Tuesday Tips & Techniques

Welcome to Tuesday Tips and Techniques! I hope you find the information useful in your own creative journey!

TUESDAY TIPS and TECHNIQUES LINKS:
2012

Using Holiday Remnants
Experiment with Color
Create A Series
Pour It On!
Begin with a Border
Punch Some Holes!
Derwent Water Soluble Pastels
Formula One
Dollar Store Finds
Get Out of the House!
Tuxpi
Reuse Those Body Mist Sprayers!
Drawing Tips
Journaling Ideas
Pages For Planning
Journal Every Day
Formula Two
Journal on Canvas
"Put It On Paper"
Stamp Your Feet
Things to do with Hand Outs and Fliers
Play With "What If"
Create a Travel Journal - Tips
Decorating Your Travel Journal Cover
Preparing Your Travel Journal Pages
Travel Journal Embellishments and Add Ons
Make a Water Soluble Travel Palette
Instant Journal Prompts
Join a Blog Party!
Shop the Dollar Store
Travel Collectibles for Your Journal
UStream with Barb Owen (Playing with Paper)
Use Your Printer!


2011
Waxed Paper
Paper Mask
Rubbings
Acrylic Glazes Part One
Acrylic Glazes Part Two
Cover It!
Sketch Once, Copy Twice
Escape Your Journaling Rut!
Psykopaint
Unlikely Sources of Inspiration
Look to Fabric
Inscribe
Peel Your Paper
Break Your Own Rules
Take A Workshop!
Make A Themed Journal
Put It In a Pocket!
Prep Multiple Pages
Using Prepped Pages
Go Monochromatic
Share Your Bounty
Give Yourself a Hand 2
Make Your Photos Fabulous!
Meditate To Mandalas
Create Luscious Layers
Use Your Stash
Begin With a Shape
Crayon and Acrylic Resist
10 Ways to Gain New Perspective
Enlist Your Family!
Create on Canvas!
Use Puzzle Pieces
Manifest Your Music Muse
Make A Mandala Journal
Journal Everyday Life
Poetry as Prompts
Using Prompts
Luscious, Lavish Layers
2012 Art Journaling
Clean House!
Use Die-Cut Scraps!
Free Backgrounds For Your Use!
Let Your Muse PLAY!


YOUR TIP and TECHNIQUE FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY, 25, 2011

GIVE YOURSELF A HAND!

Your hands are the gateway to your creativity.  Why not trace one of them on a journal page and use it to spark your creative muse!

Trace one of your hands with a pencil and then go over the outline with a marker, art pen or as I did, black artist acrylic.

After your hand is traced, fill it in with random doodles.  Don't think about it - let your muse do all the work.  When your hand is completed, fill the rest of your page with images that come to mind.

While the paint dries, go make yourself a mug of coffee or tea - it's COLD outside!

Fill all those black and white areas with delicious colors.  Contemplate the meaning of the images you've created.

Finish your pages with highlights and shadows, and if you like, write your thoughts about what you've created.  Can there be any doubt that my muse is reaching for spring and the warmth of the sun?

YOUR TIP and TECHNIQUE FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY, 18, 2011

PAINT WITH YOUR FINGERS!

That's right - your fingers!  Remember using finger paints as a child?  Why not let you inner child come out and play as an adult! It's easy, and freeing, and will give your pages a new look.

Begin with a two-color combination of acrylics that you like and white.  Be sure to cover your work surface with a drop cloth (things can get messy), and have a wet paper towel nearby to clean the paint off your fingers when you're finished. A container of water large enough to dip your fingers into is also helpful.(EXTRA TIP: Place pieces of waxed paper beneath both sides of your journal to protect your other pages).

Place big globs of paint randomly across your pages.  Now let the fun begin! Moisten your fingertips into the water and let your inner child come out and play.  Massage, tap, swirl, and rub your paint all over the pages.  Feel the buttery smoothness of the paint on your fingers.  Enjoy the way the colors mix as you randomly cover your page.  Use your finger nails to add texture to the wet paint.

Clean the paint from your fingers and go make yourself a cup of coffee or tea while the pages dry.  Some areas will be thick with paint, but most of it should dry within 15 minutes.  Take a look at your pages.  Do you see any images?  Put some of the same colors on a palette and highlight and shade the images that you see.  If you like, add additional colors.

I'm always prone to seeing faces and these pages were no exception.  These figures reminded me of a masquerade and I immediately thought of Mardi Gras.  I wonder what you'll see in your pages?  Go on - have some fun getting paint on yuor fingers!

YOUR TIP and TECHNIQUE FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY, 11, 2011

SAVE THOSE CONTAINERS!

Don't spend your precious dollars on containers used in creating your art. "Freebies" are at your disposal and you need look no further than your kitchen!

My favorite vessel for holding water is my plastic Folger's coffee container.  It holds a lot of water (about 32 oz) and I can wash my brushes and dilute my paint for a very long time before I have to change the water.  It also has a hand grip built in that makes carrying a cinch!

Another useful container are the little cups that hold individual servings of pudding, applesauce and fruit.

My favorites are the pudding cups because they're deep.  These are great for mixing a large portion of custom color, and if you need to keep it for the next day or two, the paint can be placed in a Ziploc baggie until you're ready to use it again.

My favorite storage container of all are the containers that hold ready-to-eat greens like lettuce and spinach.  I store my craft acrylics upside down in them.  It makes it easy to see the colors and the paint keeps nicely.  I also use the containers for storing tubes of artist acrylics.  Having extra containers makes it easy to group tubes of paint that I'm using for a particular painting so I don't have to search or remember exactly which colors I used.  Best of all, these containers stack neatly on top of each other!

So look at your empty food containers with a fresh eye.  What products do you purchase regularly that have the potential to house some of your precious art materials?

YOUR TIP and TECHNIQUE FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2011

TRY A DIFFERENT JOURNAL!

I began my art journaling using Composition Notebooks, but changing my journal to a mixed media notebook has been inspiring!

The Composition Notebooks were instrumental in my commitment to journal daily and they were great for their availability, inexpensive cost and sturdy binding.  The fact that they were so inexpensive helped me to overcome the "fear of ruining it".

I began using a  9" x 12"  Canson Mixed Media notebook back in October.  I wanted to use a slightly larger and unlined notebook for the "21 Secrets" workshop.  I'm so glad I tried a different journal!  Although the mixed media notebook is only slightly larger than the Composition Notebook, it's made a huge difference in the freedom I feel when I journal. The pages are sturdy and take my abusive, heavy hand as I apply paint and mediums.  The pages also stand up nicely to additives such as Heavy Body Gesso.

My journaling style has changed dramatically since I changed my journal.  I'm experimenting more, and I think you'll experiment more when YOU try a different journal!