Love Letters

Another month, another crusade!! 

Michelle Ward's crusade for the month of February was "Love Letters." She loves Xs and Os and challenged everyone to make a spread with them in honor of Valentines Day.

I was resistant to this spread..obviously, since its March 1 and I FINALLY am finished with it!
I made myself sit down a few days ago and start the page, and forced myself to finish it
tonight even though I didn't love it. I still don't, but thats ok.

Here it is, hope you enjoy! And if you haven't, join in Michelle's next crusade next month.

Learning

I L-O-V-E to learn. I have always enjoyed being in school, and spend lots of time
researching things that interest me. The newest being art, of course. Last night as I made
yet another hideous journal page, it made me want to learn even more! Weird. Usually I get
frustrated when I can't do something, or when I hit a wall of how far I can go.
This is usually the breaking point for me. I have not had very many interests and
hobbies growing up. Whenever people asked what I liked to do I shrugged and
was like "Umm..I don't know.
I like to read." That was my default answer. What kind of hobby is reading! 

A few years ago I got into photography, and I still enjoy it, but hit a wall
probably about a year ago. I live in a small town and feel like I've explored it all to
take pictures. I've already taken about 10 million pictures of my cat.
What else is there? I have not felt confident enough
to take a class, so my learning curve for photography has hit a sort of plateau. 

I've been doing this art stuff for 8 months now. A newbie. It has been immensely and
thoroughly joyful for me, as well as a big hit on ye olde checking account. Woops.
My art stuff has taken over my bedroom, and sometimes infiltrates into
the living or dining room. My dad so sweetly sends me gift cards to DickBlick to
keep me supplied. (I love him!)
I am constantly pouring through blogs to learn, buy books ocassionally and just wish I knew how to be PERFECT and TALENTED!

Its not too much to ask for, is it? :)

Even though I have no confidence in myself or my abilities, I still am urged onward and
upward. I still will take any course Julie Prichard offers, maybe take an art class in town
and just see where it goes. 

I have never had a dream. 

I have never wanted to be anything.

Seriously.

When I look at my future, it is blank. 

There is a tiny, oh so tiny flicker of illumination in that blank field. 

Maybe it can be filled with art somehow?

I feel like I am cursing myself. I now maybe have a dream? Passion?
What that means to me? Now I have a reason to FAIL at it. 

Now that I have found something I really love doing, it will always be just a hobby.
For the first months of me painting, I always told myself "Just going to do some crafts.
Just throw some paint on paper. Anyone can do it."

While it is true, anyone CAN do it, it does take more than a paintbrush and
paint to make art.

Only recently have I been able to say to myself "I am making artwork." 

Even to myself, that is an accomplishment. 

Baby steps.

If you read this, thanks. I needed to get that off my chest and out in blogworld.
I have no new art journal pages to show (since they've all been so hideous), but here
is Jack bathing at my art table.

Creating your own photo light box...

is fun! and easy! I have been trying to figure out ways to take better pictures of my journal entries and such. Take a gander at my fun with photography this evening :)

Set-up in my dining room "studio"

 

 

My roommate takes out my bag of cereal and goes "Create war." lol!

Cool, eh?

Stencil Makin' and Art Journalin'

I am so much more prolific in my painting when I am taking an online class. I wish I had enough money to continuously take them, at least until I felt confident in my own skills and abilities. Tonight I spent time making some stencils. I want to be able to gradually build up my stencil library, because it is so useful! 

I have been having hand problems. It seems like I can't paint/cut out stencils/do anything with my dominant (left) hand for very long without it starting to become very sore :( I don't know if it is because I grip things too tight, or if it is just a downfall of art-making? Anybody have this problem?

The weather is (finally) starting to get warmer out, and I can't wait to start spray painting again! 

Below is a picture of my stencil/masks that I made tonight, and the last few pages of my art journal. Enjoy!

Connection

Right after I posted about how I didn't feel like painting (or posting), I felt guilty so I decided to just whip out some markers and Neocolor II crayon's. A simple page inspired by recent events in my life and the Olympics. I LOVE THE OLYMPICS. 

More Color

I have done a color library with all my paints in the past week or two. I haven't been up to painting for real, kind of in a slump right now. It is easy and soothing to paint swatches, and now I have a visual of my library of colors. I also mixed all my primaries and made little books to see all the shades of secondary colors that I can mix with my paint. 

Snow and lots of painting

We got hit with MORE SNOW again over the weekend. Totally crazy. Places like Dulles, and D.C. got slammed with snow. Up to 32" in some points. I can hardly believe it. Here in Cville, we "only" got about 16". Because I was snowed in, I had lots of free time. I wish I could sleep with my art journal, I love it so much :)

I don't have many words to say, so I shall just post pictures.

