A Pinch Of Wonderful

One Piece - Several Options - Making Your Art Work For You

2016-01-28T08:22:00.001-08:00

This little guy was a landmark piece for me. It was one of the first collages that I made where I finally felt like I had "found" my happy art place, and it was one of the first originals that I sold. That could have been the end of the story for that piece of work.

I am so thankful I had the where-with-all to photograph this piece with a decent camera. When you are a newbie to the art scene, you might not want to lay down the investment it takes to professionally scan a piece; but, at the very least, you can capture that image with a photo. I encourage you to photograph ALL your work - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Here's why!!

With that one photograph I have allowed that original piece of art to work for me (produce income) over and over again through prints, cards, and licensing.

Prints - If you would like to make your work more affordable to the general population, I highly recommend prints. I didn't even take a traditional approach to prints - no giclees, no high end copies with archival ink, no fancy printing paper. My prints are photographs! WTF? You sell photo reproductions as your prints? Yes, I do. And I have not heard anyone complain when they hand over the cash.

I'm not knocking a giclee. I LOVE buying the best I can, but I usually have $20 in my purse (the price of my 8 X 10 print) and I usually don't have $80 in my purse (the price of a giclee print). I have made peace with myself about this whole photo print thing.

Cards - With a little cropping and some text you can turn your original into a greeting card. I buy 5X7 blank card bundles at Hobby Lobby and print 4X6 photos of my artwork to make cards. A little double sided tape and a cellophane sleeve does the trick. This card sells out at every show I do.

Finally, with a little bravery and a short, sweet, email, I sent out a few images to a few greeting card companies and guess what? I have my first licensing deal. Tree-Free Greetings picked up nine of my images for production. One of the images was this same little bird.

http://shop.tree-free.com/new-cards-2016/new-cards-by-occasion/birthday/17312/royal-celebration/

And it all started with one photograph.

Valentine Step by Step

2016-01-20T18:10:00.000-08:00

With Valentine's Day approaching at break-neck speed (less than a month away - what happened to January?) I created a little home decor and documented the process. Here is a quick step-by-step.

1. To begin, I laid down some neutral patterned paper in strips - 6 strips total. Paint over the paper with zinc white in a random fashion leaving some of the texture uncovered.

2. Using the edge of an old credit card, scrape on a bright, cheery color to cover about half of the textured paper. I used Phthalo Turquoise - yummy! Next, add some spirals with pearl white ink using the dropper in the ink bottle. Random visual interest is always a plus!

3. I laid in some gold painted deli paper that I tore in tiny strips to bring a third color into the background.

4. Get BOLD. I was a little nervous to add black to a Valentine, but bold is good! These black circles are torn by hand and placed on the outer edges of the board.

5. My stash of red painted papers. I had just painted a batch of red papers with a lot of gold texture. I picked those papers out of the pile for the Valentine. I like the way the gold paint gives the papers a luminous feel.

6. Collage the heart by tearing and placing your red papers one piece at a time. The more pieces you have, the more detailed your heart will look.

Collage Details

7. I considered adding a black outline to the heart in a "Scribbly" style. Instead of going straight in to the piece, I placed some wax paper over the piece and "auditioned" the scribble. Final decision - NO!

8. Paint the sides of your panel with the same color you used in the credit card scrape.

9. Add white paper strips to the sides of the panel as well as a small black paper accent. The strips don't have to be the same size. I like the random look of the torn edges.

Add a bit of whimsy with a mirrored drawer pull on the top of your board.

Sit back and enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Do You Believe?

2015-08-18T08:31:00.000-07:00

I recently read that what stops most people from pursuing a goal/dream/project usually doesn't have anything to do with ability, talent, where-with-all, or desire. The thing that stops people in their tracks is that three pound piece of matter between your ears and the "perception" it holds. Perception used correctly, can be unstoppable. Don't even try to talk it down or reason with perception. Perception has a mission, and nothing you say or do can stop it. What is hard work, is saying and doing things that will turn your perception into belief.

While the old saying, "If you can believe it, you can achieve it" may sound like a big pile of hooey to you, it is a scientifically proven fact that belief is key as far as your brain is concerned. I'm not talking about that itty-bitty belief system you might carry around in your head that says, "Well, I am kind-a-sort-of an artist." You must REALLY believe - slap you in the face believe - proceed as if success is inevitable believe - I am artist, hear me roar believe!

