Close To Home: A Watercolor Landscape Journey

Hi everyone.  I'm so excited to finally share that I'm back to teaching some classes.  This time it's in the form of watercolor painting!  Please join me and check out my class called Close To Home: A Watercolor Landscape Journey.  You can view all the details and sign up for class over at the Jeanne Oliver Network.  Link is here.  

 If you're new to Jeanne's site, she hosts wonderful classes given my herself and other talented artists. I've taken many and they are fabulous with a great amount of informative content.  It's my favorite place to learn something new about art.  Jeanne has such a way of sharing and I'm honored to be asked to join her creative network.

 We'll learn all about gathering up supplies for a travel art kit, refresh some art principles and review the color wheel.....and so much more......then put it all together to create simple and beautiful landscape watercolors in a journal.

If you've had that yearning to get back into your art....or to start new.....this class is for you.  We'll combine what we learn about painting with connecting our art to the beautiful surroundings right around us.  Come with me on a beautiful journey, you deserve it.

Watercolored teacup...

Sharing an entry in my artist journal.  Today it's watercolored teacups.  I started by sketching first with pencil then using my Lamy Safari fountain pen...ink is not waterproof.  

 Great practice and I love that the blue ink bled a little.  Reminds me of that beautiful blue China.

 Closeup of the beautiful way watercolor has a mind of it's own.

 Detail of notepad with shadows.

 I used my Sketch 3 method for this journal entry.  That means that I simply did 3 different types of sketches.  I did the main tea cup with notepad, the blue teacup and the more detailed pattern.  I find that when I take the extra effort to sketch something three different ways, I get more and more practice.

And......#practiceisart.  You can find more of my #mishsketch3 entries on my Instagram account, MishWooderson.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Plein Air Painting and John Muir...

I'm so inspired by our beautiful country.  Landscapes are definitely my favorite thing to draw and paint, whether it be from a photograph, a vintage postcard, a book...but especially right from nature itself.  Today I have a mixed media spread from a small artist journal, featuring a landscape inspired by this postcard below. 

 This was my set up of supplies.  I'm painting inside because it's still fairly cold for outdoor painting for me.

 Some of my colors inspired by a small travel palette from Green Earth and Blue Berry.

 My finished painting.

 I found this wonderful quote from John Muir to add at the end.

 Although this painting was done outside, I went out later and did a watercolor sketch from my vehicle.  Sketching outside just brings all the senses alive.  It's really the best way to capture the true essence of a landscape.

 That brings me to Plein Air painting.  It means paint outside, simply.  And John Muir?  You've probably read a lot of his nature inspired quotes.  He was a conservationist and a leading role in why we get to visit beautiful places that we call call National Parks.

I'd love for you to watch this video about John Muir's role in the history plein air painting.  It's fascinating to me and I've watched it several times.  If you have an interest to paint landscapes, especially from the great outdoors, this is a must see short documentary.  It's from the great people of Plein Air Magazine and the Paint Outside website.  It's called Outside The Lines and direct link is HERE. I hope you enjoy.....and let me know what you think.

Floral Journaling Pages....from Jeanne Oliver class

Gosh, just when I got back to posting regularly on my blog, I have Blogger issues.  I'm back and today I'm excited to share some current artwork with you.  I'm taking the latest Jeanne Oliver class called Reflections: Paint Your Story and it's a good one.  You can find Jeanne's site here...amazing classes by her and other artists. 

This was my work in progress yesterday.  There's something about a beautiful mess of art supplies, don't you think? This journaling entry was all about trying to create pages about me but it turned into a wonderful tribute to my mother.  

 The beautiful verse on this vintage postcard that belonged to my great great grandmother is a special wish for my mother. It sparked ideas for the rest of my spread and I ended up sketching and watercoloring more hand drawn flowers.

 Just loosely drawn flowers over the gesso covered surface.  Photocopies of the photos were used for ephemera.

 This is a copy of the back of the vintage postcard.  Miss Cora Beams was my great great grandmother.

