Nature Journal

Ellie's Homemade Nature Journal

Ellie and I took an afternoon last week, hiked and searched for treasure, and glued our finds in our nature journals! She loved this activity, especially since there were no "rules." Gluing flowers right on the paper was fine.

We brought along a mason jar with water for paints, watercolors, crayons, and glue. I brought a black, waterproof pen to write in our journals and document our finds.

I had my own spiral-bound watercolor journal, but I didn't have one for Ellie. I made her one by doing a basic bookbinding. I stacked three 9"x12" pieces of watercolor paper on top of each other, then folded them in half. Using the fold as the "spine," I used a tack (though a nail would work better) to make holes in the spine and tie yarn through the holes to hold the "book" together.

Including the cover, there are 12 pages, which ended up being plenty, as Ellie only really finished 2 pages on this one trip. We could make more books for each outing if needed, but this should get us through at least a few more hikes! It was also so nice to just sit in the grass and paint. So relaxing! Therapeutic time for Mommy too!

Five Dandelions

Hi everyone,

I'm excited to unveil the next project I've been working on besides doodle paintings! I've created a beginner-level teaching guide that is now available in our Etsy shop for print purchase (here) or digital download (here)!

This workbook is free when you attend one of our relevant workshops!

Here's an excerpt:

Five Dandelions explores five different ways to capture a dandelion on paper! Brought to you by the artists at ArtSourceVT.com, this tutorial is presented at a beginner level and encourages you to express yourself in a fun, stress-free way that captures your unique style and story.

Which is your favorite dandelion style? Are you a stickler for inking details, or do you like to splash fluffy, yellow paint?

We hope you enjoy exploring some new techniques and learn a little about yourself in the process!

Thanks for drawing with us!
The ArtSourceVT Team

Birdhouse Kit

Today in the studio, we're building a birdhouse kit! I feel a little ripped off with this particular kit, because the finished birdhouse is about the size of a blueberry muffin. I'm not sure any real bird could fit in it.

But Ellie absolutely loved painting it. She even said, "I love painting with you, Mama!" Melt my heart!

Though, I think next time we'll pick up one of the pre-made ones at A.C. Moore in the woodworking section and just paint it. It'll be cheaper, more fun, less glue, less mess, and we'll have a bird-size birdhouse for our feathered friends!

My dad said he'd send us binoculars, so we could watch and see if any birds move in!

Also, I have to admit... though highly unlikely, Mark and I were a tad worried that we may run into this situation if we left the tiny birdhouse outside...
 

Free Art Books!

So, though I've had a Kindle forever, I just learned about Kindle Unlimited, and I'm hooked! I've basically promised my husband anything to keep this monthly service, as you can "check out" 10 free books at a time from the Kindle Unlimited library. The first 30 days are free (then $9.99/mo after).

In doing so, you have access to MANY great, free books! But, my favorites are, of course, the doodle and drawing ones! I then can reference them on my PC Kindle program, my real Kindle, or the Kindle app on my phone! I can carry them with me anywhere! Some of these books were on my Christmas wishlist, and they're great for reference! I think I'll keep the Whimsical Lettering book forever! So much inspiration in that book!

If you're NOT into signing up for Kindle Unlimited, most of these books will be an inexpensive addition to your digital library anyway!

Art Journaling
The Art of Whimsical Lettering
Art Journal Freedom
No Excuses Art Journaling
Raw Art Journaling
Inner Hero Creative Art Journal
Artist's Journal Workshop
Journal Spilling
The Journal Junkies Workshop
Art Journal Prompts & Points to Ponder
Journal Bliss: Creative Prompts
Dreaming from the Journal Page 

Doodling
Doodles of Life
Doodles Unleashed
Doodling in French
Doodleology
Draw What We Love 

Drawing
Drawing for the Absolute Beginner
Drawing Nature for the Absolute Beginner
Drawing Portraits for the Absolute Beginner
Drawing for Beginners
Making Faces
Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces
How to Draw Cool Stuff
Sketchbook Confidential
Creative Thursday: Everyday Inspiration 

Zentangle
Zen Doodle: Tons of Tangles
Zentangle Art for Beginners
How to Draw Zendoodle Art
The Zentangle Untangled Workbook
Zentangle for Beginners: Ultimate Guide
Learn Zentangle FAST
Zentangle Basics
Zentangle for Beginners: Relaxing with Zentangle 

Mixed Media
Artist Trading Card Workshop
The Mixed Media Artist: Tips, Tricks
Mixed Media Self Portraits
Mixed Media Revolution
Acrylic Techniques in Mixed Media
Creating Art at the Speed of Life: 30 Days of Exploration
Art at the Speed of Life: Motivation and Inspiration 

Other searches to try:
acrylics, collage, stamping, design, creative, crafts, paper crafts, painting, kids art, journaling, etc.!

