Day # 2 Prompt: Spelling Bee
Day # 1 Prompt: Smiley Face
Here’s my take on the first challenge ‘Smiley Face’. This challenge comes from Dawn DeVries Sokol’s Daily Drawing Challenge: 31 Art Journal Prompts from CreativeBug.
I’m going on an adventure…
Never before have I taken on a challenge like this one. I’m not even sure what to expect along the way. Starting tomorrow, September 1st, I plan on creating an art journal page following a given prompt each day for the next thirty days. The prompts are from well-known art journal artist, Dawn DeVries Sokol’s Daily Drawing Challenge: 31 Art Journal Prompts from CreativeBug. I’ll share my pages here on my blog as well as on Instagram and cheering on others who are taking this challenge with me! See you tomorrow!
My Coloring Book On TV
Earlier this year, I traveled to Cleveland to shoot a few segments for the upcoming brand new Make It Artsy TV show. In the video above, host Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and I explore the magic of light and shadow using watercolors on a page from my coloring book, “No Place Like Home”.
There’s more. Lots of cool projects from various artists like Dina Wakely, Seth Apter and more coming this September to PBS!
Behind the Scenes: Collage Painting
There’s something absolutely magical about squeezing paints out, mixing them and slathering them on a surface. It helps clear your mind. Sets you free to be a kid again. It is soul balm. If only for a second you could drop your inhibitions, perfectionism and complexes, you could feel the joy that is painting!
I have been painting for as long as I can remember. With chalks, with pencils, with crayons. Then with poster paints, finger paints, acrylics, watercolors. Sometimes I sketch first and sometimes I paint first.
As a natural progression to that, I have started pairing my painting with my magpie tendencies. I collect lots of stuff that are radically insignificant to most people. And the only thing that keeps me from becoming a legendary hoarder are my collage paintings. Scraps of papers, fabric, laces and found objects happily find their ways into my paintings and art journals.
This summer, I worked on a whole collection of collage paintings that were inspired by my two daughters. Some of the simple things that they love to do became translated to the joyful movements the girls in my paintings made.
I set these paintings in simple scenes, painted each one of them in bright and cheerful colors. Like my two girls, these paintings make me and those who visit our home, smile!
The originals currently grace my daughters’ rooms. Maybe I’ll have some prints of these collage paintings in the Color Happy Shop too.
See you next week. Until then, make time to paint!
Behind the Scenes: Inspired by Words
I think you’d agree that some words have really powerful impact on us. Whether you are an avid or an occasional reader, you chance upon written messages that you can never forget, words that can change how you think. Empower you. Inspire you. Remind you of what’s important.
When I’m reading, I jot down the words that I love, in a notebook. If I don’t have a notebook with me, I scribble them on small pieces of paper. At any time, you can find several such small scribbled notes in my purse or on my desk. I clip the notes to the pages and if time allows, I copy them in my notebook.
I read through the notebook pages and mentally short-list the ones that I want to brush-letter. It takes a little time to get into the flow of lettering. I have been practicing brush-lettering for a few months now and my style is still evolving. There are many guides to show you how to brush-letter. But I find that following those guides makes my writing look and feel like someone else’s and I like my handwriting to be as authentically mine as possible, mistakes and all.
So, I came up with a regimen of my own – brush-lettering one quote or saying till I am satisfied. I’m not aiming for perfect spacing or even sizing, but what feels like the best and most consistent visual representation that I can create of each word according to its significance. And sometimes, I add a bit of illustration to a piece.
I choose a few of the finished ones and frame them in my studio. The power of the words give me hope and perspective. They also help me improve my lettering techniques over time.
What are some of your favorite quotes? Please share in your comments!
Happy National Coloring Book Day to You!
Did you know that there is a National Day dedicated to Coloring Books?
Yes! I was so excited to learn that TODAY is that day.
Of course, I had to celebrate… so, I’m coloring in my own printable coloring book, “No Place Like Home” as pictured above!
