I had a quick deadline that was mostly stamping (i.e. low mess potential….ha). I went to the studio to finish it. While I was waiting for glue to set, I thought, "I should make some cool backgrounds." Cue VERY wet and VERY messy painting. Then I remembered I was wearing white pants. OOPSIE. So typical of me. Will I ever learn? The pants managed to survive without any paint on them. This time. Have you had any art oopsie's lately?
Howdy! Soon I will be doing a live webinar with the awesome people over at Cloth Paper Scissors.
It's Tuesday, Sept 6 at 4 p.m. Eastern. We'll be talking about layering colors and stamped images. See ya there!
Woo hoo, it's stencil release day! I have six new stencils for you and a limited-edition Halloween clear stamp set & stencil. I know I'm biased, but I LOVE IT ALL!!! They're easy to use and striking.
Reminder: when a product is released, it means it's announced by Ranger. Stores can start ordering it, and then it's shipped to the stores. So these won't be hitting stores for at least a week or two.
Here are the goods:
Above: Almost Ikat and Flying Birds (Stencil & Masks…yesssss)
Above: Fractured Circles and Spaced Dots
Above: Stacked Squares and Variegated Stars
Above: Scribbly Trick or Treat Clear Stamp Set & Stencil
And, here are the samples! Can you spot the stencil designs? I used: the new stencils and new stamps; my Dina Wakley Media gesso, acrylic paint, and gel medium; Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tissue Wrap (I loooooove this stuff, obsessed) and Chit Chat Stickers (another loooooooove), Ranger Ink tags and stamping cardstock; watercolor paper; Archival Jet Black ink pad and the new Archival Paradise Teal ink pad; black Fudeball pen.
Which one is your favorite? Oh, you know you want them all. 🙂 Happy art-ing!
Hello! Thanks for all the fun comments on the blooper video posts. Glad no one decided to shame me for being a weirdo….ha. I decided to give away three sets of videos! Woo hoo!
By random draw, the winners are:
Okay, this is a bit scary because I look like a MASSIVE dork in these, but they are funny. Here are two blooper reels from the four videos I shot at North Light/F&W earlier this year. My editor Amy Jones (who is my co-artist in the videos) said they had 30 minutes of bloopers to choose from. That is sort of awesome and embarrassing at the same time. Dyan Reaveley always says that I "hide my weird"….well, there's no hiding now. Ha.
The videos are available now! Click HERE and HERE for the product pages at the North Light Shop and Artist Network TV where you can purchase the DVDs or digital downloads.
To celebrate the release of the videos, I am giving away one free copy of each DVD to a lucky winner! Just comment on this post. I will choose a winner by random draw on Tuesday. Feel free to share this blog post with your friends & on social media, too. If you share, mention where you shared in your comment and you will get two chances to win. Note that I am waiting for the fourth DVD to show up on my doorstep (it got a bit delayed at the replicator), so I won't be mailing the prize until it shows up.
Okay, be kind to me in all my dorky glory!
Hello! Head on over to the Ranger Blog to download a new color mixing chart, for the new colors Elephant, Fuchsia, Ocean, Evergreen, Cheddar, and Blushing. You can mix some lush, rich colors with them. Love!
I love working with Amy Jones and the whole team at F&W. It truly is a pleasure. I had a chance to film four more DVDs. These are versions of in-person classes that I teach. I hope you enjoy them. Here are the videos with previews:
DVDs and Downloads in the North Light Shop: Click Here.
DVDs and Downloads in the Interweave/CPS shop: Click Here.
Videos on Artist Network TV: Click Here
Happy art-ing!
Greetings and well wishes from a very hot Arizona! I'm so excited about my summer release stamp sets. I love, love them and I hope you do, too. I have a few samples to share today and many more to come!
First up is Boxed Faces. I took the images for this set from the piece I did for Tim's Distress Crayon Designer Challenge (from the last CHA show). I loved the piece I made for the challenge, and I turned those faces into stamps. I am addicted to these. Addicted!
Original piece (Dina Wakley Media Acrylic paints (in the background only), Distress Crayons (on the faces and in the background), White Sharpie, and Stabilo Pencil):
Here's a journal page I did with the stamps:
Card:
Next up is Scribbly Wings. When I taught in England, Lyn (an artist in class) said to me, "You know what would be cool for stamps? Wings." I made a mental note and then drew this set. I love, love, love, love, love it. I included a snippet of one of my favorite scriptures, Isaiah 40:31–But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Next is Assorted Borders. The size of these is especially great for cards and tags. You can see the borders in the tag above (the numbers).
Next is Scribbled Text Elements. I love, love scribbled text. These will be great background elements and even great focal points.
Next is Scribbly Girlies. I have scribbly men and women, had to do some girlies! I drew these images from some of my old childhood photos. I love the little heart border, too.
(Can you also spot one of the Scribbled Text Elements on that tag above?)
Last but not least is Sketched Faces. These stamps have the principle of closure (if you need a refresher, I talk about closure in my first book, Art Journal Freedom). Basically I have not delineated every line for you. I've left some lines out so that your brain fills them in, and so that you can take creative license with them. I cannot wait to see what you come up with.
Alrighty….get to stamping and be sure to share your work with me so I can oooh and aaaah over it!
Check it out by clicking here!
Also…you might want to check back at Ranger's blog at around 4 pm EST. Just saying. 😉
I use the Paint Combs constantly. I love the straight side for gesso-ing quickly. I just used it to gesso this 30"x40" canvas yesterday. It makes short work of a tedious gesso job:
Tip: while your gesso is wet, press the comb into it several times. This gets a slight texture into the gesso and the paint will look sooooo cool on it later.
After the gesso is dry, I added all kinds of color. Basically most of the colors in my Dina Wakley Media line barfed right onto the canvas (hahaha). Then I sprayed the colors with a bit of water to get them to meld and mingle. While the layers were wet, I pressed the comb into the paint several times, letting the colors transfer between each press. Ooooooh I love, I love. Can you see the comb texture in the gesso on the right? Cool stuff.
This is how the canvas looks now. Not sure if I'm done. I'm going to let it sit today and work on it again later.
Well howdy! People always ask me if I teach locally, and my answer is usually not too often because my available weekends are few and far between. So I am SO happy that it's working out to teach my Finding Joy in Abstraction class at The Occasional Artist on June 18th! Call them to sign up and for more info. Basically it's my 3-hour abstract painting class and you'll make a canvas. Good fun!
