Red Star Mandala

When I want to create but have little energy, I often turn to the free graphics editing program Sumopaint and make mandalas from images I already have on hand.

This mandala was created from a photo of a painting in progress (shown below).
I really love how the texture of the canvas itself shows up in this mandala and makes beautiful, feathery lines.

The painting in progress is small and simple so far. I'm enjoying the colours.

Golden Light
5"x7"
acrylic on canvasboard

Alien Spires Painting In Progress

I recently was given some canvasboard by my stepdad who no longer wanted his paintings.
I'm finding it really interesting how the way I paint is changed by having images by another person as an underpainting.
At first I thought I wanted to mask areas of his paintings and then have them showing through when my painting was finished... but it didn't look right to me.

You can see some of his original concentric circles showing through in this version. I have already added a coat of paint so the original colours aren't present but the shapes are:


One thing that was really excellent about this experiment was how my choice of colour was influenced by the previous painting. It led me to choose colours and combinations of colours that I wouldn't have normally. I like being stretched like this and I now have a greater appreciation for why some artists sometimes choose a 'pallette' and constrain themselves to it.

There are still changes I plan to make to this painting, areas and colours that I want to change, but for those who enjoy seeing parts of the process, here's how it looks now:

I'm still a bit frustrated by the way the blue 'tower' on the right appears to lean toward the left (rather than looking like the pink and gold shape is in front of it) but I think I know how to fix that by having a bit of it peek out from the lower left side of that shape.

I'm loving the glowing goldy colours (which are much gentler without the flash glare :)

Painting In Progress 1

I've been painting a lot more recently since I tackled (part of) the mess in my studio.
I'm so excited to have my health returned to a level where I can use acrylic paints and glue again! I am returning to my first love of using texture in painting.

Here's a work in progress:


first, paint, then a layer of glue-water mix - half and half, that I used to attach repurposed biodegradable packing peanuts! They end up shrinking and collapsing in fun ways:

It's great to keep old, damaged brushed to use for glue since the glue wrecks a little more each time anyway. You can get more life from a glue brush by washing it with HOT water and soap as soon as possible after using. I use an old toothbrush with soap right on it to scrub the glue brush.


then I used the same glue-water mix to attach pieces of printed napkins. Once the glue dries, the part of the napkin that was white becomes transparent so that just the printing shows. Flowers and a butterfly:


I have since painted the packing peanuts a shimmery pearl white and now I feel stuck in that place of wanting to add more... but afraid of messing it up!
I have soooo many paintings in an unfinished state because of this.

If you'd like to see amazing examples of fearless layered paintings, check out Tara Leaver. She is awesome! And she takes the time and effort to share photos of each step of her panting journeys! Such dedication and patience! I have learned so much as an artist from following her blog.

Pink Morning Glory Mandala

created using sumopaint.com

Source Image:

Art Journal Bits 1

I felt like sharing a few bits from an art journal I'm working in lately - and loving.
I have so much fun making the backgrounds! It's been totally addictive for me and feels very therapeutic. I get into a meditative state while doing it that far surpasses anything I've gotten from traditional meditation. I'm so totally 'in the moment' that I'm unaware of time passing - sometimes hours.

juicy acrylic backgrounds scraped on with an old credit card

A huge amount of appreciation is beaming around the world from me to Hanna, whose great posts on altering books inspired me to get a great, spiral-bound Tai Chi manual for a few dollars second hand. Note that because my book is spiral-bound, I skipped the step of removing alternate pages.

another background using scraped acrylic, glued in napkins, marker

These backgrounds are so fast and easy - I love using the scraped-on paint method. Pencil crayon goes beautifully over top of acrylic paint.
The nice, thick pages that hold up well to acrylic paint and fun words to leave peeking through paint:



Thanks for the inspiration Hanna!

Feather Eraser Stamp (hand-carved)

All wrapped up and ready to send to a lovely woman who inspires me
(I forgot to take a photo of the stamp itself before wrapping it up... oops! :-)

Have you tried carving your own stamps from erasers yet?
It's so much fun! I love using them in art journals, on cards, envelopes, and other paper crafts.
They also make wonderful, personal gifts.
Vinyl erasers work best and if you think you'll do this more than a few times, it's totally worth the money to buy a linoleum cutter (also called Lino cutter). I have the Speedball one shown in this photo.