 Jean emphasizes mark making in this journaling class. Here I used lines that imitate the gingham pattern on my mother's dress.  I filled in the loosely drawn squares with gesso.

 Here I used scrapbook paper and extend some hand drawn leaves.  That faint glimpse of the photo has three little girls in an old horse and buggy.  Some distant relatives and I love their little bonnets.

 More mark marking, a strip of scrapbook paper and some vintage fabric in the corner.

 The full, finished spread here.  Such a fun day of creating art.  This will be lovely to look at each time I reach for my artist journal.

Thanks for visiting today and I'll see ya soon.

So I started an art journal...

Okay, here goes nothin'.  Or something.  I'm finally sharing my first art journal page that I made in my Dylusions art journal.  You can see what the art journal looks like below. It's a nice big 9 x 12 size with very sturdy covers.  

Inside there is a manila pocket for storing whatever you like and a front cover page.

The inside pages are wonderful quality journal pages that are specifically designed to withstand art medium such as paint, gesso, mists and modeling paste.  This really is a good journal.  If you're interested I am putting them on sale for a short time in my shop.  

So.  I decided to start an art journal. I pinned so many art journal pages, watched a lot of videos, did a lot of research....and I still wasn't quite sure what an art journal meant to me.  I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to take, what I wanted to include.  So I just opened the journal...and it sat for quite a while.  Those nice big 9 x 12 pages stared at me and I stared back.  Then I just started laying down scraps, little pieces and parts that I liked.  Before I knew it I had a whole collage going on.  I really liked the way it looked.  Truth be known, I probably like the before better than the final product but I promised myself I wouldn't judge or critique my art journal.  

 But sometimes when starting something new, you have to take a certain path before you know which road you really want to take, right?  Such was the case with my first art journal pages.  I jumped in one day and just started spritzing and spraying and painting and adding gesso and more.  I kind of feel like I didn't know when or where to stop because I didn't know how I wanted my pages to turn out.  I couldn't help but critique the pages as a finished product.  That's what I'm used to doing...finishing a card, finishing a Project Life layout, etc.  It's hard to just create and dabble and not expect a big "tada" at the end.  But I know that I want my art journal to be just a mixture...not a finished product. So here are my first pages.  Love it, hate it....I'm not sure yet.  But the process felt great, I do know that!

 So I shut the journal and left it for a while.  When I went back to the journal I knew I needed to share it. I know that some of you might be feeling the same way or asking the same questions about why to start or what to do in an art journal.  I'm still asking those questions but I did come to some conclusions.

I will share in a future post about where I think my art journaling might be headed but here are a few thoughts.  I loved looking at these separate photos of the pieces and parts of my pages.  I could break down the techniques and really identify what I loved instead of looking at the entire 2 pages as a finished piece.  I loved seeing little sections and thinking, "hey I would like to try that on a card", etc. Like the Gesso with the aqua spray mist.

 I loved stitching and adding textural items to my pages like this vintage place mat I had in my stash.  I liked seeing how the spray reacted on this old book page.

 I love the white space with just a few splatters.  I loved adding fabric although it totally got muddied up.

 I liked adding in a tag I had made earlier.  I liked working with the color wheel and adding splashes of color to complement each other.

 Overall, it's okay.  Sometimes you figure out what you definitely don't like before you figure out what you definitely do like.

I've got more thoughts that I need to get down in writing.  I'm excited to turn the page and try again.  I think I have a plan and I'm excited to share it with you once I experiment a little more.  Thanks for joining me today.  I can tell you, I was so hesitant to share this but then I remembered...I'm not looking for a good or bad critique.....it was all about the process.  

Why I want to start an art journal....

I'm back today to share my thoughts with you on why I want to start an art journal.  Yesterday I put a new Art Journal Kit in the shop which is kind of a new avenue for me.  I'm not sure what has sparked my new interest in using more artful techniques in my work but it's exploded and I'm really loving it.  I'm calling it my art revival journey.  