Great! you say. How do I do that? If you are not naturally inclined to say and do things that bring out your alter-ego Wonder Woman self (and what woman is good at that) you might need a little placebo.

Placebos have been used in the medical community for decades. People are told they will receive a desired result if they just take a certain pill. Is it a miracle drug? No. It's a fake. But your brain doesn't know that. In scientific testing, the person receiving the placebo doesn't even know. You and your brain has been deceived - big time! - and the results can be miraculous.

As an artist, I am very visual. You probably are too, right? What has worked for me in the believing process is to keep belief triggers right in front of me all the time. I have inspirational quotes written on my work table, I have vision boards on Pinterest, I have my goals right in front of my computer so I that I can see them clearly everyday, I have a mantra that I repeat every night before I go to bed. I have put my brain on a one-way belief highway; and, I am loving the results.

You can do it too. It takes a little practice and a little patience - or in some cases it may take a lot of practice and a LOT of patience, but you can do it. Try it. Don't give your brain any options. Believe it. Achieve it!!

It's Easy As 1 - 2 - 3

2015-08-04T12:29:00.000-07:00

Some business leaders suggest that you should only have three priorities at any given time. WTH? How is that even possible. I've read it more than once in books and I have seen it on the Internet. It must be true if it's on the Internet, right? They say if you have more than three priorities, you don't really have any priorities. You have a "to do" list.

The principle surrounding the three priority theory is that it will make you focus with laser precision on what is really important in your life. It will also act as a guild line for whether you can say "yes" or "no" to opportunities that arise. I have to admit, it is quite effective.

One of my priorities for the second half of this year is to develop my own art "style". O.M.G. I sometimes think it would have taken less time to learn how to become a brain surgeon. What do you need to develop your own art style? Time. Lots and lots and lots of time. Malcolm Gladwell puts a figure to the number of hours it takes to "master" a skill set in his book, Outliers. The magic number of hours is 10,000. Wow! Thanks, Malcolm for figuring that out. This is where having a laser focus comes into play.

If you strive to become an outlier or if you would like more time - and who doesn't need more time - your priority system is a must. Let's put it to the test. Can you organize the community garage sale? Will that take any time away from my priority? Probably several week's worth, right? The answer is "no". Would you like to make $60,000 a year working from home doing date entry? Tempting, but no. Can you be on the school board, be head of the PTA and organize the school fundraiser? Hell, no. Can you watch my cat? Do you have time to make a costume for me? Don't you want in on the ground floor of ......? No, no and no.

Here is a positive way to look at saying no. It leaves the door open to say yes. Do you want to go to an art retreat with me? Yes! So much better than, "No. I have a garage sale to organize." Do you want to go to the park and sketch? Absolutely. Can I hire you to teach a class - make a commission for me - consult on an art project? I love your style. YES!!!!

If setting only three priorities makes you uncomfortable, I have great news. The priorities you set today don't have to be your priorities forever. They will always be in flux. They may change every six months, every week or even daily. As long as they are aligned with what is true to you, they will serve their purpose. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

A Funny Thing Happened On Way To Rejection

2015-07-30T07:43:00.001-07:00

Boots by Tanner Mark

I just got wait-listed for the third time for an art show that is on my bucket-list. It's on my bucket-list because the competition to be accepted in to this show is fierce and my goal is to be invited to participate BEFORE I DIE!!

I could have hung my head, cried a tear, secretly plotted to slash the tires of the jurors....but instead I thought to myself, "YES!" and I threw in a few fist pumps for good measure. The funny thing about rejection is that if you are tenacious enough, it brings you closer to your goals. Let me explain.

My husband has been in sales his entire professional life. He is a natural, an ace, a don't quit until they have signed on the dotted line kind of guy. He hears "NO" a lot, but what he taught me is that hearing "NO" brings him that much closer to a "YES". He knows this because he has had experience playing the numbers.

Rejection is a numbers game. In sales and in art, you will be rejected most of the time. Let's say 24 times out of 25. But what happens when you get to lucky number 25? You get a "YES". So, if you think about rejection in terms of numbers, you will realize that every no is bringing you that much closer to your yes.

