I have a project here that's been in the works since - believe it or not - this year's Summer of Color! I've finally gotten around to finishing her, and took copious amounts of pictures along the way to show the progression from a quick sketch to a colorfully drippy & waxy finished piece. Wanna take a peek? Okay then, here we go. . . .
The initial sketch
Addition of collage pieces including decorative napkins, tissue paper & washi tape
Washes of blues and grays and the beginnings of her face
The rainbow is colored using 2-3 hues for each segment in a variety of mediums
Texture is added with acrylic white paint mixed with fiber paste pushed through a stencil
Using a quilting iron and crayons, I carefully melted 2 colors for each segment and let 'em drip
The final result! Additional touches include iridescent stars, Stickles glitter in her hair and tights, hash marks made with pencil, wax crayon scribbles (Caran D'ache 1), stamping and charcoal.
Thanks for looking! Now I'm headed over to PPF to see what everyone else is up to this week!
But wait! Before you go, I'm really excited to offer you a chance to win a FREE SPOT on the next Life Book 2015!
To do so, make sure you come back HERE this Sunday, 9/21 and enter. It's that simple. I'd love you to join us and am thrilled to offer you a chance to play along for an entire year of mixed media goodness for nothing, nada, zilch . . . .
"Contained exhilaration is not nearly as exciting as its release. . . . accept challenge!
What excitement do you have to share with the world?"
- Lorii Myers
It's here! It's here! The day has finally come when I can share the secret I've been teasing you about for a while now. I'm absolutely over-the-moon, tickled pink, ecstatic to announce my participation in Life Book 2015! That's right, I'm honored to report that I will be among the 25 teachers that will share their mixed media techniques, tips and tricks with YOU in a year-long online course that begins January 1st, 2015.
Not familiar with Life Book? Oh darlin', you want to know about this!
Life Book is themed around around self-development and healing; you'll be creating several loose mixed media art journal pages per month which by the end of the year you will bind into a gorgeous journal (a Life Book!) that you'll be able to keep and treasure the rest of your life.
How do you get the lessons? Via weekly videos, PDF's and engaging bonus activities. As a matter of fact, you'll get new materials every Monday for the entire year when you sign up. It will look something like this:
◙ 10 In depth Mixed Media Art Lessons by our lovely host Tam of Willowing Arts.
◙ 22 In depth Mixed Media Art Lessons by Spectacular Guest Teachers (see below who the 2015 guest teachers are)
◙ 20 (Smaller) Bonus Activities like: extra PDF prompts & step by steps/ artist interviews/ ATC swaps/ give aways/ audio meditations/ writing prompts etc by Tam & Guest Teachers
Fabulous, right?! And to celebrate the new event & teacher lineup, Tam is offering several (as in 28!) FREE SPACES on the year-long course!
Wanna know more? The blog hop begins today starting with our lovely host Tam. Pop over there
for your chance to win one of 3 spaces she is giving away. Then be sure to follow the blog hop if you want more chances to win a spot as each teacher can give away 1 space on Life Book 2015!
Here is the blog hop schedule. Be sure to play along daily and then come back here on September 21st for your chance to win a FREE SPACE from me! Here we go . . . .
"Shameless" (9 x 12 Loose Journal Page on Watercolor Paper)
"Jan could not recall ever seeing a creature more beautiful, though there nagged somewhere at the back of his mind the notion that she ought to have seemed hideous. Why? For she was pure, admirably pure, without a twinge of conscience or shame." - Meredith Ann Pierce
Hellooooo and happy PPF!I hope this finds you happy, well and enjoying the last of your Summer season.
I for one am so ready to get back to a regular schedule. Summers with a little one are an adventure, but there's something to be said for the comfort of a routine. (Like um, time to actually paint). Having said that, I did do one little thing that I thought you might like a peek at. And I took lotsa process shots along the way. Wanna see? Okay, here goes:
Began with a quick sketch and some basic collage
Added a wash of acrylic and oil pastels
Layered on molding paste (mixed with white acrylic) pushed through a stencil
Coloring her in. (AKA the "ugly stage")
Defined the eyes and added more color and molding paste
Final touches include the addition of some decorative napkins, more oil pastels, charcoal, iridescent stars, a bit of trim and a racy piece of vintage text.
Shameless, I know. But when a word pops out at you, you just have to go for it. Especially when you hadn't gotten around to actually "dressing" her yet. Ha: serependity at it's finest!
Thank you for taking a look. And thank you to Kristin and Eva for all of their efforts in bringing us together.
See you next week! I have an exciting announcement that I can't wait to share. Hmmmmm . . . .
