I have created a brand new website for my art, Angela’s Art Room! I used Wix to build it and let me tell you… building a website is a lot easier these days. I remember creating every box, form, button, link, etc. It was a TON of work back in the day. I remember having to teach myself a little code to get Paypal buttons and a guestbook on my site. Wow! What a difference a few years can make. I made this new website in about a week and that’s with taking care of a house and working full time.
The new website also has a great blogging tool so come over and check out my new blog! I’ll be blogging over there from this point on. I hope you guys love the new website as much as I do!
Ok, ok, ok. I know that I said I would write a blog post about my Life Book lessons every week. But life got in the way and I only made it about half way through with the blog posts. My husband and I run a vinyl decal/banner business called Stephen Edward Graphics.
Our business really took off and we’ve been scrambling to just keep up with all the orders. So I didn’t have time to write the blog posts, but I did continue to do the lessons. At the very end of the course we are supposed to take all the pages we made during the year and bind them into a book. A Life Book. And that’s exactly what I did. We were given several ways to do it, but ultimately I decided to go with a binding method I saw on YouTube by Sea Lemon.
I bought some book board at an art store, I cut it to size with a razor blade and decorated the covers. My color for the year was pink so I decided that would be a good color to use. I also added some chipboard letters for a dimensional look. To make my pages sturdier I glued them to scrapbook paper. Actually, I began gluing them with gel medium, but that made my pages wrinkle a bit. Tamara said something about using a double sided tape if that happened, but my double sided craft tape doesn’t hold very well. ***Lightbulb*** I run a sign business! I have super strong double sided tape we use for finishing banners! I grabbed some and began taping. What a difference! The pages looked great with no wrinkles. The only issue is that you better place your pages right the first time because they are not coming back off again! Any wonkiness I had I just used my trimmer to square up.
Now on to the stitching… I picked up the binding stuff I needed from the same art store I purchased the book board. Needles, waxed thread and an awl. I followed the video and used three holes at the bottom and three at the top. I made the holes using the awl. That took quite awhile. In the YouTube video she said something about estimating the thread by pulling it out the width for as many pages as you have. I wasn’t sure if she was talking about for each hole or what?!?? I took my tiny little spool of waxed thread and proceeded to pull out the width of about 40 pages. But after I got to 20 it seemed excessive. So I stopped there and counted to 20 again for each hole. But I ran out of thread when I finished counting for the third hole. Now what? Well, I really wanted to get started and I needed thread and needles for 6 holes. So I cut the 3 lengths of thread in half. Now I have enough! I thought, if I run out I can always tie more on once my order from Etsy gets here. And I was ready to go. I immediately realized that I needed 6 curved needles to do this process. The straight ones did not work well. It was hard to get the thread back out and around. So I messaged my sister and asked her to pick up some curved needles for me and bring them to the house since she was working with me the next day. Luckily, Joann’s had some packs of just curved needles (found the the upholstery section). Yay!
Once, I had the curved needles I was finally ready to go! I followed the instructions from the video. At first it was a bit awkward, but I eventually got into a rhythm. I do recommend using the waxed thread. I would have had such a knotted mess if not for the waxed thread. It took hours, but I finally completed my Life Book! And I had a bunch of thread left over for each hole. So maybe next time I will string out as many pages as I have and then cut the thread into equal sections depending on how many holes I have. Not sure if that will be right, but it’s all a learning experience so I guess I’ll just have to try it to see.
Here is my first Life Book! I made a flip through video of my 2014 Life Book, my very first movie with the help of iMovie and my iPad Mini. The very first face (well… it’s actually a faceless face) is not a Life Book lesson. Just something I did when I first started painting. I was too scared to actually paint the face back then. What a difference one lesson can make. I hope you enjoy the video!
I can’t believe I did all those pages! I had just started painting in October 2013 and Life Book started in January of 2014. But from the very first lesson I was making things that just blew me away. I’m not trying to toot my own horn. It’s just that I never thought I could paint. I thought it was a talent you were born with and I knew I didn’t have it. So when I was able to paint a face for the first lesson, I just couldn’t believe it. I spent a long time just admiring her. I felt such JOY (My word for the year. Very fitting, don’t you think?) with the realization that I really could paint. I wish I had known this sooner, I would have started painting a long time ago. But I’m here now and having so much fun.
