How Do I Start?

One of the most common questions I receive from friends, family and strangers is "I want to try using art to release, to heal, to veg out, for fun, etc. How do I start?"

Honestly, I'm not a professional teacher. Or a therapist. Or anything like that. I'm just a girl who's been creating since she was a kid and has finally found the courage to break out of the box I'd been placed in and stayed in for the majority of my life. I'm now a woman who makes art the way I want to make it, using the skills I have and my intuition and surroundings as inspiration and not someone who sits down and plans a masterpiece from start to finish. And while I'd like to take credit for doing this all on my own, I've had a lot of help from the beautiful Connie at Dirty Footprints Studio and a tribe of amazing, fearless women who have taken this journey with me.

While I can't guarantee that my advice here will really help you do all of the things you want to achieve with art nor promise that it will be easy to just let go (because it isn't) I'm going to do my best to answer that most frequent of questions. I'm not going to teach you how to draw, there are plenty of talented people, inspiring classes and great books out there to help you out with that. This isn't going to be a piece filled with deep lectures on perspective and color theory. So, if you're ok with all of that, let's get to that questions above. And keep in mind, this is just my own experience I'm sharing with you.

"How do I start?"

For me, I started out being nervous about trying something new. This is normal. Whether you've been drawing your entire life or you're brand new to the world of art making, stepping outside of your comfort zone can (and most likely will) cause nerves. The important thing is not to let them stop you in your tracks and keep you from starting. So, how did I overcome my nerves?

I used materials that were familiar and fun. For me this was brightly colored oil pastels which, if you are unfamiliar with them, is like the greatest crayon you will ever use in your life. And who doesn't love crayons? Of course, they're made from different materials are more vibrant and blend a hell of a lot better but if you've held a crayon and enjoy coloring this is the medium for you. If you're more comfortable with paint, then grab some paint in bright colors that catch your eye.

Next, pick something to put your pastel/paint on. Don't make it expensive because that will most likely stress you out to make things perfect. We aren't going for perfect here, we're going for whatever happens, happens. I personally like to use cardboard, mixed media paper (because it's thick and doesn't buckle under heavy layers of color) and card stock. I'd recommend staying away from thin paper and anything with a waxy surface (like poster board.)

Once you've gotten your supplies, get yourself relaxed and ready to paint. Pour yourself a nice hot cup of coffee, put on some music, take a few deep breaths, grab a color and just start. Scribble, doodle some shapes, make some funky lines. Whatever you need to do to get started, just do it. And don't worry how it looks because honestly? It doesn't matter. You don't have to show anyone your work if you don't want to and even if you want to, this isn't for them. It's for you. So fuck expectations, leave those guys outside of this moment and just let whatever wants to come out do so.

Don't worry about perspective, anatomy, color theory. Fuck all that noise. Go with what moves you. Follow your heart, your hand, your gut, the painting and leave your mind out of it... that big lump of brain tissue's got enough to worry about so give it a break when you come to your art. When your fear inevitably creeps up and tells you 'this is garbage', 'that looks terrible', 'why is her arm all noodly?' acknowledge it, give it a cookie and send it on its way. Don't let it stop you.

There are tons of drawings and paintings I've done that I don't show here (or anywhere) because they're ugly as sin and honestly? I don't like them. And you know what? It's fine to not like the outcome because when you're painting from the heart, it's the journey that matters most, not the outcome. So let the emotions and ideas leap from your heart on to the paper; if you want to cry, cry. If you want to laugh, laugh. This is all about you and your art practice. There's no right or wrong way to it; it just is.

While I was drawing yesterday I decided to document my process a little bit, since that is my second most frequently asked question. How do you do what you do? Well, honestly, I'm terrible at explaining and it's always different but I attempted to give it a shot. And in the spirit of Fearlessness, I even took some videos with my iPhone. I'm used to drawing with two hands; one drawing and one holding the paper steady so having one hand to draw and one hand holding the camera did lead to a little shaky cam and a few random odd angles but overall, I think they're ok.

The weirdest part, is hearing my own voice recorded. I was almost like "Nope. Nope, not sharing this. I sound weird." But, I realize that's just how I sound and that deleting them is just wussing out. So here's a peek at my process. I hope you enjoy it. :)

P.S. Flickr seems to have made the volume on these sort of quiet, so I'm sorry about that! I talk in all but the first video, so you may have to turn the volume up a bit. Next time I do videos, I'll upload them elsewhere. (open to suggestions if you've got them.)

