A New Eye

Creative makers will find this familiar, no doubt.

I have advised this to many and have had this advice passed on to me from many.
"If you aren't sure whether you like it, get new eyes."

It means to set that project aside. Get up from the table and go for a walk. Check in on your phone for a minute. Start something else. But under no circumstance do you go back to that project. Not until you haven't looked at it for awhile.

How long is awhile? That depends on how creatively stuck you are. If you feel you've just begun, then take longer than if you feel you're close to finished. (that's my personal policy) The point of setting it aside is to reset your mind frame and develop a new way to look at it. It works when writing, too. Write it all down as it comes to you, then push it aside for the day. When you come back tomorrow, read it through and edit as necessary.

Let's face it, some days are better than other for creative minds. If it's true that we are our own worst critic, then let's shut off that negative voice for a bit and get on with something else. Once we're out of that "moment", we can go back to the piece with a fresh pair of eyes. We can see things in it that we didn't when we were in the "moment"...we were too close.

That is this piece:

This work has no title. It started out as an experiment in using my fluid acrylics. I was influenced by the melting crayon trend. I had no intentions of making anything with this but as it dried, I was taken with it. I loved how the drips had slid down the paper and how the colors had slightly mingled on the overlaps. After going back to it, I figured I could use it for something because I liked it so much.

And herein lies the sword...that double-edged weapon of yore. I liked it so much that it became the one project that I never seemed to be able to complete. I could stamp on it, collage, or perhaps add more color. Every idea I threw out, I choked on. I couldn't lift my hand to mess with it.

So I took the advice of many. I set it aside.

And there it stayed for a very long time. I would see it when ruffling through handmade background papers and pause. Should I use this? No, a very soft voice would whisper, don't walk that path right now. You'll get lost.

I finally pulled it out earlier this year where I finally decided that it needed nothing. I had never used it or embellished it further because it didn't need it. I realized that I was happy with it just as it was. I enjoyed it because of the white space and small speckles. I was happy that the primary colors were still distinctive and yet mingling with their neighbors. I liked it in all its abstractness. (and I admit to not liking a lot of abstract art)

I even like the fact that it has no title. I can't think of what to call it and that rounds out it's artsy perfection.

What will become of it now? It will become a month in a calendar that I am planning. I actually have a prototype made up but am still struggling with cost as well as final details.

Sometimes art just pops up before you. It appears right under your nose. You can only see it with New Eyes.

-Wy

Hope you liked the story behind the art. Please follow my Facebook page to be alerted when Blog Posts go live and for any Etsy shop news.

TBTH: Monday February 27, 2012

What's so significant about this date?

Um...nothing.

But it is a Throwback Thursday! So I looked up the oldest post on the blog where I had shared a journal page. The very beginning of my art journaling obsession so to speak.

This was THE POST.

This was the photo.

It's kinda neat to look back into where I began all this. I've been in the mood to "spring clean"...you know, the need to purge the clutter of everyday life. I saw my stash of past art journals and almost began to page through them. I didn't as I needed to have the feeling of a completed project under my belt. But the next time I stare at a page too long, those babies are coming off the shelf for some fun!

I was also staggered by the fact that I started this in 2012. I really didn't feel I had been at it that long. But a whole 5 years has elapsed since that post. I hope that means that I love it so much that time stands still. If I had to tell someone how long I'd been art journaling, I would have said "a couple years"...but 5?! Wow, I didn't know.

I also admit that I don't think I'm much good company if I don't art journal. I enjoy the time spent choosing colors, stencils, media, and words/quotes. It had led me into other "hard core" art things like acrylic paint, and canvas' of all sizes. It has allowed me to play and to experiment. It has taught me what I like and what I don't like. It has clarified my definitions. It has excited me.

So I think for this Throwback Thursday, I have re-discovered my enjoyment for art journaling. I am grateful for the lessons it has taught me. I am grateful for those artists who have shared their knowledge with the internet so that people like me can learn new things and nurture our creative sides. 

In a world where reality is slowly closing in on all facets of life, it's important to have a place of peace and quiet; a place of creativity and imagination; a place without technology; a place that we make for ourselves. For me, that is my art journal.

-Wy

TBTH: 5 Most Popular Posts of 2017

Most posts on my blog get around 28-33 views. I consider that a normal response for a post. Some garner not so much interest and some, like the following seem much more popular.

I decided to countdown the 5 Most Popular Posts on my Blog for 2017.

5. Witch Market, Salem, Mass.
 This post was part of my month long Halloween celebration and I almost didn't finish the project in time. Posted only a couple days before the holiday, it scored 43 views. I still have this project sitting on my computer desk where I can see it everyday. It was a particular favorite of mine.

4. The Tell-Tale Heart
This was my first post for the month of October to kick off the Halloween season. It got 55 views. It was a great way to start the month with the newest addition to my growing "Ode to Poe" collection of canvas'.

3. Craft Time
This made me happy to see! This post was written about some crafty time I spent with my niece and it got 61 views! We had fun coloring and making up scenes for some "crazy cats". If you craft with kids, you know why this is special.

2. Poe Appreciation Day: Tag Book 1 & 2 
I counted this as a single post since it was a part one and a part 2 of the same project. Between the two of them, there were 122 views. This project was part of a blog hop for Lost Coast Designs. I still love the tag book and continue to gain ideas and inspiration from it.

So what post was the top of the list?

1. Party Like the Dead
The top post of the year scored an amazing 126 views! This post was about my party decor for a Day of the Dead themed party. It featured invitations, a banner, treat boxes, and straws. I hope to do a couple more posts like this for Halloween 2018!

There it is in a nutshell. Check out those links for anything you may have missed!
Thanks for checking out the blog!
-Wy

Welcome 2018

It's the beginning of a New Year! Time to look back on my goals and see what I accomplished as well as make some new resolutions. If you want to see the goals I set last year, go to this POST. I will be referring to it throughout this post.

Overall, I'd say I'd had a pretty successful year.
Goals Accomplished (or not) in 2017:
1. Color Palette Journal:  FAIL! Still didn't move forward with this one.

2. Altered Books:  FAIL! Still haven't even started one.

3. Halloween Projects: Success! I made about 1/2 of my Halloween projects that I featured in October ahead of time and shared a few extra outside of the Halloween season.

4. Calendar and Divination Card projects: Success! I have completed my first set of Divination Cards and they are currently on sale at my Etsy store. I have also completed all the artwork for my calendar. I hope to have the calendar available soon. I just have to finish up the digital design and printing.

5. Etsy shop: Yuppers, it's up and running. Hoping to keep the inventory turning over and have plans for different items like original artwork.