 

 

In the middle of shoveling out my car. I never want to shovel again!

 

 Now, onto painting

A letter to Hugo

I decided to write a letter to my kitten, Hugo, who died 2 years ago. 

I haven't really been able to look at pictures of him because it makes

me too sad. Last night I felt ready to dedicate a page to him, and to

print out a couple of my favorite pictures. It was cathartic.

And creative :)

Color, Color, Collloorrrrrr

(picture that with a song and dance, please) :)

I am taking Julie Prichard (I can NOT stay away from her classes! Thanks Julie for making me broke!) and Chris Cozen's "Color: Beyond Basics" class. I debated...and debated because funds are limited...and everyone knows how it is in January with money. We have none. BUT, I love color so much and just want to learn and learn, so I say, 'What the hey!" (Yeah I rhyme) and just did it.

Only on lesson 2, and I have learned so much about the paints I already have. Rock on!

Now a picture gallery.

Who knew making color wheels would be so much fun?

The best part of playing with paint, is you get to throw the leftovers on paper and in your art journal. 

These backgrounds will hopefully be the start of another colorful journey.

Art Journal Pages

Still working on trying new techniques....

On this spread, I tried focusing more on my writing...making THAT the interesting focal point of the spread. As you can see, I tried to go for a more "graffiti" style. The yellow page is really one of my new favorites!

Oh. This page. I decided to try and do a prototype of an idea I got from Traci Bautista, a Graffiti Wall. I bought a large (18x24)!! canvas to do this for my room. What am I, crazy?! I think so. The largest thing I've painted on is a 9x12 piece of watercolor paper! The idea of a grungy, colorful, messy painting to hang on my wall really entices me though.

A few things I learned practicing it in my journal.

1. MAKE SURE you use a permanent marker. DUH. I had bought this new calligraphy marker (that barely dispenses any ink) and used it...only to find out it wasn't permanent and spread with my addition of gel medium.

2. THINK ABOUT COMPOSITION EVERY ONCE IN AWHILE! I mean, seriously. I am trying to let go, and enjoy the process of making art..except I just go a little too crazy and come out with stuff that isn't well composed.

3. Focus more on values in color. I realized about 2/3 in that the blue and purple were both dark, and therefore there wasn't any contrast in my painting. I tried lightening up the purple, but I'm still not 100% satisfied.

4. Even though I put "I am An Artist" on these pages...I don't really believe it.

So...the spread, I don't hate...I don't love. I did learn some things, and that is always good, right?

Art/Idea board: FILLED

I have spent the last couple of days compiling all my notes/art journaling magazine/books on my computer to have my Idea Board filled up. (Mostly at work...SHHHHH...) Today, I finished, printed them out, pasted them on sprayed cardstock...and this is the finished product. I love it! I used

(from Traci's website...and quite frankly the most amazing book EVER...filled with ideas and glorious pictures. I want to sleep with it under my pillow.)

 

 

 

ALL of these publications are yummy. Well-written, full of information...but more importantly, glorious, large, glossy pictures. I made this idea art board because I have a problem with going "I don't know what to do!" For me, I need prompts/ideas. This board is directly above my desk, and full of color, so I have no excuse :)

Also, inspired by Traci Bautista, I bought an 18x24" canvas yesterday! (eep!) I plan on doing a "Graffiti Wall" for my room. We shall see how that turns out...

It is a rainy sunday, and perfect for art-making.

Throwing Paint at a Wall

IS FUN! I am sure you all are like "Duh...of course its fun!" I bought a cork board to hang up above my art desk to put up ideas and inspiration for myself. It sat there for a day or so, looking all plain and boring. I decided it needed something...what would it be? Then I just felt like flinging paint at it! So that is what I did.

Of course, lots ended up on the wall.

It was a fun project, except it didn't work out AS well as expected, because it is a dark brown color, and covered in felt..or something similar. Nevertheless, it isn't boring now!

And my tools...

A spread in progress...

I cut out this sun stencil...how awesome is it?! I love it. I am using this new thinner film (I can't remember what it is), and it makes using a burning tool SO much easier. It cuts like buttah. I'm not sure where this spread is going; I am too busy staring at the pretty suns.

Also, courtesy of Michelle Ward, I made a binder to hold my stencils. SUCH a great idea.

I am once again in a stencil-making phase. I wish I could draw, but I can't, so I will use royalty free images.

I don't have much else to say, but I will end this post with a couple pictures of my friend's baby. I loveee her. So cute.