Life Book 2014 – Week 19

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…

Til next time..

Life Book 2014 – Week 15

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!

Can’t wait for Tamara’s next lesson!

Til next time…

Life Book 2014 – Week 13

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!

Til next time…

Life Book 2014 – Week 12

This post is coming a little late. Okay… a lot late. It was a bit more challenging than I anticipated and I had to gather up more supplies than normal to complete this piece.

This lesson was taught by the very talented Anna Dabrowska – aka Finnabair. I came across her work several months ago and I immediately connected with it. So I was thrilled to learn that she was one of the Life Book teachers. Her work has such an amazing texture! And to be able to transform every day objects into something so beautiful is truly a gift!

Here is Finnabair’s example for her class.

I was going to use the same layout, but opted instead for an off center one. I didn’t really have a picture of my face straight on like hers. Oh! And I decided to do the lesson on a canvas. That much texture can’t be contained in a book!

As I was going through my photo album this picture just jumped out at me. It’s me at age 5 holding my “baby ellie” and feeding it a bottle. I loved that elephant! I drug it everywhere. In fact, I had a whole collection of stuffed animal elephants. But “baby ellie” was my favorite.

One year for Christmas I asked my Annie Ann (my aunt) to buy me a “papa ellie”. I needed a dad elephant for my collection. I already had a baby and mama. So my aunt went to the store and asked the clerk for a “papa ellie”, the guy had no idea what she was talking about of course. LOL! I’m not exactly sure how she figured it out, but eventually she realized that all I wanted was an elephant stuffed animal. Oops! Sorry about that Annie Ann!

Okay… back to the lesson.
I started with background texture. Texture that was flat in nature that could be built upon. Then I went crazy adding everything short of the kitchen sink. I hope my husband won’t be too mad that I raided his toolbox. Shhh… don’t tell him.

It was a little crazy looking at this point. I’ll admit I was a bit worried. But the next step was to gesso everything. Wow! What a difference that makes.

I truly just wanted to stop at this point. I didn’t want to screw it up with the sprays, but I went ahead with the lesson anyway. I have to at least try. Do something new. If I don’t… then why did I pay to take the course? What am I learning?

YIKES! That is awful! I immediately regretted my decision. I had limited colors of the sprays the teacher recommended. Hobby Lobby just had a few and I bought them all. But it just wasn’t the color combination I liked. So I gesso’d over the black and tried again with the gold and green sprays I bought and then I added some blue dylusions ink spray around the outside. A much better look. I used a bit of gesso on the top to highlight the high points and give it more dimension.

It’s not exactly what I had envisioned, but I think it’s pretty good for my first try. I have to remind myself that my first try at something doesn’t need to be as good as someone who has been doing it for years. I remember Tamara saying (she might have been quoting someone) that we shouldn’t compare our beginning to someone else’s middle. That is so true!

Til next time…

Life Book 2014 – Week 11

This week was a bonus lesson week. The original teacher couldn’t do it so thankfully Tamara stepped in and offered a lesson of her own and even a second one by Gracie. These were just fast forwarded video lessons, but they still had a great deal of info. Tamara never disappoints. Her lessons are always fun for me.

The theme was The Tree of Life. I created very closely to what the example was. I really responded to the piece she created and I wanted to push myself with drawing legs and hands. The cartoon style of the girl made it easier to try them out for the first time.

I never realized that you should sketch your subject first. I always thought that real artists just painted off the cuff. Like Bob Ross. I remember watching him paint as a girl. He would just slap paint down on the canvas and I would think, “What are you doing? That doesn’t look like a tree.” And then somehow as he kept layering this gorgeous scene would emerge. I am still in awe of his work even to this day. Watching him on tv are some of my fondest memories as a child.

The collage in this piece is from a hymnal that I picked up at our local goodwill type store, called Bargains Galore in Waupun, WI. I love using music sheets in my pieces.

I love my big headed girl! She was so fun the create. Her dress is made with washi tape, her shoes have little swirls on ends and her hair is blowing in the wind. I would like to improve on how to draw hair. Make it look a bit more free, but this was a good start for me.