WHAT I LEARNED IN 2017:
1. It's hard to Art Journal every week. I had a rough time with the 2 art journals I had rolling this year. I amazed myself by finishing them before the end of the year but I'm not entirely happy with the results or the process. The weekly prompts of the Art Journal Adventure were intriguing and inspiring but I ended up doing most of them all at once toward the end of the month rather than spaced out. Inspiration Wednesday wasn't a matter of time but of interest. I discovered that I'm no longer "in touch" with Donna Downey's style. I love her use of collage and mixed media but her flat-out acrylic painting wasn't what I was looking for. I did stretch out into those lessons but they weren't the lessons that got me excited to get to work. Because of that lack of enthusiasm, I lost interest and that journal ended up being a chore during the last 6 lessons or so.

2. Apply what I've learned.  Along with the above lesson, I have learned to just take inspiration and run with it. A lot of my Inspiration Wednesday journal looks nothing like what the teacher accomplished but I have learned that that is ok. In fact, that is better because it's my own. Take what you need and make it your own. Hoping to remember this lesson throughout the coming year.

3. I gotta stop buying sh*t!  I fell off the "too much spending and stuff" wagon this year. I went a bit overboard with buying things rather than using them. I mostly got taken with art journaling supplies and rubber stamps. Part of my problem is that I want to support some of the small companies that make rubber stamps but I've got too many that I haven't even used already! I may have to start deleting a lot of e-mail without looking at all the "sales".

4. The art journal is practice for projects.  I did a lot of experimenting and practicing in my art journal this year. Many of my pages became the inspiration for Divination Cards, calendar pages, or canvas projects. These were pages that weren't necessarily part of the Inspiration Wednesday or Art Journal Adventure. This allowed me the freedom to fail and I don't think I would have met those goals if I hadn't done this step first. So I will continue to look at art journaling like play time.

5. I never seem to have enough time.  I've said before that creativity doesn't happen in a vacuum. Nor does it happen upon demand. It happens when you're rolling along. Once you get started and you are just playing around, little things start popping together. Collage elements start working. Colors start looking different. Space isn't so daunting and paints are made for use. Creativity is a fluid and it's always moving along. If you're not moving with it, you're just watching it go by.

GOALS FOR 2018

1. Organize and downsize AGAIN. I bought too much stuff this year. I'm hoping a re-organization of my supplies will help me narrow my focus for what I can buy. I hope that by organizing my rubber stamps especially, it will help me stop buying more or at least show me what I really use.

2. Attend more live craft shows as a vendor.  If I can get some kind of customer base in person, perhaps they will seek me out on-line. If they find me on-line, maybe they will come to buy in person. Either way, I've always found craft/art shows to give me some good feedback on all my products.

3. Make more canvas' for framing and sell them that way. I've bought a bunch of small flat canvas' and I hope to make some original work for sale.

4. Make some Zines and add to Etsy shop.  I've found out about Zines and I hope to get the hang of it soon. I'm experimenting right now but I'd like to get some done to sell at my Etsy shop this year. Limited editions, original work. I may even have to dig out some original poetry. I'm excited about this form of artwork.

5. Make new Divination Deck.  Yup, gonna try for two in a row. This newer set will be a limited time only or a limited print or something like that. At the present time, I'm leaning toward "the Ultra-Violet Set". Brainstorming stage is underway.

6. Be more positive about my work.  Every artist has an inner critic. I need to shut mine up when I blog. I tend to be negative over little details. I'm gonna try to refrain from that. It'll be difficult but I'm gonna really try this year.

7. Change up my blog posts. I want my blog to read more like stories and daily journal posts. I'm going to refrain from adding links to products unless I think they need further explanation or they are required (for challenges or contests). I'm not sponsored or paid to promote products. I just like to share things that work for me. But I want my posts to be more "readable" and less advertising, so to speak. So don't expect any more product placement or links. I'm also hoping to do more posts with just photos and very minimal explanation. Expect a few more links to new products in my Etsy shop, though.

8. Work on altered books and Color Palette Journal. Oi, vey. Why not?


So Happy New Year to all of you! Let's see if we can't all get some creative work done!
-Wy

The Trouble with Defining Style

I took up a big job this week. I decided to sort through and weed out all the photos on my computer that focused on my artwork/card making. Add on top of that project, the fact that I have been working more hours at my "paying" job this month and you end up with posts like this. Not much new, but reflective.

I mainly take photos of my cards and projects to add here to the blog. I like to keep the better ones in case I apply for a design team or want to submit to some magazine etc. Having done this for several years now, it's interesting to look back on some of them to see what's changed and what hasn't. It popped into my head that this would be an interesting time to see if I had developed any certain kind of style.

I have always struggled with defining my style. I mean, I know what I like but to pigeon hole all my work under a particular "style" gives me the willies. Yet, it is that "style" that makes an artist's work stand out and be recognized as distinctive. Applying for design teams requires that you can define your "style". I wish I could. Even "mixed-media" doesn't seem right. My cards don't look like that but my canvases and art journal do, mostly. "Collage" is a broad term that doesn't really define a style but more of a technique. I am not an art school grad and even terms like "shabby chic" don't seem broad enough.

How to combine it all under a simple "style"?

Can you see my problem? How do you take all the above and lump it into a style?

I did learn by looking back on my past cards that I like to use a main large focal image and support it with background paper. I like a clean look to a card with a large focal or the entire front of the card to be an image. I usually rubber stamp cards and do very little with "mixed-media". For cards, I use stamps, ink, and patterned paper. I'll do some ink blending and coloring. While I'm not sure it falls into the CAS (clean and simple) category, the cards that I like the best have very little embellishment. Like those two above.
Not like these that I made in the past:

While I liked the concept and even the color palettes of these cards, they are too busy for me to really love. The Oscar card has disjointed elements, the rainbow card has competing images, and the Pop Of Color card has just too much pattern. I don't hate these cards but I recognize now that they didn't come easily. I worked too hard on them, thought too long, or maybe just hit a road block.

That's what I learned today in my art journal. The page I was working on just wasn't making me happy. I realized upon looking at it that I could see how hard I had worked on it. I needed to loosen it up, to not think so much about that finished project and just throw some stuff around. I needed to relax into the page and make it happy. (I'll be sharing that page when I share my next installment of my Inspiration Wednesday Journal.)

But that still doesn't help me define my style. What kind of style is defined by a large focal image supported by messy backgrounds or patterned paper that just make me happy? I know there are things that I'll always like (ocean life, cute critters, and circles) and things that I always won't (crazy birds, girl forms, and red) but that doesn't mean you won't see the things I don't like in my work. And my work is not defined by cute critters. In fact, I tend to go back to flowers mostly. Flowers with long stems. Backgrounds of blue and green. What do you call THAT style? Scenic?

Perhaps, I should start using the term "eclectic". "Eclectic": deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources. 

I have shied away from the term because I always felt that it told you nothing. In some sense, it does. It basically tells you that you're into everything.
Or maybe I just haven't the right word yet. Maybe I haven't the art background to determine my style.

