Mixed Media Pussy Cat Process / How To

Today I am sharing with you a 'how to'. I created a mixed media piece on Daler Rowley Artist Board and have the video tutorial to share with you below:

I am also sharing with you a photo step by step. This is more or less the same piece just in a different colour palette. They are not 100% identical but they are very similar. The spread created in my art journal was the concept art or test run if you will to the finished piece.

Materials used

• Acrylic Paint - Deco Art and Dylusions
• Liquitex Gel Mat Medium
• Windsor & Newton Modelling Paste
• Origami Paper (I think from Flying Tiger 2016)
• Various Brushes and Palette Knife
• Posca Paint Pen in white
• Uniball black pen
• Stencil (unknown)
• Crayola Portfolio Oil Pastels
• Dylusions Journal
• Tim Holtz Distress Stain

The Process

Firstly I ripped up my sheet of origami paper and adhered it to the top of the page with matt medium

I then adhered a second piece to the bottom left to give the spread a bit of balance.

I used my lightest paint first and just randomly painted on to the page.

This particular paint is fairly translucent which was intentional. I wanted to add some colour to the page but I also still wanted to see the pattern on the paper poking through.

I then repeated this process of adding paint randomly with a couple of different colours.

I enjoyed the process, it is very therapeutic randomly adding paint to a page and letting yourself go. I was a bit too enthusiastic though and covered up the paper more than I wanted to. To rectify this I used a baby wipe and gently removed some of the paint.

With the wet paint still on my baby wipe I went over the page randomly removing paint from one section and then gently dabbing and scraping it onto another which gives some interesting textural results.

Then it was time to mix up my modelling paste. I used the palest colour that I first used on my page.

I applied it to the page using a palette knife over my stencil.

I always leave my stencil sitting in place for a small time, about a minute just to let it set a little before removing it. I just like to make sure it's all there.

Modelling paste, depending on it's thickness can take a little while to dry so you have to be patient. It's worth it though!

Once everything was dry I then used a black pen to go in add some little doodles. I like doing this as I think it gives the background more visual interest.

I then used a white Posca paint pen to add even more details.

I actually thought I was done for the background when I glance at my desk and saw my distress stains and the violet screamed out to be used. I dabbed it on (squeezed the bottle really hard) making it all juicy, then tipped my page up to allow the ink to run down all nicely.

Here is how my background looks before I paint my cat on! Lots of yummy goodness. I made sure to keep a photograph of it so that I can print it out and use later for collage!

Next it was time to actually start painting my cat. So on goes the white paint.

I actually used a couple of coats to make sure it was as opaque as I wanted.

I gave my cat two light coats. I didn't want him to be stark white, I wanted some of that beautiful purple to show through. Once it was dry I pencilled on my face.

I coloured the elements in with my Posca paint pens - super quick and easy and fast drying too.

Here he is ready for his last 'application' of artyness.

The very last stage is to add some shading with oil pastels. I love to get in there with my fingers and smudge the colour around. I add shadows and grunge this way.

And there we have him, all finished! I am really happy with him. I really hope you enjoyed my little 'how to'. At some stage I may add a quote or some journalling to the right page but for now I am happy and calling him done. If you decide to give it a go yourself please do tag me in your photos on social media (I am everywhere as @mrsbrimbles) as I would genuinely love to see yours.

This blog post was created as my application for the Colour Arte design team (wish me luck 'eh!). Unfortunately I do not currently own any of the Colour Arte products although I have heard impeccable things about them so I created this with the products that I do have. 

Please check out the Colour Arte website to see their range of art supplies and for more art tutorials and inspiration.

https://www.colourarte.com/

Making Mixed Media Inserts for Travelers Notebooks

I was sat at my desk making a mixed media insert for my travelers notebook when I thought I would turn the camera on and have a chat with you whilst I do it and show you what I did and how I put it together.

Mixed Media Art Journalling with Geraldine

Every Brimbles box I've had has been a springboard of inspiration. I've struggled, in the past, to get creative with Christmas stuff that's usually on the market. The last box changed that for me. Then when I received this box in December I was really taken back that Mrs B did it again with putting together something really special with a Christmas theme. Special because in such a short space of time she created her own art work and made them into ephemera. There was so much in this box that I've put some aside for next Christmas. 

So this dashboard was my first in A5 size. I treated myself to the A5 platinum Crape Diem planner, and it arrived just in time to set up for 2016. It's so nice to have the option of mixing things up and putting a new dashboard in every month. Especially when they are unique prints of Anna's art work. I also attached the snowflake planner charm.

Next, I decided to use the ephemera and project life cards in my journaling. First I used Anna's ephemera in my Bando planner. They look so cute in there!

With 2016 now here, I have begun some new journaling projects. I've had to prioritize between my different journals which means my Bando has been put aside, for now. One project is using mixed media in my journaling. I have a small Dylusions Creative Journal which I'm using for this project. The ephemera and project life cards worked really for this.

Here is the process video for the above journal page. So, grab yourself a cuppa, relax, and enjoy!

