Book of Days, Life Book 2024 and other art…

Book of Days is about art journaling about your life. It can be in the form of daily, weekly, monthly or any period of time you want. I have been doing daily in a weekly spread. I like this approach because it forces me into thinking about my day. It also makes me want to record the most significant part of my day.

I tend to think on the negative side of things. It isn’t that bad because it does prepare me for things that can happen and do happen that are not always positive. However, knowing I will most likely be posting and writing about my journal spreads makes me want to lean more towards the positive aspects of my life. This is good.

This is very good, because it wasn’t too long ago when I discovered I am most likely what they call “negativity bias”. Doing things that make me look at the more positive things in my life is a good thing and hopefully this will help me in the future to remember the positive things more so than the negative things.

This week’s spread is inspired by Effy Wild’s BOD Fall 2023 “From the Vault #3” lesson in which she was dealing with anxiety and the things she will do that can help her during those anxious times. Getting into the “Zen” zone can be very helpful and she uses doodling to help her enter a Zen state.

I am not a natural doodler. I never doodled as a child. I am not sure why. I sometimes wonder if I had a negative experience relating to doodling. I used to watch a woman I worked with during our meetings sit and doodle as she listened to what was being said. She would make some very pretty doodles and I often wished I could do something similar but for me to doodle, I have to breech some walls and my inner negativity critic. I could often hear that doodling serves no purpose. It doesn’t create a beautiful piece of realistic artwork, nothing useful, or anything someone would purchase or hang on a wall. My inner critic thinks nothing is good unless is looks realistic. But then my inner critic wasn’t a connoisseur of some of the master artists like Salvador Dali.

The below two images are two points in my journey with this week’s art journal spread. I have taken up the doodling challenge to see what I can create, but my logical mind wanted an area to write a few words about my day and didn’t want to have to contend with doodles getting in the way and not leaving any room for the words. I devised a plan to create a trail of the days of the week, and next to each day of the week, either above or below the word, I will write a few words about the day, then doodle around it.

The second image shows my progress so far up to Wednesday (today). I did the majority of the doodles seen on the page, today after I selected the phrase representing today. Thursday will be a busy day for me so I may not doodle until Saturday or Sunday.

I enjoyed this today more than I thought I would. I like the path created by the days of the week. My logical mind finds joy in this as it shows a logical progression of my week. The background was done using a homemade stencil. I am not great at stenciling. I invariably end up with too much paint on my sponge causing it to leak under the areas that aren’t supposed to have paint. I plan on getting a stencil brush soon but for this spread, the messiness works well with it.

I have the worst luck when it comes to white Posca Acrylic Paint Pens. I don’t know what it is with me and white pens but they often stop working on me before the paint runs out. It is very frustrating. Getting the white doodles down that I did today was a feat in itself. I may resort to keeping the pens that no longer work and just using them to dip into white acrylic paint like a dip pen and draw or write with them. It is bad enough I have to fight my inner critic and even worse to have to fight with my art supplies.

I tried three times to create the Life Book 2024 “Whispers of Gratitude” lesson painting to get a similar feel of simple elegance of botanicals. This is my third attempt and the closest I was able to get. I needed to move on to the other lessons but this helped me to understand what I need to do to create the effect I want. After creating this, I came across a YouTube video that showed something similar in which they explained to use colors in the same color family, for instance, greens and blues as I did here but they did not vary size or the leaf shape very much, just slight changes in the colors. I may try this again in the future but for now I need to move on to the other lessons.

The next lesson in Life Book 2024 is about self-affirmation, self-love. Tamara Laporte demonstrated how to make some affirmation cards. On days where I feel off, things like this can be a reminder to be gentle and kind to one’s self and pulling a card with something positive and self-affirming can help switch one’s focus. Tam made only nine cards. In my usual fashion, I decided to make more.

The below image was taken after I completed one card. See that stack on the left of the six cards? Yes, that is my goal to fill every one of them with self-affirmation, so I can use them like a Tarot deck or Spirit deck, as one would use them to remind themselves to open up and look at what is around us.

I didn’t follow Tam’s process exactly. Because I wanted to make plenty of cards, I decorated the pages in a similar fashion up until I was ready to start adding a focal image or the words. At that point is when I cut the pages into 3×4″ cards. After I add the image and the words, I round the corners, and ink the edges. I may put a glossy or matte finish on the cards once they are all done.

I am not sure if I will do glossy. Glossy can tend to be tacky and cause the cards to stick together. I have had journal pages stick together and a few years ago I made a regular playing card deck with a glossy finish. After a while of being stacked together some will stick together. No damage when I pull them apart but the risk is there. I had even waxed them but it could just be the brand of glossy medium I used. I’ll make that decision after I finish all 63 cards.

