Wednesday 28 May 2014

"SHE IS" Art Journal Page & Video

Hello lovelies,

I've been asked to produce a sample for Marisa from Create on Ormond where my 101 series of art journaling classes starts this weekend. Marisa asked me to use a Donna Downey face stamp,so I thought what better way to showcase her than as a mixed media portrait!

I went with my muse for this month - the flower portraits from the Italian Masterpieces exhibition that I went to and blogged about here.  The stamp I chose is "SHE IS" - which I already had in my stash as I love her!:

Sunday 25 May 2014

Finding inspiration

Hello lovelies,

The other week I was lucky enough to be invited to the opening of the Italian Masterpieces Exhibition at the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria).
So I hobnobbed with local celebs and politicians (not that I spoke to any of them I must say), and was able to enjoy some amazing art.

I had no idea that the Spanish Royal Family were such avid collectors of Italian art from the mid sixteenth century.  In fact, I had no idea that Spain’s dominions at this time included the Italian regions of Naples, Sicily and Milan, almost a third of the Italian peninsula!  No wonder there is so much Italian Art in the former collection of the Spanish Royal Family.

It was really interesting for me as I have had little exposure to the artists in this exhibition. The exhibition is really well curated by both time and geographic slices.

Friday 23 May 2014

My first ever art video!!

Hello lovelies,

So I have been a little quiet since my rush of posts on the weekend... I've been setting up and doing my first art video in my spare time -  basically Tuesday afternoon and some snatched time Wednesday and Thursday.

I have decided that as I am rerunning Art Journaling 101 in a different shaped journal from last time (Milini don't make that size journal anymore), I will record my lessons as I re-do the pages so that people can do my course even if they are not in Victoria.

As part of the course, I am splitting 101 into 2 courses - 101 and 201.  The new 101 will cover the absolute basics, and will be FREE!! My pages will be a little different for the (new) 201 lessons, as I don't want to copy exactly - but I will be utilising the same techniques.

Monday 19 May 2014

Art Journaling 101 - The final class

Hello lovelies,

Well the final class in my inaugural Art Journaling 101 series is complete. Its been a rollercoaster ride, and I have learnt so much from my students - thankyou to all who attended, it has been a real pleasure!

In the final class we covered transfers.

Here's the class page:

I used 3 main types of transfer techniques on this spread - packing tape, gel transfer direct to the page and gel-skins. 

Sunday 18 May 2014

My first ever class endorsement!

Woo hoo I got an endorsement!  The talented Teresa Abajo of The Tamarisk has done the nicest blog post about my teaching and my upcoming class series Art Journaling 202.




 Thankyou Teresa :)

Saturday 17 May 2014

Exciting News & FREE STUFF

Hello lovelies,

So much has happened this week - its been insane.  But it has all led me organising a NEW series of advanced art journaling classes.  In turn this has led to me opening a shop and (of course) providing you with a FREEBIE download!!!

WOW!!!

First to the new classes.  I am so excited about this.  If you live in or near Melbourne Victoria (Australia), I am running a monthly art journal class for 6 months starting mid June in Docklands.
This is not just a class, this is an art journaling class in a small not for profit art gallery!!! As this will be in the space owned by a charity, your $55 monthly class fee includes a $5 contribution to the Mission to Seafarers - a "thankyou" for letting us utilise their space :)

I've developed some new pages to teach, and my Art Journaling 101 students will be happy to hear that there is no homework in this series.

But it just gets better, one of the classes will be run by the artist in residence at the gallery - Robert Davis, and he will also be taking the class on an Art Walk of Melbourne.

Usual rules apply - I will supply all the materials for students to use outside of the basic tool kit. Students can work in their own journals, or on loose watercolour paper if they prefer.


Cool huh!?!

More details are available here.  I am taking pre-registrations until we meet the minimum class size and then the classes will be available to purchase. Once the number of students reaches 12, then the class will be marked as "out of stock".  You will also receive a gift for being an early bird and pre-registering - because you deserve it!

On to the freebies.  I have created a collage sheet for you to download to say thankyou for visiting my blog and my new little shop.  Please add the free download sheet to your cart and follow the checkout prompts. You will receive a link to download your collage sheet (I hope).

I also have a new facebook page where you can buy merch as well.  I have linked everything up, so there should be some mirroring. Please go over and Like me :)

If there are any problems with your ordering process, please let me know via email - lizziea01@bigpond.com, and I will get the file to you.

Thanks for dropping by, and please stay in touch!!

~Liz

Sunday 11 May 2014

Life Landscape

Hello Lovelies,

Do you remember that I had my friend Robert here to run a little class for myself and my friends during April?  In case you missed it, the blogpost is here.