I just started my lessons for Life Book 2015 and I can already see an improvement in my skills. I can’t wait to share my journey with you. I’m so excited to see what this year brings!
I am waaaaaaayyyyyyyyy behind on my blog posts about Life Book 2014. And I’ll admit that I’m a little behind with completing my lessons as well.
Week 20 was taught by Serena Bridgeman. She’s a wonderful teacher, but I do have to say that I didn’t really connect with the Buddha image. I also had a hard time with painting over the spray ink background. It kept reactivating and it made it very hard to paint the face over it.
We were supposed to paint the face like it was in shadow. The head lit from behind. But after struggling with the spray ink background I gave up going that far. But I’m still pretty pleased with the outcome.
I did enjoy painting the lotus flower. We did it on another piece of paper and then cut it out and glued it to the front of this one.
Well, it’s all finished. I did enjoy making the background, but not so much the Buddha. You know what is really great about Life Book? That even if you don’t connect with a lesson or a teacher you still learn something. It’s good to be pushed out of your comfort zone from time to time.
This weeks lesson was about honoring your inner world by Danielle Daniel. Try saying that name three times fast! Lol!
I struggled with this one a bit. Letting go and freely painting just isn’t my thing. But I hope that the more I do it, it will become easier for me.
We were told to randomly collage and paint in the background. This is as random as I get.
Then we painted a girl in a meditative or praying position. I love that all the Life Book teachers have been really accepting of all belief systems. I was a little worried that as a Christian I would have a problem with all the “universe” talk and meditation. That I would feel uncomfortable or left out of some things because they clashed with my beliefs, but I have been pleasantly surprised on how accepting all the teachers have been. For example… one of the past lessons we were asked to write a letter to the universe, but the teacher also said that it could be a letter to God (which was who I chose to write my letter to). And I have really enjoyed the different meditations that have been included here and there with the course. I find them to be very relaxing and stress relieving.
The teacher also included a quote by Emily Dickinson that I really liked. So I decided to include the same quote into my piece.
Forever is composed of Nows
At one point, I stopped worrying about making it look like the teacher’s piece and just started to paint how I felt. I decided to be present and be in the now…
Week 17’s lesson was taught by Tascha Parkinson. We were to think about what we were grateful for and use that in our piece. But first we started with drawing a girl.
We were to draw the head twice the size of the body. Mission accomplished, but my first attempt was too big to put on my background. Plus, this girl just looked off. So I tried again. This time I made her too small. Third times the charm I guess!
We also had to use watercolors to paint her. Yikes! I’ve never used them before so this was brand new to me. I tried a practice run on my second drawing. Everything was going well except when I got to the mouth. The face was still wet so when I did the mouth it bled all over. It looked like a child after they’ve eaten a cherry Popsicle. It ran all over her chin. Glad I practiced first. But I learned some things; let things dry before painting adjoining areas, keep paper towels near by to suck up excess watercolor and try to loosen up. Watercolors are supposed to be a bit organic looking.
Now on to the background. We used a dry brush technique and just blended the colors that way. Then I took some Hot Pink paint, watered it down and flicked it onto the page. Background complete!
Now I just had to put it all together.
In the center, I wrote all the different things I’m grateful for. All are pretty self explanatory except one. Windows… I am NOT referring to the PC operating system! I am an Apple Girl all the way. My first Apple computer was the Apple IIC. I’ve been a loyal consumer since the 80’s. And I love my Mac! I am referring to actual windows. Like in your house. I’m actually working on a blogpost about… I guess… me. It started as something else, but I just couldn’t stop writing so now it’s kind of my life’s story. Well, just the last 10 years or so. But that blog post will explain why I am so grateful for windows. And why I was obsessed with them when we were looking for our new house.
Back to the project… I had a lot of fun learning how to paint with watercolors. And the dry brush technique I will definitely use again. I also liked the look of cutting the girl and flowers out and leaving a bit of white space around them. It makes them look cartoony, which is fun!
This week our teacher is the very fun Traci Bautista! We were to create “in the moment”, which is hard for me to do. I plan everything! So this random play was both fun and hard for me.
First, she showed us how to make hot glue stencils. Why have I not been doing this already? Such a simple concept, but an amazingly cool technique!
I made the hot glue stencil on my palette paper (my daughter was using my Teflon sheet), but it did NOT come off of it very well. I will definitely be using the Teflon next time!