The affirmation cards will take a while to complete. I expect I will be needing to print many of the images I will want to use. I had to purchase a new printer. My old Brother printer was starting to wear out. I had some lines that weren’t printing at all, and it was leaving black streaks across my papers depending on what paper I used and what I printed. I went through almost a whole set of ink cartridges sending the printer through its cleaning process and printing the test pages. I finally gave it up.

I have always wanted a wide format printer and scanner and I found an Epson model that was on sale. On top of the Staples took my old printer and took another $50 off the new printer. It took no time to setup and my first test print was awesome. It definitely is an improvement on print quality. I can’t wait to test out the wide format just haven’t had time or a reason to do so. I expect my card deck will give me that reason.

In even more art news, I signed up for a free class “Wish Upon a Star”. The below image is the warmup bonus lesson of creating a Magical Eye. I am thrilled with how this came out. It isn’t as mystical looking as the instructor’s but then this is more me than the mystical version.

After I finished this I came across another YouTube video that demonstrated how to draw a realistic eye. When I have the time, I plan on giving this a try. My dream is to be able to draw realistically and this eye gives me hope in being able to do that. I have had much trouble in the past drawing eyelashes. I am getting closer to it and the video on drawing a realistic eye breaks it down even better.

If you think this is a lot going on in a week, along with me working full time. You are right. But…. it isn’t all that I have been doing. I pulled out a sketchbook. This sketchbook at first was to return to my anatomy class and continue my 100 days of drawing bones which was pushed to the side recently but instead of putting myself into a box of having to draw one particular subject, I am leaving it open. I started over at #1 and each drawing will be numbered as I go. I am not pressuring myself into drawing every day because I have a lot of drawing activity already with my art journal and lessons. And somewhere in my day, I do need to work at my day job. lol

On top of that, I am continuing to fill in any gaps with creating digital designs to put up in Redbubble or Ko-fi.com. I have some designs I created some time ago and it is my goal to tweak them and make them available on Ko-fi.com. The great thing about digital designs, you can use them as often as you like. They will never run out as long as you have a printer, paper and ink.

If you are interested in seeing what I have in my shops, check these out:

Purple Tulip Art Studio Redbubble shop

Purple Tulip Art Studio Ko-fi shop

Thank you for spending your time with me. If you enjoyed what you read, please “like” and if so inclined leave a comment.

The madness of being a rock…

I’m not sure where this post will end up. I have a feeling I will spill more onto this page than people might want to hear. My intention for this blog is to talk about my journey as an artist but a person can’t do that without spilling their guts about other aspects of life because an artist can’t create art without life getting on the page or into the paint or ink or whatever medium is used.

I started this bear over two weeks ago.

About a week ago, on February 23rd, I finished him.

On February 22nd, while waiting on portions of my bear to dry, I read an article, Creative Tarot Journaling Made Easy. I decided to select a prompt and give it a try.

After completing the bear, I decided to create my alternative version to him in my own style.

This is still a work in progress. It is taking much longer to complete than anticipated.

There is a story between all these layers. I can’t talk about these three pieces without filling in the story which exists between the layers. The layers represent the many layers which are occurring in my life. Mixed media art or any art for that matter isn’t just laying down layers of paint and then creating an image on the page. Every piece of art, no matter the medium, has the artist’s life interwoven within it. Unless you are an artist it might be difficult to comprehend exactly what I’m trying to express here. I’ll try but I’m afraid I might fail at really helping non-artists (if there really are any non-artists, everyone is creative in their own way) to understand.

I have had to learn to give myself some space in regards to working on my projects. What that means is, if I’m feeling resistance then I back off. Resistance comes in many forms and sometimes it is difficult to know the source of the resistance. I have to discover what that source is in order to move forward. Then, sometimes, moving forward takes time because there maybe a need to process something before I can release it into my artwork.

On February 14th, I heard some not so good news. It wasn’t awful but it has created a bit of friction emotionally for me. The news is that the income I’m receiving in my current job isn’t enough. This has triggered a return of anxiety which so far is manageable. That anxiety is rooted in varying aspects of my past, from childhood, to several relationships the worst being the last relationship I had, to fighting breast cancer, to being laid off and to the last of having trouble just getting a job. Knowing I need to go back to job hunting is also triggering depression. This has also taken the joy out of the job I’ve been doing. I thought it would be enough. To find out it isn’t has not been easy to accept.

The bear is my version of Tam’s Compassionate Bear lesson in Life Book 2018. The Universe has a way of timing things perfectly, for this lesson could not have come at a better time. It reminds me to be compassionate with myself, especially now after hearing the news and each time I apply for any jobs that are posted.  It is difficult to remain compassionate as the weeks go by without any calls for interviews. It is even more difficult to not allow emotions to surface relating to not being good enough. When I wrote in the previous paragraph that the job wasn’t enough, it made me realize that what I heard when I received the news was that I wasn’t good enough. Even though I know this is not true, old emotions arise from my past when circumstances made me feel that way.