Well, I caught up with him for coffee and he told me that he has a video!  It was professionally shot for his last exhibition so its pretty schmick...


If you can't see this video, or even if you could see it and enjoyed it, please hop on over and like it on youtube :)



'till next time

~ Liz

Thursday 8 May 2014

Art Journal progression - designing motifs

Hello lovelies,

Feeling somewhat inspired by my visit to Ro's workshop / home for classes, I decided I wanted to tackle a bit of stamp carving. But what to make as a stamp?

I designed a flower motif some time ago on this art journal page:

Here it is in close up:

I subsequently had it turned into a stencil where I had added a feather as well - to better represent the entirity of that journal page:

So I decided that these would be perfect to carve into a stamp so that I can use the design in a different manner.


Not bad for a first attempt at stamp carving if I do say so myself!  I used a speedball easy carve block and the cutting tools that came with it, purchased here.  

I traced the image using tracing paper and a graphite pencil, then flipped it over and rubbed the graphite drawing onto the surface of the block - easy peasy! Then to carving... the block is actually very forgiving and the tools are easy to use - it's far easier than the lino cutting I did in high school. My biggest problem was that my cutting was not at an even depth, so my stamps are a little bit too thin around the edges and that leads to a wobble when I stamp them.  This isn't a deal breaker though as I figure if I put easymount on them I can stamp using a block. That should make the stamped image a little less likely to have odd "bits" around it.

What I find most interesting is how a doodle in my art journal can take on a life of its own.  I have no idea where my flower and feather combo will turn up next - who knows?!?

Why don't you take the time to flip through your art journals and look at the pages you've made with fresh eyes - you just never know what recurring motif you can utilise in other ways.

'till next time

~Liz

Tuesday 6 May 2014

A kick in the behind

Hello Lovelies,

I'm here with an update from a class I attended Saturday (3rd May) run by the amazing Ro Bruhn.

This was a class about Gelli printing.  Yes I know, I know... I bought a Gelli plate as part of my Christmas present to myself last year, but you know what - I hadn't even opened it!! So when this class came up, I figured that I should use it to kick myself in the behind and actually use the tool I had bought for myself.

I am so glad that I did!  I was able to catch up with some friends like Joan:

And Kaye, who I haven't seen for years but we just picked up where we left off - good friends are like that :)

We spent from 9.30am till 4.30pm creating fantastic prints.

Here's some of my better prints.  I'm not going to show you my prints onto fabric - I think I need to perfect that technique!! These are prints on watercolour and rice paper.
(I used of one of my new stencils from my Artified haul of last week - top left)



This picture shows the results of the technique I enjoyed the most - gelli printing onto packing tape, and then backing it!!!  The tape is the strips on the right.

This post here on the Gelli website provides a how to. I even loved how my Gelli plate looked before I applied the tape:

Ro was a generous and engaged teacher who shared a whole bunch of little tips and tricks, which aside from the kick up the bum that I needed to start using my tools, is the reason why I like to do classes.

She is an incredibly talented artist, and I was lucky enough to buy 2 of her hand carved stamps - expect to see these popping up in art on the blog for a while...

If you want more Ro, follow her on facebook (see the link above) and check out her website here. If you want to buy some of her hand carved stamps follow the links from her pinterest.  I know that she is looking into how to record some of her fantastic classes for international students, so keep an eye out!!

'till next time

~Liz

Sunday 4 May 2014

Going mad with colour

aka getting my Bautista on!!

Hello lovelies,

This is my work from Lifebook 2014 week 14.  This week was a page from the ever colourful Traci Bautista.  The month of April has been about "letting go" and being "in the moment".  Of all the exercises in that discipline, this was the easiest for me to do.  So saying that I should clarify that "letting go" is not an easy practice for me generally, but is a discipline I should clearly practice.  Lets call it "Art as Meditation".

The process is to start with a resist of some type. I used 2 - my favourite masking fluid  and some Liquitex high gloss medium in a bottle with a super skinny (needle) tip. Draw all over the pages and leave to dry.  Then get out the paint!

I went with fluorescent pink, orange, white and black paint. I sprayed some pink and purple dylusions through stencils, I did a bit of a bit of stamping with archival black, I used found objects to make marks with orange, red, white and black paint - a skewer, credit card, toilet roll. I dripped the paint, and I dragged the skewer through wet paint. I doodled black goldens high flow acrylic paint through a needle tip applicator.

No thinking, just doing, just playing. What a freeing exercise. You should give it a try!

'Till next time

~Liz