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How to be a talented artist - The secrets of mixed media!

"I can't draw."
"I would love to....but I am not artistic."
"I wish I was as talented as you."

These are all things I hear all the time and I have had enough of it, you hear me enough! I think it is very lovely and I am always very humbled and chuffed to bits when someone likes something that I have created because I struggle all the time with my inner critic, I really do. There are many pieces of art that I have created over the years that I love, many that I hate and many that are just 'meh'. None of us are exempt from the inner critic but you know, ya just gotta get on with it and create.

Now all those comments listed above are rubbish. Total and utter tripe. Yes that is right TRIPE!

You wanna know what the answer is to those statements...I will tell you..

Firstly it is practice. That is the secret. Practice, practice, PRACTICE and when you have practiced do it again. Honestly and truly, the only way to get good at something is to keep doing it. This is why you didn't just hop in a car, drive to the test centre and pass your driving test straight away, you had to practice at it. The same is true for art, keep practising until you get it where you want it and once you are there, keep on improving it. I truly mean it, the only way I can draw what I draw is because I keep on doing it a bit at a time, learning and trying to do new things.

The second trick is to learn and experiment with your materials. You need to take one medium at a time and learn it. Learn how to blend with it, how it reacts with paper, how it reacts with water etc. I see so many people with stacks and stacks of supplies and they become a jack of all trades rather than a master of one. Don't get me wrong I do love mixed media and experimenting but I see so many people who think that buying all the latest products will make them an artist when I am afraid it does not.

OK there you go I am off my soap box now and you have no excuse but to go forth and create art!

Art journal flip through

I am half way through my current art journal and I have been sharing snippets on instagram and on the Journal Gypsies blog and some of you have asked to see more. Of course I am always happy to share my art journal (or the non private parts of it of course!) but it would be a while before it was completely finished so I thought I would do a half journal flip for you so you can see how this is coming along. I will do a full journal flip so you can see what it is like when it is fully completed.

Hope you enjoy...

My current journal collection {part one}

This week I thought I would share with you my current journal collection as it has been a while since I did that. I last shared them with you in May last year and I like to take stock every now and then and look at the journals that I am using. I do this because I like to take time to think about whether they still serve a purpose for me and whether I still want to use them. I hope you also find this interesting and that it might inspire you to journal in some way, whatever way that would be for you.

So here are my journals:

Art Journal
I call my art journal such because it is the term that most people will understand or recognise, however I prefer to call it just my journal, my visual journal or indeed an artiststs journal. In that journal I like to create art as well as incorporate collage and writing.

Sometimes I paint for paints sake just because I have a desire to be creative, sometimes I use it for concept art to develop something else or to learn new techniques. I also like to part scrapbook by using photos and smashbook by adding receipts and flyers from places we have been.

Whatever it is, it is my journal and it is the documentation of my life, my place to process feelings and emotions and a place to be happy or spend time with myself.

No pressure journal
I won't go into this too much as I wrote a whole blog post dedicated to this last week

Written journal
I like to keep a written journal solely for, you guessed it, writing! I like to write reams and reams when the mood takes me and at the moment I am using my A5 Finsbury Filofax for that. I love the feel and quality of the leather and I also like the flexibility of the rings for changing things about. In that journal is my life documented in writing and everything that goes with that good and bad!

My Filofax
I am using my daily Filofax to complement my written journal. In the back of the Filofax  I have blank paper (lined) in case the urge to write hits me when I don't have my journal with me. I just write in her and then add it into my journal later on.

Sea Journal
This was a book that I picked up from a charity stand for 50p. Whilst I started this and intended it to be an altereed book all related to the sea and mermaids, I literally did two pages in it and then run out of motivation for it. I still keep it in my collection of current journals because I really like the book itself. One day I may go back to this but I am not sure but don't want to part with the gorgeousness of it just yet!

BOS
My BOS is my book of shadows

Sketchbook
This is just a cheapy sketchbook that I use for you guessed it, doodling. I use it to test and work out the little characters that then become the ones you see on my Filofax inserts and dashboards.

A whole lot more information on these journals as well as glimpses into them can be found in the video:

I hope you have enjoyed a little look into some of my journals. There are many more to come and I will share these with you next week!

My Acrylic Muse decided to pay a visit!

It is funny how your muse works, well mine is anyway. She comes and goes and dictates when and what she wants to do and sometimes there is just no stopping her. When she wants to do something she just does it without a care in the World. And when she is here, she is here to stay and all hell breaks loose and we just have to move over and let her get her own way.

So for quite some time now I have not been at all interested in my acrylics. Part of that is due to the mess and that I made a pact with myself that I would only use them in my room where it doesn't matter if I get paint everywhere, but then of late I have been journalling downstairs in the evenings whilst watching TV or if Mr B is reading or such like. My watercolours and a couple of pencils are much more transportable than a whole load of acrylics and pallettes. I know so lazy but then sometimes in the evenings I want easy, I don't want to have to think about all this stuff, I just want to sit there and create or journal about my day and not have to worry or think too hard about it.

