Playtime in the Studio
I’m sure most artists have stuff they’re working on that isn’t intended to be “real” art. (Or maybe I’m just weird! That’s entirely possible…) New techniques, new mediums, testing out new art supplies. The projects that are done just for fun, or to take a break.
I think that experimenting, exploring, and playing with are important parts of the creative process. It helps to try out new things without any pressure for the resulting artwork to be “good.” That new technique you tried didn’t work so well? That’s okay. You learn and grow from it and the next piece will be better. And it doesn’t matter that it sucked—you’ll still get the bills paid, the dinner cooked, the laundry done… Your “real” artwork is still awesome.
But sometimes your art play leads to something more. Maybe that trial piece turned out really well, maybe it’s a technique that you’ve discovered you Love and it starts to take your art in a new direction. There’s so much you can learn if you take the time to play!
In that vein, I decided to share a few of the small “play” pieces I’ve been working on lately. First, I have a pair of tiny oil pastel paintings on canvas-textured board. They’re 3”x3” so much smaller than I’m used to working. I do like oil pastel, even though I don’t often work with it. I hate the canvas-textured boards for oil pastel though. The texture is too rough and coarse for such a tiny piece—it’s really difficult to get smooth layers of color and fine details. I’ll have to try the boards with a different medium.
I’m thinking of trying to work on some smaller pieces, maybe Artist Trading Card size? Just for the challenge. I tend to make primarily moderately-sized pieces. It’s fun to work really large, but that takes up a Lot of space! Of course, I do actually have a house with a yard and garage now, instead of a tiny apartment, so perhaps I should work on some larger pieces. We’ll see. For now, I’ll work small and see what happens with that.
I also recently tried out Yupo Paper. It’s 100% polypropylene; I’ve never tried painting on plastic “paper” before. It’s definitely a learning experience. The biggest difference I noticed using watercolor are that the water doesn’t soak into the paper. At all. The paper also doesn’t buckle and curl and the paint can be removed from the paper even after it has dried. This can be good or bad, depending on what you were trying to do! I think Yupo
is a product that is worth playing with further, if only to see just how far I can push it. I’m sure it would be an interesting substrate for many other mediums than just watercolor.
What about you? What have you been “playing” with lately? Share in the comments below!
* Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward me a small commission – at no extra cost for you.
New Artwork: Coyote Torn Paper Collage
I recently finished this piece, titled “The Trickster,” which depicts a coyote from the Akron Zoo. Of course, if you want to consider it a wolf, that’s fine too. The Akron Zoo has both coyotes and red wolves. Their habitats are right next to each other and they look Very similar. I even overheard one of the zoo workers telling someone that she Still can’t tell them apart!
Coyotes are actually quite interesting creatures, though they’ve got a bad reputation these days since they’ve started to migrate into suburbs and more urban areas due to territory loss. They live in family groups but frequently hunt alone. The coyote is a common character in many Native American cultures and his nature varies from a helpful teacher and creator to a greedy, reckless and arrogant villain to a clever trickster.
What does a coyote mean to you? Is he a nuisance or a harmless trickster? Have you ever encountered one? Tell me below!
New Artwork: “Hope” Custom Pet Portrait
This is Hope, my latest torn paper collage custom pet portrait. Hope is a very special dog. As you can see from the portrait, she’s a service dog and she makes her owner’s life so much easier every day. Like other service animals, Hope also spends time “off duty,” but this portrait is intended to commemorate the selfless service she performs daily at her job.
Would you like a custom portrait of your own pet? You can check out the process here or email me with any questions!
Favorite Art Materials: Liquitex Acrylic Pouring Medium
I talked about acrylic pouring last week and in that post, I mentioned one of my current favorite art materials: Liquitex Pouring Medium . I thought for today’s post I would expand on that a bit. I really (really!) like this stuff and I go through a shockingly large amount of it when I’m working on abstract pieces. It’s super satisfying, the way the paint mixes and flows when this medium is mixed in.
Pouring mediums dilute the paint to make it more fluid while retaining the color and binding properties of the undiluted paint. It also helps to prevent cracking and crazing of the thinned paint. Liquitex does warn that cracking and crazing can occur “when flow heights are very uneven” and they recommend that your poured surface is kept level as it dries. But I’ve never personally experienced and cracking and my poured surfaces are frequently Very unlevel!
