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Category: watercolor art journal

Art Journaling Magazine!

Art Journaling Magazine!

Art Journaling Summer 2018 Magazine Available July 1st!

Just out is the new ART JOURNALING MAGAZINE.  The new Stampington Magazine is available for purchase.  My article, Baja Journey Journal, is about including flora and fauna in my watercolor art journals.  I show how I use field notes to collect information about the birds and animals that I observe.  The field notes are helpful to my paintings and drawings.

Painting in Orvieto, Italy, Ristorante, Cafe
Watercolor Journaling, Part 1

Watercolor Journaling, Part 1

Watercolor painting sometimes get a bad rap.  “It is hard.”  “My paintings are muddy.”  “I can’t control the paint.”  Things run and go in unexpected areas with colors mingling in seemingly uncontrollable ways.  That is why I tell my students to put miles on your brushes.  It is all about timing and developing a feel for how much water is in the paint, on the brush, and on the paper.  The water on the paper is continually drying as you are painting unless you are adding more and more water.  Don’t do that!  Try to add less and less water as the paint dries.  See what happens!
I want to share with you how I use watercolors in my journals…. 
1.     First draw lightly with a pencil.  Draw simple shapes and just the outline of the subject.  This is called a contour drawing.  You don’t need all small details at this time.  And I say draw lightly because the graphite can make your painting muddy!

2.     Paint a light colorful wash with several colors.  One of my favorite combinations is cobalt blue, permanent rose and new gamboge or a similar yellow.  Let this dry. 

Hint – if you have trouble getting a beautiful wash and end up with streaks and hard edges you are not using enough water with your paint.  Try painting your colorful wash on wet paper – prewet the paper with clear, clean water. 

3.     Pick areas of your painting that need to be darken.  Paint these areas with another layer of paint.  Work light to dark in stages and steps.   

Check back for more tips!
Finding Inspiration to Paint, Part 4

Finding Inspiration to Paint, Part 4

Here is another idea to get you going…. watch a YouTube video.  There are lots of free ones by lots of artists.  I have to tell you though, some of them are really boring and the end result is not what I aspire to.  So what I do is to fast forward to see the final painting and then invest the time to watch the video if I think the painting is good.  Here are a couple of YouTube videos that are demos of how to paint…

Fast video of how I paint a field of flowers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttywat9RQDs

How to paint palm trees

Here is one where I show what supplies are needed to get started with watercolor painting.
If you find a video you like, look to the right side of the YouTube page and you will see recommendations of other similar videos to watch.  Warning!  Watch a couple then go paint!  I know that I could spend all day watching other people paint but this is to inspire you to paint!

The Fun Continues

The Fun Continues

Helen and I continue our journey to Sarlat, beautifully well preserved medieval town in the southwest of France.  It is an area rich with history and delicious food.  Think fois gras! (more about this in my next blog post) Since it started to rain, we found a comfortable cafe and painted in our journals and made some postcards to send to family and friends back home.  Here is the view from our cozy cafe:

Here is the postcard I painted while enjoying a warm cup of French coffee:
If you would like to join me on a painting holiday, please check out my upcoming trip to Orvieto, Italy!
Keeping a Watercolor Travel Journal

Keeping a Watercolor Travel Journal

 Part of the joy of traveling to new places is to take some time to paint in my watercolor art journal.  This is my first time visiting Lisbon, Portugal.  I am enjoying walking around this colorful city  Here is a page in my journal of the cute trolley car.  This is what I love to do – paint plein air!

I am Teaching at Art Unraveled, Phoenix

I am Teaching at Art Unraveled, Phoenix

Join me for the fabulous Art Unraveled Retreat in Phoenix, Arizona, August 4-11, 2015.  You deserve to treat yourself and immerse yourself in art!  Last year was my first year teaching with Art Unraveled and I had so much fun.  I am thrilled to be returning to teach three new workshops:

Friday August 7, 2015
Sunday August 9, 2015 
Monday, August 10, 2015

Italian Memories – A Peak Inside Our Journals

Italian Memories – A Peak Inside Our Journals

Snow is falling softly outside.  I am at home in Oregon and I am finally getting around to share with you some of our beautiful, fun watercolor journals from our week with Adventures in Italy, September 2014.  We painted, played, lifted, cut and pasted, stamped, and just generally created wonderful artistic memories! 
Here are some photos from our fabulous watercolor / mixed-media journals:

Art Journaling: Whales, Birds and a Little Tequila

Art Journaling: Whales, Birds and a Little Tequila

Ok, well maybe a lot of tequila!  We are off on a camping/wildlife adventure with wonderful guides provided by Mar y Adventuras.  We camped on beautiful white sandy beaches on two different island in Baja California, Mexico.  