So celebrate the rejection! Do a little happy dance. You are getting closer. Stay in the game and don't slash any tires - that's against the law.

8 X 10:00 - A Daily Practice To Reach Your Goals

2015-07-28T07:28:00.001-07:00

45 years. That's how long I had been on the planet when I decided I wanted to be an artist. Better late than never - as the saying goes. As a late bloomer, I have had a bit of a feeling that I needed to "hurry" to catch up to the talented souls who had figured it out early in life. How do you accomplish big dreams when you feel like you missed the starting gun? Eight small steps at a time.

How do you reach the top of a mountain? (That's code-speak for your goals) You take one step at a time. In my case though, I thought maybe I should take eight steps at a time - or eight small actions everyday to move me toward my goals. I came up with a strategy. I would complete eight actions every weekday by 10:00 a.m. to bring me closer to the top of the mountain. That's 10:00 A.M. in the morning. That lasted about two weeks. A slight adjustment to the plan - a 12 hour adjustment, to be exact - worked much better for me. The new strategy would be to complete eight actions every weekday by 10:00 P.M. in the evening. MUCH better!

So began my 8 X 10:00 practice. I kept a journal of entries to keep me accountable and it is working out pretty well. I know every morning when I wake up that at least eight task need to be accomplished that have to do with art. They don't have to be monumental task. They can be as easy as writing a thank you note to a buyer, or writing a blog post, or sending out images to a greeting card company. Let's do the math. Eight actions X five days a week = 40 small steps. That's 2,080 steps in a year. Do you think that could change your life?

Now, when I feel myself wanting to watch another episode of Law and Order or I want to peruse Facebook for half an hour, I can look at my daily list and see how many things still need to be accomplished. Sorry Olivia Benson, your crime solving will have to wait. I'm busy climbing a mountain.

I think this 8 X 10:00 strategy could work for a lot of goals that don't have anything to do with art. Maybe you could apply it to becoming more fit or to building a better marriage. It might come in handy for your kids to use to get through a tough project. Or you could use it to be a happier you. There is greatness inside you!! Even if you start late, you can find it.

A Place To Start

2015-03-17T07:24:00.000-07:00

I'm sure my artist friends can relate to the intimidation of a blank, white, canvas. You might have a bundle of ideas in your head, but how do you START to get these ideas out of your head and onto the canvas?

I have taken several workshops where the answer to this question has been simply revealed. You just BEGIN. You don't need a bolt of inspiration or a sign from heaven above - you just begin. Sometimes beginnings are completely covered up by the end product, but think of the beginning as a warm-up. Some idle little something that tells your brain - "Oh, you want to be creative today. Let me see what I can come up with for you."

How do you begin? You can make an art journal page, collage paper onto your canvas, write your favorite quotes, make some marks, or draw a picture on your canvas, like I did here.

These are five 11" X 14" wood panels all lined up in a row. One big doodle later and my brain went into action.

I worked on the background with the panels together at first and then laid out five hummingbirds on the same looooong branch. I'm not sure the long branch really works but the birds are sweet when they are separated. Completed panels below. Can you see the doodle peeking through here and there? It gives your work depth and there is a little secret hiding in the background that you can share with others - or maybe you decide it will be a secret between only you and your work.

Here is a close up - so many tiny little pieces of paper

Here is a quote from artist, Chuck Close about beginnings. I have used it before because I think it rings true for everyone who is intimidated by a blank canvas.

"The advise I like to give young artist, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you."

If you have a way you like to begin a project, I would love to hear about it.

Grocery Bag Backgrounds

2015-01-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

In my never ending quest to come up with interesting backgrounds, I came across this technique and thought you might like it too. It's super easy and I love the look.

I started with birch wood panels but this technique works on paper as well. Spray your surface with water and apply ink. This could be a work of art in itself. Love these colors! Allow the ink to dry completely. I spray a sealer over the top just to make sure the ink does not reactivate when I add paint to the top.

Next, spray your dried ink with water and add any color fluid acrylic paint to cover the entire board. Then take your shopping bags and lay them on top of the acrylic paint. The more you crumple up the bags, the better. Allow to dry completely. Remove the bags and voila!