The amount of paint versus pouring medium depends on the consistency of the paint you are using, but you typically don’t need a lot of paint to get a good, intense color. I just add some paint to a cup or container (I find the single-serve yogurt containers work well), then squeeze in some pouring medium and stir it gently. If it’s not fluid enough, I continue adding pouring medium until I get the consistency I want. Super easy and it’s very forgiving of the paint-to-medium ratio. I’ve honestly never had a mixture fail or cause any issues, and I’m definitely not at all precise in measuring (“Yeah, that looks good enough”).
As far as working with the mixed and thinned paint, I’ve used in with wet-on-wet layers and wet-on-dry layers on a flat surface as well as wet-on-wet pouring in drips and drops and streams all over some highly uneven surfaces. You can obtain a wide range of effects depending on how you apply it. I like pouring it in thin streams along the high points of my abstract pieces and allowing it to pool in the lower areas. Tilting and rotating the canvas allows the colors to mix and swirl in interesting and unpredictable ways. I used this particular technique in many of the pieces in my “Elementals” series.
Have you tried Liquitex Pouring Medium? What did you think? Have you tried any other types of pouring mediums? Tell me in the comments.
* Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward me a small commission – at no extra cost for you.
Life and Tips: Art Challenges
Lately I’ve been feeling… less than inspired in my art. It happens to everyone at some point. While I’ve been working on (and completing!) pieces, they’ve frequently been pretty slow going. So I got to thinking about how I can shake things up a bit and get myself back into my enthusiastic, inspired art mindset.
Back in December I wrote a blog post about ways to make time for your art during the holidays and in it, one of the suggestions I made was joining an art challenge. Now, I’ve never actually participated in an art challenge before and I still didn’t really feel like joining an established, current art challenge. I guess I didn’t want the pressure of following what I perceived to be a rigid, predefined challenge (sure, I realize they’re probably Not actually rigid and intimidating—it’s art, after all!).
But when I was digging around in my studio, I ran across a small leather sketchbook that I had forgotten about. It’s about 3”x4” with a cute, tooled leaf pattern on the cover. So I thought, why not make up my own art challenge?
I confess, I’m not actually fond of sketching and drawing (I’m pretty sure that’s some sort of art sacrilege!). I do have a sketchbook, but I primarily use it to jot down/sketch out rough ideas for future pieces or to work out details of composition. But my sketchbook is definitely not like the ones you see everywhere that are full of gorgeous artwork! And that’s okay—there’s no rule that says you need to draw intricately detailed artwork in your sketchbook.
So, in need of a bit of a change and looking at this cute little leather sketchbook, I decided that I would actually use the sketchbook to… (*gasp*) sketch! It’s tiny, so it’s not intimidating—there are no large, blank pages staring at me, taunting me to put pencil to paper. And I decided that I would use one page per day—just one. If I feel some crazy desire to do more drawing, I’ve always got my regular sketchbook, with its sad, empty pages just waiting for me to show it some love.
To keep myself accountable, I also decided to post each day’s page on my Instagram account, regardless of whether or not I actually like how the sketch turned out. I’ve included a few of my pages here. Go ahead and follow me on Instagram if you’re curious to see how it progresses (@tamarajaegerfineart).
We’ll see how it goes, and hopefully the challenge of working in a medium I don’t particularly enjoy will help me to look at things in a different way.
What about you? Have you ever joined or invented your own art challenge? How did it go? What other methods do you use to keep or renew your enthusiasm for your art?
Art Techniques: Acrylic Pouring
I use poured acrylic paint in a lot of my abstract pieces so probably my favorite art material in those situations is Liquitex Pouring Medium .
Pouring mediums dilute the paint to make it more fluid while retaining the color and binding properties of the undiluted paint. Sure, you can thin your paint with water, but that typically leads to dull, flat, washed-out colors with a chalky surface that doesn’t stick well to surfaces. Pouring medium also helps to prevent the poured paint from cracking.
There are dozens of methods of acrylic pouring—a quick google search will give you a good idea of the huge range of effects that can be achieved. I’ve only tried it out in a few types of situations, though it’s on my list to do some more experimenting. The process is fun and the results are somewhat unpredictable!
I like to mix up a color and add in the pouring medium until it reaches a good flowing consistency. You can add quite a bit before the colors start to get diluted, I’ve found. And sometimes that’s even an effect I’m looking for. The diluted paint dries to a smooth, glossy surface.
