Great Video on Creating Backgrounds for your Paintings...

I stayed up late last night, searching for youtube videos that sparked my interest, and I have another 2 videos here to share with you.  I often get questions about how I do my backgrounds, and as I haven't had a chance or time to do a video tutorial of my own, these videos, and the background technique that she shows is very similar to how I usually start my paintings and art journal pages.  There are a lot of ways to create a background, but this is a great representation of how to start! These videos were provided by Michael's Craft Store and the artist is Kathy Kromer...



I really like how she explains hiding the edges of the paper, and how to use darker colors to make things "receed" and lighter colors to make things "pop".  I have never used alcohol inks in my paintings either, so that's something new I learned from her and will have to give it a try soon!

I can't remember if she mentioned this or not, but something that's really important for me when building layers is to use more transparent mediums so that parts of your layers show through one another.  Some of my favorite supplies for doing this is Golden Fluid acrylics, Tim Holtz distress inks, and Golden Glaze Medium for using with my more heavy bodied acrylics.  I almost forgot about my InkTense colored pencils...they are a watercolor pencil that turns permanent once dry.  They are a great alternative/addition to using fluid acrylics if you don't have them.  You can also use any watercolor pencil or crayon, and instead of using water with them, just dip your brush in a glaze medium to spread the color and it will dry permanent...

That's it for now I guess.  My head is swimming with ideas at the moment, so I can't sit still any longer!  Hope you enjoy these videos, there is a lot to learn from them!

Great Advice..."How to Create a Consistant Body of Work" by Cedar Lee

I ran across this video by artist Cedar Lee on why it's important as an artist to create a consistant body of work.  I really like her viewpoint, and the fact that she addresses my issue of wanting to do everything under the sun!  Her opinion gave me some new insight into how I want my journey to progress.  Take a look...it's really worth viewing and listening to what she has to say.

A New Video Tutorial on Mixed Media Art Cloths!

Well, I finally did it.  It took me way too long, as I know next to nothing about using iMovie and it seems like everything I did took forever for my computer to process...but I did it!  So I can cross this one off my list of short term goals to accomplish.   I really want to make more video tutorials on other techniques, so that will be something I'll be working on soon.  But here it is lady's and gentlemen....drumroll please....

A tutorial on how to make larger mixed media art cloths using recycled materials!

One quick little note about viewing this video...because I used a sound track from Youtube, they throw in advertisements at the bottom of the screen.  You can "X" these out at the top right corner of the advertisement itself so that you can see all of the screen.

Paintstik Portraits, by Lauren Vlcek: a link

I just wanted to pass this link on to any of you who might be interested in experimenting with the Shiva Paintstiks.  It's a pictorial tutorial showing how to paint a face with these great little oil paintstiks.

Have Fun!

Fabulous Faces with Shiva Paintstiks

Creating a Signature for your blog posts: A tutorial from Shabby Blogs

Have you discovered the tutorials over at Shabby Blogs?  I've been playing around with making a personalized signature that will display with all of my posts.  What fun!  I'm sure my little signature will change again as I try to get it just right, but I've run out of time for the day so this will have to do for now!  If you would like to add your own signature to your blog posts try Shabby Blogs tutorial here.  And a big thank you to Shabby Blogs for providing such fun freebies and tutorials to make our blogs more personal and unique!

Great Informational Tutorial on Domino Art Pendants

I am so excited to share this tutorial I found on making Domino Art Pendants.  This website, TheEnchantedGallery.Com, is so full of detailed information on all sorts of great crafting techniques, as well as a store that you can buy beautiful stamps (and other fun stuff) by the artist and website owner, Kimberly Crick.   My favorite tutorial pages from this site are Decorating Dominoes with Rubber Stamps and Coloring Media & Techniques.  I was blown away by the amount of information that is shared here.  The photographs are beautiful and a variety of techniques are explored, along with different products used and their pros and cons.  So, instead of having to learn by trial and error, and waste your money on products that you don't end up liking, you can read what this artist experienced with different media and sealing agents, and make a more informed decision when buying your supplies for this project!

Most of the domino pendants that I make are not actually rubber stamped.  I have been using small prints of my artwork and adhering them with acrylic gel medium, then sealing them with glossy accents or modge podge.  Now that I've seen these tutorials I have a lot more ideas to use in the future!  I hope you find this information useful.  Making domino art pendants is addicting and I think I'm hooked! Let me know what you think and share some of your creations if you decide to have a go at this project!