A place to encourage the creativity of artistic minds of all ages. Offering Ideas, Inspiration and Instruction and sharing the work of others who inspire me!
Just Another new art making activity to save some dollars. Instead of buying already dried or pressed flowers, here is a short video on how I dry flowers to use for Resin art prjects and just for fun!
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Materials Needed
Fresh flowers - try using full flowers and dissected Petals and leaves
A Thick book: I used a sketchbook (new) about one inch thick
Paper Towels or parchment paper
Weighty Books, bricks or a big rock
I just opened up small whole flowers and press them flat
When I put the last video together, I was restricted regarding the polymer clay section of My Personal Art History. Just couldn't find the photos that I thought I had saved. Well lo and behold, the next day I discovered a pile of photograph records tucked away on my back up hard drive. So of course that meant I had to make more parts, or should I say segments to this Personal Art History series. Must say, creating figurines both hman and other kind were great fun. This Art History series is basically a trip down memory lane, sharing or journalling about my Art making experiences. So if you get inspired even a little, great. If you want to learn more about how to create clay figurines, there's a link to my figurines below.
While I enjoy memory lane, may you be even a little inspired to create in whatever way you wish.
Watch Below
Interested in the tutorial/learn with me videos? Here are the links to a few of the featured projects:
💓Figurines here are all on one page, just click the project you prefer.
Part 5 of my personal art making history. This was my time with polymer clay. Loved working in three dimensional colours. Unfortunately, I had trouble with the physicality needed to work the clay. Take a Look to see some of the fun I had. All of the pictures and more are contained in detail on my channel and this blog.
First of all I am really excited to say welcome to a new subscriber from Japan. They took the time out to make a comment and we just wanna welcome them and say how thrilled we are to know that someone from a completely different country across the world is interested in our channel content. We would love to know more about Japan and even visit there. Unfortunately due to our physical challenges Craig and I can visit through things like Google earth but not on an actual plane. That's why there are so many great YouTube videos and blogs where people share their lives from other countries. For folks like us who can't literally travel I can virtually travel.
And thank you to all of the other subscribers it's hard to believe, that we're up to 783 people. And it definitely helps if you're feeling like it, to like comment share and subscribe to our YouTube channel and any other social media sources.
Today's video is primarily about the progress of Craig's latest acrylic painting. When he has been working on for months and months. At the same time it's a bit bit of a collide as we talk about some other things like we were in a log for walking way overrated. So I will definitely be posting the video on both blog pages.
The much awaited State Fair Zinnia Seeds have bloomed. As always I can't just take a few photos. So here are the ones so far. There's a BEE-youtiful surprise as well!
Thank you for stopping by!
I recently purchased a small watercolour palette for half pan amounts per colour. But when it arrived, I was shocked to see how tiny the actual pans were. It was like a pretend palette that wouldn't be usable. Determined to embrace it's cuteness, I made a video yapping about the paint and other topics. Because it went longer than anticipated, I will be posting the swatching out video soon was part 2.Here is the Amazon link Be careful because there are a few choices. The outside size is the same on all counts but the pans inside vary inside. It was Not clear for the buyer. Since it is so cute, I kept it anyway. It was about $17 Canadian. Since receiving it I looked closer at the descriptions and unclear photos. If you look really hard you can see the very tiny paint pans and how this happy accident happened. Been buying lots of palettes for watercolours these past few months and never saw anything this tiny so far.
The Worlds Smallest Functioning Watercolour Palette Part 1- Swatching In Part 2
Another gorgeous day outside. Perfect time for me to Basque outside and breathe in the fresh air, letting the sun's rays show off my new shimmery handmade watercolours. I've already posted some videos about how to create these watercolour paints. but after recently trying to purchase a set from amazon that ended up not working out, the notice claimed that they were undeliverable. It all worked out how it was meant to so I i decided i would just continue making my own.
Another big lesson learned
I also learned that you should watch reviews about items like paint and art supplies before buying them online. So I'm glad it worked out that the product never arrived anyway. Because the day before they were supposed to arrive I was watching other artists on YouTube swatch out and test these shimmer paints and I was quite disappointed at what I saw. I remember saying, oh man my paints are far more pigmented, not worth $55. So I actually ordered up some more chameleon pigment powders to make more paints. My husband keeps telling me to just paint already.
I don't know about you but, it feels like I need to have everything in place and organize just right, and then it means I'll be able to create some great artwork. So far what I've learned in my decades of existence, no matter how organized or how many variations of art supplies I may have, my artwork doesn't get any better. What does make artwork get better, the act of actually doing it. Not worrying about how good you are at it or whether or not you have the perfect brand or colour or paint brush.
