Joy

Sometimes I have to use all the colors on one painting....

 Splashes and layers of rainbow make me joyful (so the painting had to be called Joy).

 I added transparent dark shades to calm it down a little.
When it is not in the bright sun it actually looks much darker. 

Thank you for the nice comments about the free collage sheet. I can't wait to see how you use it. I cut up mine, but didn't get a chance to play with it yet.

November News and a Free Collage Sheet

I spent some time rearranging things on my blog. I added new pages on the top, labeled tons of posts and did a little clean up. 

Starting today, I am testing a new way of offering digital collage sheets. Instead of waiting for me to send the files, this should enable anyone to download the file instantly. If it works...

And to test if it works I am offering a free collage sheet. If you go to the tab that says "Printables" on top of my page, you should be able to get a link to download a full resolution file of these images:

It will say - Add to Cart - but the amount will be zero, so no need to worry.

I said that I will try to create and post every day in November. Using collage sheets helps accomplish that goal even when there is not enough time to do too much. 

Drawings and random things

I really don't know what to write.

I've never painted more and posted less.

Life is good.

And busy.

 I might try to post something every day in November.

I've never tried that before.

Drawing with only one pencil (6B) in a book very satisfying...

It would be even more satisfying if I could draw like this:

My 17-year old daughter started drawing again after a 12 year long break. She drew almost obsessively when she was very little, and then stopped. My heart is happy to see her find art again.

Roses on tea bags

This year October roses are prettier than May roses in our parts.  I've never painted them on tea bag paper before, and I really enjoyed the experience. Maybe I'll tuck them in some books and forget about them... until they surprise me one day :-)

No Words Allowed - neon art journal spread

I went to the craft store with only one thing in my mind - to purchase neon colors. I had an urge to see what I can do with them and didn't want to spend a lot of money on artist grade paint. So - I got pink, yellow, orange and green Americana Neons. 

There is so little pigment in them that they work almost as glazes. And there is something wrong with the green one - I have only tiny drops of color floating in a sea of 'something' and as much as I tried - I couldn't make them come together. 

 Even with those disadvantages,  I enjoyed playing with layers of brightness and will probably use them again. So, I wonder... do you like to vary your palette or prefer to stay with the colors you know and love?

Pastels after matte medium

The photo made it look much better than it really is. I actually think I prefer this to the original, but it's not like that. For some reason camera found some darks and lights and made it interesting. 

;This is scanned. Even the scanner brought more light to it than it actually has.

This was the original.

It's all good. I can easily add some patches of color and make it to my liking, but it's just a quick play-journal, so I'll take it as lesson #1 and probably leave as is. So - for your information - if you don't want your colors to change and be dark and dull - don't use acrylic mediums over pastels. They were not meant to work well together. Enough about the cover, it's time to open the journal and finish what I started.

New Journal - No Words Allowed

I woke up this morning with a strong urge to paint, but somehow none of my (many) journals was calling me. I didn't want to spend too much time making a new journal, so I made the same one that I show in my workshop, except that I decided on soft covers. I cut off a piece of rosin paper, and a couple of minutes later - I had a brand new place to play.

Last week I painted 23 paintings which I cannot show yet, so I wanted something different than acrylics. Soft pastels sounded good. I was happy to see that they work really well on rosin paper, holding on to it and smudging nicely. And then I made a stupid mistake. Because I had a bad experience with fixative (that dramatically changed the colors) I decided to seal it with Acrylic medium. Why did I think that would work? Everything turned a dull dark brown color.... all the softness was lost. I quickly left my studio before it dried (that's why there is no picture). Will it transform over night to it's previous stage? I hope, but somehow doubt it.
Would you like to see how bad it looks after the medium?