Materials. As you can see, I'm using cheapy oil pastels that come in those value boxes of art supplies around the holidays. I *love* the boxes and while the supplies aren't the best I don't like to be wasteful. Also, I'd like to reiterate that you don't need to spend a lot on supplies.


Beginning. This is just the initial outline of my figure. I don't always draw figures, but I do most of the time.


Shading. I've used blue and purple here simply because that's what I felt the need to use. I know that sounds very woo-woo, but there really isn't a better way for me to describe it.

Working up a face. No talking yet.


Showing how I work in highlights and moosh things together. I talk in this one! Just a head's up for you noseys who just want to see what I sound like.


Smoothing out the figure and adding the shading back in.


Figure's skin all done.




Backgrounds







A little technique tip.





All done!

The colors in this are more accurate than the photos, because this is a scan of the final piece. You can see I used the scrape technique in this one in certain places.

I hope this helps get some of you started on the path to your own painting/art practice and helps clear up some of the mystery surrounding my technique. Let me know what you think and if you'd like to see more in the future, I might do longer, edited videos of some of my larger paintings. It might be fun for me to see how things evolve in video form rather than just photos, since I'm a total nut for process. ;)

Solar Powered Art

During your travels through this magical series of tubes called the internet I'm sure that you, much like myself, have stumbled across this clever craft idea at least once. As a lover of all the super cheap craft stuff that can be found around back to school time and someone in need of things to start hanging on my walls this crayon art was right up my alley.

Only, unlike so many folks I decided to save some electricity and use our extremely sunny conditions to create the necessary heat for the project. I started out with two packages of Crayola crayons, an old canvas board and some glue. I removed one grey, one black and both white and brown crayons from the bunch and glued the crayons near the top of my canvas to create a double rainbow. I let the glue set overnight and stuck my canvas out in the early sunlight on my patio, propped up against a chair with some newspaper underneath to catch any drips.

I waited. And waited. I ran outside every so often to check on the progress and it was very anti-climatic until around the 2pm mark. Then it happened:

The purples and blues started first, in thin waxy drips then large chunks of built up mush as colors collided just outside the wrappers. The greens sat on the verge of dripped, glistening in the afternoon sun.

As they finally began to run the sun had left the patio and I took out the hairdryer to coax the remaining colors into movement. All it took was about three minutes and the yellows, oranges and reds joined the others on their journey down the canvas.

I let the wax solidify before bringing it in and hanging it up on my craft room wall. Eventually I would like to frame it, but for now I'm just enjoying the textures of it.

A fairly effortless and fun project that cost me less than $1. :)

P.S. I've been spending a lot of time on a site called Pinterest where I've been curating collections of lovely things, gathering ideas for things to make and hoarding inspiration. It's seriously addicting and I've been spending my snippets of time between reading, working, cooking and sleeping pinning things to my little heart's content. If you want to check out what the site is all about or friend me, you can find my pinboards here.

Paper Trees

Have any of you ever made paper trees from old books or magazines? It's one of those crafts I remember doing around this time of year as a kid. My brother and I would make them out of my mom's old issues of Reader's Digest magazine. I've been wanting to make them for a few weeks so I trolled my local used book store and grabbed a few books for under $1, grabbed a marker and my craft knife and sat down to make some decorations for the house and write up a quick how-to for anyone who hasn't done this before!

Step 1
Remove the cardboard cover off of the book, getting as much of it off the spine as possible but leaving the glue alone.



Step 2
Now there are two ways to proceed with the next step. One that's safe for wee hands and one that isn't. I'll go over the one that's kid friendly first.

Kid Friendly, Craft Knife Free Option
Have your child fold the pages down to the center of the book to form a tree shape.


Once you've folded a few pages over you can start to get a feel for how your tree will be shaped. If it's too chunky for your liking, fold the page once more in the same direction to create a slimmer tree form.

Once you're done, skip down to step 3. If you're an adult who'd like to make a slightly fancier tree and isn't afraid of a sharp craft knife, this is the way you'll want to proceed in step 2.

