Diana Trout's blog

Painting Landscapes

I've been noodling around with Pam Carriker's new line of acrylic paints and inks* and the just-slightly-earthy colors led me right to landscapes.

I decided that Landscape would be a really fun class to teach. It is coming in about 2 weeks with a different format than usual. More later. I'm excited! 

In the meantime, here's a little video that will introduce you to some general ideas about landscape painting. Enjoy! 

Here's the video 

*Disclaimer: Pam Carriker sent me the paints for review. I used them for a while before reviewing them. I like 'em. They are very pourable and sheer, both qualities I like very much. The colors are earthy and there's a solid array. See buying information here. Thanks Pam! 

Here's an art journal page using Pam's Whitewashed and Barely Black ink. I LOVE them!  

 

Art Journal

I've been sharing a lot of photos on Facebook over the past couple of days. Here are some from my art journal over the years

The snow is starting to blow sideways here. A good day to work in the studio. 

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Round square and circles, those shapes of endless possibility.

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Composition Book Art Journaling

What could be more humble and accessible than a composition book. *Video embedded below.

If you are a journaling newbie and are feeling intimadated, this is the way to go. Even seasoned journalists  enjoy the freedom of simple materials sometimes. It can be easier to get to the bottom of things without all of the extra materials in our way. 

The "Eye" was done with charcoal on a gessoed manila folder page. Years ago, Samie Harding aka Journal Girl had a fab bookbinding tutorial using old manila folders and I made one (or two) out of gutted composition books. It's a nice surface to work on.

A page from that book made with my teen journalers. I remember that hot summer night.

In the video, I talk about keeping it simple with stamps, stencils, a touch of collage and then writing. My dylusions journal is being pressed into action as my writing journal. Enjoy!

Art Journal * The Moon

Happy New Year everyone. I hope the holiday season has been treating you well. While doing the studio purge, I came upon some sketches from a couple of years back from a project I worked on at the Japanese Gardens here in Philadelphia. You can read about that visit here. *Video below*

The place enchants me but this visit in the cold and snow when it's usually closed was especially magical.

Materials I used were

Stillman & Birn large white watercolor sketchbook
Pam Carriker's new inks: Barely Black and White
Watercolors in earthy brown and indigo
White oil pastel, paint marker
Silver Sharpee
Lately, I have been using artist tape to cover the spine area of the book. If the spread is one page only,     I can then remove the tape easily.

Here's the video ... 

Salt Your Watercolor

Hey gang, here's a fun technique to spice up your watercolors. 

Get a good amount of watercolor on your brush and make a nice wet puddle on your paper, sprinkle in some salt while it's wet and puddly and watch as the salt crystals begin to absorb the color. This is one of the techniques from my Curious class. 

Leave it alone to dry completely (or you can use a heat gun). Brush off the salt and lightly sand with fine sand paper.

You can use table salt, kosher salt and even Himalayan Pink Salt (ha!). I would love to know if any of you try rock salt. We don't have any around the house but it would probably be pretty cool! 

I've been test driving some of the new Golden QoR watercolors (full post coming) and you can see them in action in the video. Also using Daniel Smith watercolors and fabriano paper. Everything is listed below the video. Enjoy!

Materials :

Watercolors:From QoR (by Golden):

Bohemian Green, Sepia, Nickel Azo Yellow, Rose

From Daniel Smith: Indigo, Magenta

Prang is a very nice beginner paint. Available at Amazon & DickBlick

I used 140# coldpress watercolor paper (slightly bumpy)

The Birthday Card tutorial is here.

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 Happy Monday Morning (*ahem, I heard that!). 

Head's Up : Meetup on Saturday morning in SE PA at my studio. 10:30-1:30. You can go here if you'd like to attend. The class is $50 and all supplies (except watercolors) are provided.

I love the camaraderie in these small classes: I only have space for 6 students. I have another class planned for Nov. 8 on Paste Paper. Yum.

 

Learn to Make Paste Paper and Flag Books

Coming October 29 ... 

see more via the side bar.

Fresh back from Art Is You - a blast as usual. I'll be back with a post about that soon. 

Lettering and My Journal

Slowly getting back on my feet. It's a process. I haven't been getting much artwork done just a little bit to keep from going crazy. I like the way this piece came out. It's in my big Stillman & Birn Beta journal. Layers of watercolor, pencil, stamping. I like the journal.* Don't know that this is done yet, more details. A bit more digging. 

Learning to do a couple of different styles of lettering is a handy tool and I'm experimenting so that I can include lettering in my journaling classes. It's really fun and just requires a bit of practice.

Full disclosure: S&B has sent me several types of journals to review after I released this video on YouTube.  

I'll check in again soon. Thanks for all of the "get well" notes! I appreciate it. 

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First Friday Artist, Alyssa Holman

Alyssa is a 11th grader who contacted me last year to ask if I'd mentor her on her travel journal project for school. In this journal, Alyssa documented her trip to Africa. I was thrilled to work with this insightful and talented young woman. Today, she shares some of her art and thoughts. Here's Alyssa

Found at the Beach 

All the items on this spead were either bought or found while I was at the beach, or remind me of the beach. The colors in the spread represent the sand, and the image on both sides that says "Cherries" is a local fruit stand. 

What is Africa?

This spread to me represents the difference between tourist Africa and "real" Africa. As a tourist, all you see is t he the wealth of Africa; Cape Town is a luxurious city quite comparable to San Francisco. When you travel outside the city, you begin to see "real" Africa with the poor villages and the animals.

Faces of Africa 

I created these pages using a picture I took in an African village that I produced multiple times and layered. The children jump out at you from the page, and this is exactly how I felt while visiting the village. All the kids run up to you, eager to learn about you.

 

Alyssa has been inspired by Sabrina Ward Harrison, Dan Eldon amongst others. Her graphic visual style captivated me from the first. Alyssa's thoughtful insights are inspiring. She's sees to the heart of the thing.

It was fun to watch her thoughtful use of technique. I enjoy the graphic quality of her artwork and her composition is always so strong! All of this strengthens her message.

It's always such a revelation to see through young people's eyes. Thanks Alyssa!

Enjoy your 4th of July weekend, friends.