I've added some photos today that I've been pinning to my Pinterest boards.  These are the types of art journal pages that caught my interest and are inspiring to me so I thought I would share them with you.  If you're new to art journaling and maybe/kinda wanna do it, creating a Pinterest board is a great way to discover your style.  As the board progresses and you look at it as a whole you start to see what designs and colors and techniques that you like.  

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So on to why I want to art journal.  As I was searching for art techniques online I kept coming across art journal pages.  I knew what art journals were but I never really got the "why" of why people created them.

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But the more I researched and the more I came across art journals, I began to get it.

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Art journals are the perfect way to express creativity and to focus on the process.  Focusing on the process.....not the finished product.  This is when it all hit home for me.

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 I  believe that there is a calling for all of us.  There is something inside all of us that tugs at your heart.  Something you really want to do.  Want to be.  For me it is art.  It always has been.  I've been creating art ever since I can remember, in some form or another.  And although I've stayed within that creative area in my career there's always something more.

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And now, it's calling my name again.  Back to my roots.  Back to those art classes I took way back in grade school and into college.  That desire to just create and see what happens.  Focusing on the process.  

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 I'm finding that I want to dig in again and get reacquainted with my art supplies.  To create just to see what happens.  No pressure to create a work of art, a finished card, a great scrapbook page.

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The idea of an art journal is what I'm thinking will enable me to do that type of creating.  I must admit that those blank pages are pretty intimidating.  But you have to start somewhere.  Just add that first brush stroke, slap on that first piece of paper.....cover your hands with paint.

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And so the journey begins.  I have no idea where it will lead.  I don't have any big plans.  I'm not aspiring to create great works of art.  I'm not looking for approval or critiques because it doesn't matter. But I do feel compelled to share my work.  That has always been a fun part of this journey...sharing with others.  Feeling a part of a community.  Enjoying the process.

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Each art journal page will be a new idea, a new start.  It's terribly exciting to me right now.

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 After working in the paper crafting industry for over 15 years, I feel that you must progress.  You must change somewhat...but also stay true to your style.  I think this helps you grow and learn.

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 And that can totally happen.  I'm not abandoning my card making, my scrapbooking, my Project Life.  I'm just experimenting to see what happens.

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To see what adding art to the mix does.  I hope some of you will join me in the journey.  I'd love to learn and re-learn techniques right along with you.  I'd love to share my ideas, cool finds, great links and my projects with you.

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I hope that you are inspired.  I hope that you have a little spark inside you to try something new.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.....have you ever considered doing an art journal, do you want to try new techniques, do you ever feel that you get a little bored and need that creative spark, is it totally intimidating to you when you hear the word "art"?  Let me know, I'd love to hear where you are in your creative journey right now.

Art Journal....my very first page

Hey everyone, hope your week is off to a good start.  Before I share my fun post for today I want to remind you that April 1st means Gossamer Blue's new kits are up for sale.  Looks like they're going quickly....no joke....so be sure to check them out.  I absolutely loved this month's kits.  If I had to hand pick items for kits, this would be the stuff!  I'll be sharing lots of projects throughout the month using kit items so please visit often.  Also, our Guest Designer for April is Jennifer Kinkade.  Her work is fabulous and she's loving the mixed media on her work lately.  I instantly love her.  :)

That leads me right into today's post.  If you've been following my blog and Twitter then you know I'm dabbling with the mixed media too.  I have been doing lots of research on fun products, watching art videos like crazy and I've been collecting new supplies.  Here's a little shot of some of my new art supplies below. I'm so excited to be trying new things.  Don't worry...I still make cards, I still do Project Life, I still do fun packaging.  It might be all be a little more mixed up though as I discover new techniques to try.  New to me, I should say.  I'm not reinventing the wheel...just getting my feet wet in something new!

A while back, I believe last Summer, I offered up a kit in the shop using some Studio Calico 4 x 8 journals.  I compiled my supplies for own journal but never really got far.  I dug out that basket and am happy to report that I'm using it all again.  I thought it would make a perfect art journal, where I could try out new mixed media techniques without having any fear of commitment.  No pressure, no assignments...just experimenting to see what happens.  