I painted pink, in different shades, all over my page. I used some of those cheap paints you get in the little bottles. They are thinner paint and blended more easily. I also used my new hot glue stencil with some spray inks.
Then I just played and played and played. I stamped, used a toilet paper roll, sprayed a silver glimmer spray through a stencil (which doesn’t really show), painted stars and used the back of my brush to create dots.
Fun stuff! I didn’t even wait for the paint to dry before I took the pictures. I plan on making a lot more hot glue stencils. What a great idea!
This week was another lesson with the totally cool Tamara Laporte! Quirky Animals!
We started with taping 2 pieces of paper together. The largest paper I had was “Mixed Media” paper, which I sliced in half and then taped back together to make a fold out page. I wish I would have taken 2 sheets of watercolor paper and used them instead because the mixed media stuff started to ball up on me with all the painting. The background is made with a mix of watercolor crayons and spray inks.
This little lion is the beginning of the animal totem pole.
I’m in LOVE with this little guy! I love elephants and have collected them since I was little. So this was a lot of fun to paint.
A monkey with a heart of his shirt… Yes! I think so!
The bunny was fun to make. I love her ears! The last animal was supposed to be a cat, but I’m a dog person. So the cat was out and the bird was in. He looks very regal with his crown.
The entire piece took me several hours to complete, but was totally worth it! I really pushed myself to make all these guys. And adding the little embellishments to each one was so much fun!
This weeks lesson was a bonus one with Dyan Reaveley! This lady is quirky, over the top and AMAZING! I love her! And her Dylusions Ink Sprays!
First, we started with writing. Writing whatever we wanted just as long as it filled the whole page. Then we had to just roughly sketch an apple tree and some flowers. Very simple shapes. It was fun! It reminded me of drawing when I was a little girl.
Now comes the color… I sprayed the ink on my palette and used a paintbrush to paint the shapes. If you move quickly you can blend the colors together.
Then cut out the shapes and leave a bit of the white space around them.
The background was made by spraying inks and sandwiching 2 pieces of paper together. The colors really blended nicely with that technique. Then you can add design to the background with stencils!
Now it’s time to put it all together!
She had us add some text with a stamp to the edge of the background, but if I was going to do it again I would probably leave that part off. I also hand cut some grass for the bottom of the tree. This is also where I realized that my flowers were too big. So I made some more, just smaller.
I added some finishing touches, like buttons on the trees and stems, leaves and gems for the flowers. Oh! And some clouds in the sky with gesso. I like how the gesso is a little see through which is perfect for a cloud.
I’ll definitely be using some of these techniques in the future. I can’t wait for the full lesson with Dyan coming up later this year!
This week our lesson used TAP (Transfer Artist Paper). Our teacher was Leslie Riley and she is also the one who makes TAP. This was a simple lesson that had us ironing on an image using the TAP and then creating a background around it.
Leslie used a picture of her daughter holding a bowl. I actually have a picture of my daughter doing the same thing. The picture was taken right after we moved out to a new house in the country. My “city girls” were out exploring the yard and picked a bunch of raspberries to make jam. So I had to take a picture of this momentous event. City girls becoming country girls!
This is the second printout I did. The first one came out so dark that the raspberries were black. If you’re going to use TAP make sure you lighten the photos because it makes them dark. Oh! And be sure to print it in reverse so it’s the same as the original when you iron it on.
Here it is after I ironed it on. I was able to get most of the picture to transfer, but I’m still missing some bits. It’s still pretty dark, which I’m not thrilled about, but I can live with it. What really bothers me about TAP is the texture. The photo transfer is really gritty (rough to the touch). So much so that I think it makes the picture appear to be low res when it’s not.
I really didn’t think this piece was going to turn out so I didn’t take any other progress photos. So here is the finished piece. I absolutely LOVE the background and the technique used to create it. I applied gesso through a stencil and once that was dry spritzed on some spray inks. I used a bit of water to blend them and a baby wipe to reveal the gesso’d parts. I love this technique and I’ll definitely be using it again. Not so sure about the TAP, but I love that background!
I wasn’t happy with the lack of depth and drama in my piece. I posted it online to our Facebook group and got some great suggestions for adding more depth. The 2 suggestions I tried were graphite pencil and silks acrylic glaze (sunflower). Graphite pencil in the nooks and crannies and the glaze on the high points over the entire piece. It really brightens it up and gives it more drama. You can always use more drama!
Angela's Art Room 