When I started stamping on the tree I thought I had ruined it, but then I started adding the white dots. The white dots gave it more of a magical look which I absolutely love! I definitely would like to try this look again.

Here is the bonus lesson by Gracie.

This piece has a lot of different layers for the background. But everything was brought together by adding gesso with a brayer on top. I love swirls! They were my signature when I was working with stained glass. So creating the tree was a lot of fun for me.

Til next time…

Life Book 2014 – Week 10

This week the lesson was about paint over collage. I almost threw this piece in the trash. I really don’t even want to blog about it. But I made a commitment and I’m going to follow through.

First we started with collage. We were also supposed to pick out a picture of a woman’s face from a magazine. I don’t subscribe to any magazines. So it was slim pickin’s around the house. But eventually I found a girl from a toilet paper ad. The picture was a little too small, but I didn’t have anything else.

I don’t have any progress photos because, like I said, I felt like throwing this thing out the whole time. The hair was the biggest issue for me. I just don’t understand how to paint hair. If they ever offer a class on it… I’m going to be the first person to sign up!

I am grateful for this lesson despite the less than thrilling outcome. This lesson taught me that you can take a bunch of things that don’t really go together and make them look cohesive with a little gesso, oil pastels and a brayer.

I think I would have really enjoyed the lesson if I had started with a larger face. So I’m planning on doing it again with a different picture. I had a ton of fun with the collage and I look forward to playing with that again.

We were supposed to write about our positive connections in our life in a sort of poem like way. Tamara was really great about explaining how to do that, but when it came time to do that part the words just came out of me without even thinking. But I will definitely keep Tamara’s instructions in my mind and use them next time I’m doing something like this.

All in all… I learned some great lessons that I can apply in future projects.

Til next time…

Life Book 2014 – Week 6 – Part Two

I think I’ve fallen in love with ink sprays! But sometimes I wonder if they are in love with me also. Or maybe they’ve put me into the friend zone…

Watching Tamara’s lesson she made using ink sprays look so easy. And they can be… once you’ve got the technique down and your using the right paper. But no matter what, you’ll still end up with fingers that look like this.

Not a big deal. I’ve suffered for art before. You should have seen my nails when I was working with glass. The grinder was not kind and I usually ended up with nails that looked like squirrels had been gnawing on them.

So here is my girl, with her lovely hair flowing wild and free!

I love the combination of using ink sprays and a stencil. I did have some issues with the ink sprays though. Speckles would go all over the page. Some so small that you didn’t even know that they were there until you try to add some yellow and you end up with every other color but yellow when the speckles mixed in.

So in order to get some yellow on the page I waited for everything to dry and sprayed some yellow on at the end. But on my next piece I figured out a better technique that eliminated most of the speckles.

I really enjoyed drawing a different type of face. It was a little tough to go over some of the speckles, but I eventually got them covered.

We were supposed to fold the paper in half and then put our Positive Qualities on the back. The only paper I had that was a bigger size was some Bristol (96 lbs) paper. So I gesso’d it. I wanted to make it thicker and a bit more substantial to work on. But in the end, I really struggled to get the vibrant color I was looking for. I believe the gesso was the culprit. It didn’t allow the ink to soak into the paper. So when I blotted some of the ink up with a paper towel it left a pastel version of the color. Not what I was looking for.

I struggled some more working on the back of the paper (gesso strikes again!) to make my Positive Qualities page. So I gave up and started it on a new piece of watercolor paper. What a difference! Strong, vibrant colors! On this piece, I figured out a technique so you don’t get speckles of color everywhere. Hold the spray bottle extremely close to the paper. Did you hear me? Hold the spray bottle extremely close! So it’s pretty much touching the paper. That’s the key.

As most of you know I have been loving this art course. I love to learn! But I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy all the love and support from all the members of Life Book and from Tamara herself. It may seem a little self indulgent at first to focus so much on yourself, but that’s not really what it’s about. It’s about encouraging and uplifting you as an artist and as a person. It’s about recognizing that you are good enough and what you create is worthy. I am so very grateful to have found this group and I can’t wait to see how much I’ll have grown by the end of the year. And it will all be there for me to see in my very own Life Book.