Or maybe I'll forget about it and just do what I like, when I like it. I've never been a fashionable trendsetter.
Perhaps my style is "Me".
-Wy

Practice Makes Perfect

In general, when I make cards, I'm using some rubber stamps somewhere. I like to stamp but it's never perfect the first time out.

I'm here to tell ya, practice may not make perfect but it sure does help it look better. Especially when you've just gotten unmounted rubber stamps and can't wait to use them!

Like this bird I got just before I left on vacay. I needed to stamp it a few times to get the feel for the stamp. Did I need to get good pressure in the middle? Would I need to use some magazine beneath the paper to cushion it? What kind of ink would look best with the paper I wanted to use? Did one black look better than another?

Once stamped a few times, I could practice coloring. Which markers to use? Which colors looked good? See the bird on the left...I was experimenting with the grays. I wanted a crow but I didn't want to lose the patterning in the stamp. But then, what if I did purple? The crow on the right was me figuring out which purples went together as well as if they were too dark and would cover up the pattern. Since the crows were only practice, I didn't have to be precise and I could test colors on the background of the paper because I would cut the crows out, if they came out well. So you can see a little scribble here and there on the paper.

I used to be afraid to do this. I felt like I was wasting my supplies and my time. But when you get into a project, one that requires a lot of work, you don't want to screw it up because you're not sure what color to use. That paralyzes me. I start staring at it hesitant to try anything because it might not be what I really want. Then, I'll have to start all over again. So NOW, I'm not afraid of practice. It allows the finished project to go more smoothly and I can feel better about the results.

And not all practice has to be trashed. I salvaged some of these birds for other things and the angels will become card fronts soon. Those that didn't make the cut can always be flipped over and stamped on the other side. Wink.

I'm not sharing the finished piece just yet but once some of the smaller projects are done, you'll be seeing some of this stuff in action.

Back from vacation and eager to get more art started!
-Wy
"Let's get it started. Let's get it started in here!"---Black Eyed Peas

Welcome 2017

I went back to my Welcome 2016 post to see what goals I made last year that I may have accomplished or not. If you're interested in the whole post, click that link...the goals are down toward the bottom, if you're the scrolling type. (Hey, no judgement, I like that scrolling action, too.)

In this post, I'm going to do the same type of thing. I'm going to set my goals for this year and reflect on anything I might have learned this past year. I know some of it is the same as last year! But this year, I'm ahead of the game and thinking about this stuff a month earlier. I wonder if that will mean I'll get more stuff accomplished!

Goals accomplished in 2016:
1. Inspiration Wednesday Journal Completed! It was completed in good time and before the start of the next year. All those posts are labeled with Inspiration Wednesday so if you click that label over at the right, they'll all come up. Overall, I had a good time with it. But as with all art journals I have completed so far, I never like it all. I've got some ugly mixed in there and it will stay there. Just as I've got some great stuff in there and it will stay there. That is how I approach art journaling: keep it all because it's a snapshot of a moment in time.

2. Art Journal Adventure Completed!  This was just completed early this year with the same caveat as above...a bit of good, meh, and ugly. But I can honestly say my favorite page is in this journal. I'm hoping for more of THAT this year.

3. Color Palette Journal still underway. I have not worked in this journal in quite some time. I have several ideas for palettes laid out but have not done them. I think I got wrapped up in keeping up with the two above journals that I couldn't find time to work in this one. It may also be that this one was going to be fundamentally different in technique as I decided to use less paints and more "scrapbook" type things. I'm calling this one a FAIL as the goal of starting this journal was to look at that Pinterest board and utilize it for inspiration. That really didn't happen.

4. Designing Calender Pages is progressing.  I do have some of these pages done but I don't share them here. Perhaps when I get them done and I'm happy with them. I am making some but my focus for them has shifted over the year. I started thinking they'd be very representative of the "season" or "holiday". But I changed my mind and starting doing pages that just feel like that month in color or shape. I haven't decided whether the ones I already had finished will make the cut. So a FAIL in that I didn't get it done but it is a work in progress and I'm ok with that.

5. Design a Divination Deck.  Did you read #4? Ditto here. My major challenge here is that I'm changing my mind a lot. I like to have things "themed" rather than just a random assortment of artwork. This may be my stumbling block. So yea, it's a small FAIL.

6. Make more altered books...um, big FAIL. Didn't make a one in 2016. Ugh.

I also accomplished:
1. A couple winter/Christmas canvas'.

2. A load of Halloween projects to keep this blog very active for the month of October. (Despite the loss of my cat-friend, Aussie, in that month, too.) I was quite proud of another Poe canvas called, "Black Cat", which pairs quite well with "Raven" from 2015. Even my mom, who isn't much into Halloween, liked that canvas and allowed me to display it all month in our living room.

What I learned in 2016:

1. Distress inks and it's color palette are my favorite. I dissed the Distress markers last year and vowed to use them up and not replace them. I may be changing my mind. After having purchased and used the Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, I was still going back to the Distress Markers for the colors. The Zig I had purchased were bright and bold and I found myself wanting the paler, grungier colors of the Distress palette. Whether I will replace the Distress markers as they "go up", I'm not sure. It's the color palette I like and I can color with the ink pads as well as a marker.

2. I learned a lot about color this year. Not just that I think of colors in terms of the Distress palette but how certain colors layer over each other and mix together. I am feeling quite confident in my color instincts. I have also become obsessed with making swatches of all of my colorants. (How bad is it? I even swatched out a box of crayola crayons. No kidding.)

3. I get great enjoyment from Halloween projects. The 3-D pieces that I completed this year were along this theme and I had a fantastic time making them. I LOVED it.

4. The most important thing I learned this year was that creativity comes from action. The less time I had to play around in my basement with art journaling, the less ideas I had for any projects I wanted to complete. When I had a rare two days in a row to create, I found that on the second day, my energy levels were up and I got a lot accomplished. I needed to start something, anything, just to get my juices flowing. Each subsequent project was more satisfying and seemed "better" to me. Creativity comes from motion, from play, and from giving yourself the time to let that happen.

Goals for 2017:

1. Work more in the Color Palette Journal. What the heck, maybe this year!

2. Make altered books!  What the heck, maybe this year!

3. Make Halloween projects whenever I want!  Why stick to October? I'm going to start earlier this year. I think I started a month ahead last year. I may just do them whenever I want and save them for October.

4. Finish Calender and Divination Cards pages.  Hopefully, I'll have a finished project for both this year. These may help with the next goal, too.

5. Get the Etsy shop back up and running. I had a shop a while ago but let it fall away. Now that I cam taking photos of just about everything I create, I might as well post them for sale. I have a horrible time selling anything at craft fairs as I don't have the time or the support. For me, it's hard to set up a table in an outdoor venue as I have no help to put up a tent. So the Etsy shop may be a way to sell some cards and canvas' to support my art habit. This also means I will be investing in a "business" which brings the decision as to whether to "brand" myself differently. My challenge here will be to just make a decision and stick with it.


