- My good friend Sharon doesn’t know it but she’s a MURALIST. Here is her latest “landscaping project” on the wall alongside her Cave Creek, Arizona home. AMAZING
- Sharon and her masterpiece
painting
Art EXPERIMENT Challenge
Challenge yourself to do an art EXPERIMENT for 10 minutes. This is NOT about making anything beautiful, recognizable, realistic. It’s about giving your inner critic time off, and letting go of inhibition and expectation. Just jump in and scribble, dribble or smear.
For all of you who say “I can’t draw” – REMEMBER! This is an EXPERIMENT!
Cheap Supplies
- A box of crayons, or cheap paint or marking pens – anything that you’ve got on hand.
- Cheap paper – and I mean CHEAP. Cut up paper grocery bags, junk mail paper (If you use junk mail just color right on top of the printing), copy paper . . .
- A timer – kitchen timer, watch alarm or just a clock.
- Take a look at the 8 minute demo video that inspired this post OR follow my Negative Space Experiment tutorial below.
- Set the timer for 10 minutes and draw, scribble, smush, swipe and color. When 10 minutes is up stop.
Here’s the link to the 8 minute demo videohttp://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/new-tutorial-guest-teacher-diane-culhane/ It’s a quick and EASY way to “make” a picture . . . and learn a bit about positive and negative shapes in the process.
(Diane Culhane, the video teacher, is using expensive acrylic paint. Don’t let that stop you. Cheap craft paint, crayons, oil pastels, chalk, watercolor – anything works.)
Here’s my Experiment with crayon and copy paper in 5 easy steps (5th is optional):
1. Color entire sheet of paper w/ different colors. Whoops, paper tore middle-top.
2. FAST sketch (no thinking) of flowers in a vase. Color negative space around outline. Torn paper ended up on middle flower
3. Pressing harder with dark colors. Ignoring torn paper on middle flower.
4. Sorry, just couldn’t resist . . . I SWEAR I sketched “flowers”
- Betty Blobfish: “Hopefully next time she’ll resist”
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5. Crumble it up and throw it away!
. . . or frame it.
TIPS:
- If you use paint: smear paint with your fingers and/or make-up sponges – not brushes. It’s much freer and stops you from having EXPECTATIONS!
- Crayons take a bit more elbow grease: Break them, Peel them and Color with the mostly with the side of the crayon. Use the lighter colors for the first layer. For the negative space (second layer) pick dark colors, press hard to go over the first layer.
- Continue layering with different colors – as many as you want – just see what happens.
- For those of you with multiple chemical sensitivity watercolor is the way to go. With water-color, as with crayon, use light colors for your first layer. Use darker/deeper colors for the negative space and splash away!
Thanks Carla and Diane for taking the time to share!
Now YOU share your Experiments – post your pictures on your blog, send your link in the comments.
No blog? Send it to me and I’ll post it here.
“Dare to Live”: Painting Process
Everyone approaches creativity in unique ways – remember! There’s no right or wrong.
Therese Lydia Josef is an artist I “tripped over” (literally and figuratively) in the blog-o-sphere. I love her use of strong color. Take a look at how she layers color, collages right on the canvas and creates wonderfully vibrant paintings.
DARE TO LIVE is the title of Therese Lydia Josef’s new body of figurative abstract work. In this video she shows her entire mixed media process of 4 paintings: from drawing to collage to painting. The paintings feature 4 ladies each unique in personality and expression.
Check out her blog http://therese-joseph.blogspot.com/and her list of 30 reasons to celebrate her 30’th anniversary!
Here’s a sample!
“If I ask him to cook – he takes me out for dinner”
“I still beat him in most card games and I like it because he hates it.”
Out’a My Mind …
A teeny sample of how my mind sees the world as exhibited by an eclectic output of Puppets, a Gourd Lion, Paintings, Journal pages and stuff.
JUMBO Journals – The Colors of my Life
Can you believe that these were done with a credit card as their “paint brush”?
These are from the Monday afternoon Therapeutic Creative Expression GroupShop.
Not one drop of acrylic pain on the floor but there was some on the wall!
My Studio – Getting Organized, still
Cupboards almost finished-Painting & Sewing Supplies
My art/jewelry/sewing EVERYTHING studio is coming along – slowly but surely. In case you didn’t see the original post here it is: /judithwesterfield.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/the-second-best-husband-in-the-world-inching-up/
More stuff!
Old sisal rug I painted pink
POSSIBLE valance and curtains
Give Wendy Support and Get Yourself Inspired!
http://createtoheal.blogspot.com
Check out Wendy’s new blog! Here’s what she’s doing in her own words and a few of her scribble pictures. She explains the exercises that YOU can try too!
P.S. Check out the polka-dotted fingernails that coordinate with the bikini top on her blog.
Why Create To Heal?
“Art can be therapeutic.
I am not an Art Therapist, I am simply someone who uses art to help deal with the day to day trials of living with a chronic illness.
My goal is to create something every day! Draw, Paint, Make a Collage, Take a Picture, Create a Recipe…anything.
I may not be able to post every day. However, I will try to post every thing I’ve created. (so some days you may get one day’s worth of creation, other days you may get many.)
When one lives with a chronic illness some days it can be hard to accomplish anything. Having this goal to create something every day, gives me something to strive for. It also gives me an outlet to share how living with a chronic illness affects me.”
Subscribe to her brand new blog!
