Spring Flowers in Bloom

Gestures and a New Brush

In continuing Inga Dubay's curriculum on Calligraphy and Drawing, this week we explored gestures. Since I didn't own a #20 brush, I used my Michael's 40% off coupon and bought a really nice Round Princeton Newton.  Oh, I'm in love with my new brush- the way it holds the watercolor paint, responds and makes gestures.

I chose one gesture and repeated it thirty times.

It's not easy to repeat the same gesture thirty times. Some didn't look at all like my first gesture.  I selected the three that I liked the best.  My favorites held energy and spontaneity, a free form look.  I can see how it takes lots of practice to get the feel of making gestures.  I'm much more comfortable with the contour drawings.

Next, we paint gestures to music in neutrals and then in color.

Happy Valentine's Day

Signs of Spring

It's winter wonderland here with snow, ice and bitter cold.  This week, I saw the first primroses in the nursery.  They bring a promise of Spring.

Mixed Media Backgrounds

A friend told me about Nicole Maki's Mixed Media Background Tutorial.  It's a fun way to make a variety of backgrounds for journaling or other artwork. You work on several pieces at one time adding many layers- acrylic paint, stencils, ink, texture, ephemera, stamps, etc.  One thing that I learned is that each layer needs to be dry before adding another one.

One technique that I really liked is spraying ink with a stencil (I used Ranger Dylusions) on a painted surface, letting it dry and scraping white gesso over it. It gives a very subtle, ghost-like image of the stencil-  as seen in the white circles below.