Beautiful backgrounds for your art. I wish I had come up with this technique on my own but I learned it in an online class from Catherine Scanlon who uses this technique on mixed media paper. She uses this technique and makes it the focal point. I like it as a background that I can collage on top of.

Thanks for reading and if you use this technique I would love to see what you come up with.

Color Schemes From Home Decor

2015-01-14T19:27:00.001-08:00

I was a little surprised the other day when I posted this picture of art I had sold at an art market.

What was surprising was that most of my backgrounds were yellow, blue, or green. What? I thought I was doing a pretty good job of mixing it up, but there it was in full-on color - yellow, blue and green. At about the same time I was having background insecurities, I was cleaning out my bookshelf and came across this little gem.

A home decor magazine featuring color schemes. I little light bulb flickered. Maybe I could use some of these color schemes as inspiration for my backgrounds. This is what I came up with. Not perfect matches, but a nice change of pace.

And one wild and crazy background just for fun.

Stay tuned. More colorful backgrounds coming soon.

Inspiration - Straight From The Jar

2015-01-12T06:40:00.000-08:00

What I truly love about my life is that I get to create on almost a daily basis. I have a studio table with all my supplies and the recent addition of a little jar of inspiration that was given to me as a gift from my arty sister from another mister, Kathy Ericksen. Everyday when I step up to my table I see her heart-felt gift and I pull out a little inspiration bomb.

Kathy had the brilliant idea of collecting creativity quotes throughout the year, and when it came time for holiday gifts, she filled mason jars with her collected quotes and voila - inspiration in a jar!

When you think about it you could make these little jars of happiness for your Valentine with love quotes, for your school age children with quotes about hard work and determination (I know what I'm doing today), your comic friend with a jar full of jokes, as a wedding gift with quotes about relationships, etc.

I picked out the three quotes that were speaking the loudest to me this weekend. Here they are - in no particular order. Enjoy and have a great week!

*Are you willing to give up who you are today for what you can become? ~Gwen Fox

* The advise I like to give to young artist, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up & get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part & a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work, All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. ~Chuck Close

*As you start this week, may you find a nugget of courage to do the hard thing your heart is aching to do. May you find enough freedom to do something brave and risky, something that taps the gift you were given but haven't yet fully and outwardly exercised.
We are all artists in some way, whether our media is watercolor, keyboard, food, camera, numbers, or diapers.... ~Tsh Oxenreider

Artwork by Kathy Ericksen - https://www.facebook.com/kathy.ericksen.beautitreasures?ref=br_tf

Paper Painters - Don't Throw Your Paint (Money) Down The Drain

2015-01-08T07:48:00.000-08:00

If any of you ever use paint for your art projects I'm sure you can relate to the feeling you get when you go to clean out your brushes and you see all of your beautiful, expensive, paint pigment, come gushing off your brush into your water that you later pour down your drain. Especially that first wash, when your water is nice and clean and you see it turn Manganese Blue or Phthalo Green. I hate that!!

I use painted paper in my artwork; so, I decided to put the paint that was still in my brush/sponge to good use. I made up this little box that sits on my studio table.

In the box is all the papers I normally paint for the collages I make - deli paper, a cookbook, an old dictionary, sheet music, an atlas, a ledger, and art papers/scrapbook papers.

Now, when I am working on the background for a piece and I have paint in my brush, I don't wash my brush right away. I reach over and pull a piece of paper out of my paper box and lay down a base coat with the left over paint in my brush. If I am using a sponge, I can grab a stamp or a stencil and put down some texture onto another piece of paper. If I am using markers or oil pastels or ink, I can take a few minutes and add to my papers that already have some paint and texture on them.

Not only am I saving money, I am saving the time I used to use to paint paper. Win - Win!

