Tag Archives: acrylic paint

Dear Inner Critic

Today was a weird day. Not that other days aren’t. Sometimes I have these days where nothing works. I’m learning to get past that by continuing to create. I get an idea and then it gets lost in the process. The acrylic paint was too thick or old. The flirty color scheme didn’t mix right. Maybe I should have went with the blue. Probably. This letter made me smile. Yes it’s funny. Yes, it’s silly.

My scanner didn’t do these colors justice. Good practice. I’m better at drawing letters with brush pens and markers. I’ll add this to the repaint pile. You never now where an idea will lead. Maybe I should start a book collection of various letters. One to curiosity. One to idea. One to imagination. One to….not to bad…not too bad at all.

hand lettering the whole book

Yes. This will be the first book I completely hand letter. I just keep going back to Austin Kleon’s awesome books. I want to do it. I’m going to do it.

That of course means I’ll re-paint the poem again. I have just the right aqua. I’ll practice more lettering. I can feel myself about to fall in this analysis paralysis episode and think too much. Not going to go there.

New deadline will be March 2. Oh my goodness I still need to publish the paperbacks.

But first I revisit Jon Contino”s class and then Lauren Hom’s class.

…and this didn’t work out but at least it was good practice with monotones and transparencies.

…I’ll have a little more fun lettering…there are no impossibilities.

Chachipe

is a gypsy phrase that I painted a while ago.Why not simply paint and let the idea emerge as I paint? As I create this year I want to simply do what I want to do and have fun. Freddie Mercury was a wise man. Chachipe’ is a gypsy term I learned while watching a Spanish novella. It means reality and truth.

The Gypsies would greet and say good-bye using this phrase. I like the phrase but the above interpretation doesn’t do this cool phrase justice.

Day 1

Do some research on gypsy patterns and color. Then paint. Same rules.


Day 2

let’s really get to work here and fix this.

Looking good

Weird but I like it…

Alright maybe rethink the color scheme here. BUT working with patterns and layering color is great for learning color the Josef Albers way. I’m ready to move on to the next project. Yes I need to start working on the live your story book.

-there are no impossibilities

Oh Christmas Tree

I haven’t painted cards for a long time. Card making is a tradition for me. Not sure how it started. I guess I simply wanted to create something fun and handmade.

Super simple acrylic painted cards

  1. Kraft Paper is nice to paint on.
  2. Use acrylic paint in festive colors.
  3. Deviate with an uncommon color like pink or neon green
  4. Good idea to test different brushes in both size and texture
  5. Dots are simple and fun
  6. This is good to create textures and practice painting…yeah I took a class with Ana Victoria Calderon
  7. Oh I have an idea to paint hearts for Valentine’s Day
  8. Love it
  9. I do need practice with watercolor.

-there are no impossibilities

painting a purple tree…

purple hand painted tree with brush texture

with a cotton swab. Well I tried and it didn’t turn out well. But then it did. 

I  mixed-up the right beautiful pink. Or wait I meant purple. These are purple shades but they do have some pinkness to them. I love that. I’m not one for purple purple but these are awesome.

palette with temepra paint

palette looks amazing (still looking for a heart shaped one)

 

 

testing the color before I start painting. Most of these are too dark.

Purple paint swatches

 

Oh my …I am rolling my eyes and taking breaths. Literally I sat down with an idea; the idea for a purple tree has been on my mind. The tree I painted last week came out awesome.   Sometimes ideas have a mind of their own but, the fun is in experimenting.

First attempt notes: cotton swabs are fun to work with, need more contrast  and the green is all wrong

purple tree

 

 

Second attempt notes: The tree trunk came out awesome. The texture and color with the purple was amazing. SO I had to goof it up. I started layering with a brush and a mess happened. I don’t know. I almost threw it away. Somehow I love it.

purple tree

 

Third attempt notes: OK forget about the cotton swab and alter course. I liked where this was going until I applied too much dark.

purple tree texture

 

 

Fourth time is the charm: I went back to the original tool,  took my time and fixed the contrast. Looking good!  The idea for this tree is that trees come in all colors and are beautiful. This is the last tree I pant for the wise trees book. Oh maybe not since I still have the book cover to work on.

purple hand painted tree with brush texture

 

 

Painting this purple tree was a real surprise.

Notes:

  • good lesson on if a first you don’t succeed
  • first ideas are often the best ones
  • so now I have all these cool textures that need lovin’.
  • Maybe this is the start of another book about cute animals in all different shapes and shades. Yes lets. Who knows.
  • there’s a whole world out there to explore
  • mixing acrylic with tempera works
  • don’t forget to keep that brush or cotton swab moist with paint and a little water
  • or that could be an awesome texture too
  • so in terms of mixing the more red you add the darker the purple.

 

Imagine all the impossibilities that are possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

become the character

IMAG0039

A very important lesson that I’ve learned with all of my projects is to become the character. Yes in working on the Ana Bee and Gird Bird book I would sit for hours at a time writing. Sure at first I struggled to start.  Then I started writing and soon words led to a paragraph and a paragraph led to pages. I now have a second book idea I will continue working on once the Wise Trees Book is complete. Become the character means you are so into the story that you’re in the world and the character writes the scene. Yeah now that I think of it, I heard a national best selling author say this.

character analysis

Become the character also resonates with every awesome creative project I’ve worked on. You get yourself comfortable with the process and you begin. You think about what message you want to convey and you keep creating. You become that message.  In that moment that you want to convey a message and emotion. Same can be said for Adele as she sings. She doesn’t just sing the song. In that moment she becomes the heartbreak or love. We relate. We do so because she “became the character” That’s what art is. I thought about this as I painted lots of quotes this past week.

-Imagine all the impossibilities that are possible