Behind the Art with Jen

As much as I love dressing up for Halloween, I love dressing up to educate my students in my art classes!  I went as a Day of the Dead Mexican Sugar Skull last Halloween.  I painted my face and created a headband of blossoms to celebrate not only our Halloween holiday but also the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos.  I love the meaning behind their celebration... to honor those that have passed before us.  To remember and celebrate our loved one's lives.  A couple days of dancing, eating, singing, parades, and family sounds like a great way to remember our heritage.  While I am not Mexican, I can appreciate a holiday that celebrates the life of others even while they have died.  Keeping their memory and accomplishments alive is part of the remembering! I'm so lucky that I get to dress up at work to teach kids cultural art!!
To make this page, I started by adding some Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Gesso to this Fancy Pants patterned paper. I love the energy of the triangles but it's a bit busy.  The Gesso toned down some of the optical energy.  I used the back of a paintbrush to scribble in the Gesso too.  It just gave some fun lines and texture to the area.
Then I used Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Whipped Spackle through a Crafter's Workshop skull stencil.  When dry, I used Gelatos® colors in Banana (from the 50's Diner set), Watermelon, Margarita Mix (from the Tropical Set), and Red Cherry to create dripping color over the Whipped Spackle.  I created some puddles of each color on my craft mat and used lots of water and a brush to create drips.
The Gelatos® colors Metallic Melon and Raspberry were added by making puddles of color and water on the craft mat and putting the paper face down in the puddles.  I let some of it drip by holding the paper at an angle.
Once all of the color dried, I put the stencil back over top of the skull and used a Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Essential PITT Artist pen to outline some of the shapes.  This gave it a big more definition.
The sequins were applied with some Gel Medium added in some areas to "glue" them down.

I love the colors and symbolism of the Dia de los Muertos holiday and had a blast recreating some of the energy and fun here!  I'm so lucky to be an art teacher and have the opportunity to dress up like this at work!  It's educational and just darn fun!
Materials:
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Whipped Spackle
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Gesso
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Gel Medium
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Essential PITT Artist Pen
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Gelatos® colors Metallic Melon, Raspberry, Red Cherry, Banana, Watermelon, Margarita Mix
All papers and embellishments are from Scrapbooking From the Inside Out  "Lucky" kit for November 2014.
Stencil: The Crafter's Workshop

Behind the Art with Jen

 Hi everyone!  I have another of my pages to share.  This one is a journal page about not sweating the small stuff and not fearing mistakes.

 All my life, I have struggled to control things that are not mine to control... Once I let go of that control and try to just go with the flow.  Turning something disappointing into a positive is a skill that I have had to practice.  It's hard to not feel terrible when something goes wrong but dwelling on it is not productive.  I hate wasting time on things I can't control now.  So, this page is about being yourself and letting things roll off your back when you feel like obsessing.

  Dwelling makes you unhappy and I hate being unhappy.  I want to live in today and not worry about tomorrow!

Okay, so how did I make this page?   I used the floral paper as the background.  The leaf mask was used with Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Gesso. I did trace the leaf onto scrap paper and used it as a solid stencil.  Once dry, I drew on top of the areas with pen. 

 Watered down paint dripped down the page added some more color.  I also used Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Whipped Spackle through a dotted stencil for more texture.

What do you do to stay happy and not obsess about wrongs or bad things?   I think what we "feed" ourselves will be what thrives.

Behind the Art with Jen

 Hi creative people!

Where do you get your ideas for Art?

Well, sometimes I get ideas for art but the act of creation is the hard part.  I think I know what I want and then when faced with the page, I freeze up... doubt myself and my choices.  I get on Pinterest or other artist's blogs and start comparing myself.  It's a no-win situation!  It wastes time and cause procrastination (something I don't need more of btw).  I start doubting my abilities, my creativity, and my ability to come up with something new. That's no good!

 Intuition is there lurking in the background under all that doubt.  I just have to shut down the comparisons and let it come through.  Silence the doubts and close the windows of "inspiration" so that I can just create!

 

For this page, I started with the journaling!  I knew what I wanted to say and typed it out on vellum to be layered over my art.  I just didn't know what my final product would look like.   Once I saw the  lightbulb mask, I KNEW it would light up my page!  I started by tracing the outside shape with pencil.

  

 I then filled in that shape with Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Textural Accents Gesso. 

 

 I also dripped a bit so I went with it and splattered a bit more!  ;)

 The rest came out of opening myself up to creative ideas... I just went with it.  I needed something more so I added some watered down Gelatos® color in Banana to the lightbulb.  Once dry, I used a PITT Artist Pen to outline the mask.  I grabbed the mask from one of our previous kits and  added the arrows with the pen.

The vellum journaling block was added over it all and tacked down with stitching.  I used the Distress paint below it with papers and the photo layered over it. Scribbling over the paint with colored pencils was also added. I just had fun!

I was very happy with this page. It's actually an illustration of what happens when you let go of the comparisons and just have fun with the creative process.