Happy MerMay! Let’s celebrate with some printable mermaid drawings, shall we? What’s MerMay you ask? Well, it’s mermaids…in May!

Today’s post is very short – video is too – because chaos reigns. LOL! More on that on Saturday if I get time to sneak in a video….gah!

Video: Mermay Printable Mermaid Drawings

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Mermaid Printables

Grab your favorite and get busy coloring! Just print it out onto whatever paper is perfect for your medium, and go to town. You’ll get a full-page-sized jpg, as well as one in color so you can see how I tried it the first time. Can’t wait to see how you color these up!

TAP ON THE IMAGE TO GO SHOPPING

Kelp Mermaid

Mermaid Trio

Which is your favorite?

And would you like me to make more of these? I’ve got 1001 ideas…..lol. If these are popular I could make a couple more!

Supplies

1. Hahnemule Lettering Pads 
2. Autograph Light Box 
3. Copic Multiliner SP 
4. Mermaid printables 

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Welcome to my quarterly realtime painting sesh! Or it seems to be quarterly of late.  Today: a lakeshore watercolor painting, capturing the beauty of Lake Superior. I’ll be painting wet-in-wet again, like in my previous post. Unlike that painting, this one’s much tougher! But even if this is beyond what you might feel you’re ready for, this will show you the power of practicing wet-in-wet techniques. And there’s plenty of tips included – despite a section where I think I just babbled word salad! ha.

Tutorial: Lakeshore Watercolor Wet in wet + atmospheric perspective

I hope you’ll paint along – be sure to share your painting with me if you do!

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

First version

I painted this one smaller first; it’s often very helpful to create a smaller study so you can work out colors, etc. This is half the size of the rest of the paintings shown here. I struggled with things getting away from me here; I wet the entire paper and painted the whole thing together, which made the greens flow into the rocks, and the water muddied the offshore rocks. Whoopsie.

Second version

I waited on the rocks on the left til the greens had dried back some – but didn’t wait long enough on the offshore rocks. Whoopsie. But the water and reflections started to really jive well. I also liked the way the trees were just so undefined here. They’re not the goal of the painting and I like their artistic approach.

Third version

I loved how this one came out – but dangit if the camera operator didn’t forget to tap the “start recording” button again after the drying session. Ha! But experimenting with dividing sections helped so I could see how it would progress for teaching. The underwater rocks here have a lot of definition – I waited longer for it to dry so I could get some crisp and some soft edges.

Fourth version

I could call this the final version, but it’s likely I’ll try this one again! Overall I’m pleased, especially since I captured the footage for today’s video! ha. It’s the little things. A few things I’d like to manage better:

• The trees look about the same distance (same amount of detail)….fuzzing out some would help a lot. All that’s left is a green halo in the distance.
• The offshore rocks were from memory here, my ipad ran out of juice! I thought I could nail it without looking. Uhm nope!

Are you painting along?

I hope you’ll try this lakeshore watercolor painting! If you do please share it with me – tag me on social media, or post it over in Artventure. I’d love to see how your version worked out!

Supplies

1. House of Hoffman Palette 
2. Daniel Smith Watercolors: 
   1. Cobalt Blue
   2. Phthalo Blue Turquoise
   3. Yellow Ochre
   4. Moonglow
   5. Sap Green
   6. Transparent Red Oxide
   7. Green Gold
   8. Payne’s Blue Gray
3. Brushes:
   1. Winsor Newton Kolinsky Sable Series 7 Round #8
   2. Da Vinci Series 17 Maestro Long Needle, Size 9
   3. Da Vinci Mottler Flat Wash 
   4. Winsor Newton flat 3/4 sable “one stroke” brush
   5. Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Sable Round 4 
4. Paper and mounting:
   1. Arches Rough sheet
   2. Incredible Art Board, Grafix
   3. Artist tape 3/4″ 
5. Spray bottle

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A few weeks ago I went out plein air painting (outdoor) with a few friends….I tried painting a misty scene in a forest, and I just had all kinds of troubles! So it’s time to get back to practicing in my Sketch-a-Day …. I’ve been working with so many other mediums lately I haven’t been watercoloring. I’m setting a goal to FINISH the book by end of summer – if I do daily paintings that should do it, so let’s hope! Today’s the first day on the bandwagon.