It has a number of different tips to choose from and I find it very handy how they can all be stored in the handle. No chance of losing them. You can carve stamps using utility/exacto knives but a cutter like this is much safer and sooo much easier.
After only a few stamps, it will have paid for itself. I tried a few different kinds of vinyl erasers before settling on one I liked. This one cuts like butter. So smooth. And it's not scented - unlike most that I tried. Ick.

There are many tutorials online. Here are a few(note that you can also use carving blocks sold at art or printing stores. It's nice to begin with erasers because they are so cheap you may be less held back by fear of messing up!):
I saw this video of Geninne's only after I carved my feather stamp. Hers is amazing! (of course :)
Geninne in action

non-video tutorial part 1
non-video tutorial part 2

I confess that I don't have the patience to draw the design first and transfer it onto the eraser as shown in those tutorials. I draw directly on the stamp or just freehand it without drawing at all.

*Tips*

1. If you wear a cotton glove on the hand holding the stamp, you're less likely to get cut if you slip. This may seem unnecessary but it's totally worth it in my opinion :) Those blades are supr sharp.
2. If you will be carving curved lines, it's much easier to have the eraser on a small piece of paper that can slide around easily - then you can twist/turn the eraser itself as you go around corners rather than trying to move the cutter in a smooth, curved line.
3. Start gently. You can always cut deeper later but you can't add back parts you've removed!
4. When you are first getting the hang of this art, you can use all sides of the eraser to practice on. It will save money and be kinder to the environment.
5. If you create any kind of mixed media art, you can also save the shavings you carve off the eraser, mix them with glue or gel medium, and create very funky background textures for paintings etc.

Have fun!

Flower Within Mandala

I love this mandala - both the regular and the inverted versions make me smile :-)

created using sumopaint.com
source image (an envelope I decorated by hand):

Mosaic Mandala

I hope you are all having a lovely summer (and winter to those in the southern hemisphere).
The weather has been very weird here this year with temperatures going from cold to hot to cold again all in a single week but in the last few weeks, it's finally been hot more than not and the gardens are suddenly going wild!
I've been spending less time on the computer and more time in 'real life' :-)
My favourite thing about this season is the magic of flowers blooming. I get up each morning excited to go out into the yard and see what new blooms are waiting to light my face up with a smile or awaken my fingertips as I gently touch their petals.

What's your favourite thing about this season?


mandala created using sumopaint.com from source image:

Inspiration Cloud Mandala

Hmm... this blog seems to be mostly mandalas lately.
I have been doing a huge amount of art journalling/playing and painting.
These mandalas get shared most because they are so easy to post since I don't have to upload and edit images from my camera! And they're sooo much fun to make :-)





The source image for this mandala is a pen and marker drawing I did that I called an 'inspiration cloud' - doodles surrounding an empty place to write inspiring text:

Sunny Mandala

Rain has returned to southern Ontario and I am yearning for the sunshine that has made only brief appearances so far this spring!
This sunny mandala was created out of that yearning:


created using Sumopaint.com

Source image (St. John's Wort):

Sparkly Mandala

click on image if you'd like to see a larger version

created in Sumopaint.com from source image:

Three More Mandalas

source images:

Serpent Mandalas

These mandalas are made using Sumopaint.com






The source image is of a beautiful garter snake I met a few summers ago:

Willow Tree Mandalas

I'm still having so much fun using the graphics programs I learned of recently.

Both of these mandalas had the same source image - weeping willow branches glowing in the sun against a blue sky.



I'm so excited at how they turned out!





Source image:

Very Tiny Butterfly Doodle

I recently found some Fiskars squeeze punches at a discount store for $5 each. Wow! They work like a dream.
After testing them out with some white card stock, the little punched pieces suddenly looked like perfect, miniature canvases - just crying out for colour...


This butterfly is about the size of a penny :-)
Materials: micron pens, markers, card stock, punch

For some reason I find that I like doodling on smaller pieces of paper much more than on larger ones.

Do you have a size of paper you prefer doodling on?

We Are All Connected

those are galaxies in that photo - it blows my mind :-)

When Leah posted this month's Creative Every Day theme of Cosmos, I was so excited!

Thinking about our amazing bodies in our amazing world and it's place in our amazing Universe is one of the things that feels incredibly spiritual for me. I am in awe of both the vastness and the intricacy of the cosmos.

