June is world watercolour month and watercolours are such a great medium that it would be really a shame not to try them at least. Although watercolours are one of the more affordable media (since you don’t need a lot of colours and a pan can last you quite a while) art materials in general are quite expensive and that can keep someone from trying art altogether.
Enjoy this in-depth tutorial on how to create beautiful papers even if you never held the paintbrush before!
And that would be a shame… Many people don’t want to invest in art materials they don’t know how to use and many people feel guilty for investing when they don’t use the ones they bought. If that’s you I hope this will be helpful.
Simple exercises that create beautiful paper and you only need kids’ watercolours? Yes, please!
So I made a tutorial on how to start your watercolour journey – in a very unintimidated way. I like the simple exercises that you can do with cheap kids’ watercolours and I like the fact that you can use the papers in collage afterwards – it’s an art win-win. You practice strokes, get to know your brushes and paints and get collage paper in the end! I hope this inspires you to get your brushes out and just play:).
Last week I shared some animal mermaids but I do like to paint cute ones, too. So today here are the girly mermaids. They have different complexions because they live under the sea and they could be any colour I guess. I want to get better at drawing different ethnicities but I’m still a bit nervous I’ll do a horrible job so mermaids are great for practice because no one knows how they look like;).
After the animal mermaids I wanted some cute girly ones…
I used a technical pen for drawing (size 0.3) and a small traveling set of watercolours to colour them. Those are my very basic supplies and I like them because they are so very versatile – ink and watercolour can produce so many styles! And they are perfect for the really tiny drawings – like these! This mini art journal is 6×6 cm (that’s a square with 2 1/3 inches side).
I played with poses, colours of their complexion and tails, hairstyles…
I always liked small things – and these journals are really cute and so portable – you can take them anywhere – even in the back pocket of your jeans! And any woman knows there’s not much you could carry there:D. I know what you’re thinking – but you need something to draw with! I have a little tip for that, too! I put a tiny pencil into my paper handkerchiefs – we all carry those – and that way the pencil doesn’t poke any holes or get your clothes dirty;). I carry one in my jacket and I’m set wherever I go:).
Spring is perfect for nature journaling – it’s getting warmer so it’s easier to be outside for a longer time and nature is inspiring us with all the colours, all the patterns and all the beauty you can imagine!
Spring calls us outside:)
Yes, spring can have it’s drawbacks like a lot of rain and allergies if you’re one of the “lucky ones”;). So how can we work around that? – Rain: look at the weather forecast when planning your outings, take an umbrella and sketch under a roof if it begins to rain. Using waterproof pens and a waterproof bag for your art journal is also a good idea. – Allergies: wear a mask – it could be a normal fabric sewn mask that we all have from the jolly days of isolation;). The pollen is actually pretty big and those masks really help. If your eyes are itching, try wearing tight fitting glasses (some sun glasses are shaped really well and very useful if it’s sunny). – Mud: even if it’s not raining at the moment, the ground is usually wet in spring – at least in our climate. To avoid getting your bumm wet, use a DIY sitting mat from recycled materials – it works like a charm. – If the weather is continuously unkind, go out just to gather some materials (to sketch them, to incorporate them into your journal or to make art with) and journal at home:).
If all else fails, you can still just press some leaves and flowers and glue them into your journal. The key is to get us outside and to do art from time to time – not to make a masterpiece;).
It’s here again – my favourite challenge! To tell you the truth, this year I completely forgot about it. I stopped posting on IG a while ago (I don’t know if I’ll go back again, maybe) and I didn’t see mermay anywhere. It’s not like something you’d see going down the street, you know;).
This little guy reminded me it’s “that time of year again”;).
So I forgot about it. But when I packed for our trip I wanted to take some mini art journals with me because they are so small and portable so I finished a few that I’ve cut and scored already. (By the way if you want to make a mini accordion art journal, here’s a tutorial for you. And if you’d like a more in depth tutorial of a bigger version, check out my Skillshare class.) And there I saw the beginning of my last year’s mermay – the pig mermaid that I painted in one of those miniature journals. I later switched to a bit larger scale because I wanted to draw the two versions of mermaids – the fantasy sea cow and the real sea cow for example.
The fantasy animal mermaid and the real life animal “mermaid” – int this case sea cow.
But that little journal reminded me of mermay so now l want to play along – but I have quite a bit of catching up to do. I decided to finish up the animal version of mermaids but also do the normal girly mermaids as well – both in this miniature version that I would be actually able to finish in time;).
I had fun photographing this octopus mermaid – I am terrible at photography but sometimes it’s fun nevertheless 🙂
So you’ll see this year’s mermay tomorrow so come back:).
This is not a post about sales and how to bargain hunt. I have no idea about that so I’ll leave that to more savvy. You won’t find many garage sale tips here simply because I know nothing about garage sales (we don’t have that here). But I have been making art on the budget for years and years… I was working part time and we had three little kids in day-care so you can imagine;). And art and craft supplies are notoriously expensive (especially in Europe). “So what can poor girl do…” as the song goes (I apologize if there is any younger audience who doesn’t get my ancient music references;).
Natural materials are not just a source of inspiration – they can also be our painting surface, our texture tools and even our ink!
