Site Tutorial for Journal Workshops

Hello gorgeously beautiful creative people,

I just wanted to do a quick post to let anyone who may previously have been scared to join (or use, once they have joined) my new ning site Journal Workshops that I have created a video tutorial page on there to show how easy it is to use all the fab functions and thingie-ma-bobs available to you....honestly if I can use this site I promise there is nothing to be frightened of!!! lol

If you are already a member you can see the tutorial page here, or by clicking the 'Site Tutorial' button (very visible in the top right hand corner).

So if you haven't already please come over and join us on this site, lots of stuff is happening and is planned for making it a fab place for art, journaling and creativity =)

Bye for now

Much love

Tell All Tuesday ~ Featured Artist: Debs Mitchell

Hello lovelies,

 I cannot believe it's Tuesday again, seriously I cannot believe it!

This year I just cannot get a grip on, at all. I have plans for blogposts, lots of them, but as you can see lately all I've been posting is artist interviews because...I just cannot get a grip on this year. It's going so quick! but least I am still remembering to turn up here as I watch the weeks whizzing past me, giving a solitary wave as they go lol I will make a conscious effort to post more on here this month, till then though here's this weeks Tell All Tuesday.

Tell us a little bit about yourself & what kind of artist you are. 

I am Debs..... I am the wrong side of 40 and fighting it every step of the way! I am lucky enough to be a housewife, so I can more or less please myself each day in between the school runs ... which means I get to play with paint and pencils! I describe myself as an Enthusiastic Experimenter when it comes to my art..... no rules are safe from being broken... I am very much into Mixed Media and altering... and I love to try out stuff... no matter how bizarre, as you never really know what the outcome will be...... Only last week I discovered a WOW.... I had spray inked and watered a canvas (which I love doing as you never know which way the water will travel when applied to the upright canvas) then gone over areas in heavy black marker, which I knew worked... but hated the finished piece... so I painted over the black with silver acrylic...... did you know that activates the ink again and you get discs of metallic colour shine through? It was a WOW moment... stunning effect, sadly not the one I was after, but I have filed it for future use! I am also Positively Passionate about Pencils..... have a...few.... Ok 550 odd.... and all Derwent... Love them to bits!

What is the biggest challenge you personally face as an artist and how do you overcome it? 

My biggest challenge is to accept what I do and that is is OK and accept other people like it! I was told at school many years ago I was useless at art... and they refused to let me on the CSE course (remember them for people not smart enough to do an O level! LOL) So I had to drop it... and with it my confidence dropped. I only picked up a paint brush around two years ago... all that time wasted! I have now after a very stern personal talking to, and with the help of my wonderful friends, accepted that my art is actually great! It is not fine art, or detailed landscapes, or even reality sometimes, but it is My Art... and I am Unique, my art is unique and I am proud of it....... Being brave enough to enter an exhibition with my art group helped too..as that was strangers commenting on my work.... Yayyy Me! The biggest confidence boost though,
was a sale! :-) 

Do you think you have achieved a uniquely recognisable style as an artist, or do you find it a struggle to find your own style?

This is a very good question......Finding your own style is a very difficult thing to do as there is so much adorable and envyable influence out there! Over the last year and a half... I have taken courses by the fabulous Effy Wild... and I am very much drawn to her style of face..... I am also a YouTube fanatic for inspiration.. and it is easy to fall into the trap of copying (as is totally acceptable in a class where you are learning) It has been very hard to try to pull away and make the differences needed to be unique...... I am slowly getting there with my faces... but I still have a way to go before I stop calling them Effy-esque!

What advice would you offer to any perspective new artist? 

Go For It! Seriously.. pick up the brush, pencil, marker whatever and Do It! As I said above it is easy to be lead, and it is just as easy to compare.... I think the hardest bit is being able to put your work out there to show others..... once you have overcome that hurdle.. and read the fabulous comments... you are on a wonderful emotional high..... Go on.. paint something.. draw something... join a group (Facebook have some fabulous ones for starting out) show people and let the praise wash over you! Go on.. double dare you with a cherry on top! If you are really nervous .. look for the Mixed Media Chicken Coop on FB.... it is a group for beginners and those who lack confidence... shout and I will open the door... no negativity allowed... and lots and lots of encouragement and help! maybe see you there! 