"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
- Walt Disney
Oh my! It's been that long since I've blogged. In my defense, this Summer has just flown by: it feels as if The Summer of Color just ended and now we're getting ready for back to school! But, although I've been quiet around here, I have been busy on the art front. As a matter of fact, I've been really busy with exciting new projects and upcoming opportunities.
But I digress. It all started a few weeks ago when a friend of mine called "out of the blue" and announced that I "really should have" a dot.com address. She felt that it was time to take my art to the next level and offered to help me set it all up. Since I have no earthly clue how to create a website, I accepted her gift and excitedly went about gathering what I needed on my end to make it happen. There were bios to write, photo shoots to take part in (and let me say here that I'd rather have a root canal than have pictures taken) and art galleries to assemble. I was getting a website! And I felt, for lack of a better way to put it, so legit.
Now, as I write this I want you to know that I don't really believe in coincidences. I believe that people come into our lives for a reason, even if we don't always know why at that time. And what my friend didn't know when she felt compelled to help me was that just that morning I had been invited to teach an art journaling class at a local venue and needed a dot.com to connect my site to theirs. My career goals of teaching again were coming to fruition and my friend was there to help, even though she may not have known why at the time.
SO here it is: my brand-spanking-new website. You can now find me here and at KristinVanValkenburgh.com. Oh! And along with the new website came something else that I had yet to do: create an art community on Facebook! So now - along with our Summer of Color page - you can also play with me year-round here on our pretty little Facebook page. I'd love it if you'd join me by "liking" the page. I promise it will be a fun place to hang, and that there are more surprises (that I can hardly contain myself from spilling!) on the very near horizon.
In the meantime, I hope your Summer is going well, that your dreams are coming to fruition and that you too are finding excitement in the new.
"Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.
Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next Summer."
- Jenny Han
As I write this, I can hardly believe that our time has come to an end. I want you to know that I absolutely love our Summers together and am thrilled to hear that you're as enamored with the event as I am. For me, the best bits of the SOC are found between the lines: the friendships being forged, our community coming together and the colorful inspiration found on a weekly basis. The variety alone was enough to keep my jaw on the floor. Thank you for sharing your art and heart with us over these last six weeks. You, your work and your spirit truly are an inspiration!
A Bit About Sharing:
Please know that if you missed a prompt and would still like to give it a go, you can certainly continue to add your links to the widget below each week's post. I promise they do get viewed throughout the year. On that note, if you haven't uploaded your photos to our Flickr pool yet, it's not too late. I love seeing our gallery grow and would be so grateful if you'd post your work there as well. Also, many have asked about our Facebook group and wether or not it will remain open. The answer is a big "Yes!" Although our event has come to a close, the Facebook page will not. Feel free to keep the color conversations going whenever you'd like. We'll be here.
Now, Who Won the Last Giveaway?
Oh right! The winner of the last giveaway for the SOC 4 is . . . .
Congratulations Michelle! Please email your address to Kdvanvalkenburgh@msn.com and I'll get your Raspberry & Tangerine stash right out.
And My Artist Badge?
Oh, you know I wouldn't forget! As a thank you for your support and SOC spirit, this is for you. Please feel free to add it to any of your favorite social media sites. Wether you've joined us for a week or the entire event, you've earned it! (And I hope that you'll love it as much as I do).
And Next Year?
Well now, I did tease you about that, didn't I? As you may have already seen, there's another SOC in our future! I can't wait to tell you all about new, special things happening for our Fifth Anniversary, but um, I'm gonna anyway. But since I did promise you a hint, I'll let you know that for the SOC 5: Color by Number there will be some wiggle room within the palettes. That's right, you'll get to do some of the choosing. How that will work, only time will tell. Summertime that is. But really, you only have to wait until next June to find out . . . .
Until then I wish you much love and colorful kisses,
"There shall be eternal Summer in the grateful heart"
- Celia Thaxter
I'm sitting on a redwood deck overlooking Big Bear Lake, CA as I write this. We arrived over the weekend for a few days of cool weather, mountain air and family time. And although there's so much to love, what I'm noticing more than anything else is the deeply saturated color around here. The blues sparkle more, the greens beg for my attention and last night's sunset seemed to actually be on fire. Okay, I know I'm a bit color-obsessed right now, but I don't care. I'm grateful for the awareness of it. And what I've come to find over our Summers together is that color, in and of itself, just makes me happy. Thank you for for joining this color quest and helping me discover this. I - and it - would not be the same without you.