There are so many emotions being triggered right now, some of them can be overwhelming. I could have written so many things on my Compassionate Bear and all of them would have felt fake even though they might be true. The one thing that felt true and seemed to put my unrest at ease was “You are loved.”

I posted this bear on the Life Book Facebook group and realized when I looked at the picture that he also looks a bit like a mouse. An interesting combination because though mice seem small and delicate they are quick and cunning. Bears may appear slow but they are strong and dangerous.

These are things I didn’t think about until just now, which is why I love to write about my art and my life together. I find insights like these which can help me deal with “life”. I have always felt an affinity towards bears because of my last name. There could not be two more opposite creatures, the bear and the mouse, and yet somehow they seem to fit together within my Gemini personality. I will be the first to admit that I have opposing forces strong within me which can make me appear to be a very complicated person. This might be why my individual style seems to be focused around mandalas which help me combine these forces into a central focus.

The hard part the past few weeks has been to not let the news suck me down into the emotional turmoil I felt for a year and a half after hearing the news of the workforce reduction I was caught up in. They don’t like using the words lay off anymore. Like a change of wording can make a person feel any better about such a situation. No it isn’t for the people being laid off to feel better. It is to make those making the decision to lay off workers feel better or not so bad. Okay, I went there. I didn’t mean to go there. But it hurts. I’m angry still after two years. And the news just reawakened all of those feelings.

Consequently, working on my art has been in small doses. I work on something for a bit, like on the bear, I would do a layer and then let it dry. Most times I let it dry far longer than it needed to. Meaning it was dry long before I returned to it.

During one of the breaks, the choice to do the Tarot drawing and then an art journal page on it was a good choice.

The prompt I chose was important to me. During a time when I was not feeling happy, I needed a reminder of what does make me happy. I don’t want to say I was surprised by the cards I pulled. Rather, I was, intrigued by what they confirmed.

My intent was to pull just one card but as things often happen with me, my intent isn’t what needed to happen. The Universe took over and I ended up with two cards in my hand. When I flipped them over at the same time, the first thing I noticed was they were both Major Arcana cards, IV The Emperor, and XVII The Star. I won’t go into my complete reading of these cards, some of it is too personal. I will tell you a bit about it because I feel it is important in regards to my current situation and my art journey.

What I came to understand from the cards is my happiness comes from balance, stability, reason, logic, harmony and hope. I put these things in overlapping large circles on my page because they all influence each other in one way or another. I used to listen to people who said I ‘think’ too much. When they would say this, I took it as a bad thing, and that my reasoning, and my logic were bad parts of myself which I needed to tone down or find a way to not rely on so much and learn to be less of these things in my life. Consequently, I fought against them. I would use logic and reasoning to understand something and then I would try and use a not so logical way of overcoming a situation or problem. Until I did this Tarot drawing, I didn’t realize how much logic and reasoning brought me happiness.  I also didn’t realize how much logic and reasoning also inspired hope.

I found it interesting to also note that my 2018 word ‘balance’ showed up. It makes sense that harmony and stability are part of my happiness. Those words just seem to go along with balance for me this year and have shown up in previous artwork since I chose the word balance.

What this reading did for me was tell me to stop fighting against the things I do naturally. To allow my instincts to guide me. I have always known that when I’m faced with a challenge my first instinct is to let logic and reasoning take over. I need to understand the situation and the best way I know how to do that is by use of logic and reasoning. Fighting against it means I throw myself into turmoil which just amplifies the emotions which I relate to stress. I end up feeling like my life is beyond my control.

The smaller circles on this page represent elements in my life that make me happy. I have a few more things to add to this page which will be other elements which can influence my happiness. They will end up being words that float around in the white space.

I enjoyed this exercise using Tarot cards and I may do more of them.

This is my current work in progress. It is my alternative piece for the Compassionate Bear lesson. When I started it, all I knew was I would start it using the grid method I use for drawing mandalas and at its center I wanted a heart. The heart would represent the ‘You are loved’ statement on the bear. What I like about this design is I can add writing around the design if I feel the need to do so.

All of these pieces are done with Prang watercolor paint. The yellow however is Daler Rowney watercolor. I ran out of the Prang yellow so I substituted a Daler Rowney yellow from one of the yellows in the Simply watercolor tube set I have.

I’ll briefly describe the process for each:

Compassionate Bear: sketched in pencil on watercolor paper. I wanted a happy multi-colored bear so I used purples, blues, blue-green, yellow, magenta, green and white watercolor. India ink and dip pen for the black sketchy outline and marks, and tried some India ink using a brush for shading which was a bit tricky and I ended up layering over some of it with more watercolor because I didn’t like how it turned out. The white is either acrylic white paint or Uni-ball Signo broad gel pen.