Our guides took very good care of us, offering lots of tequila, fresh fruit, and fresh caught fish.  Happy hour awaited us every day when we returned from a day of bird watching, whale watching, hiking and kayaking.

 I added at least 15 new birds to my life list.  I started this list as a young teenager in Alabama so you can imagine how exciting this is for me.  I finally see blue-footed boobies!  

Zoom in to see the blue feet!

I see two birds that are endemic to Baja California, the Belding’s Yellowthroat and the Gray Thrasher.  

The drive to Magdalena Bay, for gray whale watching, is a four-hour van ride through a land of cactus, lizards and turkey vultures, bare and hot. We stopped at a tiny cafe for fresh empanadas and quesadillas, which were served from a rancher’s kitchen.  

There is no menu and we satiate our appetites by ordering from the kitchen window.  The rancher’s wife quickly warms up our food on a wood burning stove.  Delicious!  We all order seconds.  I wander outside to find meat hanging to dry like freshly washed laundry.  Surprising, there is a flock of brightly colored yellow birds.


 I take photos and identify them as Lesser Goldfinches.  Off in the distance at the tip of a cactus I take a picture of another, not so colorful bird and find out that this is a Gray Thrasher found only in this region.  All this is wonderful inspiration for painting in my Arches watercolor journal that I brought on this adventure.  I had to pack my traveling light kit, as I knew there would be limited space.  Here are some photos of how I prepared my small Winsor Newton palettes.  I filled one with my warm colors and another with my cool colors.  

The Moon was but a Chin of Gold

The Moon was but a Chin of Gold

Here is my post for this month’s Sketchbook Challenge:
  This month’s theme is about those captivating celestial bodies – the moon and the stars.  They remind me of a much-loved poet, Emily Dickinson and her lovely poem, The Moon was but a Chin of Gold.  I often include snippets of her poetry on my watercolor journal pages.  I love how she puts her words together to form sparkling strands of lyrics.  Here is a peek in one of my journals where I used parts of this poem.  If you would like to read her poem in its entirety, I posted it below. 
Do you have a poet or poem that inspires your art?
THE MOON was but a chin of gold
  A night or two ago,
And now she turns her perfect face
  Upon the world below.
  
Her forehead is of amplest blond;
  Her cheek like beryl stone;
Her eye unto the summer dew
  The likest I have known.
  
Her lips of amber never part;
  But what must be the smile
Upon her friend she could bestow
  Were such her silver will!
  
And what a privilege to be
  But the remotest star!
For certainly her way might pass
  Beside your twinkling door.
  
Her bonnet is the firmament,
  The universe her shoe,
The stars the trinkets at her belt,
  Her dimities of blue.
                                 By Emily Dickinson

   
Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine Issues a Special Edition – PAGES

Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine Issues a Special Edition – PAGES

I am excited to have my article: Flip, Flaps and Fold-outs, Adding Dimension to your Art Journals, included in the special edition of Cloth Paper Scissors PAGES.  This is created especially for art journalers and book artists looking for new techniques and inspiring ideas. This 148-page first issue features projects and galleries in general bookmaking, book covers, book binding, inside page decoration, and art journaling.   


 PAGES is avalable at our local Barnes & Noble book store.  It can also be ordered online as a digital file or hard copy at the Interweave online store.  

Here is an excerpt from my article in PAGES: 
Artists are very tactile.  Inserting dimensional objects such as flaps, dividers, pockets, ribbons, or tags in our art can add an element of mystery and engage the viewer.  Index-card dividers open up to reveal photos or journaling, adding intrigue and a desire to explore beyond the flat dimension of the page.  I often include favorite lines of poetry, photos of my family, and little treasures of love inside library pockets.  Shipping and marking tags become the holders of meaningful words and little on-the-go sketches.