This Way Up

2015-01-04T18:18:00.001-08:00

On my way home from vacation last week I found a dandy article in the Southwest Airlines magazine that sits in the seat back pocket. You can find inspiration in the oddest places. This little article was only half a page long, but it is so appropriate for the New Year that I thought I would share it with you. My word for the year is BRAVE. Maybe that is why I liked this read. Enjoy :)

THIS WAY UP by Scott Steinberg

If you want to climb the ladder, put yourself in opportunities way. We all know someone whose career is charmed. It's no accident. Luck (the place where opportunity meets preparation) is hard work. Successful people actively put themselves in the cross hairs of fortune. Simply put, they're courageous. Instead of waiting for opportunities to appear, they seek them out. They continually strive to gain new talents, training, and experience.

A courageous lifestyle is one in which you know where you are going and you have a plan to get there. When you see an opportunity, seize it. When you spot a problem, fix it. And when you want something, ask for it. Ask yourself: What do I need to do right now to get to where I want to be later? Being brave in business and in life means taking that first step - and then taking more steps, one after another, until you've arrived at your destination.

Happy New Year!!

Track Your Progress

2014-12-03T09:07:00.000-08:00

I have been sorting through all the pictures of my artwork that I have taken since 2010 when I stared my Etsy shop. If you don't regularly take pictures of your artwork, I highly recommend it if for no other reason than to track your progress. Now, camera phones make it easy to take a quick shot, but back in 2010, it was a "point and click" that had to do the work. This was one of the VERY FIRST collages I ever made:

It was 4" X 4" and I remember how proud I was of it. I had forgotten about it, but when I saw it again I decided that the concept was still relevant to today (who doesn't love a bird silhouette) and I decided to give it another go. Here is what I came up with:

These past four years have made quite an impression on my work. I can't wait to see where I will be in another four years.

Take pictures of everything. You never know what might inspire you today or later down the road.

It Was Just Wrong

2014-11-29T07:45:00.001-08:00

"Step back - WAY back and take a look at it." That is what my drawing teacher used to tell us in class. Sometimes I forget those basic lessons. When you are right on top of your work for hours you start to loose the "entirety" of the piece. That is exactly what happened to these poor little grapes.

I thought they turned out pretty good until I hung them on my wall and started to look at them - from WAY back. They were flat - dull - uninteresting. So, down off the wall they came. I added more paper in different values and added highlights to give the grapes more dimension. I like them much better now.

I also found a new button in my Photoshop Elements software. The "tint" button. We are quickly becoming best friends!

"Step Back" - I wrote it on my work table so I wouldn't forget.

A Lesson in Patience

2014-11-20T07:19:00.000-08:00

I was so impressed with Jim Carrey's commencement speech in May 2014 to the Maharishi University of Management that I wrote several of his quotes directly on my work table so I could see them everyday. Here is one of my favorites: "Let the Universe know what you want and work toward it while letting go of how it comes to pass."

Rewind to several months prior. In October of 2013, I took a licensing workshop online and got so excited about the prospect of having my art on "stuff" (mugs, journals, wall décor, fabric, greeting cards, etc.) that I stared sending out emails to every licensing agent I could find. Most were kind enough to reply with a few words of encouragement and the ultimate "not at this time" dream buster.

Fast forward to May 2014 and the Jim Carrey speech. I took his advise and repeated a positive mantra while I walked the track a few times a week, worked to build my portfolio, and waited patiently for someone who would find my work and say - "Hey, that would look great on a __________. I want to represent her."

The Universe is not in a hurry, but she eventually delivers!

Where did this agent come from? From the emails I sent out over a year ago. The timing was right for both of us. So happy!!

If you have not had the opportunity to see the Jim Carrey speech, it is worth the time. It is 26 minutes in its entirety but here is a clip that starts 10 minutes in. Listen for my favorite part.

http://omeleto.com/199433/

Background Fix Up

2014-10-30T15:49:00.001-07:00

Have you ever completed a project and then wished you could change something about it? For me, this little chickadee is one of those projects. I never did like the background. My color teacher would say this piece has "background fatigue". It's all the same, doesn't have any interest, doesn't allow your eye to move through the piece, it's dull - blah, blah, blah. So, I decided to try to "fix it".

Here is what I did.

I took a piece of deli paper and created a mask by tracing and cutting around my subject matter.

I then took a handmade stamp I created using fun foam and a plastic placemat and determined which section I wanted to use. The placemat is pretty big so I only needed to use a small section which I painted blue and printed on to the background. The deli paper kept the chickadee safe from blue paint and allowed the stamp to appear to be continuous behind the bird.