My mom sent me a link to a video a few months ago that perfectly expressed the joy and awe that I feel when I think about 'All That Is'. It effected me and inspired me on a very deep level. I often watch it a few times a day.

It's partially electronic music (warning for those of you who don't like that :) but the music is not overly what hooked me - it's the words of the various scientists in the video.

We Are All Connected by Symphony of Science:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk

Below the video, there is a part where they have entered text sharing the words in case any are hard to understand. I found it helpful.
If it doesn't show, you can click on the little down arrow that is right under the number of views the video has had.

In the video, there are some clips of physicist Richard Feynman - who I hadn't heard of!
He was so charismatic and joyful that I got curious and read more about him. He's a very fascinating guy.

For those of you who would enjoy watching simple physics things explained (like how light works, why ice is slippery etc) there is a fun series of videos by him that I loved. It's called "Fun To Imagine". He has a great gift of explaining in ways that non-scientists can understand.
Note the sound quality is poor - I had to turn them way up to hear.
Some of it is complex enough that it boggles my mind a bit and I really love how passionate he is. It felt like the passion itself helped me to understand things that may normally have been impossible for me.

part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3pYRn5j7oI&feature=related

part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITpDrdtGAmo&feature=related

part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRxAn2DRzgI&feature=related

Further parts should be listed on the right of the youtube page of those videos. let me know if you have trouble finding them.

A Fun and Frugal Holiday Garland

When I first began working on Christmasy projects a few weeks ago, I had a hard time deciding whether or not to post them on my blog.  I'm not Christian but I love so many things about this holiday.  Since I have a hard time with words, I'd like to borrow from Christie of Grace is Overrated, who perfectly expressed what I had been feeling on this topic.  In a recent post she said, "I didn't want to offend those who might celebrate differently than I do or not at all, for I know that Christmas is not a universal celebration.  Most of all, I want this to be a place where we all feel welcome and appreciated and included."
Thank you Christie, for saying that so well!
I hope that those of you who don't celebrate Christmas will not feel hurt or excluded.  If you'd ever like to adapt one of my projects to a holiday or event you celebrate and want ideas how, please contact me - I'd love to brainstorm.  :-) If you adapt a project and share it online somewhere, please let me know in the comments so I can link to it!  I would love that. ♥
This project in particular lends itself well to any occasion one wants to decorate for.  I love it so much that I plan to make one in rainbows to have up at all times.  Not to celebrate anything (well, I suppose to celebrate my love of rainbows :)

I originally planned to make this garland by punching circles from cool paper and gluing to a string.  I quickly discovered that I didn't have the patience to get the gluestick on the circles and line them up on either side of the string before the glue dried... at least not for the time it would take to make 12 feet of it!  I had the circles all punched out and was very disappointed until I had a sudden brainwave...
Stickers. 
No glue.  No punches.  EASY!  And best of all, FUN because I love stickers.

This holiday garland has some parts that could easily be done by children and some best for adults.

Supplies:

• tape (I use painters tape because it is easy to unstick from walls, string, fingers etc)
• 1 package of coloured circle stickers (any colours you like)
• thread or string (any colour you like - I used silver because I like sparkly things)
• Optional:  1 package of coloured metallic star stickers (or any sticker you like that is smaller than the circles)

I already had thread and tape on hand so this garland cost about $2 in stickers bought at a dollar store.  If you use only circles, it would be around $1


Step 1. (kid-friendly)

Stick the star stickers onto the circle stickers.  You can use contrasting colours.  I decided I liked how it looked best when the star was the same colour as the circle.  This photo doesn't show it well but when the light hits the stars, they reflect.
They don't need to be even - this step could easily be done by any age of child that could be trusted with stickers.
Idea: children could also draw on a few of the circles instead of putting stars on them.  They may enjoy later picking out their drawings as they look at the garland.  Another option is to spell out words - 1 letter per circle.

Step 2.

