Diana Trout's blog

ArtSnacks and Inktober

October's ArtSnacks was full of inky goodness. Liquitex Muted Turquoise Ink, a Uni-Ball Signo in white, a brush pen (non-alcoholic) from Copic and a nice watercolor brush from Princeton. 

In today's video, get some tips on simple drawing and overlap. I love drawing crowds of things: faces, flowers. With all of the squirrels stuffing their cheeks, why not draw a next of hidden acorns. I used the black and white pens to define and highlight. It's bright and crisp today. A perfect autumn day to take a walk and watch those comical squirrels. 

I hope you'll pop around to my YouTube channel and subscribe, like and comment on my video. It's a big help to me. I'm having a giveaway next week for my YouTube subscribers so you'll want to get in on that! 

Enjoy the video and check out the links below for the products used.  

 

 

Here are some affiliate links (I get a percentage of the sale at no cost to you.)

 

Princeton Neptune Watercolor Brushes

Uni-Ball Signo White Broad Pen

Copic Gasenfude Brush Pen

Liquitex Muted Turquoise Ink

InLinkz.com

Ink Spill: Art Journal

In my big journal, some ink and a dip pen

Initial work was another journal page, copied and printed on bristol and washi taped into the book.

Noodlers ink is not permanent so it smears. Just so you know. I have a special fondness for blue black (indigo). I used my glass dip pen that I bought in Firenze. Goulet stocks them here. Pricey. Below in the affiliate links is a more reasonable dip pen and my favorite black waterproof ink.

 

Strathmore BRISTOL SMOOTH 9 x 12 Paper Pad 365096

Stillman & Birn Alpha 8.5"x5.5" Sketchbook

Speedball Waterproof Black Ink

Dip Pen

InLinkz.com

Colored Pencils Tricks & Tips Video

The coloring book craze is leading many of us to sharpen up our colored pencils. I had a few of them from years ago and took a little trip last week to fill in the gaps (ahem). 

I'm back with a video today with some tips and tricks to getting the most from your colored pencils. I'm still a Prismacolor fan. I've heard that the Irojiten - while wonderful - are not as soft. That may appeal to some of you. If anyone has tried the Spectrum Noir, I'd love to hear about them.

I enjoy using colored pencils on black or dark paper and will be pulling out a large sheet of Stonehenge to make a One Sheet, One Journal black journal sometime soon. The PDF guide to cutting your 1S1J is at that link. Both videos are linked below today's video.

My first coloring pages felt a little stilted but I feel my regular loose style emerging and I'm enjoying coloring even more now. Here's the video.

As usual, I really appreciate it if you use my links either within a post or on the sidebar. It won't cost you any more but it really helps to offset the costs of creating videos and maintaining my blog. BUT : Use What You Have :)

One Sheet One Journal Video
Fun with Coloring Book Video

Prismacolor Colored Pencils	Prang Colored Pencils	Stonehenge Large Sheets	Stonehenge Drawing Pads	Coloring Books
Chronicle Books ENCHANTED FOREST An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book 674889	Chronicle Books SECRET GARDEN An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book 671062	Zig CLEAN COLOR 12 set Real Brush RB-6000AT	Tim Holtz Distress Markers CLUTTERED CELLAR Set Ranger TDMK34919	Stabilo Colored Pens

InLinkz.com

Fun with Coloring Books

Coloring books are all the rage at the moment. A trend rolling down hill spurring on illustrators and publishers across the country and the world to make high quality products for
color-happy customers. 

You'll see in the video that I've tried out colored pencils, markers, colored pens and alcohol markers. I like the colored pencils best for all-round coloring especially on detailed images. 

Try whatever you have on hand. I look forward to using gel pens and making patterns with colored pens too. No reason why you can't paint and use collage on these pages. You may want to remove them from the book first. 

My friend, Susan, used colored pencils, pens and gel pens for the images (above and following). She found  postcard sized illustrations at a big box craft store. These books are everywhere: art and craft stores, books stores and online. You can find links to print out images too. 

Google "images for coloring for adults" and you'll find plenty to keep you busy. I hope you take up this craze and pass it on to friends and family. Coloring is fun and it's so happy-making to get folks making art in any way at all. Enjoy the video. 

Prismacolor Colored Pencils	Prang Colored Pencils	Coloring Books	Chronicle Books ENCHANTED FOREST An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book 674889	Chronicle Books SECRET GARDEN An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book 671062
Zig CLEAN COLOR 12 set Real Brush RB-6000AT	Tim Holtz Distress Markers CLUTTERED CELLAR Set Ranger TDMK34919	Stabilo Colored Pens

InLinkz.com

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First Friday Artist; Karen D'Angelo

First Friday Artist, Karen D'Angelo is here today. I met Karen some years ago while teaching at The Ink Pad in NYC. As so often happen, I learn as much from my students and art, life and combining the two as they from me. 

Here's Karen. 

These drawings are all under 5"x7"

"I now  Fabriano or Saunders Waterford text laid finish papers for my little drawings. I always tear my edges with a deckle ruler or on the edge of a table too. For these paintings I  made the watercolor paint using pigments. (I didn't include the edges because of a parallax issue.)

