I just wanted to pop in to share a piece that I completed for Danielle Dondaldson's class. She's an awesome teacher and was generous in sharing her techniques and creative process with watercolor. There were 4 projects in total (I haven't had a chance to finish the others yet). I believe the content for the course will be live for a year, so I encourage you to check it out!
Hello everyone and happy Memorial Day Weekend!
I just wanted to pop in to share a piece that I completed for Danielle Dondaldson's class. She's an awesome teacher and was generous in sharing her techniques and creative process with watercolor. There were 4 projects in total (I haven't had a chance to finish the others yet). I believe the content for the course will be live for a year, so I encourage you to check it out! Hello and happy Friday everyone! Every so often I go into hiding, just to recharge my batteries so that I can reengage with the world at full strength. A big part of this has been giving myself permission to rest. Working for myself can be a blessing and a curse at times. I love the flexibility I have to create my own schedule but on the downside, I put pressure on myself to be "productive" all of the time. This is not a sustainable pace and as a result I risk burning myself out. I think that's a little bit of what happened. That's okay though, because I recognized it was happening and was able to slow down. The result has been the creation of new artwork that I absolutely love! It started with some inspiration from the work of Kelly Barton and Danielle Dondaldson. Oh yes and I'm signed-up for a class with Danielle Donaldson that's going to start at the end of this month that I'm super excited about. You can learn more about it here. Here they are! Birchwood girls! I think they are just lovely, if I do say so myself. These pieces were created on birchwood slices and were so much fun to make. They are about the size of drinking coaster. I used my peerless watercolors, some stamping and pen and ink. The bright colors just make me smile and I hope they make you smile too. There are only four 4 beauties so if you'd like one, I encourage you to visit the shop now to order one of your very own. I have been wanting to illustrate some journals for a long time, and when I found these kraft Moleskines I know that these were the perfect ones. At just 5"x8.25" these journals will fit perfectly into your purse or briefcase and are wonderful for keeping track of your ideas or journaling your thoughts. Simple with just black and white ink, these beautiful journals are begging to take up residence on your desk or in your meditation space. There are only 3 of these original illustration journals right now so I encourage you to scoop one up while you can!
Do you have a favorite? I'd love to know which one and why. That's all for now! Always remember to keep creating. Creatively Yours Karla Hello and happy Friday everyone! Imagine my delight to learn that Paint Party Friday (PPF) is 3-years old today. How fun is that! I haven't been participating long, but have found it to be a wonderful community of creatives who are all very encouraging and supportive. I have been taking a children's book illustration course with the full intention of completing a children's book, this year. What I've learned as a result of this class is that book illustration may not be for me. The funny this is, I'm okay with that. It is a wonderful and beautiful process and I really love children's book. Who knows, I may even still write one someday, when I feel I have the proper amount of time to devote to it. I wanted to share this with you, to remind you that it's okay to not finish something. If it's not the right something for you. I realize that my favorite thing to create is still my girls faces. In order to illustrate a book, I'll have to stretch my skill-set to much more than that, and I'm just not ready to do that yet . And so, instead of working on my children's book in class, I painted this little lovely: I absolutely love her! She's another piece I've added to my scrapbook journal. If you can read my handwriting above, I wrote about what I used to create this piece.
So my lesson for the week is to do what you love, unapologetically! And always remember to keep creating. :) Oh yes, and you can also watch the next Passion-Driven Entrepreneurship interview here. I had lots of fun interviewing my friend, graphic and website designer, Colin Jeffers. Happy Friday everyone! I hope you have had a wonderful week. I have stayed very busy this week with work and am feeling very excited about how things are developing. I'm looking forward to sharing more with you as more gets solidified. Today I wanted to share a painting that I finished this week which is part of my affirmations project that I'm focusing on this year. I really love how she came out! I think my favorite part is her fluffy hair. I have been really bad about updating my shop, but as soon as I put her in there, I'll let you know! That's all for now and always remember to keep creating. :) Linking to PPF
Hello and happy Friday everyone!! I hope you have all had a wonderful week. I'm just popping in to share a quick pic of a journal page that I created. It's a piece that's also part of my new 6"x6" scrapbook journal. This little piece was created on a 5.5"x5.5" piece of watercolor paper using pen and ink and some stamping. I then mounted it on a piece of scrapbook paper! I'm really enjoying the simplicity of this process and think I'm starting to get into a little groove. I'm using the peerless watercolors, which I learned about from the wonderful Jane Davenport. I actually just ordered some more, so I'll need to show you how I set mine up. That's all for now! Always remember to keep creating. :) Linking to PPF
Hello and happy Friday everyone! I feel like it's been awhile since I've shared any art with you. To be honest, I really have not been creating as much as I used to. I think I went through a little lull of not feeling very creative. I've also been thinking a lot about what types of things I would like to share with you moving forward and I think there are going to be some changes coming. Good changes I hope that you will really enjoy. On my search for inspiration, I came across two really awesome artists who work has lit that spark in me again. The first is artist Danielle Donaldson. She is a mixed media artist and illustrator who has a really unique sense of style in her paintings. They are both fun and whimsical. The second artist whose work I'm really enjoying right now is Karen or Karenika as she goes by online. She is an avid art journaler and sets annual projects for herself as a way to constantly work on improving her skills. I also admire the fact that she blogs 7-days a week! I really admire her discipline and willingness to share with us on such a regular basis! As a result of finding and becoming inspired by the work of these two ladies I am making an attempt at art journaling. This is something that I have tried to do on and off and I just struggle with trying to understand what I'm doing. What I've started (and we'll see how it continues) is to journal using a 6"x6" scrapbook). I find that I prefer creating on look leaf paper than in a bound book. I'm using this first one to experiment with developing my illustration style. Here are a few photos from one of my pages. I'd love to hear what you think! Have a wonderful weekend and always remember to keep creating (even when you aren't feeling inspired!).
