"TO ACCOMPLISH GREAT THINGS"

Today is a perfect day for staying inside and making art.  You might think that is a funny statement coming from someone who lives in sunny Florida but "baby it's cold outside.!!!!  I know…I know…it is nothing compared to the freezing temperatures that you folks are having up North but here in Florida it is a damp cold that chills you to the bone.  Don't get me wrong...I am not complaining.  The cold weather does have it's advantages like killing off fleas and other pesky bugs. And besides….we only have a week or two of cold weather and it will soon be Spring!  I can certainly live with that!

Here is another journal page I made using Teesha Moore's collage sheets from the Artstronauts Club.

Oops!  This isn't exactly the before picture.  I guess that I didn't take one thinking that this picture is the before picture.  This picture is a picture that I took before gluing to show the placement of the pieces in case they got moved by my cats. Anyway, you all get the idea!

Well…until next time….

Hugs,
Ginny

PREPPING PAGES

I spent the evening prepping all the remaining pages for my "Teesha Journal."  I first separated the pages from the spiral binder and then painted both sides with acrylic paint.  I'm using a Strathmore 9" X 12" spiral bound, mixed medial journal.  The pages are painted by dropping globs of two or three different colors of paints, spreading them around the page with a little water and a paint brush and then rubbing and blending the paints with a paper towel to ensure a smooth finish.  Once both sides of the pages are complete with a finished collage, I will put them back into the spiral binder.

The bonus of painting the pages and rubbing with a paper towel is that you end up with colorful  tie-dyed looking paper that can be used in other mixed media projects.  I plan to use the pink and red papers to make Valentine cards that will be stitched on my sewing machine.

Until next time….

Hugs,
Ginny

ARTSTRONAUTS CLUB

If you haven't joined the Artstronauts Club…run don't walk!!!  What is the Artstronauts Club you ask?  Well….it is this fantastic club that Teesha Moore and her husband Tracy created that provides a source of inspiration to it's members in the form of on-line workshops, how-to and informational videos, interesting articles pertaining to many art forms (not just collage), printable collage sheets of Teesha's art as well as many other guest artist's (Mindy Lacefield for one) and a Facebook Group to share your ideas and art.  All for just the low price of $5.00 per month.

I also might add that the club will appeal to both men and women.  Tracy Moore demonstrates how to make a journal cover and a Christmas card using wood and a wood burning tool...Tory Brokenshire demonstrates how to make rivets in assemblage art...and Jim Flagg painted an outer space background in acrylics. Lots and lots of information to pique your creative spirit...whatever your interests may be.  Anyway, If you are interested in learning more, here is the link to Teesha's blog.

This is my latest collage using two of Teesha's collage sheets made available through the club.  I have to admit that it was more difficult to use someone else's art work as opposed to using magazine clippings.  That is…for me anyway!

I hope that you check out the Artstronauts Club.

Hugs,
Ginny

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, 

trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, 

changing yourself, changing your world. 

You're doing things you've never done before, 

and more importantly, 

you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, 

and my wish for myself.

 Make New Mistakes. 

Make glorious, amazing mistakes. 

Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. 

Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough,

 or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.” 
― Neil Gaiman

I love this quote by Neil Gaiman!!!  It really resonates with me because one of the things that I learned when making my art is that "You are going to make mistakes."  I have learned that when mistakes do happen and often I might add, that they take my art to another level.  A level that I would not have achieved if it had not been for the mistake in the first place.  A mistake…forces me to erase or paint over it and try again or perhaps to be creative by continuing to paint and make the mistake into something completely different…what many artists call "happy accidents."  Either way, it pushes my creative mind into gear and adds to my artistic experience. 

My wish for each and every one of you for the New Year and the rest of your life is to embrace your "glorious, amazing mistakes!'  Lose the fear (if you have it) that your art "isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect." Quit comparing your art to that of others and start experimenting, learning and practicing your amazing art.  And by all means….do not fear making mistakes!  Mistakes happen…make them part of your art!  

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS PERTAINING TO MY ART:

Have you made your New Year's Resolutions yet?  I usually make them and then about half-way through the year…they start to slide.  If you know what I mean. Maybe this year will be different because they are written here and I can keep referring back to them to see how I am doing. 

1.  Paint or draw every day even if it is only 5 minutes.

2.  No new supplies unless they are to replace the ones that I have.

3.  No new journals.  Complete the ones that I have.

4.  Limit buying art books.  I need to read the ones that I already have.

5.  Limit the on-line art classes.  I need to finish the ones I'm in.

6.  Spend less time on the computer and more time on making art!

7.  Try painting with a credit card or pallet knife.  Make it loose and edgy!

Whew!  I could go on and on but then they wouldn't be very realistic.  I think that these are pretty realistic except for #6.  I spend way too much time looking at all the pretty things on Pinterest which leads to discovering new art and other people's blogs.  So it's not all bad.  Is it?  Oh!  Oh! I think that I'm in trouble if I'm already trying to rationalize it.  lol!

FAMOUS ARTIST COLLAGE, "REMBRANDT."

Before I sign off I wish to include a collage that I put together last year to include in my "Teesha Journal" (doesn't it sound ancient when it was only completed last week?)  Anyway, I hope that you enjoy it. 

Have a Happy New Year!!!

Hugs,
Ginny

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

"May PEACE be your gift at Christmas and your BLESSING all year through."

I love this time of year but it seems to sneak up on me and I always feel rushed to get all my shopping, baking and card making done.  Why don't I start earlier?  I tried shopping earlier…like the super sales right after Christmas but I sometimes forget the gifts, lose them, or find something better later in the year.   I think that I could take a lot of stress off myself if I only made my cards for next year by…let's say JULY!  I always say that I am going to do that!  Oh well…I have good intentions.

Anyway, I hope that everyone finds a stress free holiday season.  One filled with love, joy and peace.

Merry Christmas !

Hugs,

Ginny

HOW I PAINT MY LETTERING

Ok!  I had a request for a tutorial on how I paint my lettering in my collages.  This is something that I learned by watching Teesha Moore in a Mermaid Circus video and that I adopted for my own colleges because it is very easy for me to do...and I think that it really gives my collage work a polished look.

Here goes:  I mainly use Molotow paint pens but you can use any acrylic or poster paint pen with an extra fine or fine tip.  I have a collection of the Molotow (1mm, in black and white and all other colors 2mm), Painters (Elmer's) and Sharpie (poster and acrylic paint pens.  Not oil!) that I use for this purpose.  I find that the acrylic paint pens will write over almost anything, even waxy Prismacolor pencil backgrounds.   Note: The white Signo Uni-ball pen also works great but it is not waterproof so I opted to use the acrylic paint markers instead.  Also...a nice feature of the Molotow markers is that they are refillable.

The first thing that I do is to layout the words using a General's white charcoal pencil.  I play with the size and position of the words to ensure that they all fit within the allocated space.  Just rough it out…you don't have to be too neat or precise at this stage.  The important thing is that the words are positioned where you want them.

Next, I draw the letters.  If you have taken any of Joanne Sharpe's lettering classes, you will recall where she said to use your own lettering and fatten it up…add curlicue ends, serifs, etc.   Make it your own!  This is what I do…I make a block letter in upper or lower case and then fatten up the letter on the curves and some straight lines (this is just my personal preference).  You might want to experiment to see what works for you.  I form each letter, fatten it up and add the serif before I go on to the next letter.  I watched Teesha do it this way and it made perfect sense to me.  If I made the whole word before I fattened it up and added the serif, I was then trying to condensed the letters to keep them from running into each other.

Once all the lettering is done with the base color...go back and erase the charcoal lines with a kneaded eraser.

Add the shading:  Shading can be done using a paint pen, alcohol marker, or colored pencil.  I like the clean look of a paint pen so that is what I usually use. Again, this is just my personal preference.  Use what you like.

When choosing a color to shade with, I often experiment until I find the look that ties the lettering to the rest of the collage.   Sometimes it is a paint marker that is in the same color family but darker than the background or sometimes a contrasting color works best.   Even a medium color letter, blue for example, looks great with a white shadow or outline.  There are no mistakes here…experiment and try to find what looks best.  If you don't like it,  just paint over it with another color.

Where to make the shading:  I always like to shade the left and bottom of the letters because I always make the light source in my collages come from the upper right corner.  Pay attention to where the light source is coming from and shade the opposite side of the letter.  Your collage may have a light source coming from the bottom and left side of the page and therefore, the shading will be on the right and top side of the letter.

1. Draw letter with charcoal pencil  2. Draw block letter  3. Fatten letter  4. Add serif.  5. Shade letter.

There you go…that's how I paint my lettering.

Now…go have fun!

Until next time!

Hugs,
Ginny

COFFEE, LATTE, EXPRESSO…OH MY!!!

I finished this journal page several weeks ago and didn't post it because it wasn't one of my favorites. It seemed out of character with the other pages in my journal but HEY, isn't that what journaling is all about…letting the work flow and seeing what comes out???  And sometimes the resulting work IS something different and out of character with your other works…that's how new directions or new styles happen!

I wouldn't exactly say that this is a new direction for me but it certainly shows my state of mind when I created it.  I was apparently craving coffee….or screaming COFFEE!  lol!

Hmmmm, coffee does sound good right now.  Well, I'm off to make a cuppa…...

Credits:  Collage sheets from Shelly Massey, Glitterbug, and PaperScraps.

Until next time!

Hugs,
Ginny