31 Studio Essentials - Art Journals

Art Journals

Art Journals are one of my studio essentials, and over the years I have made quite a few.  I recently did a mini tour of 31 Art Journals which you can check out HERE

The great thing about art journals when your stuck is that you can always revisit them and finish off pages that may have been left.  I usually don't finish an art journal in one go, preferring to dip in when the desire takes me.

In those moments of feeling stuck you can choose to do some work on a page, or you can create a background, there is no hard and fast rule, you make your own!

Or you might just want to look over an art journals page to see what you were doing at the time of creating it.  The main thing is that you use your tools to suit your needs, and if you just want to make marks on a page then do that.

Check out the video to see what I get up to on 3 pages and how you can use the supplies you have to take yourself on a mini adventure.  

Until tomorrow, stay blessed and be a blessing.

Resources

You might find some of these resources useful click on the image to find out more

Have fun, stay blessed and be a blessing!

My 31 Art Studio Essentials - Brushes

All about Brushes

Can a girl have too many brushes?  Don't answer that one lol!!

Brushes are key depending on what medium you work with and as a mixed media artist. I find that I use a variety and the ones that you see have been collected over a number of years.

I do have my favorite brushes that I use for different projects, but when you are purchasing ones for yourself you really don't have to break the bank and there are some really affordable brands that you can buy. 

One of the things you can do with your brushes If you are in a slump is to spend time ordering them, you may not need all the ones that you have and you might be able to bless someone else or do a trade with another artist.

Take a look at some of the brushes that I have in my collection in the video

The Video

Resources

12 Piece Nylon Hair Brush Set

Royal Langnickel

Happy New Year - New 31 Days challenges!

 Happy New Year 

to You and your family!!!. 

I hope that your dreams and desires for this year are realized.  As you break all the tasks down and take small steps every day before you know it you will have achieved what ever it is you are striving for.

This month I will be working on a new YouTube channel called - The Creative Gardener, which looks at all the plants that I love growing in my garden and the tropical environment (which means that everything grows so much bigger).  

I want to share my journey of starting from scratch in the garden to developing a tropical paradise, and I am also keen to learn about the medicinal and nutritional properties of plants.  The artist in me has to come out as well and I will and will also be sharing a few outdoor creative projects.

The other thing I will be doing for this month is sharing with you my 31 Art Studio Essentials for creativity.  

It can be hard to find time for some creative play and over the next 31 days I will be sharing with you some of the ways in which I manage to find time, and they are very easy things that you can incorporate into your day as well.

Look forward to seeing you on this journey.  I will be sharing the first posts later on today!

Blessings await for 2018!!

31 Art Studio Essentials - Gesso

Firstly 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope that this year sees you extend from your comfort zone and really see the treasures that you hold within you.

This is the beginning of a 31 day adventure through my art supplies and tools to share with you some of my favorites and how I use them when I am short of time or feeling stuck.

All about Gesso

If you have seen some of my other videos you will see that Gesso has a special place in my heart.  It comes in clear, black and white and you can mix acrylic with it to give you another color.  It provides a tooth for the surface that you might be working on, especially the thinner kind that you get with some altered books.

You might decide as an activity to sort out your supplies, and You can also spend time preparing pages as an activity, especially when you are short of time, adding color to the pages or using stencils to create texture.

Gesso can also be used on fabric, I especially like to create my own painted fabric, creating designs, and using a range of supplies to decorate.

I like the creaminess of the Gesso and I have a black one that is so thick and creamy it looks good enough to eat!! lol

But you have to see it to get what I mean. Take a look at my video so see how creamy it is, and also check out the resources that I mentioned in the video.

Resources

Click on the supplies below to find out more

I find this acrylic gesso slightly runny even though they are made by the same company but it is worth a try depending on how you want to use it

I hope that this has given you some ideas to play with your gesso and see what different effects you will be able to get.  Come back tomorrow for another supply and see where it can take you!

Stay blessed and be a blessing