Hand Bags Only You Can Make
The fashion themed Smash book is just perfect to show my love for bags. When I made these hand decorated papers became heavy fabrics and leather in my mind. It was so fun to draw stitched seams, add layers and choose decorations.
I have a lot of ugly papers in my hand decorated paper collection. I do not take my papers too seriously. Their common nominator is that they are made by myself and thus they fit together whether pretty or ugly.
If you prefer to make cards instead of art journal pages, you don’t have to miss the fun. Create bag themed cards like I did! This card is a birthday card for my sister. She loves everything red. I also added some stuff that could be found inside the bag: a lipstick, perfume bottle, small scarf and a necklace. We can always give dreams, even for people who have everything and do not want to own more.
I want my art journals to be like catalogs: full of items to pick and choose. I am like a dream shopper with a hand made credit card (how would that look like, or a row of them!). I could ask from the maker of the turquoise pouch: “Do you make these in green too?” And the maker would respond: “Of course, which tone would you like?” With a little help of image processing in Photoshop, the options are right there.
Think about it: there are millions of hand bags which you, and only you, can make!
Let me be your art teacher: Subscribe to my weekly emails!
Subconscious Goals
Here’s an illustration that came out without any pre-planning. I just added a layer after another and in the end was surprised about the animals, and the scene. What was I thinking about?
Creating Subconscious Art
First I created the background paper in Photoshop. I duplicated my old sticker designs there!
After printing the background I made some random spots with alcohol inks and random lines with white correction pen. Then I added a lot of details with markers and gel pens.
Yes, a lot of details.
Finally, I constructed the main elements from decorated papers. Then it came: the horse on the pedestal and the dogs. The horse tells a story for the dogs, and the dogs are captivated by listening to it. When finished, I realized that I want to be that white horse! I want to develop skills to tell visual stories. I want to learn how to create images which not only appeal to the eye but the mind as well.
Isn’t it a wonderful thing that with creativity we can reveal our subconscious goals!
Subscribe to my weekly emails – Get a free mini-course!
Painting with iPad
My latest toy: ArtRage app for iPad. Only 5 dollars which is nothing considering the fun you will be having with finger painting! You can create mixed media in electric form: tubes of paint, pastels, markers … most of the supplies you can imagine are there.
It’s surprisingly easy to change the supply and its’ properties as well as picking color palette. ArtRage has also layers so that you can keep the flowers separate from your butterflies and work with each layer without messing up the other. Love it!
Let me be your art teacher: Subscribe to my weekly emails!
Designing a Tattoo
Last spring my friend asked if I could design a tattoo for her.
A tattoo! An image that you can’t remove, at least not easily! And so personal one. That really is a challenge, I thought. I should not do it. No. Yes. I should try to!
It was my friend’s first tattoo. She had been wanting it for years. She told me she wanted a tree or a branch. That’s where the design process began.
I drew sketches and asked questions. Should it be strong, edgy, round, feminine? Full of leaves or bare? Ornamental or simple? And so on. I knew I had to trust on the design process and let each of the phase take me closer to the end result.
When the process went on, I began to draw sketches on computer. Adobe Illustrator is a great program for this kind of work.
Between computer work I printed the design and continued with handdrawn details. Finally every little detail had been finetuned with computer and the design was finished.
The finished design was presented to the tattoo artist. She changed the thinnest lines stronger so that they would last.
The tattoo is located on the arm. I am glad my friend loves it and I like it too. It represents a lot of her style but I can still recognize it to be my work of art too.
What an exciting project!