 I work at Pratt Institute as director of marketing in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies in New York City, and do home care for my 88 year old mom who lives with me. I joined Pratt in 2004 as a student in search of increasing my computer graphics skills and quickly progressed to my current role because I just love continuing education for adults!

Sometimes people ask me how I'm capable of balancing these two demanding purposes and still find time for art. My reply to that is always: a few hours of making art each day helps me sort out my thoughts and just be me for a while. The creative process is my guide back to my Self when things get challenging, and it helps me make time for the right actions in my life. 

My inspirations come from stories like The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis) and The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien) where there are solutions to problems and always a happy ending (or an opening to a sequel LOL), and the introspective processes I use while journaling, which might be like someone reading their tarot cards in search of answers to life's deeper questions."

Karen is such an inspiration on so many levels. Look how interesting those watercolor blends are - especially on the first two pieces. Wow! I can see the serenity in the doodling. It's tangible. I'm so happy to share her work and thoughts with you today.

These are fountain pen ink and watercolor,  all under 5"x7"

Have a wonderful weekend! xo - Diana

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Mixed Media Portraits; Pam Carriker

Good Book Report :). Oh finally! An accessible book on creating realistic portrait. Pam's book is a great brush up for me with most of the classic techniques I learned in my academic art school. I know that I'll refer to it often. It's much more engaging than my other portrait/figure books and brings these techniques successfully into the mixed media world.

These techniques for looking at the face and breaking down the features are time honored. This is how artists have been trained for centuries and we have to give a round of applause to Pam for bringing it to the mixed media world. An intenses portrait class in a book, Pam includes projects in 3D (3D helps your 2D), subtractive techniques, monochrome and neutral color mixing. 

After art school, I did portraits for a few years. It was a VERY long time ago :) I loved taking the time to look at my face and see the tracks of time marching across. 

This is the book for you if you'd like to draw realistic faces. Pam breaks it down so that it's not overwhelming. It makes perfect sense. As a student, I was taught to break down the face and figure using blocks. One teacher eventually taught us using circles and either of these techniques work well. 

Listen: I've always thought that the tools of art: drawing, color mixing, composition, etc. are learnable by anyone. I had a drawing block for years after art school. But there is no need for that. Here are the tools to take it on. If you have the tools, it's so much easier to communicate.

Disclaimer #1: Pam asked me to review this book and I agreed (because it was already on my list of books to read and review. See Disclaimer #2)

Disclaimer #2: I'm so happy to see alternatives to drawing cartoon, cute, beautiful GIRLS. While there is nothing wrong with those faces, I've always loved the real live human face. My art training included a ton of model drawing. We had models of every age, weight, race and body type. It was a wonderful experience. I had to find the beauty.

I heartily endorse this book and look forward to working with it more. Thank you Pam :)

In My Art Journal

Week of January 4, 2015. Loads of inspiration from Creative Jump Start with stencils from StencilGirl

Pouncing on spaces of time between planning for fiscal responsibility in 2015. 

Round square and circles, those shapes of endless possibility.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone.

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!

Affiliate Links of Supplies I used and love. 

 

Canson XL Mixed Media Sketchbook	Ranger Dylusions Ink Spray, Pure Sunshine	Ranger Dylusions Ink Spray #2 DYLUSIONS INK SPRAY SET OF 6 Dyan Reaveley DIS2014SET	Tassels Stamp	Fiskars SPRING-ASSIST SCISSORS Micro-tip 09921
Ranger Inkssentials TRIANGULAR COLLAGE GLUE STICK Adhesive IWT40491	Hero Arts Shadow Ink Pad CORNFLOWER Blue Mid-Tone af235	Tombow MONO Adhesive PERMANENT Tape Dispenser	Tombow REMOVABLE ADHESIVE Tape Runner	Prang Watercolor Set
watercolor markers

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Gratitude

Gratitude is a simple thing. Humble. The act brings us down to the most basic element of humanity. If we can be thankful, everything else seems to take care of itself. If we are grateful, we have shifted the focus from self-centered to global. 

I forget to be thanksful, we all do.

I wonder, if we all remembered to be grateful more often, could we find ways to make our worlds and our world better and then have more to be thankful for? Do you think it works that way?

I am so grateful to you. Each time you look at my blog, make a comment, say "hello," I am gratified. Thank you. 

Love you all, Diana

Lettering

Playing with lettering is fun and easier than you think! It's like drawing and doodling with forms you are very familiar with. Jenny Doh's book Creative Lettering (link below) was my source of inspiration.

Use words and thoughts that are meaningful to you. I worked on Strathmore Bristol. Use a pencil to sketch out the words then go over them with pen. You can erase any mess ups, just draw lightly!  I used Pitt Pen markers and Tombow's for color - any markers would do. 

Here's the link for Jenny's book which is great for beginners. Like Zentangle, Lettering is something you can easily begin with a minimum of fuss. Brainstorm some words and phrases and keep that list handy while you lay out your page. It's really easy to make a spelling error (*ahem).