Well, I wonder if any of these things will get done this year. I'm hopeful. I should be working a bit less so I'll have some time to devote to these goals.
-Wy

Distress Markers VS Paper

You may recall this little bit of posting I did earlier this year:
"I no longer like Distress Markers....I will just use up what I've got and not invest in any more."

Umm, yeah...about that...
I think I may have changed my mind.

At the beginning of the year, I was really hating my Distress Markers. They only seemed to work well on watercolor paper with water. I admit that I blamed the markers. In fact, it was User Error and high expectations. It was also my paper.

Let me back up a bit. (beep, beep, beep)
I was making a pocket letter for my niece and decided to color in a stamped image that I was going to fussy cut. So I grabbed a piece of scrap paper that I have in a small pile. I never really know what kind of paper/cardstock I'll grab. I grabbed something marvelous. This amazing scrap of paper allowed my Distress Markers to blend almost seamlessly with each other and with no added water or blender pen. No streaky lines or fast drying. The marker ink seemed to hesitate on the surface just before slowly sinking away. In fact, I smudged it. Honestly, I have only ever smudged a Distress Marker when I've used it on glossy cardstock.

I was amazed and truly excited. Eureka!!! What the heck kind of paper was this? I frantically dove into all my hoarded white cardstock. I pulled out everything I could think of and nothing matched it. OH NO! Was this little scrap of paper the last of some cut up card base? Was this all there was left and I can't figure out what it is? Finally, it came to me. Bristol. I had bought a pad of Bristol paper not long ago to try out with my new Zig markers. (The Zig markers that were going to replace these old Distress ones.) Yup, the papers matched...the amazing paper/cardstock was Bristol.

I had been watching a video by Kristina Werner when she mentioned her great success with Bristol paper and Zig markers. So I bought a pad of it to use with my Zigs. I don't know why I was so surprised that Distress markers worked so well, too. But I honestly think the Distress markers worked better on Bristol paper than my current watercolor paper!

So my next step was to swatch out my Distress and Zig markers on a variety of cardstocks that I have accumulated. I bought several varieties for different purposes and I'm now regretting it. I want only 2 white cardstocks, a watercolor cardstock, black and kraft cardstock, then a few colors for fun. I don't want to have 4 white cardstocks and not remember which one works with what supplies.

So if you're interested in my results, read on. If not (or if this is not news to you, I'm sure this is something that veteran colorists know already!), feel free to skip to the end.

I pulled out 6 different white cardstocks to test with both the Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and the Distress markers. I wasn't very scientific about it. I wanted to see how colors blended together with just the markers and then with a blender pen. (I'm using a blender pen from Stampin Up.)
I'm using three colors of blues. From Zig: 036 Light Blue, 030 Blue, 038 Peacock blue. These colors aren't great for blending together, so I decided to use 2 sets of blues from the Distress line. One set blends pretty easily and the other...not so much. I used: Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Mermaid Lagoon for the lighter blue set and Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans, and Chipped Sapphire for the darker set.

 I first tried Laser cardstock. This is from Hammermill and this 100 lb cardstock is designed for laser printing. I work in a copy shop and we use laser printers. This cardstock is scrap that we might otherwise throw out. I figured I'd use it for something. But from these tests, apparently I will be using it for card bases only. Both the Zig and Distress markers sank right into the paper and did not want to come back out to blend. It was practically instantaneous. This makes sense, naturally, as in a print shop you want that ink to dry as it comes right out of the copy machine so it doesn't smudge. But 100 lb scrap cardstock will be great as a base or to use as pages in a small journal. This stuff is super smooth and the Sharpie that I wrote with looked great. For coloring though, this was definitely the worst.

The next sample wasn't much better. It was Cheap Cardstock. I can't tell you a brand, in fact, I'm starting to think it might have been a large index card that I chopped up. Sometimes, I like to just use an index card to stamp something small that I'm going to cut out. It is definitely no heavier than 60 lb paper and it has a bit of tooth to it, not super smooth. The Zig markers liked this stuff better than the above though if overworked, the paper would start to pill. Blender pen pulled it along but still left the original mark. Distress markers showed no improvement over the laser paper.

Here is where the improvements began for both markers. This is white 65 lb cardstock from Recollections. I believe this is the Micheal's store brand of cardstock. It's a big thicker than an index card and much smoother. It's a joy to write and stamp on, too. I give this one a bit better rating because of it's smoothness. The smooth finish of this cardstock allows the ink to settle and spread slightly to provide very even coloring. Blending wasn't any better than the cheap stuff and it still pills very easily.

Next up is the watercolor paper/cardstock. I'm no expert on watercolor paper. I'm not a watercolor artist and I only use it for "washes" generally. But that may be because I hate stamping on it. Any way, these two markers performed better on this cardstock. Both Zig and Distress blended better on this watercolor paper. But I still couldn't get all the marker ink to "dissolve" so I still had dark blobs of color in the middle. My blender pen also pilled the paper pretty easily. This can't be a very good watercolor paper as I know Zig markers will work well on this type of substrate. I even tried just using water to lift the ink and move it around...the results were basically the same.

This one was a surprise to me. I didn't expect this cardstock to perform so well. This is 110 lb white Coredinations cardstock. I bought this to use as card bases. It was heavy and I didn't think it would work well for coloring...see my results with cheap cardstock. But this stuff gave me similar results to the watercolor paper. When I used the blender pen, I had much less pilling as well. This cardstock is also very smooth which is advantageous to a stamper.

The best performer of the bunch was Bristol. This is Strathmore Bristol that comes in the 9 X 12 pad with the yellow cover. It has a nice smooth surface. Both markers performed very well. The ink even stays wet on the surface for a bit before sinking in to the fibers. This allows you a small window to blend. My blender pen also worked very well without pilling the paper as I went over an area. Just be aware that the ink stays a bit wet on the surface so smudging is a possibility if you're not careful. Working in small areas a little at a time seems to be the way to go with this paper.


So overall, here's what I learned:
1. Bristol paper rocks for coloring. Both Zig and Distress markers work great on it.


2. Zig markers outperformed Distress markers on all papers when it came to blending the inks. Even on the crappiest of paper, some ink from a Zig can be pulled out of it's spot. Not so with Distress markers.


3. I have crappy watercolor paper. I'm fairly sure that my watercolor paper is not an artist quality paper. I found it very surprising that I couldn't get better results.


4. I'm astounded that Coredinations cardstock worked equally as well as watercolor paper. And for the Zig markers, it was a definite win.


