I Just Realized

my art matches my dishes!

Fresh Spring Palette

Sometimes new palettes are born or happen after I see color combinations I like. Today I finished (the gesso background was finally dry) my little "home" ATC and I had to do a double take. Was this the birth of my new spring palette!? Well, it looks more summery to me- but it got me in the mood to freshen up my paints.

Zentangle Alphabet

This swap is almost complete! A Zentangle for each letter of the alphabet. I really learned to enjoy this process... But it takes awhile :)
Zennnnnnn!

Watercolor Crayons and Oil Pastels, Oh My!

So...
I wandered over to Blick Art Materials today in search of some painting fun.

I found a sweet stock of art supplies hiding in there, and this is what we did...

Ingredients:

Watercolor paper
White oil pastel
Spring Green  Caran d'Ache watercolor crayon
White oil pastel
Blue shimmer spray - acrylic
Isopropyl alcohol

Process:
Draw your heart out with the white oil pastel. Or in my case draw a leaf. Haha.


Then add in some detail lines with your watercolor crayon...

Finally, spray on some liquid watercolor or shimmer spray.
Waaaaalaaaa!















Oh, wait.... don't forget to get some extra fun by sprinkling the surface with rubbing alcohol.

It's super fun to watch the process of the water separating from the drops of alcohol.

Okay, go try it!

XOXO
Willow

Amare "to Love"

This is a theme suggested by one of my Yahoo ATC group members.
I had so much fun playing along... And look, collage!! I did add gesso and watercolors as some of my detail. But otherwise, my muse was my trusty vintage copy of Complete Works by Lewis Carroll and Josie's book, Collage Lost and Found.
Both two are musts when getting into collaging.

Ingredients:

Chipboard ATC cards
Patterned paper
Clip art photos from Collage Lost and Found
plus one from a swap goodie bag... :)
Craft bond extra strength glue stick - photo safe
Vintage book pages
Sakura soufflé pens
Prismacolor fine line marker
in black 01
Gesso
Watercolors
Black ink
Cutterbee scissors ek success
Sandpaper

Have fun!

XOXO
Willow

It's all about the process!

So, here's a peek at the new papers we made yesterday... Super bright saturated colors.
Ingredients:
Sheets of canvas, watercolor paper, and textured acrylic paper.

1-2 Good acrylic paint colors (more pigment=happier colors)
Fun acrylic paints (because we want to save money while having fun)

Acrylic mediums (I used tar gel and iridescent)

Stencils, I used sequin waste that Josie Cirincione gave me.

More tar gel drizzled on top. (icing on the cake)

Enjoy!
XOXO
Willow

Paint, Stencil, Pen, Marker, Oil Pastel...

start with an old canvas from your college painting classes...blah 

to beautiful....

Put them all together and look what happens!
To be continued tomorrow... it's getting late!

ACEO's on Etsy

Hello beautiful fun new art on Etsy.  

For those art card lovers out there... I just posted a new series of super fresh watercolor flowers.  I love them. Check out all the fabulous fun stuff on Etsy too! Super fun.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/95131862/flower-fun-aceo

XOXO

Willow

Watercolor Flowers

Good paper
Watercolors (I used a little bit of everything)
Tape
Ink pen

All Bottled Up

Here is my new series of ATC's for trade-

Watercolor with vintage book page snippets.

Watercolor plus Tissue Paper

Watercolors are known for their beautiful translucent layers of colors. Here's a project that's easy to do and shows off the nature of the medium.

Ingredients:

140 lb. cold pressed cotton watercolor paper cut in ATC size... 2.5" by 3.5"

several colors of bleeding tissue paper that mix well (red and blues, or yellow and reds) cut in to small shapes

watercolors- I used an inky bright sakura tube of blue and yellow

shimmer medium- Grumbacher makes a really sparkley one

cut out/paper punch shapes from old mail for a stencil effect

painters tape

rubbing alcohol

salt

paintbrush

water

and a watercolor sponge or paper towels 

Tape down a ATC card blank cut from the watercolor paper

Mix up the paint with a dab of the shimmer medium or just blend it once it's on the paper

Add little bits of dry tissue to the wet background of the ATC.

Smooth them on with your paintbrush 

Add layers of paper cut outs, tissue, and paint/shimmer mixture

Continue to dab off extra water or add more color and paint (to keep the colors fresh use a limited palette on each surface)

Add drops of rubbing alcohol for fun visual texture

Add a sprinkle of salt for a nice texture too

Dry for as long as you can stand waiting!  Over night is best or you can dry it with a dryer...but the longer it sits the better the dyes and colors will merge. 

Peel off the tape and layers to reveal the surprise! 

Have fun!
XOXO

Willow

You'll need a place to work too... I usually use an old watercolor pad.

Bleeding tissue paper is fun to use, but it is like sheets of paint colors...so mix primary colors together and stay away from mixing complimentary colors unless you WANT brown/neutrals  ;)

Add cutouts for fun!

Adding salt makes more visual texture that's fun!

Play with different colors on a series of cards... you never know what it might inspire :)

liQuiD WAtERcolorS with visual texture

Watercolor play...

Ingredients:

Arches cotton 140lb. paper

various watercolors... I used student grade Grumbacher tubes

alcohol and an eye dropper
winsor and Newton liquid watercolor... I used lime green
Salt
Plastic wrap
paintbrushes
water

First tape off a section of your paper you want to paint-

Then wet the paper with a clean brush...only wet the areas you want to color to move across...

Now drop in areas of color...red, yellow, blue... keep adding until you like what you see.

Add salt to some areas. Dab off extra water with a sponge or paper towel. 

Use your dropper to drop in some alcohol spots...

add ink to the alcohol for even more fun effects...

Layer on some crumpled up plastic wrap and let dry! 

Lift off the plastic and tape to reveal the painting! 

Use it as a background, cut it up for ATC's or frame it as is :)

March is Youth Art Month!

Ready?
Get out your paints, pencils, clay, fabric, glue, odds and ends, and pens and create great works of art...make a in home gallery...mail your creations to friends! And remember to post a link to your pictures so I can see what you've made!  Have fun!
XOXO

Willow
P.S.
Tell your teachers and friends... it's time for YAM!

Link with love... And fun art projects!

Check out http://connectingwiththearts.blogspot.com
for some sweet links to the best art projects and art history lessons.
Have fun!
XOXO
Willow

Scribble drawing- with paint!

If you're bored and need to have some fun try this:

Take a sheet of good watercolor paper- 140 lb. Canson makes a good student quality or use arches.

Then use your primary colors in pans or squeeze out 3 primary colors plus one neutral or black to wash over the final shape.

Now take one color at at time and doodle a design (without really thinking about where the lines go).

I like using a size 12 round watercolor or acrylic paint brush. Whatever you have will work. 

If the paint looks like it's puddling- let each color dry between applications. The idea is to get separate contour shapes to play with. 

Once your paper is dry rotate it until you "see" a picture, animal, object. This is the hardest part... But the best! Once you see it- start in with your sharpie - permanent markers work best because they won't run in the next step. Close in your picture like a coloring book- capturing simple shapes and/ or images. Now using a neutral/ watery black, fill in the shapes and add details. You can go back in with the sharpie when it's dry to add final touches! What did you make? My adult artists from the summer made some pretty awesome pictures... I'll post later :)

XOXO

Willow