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!
Thank you for stopping by!
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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.
Being in the kitchen together can be a challenge for us. Craig does all the cooking, often on his own. However, sometimes, I give directions like he's my arms and "legs" and that's where things can get challenging. Craig is a laid back fellow and I am a freak for not overcooking supper and that means timing is everything. I am guessing it's so critical for me because supper is my main only meal of the day.
Today world's collide as we not only share our daily life ( Walking Way Overrated ) cook burgers but I get to share and review the swatches from my handmade interference pigments from Let's Resin. That's the other world (HeArtfully Creating ). Join us...
Yay! We are finally have some much anticipated warm summer weather. We have been behind where we live in Ontario Canada. Even people's gardens were held back at least 2-3 weeks or more due to really cold days and evenings. In our neck of the woods summer is not very long so it is disappointing when the weather isn't as warm. I love the hot days, even to the point of having to run back inside because I can feel my skin cooking!
Today our Worlds Collide because this short vlog video combines both blogs, Walking Way Overrated (Our Life Blog/vlog) and my creativity blog/vlog Heartfully Creating. Craig wanted to show what we did when our key ingredient for supper broke. And I wanted to share some samples of todays watercolour learning. I spent most of the day watching/listening to Watercolour (In Canada we use the letter "u" with the "O" in words like "colour.")
Worlds Collide Part 1: Watch Below
Worlds Collide Part 2: Watch Below
Two Artist Channel Recommendations One of my favourite artist tutorial YouTube channels is Kristy Rice's and second best so far is Jenna Rainey. It's because of Kristy first of all, why I am even discussing this topic right now. She helps me to let go of all the watercolour rules I learned over 30 years ago (and why I refused to pursue that medium.) Kristy is the reason why I have now been collecting new palettes, paper and watercolour paints! She uses white watercolour paint! I had learned that was a no no. She loves using colour boldly like I do. Bold colours are not something one thinks of when one (I) think of traditional watercolour painting. I really like how fun and inspiring she is. So check her out here. I also ordered her custom brush set. Don't tell Craig, it's a surprise. He is trying to learn more too about watercolour techniques.
And Jenna Rainey is so far in my opinion, has a good sense of humour and is more traditional regarding the use of watercolour techniques. As well she has very detailed, well explained tutorials like the drawing flower lessons mentioned in my video today. It is very challenging for my way of learning. It feels almost like doing math. I am use to just drawing what I know or see but do not follow any formulas for how to draw something. Which means I may have created some large paintings, drawings and illustrations for cookbooks over the decades, but I'm not that great at how they end up. But I love creating so I try not to worry about tht. Watching Jenna's YouTube channel, is more challenging for my brain and how it works. When I say following her specific directions on how to draw the flowers for example, it literally taxes my brain. Nothing to do with her teaching, it's totally because of how I am used to learning. I have always been terrible at following very specific instructions, it's like brain overload for me. The fact that I was diagnosed with ADHD about 11 years ago, helps confirm why I feel that way. Which helps me to understand that I just learn differently it doesn't mean I can't learn. Which can be applied to all of us. We all learn differently.
Today I did get tempted to just give up and continue creating or drawing the way I normally do. But because, I like the results and and I would like to create a more realistic version of a subject like flowers. I'm going to try not to give up. So in this extremely short video clip, you can see a little bit about what I was trying to learn from her.
A Divided Brain Our brain is divided into two hemispheres the left and the right. The left side is responsible for things like logic and math and the right side is more about where are the creative part comes from and I believe also is where our emotions and feelings emanate from. Women apparently tend to use more of a balance of the left and right brain and men tend to be more left brain driven. Which is why a lot of them are really good at math and logic not super great at expressing feelings and emotion and why the majority of women tend to be very emotional and expressive, and often more able to multitask. This does not mean we cannot learn to use both sides of our brain. It does mean for myself, I am definitely far far away from even trying to learn mathematics. My brain definitely is not balaing it's function between the two hemispheres. We are all wired uniquely. So no matter how your brain functions, you may benefit from teachers using various methods of teaching. What matters most when it comes to art, in my opinion, is that you love making it. So if you want to challenge yourself and learn from others, that's great I highly recommend these two artists for different reasons. If you just want to do your own thing and be self taught like I was for most of my life, that's great too. Personally, I do love the age of the Internet because learning now has become so easy since so many people can share what they know. Some people are great at teaching and some may not be. It all depends on their students and how they learn best to make that determination.
I hope you find inspiration to create however you would like and at the same time find ways to challenge yourself to possibly learn new things and new ways to execute your creative adventures. A really great thing about Kristy Rice is she really focusses on the joy of watercolour and creating with it. Her excitement and enthusiasm is very contagious and is why I am here writing about watercolour and creating with it. If I could learn something new at 56 years old, anyone can.
Welcome guys. Couldn't wait to share this long awaited custom art gift project. Watch the short show off video as I got to see things sparkle in the summer sun.
WATCH VIDEO BELOW
Here are the links to some of the materials I Used:
So we accepted that it was not going to work and we're able to give it away to someone who said they had a friend who could fix it. Tell them they could have it. It wasn't worth trying to find a part and repaired since it looked too complicated for us to manage. No I've been kind of enjoying the challenge of watching TV we need screens like the one you'll see in this video. We definitely have a lot of screens to look at it's just none of them are close to 55 inches. As we look into the open white space we now have because this big black wall is gone, things feel hopeful and better. Craig and I realize we didn't know what we were thinking getting such a mammoth television for such a small space. Maybe we were trying to avoid going to the movie theater. Come to think of it Covid happened a few months after we purchased it. Hmmm...
WATCH VIDEO HERE
It's time to move on, it's time to get going... Tom Petty's song is when I like to play whenever it's time to move on, it's time to get going. That's what I decided had to happen with my old power wheelchair. A couple of big changes in the last few days. I had kept my power wheelchair that was almost 18-19 years old, just in case my new one broke down again. If you look back at these blogs and videos you'll see that I had some issues getting my new chair set up. In fact they had to replace that wheelchair entirely within the first six months because the first one was a lemon. Having a lemon for a wheelchair doesn't work well and doesn't exactly instill trust to the point that you want to get rid of your really old but still working wheelchair. So finally, as I look at that big clunker sitting in our living room piled up with stuff, I felt it was safe to finally see if there was someone else who could use it. Thank you God a home was found fairly quickly. Now we have another big space. Spaces are good because then I get to fill it up with something. Just praying and hoping my no four year old wheelchair continues working.
Art Supply Heaven
Worlds are colliding in this blog because not only are we dealing with the television issue, I was happily distracted swatching out new metallic watercolour paints and continuing to set up my new watercolour palette as my art supplies from Currys art supply shop in southern Ontario arrive.
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