Adult Friendly, Sharp and Messy Option
Draw your tree shape on the first page of the book with your marker, grab your craft knife and start to cut along the lines.



This is what your tree will look like about halfway through!


Step 3
Once you've either folded your pages or cut them up it's time to shape your tree.

Gently fold the book around and back on itself to create a rounded tree shape. With old books with well worn binding, this will be simple! If your book is new, you"re going to have to do this by first bending the book to stretch the binding every few pages.

Once your tree is rounded and fluffly, paper clip the end pages together and display it! Feel free to ink, paint, glitter or otherwise decorate your tree.

Once the season is over, remove the paperclip, push it back to it's previous book form and store with your other decorations.

If you try this out and use the cut-out method, please remember to recycle or reuse the paper scraps! also, if you want your tree to have more of a point at the top then mine does, just start your pattern closer to the spine!

Happy mess making. :)

Resistance Painting

Today I thought I'd share with all of you lovelies a simple, but effective painting technique that I enjoy using in my journal as well as some of my mixed media artwork. It's called resistance painting and it is so simple that I learned to do it back in elementary school.

All you'll need is a good old waxy crayon and some watercolors. I personally like to use the often over looked white crayon on my pages to hold blank areas, but experiment to your heart's content with this!

Now that you have your crayon and your watercolors, grab your journal and doodle something with the crayon. Press hard to leave good solid waxy marks. If your pages are on the thin side, go over the same lines gently a few times. Good build up is key!

Then, take your watercolors and paint right over the entire area of page you want to be that color. If you're only using one color... paint the entire page.

Did you notice that your paint isn't sticking to particular parts of the page? Namely the parts you drew on with your crayon? Wax resists water, so while your paint may bead up on it, a gentle swipe with your finger, cloth or a dry brush will clean it up. This is a great method for keeping white space on a page, or for building up mediums.

You can use this technique for various effects, such as line work or blocking out large chunks of your page. If you only push gently on the crayon as you go, the lines will be less bright as there is less wax between your paint and paper and it will still bond to an extent.

Here are examples of a few pages I've used this technique for:

As background mushroom stems...


As the focal point of my design. If you click this one, you can view it larger and see where I pushed harder or more gently on the crayon as I drew.

Go ahead and give this a try. Let me know what you think!

Putting Together a Collage Page

In my journal I primarily work with a mixture of paints, inks and collage. I tend to be relatively systematic with this style of page, as in there are 3-4 steps or more depending on how in depth the layering on my page will ultimately end up being.

I've outlined the steps I took to create my newest page and am sharing it for anyone who is interested in how my pages evolve or is curious about how to get started on their own pages:

Step 1: Base Layer

Typically the base layer consists of just the big blotches of watercolor paint that will become the background. I scanned this a step later in the process after I had added some simple ink outlines and a few more touches of watercolor.

Step 2: Collage Layer 1

This is my main collage layer. Pieces I glue down here are typically the biggest, chunkiest elements on my page.

Step 3: Collage Layer 2

Not much has changed in this step, but you can see that I've added my smaller collage elements as well as a chunky element that I wanted on my top layer. If you click on this image it will take you to my Flickr page where you can view it larger.

Step 4: Final Touches

If you wanted to do more than 2 layers of collage, those steps would come before the finishing touches. Here you can see I've added a few final inky phrases and details, such as writing on the wee polaroid photos, the departure and arrival time of my move and other statistics. I've also added a heart shaped button over my home and a shiny star over my new town. I also added a piece of rick-rack to help frame out and balance my spread.

I hope this is helpful and that you're all having a great time working in your journals so far!

Herb Infused Dough Ornaments

Did you ever make salt dough ornaments as a kid? These are basically the same thing, with a little bit of an extra kick!

Recipe:

4 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of salt
1 cup of water

Herbs to pull what you want to fill your home with during the holiday season right to you.

This recipe will make approximately 30 ornaments. You can halve or double as needed.

Step 1:

Mix the flour and salt in a big bowl. Once they are thoroughly mixed slowly begin to add the water, mix as you add. Some people like to use a big wooden spoon, I use my hands and mix and knead the dough as if I were making bread. You want your dough to have a smooth texture... too crumbly or too sticky just won't work! If your dough is a bit on the crumbly side, go ahead and add a wee bit more water.