Tell us where can we find out more about you & your art?

If you want to come looking for me, and see more of my art... I am on Facebook daily (I blame Candy Crush!) I have a page there for my art or you can follow my blog.

Thank you so much for sharing your art and outlook for us Debs, after reading your interview Enthusiastic is definitely the word that I feel is oozing out of your words. It's really nice as it reminds me of the enthusiasm I had when I first re-discovered art, which I've talked about plenty of times of here before, and now kinda want back a little...I'm internally laughing at the irony that most of us can't wait for that time to come when we are more skilled and I'm sat here reminiscing about the times I first picked up a paintbrush again and learnt about the simple joy of discovering. But the wonderful thing about art is that, the joy of discovery and learning, is always available but as Debs mentioned in the very beginning with silver acrylic discovery, sometimes it just might not come to you exactly as originally expected.

Want to be a TATer??

Email me or click the link to find all the details here =)

Tell All Tuesday ~ Featured Artist: June Walker

Hello beautifuls, I can't believe TAT has come around so quickly again, even though it seems to be all I am doing on here, but that is because I have been so busy on Journal Workshops. On which I have just opened up a new Monthly Art Journal Challenge Group which is turning out to be super fun, so if you want some more inspiration after reading this head over there =) for now though we have a lovely interview and art my artist June Walker, enjoy =)

Tell us a little bit about yourself & what kind of artist you are.

My name is June Walker and I am interested in colour, animals and people.

What is the biggest challenge you personally face as an artist and how do you overcome it?

My biggest challenge initially was to figure out how to awaken my imagination. I wanted to paint imaginary scenes probably because I liked the work of artists like Chagall and William Blake and I wanted to find out if I had an artistic imagination of my own and what it might contain. I attempted to expand my imagination by trying out some surrealist methods, such as automatic drawing or scribbling, looking for images in random colour shapes, and non-dominant hand drawing. These methods worked pretty well for me as I feel my imagination is freeing up and I am beginning to draw more interesting and personal imagery.

Do you think you have achieved a uniquely recognisable style as an artist, or do you find it a struggle to find your own style?
I feel I have developed a personal style which is recognizable. I use a colourful palette composed of primaries and secondaries, and I mainly use acrylics. My imagery is fairly idiosyncratic and my style is expressive with short or dumpy human figures and imaginatively coloured animals. I hope my imagery is positive focusing on the interactions between people and some of their favourite things like toys, animals and other people.

What do you most wish your art to achieve?
At the moment, my style is pretty much linked to drawing. I would love to develop a more painterly style where the imagery is realised or found directly in paint instead of coloured after preliminary drawing. I’d also like to paint bigger canvases. I haven’t really launched into this painterly style because I feel rather tied to my original drawing style. I am not sure if this painterly method will suit me but I hope to take the plunge…soon!

Tell us where can we find out more about you & your art?

My Website. My Blog. My Facebook & My Fine Art America Profile.

Thank you for sharing June, I really enjoyed seeing your artwork and I'm sure you'll develop wonderfully in any method you desire. In your 'imagination' answer, you have hit upon something I have been thinking too lately and a challenge I think I want to start doing for myself more - creating completely original paintings in/from my mind, as I so rarely create 'a painting' aka not an art journal page or some instinctive art it is a skill I think I should work on. Thanks so much for a fab interview =)

Do you want to be TATed??

To be featured email me or find all the details here =)

Tell All Tuesday ~ Featured Artist: Catherine Parkinson

Hi guys it's Tell All Tuesday...actually on Tuesday woohoo!!

This week we have an awesome textile artist & her work is rather mesmerizing, so sit back & enjoy the inspiration =)

Tell us a little bit about yourself & what kind of artist you are.
My name is Catherine Parkinson. I live on just over an acre of land next to a dairy farm on the edge of Te Awamutu, a beautiful area of New Zealand. I live there with my husband and 3 of my 5 children. I am a textile artist and photographer. I paint and use other surface design techniques on fabric and then I heavily quilt onto the surface. I am inspired by patterning and the natural world around me.