Then at the weekend my acrylic muse decided to drop in and she stayed for quite a while, in fact she hasn't left yet, she has her feet well and truly up on the desk! So there I sat on a rainy Saturday afternoon in my room wandering what to do (Mr B had a cold and was watching TV on the sofa) so I reached for some acrylics and popped them on the desk. I opened my journal and I just started dropping and drizzling paint and so this happened...

I was quite startled myself as this is so out of character for me but you know what I thoroughly enjoyed it and I love the colours and well quite frankly I love how it is. Just how it is. I may just leave it like that but at the time I was like 'you silly bean now it is all wet you can't turn the page' so I ripped a page out and smooshed it down into the paint to take some of it off. It just didn't sit right so I took my pallette knife and started mixing it all around the page which looked really unsightly so I went old school. I call it old school because for me this is something that I used to do a lot but now no longer do, and that is I took some gesso and went over the page but just left a heart shape showing...

Again this really surprised me as I ended up loving the process, not so much the finished article but definitely the process and that is what struck the chord with me. So that then opened me up and it just went on and on. So I had a purple pallette, I tore another piece out of my journal and just got playing and that playing resulted in this coming out...

And I truly love him, I think he is a cutie pie. He is now actually available in my Etsy Shop as a day planner dashboard so it is funny how a little bit of play time to free your mind can result in a whole load of art!

There is more that I created and I shared my weather Goddess over on the Journal Gypsies Blog if you would like to check that out you can do that here.

Well I hope she is here to stay for a while longer as I am loving what we are creating together. Do you find that you have a muse who dictates what you should be doing? I would love to know!

The Blank Page - The scariest thing in the art journal world!

I keep hearing comments about people being scared of the blank page in their journals, that the white of the paper is glaring at them and they are unable to get started as it just sits there looking at them, judging them, making them afraid to get started.

This is totally the opposite for me. I find that my mind is messy enough as it is and I come to my journal as a place of calm and tranquility. I need it to be clean and empty so that I can empty my mind of all the messy stuff and get it down on paper! I love watching YouTube videos where people start with the mop up from a stencil so that there are already marks on the page and then they add more and cover it up and then don't mind that they have covered bits up. I would love to be able to work like that but I just can't and that is OK. I know how my mind works and I just work with that.

I do controlled messy! I do layer things but in a controlled way. I can't be free and loose and just let go, I can't do that. I have to plan the next layer as I hate covering things up, to me it is such a waste of paint or pretty paper. Believe me I have tried on many occasions which has just led to me being more frustrated and as my journal is supposed to be a place for me that I can enjoy then I have just learned not to fret and fuss about it and just what comes naturally to me.

I just wanted to throw it out there that the blank page is nothing to be afraid of, it is there waiting for new possibilities and just waiting to be covered so embrace it and enjoy it rather than being scared of it!

How do you create? I would love to know. However you do journal it is about finding the way that works for you not for others and if starting with a page of stencil mop ups is right for you then good on you but let it be because that is what you enjoy and not because you are scared!

Happy journalling xx

Creating from the heart, your heart

Good morning all!

I felt in a real philosophical and rambly mood today, well not too rambly but just like I want to just sit down and have a chat with you about creating from the heart, your heart, and what is important to you.

The video is only six minutes short so not too rambly but I just felt like I wanted to talk today and throw some ideas out into the universe, not neccassarily in order to get a response but because it is what I felt I needed to do. If you do feel like sharing what you think with me I would love to know.

How to Paint a Galaxy Girl - Part 2 of 2

I am back with part two in the two part series on how to paint a girl with galaxy hair...

Following my obsession! - Journal Gypsies

As you know I am now blogging on Journal Gypsies but I also want to share on my blog what I have posted over there too. So I am going to post that post on here too but only a little later that it appear over there. Confused? Yep me too!

I find that when I look through past journals, I have had obsessions, or influences if you will, that follow me pretty much throughout my journal. Sometimes they are a big influence or inspiration and they make it into other journals, sometimes it is a small stage of my life and they just stay in the one. Does that happen to anyone else?

I was looking back through my current journal and it suddenly became rather obvious to me that I was being heavily inspired by stars, the night sky and galaxies. Every other page has some sort of star symbol in it! I need to look into symbology and find out whether my inner self is trying to tell me something. After all I don’t always intentionally set out to create stars, many times I am idly drawing whilst watching the TV and then I look down and a star has emerged and I very much do paint and draw intuitively. Something for me to look into for sure. Why are all these stars popping up?

I have also moved from just stars to whole galaxies and have been totally obsessed with creating girls who have galaxies as their hair. I just love it. It is so therapeutic to create, just watching all the watercolours swirl into each other and at the end you are left with something really mysterious and magical. Well to me they are anyway.

I am a massive dreamer and believer in magick!

I am really enjoying my star gazing journey. I have no idea where it will take me next in this journal or if it will follow me int the next but for now I am enjoying traveling with the stars.