What Makes Me Happy?:  Tombow markers for the title lettering. Using pencil and compass I created the circles, then Prang watercolor to fill them in and Tombow markers around the edges to define the edges better. Uni-ball AIR black pen for the words inside the circles. I’ll use the same pen when I add any words or phrases in the background.

Alternative to Compassionate Bear: using painters tape, taped the watercolor paper down to hardboard, thoroughly wet the paper and randomly added Prang watercolor paint, yellow, orange, red, red-orange and magenta. Let it dry completely. Using pencil, compass, and ruler lightly drew in a mandala grid. Pigma micron pen, permanently drew in the shapes I wanted that I had drawn in pencil in the grid, then added in patterns within the shapes using the same micron pen (size 01 or 03). I erased any pencil lines I didn’t want or need anymore. I am currently at the stage of using Prisma Colored Pencils to add shading and color to the various patterns. This always takes the longest.

As I stated earlier, I may add some writing around the design to support the ‘compassionate’ nature of this piece. I don’t really plan these pieces, they develop as I work on them. They sort of let me know what needs to be done next. Sometimes the next step doesn’t always make sense to me and I fight against it, like the blue I am adding now. It didn’t make sense when I felt the need to do it but somehow it works, even though there isn’t blue anywhere else in the piece.

I’m currently in an emotional place which feels like I’m struggling both artistically and in every day life and work. I try to tell myself that I am exactly where I am supposed to be right now but it feels like a platitude. I feel like I’ll never get ahead and the reason for that is years and years of neglect and wasting the resources I had available to me. I would say more but I’m afraid I would sound like a whining brat and that isn’t where I am right now, or I  hope I’m not.

I guess what I’m trying to say is for some reason the Universe feels the need to put me through this turmoil when all I want in my life is peace and harmony. What I’m thinking right now is maybe what I’m supposed to learn is peace and harmony are always present even in the turmoil. Am I able to be that rock in the middle of a raging river and let the turmoil flow around me, letting the friction shape me into what I need to be even at the risk of being unseated? Ever wonder how the rocks got there in the first place? Some of them look like they were just plunked down in the middle of the river, while others look like they grew right out of the riverbed. In school, we learn they were there all along, appearing slowly over time as the water slowly eroded the soil and gravel around them.

I sometimes wonder how many artists really think about how their lives appear in their artwork or how their artwork helps them to understand their lives. Or do they paint or draw because if they don’t they will go mad?

 

 

Designed and made by hand…

I created my first greeting card ever. It is a thank you card. I have an intended recipient for the card. I absolutely LOVED making this card. At first, I tried just making it on plain card stock but soon discovered why those who make cards do their artwork on a separate piece of paper first and then adhere it to the card stock. The watercolors I was using bled through the card stock which would interfere with the writing space on the inside of the card. So, I started again.

I cut down a piece of watercolor paper to 3 3/4″ x 5″ so it would have a nice border around it when I adhered it to the card stock. I used a wet-on-wet technique using Prang watercolors. I am falling in love with Prang watercolors. They are so vibrant as you can see in this card.

I have learned to let watercolor dry on its own for the most part. Especially if I want to get the granulation, blending and bleeding that occurs over time when you let it dry without the aid of a heat gun. Believe me, there is a difference.  Half of the blending and bleeding you see in this card would not have occurred if I had dried it with a heat gun immediately after putting down the watercolor.

Partially through the drying, I used a paper towel to dab up some of the excess water once the blending and bleeding had done its thing.  This left some added texture in the watercolor paint which I totally fell in love with.

Once it was completely dry, I used Permapaque black marker to write the words. Then a Signo Uniball white pen for the highlights on the letters. The last step was to use a final fixative, oh yeah, and dark blue ink around the edges.

I used double sided tape to adhere the piece of watercolor paper to the card stock. This was not a pre-made folded card. I used an 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of 65 lb. card stock and cut it in half to 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″, then folded it so the card would be 4 1/2″ x 5 1/2″. This created a 1/4″ border around the watercolor paper.

That is all there was to it. Simple and easy.

I also made the envelope out of 65 lb. card stock. You can see it peeking out behind the card.

Have I said how much I love the feeling of creating something beautiful completely with my own hands? That includes, not using stencils or stamps made by other people. This card, other than the paper, is completely designed and made by my own hands. It is such a wonderful feeling.

I am in love with this card. It will be so difficult to mail it to its recipient. However, it is for a good cause and I think they will appreciate it just as much as I do.

I realized when starting to write this post, I forgot to post the completion of one of the pieces I posted that was in progress. So here it is.

This is the piece in which I showed the beginning sketch here, for Effy Wild’s “Mirror of the Soul” lesson in Kiala’s Pull, Pen, Paint course. Again, I used Prang watercolors to paint the image, as well as, some gel pen for highlights and added details.

This was only my second time painting a horse’s head. Sometime, I’m going to find some videos or courses on drawing and painting animals. Though I like how they came out, I know I can do better.