When I first thought of creating art journal pages I immediately thought of of far out there, artsy creations that were way out of my style.  Then I got to thinking that an art journal is whatever you want it to be.  There are no rules.  There is no style to follow.  That's the beauty of an art journal.  There's also no pressure, no fear of failing, no judgement is needed.  So I'm going for it.  

The other thing I noticed when looking into art journals is that a lot of the focus is on using people and faces as focal points.  Eeek, drawing faces just scares me.  I've done my share in art classes and it's not my fave.  So I needed another focal point for my journals.  That's where all my fun mini Instagrams will come into play.  They're perfect!  Whether I find some Pinterest photos (just for my personal use only) or I use photos of flowers I've taken, etc I think they're going to be great.  So I printed off a bunch and will keep them in a little basket.  Each time I finish an art journal page I'm going to reach for a new Instagram and just dabble some more.  I hope you're inspired.  If not....just play along and don't tell me how bad it is, okay?

I dug right in on my first journal page and kind of forgot to snap the beginning photos.  But here is my 4 x 8 page in the early stages.  The base pages of my art journal are just pieces of patterned paper that I like.  This particular page had gridline circles on it.  I started out by punching more patterned paper circles and adhering them with matte gel medium from Claudine Hellmuth.  This stuff is like glue or mod podge.  You just slather it on your paper then slap it down.  I use my palette knife like I talked about last time.  I then added some old book paper.  This shot also shows some purple-y shading which is my Pan Pastels.  Lastly I used my Christy Tomlinson stencil from Pink Paislee and sprayed on some October Afternoon mist. 

Then I got daring.  And bright.  I used watercolors with lots of water to add some paint to the top of my journal page.  Then I tilted the page at an angle so the paint would run down the page.  Very cool.  Very fun.  And bright. 

One of the mixed media artists that I've found and really like is Dina Wakley.  Her artwork is bright and colorful and she has great design tips.  I purchased her book called Art Journal Freedom and it's awesome.  If you've seen her book, you might be saying, "Mish, her style is not your style."  True, but what I love is that I can see beyond Dina's style and work her methods into what is my style.  Her use of design principles and color is just fantastic.  You can click on her book link and take a peek at a few of her book pages.  So inspiring and she offers tons of tips.  One of her tips is to use Viva paper towels to sop up wet paint.  The whole roll!  Simple roll over your wet paint...just ONE time....to soak up excess paint.  Viva because they don't have patterns and one time so you don't smudge your paint.  Cool, yes?

So now on to a favorite new product I love.  Gesso!  This is the white medium that you apply to prime canvases but it's so fun to wipe over a project.  You can use a paint brush but if you remember last time, I talked about how I like the palette knives.  So much easier to clean up.  I wanted to tone down the bright colors and I may have gone a little overboard.  But I still love my first journal page.  A little, a lot, it's all good.  I love that I can smear a bit over my photos too to make them blend into my background.  Gesso is awesome stuff!

Then came the modeling past.  I really just didn't know when to stop, right?  I used a Studio Calico stencil and my palette knife to spread it on. I love the texture of this stuff.  Oh, and I wanted to tell you about the circles.  I used a Derwent 4B (soft) pencil to scribble circles around the patterned paper circles before apply the modeling paste. I do love working with pencils and the soft graphite is more appealing to me than a black marker that I see so many art journal artists use.  Much more subtle.  

For a finishing touch I added a quote sticker from Cosmo Cricket and some machine stitching.  It was so relaxing and fun to try out new techniques on my art journal page.  It's a great way to find new techniques to incorporate into my cards, etc.  I've read that lots of you are interested in using mixed media and trying out your own art journal pages. I do hope that you will join me.  I've got something fun coming to the shop too that you might be interested in.  It's all in the beginning stages but I think you'll like it.  :)

Here's the beginning of my next art journal page.  I've dedicated a spot to just dabbling with my art.  This way I can work on it here and there whenever the mood hits.  For this art journal page, I'm hoping to achieve a more minimalist look with my mixed media, letting that awesome ledger paper shine through.  

Thanks for joining me today!