An Artist New Year's Resolution -- Staying Focused

There seems to be a lack of consistency in my work.

Acrylic on barn wood

Acrylic on cardstock with original verse

Colored Pencil

I'll do something serious that takes hours and every stroke can be critical.

Then I'll get some crazy idea to make my own canvas out of paint sticks.  Paint a picture and put a lace stencil around it.

Acrylic on a paint sticks, a frame made of stretcher strips and a doily stencil

Another "bright idea", I'll paint on barn wood!  Sounds like fun?  I turned it into something serious.

Acrylic on barn wood

Well, then I thought I'd try to lighten up on the barn wood and have some real fun.

Acrylic on barn wood

Out of no where I decide to sew on screen wire, whhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Sewing on screen wire with yarn

After that came the idea of building my own crate with paint sticks.

Crate made with paint sticks

And where ever did this come from?  I decided to do a bit of weaving!  With paint sticks!  Well, I couldn't actually weave them, but believe me I tried.

Woven organizer with paint sticks

Which then gave me the idea of weaving with paper rope..............

Woven wall hanging with paper rope and stretcher strip bar frame

And then I wanted to weave a pot, and so I wove one out of paper and then one out of a t-shirt.

vase woven from an old t-shirt

I painted on lace.............

Lace on stretched canvas

Suddenly I decided that I'd like to paint on canvas again and add something real to the painting, so.....

Acrylic on canvas with real butterflies glued to the canvas

Next, okay, let's do a bit of illustration on pages from the Bible.

Colored pencil and pastel on printout from Exodus

Let's throw in a bit of Christmas crafting, again, whyyyyyyyyyyyy?

Angel made from t-shirt, wood ball and old sheer curtain

Oooh, time to paint again!  But this time, for some reason I decided to play with black and white.....

I went serious.                                                                                                

Pencil on bristol board

Then I played around a bit...........

Pale pink paint sticks
black, gray, white acrylic

This made me think of art therapy, so I had to try my hand at that too!

 

Oh and let's not forget painting and sewing screen wire on canvas.............

And making a pair of flip flops from foam and woven t-shirt scraps.....

I decided to put my art work on products, so I opened up a Zazzle store for my fine art.

Then another for my fun art, with quotes and poetry.  

And then another for greeting cards.  

Then I threw another one in for spiritual things and of course I had to have a store for the children's art I love to do. 

 Here's one of those............

Acrylic and water color pencil on bristol board


Oh and lest I forget, I also have a store for the kitchen.  I love designing the kitchen products with my art too!

So here is my artsy resolution, ready, here goes..............

This year, 2016, I'm going to try to be more focused, try to stick to one or two things and work on perfecting those areas.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!

Wish me luck.

Art: Something new with Wildlife and Colored Pencil

 

 

This has been a learning experience for me for two reasons.  First I was wanting to challenge myself to do something other than flowers, butterflies, trees and skies. Even though I love those things and it’s what makes me happiest, I still need to branch out.  I have to force myself to do this.  So I chose wildlife, still got some trees, but I tried not to let them take away from the deer.

Another very interesting thing I learned was with the colored pencils.  I had purchased a blending pen for the colored pencils some time ago and was anxious to try it, but when I tried to use it, I found out it just wasn’t for me.  After a few minutes of researching on colored pencil techniques, I found I could just use rubbing alcohol with a Q-tip.  I worked with that awhile and then experimented with a paint brush and the alcohol.

I’m not totally satisfied with the outcome, but for a first attempt, it will do.  I’m excited, knowing that there is a great deal more I can learn about colored pencils and impatient to try them all.

Being self-taught has given me the ability to just dive into different mediums while swallowing back my fear of failure.  Because I know it’s completely up to me whether or not I try, push to learn and accomplish anything.

When you have a love for something and a desire to succeed, it makes a difference in the outcome and your attitude.  If I stop because of failures or fear of failure, I would have stopped along time ago.  And that can be said of me concerning more things than just art.  I would have given up on life.

I am thankful that my heavenly Father has given me a passion for painting and creating through art and to have that same passion for helping others and offering compassion.

Hopefully someone will look at this picture and smile.  Someone might look at this deer and know there is a great and magnificent Creator, the Master Artist, God Himself.

If you want to try this technique, all I can say is just dive in.

1.  Cover a wood panel with white gesso, two or three coats.  Allow each coat to thoroughly dry and lightly sand.  I wish I had of sanded a bit more, the finished product would have been a lot smoother looking.

2. Begin lightly sketching with the colored pencils, using the base colors of each subject.  A gum erasure will erase the colored pencil if you have lightly sketched.

3.  Once you have your picture laid out, begin adding more color.  I always start with the hardest part first or else I will talk myself out of doing it altogether.  So, I started with the deer.

Tips:

The Q-tip dipped in alcohol can be used for larger areas for blending.  I didn’t use the Q-tip at all on the deer.  It is also good for picking the color up off of the painting, leaving a hint of the base color underneath showing.

Use a very small tip brush dipped in alcohol for the smaller areas.

A larger brush dipped in alcohol was great for base coat coloring.

I wouldn’t think this would work on paper of any kind, although I could be wrong I haven’t tried.  If you attempt it let me know how it goes.

Happy, happy painting!