Craft a Doodle

I'm really in love with this Craft a Doodle book by Jenny Doh. It has doodle exercises from some of my favorite artists in it, including Carla Sonheim! You can find it in most bookstores and on Amazon, of course (here)! To be honest, I went out in search of another creative illustration book and stumbled upon this one. And I love this one more!

The doodle prompts are fun, and I'm reminded that everyone is talented enough to do these doodles, including me! It just takes time and practice!

Though my day wasn't super exciting, I had fun trying out the Visual Diary prompt, at left, on Sunday!

Tis the Season

It is awfully busy over here this time of year, as we're going for homemade gifts this holiday season! However, no one has claimed this one yet (perhaps because it's a little Halloweeny), so I can share it with you!

I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with my favorite zentangle patterns, stamps, and watercolors!

The funnest part about this piece? I had NO IDEA that the purple colored-pencil Ellie picked out at our local art store is actually a watercolor pencil! ...or, at least I think it is. When I painted over it with water, it dissolved into a beautiful, bright, purple pool! Surprise! 

Another not-so-welcome surprise? My favorite black Staedler pen ink does the same thing! It gave this piece a bit more of a wishy-washy watery look than I wanted, but ah well! Now I know that my black pen should only be used on top of the (dried) watercolors! Live and learn. Still having fun over here, and that's what matters!

Stay tuned for some more featured local artists this week!

Let's Get Serious!

I had a wonderful chat with Ashlee Rubenstein and Kim Gifford on Sunday about their artwork, at One Arts Collective, and I walked away with a healthy dose of inspiration to create some real pieces. Ashlee specifically related a story about slowly working through pieces, leaving them, going back to them, and I thought, "Hey! I can do that, too." Or, at least, "I can try some new projects, finish them right away, then re-work them or start over!"

I really love the idea of my recent chandelier doodle (see previous post). I like the contrast between the real objects interacting with a fantasy "world" or doodle. Now, I'm wondering if I can push it further and questioning what the watercolor lends to this style. I feel like I'm making real artist assessments and decisions, critiquing my own work. I never do that. Sure, there's something to be said for just creative doodle time, but I'd like it to eventually lead somewhere, to some finished pieces. So, these are my first attempts! I think I still have a ways to go, but the concept is there!

Other Stuff
--Stay tuned this week/weekend for separate feature-artist posts about Kim and Ashlee! They're two of my favorite local artists!
--A few of you wrote to me asking how I made this piece/the watercolor background. I'll post a video tonight, probably a quick tutorial via Instagram. Thanks for the feedback!

Live from the Craft Bin!

I found a new sketchbook when I cleaned out my craft shelves this weekend!! I still have along way to go on the path to home organization, as usual, but it felt good to get my craft desk moved out into the living room!

After all, there are wood floors in there... much easier to wash off washable paint that spills on the floor...

I started my new sketchbook with this little doodle! After I added some randomly splashed blobs of watercolor, I used an old chandelier stamp and doodled the rest! It was fun, relaxing, and just what I needed on a Sunday night, before Monday chaos!

 

Kristen M. Watson Classes

Check out these fabulous classes with local artist Kristen M. Watson! I'm super excited about the Book Arts December classes!

• Her website is here: kristenmwatson.com
• The class list, for adults and children, is here.
• More pictures of her beautiful hand-made books here.

And, of course, she does plenty of other fabulous artwork that you'll find on her site! We saw her artwork at Art Hop this year, and she was our instructor for the BVTMomsBlog Moms' Night Out "Paint the Town" event! She is a wonderful teacher!

Chandler O'Leary

So, I wanted to do one of my typical "hey, check out this artist" posts, but the more I look through her site, Instagram feed, and blog, I realize that there are so many things I love about this artist. This post deserves more than just a little blurb!

The site is: ChandlerOLeary.com

And make sure you check out her About page, the Blog (and that Thanksgiving table!), posts about Lettering and Letterpress stuff (happy sigh)! She did a Daily Sketchbook in 2011 that would make for a great exercise in journaling!

