I’ve recently been doing quick gestural drawings of whimsical faces using my non-dominant hand in my sketchbook. They’re an easy way to warm up before your painting session. And drawing with your non-dominant hand gives these portraits a raw, expressive feeling that’s almost impossible to mimic when you use your dominant hand.
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In this episode, I talk about why you should consider building a daily art practice. I share some of my previous failures with creating a daily art practice, and how those failures helped me find what works for me. I also share some tips on how you can create a daily art practice that is fun – and inspiring – for you!
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While going through my YouTube video library, I realized I have a few art journaling technique videos that I had uploaded some time back but forgot to share – silly me! One of them was this cool experiment I did sometime last year, I think. I created two art journal pages at the same time, using the same color palette, supplies, and techniques, and ended up with two very different finished art journal pages.
I broke the video down into two, so you aren’t sitting here for ages watching me paint in my art journal! Bookmark this page so you can watch a video, take a break, and come back and watch the next. Or binge watch them one after the other!
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I met up with a very dear friend recently, and as we were catching up with all of our news, we got to talking about my passion for art and tarot. And I realized that while in my mind the two are connected, I’ve never actually explained how I use the tarot as part of my creative practice.
One of the ways in which I consistently use the tarot to inform my art and creative practice is in my moon journal. I’ve never really attempted to explain the linkage before, but I’m going to try, and I hope this will give you some insight into how you can also use the tarot in your art and creative practice.Continue reading
If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you’d know that I’m a moon baby. I tune in to the cycles of the moon to do some journaling and throw down some tarot or oracle cards. I also use the moon phases to create some art. Specifically, I create art on each new and full moon.
This is a practice I started way back in 2015, based on a (then) free ecourse offered by Effy Wild.Continue reading
Unlike in previous years, where I tried and often failed to stick to a formal art practice {like aiming for a finished piece of art each day or trying for a set number of pieces each year}, this year I decided to let my art practice be organic.
What the past few years taught me is that art – and indeed creativity – is cyclical. There are months when I am much more prolific than others. There are times when I get obsessed with a certain style or a particular art supply. And there are times when I don’t pick up the brush as often, and that’s ok!Continue reading
I’ll let you on on a little secret today. I suck at painting flowers. Much as I love them, much as I admire floral paintings, I am just not very good at painting flowers.
And still, that is just what I am sharing today – my attempt at painting fun mixed media florals in my art journal.
I’m using a journal I made out of a shopping bag, so all the pages already have some color and collage on them, just waiting for inspiration to strike. {You can see a snippet of the creation process here.}Continue reading
The thing I enjoy most about intuitive painting is how closely the intuitive painting process starts to mimic life. By remaining present in the moment, trusting my instincts, and not allowing my mind to start dictating what happens next, the push-pull nature of this style of painting starts to reveal numerous life lessons.
I’ve spoken about the influences that informed one of my intuitive paintings in the video below, as I take you through the evolution of this painting from start to finish.Continue reading
Art, people think, needs to be done on canvas – if you want to be taken seriously, that is. People tend to look at paintings on paper as “less than”. But why is that? Who made the rules here?
Canvas was the preferred medium at one point because of its archival quality. It lasted longer, it was easier to transport without tearing or damage. And it’s easier to hang up without the need for framing.
But art on paper is no less durable – you get excellent quality archival paper in various paper weights that you can use depending on your medium. It is much easier to transport than canvas – less weight, easier packaging, better portability. Depending on the size of the painting, you can frame it and hang it up on your walls or stick it into a frame and display it on a table or mantle place. And most importantly, it is easy to store, unlike canvas, which requires a lot of real estate.Continue reading
Me: “See, I can finally fit all my art supplies into one box!”
Husband: “Stop calling our house a box.”
That’s {almost} a true story. What can I say, I love buying {and hoarding} art supplies! Acrylics, inks, watercolors, fabric paints, acrylic mediums, gel mediums, crayons, pastels, pencils, brushes, brush pens, paint pens, foam rollers, glues, scrapbook papers, embellishments…the world of art supplies is vast and ever growing and filled with shiny beautiful things!Continue reading