Tutorial: QUICK wet in wet practice watercolor sketch (realtime)

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Brushes

There’s no brush that’ll turn you into the painter you want to be; believe me I tried that! That’s how I discovered my love of real sable brushes, though, so even if it’s taking years to make progress, I’m glad I made the investment in them years ago.

The Winsor & Newton #8 brush is back in production apparently – or at least back on Amazon! It was gone for eons and I kept looking for a substitute;  I have some DaVinci rounds but they aren’t quite as spectactular as my WNs. 

And the Maestro needle is by DaVinci; I’ve bought a bunch of others and just never found one that is the equivalent. 

Water management

The bane of a watercolorist’s existence: water! Trying to work out how much is too much, how much is not enough. Gah!

But the RULE to remember: watercolor pigment will keep moving into anything that’s WETTER than it is. So if you want something to stay put, it needs to be thicker than the water/pigment already on the page. And if the page is very wet, even thick pigment will soften as well. 

That also means, conversely, that if you use pigment mixed THINNER than whatever is on the paper, you’ll get blooms and blossoms, also called cauliflower. That’s because the wetter area is moving INTO the drier area.

Wet-on-Dry

For final touches, wet pigment on dry paper will give you crisp lines and edges, since there’s no water for it to blend into. My tip for final touches: don’t paint every area to the same level of detail as every other one. Allow all that nice wet-in-wet to show through – it’ll also give the appearance of light when compared with the darker final details.

Question for the watercolor peeps:

In July, just over a month away, we celebrate World Watercolor Month once again! I’m trying to plan my content ahead and squeeze in some filming in June; my sister is coming for a nice visit soon, and I’m doing a bunch of home improvement right now, but I’m hoping to slide in some filming on “rest” days (this old body can’t paint walls every day anymore so I’m alternating projects a lot! ha)….I’d love any suggestions you have or questions you’ve been wishing someone would answer! Leave me a comment if you would, thanks!

Supplies

1. Sketch a Day by Lake Michigan Book Press
2. Artist tape 3/4″ 
3. House of Hoffman Palette 
4. Daniel Smith watercolors used:
   1. Sap Green
   2. Green Apatite
   3. Phthalo Blue Turquoise
   4. Cobalt Blue
   5. Green Gold
   6. Payne’s Blue Gray
5. Brushes:
   1. Winsor Newton Kolinsky Sable Series 7 Round #8 
   2. Da Vinci Series 17 Maestro Long Needle, Size 9 

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In my last post and video, we talked about when a crafter is called an artist – and the feedback was so powerful I decided to create a part 2! And of course that gave me an excuse to make some more patterned paper, yay! This time – no watercolor, just stamping inks; so you can take the class without having to watercolor everything. It has a different look, but still very pretty. (This follows the template for Lesson 2 with some adaptations that are discussed in class.)

Tutorial: Overcoming “bad art” days….and learning to respect your art

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Ten minutes a day

I always recommend that artists create something every day. What does that mean?

1. At ten minutes a day, you’ll develop a practice habit.
2. A tiny notebook and a pen or pencil is all it takes.
3. Figure out when you have 10 minutes to sit still and just make art without thinking.
4. Drawing shapes and lines helps to develop habits, work on hand-eye coordination, line quality, etc but the real benefit is  learning to loosen your mind while you work.
5. Drawing objects is better – but if that’s at all intimidating, don’t go there til you’re comfortable and have a habit already developed. This can become your “omg do I have to do this again” thing, and the idea is to let pencil and paper become something you love and crave.
6. By the way, this 10 minutes is in addition to —or a way to start off on —a regular session of making art.