Til next time…

Life Book 2014 – Week 5

This weeks lesson was taught by Marieke Blokland. It was about exaggerated faces and cute sweet treat doodles.

Here is the teacher’s page.

After learning how to draw more realistic looking faces this was hard to do at first. But after seeing her techniques of taking simple shapes and putting them all together to make this silly face, I was hooked! Time to PLAY!

So here is my page.

I posted this to our Facebook group page and Marieke commented and said

She’s lovely! The page has an 80’s feel over it, love that.”

It wasn’t intentional, but I love the 80’s so I’m happy with that look. I got a lot more great comments from people. It’s so nice to have such amazing support from everyone, especially when you feel insecure about what you produced. It’s such a loving and uplifting group of people that I am so grateful for.

Now back to the piece… I purposely put her arms behind her back. I didn’t know how to paint the hands so sticking them behind her back got me out of it. I’m pretending that she’s hiding more candy back there!

When I created the dress I had Audrey Hepburn in mind. I love Audrey Hepburn’s look and a dress like that would be simple to recreate in paper. I used ribbon for the belt and this cute little buckle came from a friend who was getting rid of a bunch of scrap booking stuff that she wasn’t using. SCORE! I love free stuff!

The lesson was about doodling the sweet treats, but after we made the head and cut it out to put on our background, I thought, “Why not do this for the treats too?” So that’s exactly what I did. It did take a lot more time to make all these, but it was fun and relaxing. I had my Project Runway DVD going on the tv (my husband bought me 7 Seasons for Christmas) so it was a pleasant afternoon.

Well, another week’s lesson completed. I just can’t say enough how much I LOVE this course! The teachers and lessons are so creative and it’s so nice to have something to look forward to every week.

Til next time…

Life Book 2014 – Week 3

I have to admit that I didn’t really like this lesson, but as Tamara said, that’s to be expected. Some lessons and teachers you really connect with and some you do not. Although, I did like the teacher (Carla Sonheim) personally and I thought her lesson was really well done. The video was very professional, clearly taught and she has a nice voice. I just don’t like such free form drawing. My perfectionism strikes again! But I did learn some valuable things.

We worked on index cards so we could feel free and not pressured by working on really nice paper. Yes! Objective achieved! I will remember that in the future when I’m worried about doing something “for real”. I’ll test it out first on an index card.

We did a drawing of flowers in a vase without lifting up the pen. One line.

Not great, but recognizable. I’ve never tried that before.

We did a flower drawing by using 2 pieces of scrap paper. You put the scraps down first and then add to them with your pen. I cheated a bit by picking a circle I already cut out for a flower painting I was doing.

I love swirls! They were kind of my signature when I was working with glass. I either added swirls with glass paint for my kiln fired glass or I made wire swirls that I soldered onto my stained glass pieces.

As you can see… I LOVE swirls!

Back to the lesson, we did this thing where we took paint and globed it on the index card. After it dried we were supposed to figure out what it looked like and complete the drawing with our pen.

There are many more attempts at this, but this is the best one out of all the bad drawings I did. I didn’t love this exercise, but I can see how this could open someone up who might be stuck artisically. So, I’ll tuck this one away and come back to it again when I need it.

We also had to draw a zebra with our eyes closed. Yikes! Not cute. Believe it or not… this is my best looking one.

My favorite of all the exercises was this one.

We had to cut up a paragraph and make three poems out of the words. This is my favorite one. I added the doodles myself last night. Not too bad considering the limited words to work with.

I keep hitting on type again and again as I explore this mixed media thing. In college, one of my favorite projects was taking a hundred year old book and trying to recreate one of its pages on the computer. Sifting through hundreds of fonts to try to find the closest match might be someone else’s nightmare, but I was in LOVE! It was a challenge. And I love challenges!

Once you found the right font, you realize the spacing was completely off, in between the lines of type and even in between the letters themselves. I’ll say it again, it was a challenge, but when everything was done I felt such a deep satisfaction that I was able to do it. And maybe that was my perfectionism rearing up again, but perfectionism can be a good thing when it comes to projects like that. I just love type and as I’ve been working in the mixed media world I find that letters and type are some of my favorite things to add. Either subtly in the background or a phrase that is front and center.

