Updated Art Travel Kit

Hi Y'all, 

 I'm a homebody married to a travel buff who I appreciate for expanding my horizons. and taking me on adventures.    Our next month's trip Lottie is coming camping with us, and I'm hoping she loves it as much as we do. We usually eat breakfast, go for a hike, and then chill by reading a book, playing a game, or creating in my case.  Whenever I leave home, I can't take all of my art toys, but I bring my most versatile ones.  Let me show you my creative kit.

Lottie checking out the camper.

Joe bought a cool canvas box for portable pencils, markers and other tools. It is for sure coming with me.  I don't know where he found this.

canvas tool box

Inside you can find a couple of Stabilo All pencil, #2 pencil, tiny water bottle, glue stick,  an inexpensive plastic pencil sharpener that a child might use in school, black gel pen, and a white Posca marker.  And of course small scissors.

canvas pouch

I carry a second canvas bag for my watercolors or other water soluable medium.  These Jane Davenport watercolor tins are perfect for travel.  Some collage bits can be useful as well.  The canvas bag came from the now closed Tuesday Morning.  Spellbinders carries Jane Davenport supplies which are always beautiful and whimsical.

Travel Journal

I buy cute notebook from a stationer's shop.  My favorite one is in Austin, TX USA, and is called Paper Place.  If you are in the area, it's worth looking into. They also have a website you can look at here:  Paper Place.

As you can see in the above photo, I journal and create to help keep those travel memories alive.  Inside

I might glue a ticket or a post card.  On holiday I don't make myself create every day.  But it is there availabe to me, and I find myself picking it up often.

Artist quote of the month: "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to." - J. R. R. Tolkein

Bon voyage,

Carolyn

You can find me on Instagram @carolyn_herring_studio or on Etsy by clicking here.

Favorite Places Across the Internet

 Hi y'all,

I normally have a how-to tutorial with a healthy dose of art philosphy, but last month was challenging for me.  I got Covid for the first time three weeks ago, and I'm still struggling with symptoms.  Apparently it's hard for some people.  Because of this I thought I'd share my favorite internet artists in case you can't make it to your art space once day.

Hands down the best art newsletter is by Jeanne Oliver.  She shares what is currently inspiring her with links to books, videos, and great things to read.  You can find her site here: jeanneoliver Right now she has a sale on the many classes she offers by herself and other artist.  I imagine you'll find something there that you like.

Jeanne Oliver

A stunning Instagram story to follow is @paperhazell.  She is a Scottish artist and bookbinder of great skill who lives by the ocean and chooses to swim in that gorgeous ocean almost every day.  She posts a photo of her outdoor changing room almost every day.  You can expect to stunning ocean shot.  

She's even created a book called Todays Changing Room by Rachell Hazell and I really appreciate her newsletter as well.  There is usually a nice little book skill in every newsletter. You can find more about Rachell here: thetravellingbookbinder

Rachell Hazell

If you love art journallling as much as I do, I recommend signing up to be a supporter for Art of Dina Wakley.  Signing up to be a supporter is just $5 a month which comes with near weekly classes, free online classes and free other materials.  The supporters are a friendly bunch. Dina is warm, open and funny and happy to answer any questions which you can do in the supporter live videos. Dina is a well know designer of art journalling materials for Ranger Ink.  Ranger Ink is an American Company of art and craft supplies of excellent quality.  You can find her on Facebook as Art of Dina Wakely.  Here's where you can find out more about her: ponderings

Dina Wakley

Please share your favorite places on the internet.  I'd love to know.

Stay healthy,

Carolyn

You can find me on Instagram @carolyn_herring_studio or on Etsy by clicking here.

Art Practice

 Hi y'all,

I don't push myself to paint every single day because that is unreasonable.  You won't find my in my studio on Christmas Day, days that I'm drowning in tasks, or if I have a migraine or on an adventure with Joe.  That being said I'm in my studio almost every day. Just ten minutes of gluing stuff I find on my desk into a collage restores my artist soul.  

It takes roughly 200 hours to drastically improve your skill in any field according to many sources on the internet.  That sounds like a lot.  One thing I do to get art practice in my schedule is set time aside every week just for that.  My family knows that on Wednesday afternoon I paint.  You might not have a whole afternoon, but maybe you can find your 15 minutes in your week to do a little bit of art.  