Keep a grace journal

What’s a grace journal? At the end of your daily 10 minutes, write down a compliment in a little journal. Just the date and a sentence. Look at what you just made, and write down something like:

1. These colors make me feel joy.
2. The lines in the upper left look really elegant.
3. I sat down frustrated, got up peaceful.

You needn’t detail whatevr you worked on – but this is practice in getting GOOD words on paper to stick in your head. Every time you open up this journal, it’s filled with statements of grace you’ve poured out into yourself.

Befriend a cross-discipline artist.

I’ve found that the best people in my life to encourage me artistically are the ones who are making art NOT like mine. They DON’T make what I do. They use a different medium. They have a completely different style.

Those are the people who can see your work for what it is—not comparing it to the same circles you walk in. (There’s a place for those kinds of friendships to wax on about your niche, but if you want to start seeing your work on the spectrum of ART and not get sucked into thinking you’re “only” a crafter again, you need some outside input.)

Urban sketching is where I’d recommend starting to find an artist friend. Other “fine art” groups will inquire/compare notes on who does what, and I find that’s not so in sketching groups….they don’t care what kind of artist anyone is – just that you’re there and drawing with them is plenty. You’ll find people who are just barely beginning, as well as people who’ve been drawing for years. Some have made lots of progress, others are slower. And it’s all good. All that matters is you’re there and participating, and you’ll not find judgment!

Yesterday’s YT short

In case you missed it, I posted a short video with this piece on the left; it uses the template from Lesson 5 from Pattern Stamping class – but with different stamps and products; the blue is a water-based marker since I didn’t have the “right” blue in distress inks. So you can use other water-soluble mediums for class, too!

Supplies

1. Catherine Pooler Inks:
   1. Queen for a Day 
   2. Sage 
   3. Be Mine 
2. Neenah Cardstock, Solar White 250pk 

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When is a crafter an artist? What’s the tipping point? Is there a moment?

I create all kinds of things, from the small and mailable to large and frameable –  and while each of us has our favorite methods, mediums, and objects created – I appreciate it all as art. But the rest of the internet doesn’t agree. I looked online and was horrified by some of the answers I saw.

So today – you’re going to get the straight skinny from my heart. It starts, for me, in the very definition of what makes something art.

Tutorial: When is a crafter called an artist?

I hope folks are wearing toe-protectors in their boots….I may step on a few toes! 🙂

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

3 requirements to call yourself an artist

First, one must make things. Pretty straightforward. You need to be a maker of things…not one who just thinks about it and never does anything. That’d be a dreamer! An artist puts colors, lines, words, pictures, film clips, thread and fabric, clay, recipe ingredients – they put their materials into a form that they did not have before.

Second, one must also want to make things. A kid in a mandatory art class in school who reluctantly glued macaroni onto cardboard as he was instructed, is most likely not an artist. The desire to create, having some level of passion – even if it’s not all-consuming – is necessary. This looks different for each person; some have something they want to say with their content, others have a meaning assigned to their work, others want to generate an emotion in the person who sees, reads, or otherwise experiences their creation.

Third, one must be brave. Brave enough to take what’s inside of you, at whatever skill level it exists, and put it out into the world. It takes courage, once we’re adults, to gather up something we’ve kept inside and give it form – because that form can often be seen by others. We’re exposing ourselves as someone who has something to offer, something to share…and it’s normal to worry about how that’ll be received. It requires bravery.

Being an artist is being a maker, a willing maker, a willing maker who is brave enough to create.

3 things you do not need to be an artist

One: proficiency. Just because you currently aren’t at an experience level that you want to be at, or skills you admire in someone else, doesnt mean you’re not an artist. You’re on the long spectrum, and maybe you haven’t taken any drawing classes yet. That doesn’t mean you’re not an artist – you’re simply at a different level. And I suggest adding YET when referencing skills you momentarily lack. YET leaves room to grow and plants hope in your heart.