So this poem exercise was a lot of fun for me. Although, I do not fancy myself a poet. It was just a fun and relaxing way to spend 20 minutes.

Okay… I have to post this picture even though I don’t want to.

I don’t think it particularly pretty, but I learned something. While trying to figure out how to incorporate the blue scrap I stumbled upon this flower shape. The large center and the criss crosses are cute! And I had fun doing them. So maybe these lessons weren’t so bad after all? I learned some new things and I did have fun.

The last thing we had to do was make a pocket page for our Life Book. A great place to keep your test index cards. It was an easy exercise and you really can see the layers of paint and gesso in person which gives it some depth that I don’t think you can see here on the blog.

As you can see I didn’t do the scrap paper thing like the lesson. I actually cut the pieces to make the flower shape, but I did steal the flower shape from the last index card I shared. I think it’s cute.

So after starting this post with “I didn’t really like this lesson”, I realize now how much fun I had and all that I learned. Not everything we do needs to result in an amazing work of art for the masses. Isn’t that what Life Book is all about anyway? A book all about you. Just for you and nobody else.

I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to be perfect and to produce amazing things. But why? Who cares? Have fun, be joyful, learn new things and love what you do! Not for the masses, but for You!

Til next time…

Life Book 2014 – Week 2

This week for my Life Book class we had a bonus lesson. A bonus lesson is a smaller lesson or other activity like an artist interview, ect. So this was a fairly simple exercise, but I had fun with it. I worked on my piece along with the instructor. I’m happy with how it turned out. We had to come up with what we wanted more of in 2014 or what we were going to be the best at. Well, I knew I wanted to include my word for the year, “Joy”, but I wanted to include it in a funny way. I brainstormed a bit a came up with Joy Wrangler. I like the idea of wrangling up some Joy! If I wasn’t following a lesson I would have included way more bright colors and maybe a denim theme as a nod to Wrangler Jeans.

So I followed the lesson to the “T” and this is what I came up with. I did add some extra things to the bottom of the piece. It just seemed to plain otherwise.

After posting my piece to the Facebook group I noticed that some of the other people did completely their own thing. I mean their piece didn’t look a thing like what was instructed. At first I felt a little bad because mine was so plain, but that was what the teacher instructed and I am a bit of a rule follower. Well, not completely… I have a bit of a split personality. I like to follow rules and get annoyed when others don’t, but I also question authority quite a bit and don’t like to be told what to do. See what I mean? Split personality. Another example is… I’m very creative and love coming up with new designs. Like for our decal business, stained glass suncatchers or mixed media painting/art journaling. My art room is a shambles and when I had my glass studio at the last house it was a wreck! I totally fit that artist, messy, all over the place profile. But then I have this other side of me that loves to organize. Staples or the storage section of any store is my favorite place to be. I recently went to Ikea to get cabinets, shelves, storage, ect. for my new Art Room and I was in heaven! I went slightly overboard. Okay it was more than slightly. Anyway, I also love keeping up with the business end of our decal business, Stephen Edward Graphics. I answer all the convos that come in, I learned everything I could about SEO and I’m constantly reading about marketing. So you see I really am a split personality. I even took one of those online tests that was supposed to show you what type of person you were… mine came in at 51% creative and 49% business (?). Okay, to tell you the truth I can’t remember what they called the other half. I just remember thinking that I could not believe that the test showed exactly what I thought about myself. So I’m a bit of an oddball, but life would be pretty boring if I wasn’t.

Back to the lesson now… So after seeing the completely unique interpretations of the lesson by my fellow Life Bookers I decided something. I’m going to do the lessons as instructed. I want to make sure I learn all the techniques given to us. But after the lesson is over and my piece is finished, I think I may go back to those lessons and do them again in my own way. I might wait until the end of the year to do them or maybe I’ll do them right away. I guess I’ll have to play it by ear for that part. It might be interesting to compare the two pieces especially if a lot of time has passed. No matter what, I’m having a lot of fun and isn’t that what counts?

Til Next time…