The inspiration for this painting was my Soul card, VII The Chariot, which also happens to be my Personality card. I feel a sort of affinity for the card and feel it has a special message for me whenever it turns up.

I may do more cards. In fact, I’ve been looking up printing options for playing cards. I’m thinking about having a deck printed up using one of the images from the back of this card deck I made by hand. I love playing with this card deck. It gives me such pleasure knowing I created it. It has a completely different feel to it than a regular playing card deck. To have an actual card deck printed up from my designs would be awesome.

Have a fabulous day.

~Patti

Challenges and chances to win a seat in Ever After

Life isn’t without its challenges. Neither is art. Every day when I wake up, the first thought that enters my mind is “what will I do today?” This is such a broad question but for me it is directly related to my creativity. If, I’m not creating, then I feel lost, as if I have been disconnected from my anchor.

When I don’t know what to do, I generally fall back on classes I have available for me to learn from or work along with an amazing artist. One of those artists is Tamara Laporte. She has many classes I want to take, including her upcoming class of Ever After.

The desire to take her classes isn’t just for what I will learn in art and art techniques. The main reason is because of her personality. She radiates love. Her laughter is contagious. I find her hands beautiful and an inspiration to me that no matter my circumstances I will always be able to be creative.

Tamara Laporte is having a give-away for her Ever After course. You can read about the course here. They are conducting a blog hop with the various teachers participating in Ever After and each teacher is giving away a seat in the class. I write about this because I want everyone who reads this to have a chance at winning a seat.

I was introduced to Tamara’s work after researching online art courses. She has a free art course “Art, Heart and Healing” which you can find here at the bottom of her page. I am all about learning all I can about the way a teacher instructs before buying any of their paid classes. Most instructors give just a mini course which at times can be misleading as to how good a teacher they are, so I was impressed that “Art, Heart and Healing” is a free 4 week class. It is larger than Tam’s mini classes and a full blown class on its own with lots of content.

I am not a whimsical type artist, or I didn’t think I was. I’m not so sure now. The point I’m making is when I started taking “Art, Heart and Healing” it was when I was trying to find my way back into being able to do art like I had in my high school art classes. For some reason starting in grade 8, Mr. McFarland, awakened something in me I never knew I had. Having him as my art teacher until I graduated high school was the best thing that ever happened to me and I believed I was an artist. After high school, it was difficult to make that connection and I doubted myself as an artist.

Even though Tamara Laporte’s style isn’t really my style, the whimsical nature of her work drew me in. It didn’t have to be perfect. Everything didn’t have to be anatomically correct. I always attempted realism and my inability to create anything even close to realism was what my inner critic had a field day with. Doing Tam’s classes and hearing her say it doesn’t have to be perfect, in fact, get messy, accept what you think are mistakes, helped me respond to my inner critic in a way that helped me continue and create imperfect pieces of art. In fact, watching her make her own mistakes and how she worked with them, helped free me from my perfectionist.

I credit Tam and a few other artists, like Christy Sobolewski, and Effy Wild, for helping me re-awaken my inner artist and believe in her again, but I will never forget Mr. McFarland’s influence. This is an important journey for me and is why I created this blog to write about it.

I often face challenges when I try new mediums, or when I attempt to draw a face or an animal. I often have to let go of my perfectionist, and my natural proclivity towards details. The best advice I ever heard was when beginning a drawing, forget about the details. Start with a loose sketch, drawing just the shapes making adjustments to get them sorted out where you want them to be. Then you can begin to build upon the details.

My eye for detail generally has me immediately diving in deep. I might decide to draw a whole face but as soon as I put pencil to paper, I’m suddenly drawing just one eye in all its fine details, then the next thing I know I find out it is in the wrong position on the page. I do have to consciously put aside my attention to detail when I first begin a sketch. I have learned, if I don’t, then frustration and angst will eventually follow.

This piece of advice came from this youtube video.

I’ve learned a lot over this past year. I would have to say, the most important thing I’ve learned is how to face challenges. There have been many. Thanks to teachers like Tam, Christy and Effy, the challenges within my art, my creativity, aren’t so impossible to overcome anymore.

I hope you will check out Tam’s new class Ever After. I know I have not been disappointed in any of her classes and generally feel her content far exceeds the price of admission.

I am currently working on two drawings which I plan on painting. I haven’t decided on what medium I’ll use yet. Both are on watercolor paper which means I can use any medium I have.  I am leaning towards watercolor and augmenting it with a bit of acrylic paint, especially for highlights.

This first image is from Pull, Pen, Paint a course provided by Kiala Givehand. Thisi s my beginning sketch for Effy Wild’s course in week 4, titled “Mirrors of the Soul”. It is an inspired art journal page using our Soul card as inspiration. My soul card happens to also be my personality card, The Chariot. This is still a work in progress.