I typically pour the mixed color onto the piece I’m working on and then mix up another color (and sometimes more!), pouring that one on top of the still-wet layer(s) below it. After I get the wet paint poured onto the substrate, I’ll then tilt the piece to allow the paints to run and blend. Changing the direction and angle of the piece causes the paints to run and mix in quite fascinating ways. You can also add multiple colors of diluted paint to a container and (without mixing!) pour them onto the substrate for a different type of mixing or blending effect.
I’ve tried pouring the paints onto a panel with a lip to contain the paint, and that works really well for flat pieces. More often, however, I use poured acrylic as a way to add color and patterns to my 3-D mixed media pieces, where the paint is poured over a highly textured, uneven surface. It runs down the sides of the peaks and pools in the valleys and crevices. I used the technique in many of the pieces in my “Elementals” series. It also gave quite a nice effect when poured over crushed glass in several of my “Below the Surface” geologically-inspired pieces.
Have you tried acrylic pouring? What is your favorite technique? Tell me in the comments.
*Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward me a small commission – at no extra cost for you.
Inspiring Your Art: Memorial Day
This week I’d like you to use Memorial Day as inspiration for your art. It’s a bit early, I suppose, but the holiday is coming up fast! The weather is warming up, making it the perfect time for working in my garden. Not that I have a large garden; it’s just a couple small-ish raised beds. But it’s fun and lets me grow some fresh veggies over the summer months.
I went with a more patriotic image for this week, but with some spring flowers to go with the weather. But like many holidays, there are lots of other associations with Memorial Day than just its original purpose.
So, what does Memorial Day mean to you? Is it about the weather? Family get-togethers and backyard cook outs? Is it about remembrance of military service? How would you represent it in your art? Tell me (or show me!) in the comments.
New Artwork: Black and White Goat Torn Paper Collage
This cute little black and white goat lives at the Akron Zoo. They have a barnyard area there with sheep and goats that you can feed. It’s super popular with the children! The goats are always showing off and begging for food; it’s a fun exhibit to visit.
I’m considering doing a series of pieces inspired by children’s fairy tales. This guy, along with my other two goat torn paper collages, could be the “Three Billy Goats Gruff.” I could do Little Red Riding Hood, the Three Little Pigs, the Ugly Duckling. There are so many possibilities. What do you think?
If you’d like a copy of this charming fellow, you can get one in my Etsy shop, here. My other goats are also available here and here.
Inspiring Your Art: Love and Hope
For your inspiration this week, I’d like you to consider this quote by Rodin:
“The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.” Auguste Rodin
To me, it reminds me of the emotion, the passion, that I feel when I create art. There are (too many!) days when I don’t make time for art. I’m sure we all have those days. The days when you’re just too tired or stressed or “busy” and think, “well, I’ll just skip today and pick up again tomorrow.” And that’s valid. It’s a great thing to strive for, making art every day, but sometimes life just gets in the way.
But I’ve definitely noticed that if I’m not creating art regularly, I just don’t feel as calm and centered, as content or even happy as I do when I Am making art. So I try not to skip too many days. Even on those days when I’m tired and drained and don’t really feel like it, I try to work on something for at least a few minutes. Sometimes all I manage is those few minutes, but other times a few minutes turns into an hour or more!
In the spirit of the quote above, I’d like to hear about how you express your “passion” in your art. Is it through the subject? The colors? The medium? Or is it just the process of creating itself? What does this quote make you feel and how can or do you relate it to your art? Tell me in the comments.
Exhibition Announcement: 2019 Animals Exhibition
I’m excited to announce that my torn paper collage “Playful Day” was accepted into the 2019 Animals Exhibition at the Light, Space and Time Online Art Gallery. You can see the whole exhibition here. My piece can be found on this page, here, in the “Special Recognition” category.
I’m always really pleased when I get a piece accepted into a show; it’s intimidating to submit your work for consideration. There are so many factors that go into whether or not your work gets chosen. If you don’t get in, that doesn’t mean your work isn’t good, or even that the jurors didn’t like it.
There are so many truly fantastic pieces in the Nature Exhibition. I’m honored that my work was selected to be shown among them! If you haven’t come across the Light, Space and Time Gallery before, you really should check them out. They have some great tips and suggestions for promoting your artwork.
Do you submit your work to shows? Why or why not? Tell me in the comments!