So what am I going to do with this information?
I'm going to renig on my initial statement at the beginning of the year. I will probably not retire my Distress markers. In fact, I may get more. Even though the Zig markers blended better overall, on the Bristol paper, the differences were non-existant. They performed equally well. So if I invest in Bristol paper for coloring, I can use Distress markers in the way that I like. I LIKE the Distress line palette of colors. The Zig markers are bright and bold or dark and deep. But the Distress line is a line of muted colors...colors with a touch of brown or gray. They are more true to the things I color, like plants and animals, scenes and water. The recent additions of colors to the Distress line fill in gaps and allow for better blending.
Overall, I'm happy to report that I'm sticking with the Distress colors and adding in the Zig for simple coloring and whimsical images. I find myself thinking in Distress colors and that is why I'm so excited that I tried the Bristol paper. This paper has saved my Distress markers from the junk bin!



Thanks for sticking to the end of this long post.
Perhaps this information will save some of your markers, too!
-Wy
"I dream in color and paint what I see."

Daler Rowney VS Izink VS Silks VS Fluid Acrylic

Soooooo...I finally dropped the hammer on getting some Daler Rowney FW Acrylic inks. I've wanted to try them out and play around with them to see if they are like some of the Izink I currently own. A sale on the inks HERE was enticing enough but then I saw that they come in NEON colors; Well, Damn! I'm all over that. I bought 4 bottles; colors that I hoped would round out a rainbow of colors with my Izinks.

But were they compatible? Were they even similar? I get so confused when products come into my field of vision and I'm not sure if they are the same as something I've got. (Just like the last showdown between Distress Crayons and gelatos!)

So entering the ring this time are acrylic inks! And then a couple more products entered the ring but fortunately none of them had folding chairs. (Sorry, wrestling reference...)

IN THIS CORNER:  Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Inks
These are a water-soluble acrylic ink that dries with a water resistant film on most surfaces. All 66 colors are very to extremely light-fast and can be mixed. They are permanent and translucent. They come in several varieties including shimmering and pearlescent. These inks can be used like a paint or used in pens and airbrushes. It can also be sprayed in a mister bottle and diluted with water. They come in a glass bottle with an eyedropper-like dispenser in the cap; it appears like the old black ink bottles of yesteryear.

AND IN THE OTHER CORNER: Izink from Aladine (Distributed by Clearsnap)
These are an acrylic based pigment ink that is acid-free and can be used on a variety of surfaces. According to the Clearsnap website, the ink is opaque and is mainly used for hobby arts and crafts. It is available in 26 colors, some of which are pearlescent. They can be diluted with water and used like a paint. They can be mixed. They come in a small bottle with an eyedropper-like dispenser in the cap.

So in a nutshell, I discovered that these two products are, for all intensive purposes, THE SAME.  They are both translucent and permanent which means you can easily layer colors on top of each other and still see the lower layer. Both come in the same delivery system; a bottle with an eyedropper.
Here's my test sheet:

I didn't have two colors that were similar so I just went with the green and yellow. (It made more sense to buy new colors in case they really were interchangeable.) I used a sturdy textured paper to test on. (It looks like watercolor paper but it doesn't really behave that way. It's paper that's designed for laser printing.) I tested two colors that both had shimmer to them.

While the Izink description said it was "opaque", it really wasn't. I painted right over black marker and it didn't even come close to covering it. This color is Cactus. I applied it with a brush with no water. It didn't take long to dry so I stamped over it with StazOn ink with no problems. Black markers worked over the top as well. I tried Sharpies and PITT pens. The brush PITT pen smeared just like it does over acrylic paint.

All of this was true for the Daler Rowney ink in the Hot Cool Yellow color. (Sorry the photo didn't come out too well!)

This sample also shows a little Fluorescent orange layered over the top.
The Daler Rowney ink seemed to be a bit more pigmented that the Izink but it's hardly a difference worth noting. I did learn that a little of both of these products goes a LONG way. I dropped the ink directly onto the paper before spreading it with a brush. I got a little too much yellow and man, I could have coated three times the area of my paper with it. Both had good shimmer to them but the Izink dried with more shimmer that the Daler Rowney...but that may also be because of said "too much" ink. As I was trying to spread out my mess of yellow ink, I ended up going over the same area several times. I think this may have covered up some of the shimmer. It just seems like the "thicker" parts of the ink aren't as shimmery. So for maximum shimmer, a thin layer is best.

A downside to both of these products is that the eyedropper can clog. Only one of my 5 Izinks has a clear eyedropper. And 2 of them came to me with clogged droppers. (In fact, I didn't realize they were really a dropper...I thought it was some kind of stirrer because I couldn't get any ink to draw up into it.) I bought 4 of the Daler Rowney inks and the yellow had a slightly clogged dropper. (The cause of my yellow mess when starting. At first, I thought the product was very thick but it was just a clump of mica/particles clogging up the dropper.) I haven't checked the Copper color I got. The neon colors aren't shimmery so no problems there.
Just a note that these things will occur with these products.

I also mixed colors and they mixed wonderfully together to create new colors. I got a seriously wonderful orange and a good purple color. I mixed them on my palette and brushed over paper.

So after testing, I added in two more products that I had at hand. These other two products had similar traits and I wondered how they would compare.
Joining in the fray:
TAG TEAM 1:  Silks Acrylic Glaze by ColourArte
These are iridescent paints that create a semi-gloss glaze and they contain mica. They work on a variety of surfaces and can be thinned with water. They come in 96 colors and all are shimmering. They are permanent and translucent. They come in a small pot.

TAG TEAM 2:  Golden Fluid Acrylic
Fluid acrylics are a type of acrylic paint that are generally more translucent that regular paint. Fluid acrylic is highly pigmented, light-fast, and permanent. They can be thinned with water or other mediums like airbrush medium. They can be mixed and work on a variety of surfaces. Golden produces 66 colors. They come in a small plastic bottle.

I tried out the Silks first since it was shimmery. I only have 4 of them but Pretty Peridot was a comparable green. Remarkably, but not surprisingly, the Silks had all the same characteristics of the other two. It behaved the same way with my tests.

But there is one glaring difference. Silks is thicker. It goes on more like a paint and has more body. As you can see in the above photo, those little background lines are where the paint held it's line. It seems that the Silks are the "heavy body" version of the other two.
The black pen test worked as well even though it is recommended that the Silks be allowed to cure for 48 hours.

So I had figured out that I had three products that did basically the same thing. One of them was just thicker than the others.

It seemed to me at this point that my Golden Fluid acrylics worked the same way without the shimmer. So since I had a comparable yellow, I made up a quick card for that.

The only difference I noted here was that this seemed more pigmented that all the others. I'm not sure if that's because the others has a shimmer and this didn't or if the nature of the product. If you look at the square on this card, you can see that the paint covers better here. Of course, this one is labeled "opaque" but then again, the Izink website says those are "opaque".

