Author: Cheryl

Many of us talk to ourselves. I suspect that more creative folk do this more often. It’s not a bad thing. The vast majority of our thinking happens on a subconscience level. Verbalizing is helpful for clarifying and, at times, problem solving too. What follows is a conversation that a painter may have with herself. Can you relate to this? Do you talk to yourself? 

My first painting from this sabbatical time – it includes a lot of collage! If you would like to know what techniques were used, scroll down and see the previous blog posts. 

Just loving layering with collage! Into the painting in progress I have collaged polished stones, glass, words, metal art foil, and charcoal (see previous post). The stones and glass were attached to the canvas with acrylic clear gloss gel. I was pleased with how easy it was to incorporate some words into the image. After printing the phrase off on my black and white printer, I tore the words so that there was an uneven edge all around. I put a layer of matte medium onto the painting, and placed the paper into it. With more matte medium on a brush, I thoroughly soaked the paper and made it lay flat. After that layer was dry, I used similar colours of acrylic paint on top of the paper to make it fade into the painting. I was pleased with how unobtrusive, yet still legible, the writing became. This image is just part of the phrase, and a small part of the painting. Curious to see the whole painting, and see what the phrase is? Probably tomorrow – check back then. 

Yesterday was the first day of my art sabbatical. I was happy at the end of the day with what I had learned – lots of exploring – and layers on layers! One of the items I played with was powdered charcoal. It can be used to give a more organic looking texture than, for example, spattered paint. This is the method: paint some clear matte medium onto the paint surface wherever I wanted black dots. Pinch some charcoal powder between my fingers, and sprinkle it over the desired area. It doesn’t matter if it lands on areas you don’t want it. Simply wait until the matte medium is thoroughly dried, then take a damp cloth and gently wipe away any excess charcoal. A final coat of acrylic varnish locks everything in. You can get the feeling of it from the detail image posted here. Not ready to show you the whole painting yet – perhaps in a few days. 

During my painting time over the next 3 months, I’m also going to be using what I am calling “Thought Gems”. Each day I will take an inspirational thought or quote, write it out, and keep it with me for the day. Everytime I change tasks, for example go from painting to lunch time, I will review that thought. Hopefully these gems will keep a sparkle in my day. Care to join me? 

How to start a creative day? Gesture drawings! These funny scribble drawings are to an artist what scales are to a pianist. They warm up the right side of the brain and start the creative juices flowing. They look like nothing much in themselves – but then a pianist doesn’t perform scales for people either. What a gesture drawing looks like hardly matters. It’s what is happening inside the gray matter when you take the time to do these – and it can help you make better art. Here is a sample… If you would like to try some of these, get yourself a whole lot of sports action photos. They need to show the whole person in action, head to toe. When you put your pencil down on the paper, in your imagination you are placing the pencil onto the person in the photo. Then move your hand very quickly as you try to capture the essense of that motion. Don’t think about the edges, but rather bounce your lines around inside of the figure. Where you feel more tension or bulk, scribble tighter. The whole drawing takes 20 to 30 seconds to complete. I will do about 10 of these as warm ups every day. And they are great for any time that you feel stuck during a creative process. Have fun!