Here are some ideas how to stretch your dollar when creating use – recycled materials (post coming up): clothes, packaging, cardboard… – natural materials (post coming up): for textures, surfaces,… – cheap art materials: kids’ art supplies, knockoffs,… – know where to save: some things are more important than others: buy good brushes (they last;) but cheaper paint (student grade is perfectly good). Buy good quality paper for some things and practise on scraps. – things that are not made for art and are therefore cheaper;) – foam and alcohol from DIY store, textures from cosmetics/hygiene products etc… – homemade alternatives (craft recipes and DIY art and craft tools)
You can DIY many supplies and gadgets – like a wet pallet – that will also save your acrylic paint from drying up so it’s a double win! And the journal is made from an old book.
And 2 additional ideas: * buy things (like stamps etc) that are versatile and will last for many projects (general things like stars and flowers for stamps and general the most basic shapes like circles and ovals for punches or die-cuts) and if you do buy themed stuff, choose a theme you really love and will use often (don’t do what I do: I am a sucker for anything sea-themed;) but I rarely use it since we’re never home during summer :D) * choose materials that last (watercolours don’t go bad, acrylics do); brushes and paper can wait a long time but polymer clay will be hard as hell after a few years. It’s still usable but very very hard to work with. Save yourself some trouble;).
Free art project: slow stitching from Sketchbook revival where I used a piece of old jeans, the test crochet row, some thread from packaging and some natural material – nothing fancy but it looks nice in person and it was lovely creating this slow stitching roll.
I have written about this online art event last year but I figured somebody might appreciate the reminder;) There are 2 workshops (about 40 minutes to an hour each) released every day for 14 days and after that you get 2 more weeks to watch and complete your projects (you can complete them later as well, of course, but the free access is closed on 20th of April). If you need more time, there’s a VIP access for lifetime. There’s a very active fb group (I’m terrible with fb but it’s there for the fb lovers;) and lovely hosts.
This portrait was from Tamara Laporte’s class and I really enjoyed working in that style!
Today I’d like to invite you to search for your references you might want to use in the future. I want to learn portraits so I created this board of references. I will also create a list of people I want to draw in addition to the references (and I’ll probably search for their references as I go).
Pinterest is my favourite source of inspiration by far! What’s yours?
There are tons of places with great references however if you use them commercially, stick to the royalty-free images or photographers who allow you to use their references. One of great portrait photographers who let’s his work be used as inspiration is Earth (that’s his real name!) His portraits are great for caricatures, character inspiration and portrait painting!
So I’ve been rambling about goal setting and how to deal with lack of enthusiasm for our new years resolutions before but here is a simple trick that has worked wonders for me personally. I never was a “habit girl” – I am more of a “campaign learner”. I learn best when I have an exam next morning, I do best when I have a deadline. That hasn’t changed. But I wanted to trick my mind since now I want to learn things that have no exams and I want to do things that have no external deadline. So little habits are very welcome. But how to make them stick for the very spontaneous person?
One small drawing a day is enough – you can only make a part of the drawing, draw one shell, leaf, pebble… or just the outline and you shade it another day.
As I’ve mentioned before, I think that the problem with our goals, resolutions and tasks in general is that we are too ambitious, to eager at the start: “fools rush in” as Elvis would say. But there is something to it: we go in full – head on, determined that we will exercise every single day, stretch or do yoga for half an hour, go to nature every week for a 5 hours long hike, draw for 30 minutes each day… and so on and on… And than the life hits. There are birthdays, we get sick, our kids get sick, we need to pack for their trips, there are work emergencies, bills need to be payed, empty fridge demands a visit to the store… and we somehow can’t fit everything in. We leave out one day, the next day, the day after… and fall of the wagon completely… and ditch everything.
As much as I love art journaling, it can be hard to do a spread every single day. It’s ok for vacation but hard for the normal life…
It’s natural, it happens to all of us – ok, maybe not to the “life optimisation gurus” – although I must say I am pretty sceptical about them;). In any case, it’s normal for life to happen. So let’s plan for the busiest day from the start! Let’s set the bar so low that you can reach it even when you chase your tail all day. Like drawing one line. You don’t have to take out anything, you can do it on a scrap piece of paper, on a receipt, with a pencil or a ballpoint pen. It all counts! I started with 5 minute tutorials and I did not use more than 5 minutes to draw my sketch. That worked. Whenever I tried to extend that goal to half an hour or more I ended up exhausted from work, kids and life and than fell asleep behind my desk more nights than not… Don’t get me wrong – you don’t have to only spend 5 minutes – you can draw for hours when you have the time and energy to do that. But for all the other days, 5 minutes or even just one line is enough. Just picking up the instrument counts. Just unrolling your yoga mat counts. Make it super small!
This artsy calendar was on the verge of my capabilities at the time – I was slower than I am today and needed more time for those tiny circles… But I could do that every day – because it was so small and everything was set up all the time.
You can draw one snowflake a day in the winter (more on that to come;). Doodle one flower in the spring or leaf in the autumn. Those minutes add up. 365×5′ is 1825 minutes and that is 30 hours! You won’t become a rocket scientist in this time but you can chill out and just get the habit in. And you’ll see that many times you will do way more than 5 minutes. But 5 minutes is enough, everything else is extra. It really doesn’t need to be big:) Start slow and speed up as you feel comfortable. You can still learn at your compulsive pace if that’s your nature – these two things don’t need to be mutually exclusive. Take the cake and eat it too;). Just add in a sprinkle of salt – you won’t be able to taste it but it will make it better:).
Very Arty Fairy 