Enjoy this Sparkle Watch Below
But that's not all, I haven't been pleading with my husband all week about this increasingly horrid stench "not" coming from our refrigerator. And yes, if I could take care of it myself, I would happily do so but unfortunately my arms and overall body doesn't like to cooperate with me. Which means my dear husband, has a lot of responsibilities. He is kind of like my arms and legs and I am the nose, eyes,… Well basically the grey matter part. Trying to help out by pointing out things that need to be done or taken care of. I'm not the greatest at it but it helps me to feel a teeny bit useful. However, what happens when he doesn't believe you or has a nose that doesn't quite pick up the same sense you do. 😊If you're married or in a special relationship, you may be able to relate to this. You know, Where one loved one says one thing about something and the other loved one does not agree at all. Usually resulting in some form of ongoing debate or an all out fight. 😏 nothing more frustrating than trying to get someone to see or hear what you see or hear or in this case smell and they insist you're wrong. Definitely one of those moments that result in some humourous content for your YouTube or blog channel.
This video is just an intro into our stinky fridge debate. It's called Worlds collide because when two or more of our blog subjects collide, for instance heartfully creating is intended to be a creativity art blog with tutorials and anything art related. Where as our other Vlog/blog Walking Way Overrated, primarily focuses on anything to do with our unique married life as a couple living with physical disabilities. Sometimes we just can't keep the topics completely separated so today is one of those days, I get to share the beautiful colours from my DIY Shimmery watercolours and then the other subject, our stinky fridge! Worlds Collided.
Now that the paint palette is optimized. I do like that I was able to get six rows of colours instead of the original four. You can use magnets or double sided sticky tape if you don't want your hands moving around. But I find they're pretty stable on their own. Guess it depends how passionately you paint. I was inspired to swatch colours out in a more random manner by watching Kristy Rice swatching and organizing her watercolours. Watch here.
It's all about having fun and letting the water colours flow together and not worrying about making everything perfect. And in the end, I ended up with some incidental cool abstract art.
Colour is watching is a good idea simply because a lot of watercolour ones it is dried or Harden, it's so dark you can't tell what colour it really is. Even under the tube once you water it down, hence the name watercolours, you don't really get to see the true colours. Many times I've seen paint pallets and thought boring, they all look like the same color, dark! But once the person starts to switch out the colours you realize how beautiful and individual they all are.
It's Only been a few months or so of trying to learn more about watercolour (in Canada colour is spelled with a "u"). Have I created any masterpieces yet? Nope. Not sure if any of you can relate to this, but I have an issue with collecting (purchasing) and organizing art supplies. Especially if it is a new medium like watercolour or a few years ago, polymer clay. This includes learning about these palettes I never tried before. When I first tried watercolour about thirty years ago, there was no such talk about this method of watercolour painting. It was all about using paint fresh from the tube. Nothing about using individual half or full pan holders where the paint purposefully dries. Once that happens, you just re-wet the pigments and paint.
Apparently this method prevents wasting of watercolour paint. I have been learning to appreciate the ability to re-wet the paint and use it to create those masterpieces.
Watch Watercolour Palette
This article is about re-organizing my new palette again. Trying to turn my 4 rows of pigment spots to 6 rows, eliminating the centre aisle. The idea to try this was from watching Kristy Rice videos. I noticed she has palettes packed full of paint colours. No need for a centre area. Will I finally get to painting with this variety of paints? Daniel Smith, VanGogh, Qor, Cotman, Winsor Newton and My handmade shimmer paints, Paul Ruben and M. Graham.
A Sneak Peak Just before I look into how to rearrange my new metal paint palettes. Definitely, not use to these kinds of palettes after decades of Acrylic painting palettes!
One of my favourite flowers are… Oriental poppies of course. We have had this plant from seed to its full beauty roughly 19 years ago and it's still going strong or should I say growing strong. It's hard to take just a few Photos. Hence this beautiful Poppy slideshow with some moving pictures as well. One
version is without sound and the other is with copyright free music. Not only do I take pictures for reference photos for future art projects. I just take them because I love the subject matter.
A word of advice, it's good to keep a file of your own photographs of whatever subject matter you think you might want in the future or whatever inspires you. That way you don't have to worry about breaking copyright laws. And being original is always the best. Unless you're doing a study of someone else's artwork. If you do paint or draw from someone else's painting or photo ask for permission or if it's a really old painting like I did in University by Cezanne, then just make sure you give them credit. I believe the one from University it was titled "after Cezanne " and then my name. Something like that.
