Thursday 5 January 2012

Strathmore artist workshops-they are free!

Hello!
I joined the Strathmore Artists Studio Workshops again this year. I tried to do a couple last year but didn't have enough time what with us having to move out of our house for a few months. The first workshops this month are by Tracy Bautista and are called 'Doodles unleashed'. There are two videos to watch which are about 30mins in total.Once you join you can access the videos until August, I think. It is a ning site so you can join the forum and post your work if you want to, but there is no commitment to do so, you can just dip in and out (Carmen!!).
I copied what Tracy did in the videos and came up with this.

 First layer was spraying through stencils and found objects like rubber bands and feathers. I had no rubber bands or feathers so I made my own feather stencil out of card. I made the circle stencils out of card and used my crop-a-dile to punch some holes in them. I used Dylusions inks as I didn't have any fluid acrylic to make my own sprays.
 The next layer was to add some paint
 Then to outline bits in indian ink (waterproof)
And then to make more marks and doodles with marker pens.

I throughly enjoyed this process! I can still be a bit uptight with my art, worrying I am going to mess it up or that it won't be perfect...I have got a lot better since I started art journalling, but the perfectionist in me still lurks in the background! I found this really liberating, it didn't have to mean anything it was just playing with different mediums and as Tracy says in the videos, just being free to make marks on the paper.
I love how its turned out and think I will use this process again for backgrounds in my journal.
TFL
Sami x

10 comments:

Sarah said...

I can't work out which of the 4 stages of that process I love best, the first is all urban grunge, which is my default style anyway. the second stage with added paint to soften it is just lovely. The black outlines alone make all the colours pop. And then the white doodles look fab too. But I think maybe at that last stage I'd wonder if I'd gone too far.... But all in all, it looks fantastic and I bet you had fun playing :)

Valerie-Jael said...

Love what you have made, really wonderful! Hugs, Valerie

Unknown said...

It looks great. I love how you've been so bold with large shapes and the additional detail is fabulous. I love how it all flows and works as a whole as well as in small bits.

I'm in the middle of doing mine, I've used spray glimmer mists, cosmic shimmer and water plus acrylic for the spray stage, although am on a mission this morning to get out and find some more spray colours! I've added lots of acrylic paint in various layers, but wasn't bold enough to go for the big shapes and now I'm ready to start adding more layers. I am pleased with how it has turned out so far, better than I hoped, but nothing like as amazing as yours.

Carmen said...

LOL! Whaaaaat?

I'm so glad you posted what you used as I keep meaning to ask you what paints etc you use, I love the colours. Will have to add some Dylusions to my ever growing list of want/NEED!

Thanks for this Sam, I will definitely go investigate. I just love yours!

laurie said...

i'm so glad you showed us photos of the process in creating this page. i loved seeing how you made it your own by the end - gorgeous! and it looked like a fun piece to create. :-)

Sherry said...

In a word Sam, STUNNING!!!!!!!!!
... and it sounded like fun too x

Joanna said...

Oh wow, this is wonderful - I enjoyed seeing how the page developed at each stage. Fab!

x

Joyce van der Lely said...

your page is super super super !!! reminds me that I still have to make mine........

Lorraine said...

looking good Sam

Lynette (NZ) said...

Awesome -- obviously I need to join up cos this is the 3rd time I've come across in as many days (not just bloggers)! I think the universe is trying to tell me something.