Two: income from your art. You don’t have to make a penny from your art. Heck, you don’t even need anyone to SEE it. Many famous artists spent most of their lives selling few or none of their works – some of the pieces created in their “anonymous” years are worth a bundle now – and yet they didn’t get a penny from it. Does that mean it was bad art when it was created? Heck no! You can be someone who works in a paying career by day and is an artist at night – all in the best tradition of artists for centuries!

Three: a studio. I know plenty of people who create on a corner of their dining room table. Or a card table in the shed. A studio is a great convenience, but not a necessity! Whatever space you work in though, I recommend CALLING it a studio. It’ll help you with learning to call yourself an artist too!

Craft has given up in the debate

I believe craft has rolled over and just stopped even wanting to be art.

While history relegated craft to stepsister level, today manufacturers, retailers, and influencers in craft are much to blame for keeping craft in that status. 

Stores sell supplies artist use on the same shelf as kids beading kits and sticker sets; while we might have found a decent set of colored pencils, it FEELS cheap because it’s next to the macaroni art supplies. And that cheap feeling follows those supplies home with us….we start to think of our art created with them as cheap and childlike, too, and reinforce our already-dismissive perspective on crafts as art.

Influencers say things like “I can’t draw a stick figure, so I just stamp,” which makes stamping sound like it’s a second class citizen. Or “I’m no artist like (insert name of the artist) , so I’m just going to do this little thing.” Turning their own creation into that little stepchild!

STOP REPEATING THEIR WORDS TO YOURSELF.

What you say inside your own head tell your heart what’s true. Then when you want to make art, your heart says, “oh, I’ve heard our brain saying repeatedly that we can’t make art, can’t draw, can’t ____, so let’s shut this thing down before we start!”

And then you wonder why you get panicky when you sit down to create!

Stop attaching dismissive, insulting words to what you are creating! Stop saying you’re not an artist.

Your heart will believe what your words repeat, so don’t even whisper it under your breath. Each step you take is something to learn from while making your way along the spectrum of art.

I may be alone out here with my perspective on what art truly is. But I believe craft needs to stand up for itself. Pour its heart into what it makes, and convince the world that craftt is art.

Above: I had a senior moment and mixed up my distress inks at the end of this project. I’m not terribly sure which inks ended up getting used! ha…..

Pattern Stamping Class

Now that my rant is off my chest (I feel better!) let’s talk about Pattern Stamping!

In this class you’ll learn five different full-page patterns that you can create with Art Impressions stamps and Distress Inks! Lots of techniques for creating beautiful flowers are included, turning stamps you’d never think of using into carnations, roses, and birds. The templates will be ones you can continue to create with and adapt with lots of different options….it’s endless! (I’m a little addicted right now, so I don’t promise you won’t be as well!) While learning the patterns, you can also take elments from them to create much simpler craft projects, too; those ideas will stand you in good stead for a very long time. Check out the Pattern Stamping class HERE.

My challenge to you

Find a friend who loves you and won’t give you the crazy-eye if you start referring to yourself as an artist. Literally, find a way to work that into your next conversation, so that you hear yourself say it out loud.

Don’t say it to someone who’s a doubter or who will be shocked. That’ll do you no good in re-training your mind. Find that friend who you can trust to cheer you on.

When you tell them what you created last weekend, say that you did it in your studio. They might ask if you got a new setup, but just tell them you’ve now made a sign to post in your workspace that says “The Studio” on it.

Ask that friend to help you change how you speak about your own work, so you can have someone to hold you accountable to speak WELL of yourself and your art.

And let me know how that goes. 🙂 

Supplies

1. Canson XL Pad 
2. Distress Inks – I think it was Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Salty Ocean, and perhaps Faded Jeans?
3. Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #4 BLICK – AMZ
4. Art Impressions Stamp Sets:
   1. Christmas Wreath 
   2. Bible Foliage 
   3. Bible Flowers 
5. Ellen Hutson, Totally Random Sayings Vol. 3 
6. Mini MISTI Stamping Tool, My Sweet Petunia
7. Scotch foam tape 

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