This second image is a drawing I created in mid-March. It is also a work in progress. I’m still making decisions on what else needs to be included in the sketch, and I have the challenge of how to do the background and retain the image of the mandala. Then how to bring that image forward. I will most likely go over everything in permanent ink before adding any paint. I love these ladies. I’m not sure where they came from but I am connected to them.

Being an artist is also physically challenging. I wasn’t prepared for the abuse our bodies can experience while creating art.  Pain has become a constant in my life except during some moments when I am creating art. I am fascinated by this.

~Patti

 

Watercolor with a tad bit of Acrylic…

I surprise myself sometimes. This is one of those times. The below painting is from the Pull, Pen, Paint course I’m taking online. This is the first time I attempted a portrait using watercolor. In different art lessons I have taken, almost all of the instructors state to not give up when your painting looks like a mess. It is hard to believe them when they say, if it is a mess then you are doing something right, because if you keep going the results will be amazing. I have to admit, there were several times, I had some “Ah, shit” moments and my inner critic would tell me “It will never turn out the way you want it to.” Well, my inner critic was right. It turned out better than I had planned.

I started with a pencil sketch. Then started in with watercolor, wet on dry for the face. I didn’t have flesh tone in my watercolors, so I had to mix my colors. The first brush stroke I put down had an immediate response of, “Oh shit, that’s too dark.” I continued though, using techniques I saw other painters do, like taking a slightly wet brush without any paint on it to blend and push the darker color where I wanted it to go.

I can’t describe every part of what I did because I really don’t remember everything. I know I pushed the paint around, even got some pilling of the paper but only slightly and I would back off a bit when that would happen. The face was all wet on dry or mostly dry, because it does become damp from the paint I’m applying but I never made it sloppy wet. I left that for the hair, the background and the blouse.

The hair was done next, once I had the face mostly to where I wanted it. I always have trouble finalizing the face until I have the hair in. The hair changes everything about the face. What once looked dark, becomes lighter. I put down yellow, and added water to spread it around more, added brown to get some texture and shading. Then I went to the background and the shirt.

The background and the shirt were wet on wet. Red down first on the shirt. Then black for the background. I blotted some of the excess water up which gave the background a nice texture. Then I layered slightly watered down acrylic gold metallic, not just on the black background but also over the hair and the blouse.

This is where it gets fuzzy as to what all I did. I returned to the face and added some details in black watercolor, and brown for the eyes, and added some blue to the skin tone to get some a blueish grey color for shading. I needed deeper shading, and less pinkish/brown. Then I added the black around the eyes and eyelashes, and other details around the face. I was pretty happy with it but needed some highlights.

I went to acrylic vanilla to blend in and push back the shading on her face. Then white acrylic for some brighter highlights. I added black and white acrylic to the hair which really brought the colors out and added dimension.

Pull, Pen, Paint is a course about using Tarot to inspire our art. I took three things from my Tarot drawing. A color pallet of gold, black and red. A feeling of being kind and gentle with myself. An inner desire to create a woman which embodied the essence of the Tarot reading.

During the painting, a storm blew in. Thunder sounded, and rain poured down, and the rather warm day turned into a cool cleansing.  As I write this, I look out my window. The rain still comes down but not in the hard downpour of earlier. Classical music has been playing all day while I worked. I’m happy with what I’ve created.

I have another page with another sketch waiting for paint to be applied. It is an idea I have for Journal52’s prompt Emerge. I’m excited to get started but need to finalize this one, and sign it.

Oh, I discovered a few days ago, I can’t do a web store on WordPress from a free WordPress account, so if I want to sell any of my work, I’ll have to purchase web hosting that will allow for a web store. I’m not sure what I’ll do about that right now.

~Patti

 

Tarot, Quirky Bird, and Stillness…

When thinking about today, my first thought was that I hadn’t accomplished anything. Then I was struck by what lay in front of me. I had three, yes, three completed pieces of art. Completed today.

Isn’t it funny how our minds trick us? I woke this morning with one thought on my mind and that was to work on the next lesson in Pull, Pen, Paint. When the evening came to a close and I had not worked on it, I immediately rated the day as a failure and tried to convince myself I hadn’t accomplished anything.

Only one of the pieces of art in front of me had been on my list of things to do today. After reading a post last night about creating a Tarot Journal and why the author also creates a sketch to go with the Tarot card, I changed my mind on what I would do in my Tarot Journal.  I decided to also create a sketch. I know this can be challenging for me. When I first thought about it, I thought there was no way I could create an accurate sketch of the Tarot card. Then I realized it doesn’t have to be of the whole card. I could pick out what resonated strongly with me and incorporate it into a sketch. In doing so, I hope to make a meaningful connection with the card and eventually the whole deck.

