Weekend Play

This project was going really well until the very end. It was suppose to be a congratulations card for some friends in a local play, but now we'll see. I got lazy with Claudine Hellmuth's Petroleum Jelly technique and didn't get it wiped up enough. I kept thinking if I just covered it with enough gel medium it would be OK. Nope. Bad instinct there.

I am excited about a few new techniques I'm trying. More on that later. In the mean time, if you don't have Claudine's books or DVDs they are certainly all INCREDIBLY helpful. (If you follow the instructions...ahem.) If I could find the rubbing alcohol I bought 2 days ago my night will be set.

Paper Flower Magnet Tutorial

I now understand a bit better what our artists must go through when they come here to film a DVD workshop. I've heard the hardest part is when we send them the check disc and they see themselves on the screen for the first time. Yeah....I get that now. The above is me (sans camera A :)

Dayle Doroshow in France (lucky!)

If you look really closely you can see Dayle Doroshow taking pictures!

OK, maybe half of that isn't true, but Dayle is currently in France to teach a workshop. She went early to soak France up a bit before beginning her classes.

See what she's up to by checking out her blog.

Have a great time Dayle!

Conversations with Nicholas Simmons Part 1

Nicholas Simmon's DVD workshop "Innovative Watermedia" is still a few weeks out (which means people can still pre-order and save $5 :) but we have a few goodies for people while they wait. Nick talked about a bunch of interesting issues that we had to cut from his DVD due to time restraints so we will be posting them over the next few weeks. It's audio only so sit back, relax, and take a listen.

Three Day Weekend

This has been a crazy week here at work. I've been coming in really early so that I have time to exercise and eat before 6PM play practice. This always seems like such a good idea at the start of the week, but by the end of it I'm dragging my half conscious body toward the finish line. So the best three words a person could hear at this point? Three Day Weekend. OK, so really, "You! giant raise!" wouldn't be bad either but well, in that that's not happening, Three Day Weekend is wonderful.

My brain has also been going a million miles a minute on craft projects I want to try. When I'm in a play the crafts get pushed to the back burner. I just build up ideas on random pieces of paper I hopefully can find later. The three day weekend means that I will have some time to play around in my paint and glue. I think this will be good for my soul.

Enjoy and see you Tuesday!

Summer

Buttons

Nicholas Simmons Countdown Begins!

We have begun the countdown for Nicholas Simmons's DVD workshop, "Innovative Water Media." We just approved the check disc, which means the DVDs will arrive in our warehouse in about 3 weeks!

"Innovative Water Media" is going to be a great learning tool for water media artists of all stripes. Nick takes aspects of the medium that people usually try to avoid and incorporates them into his own style. Water media artists usually think of blooms, crawl-backs and puddling as signs of a ruined painting but Nick takes them and makes incredible textures.

We are also working on some Nick web extras so more info to come soon.

Little Less Confusion

I had a couple of friends ask me why I had chickens on everything. (I have 2 more web spaces beyond this blog, and I had chickens on those too.) So for less confusion, here are some houses. Nothing fancy but every pattern in it is mine. Very very simple so far, but a girl has to start somewhere. I'm really looking forward to the day I have a large library of my own patterns to choose from. Until then I suppose it takes a little every day.

Carl Dalio Sale

Ready for a quick brush up on your perspective and composition? Watercolorist Carl Dalio, NWS, AWS, presents eight complete lessons on perspective and composition his watercolor DVD workshop, "Sketching in Perspective - Drawing and Composition."

Check out Carl's watercolor DVD workshop, "Carl Dalio on Color Power."

Sherri Haab

Sherri Haab, artist of many-genres extraordinaire, answered a question put to her by a blog carnival. The question was: If you suddenly became wealthy and didn't have to sell your jewelry anymore for income, would you still sell it? Would you still make it? and why?

So interesting!

Here's how Sherri answered:
If I was wealthy and didn't have to sell my jewelry I would still make and sell it because I do it for enjoyment. However, I would approach jewelry making from a different perspective....

(read more)

Vintage Photos

Cora from Paper Flowers found some great old photos at a flea market and is kindly posting them every Saturday to use. She only asks that you link back to her blog so that everyone can enjoy the art.

Thanks Cora!

I'm trying to slowly start using only my own pattern designs in my vector work. I've more or less got polka dots and lines down, but I still don't have a selection of even those to browse through. I don't have any patterns I really like that use damask or paisley.

Anthony on a Train is getting closer (although still a far cry.) I moved the door left and I gave him a seat. (Originally he was floating.) Way too busy.

The one part I'm really happy with seems so insignificant but it's the first time I've used color theory in my work. The book is two colors. The page that is farther away is actually a slightly bluer (cooler) turquoise. If you put a warm color and a cool color next to each other, the cooler color recedes.

I was cast in a local play and I'm trying to make little vectors of the various characters. I'm finding it really hard. I took a picture of myself from the shoulders up and vectored it. Then I tried to put that head on a cartoon-like body. So did not work. Next I made the eyes a little less realistic. I want these to be cute cartoons, but as my friend pointed out I look like a man. I've never been mistaken in real life as a man so I think it's fair to say I shouldn't as a cartoon either. What works in 3-D (Oh look, it's Kelly, a *woman*) sometimes doesn't work in 2-D. The one on the far right is the final attempt for the time being. This is going to take a few tries.

Lesley Riley Sale!

Bring your family and your art together with Lesley Riley's "Exploring Fabric Collage." In this DVD workshop you will discover the wonders of creating a fabric altered book. Combine easy to find materials with your favorite family photos to make great gifts for Mom and Grandma. Lesley shows you the entire process, from selecting your fabrics to transferring images. This project is great with kids, and you will be able to finally use that scrap cloth you've been holding onto for ages.

Keeping Up with Lesley Riley

Mixed media artist Lesley Riley has a lot going on these days. She did an interview with ZNE BlogTalk Radio and recently announced that she will have a piece in Cate Prato's book, "Mixed-Media Self-Portraits: Inspiration & Techniques."

Keep up to date with all things Lesley by bookmarking her blog. (Of course you can also check back here as well :)

Venti no foam skinny vanilla latte

It seems like such a simple affect but not so to the novice coffee-stain-creator. So here is my first attempt at coffee-stain-dom. Usually when I see this mark in real life it's followed by a groan. Or, "I'm sure the IRS won't mind too horribly."

I need to remove some globs at either end of the spiral, but I think I'm on the right track.

**A friend just saw this post and emailed me to comment that his coffee stains normally don't swirl. As soon as I read it I realized how obvious his observation was, but I would have never gotten there without his email. Thanks George!

Redesigns

A few Fridays back we had a long meeting about how to make aspects of our company better. I love this about small businesses; Individuals' opinions matter. (Including our customers'. I think it would surprise people how we all read almost every comment that comes through email or comment boxes on our site.)

One of the improvements from that meeting is our Artist Pages. Every DVD we produce has a page dedicated to the amazing instructors who come through Creative Catalyst Productions. We are trying to make those pages nicer in both layout and maneuverability. If you check the site, you might see even more changes. Let us know what works and what doesn't work. We really do take what people say into consideration.