So what can I conclude?
I had fun playing with stuff and figuring out how they behave for the way I work. I now KNOW that these acrylic products are basically the same thing with small differences. Will I favor one more than the other? Probably.
I currently love the Golden fluid acrylics because they are an artist grade, high quality product and I'm still doing Inspiration Wednesday with Donna Downey...and that is the paint she uses most often.
But I'm very attracted to the Silks acrylic glaze simply because of the variety of colors and the shimmer they provide.
As for the Izink and Daler Rowney inks, I think they will find a place in my stash in certain colors. They are basically interchangeable so I'll go with whatever colors I like. (Like the neon colors from Daler Rowney or the Volubilis in Izink...a deep blue!)
 

I learned a lot from this play-time and it helped me to categorize my products. Now I understand what they can and can't do.

--Wy
"Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It's the courage to continue that counts."  --Winston Churchill

Distress Crayons VS Gelatos

This remarkable match-up reminds me of Godzilla vs. King Kong. (Not a kaiju fan? Skip to the next paragraph.) At the end of that movie, the audience is left to wonder who really won the battle? We see King Kong swimming away out to sea, supposedly back to his beloved Skull Island, but no where is Godzilla. But since Godzilla is seen in many more movies afterward, it would appear that Kong wasn't exactly a victor. In fact, how many movies has King Kong been in since that battle with Godzilla? One maybe two? So overall, maybe Godzilla was the real victor. This is precisely the situation I have with Distress Crayons vs Gelatos.

Gelatos are a product from Faber-Castell. They are/were very unique. Gelatos are a pigment stick that comes in a small tube that can be applied almost like a lipstick. They are very soft and creamy but look more like a crayon when applied dry. When they are wet, they look more like a paint. They can be blended together either with water or just with the smearing of your finger. They come in a variety of colors and in small or large tubes (Double Scoops), if you are applying it to a large area, such as a canvas.

Distress Crayons are a product from Ranger and Tim Holtz. These debuted at CHA 2016 this past January and there has been a lot of talk about them. These "crayons" are also a soft pigment stick that plays well with water and is "water-reactive" like all Distress products. They come in a pen-like tube that is narrower and longer that the standard Gelato tube. It is creamy and can be smeared/blended and comes in 18 colors (currently) that match the Distress palette also from Ranger.

So I did a little head-to-head comparison.
In this corner: Gelatos. 

And in this corner: Distress Crayons.

Let the combat begin!

So I decided to just swatch the new crayons out on a single page in my Art Journal. I picked out Gelatos in colors that seemed most appropriate to match against the crayons. I will admit this was a little tough. The palette of the Distress line can be very unique and the set of crayons I had chosen were a bit more "earthy" in tone than most of the gelatos I owned seemed to be. But I did the best I could with what I had.

I used a large Dylusions journal and gessoed the page. Once dry, I split the page in half so it had a top and a bottom. On the top, I made swatches of the Gelatos, and on the bottom, I used Distress Crayons. My purpose was to test 3 things: 1. How well did they smear and blend? 2. How well did they work with water or how well the color moved with water? 3. Did they smear a lot when a finishing coat of ModPodge was used over the top of them?
I laid down some of the pigment stick in the upper half of each stripe first. After I laid down all 6 colors, I went back to blend with my finger. The middle portion of the stripe is where I used my waterbrush to lift the color and spread it with water. The bottom of each stripe is an experiment that presented itself and I'll touch on that in a bit.
First, Gelatos:

I am very familiar with this product and have been using it for over a year now. I am a big fan of it. The gelato applied very easily to the gessoed page and smeared/blended with ease. I used my finger to blend it and no water. It rubbed around without much effort depending on the color. The blue and purple seemed to require a bit more work than the others. The waterbrush lifted the pigment without trouble and moved it around to create a more "watercolor" type look. I may even have been able to wash the pigment off the gesso if I had wanted. When the top coat of ModPodge was applied, the gelato lifted a little but didn't smear too badly. I was using a light coat and a light touch. As you can see in this photo above, even after the Mod Podge, the white areas are still pretty white which tells me that the color didn't move much with the Mod Podge.

Next up, Distress Crayons:

This being a brand new product this year, I had relatively little info on it. (Only a few YouTube videos I had seen.) The Crayons applied very easily, and smoothly to the gessoed page. They had the same consistency of the gelato and at first application, they seemed more creamy than a gelato. I tried the smear/blending test first with my dry finger. Here's where the story gets a little long and weird.

I applied the crayons first and applied all the colors by just scribbling them on the top of a stripe. I blended the red and it seemed very similar to a gelato. This is when I decided to apply the rest of my colors before blending. It seemed a better plan than blending and wiping off fingers then applying and repeating. So I left the crayons unsmeared until after I completed the gelato application and smearing. Here's the weird thing that happened: when I came back to the crayons to blend them with my dry finger, they didn't want to blend. They didn't want to smear. They didn't want to leave the lines of color they were currently in. At first, I thought maybe it was just the Rusty Hinge color. But all of them reacted the same. Even on the gessoed surface, they were very stubborn about being rubbed. In fact, I was left with streaked colors...as in you could tell where the lines had been. It was much worse than the above photo portrays. This was an instant turn-off for me. Blending and smearing with a dry finger was the main way I used gelato and if these crayons weren't any good at that, they were dead to me.
BUT, I had smeared the Festive Berries rather well when it had first been applied. So that led me to believe that perhaps, you needed to rub the crayons soon after application or they dried too much to blend later. This became my unforeseen 4th experiment at the very bottom of each stripe. I went back and applied each crayon color again at the bottom ONE AT A TIME and smeared it immediately. Each one worked rather well with similar results to a gelato. To be fair, I went back and applied the gelato colors to the bottom of their respective stripe and let them sit for about the same time as the crayons had. After they had had time to "dry", I tried to blend them with my dry finger. They blended just like they had when first applied. Hmmm...

The Distress Crayons were just like the gelatos when I used the waterbrush on them and the color was easy to lift. The Mod Podge test was a bit different than the gelato but not unexpected. The Mod Podge applied lightly with a light touch really caused the crayons to "bleed". I assume this is because of the crayons "water-reactive" properties. This is why the photo shows the crayons smeared better than they actually did. With water, these crayons move very well and the Mod Podge lifts a bit of that and evens it out. This happens to gelato but to a much lesser extent.

HERE'S THE HEAD-TO-HEAD:
Both products are very similar but your choice will depend on your personal preference mostly. It will also depend on the application and technique you want to use it for.

Both products are soft and creamy and are applied from a tube. Both can be used directly onto a surface or lifted with a waterbrush to create a watercolor or softer look. Both work on a gessoed surface and can be coated, lightly, with Mod Podge to "seal" them in.

Distress Crayons come in an interesting pen-like tube that is easy to grip and makes application more precise for small areas.
Gelatos are in small, more rotund tubes that are easier to use for large background areas.

Distress Crayons must be blended almost immediately upon application or the blend-ability disappears unless you add water.
Gelatos are much easier to smear and blend without the application of water.