Tape a length of string between 2 walls in a corner.  You could also tape one end to a table and the other to a wall. If you leave the string attached to the spool, then you don't have to calculate how many stickers will fit on what length, just keep on sticking until they are used up!
If you look closely on the left, you can see that I experimented with having circles and stars alternate on the string - it was much too finicky to get the stars to match up evenly so I abandoned that idea.  You can also see that I didn't immediately think of putting the stars on the circles before attaching them to the string!  Trust me, it's way easier to do Step 1 first :-]


Step 3. (not so kid-friendly)

a) Stick the stickers to one side of the string.    I stuck one on the string, pressed the string firmly onto the adhesive and was able to let go while I got the other sticker from the sheet.  This may not work as well if you were using a heavier weight of string. It doesn't have to be in the exact centre.
b) Stick a matching colour of sticker to the other side of the string, lining it up as close as possible to the first sticker.  Don't stress out if they don't match up perfectly.  Once I hung mine, I couldn't even see the mistakes.
c) Decide how far apart you want to space the stickers and repeat steps 3 a) and b) until your garland is as long as you want!

I made a big long garland but this would also look very nice in many shorter strands hanging down vertically from a ceiling.  I used my experimental alternating star/circle piece to hang down from the centre of the garland.

To prevent tangling:

As you fill up the length of string you have taped between the 2 walls, you can loop the finished pieces and tape to the wall like this:

To store:  I will wrap it around a piece of cardboard that I've made notches in each end of, then put in a file folder or envelope.  You could also wrap it around an empty paper towel roll as shown in the photo on this blog: Polka Dot Garland


Hanging: 
When made with thin thread, this garland is very light and airy.  It is held up to the ceiling with Scotch tape and has not threatened to fall down.  I doubt the entire 12 feet would hold with just 2 pieces of tape but I hung it in scalloped sections and it's holding well.

If you try this project, or a variation on it, and post online, I'd love if you'd comment with a link!

Happy decorating!

Mandala Drawing 1

As you can see, I love colouring so much that I can't wait until a drawing is 'finished to begin to colour it in.
The only thing I don't like about this is that I would love to make copies of entirely black and white drawing and be able to use them later as colouring pages.
I'm trying to discipline myself to do some drawing without colouring as I go along... for the express purpose of being able to copy them... and maybe share them here in case you'd like to print some out to colour in too!

early in the process

later in the process

I actually kind of prefer how it looked before I drew all of those lines around it (the ones filled with pink and greens).
Oh well!  :-)

I just have to say, again, that I am in love with Pigma Micron pens. (No financial interest)  I just love how they don't smear when I colour on them with marker (or watercolour paint).
:-)

A Poem: Weeding and Shedding Old Skin... and a Poll

Today my 'creative every day' endeavour was writing.
For those of you who enjoy poetry or prose poetry, I've posted a new piece over at my writing blog called Weeding and Shedding Old Skin (as well as a photo of a wonderful snake letting me stroke it's soft skin).

I've also created a little poll here on Divinity Withinity.
I'd love it if you'd take part and let me know what type of posts you enjoy most here!
It's my first try at creating a poll so hopefully it will work!
It's on the upper right hand side of this page. :-)

I hope you're having a great day!
It got cold overnight here in southern Ontario.
The giant garden toad has burrowed into the dirt with just it's head sticking out... very wise.

The Magical Forest - returning to my heart

Yesterday during a meditation I was reminded that painting is the pathway to my heart... in a way it is my heart.
I have been drawing, sewing, doodling and more but haven't painted in over a month.
It takes a bit of prep work to begin and once I do, a time warp occurs and I emerge finding hours to have passed!  So I'm more likely to take an 'easier' or 'faster' creative path.

Yet when I do take the time to paint my spirit soars!
I am more in the moment than any traditional meditation can bring me.
I feel free, joyful, excited and immersed in a state of wonder at the beautiful colours and shapes that blossom.

I'm calling this piece The Magical Forest after the woods that live inside of me with my heart at their centre.
The heart is not seen directly here but the glow from behind the trees is from it.

The Magical Forest

Watercolour

8.5"x11"

Apologies for the photo quality.  When I get a camera upgrade, I will update the photo. :-)

Technical stuff for those interested:
I didn't use watercolour paper for this because I wanted some of the paint to be more diffuse and spread into the paper itself (watercolour paper has 'sizing' added to help prevent this).
I used 135lb smooth drawing paper.  Acid-free.
Tips:
Tape paper on all sides with green painter's tape, pressed down firmly onto a metal clipboard.  can use masking tape but it is more likely to rip the paper when removed.
Wait more than 12 hours to remove tape.
The wait is worth it - it may feel dry to the touch and you may despair at how it's still warped but if you leave it long enough, this weight of paper will shrink almost flat again if the tape is pressed down well (and didn't get horribly soaked by water or paint).