I added Christmas postage stamps, glass dots to the holly, and small circles cut out of tissue paper. Much better!

Lesson learned - If you don't like it, find a way to fix it.

DIY Christmas Tree Collage

2014-10-22T07:30:00.004-07:00

I have built up my art inventory enough that I feel more comfortable applying for art shows. As some of you may know, booth fees for these shows can range from very reasonable to quite expensive. For the past few shows, I have created a small, inexpensive product for the sole purpose of covering the booth fee. What better project for my upcoming December Art Market than a few Christmas tree collages. Here is how I made them.

In an effort to use my "stash" of odds and ends canvases, I created these trees on 9 X 12 flat canvases that I already had on hand. I sprayed the canvases down with water and used two different blue inks to create the base background color. After the ink had dried, I splattered and dripped acrylic paint to complete the background.

I painted a quick guideline for my paper collage to help me gauge the tree shape.

I collaged the trunk of the tree with a variety of brown papers. Next up, I took my green papers and began to tear them into slightly curved strips of different lengths. When I had a nice pile of green "pine needles" I started to place them individually using soft gel as an adhesive starting at the top of the tree and working my way down to the bottom overlapping papers and filling in blank spots as I went along. Adding Christmas postage stamps, glass dots, scrabble tiles, and paper stars completes the look.

Fast and fun!

A Dream for Nola

2014-10-06T20:28:00.000-07:00

One of the wonderful things about being an artist is the creative community you can develop right in your own backyard. When a fellow creative told me about her granddaughter, Nola Carter, I knew I had to do something to help. Baby Nola has a rare, terminal disease called Sanfilippo Syndrome. Sanfilippo is a genetic disorder that causes progressive damage. Many of the children affected with this disease will not live beyond their teenage years. While some parents dream their daughters will become productive adults with adventurous hearts, Nola's parents dream that she will speak their names, run with other children, and live to be the woman she was created to be.

Because her disease is so rare, funding for research is slow in coming. Nola's parents have taken on the momentous task of raising funds for a clinical study of Sanfilippo Sydrome that will begin late in 2014. Nola is the youngest child ever to be diagnosed with Sanfilippo and her participation in these trials could be life altering.

I created this collage for Nola that will be auctioned at an upcoming fundraising event in November. Prints will also be available in the near future with all proceeds going to Team Nola. Learn more about how you can participate in Team Nola fundraising by liking Team Nola's Facebook page here.

Here are a few detailed views of the finished piece:

Creating Patterns with Photoshop

2013-12-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

It seems this year in particular has been a great year for learning new techniques from some awesome instructors. This summer I took a digital collage workshop. I signed up because it had the word "collage" in the title of the workshop - Ha Ha - I am such an easy target. The class turned out to basically be a Photoshop class; and, while I have a brand new appreciation for digital artist, I still gravitate to the hands-on approach when it comes to making art.

What I did learn in this class that made subject matter much easier for me was how to take several images and combine them to create a new image. I think some people have this concept that artist just pull subject matter out of their heads and plop it down on the canvas. I'm sure some very talented artist do just that. But I need a reference. Something to help me get the angles, and the proportions, and the shapes just right.

Here is an example using my ice cream sundae collage. See if you can pick out the parts from these photos and find them rearranged in the completed work.

I used these photos for reference

And created a pattern to make this piece

Do you see the bowl? Not in the reference photos; but, it is there. It came from the bottom picture on the left. I cropped out the stem of the glass, reworked the shape, and added the polka dots.

Having a pattern is only half the battle. Translating the pattern with paper is another monster - but she is a friendly monster and I am very fond of her.

Mothers and Daughters

2013-11-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

As a collage artist, I am always on the lookout for paper of all kinds to use in my work. In particular I love old books and dictionaries, maps, anatomy and technical drawing books. Anything with interesting print and patterns will do. One dictionary I purchased at a resale shop contained a foreign words and phrases section. LOVED that! Using a few choice phrases, family photos, and the techniques I learned from two great workshop, a new sentiment series was born.

This summer I brought collage artist, Jane Davies, to Houston to teach a workshop. That's her in the picture above wearing her plastic tiara. This class was a blast and really pushed me out of my comfort zone. Making abstract art is not easy - at least, not for me.

