Diana Trout's blog

Pattern

Friday Tutorial * Watercolor Flowers

Banish your critic for an hour or so. Gather together: paints, a round brush, water holders, a spritz-y bottle, a rag and a couple of pens. I like microns and the Pentel brush pen. 

Watercolor paper will give the best results. It is thick and holds a lot of paint. That's how you get the deeper colors. Well that and courage.

Spritz here and there, then load up a brush and drop some color in the spritzed areas.

Add some more color, drop it into wet areas. Maybe you made mud? Don't drop orange into blue or purple into yellow. 

 You might want to let things dry (use your heat gun if you want). Then more color

Time to doodle. I like the little lines in the background because they remind me of seed stitch. Try to relax and let go. Think floral rather than "flower."

I think  it's more important that your marks have your energy rather than any kind of perfection. Just make marks. Your flowers will be more lively

Have fun. Relax. It's just paint and paper. 

Related articles

And Speaking of Spring ...

First Friday Artist; Tammy Garcia

And Speaking of Spring ...

Splashing with colors marching right across the palette and the page with an overlay of juicy brush pen. A bit of stamping with handcarved and washi tape. Why not?

Some Pitt Pen. A loose arm. Not being careful but careless, without a care in the world. In my watercolor Moleskine. I like that book. Go ahead and paint some flowers. No need to overthink. They don't.

Lately

wordless label

 

I Love Sping with the R or not

 

Snow and Flowers

Embroidering

Still With Snow

Put your hand up if you are sick of snow. 

I'm ready to announce that I've quit smoking. It will be a month this week and I'm feeling pretty good about it. I've kicked the habit four times before and this is the last time. I'm a non-smoker. That feels good to say.

Today, I have quit eaten my last gummi bear. That was one of my tools. So fun to eat those jewel-toned little critters. But the sugar is bad so I'm onto a healthier eating path. Today I drizzled some honey over a half a grapefruit and put it under the broiler for a few minutes. That's really good! Apples are cut up for quick sugar attacks.  

Wish me luck and, if you are trying to quit smoking or have quit, let's talk in the comments. We'll cheer each other on. xo - Diana

First Friday Artist: Traci Bunkers

Welcome to Traci Bunkers ' world! Traci is the author of 2 books on Art Journaling Print & Stamp Lab and The Art Journal Workshop. Her work is funky and expressive and loads of fun. She joins us today with a neat tutorial: Printed Heart Ice Cube Tray: Quick Printed Backgrounds, Part 1. Part 2 of this project is printing on fabric and that is linked at the end of her post.

Here's Traci:

As you may or may not know, I'm a self-proclaimed love child of MacGyver. I can turn just about anything into a printing or stamping tool and I get a kick out of seeing what new things I can find to use.  

I get especially perky around the commercial holidays because I can find interesting things at the dollar store or the dollar sections of chain stores that make great printing tools. Since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I thought it was a perfect time to print with those heart-shaped ice cube trays. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to use them to get nice, grungy backgrounds in your journal, or on loose sheets of paper that can then be used in your art work. Let's start with a loose sheet of paper.

Materials:

• paint palette
• acrylic paint
• sponge brush
• heart-shaped ice cube tray (I found this at Target!)
• paper or wax paper to protect your table
• loose sheet of paper (I like to use pages from old books.)

Step 1: Place something down to protect the table, then place your paper on top of it. Squirt some acrylic paint on your paint palette, and use the sponge brush to apply it to the top of the ice cube tray.  

Step 2: Place the ice cube tray onto the paper and push down with your fingers to print all of the flat areas. Be sure to get in between the hearts too.

Step 3: Carefully lift the corner of the tray, checking to see if everything printed. If not, place it back down and work the unprinted areas some more with your fingers.  

Step 4: Add more paint, and print the next section. It can be printed the same direction as the first time, or rotate it 180 degrees to print it the opposite direction.

Step 5: Continue printing until the page is covered. After the paint is dry, it can be used as the background for other artwork, collage material, or to make a Valentine's Day Card. Now let's print it in a journal for a quick background. You need the same materials, except this time you need a journal instead of a loose sheet of paper.

Here's a short video tutorial I made of me printing the ice cube tray in my journal. If you can't see this video, click here.

 

Now, my journal is ready for some action! As I start working in it, if I feel the hearts are too bold for writing or distracting from whatever else I put on the page, I can do a wash of color over it, or even add a thin layer of paint. Hop on over to my blog for Part 2, printing on fabric!   If you enjoyed this tutorial, I've got a new online workshop coming up called "Heaps of Layered Hand printed Cards." where I teach you some easy printing techniques while making mixed-media cards. Be sure to sign up for my mailing list or follow my blog so you'll know when it starts!

See previous First Friday Artists

Jeanne Handley McLaughlin talks about Eco Printing on rice paper 
Jane Davies ; talks about Gelli Plate printing and glue gun stencils here 
Seth Apter works with stencils and resists here
Tammy Garcia with a fun tutorial on painting flowers and stitching paper
Julia Rix talks about her woodcuts here

 

Sketching

and some coloring in

Art Journal Meet Up yesterday. You should check to see if there are any in your area. There's a dyanmic, fun group of women is forming. I found this old drawing and just colored it in with Pitt Pens. So much fun. Just a little more to do on the mountains.

I tripped over this drawing from almost 6 years ago of my son' on his 17th Bday. Loose and loopy drawing; an unconcerned pen traveling over the paper catching this and that. Then some drawings for watercolor

 

and a bit of paint

We have a new baby in the family. Amelia Marie, 8.14 (wow). Happy-making. 

 

 

Monday

I'm beginning a new  series of small flower paintings. You may have seen some of the inspiration over on Facebook.

We have been setting up a photo and video studio area in the classroom side of my studio and I found a few paintings done about a year ago along with a bunch of small blank canvases. I've been combing through old journals for inspiration and sharing these on Facebook and Flickr so that I have all of the inspiration in one place.

Today I begin. I'm really excited! I'm also working on a special surprise class for you that will open next week just in time for Valentine's Day crafting and another surprise. More to come.

Happy Monday everyone. I hope you had a fab weekend.

Video: In The Studio

Happy New Year to all of you. Here's a little video of what I'm working on lately. 

Here's the link to the fake washi tape from The Frugal Crafter that I mentioned. It was fun!

Here's some of the ATC's I made.

Meh. A bit too busy? I'll edit down the ideas a bit. Peace and love in the new year everyone. We are spending a quiet evening in.

today

enjoyed a bit of studio time today

cast is off, finger quite stiff and sore but am limbering it up. stiches come out next week.

pecan pie purchased for tomorrow. now tea and a wee rest. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I am thankful for so many things including you. xo Diana