Here are a few things that can be accomplished in 15 minutes:

1.  Gesso your art journal spread or pages.

2.  Make marks on a variety of papers (book pages, copy paper, junk mail.

3. Spray ink on your papers through a stencil.

4. Glue odds and ends togeter for a collage.

5. Put a few strokes of your favorite color paint across your papers.

If you can do this when you're busy, when you do get a time to create you'll have a lot to start with.

Below is an art journal flip through of my art practice.

And for fun--here's my latest painting.  It took a surprising whimsical turn.

Practice doesn't make perfect, but it certainly makes growth.

Artist quote of the month:  "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."--Anais Nin

Here's to your growth!

Warmly,

Carolyn

You can find me on Instagram @carolyn_herring_studio or on Etsy by clicking here.

Making a Vertical Collage

 

Hi y'all,

Before I share how to make vertical collages, I'd like to introduce Henry our new kitty.

We found him after Thanksgiving behind our downtown shop--a tiny starving thing.  My son fed him and acclimated him to people, and then I took him home.  

It isn't easy adopting a feral cat.  He was a bit rough sometime and tried to eat your dinner for you, but now he's enjoying the life of a house cat.  We thought he was a kitten, but he's full grown and and no longer undernourished.

Now let's get back to those vertical collages which are great for beginners.  A vertical collage has pieces running vertically or top to bottom instead of side to side.  I believe that vertical collages look better if they have an odd numer of pieces.  The one above has 5 background pieces plus two focal point pieces which gives you seven pieces in all.  So consider every element you lay down for your collage.  If something looks off count the pieces.  Chances are you have an even number of things and need to add one more.

I like to choose a few colors and perhaps and marker or two and paint my own paper for tearing or cutting into collage papers.  A gelli print is also excellent for these types of collages.  You can read about how I do that here. Mother boards

As for focal points some of my favorites are stamps colored with dampened Dina Wakley Media Scribble Stick likr the moth below..  Black inked stamp impressions would be great.  Words cut from a magazine or handwritten finish a collage nicely. I like digging through odds and ends to see what I can find.  I used an old key once.

You can watch the basic process here.

Vertical Collages

Here are a few more examples that are a bit more complicated:

I save my coolest scraps in a box so vertical collages come together easily.   I love making these, and I hope you try.

Warmly,

Carolyn

I don't use sponsor links for products, but if you are curious about any supplies I've used I'll share where they came from.

My art quote of the month--"Everything is hard before it is easy." Goethe

You can find me on Instagram @carolyn_herring_studio or on Etsy by clicking here.

Extra Paint

 Hi y'all,

Are you like me?  Do you always have extra paint on your brush or pallette? My pallette is a tacky plastic Halloween plate from bygone times, and there is always paint on it.  Beatiful, beautiful paint that I hate to waste. I'm going to share three simple ways to use up your paint quickly for your next project or page.

Number one: Simply swipe paint on a blank art journal page.  Now you aren't starting with an empty page,you have color and expressive strokes to work from.

Do you see the orange paint in the background?  That was left over from another day.

Number two: make circles, squares, or other simple shape on book paper or other interesting paper you might have.  One of my favorite papers for this technique is wet strentgh tissue paper because on a pale background the tissue becomes sheer if covered front and back with gel medium.

Green and white blended circles with leftover paint on bookpaper.

Thirdly, if you have a variety of colors on your pallette, its fun to make simple flowers.  Simple flowers can be circles or lines.  One the page below you'll see flowers made from painting a v and then adding an extra line.  They look quite nice all together. I've even used brown, but in a mass of flowers it fades into shadow.

V flowers

Those are my three simiple ways to use up extra paint.  Of course there are many more.  Let me know if you'd like a few more or share some cool ones you have.

Warmly,

Carolyn

I don't use sponsor links for products, but if you are curious about any supplies I've used I'll share where they came from.

My art quote of the month--"There is no must in art because art is free" Wassily Kandinsky

You can find me on Instagram @carolyn_herring_studio or on Etsy by clicking here.

Stencil Twist

Make a cool flower

 Hi y'all,

I have a little video about playing with the new Dina Wakley Media Sunshine Stencil.  This stencil is everything right now.  It would be hard to describe the technique, so I'm going to pop in the video now.

I used the stencil with acrylic paints. This won't work with every stencil, but circular stencils work.  If you find a better medium, please let me know.

Really focus on your focal point.

I'd love to see what you came up with.

Meanwhile I'm wrestling with a new puppy who takes so much of my time.  Wow!

Enjoy your summer!

Warmly,

Carolyn

Here's a link to my Etsy shop: Pink Bunkadoo