Using Jane's guidance, I created the three abstracts above. Now, what was I supposed to do with them? I tucked them away and got ready for my next arty adventure - my first online art workshop.

I wasn't sure if I would like taking an online class; but, I saw Mary Jane Chadbourne's playing card class and I couldn't resist. Mary Jane's class was yet another eye opening experience and the online instruction was fantastic. Here are some of Mary Jane's cards below.

So, now I have my dictionary phrases, my abstracts, and my new playing card techniques I learned from Mary Jane. Here is how I put them all together.

I started by taking this (very old) photo of myself and making a copy. Instead of copy paper I used a page from my dictionary and ran it through my printer. Nice effect!

Next, I took my abstract background and glued it onto an 8 X 10 canvas, mounted my picture to the abstract background and super sized all the playing card techniques to fit a bigger size substrate.

I used another abstract for the background of this piece. That's my mom pictured.

The last background I used with a picture of my daughter.

Mothers and daughters - three generations in art. I think each foreign phrase fits its subject perfectly and I love the new techniques that brought the pieces together. Both of my amazing instructors teach online workshops throughout the year. Find them here:

Jane Davies - www.janedaviesstudios.com

Mary Jane Chadbourne - http://desertdreamstudios.weebly.com/blog.html

Desserts in Review

2013-11-25T07:20:00.000-08:00

The yummy dessert series is all wrapped up. I tried several new techniques this time around and I really like the results.

One of the things I purposely tried to do was to create the feeling of "white" using color, as seen in the cupcake holder, the ice cream, the cream-filled cookies and the cake. Large areas of white in collage have always been a challenge for me; but, mixing in colored paper with the white paper completely brought the white to life. That was a good lesson learned.

Another first in the dessert series was the use of a few large format stamps I made from foam core and fun foam. (Thanks Judi Hurwitt for that fun class this summer). I cut the foam core to the size of the panel - 12 X 12 - and then cut self adhesive fun foam into circular shapes, placed the shapes onto the foam core, applied paint with a sponge, stamped the panel, voila! Very happy with the result.

Another handmade stamp was used for the cake background.

And another for the cookies background.

Chocolate covered starwberries has a background made from a stencil, a rubber stamp, and a small circle cookie cutter used as a stamp.

Soon after I finishing this series, I discovered the Society 6 website which allows you to upload your art images and place them on items such as notecards and tote bags.

http://society6.com/LisaMoralesMixedMedia/Cupcake-Delight-tsQ_Cards

http://society6.com/LisaMoralesMixedMedia/Cupcake-Delight-tsQ_Bag#26=197

So Cool!

Lilla Rogers Make Art That Sells E-Course - Week 1

2013-10-16T07:13:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, Lilla Rogers is an illustrator turned art agent who has licensed over $100 million worth of art. This chick knows her stuff - for sure. Having a little extra cash in my pockets (thank you face painting) I signed up for her e-course "Make Art That Sells" to gain some insight into what the licensing game is really all about.

Lilla's course is broken down into a different licensing market every week with an assignment due on Sunday. Week 1 was bolt fabric. HOLY COW, I had no idea what went into creating fabric. It was so outside my comfort zone I could not complete the assignment to the specs given. Fortunately, Lilla says that every artist is not made for every market. Thank goodness for that! However, it is not unusual for artist to cross over into different markets over time - encouraging to hear!

Week 1 assignment was to create a fabric pattern using berries and casserole dishes in a vintage theme. Something like this:

Well, my friends, that was not going to happen for me. I don't DO tiny. But, I still wanted to put SOMETHING out there; so, I fell back on a loved theme of my own - animals in hats - and created this:

And to make it match the assignment in the best way I could I went in and digitally added text and came up with this:

Needless to say, my piece did not get picked for review by Lilla herself; but, I do feel like I stayed true to myself - important, right? Part of the assignment was to teach us that sometimes you don't have a choice what you make for licensing. The client and the market dictate that in some instances.

Interesting Fact - Did you know that it is standard for an artist to make about 10 - 12 cents per yard of licensed fabric sold. That may not seem like much, but Lilla says if you do well with a client, they may produce 3 or 4 themes of your work in fabric every year with colorways and coordinates all thrown into the mix.