What is the biggest challenge you personally face as an artist and how do you overcome it?
Time and health. Having a large family makes my time very limited. I have to structure my time very wisely to be able to get time in my studio. I try to work while the children are at school and in small chunks of time when the children are home. I have had a few health problems over the past few years too. The reason I started quilting was to help me heal from an illness. One of my children has quite a few health issues so I spend quite a bit of time at the doctors with him. I work when I can and I try to plan my time well so each moment is spent the best way it can be.

What do you love most / least enjoyable about your art?
I love the whole design and making process, from the drawing and painting, right through to the quilting. Seeing my art come to life from a thought in my mind is wonderful. I don’t like the finishing off part as my mind is already working on my next piece of work. I also love being able to see the world through the lens of my camera and capturing light effectively and portraying an idea with a camera. I find editing can be a bit time consuming but the effect is worth it.

What do you most wish your art to achieve?
Bring light into other people lives. There is so much negativity in our lives I want to make the world a more positive place. I would also love to have my art financially support our family.

Do you ever lose your mojo, and if so, how do you get it back?
Yup!! To quote finding Nemo ‘just keep swimming’. Basically I just get back into the studio and keep going. I also am learning to accept where I am and what is going on in my life. I get out equipment I love and I play or I pick up an old unfinished project and force myself to finish it and pretty soon my ‘Mojo’ returns.

Tell us where can we find out more about you & your art?
You can follow me at my blog or you can like me on facebook

Thank you so much for sharing Catherine, it was fun to have a textile artist on here I loved seeing your work. The part of your interview that most resonated with me was sooooooo 'I don’t like the finishing off part as my mind is already working on my next piece of work', I was like 'is she using my mouth to speak here?' lol I am SO in that process right now with couple projects....still once they are done YIPPIE I get the freedom of a new project...until that ends up the same way, but we don't see that, not just yet anyway - I see us with our new projects like new mums in a way, and I guess we are actually birthing stuff here, looking at all the lovely good stuff and ignoring the pain till it comes - and usually it too is worth it in the end ;)

Do you want to be a featured TAT artist??

To be featured email me or find all the details here =)

Much love

Tell All Wednesday ~ Featured Artist: Siobhan Beer

Hello beautifuls,

Okay so I posted a quick post yesterday explaining this week TAT would be TAW due to issues with my email, but hurrah the internet didn't end! (tee hee just a lil inside joke...for me, as I doubt anyone even read the filler post yesterday lol) so here it is the first TAW, although I don't think it technically is if you count the times I've been late...but it's the first officially named TAW so there we are, enjoy =)

Tell us a little bit about yourself & what kind of artist you are.
Well I’m Siobhan, I’m 24 and live in South West England between my two homes, one with my parents and the other with my boyfriend (life can be so topsy turvy!) Together we own a rather large collection of animals which give me so much inspiration and joy. I’m a complete dreamer, an avid creator who uses anything from twigs and leaves to paint and canvas for my art work, I guess I can be described as a mixed media artist most of the time! I’m also a self-confessed animal/nature geek who adores the natural world more than most people can understand. I’ve been creating for as long as I can remember and have always been inspired by the world around me. It’s rare for me to create anything without an animal or something natural in it… even if it’s a twiggy tree in the background. I used to primarily use graphite to work with but about ten years ago I saw the wonders of other media and couldn’t control myself. Since then I’ve worked with anything I can get my paws on. At the moment I seem to be going through a watercolour stage. It’s very difficult for me to go a day without doing something creative, I bake, write, draw, paint, sculpt, journal, scrapbook… I don’t like to be confined to one creative hobby which tends to leave me fighting with time as there are never enough hours in the day. I can normally be found working on my bed with Flynn my gerbil scampering around and trying to add his own unique talent to the world.