Distress Crayons come in 18 colors. Though more may be added, they will remain in the confines of the Distress color palette. If these colors, don't appeal to you, you're screwed. Gelatos come in 52 colors some of which have a "shimmer" to them or a metallic sheen, if you will. But if that doesn't interest you, no big deal.

I have learned from other sources of these two differences as well:
Distress Crayons have the water-reactive property that allows them to splay out from the source as the pigment follows the water.
Gelatos don't do that.

Distress Crayons can NOT be used directly onto rubber stamps for stamping. Because of the above reactive property with water, they cannot be rubbed onto a rubber stamp then misted and stamped.
Gelatos can be applied directly to a rubber stamp, misted lightly with water, and stamped to produce a decent image. (and because you've used gelato, it becomes a resist to inks.)


THE VERDICT:
The winner is...wait for it...
Gelatos! 
Or is it...could it be...
Distress Crayons!

For ME, the winner is Gelatos. I already own a bunch and they have never let me down. I adore smearing them with a dry finger and using them around the edges of paper I have collaged down. When the Distress Crayons wouldn't blend after a given time frame, I lost the new product excitement. I rarely get excited about Distress products "water-reactive" nature. In this instance, it means very little to me. If I wanted to use these with water, I'd just reach for a paint or an ink or a watercolor. I never use my gelatos like a paint...I use them like chalk or crayons. I don't want to water them down. I want that strong color.
I DO LIKE the Distress Crayons for the colors. I have a few favorite colors in this palette that don't have a comparable counter-part in a gelato...like Peeled Paint or Seedless Preserves. I DO LIKE the pen-like packaging they come in, though it doesn't lend itself well for how I smear that stuff over a background. It's just kinda cute, ya know? I doubt I'll buy any more of them. I've got what works for me and I'll stick with it.

So what's the winner for you?
Depends on what you want to use it for and how you work.
Hope this helps you narrow it down!
--Wy

Welcome 2016

January always goes by too fast. I never really have the energy to invest in a New Year until February. Then, February drags on forever and ever with deep cold and the crappy Valentine's Day holiday. By March, I'm usually ready for fresh starts and new projects so I anticipate the next month or so to be slow around the blog and my craft space.

Come March things will be a bit different, hopefully.

But I still like to post things even when I have no photos or finished projects to share and this is one of THOSE posts; the wordy kind. More of a plan for me than entertainment or education for any readers. Sigh.

Year in Review

So let me take a quick look back at 2015 to see what I accomplished. I love lists!

1. I completed my Inspiration journal...sort of. I completed the Inspiration Wednesday portion of it. I'm still working on the last few pages. Since I wasn't working in a Donna Downey journal, I had more pages than needed for the year of Inspiration Wednesdays. But I feel good about having kept up with the journal and following along with Donna pretty consistently. I was never more than two weeks behind in class.

2. I completed my Artist Journal. I pulled out the last few pages in the wee early week of January but I did get it done. Whew!

3. I created a few more canvases with which I am quite happy. One of which is currently on display in my local art gallery. (See it HERE.)

4. I blogged very regularly. More regularly than I have in a while and have shared at least three posts a month for much of 2015.

5. I managed to organize a space just for card making and a space for mixed-media. Card making materials are upstairs with a new Ott light to provide true light to a "dark" space. Mixed media materials and more art journaling materials are in the basement where I can make a mess and not have to clean it up right away.

6. I organized my growing rubber stamp collection. I finally put all my stamps in a single place and cataloged the red rubber ones that had no picture of what they were. I feel very good about my stamp binder!

Here's a few things I learned this year:

1. I no longer like Distress Markers. I loved them at first and fresh ones work really well on watercolor paper. BUT they don't stay FRESH. They seem to have a short life compared to other markers I've used, even Crayola makers seem to last longer. I like a "wet" marker and these Distress Markers just aren't cutting it anymore. I will just use up what I've got and not invest in any more. I mainly use markers for coloring in stamped images and, let face it, it's hard to stamp onto watercolor paper. I REFUSE to buy the Ranger stuff in those little sheets...ugh!
This also means I'm in the market for new markers. I don't want alcohol markers so I'm currently torn between the Zig Clean Color Real Brush or the Spectrum Aqua. I'm leaning toward Spectrum Aqua as the Zig still seem to work best on watercolor paper.

2. I'm on the fence about the Dylusions paints. I haven't played with them a lot so I may learn to like them more but the few times I've used them it's a love-hate relationship. I LOVE the BLACK MARBLE...it is perfect for art journaling...I can't say enough about it. But the colors...um...well, they're not really what I was expecting. I knew they weren't opaque but they really do need two coats to cover anything. They were supposed to play well with the spray inks but the one time I did that, the ink stayed wet on top forever! I even heat it and it just never seemed to soak in. I'm thinking there must be a learning curve on that...I may have had too much paint down first? And the white is practically useless as a paint so far. Semi-opaque? Not even.

3. I love Golden products! I will be investing in Golden paints and mediums this year rather than comparable stuff in smaller jars. For example, I'll spend more money on a large bottle of glazing medium from Golden instead of the small tube from Ranger. Don't misunderstand: I think Ranger makes top quality products. But art mediums have been around a long time and it irks me that they present "new" mediums as if they've never been invented. But honestly, I think I may be addicted to fluid acrylic. Working in the Inspiration Wednesday class really revived my enthusiasm for that media.

4. I never have a problem with ModPodge. I have heard so much about Mod Podge not working for people or warping papers too much or getting too sticky even when dry that I felt the need to add this lesson to my list. I have been using it for most of my collage applications for paper and it works fine. It works best with scrapbook papers or those of similar weight. It doesn't work so well with magazine cut outs...but even when I use a different medium like gel medium, the results vary. It works great as a sealant for gelatos as well. Mod Podge is cheap and readily available and I will continue to use it without guilt or shame.

5. Do my own thing. I just need to do my own thing and not get caught up in getting stuff completed. If it takes a month, it takes a month. I need to just loosen up and have some fun. I need to get more of my personality into my work.

Goals for 2016

1. Complete Inspiration Wednesday 2016 in a timely manner. Yup, I'm signed up for this year and already working in my journal. This year I bought the REAL Inspiration Journal straight from Donna Downey Studios.

2. Start work in a Color Palette journal. My pinboard on Pinterest has WAY TOO MANY color palettes that caught my eye. I need to start using them for my journal inspiration. This is the year.

3. Start an Art Journaling adventure with the Joggles blog. This website is my go-to for mixed media supplies and paper crafting stuff. Barb has started a weekly prompt for art journaling and I want to try to play along. I'm already 4 weeks behind! Oops.

4. Design calendar images. I have an idea in my head to make a work that represents each month and then use these projects to make a calendar at the end of the year. The projects would have to be flat so they could be scanned into a computer to be reprinted. Just have to keep in mind any copyright issues with images and stamp images. I also have to remember that these would have to be in a "landscape" format, rather than "portrait"...which I always tend to do.