As we head into our last prompt for The Summer of Color 4: Smudge, Splash & Pop, I hope you'll agree that the community and connection we've fostered has been as much fun as the creating. Your spirit and talents are an inspiration and I want to thank you from the bottom of my color-laden heart for sharing them with us here, in our Flickr pool and on our Facebook page. We have one week left to share our color creations with one another and I for one hope that this is our busiest week yet. If you've yet to join us, make this your time. After all, I've saved one of the best palettes for last. You could even say that I found inspiration from Summer itself. . . .
This Week:
We'll be working on our sixth - of six - color palettes. Your prompt will include two main colors along with a Smudge, Splash or Pop of a third. As ever, you may create anything at all, as long as it's based upon the colors of the week. So, ready for our last challenge? Here we go:
Raspberry & Tangerine
with a Smudge, Splash or Pop of Lemon
To see examples of the color Raspberry, click here.
To see examples of the color Tangerine, click here.
To see examples of the combination of the two, click here.
Then What?
You know the drill. Create anything you'd like in Raspberry & Tangerine (with that Smudge, Splash or Pop or Lemon) and link it to the widget below. To qualify for the Raspberry and Tangerine drawing, please copy and paste your direct blog link or direct Pinterest, Facebook or Flickr feed (or anything else that will link ;) by this Sunday, (10:00 am Pacific Standard Time), July 20th. Only one link per person, please.
Ready? Okay then, Go!
And Our Last Giveaway?
Don't miss your chance to win these little pretties:
Two sets of Recollections alpha embellishments in the colors, a few decorative napkins for collage, three large Amsterdam Acrylic tubes (4.1 oz) in Primary Magenta, Gold Yellow and Nickel Titan Yellow, a gorgeous 6 x 6 stencil from Balzer Designs, a package of 3mm Hot Fix Swarovski Crystals, three tiny Distress Inks in (can you believe it?) Pickled Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed, a large (8 oz) jar of Satin Mod Podge and, finally, a sprinkling of loose Swarovski crystals in clear and clear iridescent.
Love it? As a matter of fact, I (for the first time this Summer ;) just created a journal page using bits of the napkins shown above. Pop over to my Instagram page to see if you can find them.
Wait. Who Won Last Week's Giveaway?
Yes, that. The randomly selected winner last week was . . .
"My Mother warned me to avoid things coloured red"
- Claes Oldenburg
Where has the time gone?! I can hardly believe that we're heading into Week Five of The Summer of Color 4: Smudge, Splash & Pop! I know a lot of us are already dreading the end, but not to fear! There are still two weeks left of challenging color prompts, colorful giveaways and time together in our amazingly creative community. And as far as fun things are concerned, two weeks left is quite a lot indeed. So keep the creativity flowing and the love going 'cause we're headed towards another color conundrum. . .
This Week:
We'll be working on our fifth - of six - color palettes. Your prompt will include two main colors along with a Smudge, Splash or Pop of a third. Feel free to create anything at all that you'd like, as long as it's based upon the colors of the week. And if you've just found us, welcome! You can read all about the party here, check out our Facebook page here and see all SOC photos in one place over here. Oh, and if you're into social media, please use the hashtag #TheSummerofColorFour so we can all find each other out there.
Yeah, Yeah. We Wanna See the Colors!
I gotcha. Although I know it looks as if this week's palette was influenced by last week's holiday in the States, I promise this has been in the kitty for a while. Having said that, it is a cool combination, one which I hope you'll love. Ready? Here we go:
To see examples of the color Royal Blue, click here.
To see examples of the combination of the two, click here.
Okay, Cool. Now What?
Now you create! When you're done, you may link your Red & Royal Blue (with that Smudge, Splash or Pop of Light Blue) to the widget below. To qualify for the Red & Royal Blue drawing, please copy and paste your direct blog link or direct Pinterest, Facebook or Flickr feed by this Sunday, (10:00 am Pacific Standard Time), July 13th. Only one link per person, pretty please.
Ready? Okay, Link:
Oh! And What About the New Giveaway?
Right! I think it's another pretty cool one, yes?
Two Craft Smart ink pads in Red and Blue, one set of 10 (adorable) red notecards, one large Recollections stamp in a lattice pattern, three PanPastel Artists' Pastels in Permanent Red, Phthalo Blue and Turquoise, one gorgeous Fabriano 5.8 x 8.25 red journal, two Martha Stewart high gloss multi-surface craft paints in Habanero and Indigo and, for the vintage fans among us, two child's toy blocks (from my personal stash) in the colors and, naturally, a sprinkling of both clear and light blue Swarovski Crystals.
And Who Won Last Week's Giveaway?
I hear tell that it's a birthday girl! That Random Number Generator really knew what it was doing this week. Happy Birthday and Congratulations to:
