamic energy.

The beautiful thing about acrylic paint is that it dries quickly, so you can add layers on top of each other fairly quickly without mixing the two layers of paint.

I explained how I made this crow stamp in this post.

After making an enlarged copy of one of the prints, I transferred the photocopy to the painting using matte medium.

I applied a generous coat of matte medium to the face of the copy, stuck it down to the painting where I wanted it, and then pressed it firmly in place.  As I scraped excess goo out from between the two layers, I was careful not to get any matte medium on the back side of the copy.  That's important.

The next step is to let the matte medium dry.  When it's fully dry, spritz the paper with water and peel back the paper to reveal the image (in reverse).

You'll have to rub the last fibers of paper off of the image, and some parts of the image may come up with the paper if there was an air bubble in that spot.

I touched up a few spots on my crow with black paint.

Mixing matte medium with the acrylic paint allowed me to paint smooth, flowing letters and swirls.

The black & white contrasts appealed to my artist's eye.

As I painted, I tried to listen to the tiny voice of my intuition.  Of course, I had antsy moments in the creative process, wondering if it would all work out.  

We have a saying at my house, "Excite = Life."  If you're getting excited/nervous from time-to-time, then you are living your life fully and not shying from challenges. 

I played around with different designs underneath the crow, but didn't like the first attempt.  I removed the black squiggles with a paper towel wetted with rubbing alcohol, and tried again.

For touch-ups, I put a dab of acrylic paint and a blob of matte medium on an old membership card.  I mixed the two to make a smoother paint.  

Matte medium also slows the drying time of acrylic paint.  I used it after the painting was finished and dried as a clear top coat to protect the painting.

Old credit cards are useful for spreading paint onto a canvas using the broad side.  You can use the corners to scratch back into the paint while it's wet to make texture.

I finished, of course, by signing my name with a Posca paint pen.  

Always sign your work!  

Then place it where you can admire it

I hope you find ways to talk back to your inner critic.  It's incredibly empowering, and you end up with rich artwork!

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.

Art Journaling 101 with Amy Maricle

 

I am taking an online course from artist and art therapist Amy Maricle of Mindful Art Studio. 

Art Journaling 101 walks you through ways to jump right into creating, beginning with defusing the inner critic by writing out what our critic says to us and making a drawing of it.  

I call mine the Hobgoblin, and I imagine it to be a cranky, snide gargoyle.

Afterwards, we turned our attention to embracing our Muse.

Through the course, I've been eager to watch each short video and create more pages because the process is so easy.  

It's inspiring to have an instructor outline a technique, then invite you to make your own variations.

Amy demonstrates a variety of techniques for creating backgrounds as well as ways to fill the backgrounds with drawings and writing.

We created backgrounds in watercolor, 

both splashy and smooth.

Instead of facing a blank white page, now there's an inviting field of color on my art journal pages.

Amy demonstrated a technique using 2 colors of Caran D'Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons with gesso. I incorporated a layer of music sheeting for more texture.

She shared a simple technique for filling a page with acrylics.

Which provided the ideal surface to write a quote.

I recommend taking this inexpensive course because it inspires you to jump into creating right away.  

Sometimes, the hardest part of art making is getting started and deciding what to do.

I created all of these pages in a span of one afternoon. I tucked the activities into an otherwise busy day, and felt uplifted by the process.

Here's a link to the class: Art Journaling 101.

Happy Creating!