5. Create a Divination Card deck. With a similar idea as the calendar, I would create each card in the deck so it could be scanned into the computer to be reproduced as a "playing" card. I have made a few decks of this type by hand and it just isn't feasible to make them this way if I want to sell them. If I could create the artwork so it can be reprinted in the small size, I could sell many for less. I envision various versions of the deck with multiple possibilities for each card. So every couple years or so I can add a new deck with all new artwork.

Divination cards are not quite Tarot and not quite "wizards" cards. They are inspired by both and are used in a similar fashion to the Major Arcana of Tarot. I believe them to be quite unique and if I can get my ass in gear to make unique artwork to support the idea, I think I'd have a nice little item to offer for sale.

6. Make more altered books! I've put off too many of these and I've got to get going before I drown in all the ephemera I'm saving up for these suckers. A few themes: birds, Star Wars, Space/Aliens, Magic, Halloween 2, animals.

Well, that's a start. Let's see if I stay so focused up to March.
Thanks for hanging in with me and the blog!
--Wy
"How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?"

Distressing Color(s)

The last NEW Distress color was introduced: Candied Apple!

 

It's a lovely color from what I can divine over an internet connection. I can't really see much difference between this and Festive Berries (which is one of my favorite Distress colors...more later). Tim Holtz says it is more a true red. Hmm. Not sure. I think if this is a "better" version of Barn Door with less orange notes, I'll be using this red rather than that one. Overall, I don't need a lot of shades of red. It's just not a color I use very often.

So how did my predictions come out? Well, just like I predicted in my last Distress post...it's even. I did not predict another red, who needs it? But I haven't seen it in person and I think it's one of THOSE colors; a color you don't appreciate until you have it in your hands.

So the final tally:

Ranger: 5 (Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch, Ground Espresso, Lucky Clover, Candied Apple)

Wyvern: 5 (Fossilized Amber, Twisted Citron, Hickory Smoke, Wilted Violet, Carved Pumpkin)

Now here's a nice visual:

WARNING: The following is a rant. I just need to get it out of my system. It is only my opinion.

More big news in the color world is the announcement of the Pantone Color of the Year: 2016. They picked two and I've seen a lot of posts and info on how it's very "baby like". The Color(s) of 2016 are Rose Quartz and Serenity.

 

 As well as the above, Pantone is making a statement on gender equality, supposedly.

If we really want to make a statement on gender equality, how about we stop labeling "pink" for girls and "blue" for boys? How about Barbie being packaged in a green box rather than the eye-aching pink? How about some Transformers in pastel shades? Why can't Iron Man be in hot pink/silver armor and Tony Stark sport a pink tie and shoes? WHY is everything in the toy aisle PINK for GIRLS?!

How can you not see it when you walk into any toy store...you can see the toys for girls a mile away. It's the Pink Aisle and there are usually a couple of them. Have you seen the Legos for Girls? They are pink and light pastel shades...as if girls can't play with the red, blue, and green ones they make for everyone (read: boys). I always thought of Legos as a non-gender specific toy...until they came out with these different colored ones. Don't misunderstand my rant: I think Legos are GREAT for everyone...but why are the "pink" Legos marketed with the "friends" line and the "elves" line? Why aren't there pink Legos to build starships and cars? Granted you can make anything you want with Legos but they aren't MARKETED that way. Why is that?

Why do we still say girls play with "dolls" and boys play with "action figures"? They are pretty much the same thing, right? Boys make up stories for their action figures to play in just as girls do for their dolls. Think about Toy Donations around this time of year. A lot of my local "giving trees" ask you to pick a tag for an age range and a gender, like a 9-12 year old boy. Why can't we just pick an age range? Why is it still odd if a boy plays with a baby doll? Why are girls that play video games...weird? What difference should it be if the child is a boy or a girl? That is gender equality...when it just doesn't make a difference to ANYBODY if you're a male or a female...and that isn't happening...not even close.

Nice try, Pantone. But I highly doubt that one of the most stereotypical industries in the world will be swayed by a mere color statement. The fashion industry is not just about skinny, tall, beautiful women made up like dolls to sell designer, over priced clothing, but also about making young girls feel like that is the WAY WOMEN SHOULD BE. F*** THAT! The fashion industry glorifies an unattainable fantasy and clobbers women with it everyday. Why can't I feel good about going out in "public" in clothes that are comfortable and perhaps, out of "style"? Why do I feel that I can't go to a store in my sweatpants that are good enough for me to wear all day around the house when no one will see me? Why do I "think" wearing sweatpants in public means that I'm on welfare, have given up on life, or am just plain lazy? Because the fashion industry needs me to buy "real" clothes and designer brands and feed starving models. So they market to my fears; if you don't look like this or wear things like this, you're not cool, you're not in, you're not valuable. So F You!

Rant over.
But I might add that the Fashion Industry and Pantone are not all at fault. Women need to stop judging each other on these superficial imaginary qualities. Clothes should make you feel good and that doesn't necessarily translate to "pretty".

--Wy
"Sometimes the clothes do not make the man. Freedom!"  ---George Micheal, "Freedom '90"

The Elusive Something

The month of October has flown by and I feel like I've accomplished very little. Though I've been working hard in my journals and on a few canvases, nothing is truly completed as of now. I have a canvas that is VERY close to being done (I have a deadline at the end of the week I'm trying to meet), yet it still seems to need something.

Ah...the elusive Something. It's the one ingredient of Art that is just beyond your reckoning; just outside your comfort zone. You can hear it's whispers but can't make out what it's telling you. You can hear the familiar melody but can't quite place the lyrics.

It often happens to me when I fall in love with the background and have terrible reservations about covering it up. It occurs, as well, when I have a plan executed on the page but there's a space that annoys me or a pattern that seems out of place. Most often Something eludes me at the "in-between" place in my art. You may know the place; its just after you've decided the background is done but before you've decided on a focal point to highlight.

More often than not, the Something turns out to be spatters of paint for me. Sometimes, its a distress edge of ink or outlining/shadowing with Gelato. I wish the Something was more doodling or journaling but these Somethings don't often present themselves to me as I work.

The greatest question of all is When? When is the Something needed and when is the page/work finished? I never really know. Take, for example, the page spread below. I feel like it needs...Something.

As much as I feel it needs more, I also feel that it's done. I Love the gears in the back and the contrast of the black and orange. I like the shimmery teal highlights in the sprays. I feel like I've covered what I want and no more touchy...and yet Something still whispers. Splats? A touch of white? Words? I can't quite make out which Something seems right.

So this spread will stay like this for awhile longer. Maybe finished; maybe in need of...Something.
-Wy
"Creativity is not a competition."  --Autumn Sky Hall