Hello and happy, snowy Friday everyone! I'm very excited to share this month's Passion-Driven Entrepreneurship-The Journey interview with you. I had the pleasure of interviewing Samantha Gregory, who is a multi-passionate entrepreneur. Here is a little bit more about her: Samantha Gregory is the author of No More Crumbs: How to Stop Dating (and Mating) for Crumbs and Get the Cake You Deserve in 10 Crucial Steps!, 100 Secrets of Successful Single Motherhood, The Single Mom Grant Guide, and several other books. She blogs at RichSingleMomma.com, is a freelance writer, and a tireless renaissance woman. In today's interview Samantha will be sharing with us her experience with developing multiple streams of income, identifying your core value or touch-stone, and creating a legacy of entrepreneurship for her children. I want to apologize in advance as the video quality is unfortunately not the best but the audio is clear. I'm still trying to figure that out, so if any of you technical geniuses have an words of wisdom please share! If you would like to learn more about Samantha and what she has to offer, you can find her at the following: Website: http://samanthagregory.com Blog: http://richsinglemomma.com/weblog/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/richsinglemomma YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/richsinglemomma Thanks for stopping by! Always remember to keep creating.
Hello Everyone! I can't believe it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I haven't had a lot to share actually as I've been focusing a lot of my energy on building my counseling business. I'm going to be expanding my services and so I've really been digging deep to uncover who I am, what I feel I am meant to share, and how to best grow. It has been a challenging but very rewarding process. I'll definitely share more as things become solidified. In the meantime, please check out my post for Artful Affirmations Friday. Although I haven't been able to do much creating, I was excited to have the opportunity to create a special piece in honor of some dear friends. They are expecting their first little one, so I was asked by another friend to create something special for them. I was really happy with how it came out and had a lot of fun creating little "AJ". I actually created a miniature version first to work out the kinks. I don't tend to do sketches first, but I really wanted to plan this one out. This is definitely a mixed media collage piece. I really just tried to enhance the pattern papers with the paint, instead of using them primarily for texture as I normally do. The little elephant is 100% original and I used a combination of acrylics and color pencil. I also used some of my hand-carved stamps to add more texture. Here are a couple more pictures. That's all for now! Have a wonderful week and always remember to keep creating.
Hello everyone! I wanted to share a commission jewelry set that I created for a friend using a print of "Jazzy Belle." I absolutely love how it turned out. For the earrings I used epoxy resin so it has a nice dome effect, which unfortunately you can't see in the picture. The pendant is set in a silver tray with a glass tile. The pendant and earrings are all 1" in size.
This was actually my first time using epoxy, because I've been nervous about it, but it wasn't as difficult as I thought! I would highly recommend if you want to try epoxy that you order from Annie Howes. Her epoxy is non-toxic, so you can use it inside and it doesn't have a strong smell. As a matter of fact, I didn't smell it at all! I love her jewelry making products. I find they are high quality at a very affordable price. I look forward to making more of these jewelry sets. If you like the one above and would like to order one of your own, just send me an email and let me know. I can create custom sets using any of my prints that are square in shape. That's all for now and don't forget to keep creating! Hello and happy Friday everyone!! How was your week? Mine was filled with ups and down, mental blocks and breakthroughs. I'm grateful for it all though, because without the challenges I wouldn't have a chance (or need) to grow! I wanted to share a few pieces that I finished this week (although I actually started some of them last week). I also wanted to share a link to a post on my counseling blog. I've started a monthly affirmation series (as of last month) where I plan to post one artful affirmation a month. I'm really looking forward to what continues to develop with that series! For this first one I decided to keep copies of her both with and without the words. I love the bright colors, it just makes me happy! I created her on a thin piece of wood and layered on top of that with papers, paint and stamping. That's where the texture in her face is coming from. I've been doing a lot of stamp carving lately. I'll have to share those stamps with you in a later post. "Sexy, Sassy, & Free" was so much fun to create. She's on an 8"x10" canvas and is a mix of paint and color pencil. I didn't layer with any papers on this one, so all of the texture is from stamping. I was inspired by a picture of a boho dress that I saw. The trim on her dress and the little square are from mini hand-carved stamps that I made. I'd love to hear which one is your favorite! I'm linking to Paint Party Friday. Don't forget to go there and check-out the work from all of the wonderful artists.
Don't forget to head on over to the shop, to see if there is a special piece that you'd like to add to your collection. I'm planning to add these two ladies to the shop later on today so be sure to check back. That's all for now and as always, remember to keep creating! |
About Me
Karla is a mixed media artist with a passion for creating art that is both whimsical and inspiring.
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December 2014
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