So, good-bye bolt fabric week. It was nice to meet you but I do not want to date you. The week 2 market is Home Decor. I'll keep you posted :)

Sunday Best - A Series For The Sophisticated Baby

2013-09-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

One of the things I keep reading about is how important it is for an artist to create work in a "series" - a collection of work with the same theme. My work to date has been pretty scattered with single pieces that don't really connect to each other. So, I said what the heck. I'll give a series a try.

Next problem - subject matter. What do I make? I am the first to admit that my work leans toward the juvenile side. That seemed like a good place to start. Something for children that was a little quirky and whimsical.

Here is my first series. I imagine these pieces in a nursery or kid's room making children and adults smile and wonder.... where are these animals going all dressed up in their Sunday best. Enjoy!

Oliver Owl

Ginger Giraffe

Priscilla Kitty

Fiona Fox

Beatrice Bunny

Prints of these pieces are avialable in my Etsy store here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/apinchofwonderful?ref=si_shop

Painting the Human Canvas

2013-05-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

I just returned from Florida where I was attending the Face and Body Art International Convention. As many of you may know, I became a professional face painter a few years ago. WOW - what a fun job! Every week I have the priviledge of transforming ordinary children into super heros, princesses, butterflies and tigers. What a wonderful way to make a living.

What do you do at a face and body painting convention you might ask. You paint in the morning, you paint in the afternoon, and then you paint some more at night - sometimes until 2 am. Something wild and wonderful begins to happen when you are surrounded - literally surrounded - by creative people. Have you heard the expression "greatness begets greatness"? That's what happens. You become a better artist just by being surrounded by great artist. It's kind of like a great big gust of inspirations hits you non-stop for a week straight. Crazy good!!

Here are some high lights from the convention. All painted with cake make up or air brush make up. Pretty impressive!

A tribute to Angelina

That's me. Painted as a sugar skull by one of the instructors.

There was even a surprise wedding between two of the instructors.

Tree man - the beginning....

And the final product

See all those people in the background. This is a "jam" where we all get together after daily classes and paint. See what I mean by being literally sounded by creatives.

Stay Inspired, my friends!

Unusual Origins of Color

2013-04-02T09:11:00.001-07:00

One of the perks of attending a color theory class is that you get a little bit of color history thrown in with your regular assignments. Last week in class, we watched the video "The Colourmen" about the beginings of color pigment production by Windsor & Newton. BTW - they were geniuses!

What an eye-opening video! When I pick up my bottle of Indian Yellow I never think about how that color was ORIGINALLY manufactured - before the industrial revolution. Well, now I know; and, so will you. Just keep reading.

Indian Yellow

Indian Yellow is a beautiful, transparent colour with excellent lightfastness. It used to be produced by feeding cows exclusively on mango leaves and using the resultant urine to manufacture the colour. Using the cows in this way was unacceptable in India and by the early 20^th century the practice had ceased. Indian Yellow has since then been made with a variety of pigments but it took until the 1990's to find pigments which provided the lightfastness of the original.

Mummy Brown

Mummy brown was originally made in the 16th and 17th centuries from white pitch, myrrh, and the ground-up remains of Egyptian Mummies, both human and feline. One London colourman claimed that he could satisfy the demands of his customers for twenty years from one Egyptian mummy. It fell from popularity in the early 19th century when its composition became generally known to artists. It was also considered extremely variable in its composition and quality, and since it contained amonia and particles of fat, was likely to affect other colours with which it was used.

Mummy brown was produced up into the 20th century until the supply of available mummies was exhausted.

Cochineal Beetle

The darkest red, carmine red, was for centuries made from crushed cochineal beetles found in South Africa. Cochineal carmine was used by the Aztecs and was first imported to Europe in the 1530s from Spanish conquests in America. Carmine had extremely poor lightfastness and has not been widely used since alizarin crimson became available in the late 19th century.

Well, that is kind of gross and fasinating all at the same time, isn't it. If you have a chance to watch "The Colourmen" I highly recommend it. I know I won't ever be able to look at Indian Yellow again without thinking of its origins.