Art At The Speed of Life Lesson 9

In Lesson 9 of Pam Carriker's book Creating Art At the Speed of Life, we were to use the end of a pencil to create dots of color on the page with acrylic paint.  In this chapter she included a quote from Claude Monet which I love and have to repeat it here...

  People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it's simply necessary to love. ”
- Claude Monet
If that is the test, then I guess this attempt was a success, because I LOVE this pretty impressionistic girl.  She is lovely.  I mixed my own colors and was very happy with how they worked together.  I also really liked how slowly the image came to life, one dot at a time.  It was the most fun I've ever had with the eraser of a pencil.  I will try more like this on canvas later.

First Impressionism
Art Journal Page
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic

Art At The Speed of Life Lesson 8

Snowflake Texture
Art Journal Pages
by Cheryl Harris White

I was surprised at how easily the graphite image could just be rubbed onto the page.  I want to do this one again.

Art At the Speed Of Life Lesson 7

This chapter is exploring textures and in this lesson we were to use crayon resist, saran wrap, salt and rubbing alcohol to activate the spreading and texture of paint around a sketch.  Honestly, the ONLY thing I liked about this one was the actual sketch.  The fun part of this whole process is actually evaluating the results while I try each of the techniques.  So, even though I'm not happy with the effects of the saran wrap, I am happy with the process.

Multi Tasking Java Junkie
Art Journal Page
by Cheryl Harris White
Mixed Media

Art At The Speed of Life Lesson 6

This one turned out quite a bit different than the example in Lesson 6 of Creating Art At the Speed of Life by Pam Carriker.  In the book, it is a much more abstract design that is created by the pattern of paint under saran wrap.  My attempts just seemed to naturally become the edge of a forest with light just beyond.  I have noticed a theme in my forest paintings lately, and that is that in almost all of them, I paint from the perspective of being deep inside the forest and coming out of it, toward light.  How similar this is to my own life as well... and refreshing.  To complete this lesson, I used heavy water color paper, diluted acrylic paint, slow drying gel, permanent ink pens, white gel pen, saran wrap and salt.  The patterns of paint were created first and the outlining was done after it dried around the natural shapes it created.

Dark and Deep
Art Journal Page
by Cheryl Harris White
Mixed Media

Art At the Speed of Life Lesson 5

Continuing to work through Creating Art At the Speed of Life by Pam Carriker. . . In this lesson we were to choose two complementary colors.  Here's another art vocabulary word. Complementary - The colors opposite each other on the color wheel.  I chose red and aqua and the theme of LOVE.  I loved the color combo and the grouping of the collage elements at the bottom of the page. They look as if they have actually fallen downs and are caught behind a wire barrier.  I used diluted acrylic paint, slow dry blending gel, water color pencil, magazine and paper scraps, white gel pen, permanent ink pen, mod podge and stickers.

Complementary Love
Art Journal Page
by Cheryl Harris White
Mixed Media

Art At the Speed of Life Lesson 4

Lesson 4 One Color At A Time

The objective here was to use different media materials in only one color to make a monochromatic journal spread. I chose green, cool as a cucumber.  I feel relaxed when I look at this page.  Materials used were heavy water color paper, diluted acrylic paint, slow dry blending gel, magazine and paper scraps, mod podge, white gel pen, permanent ink pens and the directions in Pam Carriker's book Creating Art at the Speed of Life.

Monochromatic Monarch
Mixed Media
Art Journal Page
by Cheryl Harris White

Art At The Speed of Life Lesson 3

Analogous Analogy
Mixed Media
Art Journal Page
by Cheryl Harris White

The assignment was to use analogous colors to create a journal page.  Analogous means two colors that are next to each other on the color wheel.  I liked using masking fluid and permanent markers to create the opposing wavy lines and adding the white gel pen details to help it pop.  The layers of color were a fast easy way to create a background.

Art At The Speed of Life Lessons 1 & 2

Color Wheel
Mixed Media
Art Journal Page
by Cheryl Harris White


Still working out of the Art At the Speed of Life book by Pam Carriker.  The first two exercises created a two page spread at the beginning of the Handmade Art Journal.  I thought the color wheel in exercise 1 was fun.  I didn't have a coffee filter, so I used paper towel instead.  If I did this again, I would try it with a filter and attempt to show more of the red-violet and blue-violet on the wheel.  On exercise 2 I used art vocabulary words to fill each section of the page.  The paint is a mixture of acrylic, water and gel to retard the drying process.  On this page a black water color pencil was also used for shading, as well as permanent marker and white gel pen. I loved the effect of the water soluble pencil and will try more with this later.  I liked using the diluted paint.  It behaves a lot like water color off the brush allowing layers to be laid down on top of each other,  but the colors pop so much much more.  I must do more of this.

Lesson 1 - Color Wheeling

Lesson 2 - Colorful Language

Creating Art at the Speed of Life Journal Cover

I found a book called

Creating Art at the Speed of Life: 30 Days of Mixed-Media Exploration by Pam Carriker 

and it looked interesting.  I brought it home and decided to try it.  This is the cover for the journal done with watercolor crayons, water, markers and a little masking fluid on heavy adhesive canvas.   This will be attached on the outside as a cover for the home made journal.  

Cover for Handmade Art Journal

 

The cover was painted on adhesive canvas pictured above.  After sewing the blank pages for the journal together, I just peeled the back off the back of the canvas and stuck it on like a book cover.  The result is below.  I loved how easy using the adhesive canvas made this.

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