Watch Music Version Below
Watch Silent version Slide Show Below
Hope you enjoy this slide show. Be inspired. A music version is coming soon.
Summer is flying by at a rapid pace. Instead of painting with Watercolours like I was planning on doing, I seem to be procrastinating by stocking up watercolour supplies, creating new shimmer paints, organizing and reorganizing my paint palettes. I love being able to have moveable colour pans. And
our poppies
Don't ask me how many brushes, palettes and watercolour pads I have purchased. If Amazon only had a frequent shopper reward system.
Make Your Own Paint
This is about how I learned to make my own shimmer paints using Interference and shimmery/mica type pigments. As well, you will also see my transformation to a Smurf!
Of course there are many tutorials on creating watercolour paints on your own. Google them. I just want to share how I did it with as little effort as possible, without mulling. How do we learn if we don't experiment and learn from others.
The cool thing is, we can use pigments to create acrylic and oil and tempura etc. paints also. The key is all pigments need to be combined with the appropriate binder. If you want to make watercolour as in my case, you need Gum Arabic solution (more on that later). For Acrylic you can use and Acrylic gel medium, I would even mic pigment powder with anything like polyurethane, varnish, clear glues. Basically anything that can harden, cure or dry. Using pigments in resins are also used to paint with resin "paint." Then for oil paint, you can use oil binders (not an expert on oil), I think Linseed oil is part of that paint? But not sure.
I definitely use purchased paint whether watercolour or acrylic. It's just after watching others make paint and especially shimmer paints, I thought I can try that. Since I have a collection of mica type pigments, I was excited to not need to by shimmer/colour shifting paints.
Materials Used
💗Shimmery/Mica Interference (mermaid) And Colour Shifting Pigment Powders
Binder ingredients
💗I also used a ready made Gum Arabic binder
💗Gum Arabic (I used it in powder form)
💗Vegetable Glycerin
💗Honey (tried some but decided it made the binder too sticky)
💗Clove oil (as a preservative for the binder that must be refrigerated)
Tools
💗A glass or ceramic tile
💗palette knife
💗a glass jar with lid
💗Paper towels
💗spray bottle of water
💗test paper in white and dark or black for testing paint
💗paintbrush
💗water jar for washing brushes
Watch the video to see how I started mixing pigment powder with the binder. Unfortunately, the camera overheated because it was too hot outside so I didn't complete the mixing process. Adding the binder in a bit at a time, waiting for the mixture to be like a watered down toothpaste sort of. Or kind of like Cheez whiz or sour cream, a combination between Greek and regular yoghurt texture. You can tell I like food by all the food references.😋 And then just make sure I was mixing and pressing down with the pallet knife as much as possible. Even if you think it's just mixed, there can still be unsaturated pigment particles.The more you mix, press, smoosh the powder with the binder, the better the paint will dry and be pretty darn good to use on paper.
Here are the half pan size paint pans
Once I am satisfied at the consistency of the pigment mixture I'd test out the mixture with a wet paintbrush on paper. With interference colours using black paper is the only thing that really works because you can't see the colour otherwise. I just like to make sure it's combined enough to create somewhat of a smooth paint. It's amazing how quickly the Arabic gum binder dries or cure's. Then I scrape it up with the pallet knife and drop it into a half or full watercolour paint pans.
Then let the paint basically dry out or harden. It's important to keep the lid off to let it harden. There's going to be mistakes made, and some paints may end up too wet and never really harden. You can still use them. But that's how we learn lessons. If you want to do the exact correct way to make watercolour paint using real authentic pigments and even the shimmer colour shifting pigment powders that I've used, then definitely check out the video about mowing below to see how it's done. And definitely check out lots of videos, to learn more about this process.
Please note: I do not use the proper technique for making watercolour paint simply because physically, I cannot use a device like a muller. Due to my neuromuscular disability, my hands and arms are not strong enough to even lift that thing. I just wanted to show you how it does work to some degree if you're just using shimmery powders and a pallet knife. Some pigments work better than others. Definer the pigment powders the better it seems to go..
Mulling
glass muller
How to make paints out of pigment powders the truly correct way, involves something called mulling, using a Muller. Here is what mulling watercolour paint looks like with a video on YouTube Showing how to do it correctly here at PearFleur The muller is a weighty piece of glass.
Binders are needed for all types of paint. In watercolour Gum Arabic is used in combination with water, glycerine and some use honey instead or with glycerine. I learned after to heat up the water (some recipes said to) When I did, it smelled badly and eventually it got better. Just look for recipes Watercolour Binder or I also purchased gum Arabic all ready to be used as a watercolour binder.
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