And I invite YOU to join in the fun!
I like to take my time with coloring. Here’s my page in progress…
Since these pages are printable, you can print them as many times as you like and color them as many ways as you like! You don’t even have to wait for the mail to arrive. I’ll email you the PDF right away, within 24 hours at the most, so you can get started fast. You can buy the book right here!
When you are getting ready to be on TV
Earlier this year, I was asked by KS Productions to be on a TV Show called Make It Artsy. The show will air on PBS stations nationwide as well as online at makeitartsy.com starting this September. I have been on TV before on a different show called Scrapbook Soup. Every member of the KS Production team have been most helpful for preparing novices like myself for the show. So, there’s been a lot of shopping (of course!!!) and preparing projects, step-outs, instructions and talking points.
Here are some jewel tone and pastel dress shirts. I needed at most 2, but I bought 8. Please don’t judge!
Now, clothes aren’t the only thing I bought. I bought some props too. What can I say, I love how chefs use little dishes and utensils and they inspire me as much as the food they cook. So, I took this opportunity to buy some TV props of my own!
Shopping, however, is NOT the only thing I’ve been doing. I have been working very hard and many late hours to create my projects, editing my write-ups and planning my presentation.
I’ll be shooting three Technique segments and one Tip segment. And guess what? I GET TO SHOW OFF MY OWN COLORING BOOK ON TV!!!
Here’s the page from my coloring book No Place Like Home that I’ll show how to watercolor following the principles of chiaroscuro (the technical term for understanding light and shadows).
This is my project for the book episode. I will be showing how to alter a book to create an art journal.
In the stamping episode, I’ll show how to create this mixed media canvas with stamps I designed and cut myself. In this episode, I’ll also present a fun stamping tip you can easily recreate.
Okie doke, time to get back to work!
Happy creating y’all!
Introducing My New Printable Coloring Book!
I’m SO EXCITED to share this news with you!!! I have created a coloring book with my own drawings inspired by my love of all things home.
Let me tell you a little story here.
As a kid, I was always drawing everything around me. We did not have drawing books like here in the States. I still remember my mom rolling out a big rim of drawing paper on the bedroom floor, marking, folding and cutting it and then hand-stitching little drawing books for me. Books that I could carry around easily and draw as I go. I still do that!
When this trend of Coloring books started, I was very happy. I bought and colored several myself.
I began to notice that most of these pages had very tiny spaces to fill that took a LONG time to color — as valuable as that exercise of coloring within lines was, it made me feel overwhelmed and somewhat impatient to see the results! I wanted something more like a sketchbook where coloring would feel more relaxing. I was inspired to create something myself that I couldn’t find in the market.
Around this time, Stampington Publication’s The Coloring Studio asked me to create the cover for their premiere issue. There was no stopping for me after that.
I picked a theme: home!
Homes I lived in, visited, saw on commercials, on television, in magazines – homes that left an impression on my mind. And I started drawing. Pretty soon, I had a stack of black and white line drawings. I picked 30 of those drawings and made it into No Place Like Home: A Coloring Book for the Home Lover!
I envisioned these drawings to bring you joy, for you to color with pencils, markers, crayons, watercolors, etc. and frame your favorites as a collection at home.
Working on my coloring book, made me realize how much really goes into creating anything and making it available to others. Apart from the deep need to share a passion, I knew nothing about the process. It was a series of decisions from choosing a theme to a pen to a scanner to whether to make it a digital or physical product.
A lot of research showed me that a single printable drawing on Etsy ranges in price from $1.67 to $5.00.
I wanted to offer you the option of being able to print on your choice of papers and the option to reprint if you wanted. But I didn’t want my 30 drawings to cost $50.00 to $150.00 or for you to have to spend your precious time scrolling through the hundreds of pages to find what you like.
A printable sketch style coloring book seemed to be the best way to go. So, here it is – No Place Like Home!
