Fun Graffiti Journal Page Tutorial!

Here’s a little tutorial on creating a fun Graffiti Style art journal page using Tulip Paint Products. The people at ILOVETOCREATE sent me a box of goodies to try out and let me say they’re way cool and lots of fun!

This page was created on the fly, no planning so you can see how easy it is to do a fast journal page using these products, under 20 minutes!

Stay tuned for a fun opportunity to win your own products, details coming soon!!

This is the last day of my shop sale, there are still a few things left and most won’t be offered after today so go check it out!

Also check out the latest Somerset Studios for my Workshop article ‘A Perfect Pair’ using PanPastels and encaustic medium.


Share Art

While writing down my goals for 2010 I realized there was a recurring theme, ‘Share Art’. Every goal was about sharing art in some way. It’s been the emerging theme from my journal pages, the voice of my muse.

When your muse is speaking it’s wise to listen. I have several ‘Share Art’ projects in the works and hope to add several more venues in the near future.

First on my list for today is ‘Hearts for Haiti’ an Etsy Shop opened to allow artists to share their work, all proceeds go to Haiti relief efforts, while artists donate work and pay for worldwide shipping. ‘Heart of Hearts’ is my donation. A 16×20 mixed media canvas. Pass the word around about this shop and let’s share art and raise money to help the horrible situation in Haiti.

I’d also like to Share Art with one of my blog readers! I just reached 300 followers and haven’t had a GIVEAWAY for awhile, so this seems like a great time! I’m going to giveaway an ONLINE WORKSHOP! Your choice of the three I have open right now, VISUAL JOURNALISM 101, SHADES OF GREY, or PURSUING PORTRAITS. If you have already taken all three, please still sign up and I’ll give you a $40 gift certificate for my Etsy Print Shop! And just to keep things fun, if we reach 100 entrants, I’ll up the giveaway to include two winners!!

So please encourage others to share in this giveaway, post on your blog, tweet, facebook, whatever way you want and help me to Share Art! Giveaway will end January 24th at 12:00pm, all you have to do is comment on this post~

What can you do in 5 Minutes or less?

Watch a tutorial that I did when visiting Stampington Headquarters

Sign up for Stampington’s newsletter, Postscripts so you can join the 25,000 other readers and get the latest news about all things creative

List your latest work on Etsy

‘Looking Back’ 16×20 on canvas

Say thank you to a dear fellow blogger for a blog award, ‘Thank You SueAnn
Link for Dauber Bottles

Pam Pastel’s

Ooops, was that a typo? Not really, this lovely medium is called Pan Pastel’s. I just love them so much I call them Pam’s Pastel’s:-) They are lovely, ultra soft, artist pastels that come in little cakes or pans. I often use them with other mediums, for a soft touch to

backgrounds or for quick coloring in my journal.

What I had not done before is to create a portrait using only the pastel’s, no paint. It gives a totally different feel to the work. Very soft looking, slightly out of focus. Lovely. And so fast you won’t believe it! Perfect for journal work. So this morning I decided to do a little video tutorial for you! It took a total of 23 minutes from start to finish for this portrait, and that includes fiddling with the camera, so you can see it is fast. There is no dry time, no mess, and quick coverage.

This is the portrait at the end of the video

This is the finished portrait. I used a little charcoal and some water soluble crayon on the background, the face is done only with the pastels and graphite pencil.

You can view the video here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zx5CfNLpI8

available in my etsy shop

Art at the Speed of Life

One of the questions I get asked most is, ‘How long does it take you to paint a portrait’? I really had no idea. All of my work is done is small increments of time, as I squeeze my art life around my family life. A layer here, a load of laundry there, some paint, pick up kids, you get the idea. I’m sure most of you can relate. So today I thought it would be fun to do a 9×12 portrait, and record the whole process. Everytime I could get to the studio for a few minutes, I taped while I worked. In the end it took 1 hour and 11 minutes. I then made a little video in fast forward mode to share the process from start to finish.

Here is the video, enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuqNCf5T23s

This was done on a 9×12 hot press watercolor block using Golden Fluid Acrylics, ephemera, charcoal, water soluble crayon and graphite.


available in my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27326537