Step 2:

Once your dough is mixed it's time to pull put your herbs. I picked lavender for love and harmony, sage for patience and wisdom and cinnamon for prosperity. You can use more or less, I just decided to use three.

Separate your dough into equal portions that reflect the number of herbs you want to use. In this case, I have three herbs, so I split my dough into three balls.

Step 3:

Poke a hole into the center of your dough and fill it with the herb you are using in that batch. In this case I'm using the lavender. Fold the herb in and knead vigorously to spread it throughout the dough.

Step 4:

Once you've infused the dough with the herb, roll your ball of dough out to about 1/2" thickness on a sheet of waxed paper.

Step 5:

Grab your cookie cutters and get cutting! I chose to make my lavender dough into stars, but you can use any shapes you want. If you like your things to have a rougher feel, you can cut your shapes out free hand with a small pairing knife, just make sure you don't gouge your table! :)

Step 6:

Once you've cut your ornaments out, it's time to bake them. As you place each ornament onto an ungreased cookie sheet, poke a big hole near the top with a toothpick. Make sure it's slightly larger than you want it to be in the end as the ornaments tend to expand a wee bit while cooking.

Place the ornaments in the oven and bake for approximately 20 - 30 minutes at 350F. The ornaments will be hard to the touch once done. You can also stick a sewing pin in them to test doneness, if it comes out clean, they're done!

Step 7:
After they've cooled use a ribbon or thread to hang them. You can also paint them with acrylic paints, add glitter to them, or jazz them up however you'd like. Have fun with them and enjoy your herbal ornaments!

Keepsake Matchbox Shrine Tutorial

I hope you'll find my tutorial enjoyable and will give making your own keepsake matchbox a try. They're great gifts for others as well as yourself. Also, merry meet to those of you visiting from the Domestic Witch's Homemade Holidays!

Keepsake Matchbox Shrine

Supplies you will need:

* Matchbox
* Glues (stick and thick liquid)
* Craft Knife
* Cutting mat
* Ruler
* Scrapbooking or other papers
* Focal Picture
* Embellishments

Step 1

Cut out a piece of scrapbooking paper 2x the size of your matchbox's back side.

Glue the box into the center of the paper and trim the excess to create paper flaps to cover the walls of the box.

Step 2:

Fold flaps in and glue in place using your tacky glue.

Step 3:

Cut your photo down to fit inside your box.

Step 4:

Once trimmed, glue the photo inside with glue stick and set aside to dry.

Step 5:

While your interior dries, cover the outer matchbox in paper. Measure the box and trim the paper accordingly, then glue into place with your glue stick.

Set aside to dry completely, as you don't want the paper to shift and wrinkle while you work.

Step 6:

While the outer box is drying, take the embellishments for your interior box and glue them in place with your tacky glue.

For mine I used a foreign coil to symbolize my DH's love of travel and learning, a Seahorse charm to represent my love of the sea (and that my favourite element is water) and a lego to symbolize a combined interest.

Step 7:

Lastly, embellish the outside. I used a leaf, a wax seal of our initial, and a celtic love knot.

Once both boxes have dried, slip the inner box inside of the outer box and viola! You have matchbox keepsake. :)

Kitchen Apothecary

I have a wall in my kitchen with small staggered shelves that I usually keep my tea tins, tea pots, candles and a small elemental shrine on. This year, I turned my shelves into an Apothecary shop.

The cauldron below the shelves is perched on top of my microwave. When we have our Halloween party, the microwave and cart will be draped in black fabric and the cauldron will be filled with punch. Enough of that though, let's get to talking about the shelves! Clicking on any of the photos will take you to it's Flickr page where you can view it larger and see more detail.

On display on this shelf I have arranged a raven, a tea tin with it's label turned towards the wall and 3 bottles I filled with 'spooky' things, like an elixir of zombification, clairvoyance potion and graveyard dirt. I used the tea tin as a riser for a small tin shrine I received in a swap. The vintage mushroom diagram is always on that shelf and fit right in with the decorations.



This shelf is flanked by two wine bottles that I absolutely love, a solid black glass cat and Ghost pines. In between the bottles is another vintage mushroom diagram, another tea tin facing the wall, a small shrine devoted to bats that I received in a swap, a vintage brass flute, and more potions and ingredients; bad dreams, dragon's tears and unicorn's blood.



