Creative Fun with Kids

Hello creative friends.  This weekend I had my granddaughter.  I always enjoy doing crafts and art journaling with her.  Kids are so creative.  We made the following pictures.  The first one is mine and the second one is hers.  And FYI I copied her designs for the purple skirt and the green shirt. 

 

 

The idea came from the Art at the Speed of Life book I just bought.  Ours is quite different than how the book explains how to do the picture, but the idea of clothes on a clothes line did come from the book.  We first made our clothes out of pattered scrapbook paper and then glued the remaining scraps to a canvas board.  Then we used modeling paste through a flower stencil for the flowers along the bottom of the canvas.  We painted the canvas and then added paper flowers.  We added cardboard to the back of the clothes to add dimension.  We then put holes in the canvas boards for the ribbon hanger and the wire clothesline.  Finally we used glue dots to fix the clothes to the canvas board.  We had a lot of fun making these pictures and my granddaughter has a fun picture to hang in her bedroom.  Have you created something lately using an idea from a book, magazine or website?  I would love to hear about it and see what you have created.  Until next time, have a great week.

 

Ugly Artwork

Hello creative friends.  This week I was not feeling well so did not do much by way of art, so I decided to talk about ugly artwork.  Or at least what we perceive to be ugly artwork.  If there is anything I've learned over the past couple of years from art journaling, it is to not take myself so seriously, have fun and give myself a break.  In the past I would put so much pressure on myself to create "perfect" artwork that it took all the fun out of creating it.  Here are several examples of artwork that I created and at first thought was ugly artwork, but now see them and my artwork differently.

When I painted this picture I was so frustrated with it and thought it was really bad.  So much so, I threw it in the back of the closet and forgot about it until several years later when I moved.  I came across the picture in the back of the closet and could not figure out what I though was so bad about it.  So I framed it and have it hanging in my living room as a reminder to not be so hard on myself.

Here is a journal page that I created that I thought was ugly.  I still think it is ugly, the background ended up much darker than I wanted it to be and it turned a weird brownish/green color.  

But the few people I have let look through my journal all stop on this page and comment on how much they like it.  Another lesson learned, everyone is different and everyone has different tastes.  So even if you do something you don't like, or someone else doesn't like it, who cares, you can find just as many people who do like it.

Here is another journal page that I created and think turned out ugly.  The colors seemed to muddy on the page.

This year I finally was brave enough to start sharing my artwork online and almost didn't post this one.  However, I am glad I did because I received nothing but positive comments on this page and several people even tagged it as one of their favorites.  Again this has taught me to see my art differently and not to be so hard on myself. 

The two flower paintings I finished a couple of weeks ago and blogged about finishing after they had been sitting for more than 5 years almost didn't get finished.  I became frustrated with both of them before I even finished them and was considering covering them over with something else.  Now that I have finished them, I am happy with the way they turned out and glad that I finished them.  So what about you?  Do you have artwork you created that you was not happy with, only to have someone else like it?   I would love to hear about it.  Let me know what you think.  Until next time.



Back to basics

Hi creative souls!  This week I decided to get back to basics.  Back to my first love of art, which is drawing.  When I was younger I use to draw all the time.  Mostly animals, which I have not done a lot of in my art journal.  I have some of my artwork from my younger days and its interesting to see how I have evolved.  Lately I have just had the urge to get back to basics and draw like I use to.  I decided to also incorporate some experimenting in the process as well.  Because of course as artists we have to try different things in order to find what works for us, styles we like and supplies we like to use.  So this week was about getting back to basics, experimenting and having fun with art.  The first drawing I decided to do was a simple pencil drawing of an elephant.

 

Then I decide to experiment with pen and ink.  I also wanted to experiment with variations of gray tones using watercolor paint and create the following artwork of a girl on a horse.  The only color is her red lips.

 

 

 

 

Then I decided to experiment with colored pencils.  I recently bought some Prismacolor pencils and wanted to see what I could do with those and created the following artwork of a tiger in the snow. 

 

I am going to experiment further and try to incorporate animals and drawing more into my journal pages. 

My granddaughter also came to stay for the weekend and we had fun playing around with paints and stamps on tags. 

 

Here are the tags I created. 

 

And here are the tags that she created.

 



We are planning to use some of the tags on journal pages.  My granddaughter also has an art journal that she is creating in and adds to it whenever she comes to stay.  I will have to do a post on her art journal pages soon.  What have you done lately by way of getting back to basics in your art and just experimenting and having fun with tools, supplies and techniques?  I would love to hear from you.  Until next time, happy journaling.

 





Unfinished Projects

Hello creative friends.  This week was a week to catch up on projects that have been long overdue to be completed.  I started two painting 5-7 years ago and half way through completing them I became frustrated and was not happy with the way they were turning out, so I quit.  All these years I have been debating on what to do with them - finish them or cover them up and reuse the canvases for something else.  Well this weekend I decided to finish them and am very happy with how they turned out.  Here are the two finished paintings.

I learned from finishing these paintings that you can not judge a painting, or a project, before it is finished and the details make all the difference.  The first painting was mostly finished and all it really needed was detail work done.  Once I completed the detail work, I loved it.  The second one was not quite as far along, however I was able to finish it as well and love how it turned out.  Have you ever had a project that you were not happy with, before it was finished, and was happy with how well it turned out once completed?  I have been wanting to move on to other projects, but decided that until these two were finished, I was not going to start any new projects.  How do you deal with unfinished project?  Do you also limit yourself to how many you can have going on at once?  I would love to hear what you think.  Until next time, have a great week.