Here is my first entry in my Tarot Journal, a journal meant for studying each of the cards. I will use a Tarot Diary for recording any readings I choose to do. My first entry is of the Ace of Wands:

I made some choices. The ink I will use will be the color which is representative of the suit. In this case, the color for the suit of Wands is red, so I used red ink in journaling about the card. I also decided to include a small picture of the card. This way, I can look at the image along with the artwork to get a better feel for the card whenever I need to review my journal entry.

For me, the wand stood out from everything else, probably just as it should. Even so without looking at the image of the card, I remember there are hands on either side of the wand in a position of protection and reverence.

I’m not doing a Tarot card pull and then studying the card I pull. I am going systematically through the deck to learn each card in the order they are in the guide book (I’m using the Easy Tarot Gilded deck). This way I’ll journal about them in their suits and my journal will have them in logical groupings, which satisfies my very logical mind, for when I might want to add more to my journal for a particular card or just look up my journal entry for a particular card.

The second thing I did was watch the recording of a live stream of Tamara Laporte. She does some amazing whimsical artwork. Her live stream is public on her Facebook  page if you are interested in watching it. While I watched, I arted along with her. Here is what I created:

I didn’t use the same supplies she did. I just improvised with my supplies of Art Crayons, White Acrylique paint, Prisma Premier Color Pencils, black Sakura Gelly Roll pen and Signo White Pigment Ink pen. Oh and Uniball Gold gell pen.

This technically is my first quirky bird as Tamara calls them. I love her style, although I don’t think her style is anything close to my style. I do love the freedom I feel when drawing whimsical people and animals. It helps alleviate the feelings I get about being perfect when I’m doing art.  Learning in this way first, has helped me to feel freer when attempting realism.

The next thing I did was complete a journal spread I had started a couple days ago. This one was in response to Journal52 prompts. I’m woefully behind on the prompts but I’m not worrying about it. Having them available to work on for fun, is great for those times I want a break from some of the classes I’m taking. This one was for week 8. The prompt was Stillness, here is my journal spread:

I started this by using Craft Smart acrylic paint and just finger painting. No brushes, just my fingers, for the sky, grass, flower and bee. Next, I did the words with a Permapaque Pigment Marker. I then embellished the bee, flower and water drop using Prisma Color pencils.

All three of these were completed after my daughter and I went out and ran errands today. Renewing my car insurance was top on the list, then groceries. We didn’t get home until around 4:30pm.

Prior to going out, I had spent some time writing my morning pages, and watching some videos on art but mostly one on organizing art supplies. I’m in much need of organizing things around my house and need to do so on a shoestring budget so I’m trying to find ways to organize and create neat storage using what I have already around the house. It is rather challenging to say the least.

Now, back to what I didn’t do. I really wanted to do the next lesson for Pull, Pen, Paint. I had tried last night to do it. In fact, I tried at least 3 different times. A portion of the lesson is a meditation and last night every time I tried, I fell asleep and would wake up, finding out I had missed a major portion of the meditation, so I would start it over again, to only have it happen again.

Let me explain something. Yesterday, I had an upper cervical adjustment. Whenever I have them, I generally feel very tired later after I’m home and take a moment to relax. This is what was happening with the medication. I would become so relaxed, I would fall asleep. I finally gave up and went to bed with the intent of doing the lesson today.  That, as you have read, didn’t happen.

I’m okay with that. I don’t have to be on a set time schedule. The course is available until the end of the year, so I have time. And once I re-evaluated what I had done today, I gave my inner critic a virtual bitch slap for trying to deceive me into believing I hadn’t accomplished anything today.  Quite the contrary. I was quite prolific in my accomplishments.

These are things our inner critic just loves to do to us. It is all supposed to protect us from the unseen horrors of our life. Even now, I can hear her telling me, the poem I wrote on my Stillness art journal spread is crap. It doesn’t follow the rules of a haiku so it isn’t a haiku.  I try to tell myself, I don’t care. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

The important thing is, I’m doing my daily art practice. And, I’m learning. As I practice, as I learn, as I get better, that voice, that inner critic, isn’t quite so loud, doesn’t speak as often. And sometimes, sometimes she even applauds what I do.

~Patti

As if I don’t have enough to do…

I started a month long course called “Pull, Pen, Paint”. It is about using the Tarot to inspire your creativity.  I’ve always been curious about Tarot, so I decided to jump right on in.

First, let me say, right off the bat, I was confused. The course was for March, I didn’t find out about it until the last few days of March. I watched a live stream in which they were discussing both Tarot and Oracle decks. I didn’t know the difference but loved the idea of either one of them, especially if they could help inspire me in my art or anything I wanted to create. I was confused because I was watching a stream at the end of the course and I didn’t have all the information everyone else had from the beginning of the course.

I took a step back and I began at the beginning. Confusion is slowly being lifted. I purchased “Easy Tarot” which has The Gilded Tarot deck, and I am so glad I did. It also contains a guide book in which the author assumes you know nothing and explains how to use Tarot, how to learn it, and what to expect.