What is the biggest challenge you personally face as an artist and how do you overcome it?
My lack of confidence. The biggest challenge I face is letting people see anything I create. The idea of people seeing my work is terrifying for me especially when I’m in the same room to see their expression as they take in my creation. The first time I let my boyfriend see my sketchbook was awful! I was sat there trying to hide the shaking hands by fidgeting nervously and watching in horror as he looked through my ideas and feelings. It’s not that I’ve had bad experiences from people seeing my work, actually it’s usually the opposite but I put so much emotion in to my work it’s quite unnerving for other people to see, I worry that they’ll see something in me that they hadn’t seen before but over the past year through sharing my work I’ve come to the conclusion that what others see isn’t always what I saw when I created it. And if they do see something in me they hadn’t seen before maybe it’s not always going to be a bad thing. I’ve only just started to overcome this challenge and the only way I’ve managed this is by actually showing people my work and not locking all my sketchbooks away in a box somewhere. It’s been really difficult and I’ve had many moments where I just want to hide from the world but it’s done so much good and my confidence has grown so much in a very short time.

Do you ever lose your mojo, and if so, how do you get it back?
All the time. I get in to a state where I just sit staring at a blank piece of paper for hours, biting my lip, pulling funny faces and eating too much chocolate to ease the pain. It’s a horrible state for any creative person to be in and it really does get painful because you desperately want to create but you just can’t for some strange reason. I used to get it a lot more than I do now, I don’t know whether that’s because I’m in a more creative state or whether I’ve learnt to pull myself through it. The best cure for me is to stop forcing it. The more I sit and stare at the paper the more frustrated I feel which just makes things worse. Giving creating a break is so helpful, it not only reboots your creative mind but it also lets you focus on other things. I started going for walks, reading, writing among other things. The break usually gives me a fresh start and I’m able to get working again, usually with a strong creative force behind me and I can’t actually stop!

What advice would you offer to any perspective new artist?
Never expect to be perfect when you first try something out. It’s something we’re all guilty of these days. We try something new and for some reason we expect ourselves to be perfect from the start and be as good as somebody who’s done it for years. I’m guilty of it myself. I tried out watercolours a few months ago and was so disappointed when my first try didn’t look fantastic. Another thing I’ve learnt is that art work goes through something I call an ugly stage. No matter what media you use there is always an early stage where you just want to give up because it’s turning out to be a large blob of something rather than a branch of cherry blossoms. The thing to always remember is that if you keep working through this stage it will come together and look amazing. Believe in yourself.

Tell us where can we find out more about you & your art?
I’m a bit quiet with my work at the moment but the best place to find me right now is my blog. Originally started with the intention of showing work in progress. I can also be found on Twitter where I post many sketches and work I’m currently having fun or struggling with.

Thank you for not letting your biggest challenge of sharing your artwork stop you from sharing it with us Siobhan, I think it's something many of us can attest to when we had over our work to someone close to us, even if we feel the butterflies and do it anyway (and yes, sometimes I still get nervous posting something, especially when I know many people may see it). The only thing I can say for sure that helps dissolve the nervousness is practice, and the more you do the more you will see a change where it'll flip in the balance to be more excitement - and sometimes you'll actually be psyched to show people your stuff, it's awesome when that happens! ....but like anything with art it doesn't always come instantly, or without work =)

Do you want to be featured in an interview here?

Email me or click the link to find all the details here =)

TAT to TAW

Hey guys,

just a quick FYI that though I should be writing a Tell All Tuesday post now due to 'technical difficulties' with my email provider I can't get into my artist folder so TAT will be posted tomorrow (assuming that the technical difficulties are just a hitch and not the start of the end of the internet....it could happen). See you tomorrow =)

Quick n' Easy Projects

So I've not had much time to spend in the studio just messing around of late, all my creative time has been spent on Journal Workshops (who knew starting a Ning would be more work after it's launch than before? lol) or making up products for my shop as I've been blessed with sales this month. But last night I decided to make a few things just for me, just for the sake of it to release steam, but I still wanted them to be quick to keep me moving through creativity, no hard work going off here oh no lol so here's three quick easy projects I did:

1: Sharpie Pen Journal Page

For a super quick journal page grab a sharpie pen and be bold, draw something without preamble for the foreground first, then worry about the background after - something super quick like flowers and spatters for a background works just as well as anything else does it not? I used watersoluables like gelatos to colour - quick fast coverage, no headaches, job done =)

I also started another page, this time background first: 

For a quick background I will nearly 100% of the time head straight to my scrap paper drawer - decoupage some scraps, gesso & acrylic a little with a rag then use some acrylic inks to add splashes of colour. The longest time required here is the drying time of the inks, so I think it's always a good way spend 15mins so you can leave it overnight and next day you've a new background ready to go when you want it =)

2: Paint A Pebble

If you follow my facebook page or my vlog channel you would probably have seen that I love crystals and stones. I often just randomly collect them, so naturally I had a couple laying on the windowsill of my studio...doesn't everyone? Acrylics work fine on them, I did seal the main painted side with a spray varnish for some extra protection but given that I do love the naturalness of stones I left a hidden window in the back:

3: Scrap Paper Beads

Just the basic paper bead technique from my Epic Paper Bead Tutorial, but I still love doing these. Quick & relaxing ahhhhhhhhh I call them one of my 'lazy crafts'. And that was about all I had time for.

What about you?

What are you quick n easy projects/lazy crafts?

I'd love to know, let me know below...

Much love

Tell All Tuesday ~ Featured Artist: Sanja Radovanovic

Hello, 

the pic above is just a share from a recent trip, just coz. Grrrrrr. 

But it's tuesday, which means it's Tell All Tuesday not a share of recent places I've been phone pics lol so here we go, this week's featured artist is Sanja enjoy

Tell us a little bit about yourself & what kind of artist you are.
My name is Sanja Radovanovic and I am a student. I have been doing all kinds of crafts since I can remember, from making jewelry and figurines out of different materials to paper crafts. When I was starting out I used to use anything that was on hand, so that is how begun to recycle things into something else. I try to use as many things as possible that would otherwise become trash and I became the collector of "junk" in my family. For example I have a box full of bottle caps. I just hate seeing people throw away things with so much potential to become a part of something beautiful. I mostly learned everything I know on my own by experimenting and I discovered the online crafting world just last year so I was overwhelmed with all the information. I had no idea there was so much out there.

What is the biggest challenge you personally face as an artist and how do you overcome it?
My biggest challenge at the moment is lack of time. Ever since I started grammar school I hadn’t had as much free time. I did some art on occasion during the school year, but being unorganized as I was it had an effect on my grades, so I mostly used my vacation time to craft like crazy. Now I am in the last year of grammar school and I’ve god important exams entire semester as well as preparations for university so that shortens my free time even more. Luckily I am more organized than before so I’ve created a system recently to overcome this problem. I marked out an hour every Saturday just for art, so instead of wasting time watching TV when there’s nothing on, I do what I love.

What is your heart’s greatest desire for your life as an artist?
I would like to learn all different crafts, but what I always dreamed of is to open my own workshop with all kinds of homemade goodies one day.

What advice would you offer to any perspective new artist?
Don’t be afraid of art. I find that sometimes new techniques or what not might keep us from trying something new simply because we’re afraid that it won’t turn out ‘right’. There is no right way, there’s your way. Sure, if you don’t draw or saw well you can always improve your skills, but it is your art, you project yourself into it, so don’t be afraid of making it your own. There is a saying I find very inspirational: ‘It’s not who you are that’s stopping you, it’s who you think you are not'

Tell us where can we find out more about you & your art?
Well, I’m new to the online crafting community. I have a youtube channel, but no videos uploaded yet, I am working on it though. And a Pinterest

Thank you for sharing Sanja, it's inspiring to hear from someone on the younger scale of our community being so free and yet mindful in their approach to art. I love the santas and the saying you shared, please let us know if you ever do open your workshop =)

ps the Collective of Collectors of Junk welcome you into the loving fold lol

Do you want to join the TAT-ed??

Email me or click the link to find all the details here =)