The central shelf (and last shelf I will be sharing in detail) showcases my favorite teapot, a clay japanese teapot given to me by my lovely, a voodoo doll style kitchen witch from Spain, a caged bird ornament that I bought last Christmas, 2 small vintage german cups, an aged metal adornment that I bought at a garage sale over the summer and a potion of factual aquisition.



I completed the shelves by arranging some more potions on the top shelves with the things that were already there and covering everything in thin fake cobwebs.



I finished off the kitchen with a chemist's sign, some holey fabric and purple Halloween lights.

Here is a closer look at some of the bottles, which I made last year:

If you're still reading and interested in making your own Apothecary bottles, this is how I made them:

1) I went to my local craft store and bought a bunch of their $1 bottles in various shapes and sizes. I also bought a bag of corks that would fit the bottle. If there is anything you want to put in the bottles that you don't have at home, feel free to pick that up too! I had all of my supplies at home already, so this project cost me $12 for 10 bottles. Not too bad.

2) Once home, take the price stickers off of your bottles and assemble your supplies. You will need:

- Bottles
- Corks
- White Vinegar
- Food Colouring
- Any solid objects to put in your potions, such as google eyes, colored class pebbles, dirt, etc.
- twine
- hot glue gun and glue
- mod podge or other decoupage medium
- printer and paper
- tea
- Paint/Sponge brush

3) Decide what you want your bottles to hold and fill accordingly. For potions, fill your bottles with vinegar and add food colouring until you achieve the look you want. Once your bottles are filled to your satisfaction, line the thinner part of your corks with hot glue and jam them into the necks of the bottles. Glue should ooze over the top, which is what you want. Make sure your bottle is sealed securely by hot gluing around the cork/bottle opening. If you want the dripping waxy look, go nuts here... let the glue ooze down the side of the bottle, cover the entire cork in glue; whatever you want to do. If you want your bottle to look more rustic, run glue around the top of the bottle neck and cork and wrap twine tightly around it.

4) Now that your bottles are filled and sealed, they're going to need labels. You can hunt for free graphics online or make your own using Photoshop, the Gimp, etc and a font that you enjoy. Once your labels are designed and sized to fit your bottles print them out and let the ink dry completely before moving onto the next step.

5) Is your ink completely dry? Make sure by leaving them alone a bit longer and brewing a very strong dark batch of black tea. You won't need much, 1/3 cup should do it. Once your tea is brewed and ready to go, bring your label papers out and place them on newpaper. Take your paint brush and your tea and drip/sponge the tea onto the papers. DO NOT paint the tea on or you risk destroying your label. Once your paper is covered in enough tea to look aged, let it dry for a bit. You can recoat with tea if you aren't happy with the richness of the stain, just make sure the paper dries between coats.

6) If you want aged edges on your labels, rather than straight scissor cuts, go back to your labels while they are still damp and tear around the label, don't try to tear in a straight line, just let it go. Now, let the labels dry completely.

7) Once the labels are dry, it's time to stick them to your bottles! Get your decoupage medium and brush a thin coat onto the back of your label and onto the bottle. Stick the label onto your bottle and let dry. Once dry, brush decoupage medium over the label, making sure to get some on the bottle around the edges of the label to seal it on. Let it dry and enjoy your creation!

Some Apothecary Bottle "Recipes":

Stingers of Jellyfishes:

- Grab a sheet of waxed paper and your hot glue gun. Run glue lines of varying thickness randomly on the waxed paper. Don't worry about the tendrils that always end up happening when you move the gun, in this case, those are great!
- Peel the hot glue strands lines off the paper once they've cooled and pop them into a jar or bottle. Now fill your bottle with enough vinegar to cover them and dye it a light shade of yellow.

Bad Dreams:

- Take a few cotton balls (or fake cobwebs, since it IS the season for them!) and pull them apart, making them light and wispy.
- With charcoal or dark chalk rub bits of the cotton to dirty it up. Pop it into a bottle or jar, cork it and label it.

Snake Oil:

- Cram a few small rubber snakes into a bottle/jar. Fill the jar with vinegar and dye it whatever colour you think snake oil should be! I tinted mine with enough coloring to make it a dark oily brown. The snakes show through when the light hits it just right for an eerie effect!

These are just a few of mine, feel free to use them or come up with your own!