I’m the type of person who once I get an interest in something, I want to dive in deep and not just get my feet wet. If I only get my feet wet then that tells me it most likely isn’t for me. I’m just not a surface dweller as I like to call it.

I grew up with a background in religion, mostly Baptist, so you can imagine the blocks I’ve had to overcome in order to even buy a Tarot deck. Luckily those blocks were breached years ago. I consider myself spiritual, not religious. I don’t associate myself with any particular religion and I don’t believe in the black arts. The only thing black about anything is its color and if you use it for evil purposes. Tarot is a tool.

This is as simple as you can get. Tools can be used for good or bad. I choose to use my tools for good. I don’t use Tarot to communicate with the devil. I use it to help me breach my blocks/walls. If it can trigger within me, a connection which helps me to understand more about myself, then of course I’m going to utilize it. Whether others consider that communication with God or the Devil, I don’t really care. That is their prerogative. I simply consider it a tool.

I spent the day setting up a new handmade journal to use for the Pull, Pen, Paint course. Here are pictures of the journal and what I’ve done so far in it:

Closeup of one spine (there are actually 2 spines in this journal)

Journal cover

Closeup of journal cover

Intentions page

Daily Tarot spread

Daily Tarot spread closeup

The journal is called a Dos-á-Dos style. It has 2 spines. Kiala Givehand has a youtube video about it from her Book-in-a-Day series. I decided to add what is called a tip-in to provide a larger spread for my daily Tarot pull. I whited out the prompts from the course because I wasn’t sure if I could share them. I’m using the daily Tarot pull spread to record my daily pull and to help me become more familiar with the cards in my deck.

The other thing I have been doing is reading through the guide book for my deck. There is a lot of detail on what to do and how to do it with Tarot, and especially on the best way to learn the cards.

So…. as if I don’t have enough to do with all my other art projects I’m working on, I decided to start a Tarot Journal, and a Tarot Diary. This is separate from the Pull, Pen, Paint course. The journal is for me to record what I’m learning about Tarot. The diary is for me to record my experiences with using Tarot.

I’m becoming a journal junky. I have journals for everything. I have a personal journal which I converted to what Effy Wild calls a Sweet Trash Journal (STJ). It is supposed to contain EVERYTHING. Everything being anywhere from hand written journaling, to photo collages, to art journaling and beyond, even notes from classes.   That didn’t last long, oh maybe a few months, but I realized, trying to dig through my STJ for something specific could be a bit difficult especially if it is something I’m learning and need a refresher on. For me the STJ will be my daily journal about my life, in which, I may comment about all the things I’m learning and doing, maybe even include some pictures. However, when I want to learn something in detail, then it is time for a special journal all on its own.

Thus, my journal addition now includes:

1. Life Book 2017 Art Journal
2. Book of Days 2017 Art Journal
3. Art Journal for Journal 52 prompts or other prompts in which inspire an art journal page
4. My Tarot Journal (for learning about Tarot)
5. My Tarot Diary (for recording my Tarot experiences)
6. Pull, Pen, Paint Journal (combination of written and art journal, or visual art from the course)
7. My Faces Sketchbook Journal (where I practice drawing faces)
8. Art Techniques and Test Journal (just what it implies)
9. Color Chart Journal (contains color charts for the different mediums I use)
10. (Coming Soon – Mandala Journal)

Did I get them all? Not sure. Will there be more? The possibilities are endless. I’m surprised I don’t have a mandala journal, oh wait, I do have one but I filled it and haven’t started a new one (yet).

I also have a 12″ x 12″ photo binder where I store my loose art pages. This is for things like my mandala drawings and ink drawings I’ve done on loose paper and want to keep from getting destroyed if I didn’t protect them somehow.

I think, I got completely sidetracked from what I originally wanted to write about. Thus, my journal addiction is real. I could make several journals a day and never grow tired of it. In fact, I’ve considered making a journal from parchment paper for a handwritten journal. Or making one from grid paper if I could find some good quality graph paper. I am also considering making tiny little journals, small enough to be used in jewelry.

Yes, my addiction is real.

As if I don’t have enough to do, almost daily I find something new. A new class, a new challenge, a new group, and on and on it goes. By the time I go to bed at night, I’ve forgotten to wash the dishes, take out the trash, clean out the cat litter, water my plants, and feed my daughter. Luckily she is old enough to know how to feed herself. Oh, and feed myself.

If you want a journal made, but don’t want to go through the trouble of doing it yourself, or don’t know how to do it. If, you are willing to pay for the supplies and shipping it to you and pay me a bit for my time to make it, contact me. We’ll talk about the particulars and negotiate price. That is if you want to help feed my addiction and have a beautiful handmade journal all your own.

~Patti