My favorite is the Drawn the Road Again blog, where Chandler posts different illustrated scenes from her travels. I just love the colors. Every piece reminds me of vintage, hand-painted post card scenes.

Don't forget to swing by The Shop, too!

Lettering and Journaling

This blog post by Kristal Norton shows so many different applications for lettering in journaling, and I love that the letters aren't always super-polished, that some some are pasted in from found text.

These types of pages can so easily be created with your child, too! Let your toddler paint or cut pictures out of magazines to paste into a collage. Doodle/Tangle around their artwork, and add your own quotes!

Notice how, in the last photo, this artist has folded the paper around the outside of the pages -- so pretty on the outside of the journal! Time to dig out an old Moleskine!

My favorite pages from Kristal's blog post are by an artist named Jenn Olson (her site here):

 

Tangled Haunted House

I think I like Elle's Spooky House more... the dark colors, the flutter of fall leaves, but here is the tangled/doodled one I did this week!

Toddler Spooky House

Tonight, my very serious artist painted her background, stuck leaves to it, let it dry, cut out her house silhouette, painted it black, and helped me glue it on the page with white squares for windows. Easy Peasy! Proud Mama!

Spooky Houses

Jamestown Elementary Art Blog

This week, we're creating spooky scenes and houses!

What I love about drawing architecture is that it can be as simple or as detailed as you like! Messy watercolor or acrylic swirls create a great background for a Sharpie-drawn or black-painted silhouette of a spooky house, black cat, ghost, or pumpkin! Add some doodles/tangles or other details with your white gel pen or some white chalk, and what a neat, creepy scene you have!

Want to customize this activity for your toddler? Have them paint the background for your scene and use a stencil to create silhouetted shapes!

I found this amazing creation on the Jamestown Elementary Art Blog. These kids are SO, SUPER talented! And kudos to these teachers for leading some incredible art adventures!

For more ideas about how to draw spooky scenes, check out our Halloween Art Board on Pinterest.

Want to share your art with us? Use #kasvtgallery to be featured on Our Gallery page!

Silly Monsters

Mateo Dineen is one of my favorite creature illustrators! Check out more of his artwork on his site (here). Just a little parental disclaimer: some of his monsters are doing some not-so-kid-appropriate things, like smoking.

But most of them are just... lost on our planet, taking photos, or stuck with their head in a sock... doing very human things, which is hilarious.

Also, his monsters aren't that more detailed than our creature blobs. They have some more detailed eyes, shaded limbs, and FUR. I've posted some how-to pins on our Halloween Board showing how you can draw fur if you'd like to create some furrier creatures for your Halloween artwork!

BONUS: Mateo has a blog where he actually shares the process photos he takes as he creates his artwork, and you can follow him on Facebook (here)!

Mateo Dineen

Ghouls, Monsters, and Creatures

This week, we are making creatures! I first discovered the art of imaginary creatures when I stumbled upon Carla Sonheim's blog, The Art of Silliness.

Then I took an "Unlock Your Inner Creature" class at Artists' Mediums, over the summer, with Kristin Richland. It was wonderful, and I highly recommend checking out her future creature classes! It went beyond the basics I've described below, to get your brain thinking more creatively! I loved it and have been inspired to make more creatures ever since!

Essentially, you draw any-old shape you want. You can draw it with your eyes closed, or trace the shape of an object you like. Then you add a few basic facial features, maybe some shading, and voila! A creature! Or, in honor of Halloween -- a few spiky teeth or lines for hair would make a pretty neat ghoul or monster!

Another way I love doing this is by painting (using your acrylic spray-paints or just making swishes on the page). Then, I look for animal- or people-like shapes in the blobs of dark and light paint patches. I trace them in black, then draw in simple shapes for facial features. I've been enjoying using my white gel pen (Uniball Signo) and a black artist pen (Staedtler Triplus Fineliner) (or any ol' Sharpie will do!) to add details and highlights on top of the watercolors I used below.

Here's one I did this week! There are more imaginary-creature examples on our Halloween Art Board on Pinterest, and I'll post more drawings and tutorials throughout the week!

Want to customize this activity for your toddler? Help them to draw or make shapes on paper. If they can draw dots for eyes, a line for a mouth, lines for hair, they'll have a page of creatures in no-time! If they're not quite ready to draw, cut out blobs of paper for creature bodies, and circles or other fun shapes that they can paste on their blobs, for creature facial features.

Want to share your artwork with us? Use #kasvtgallery on Instagram to be featured in Our Gallery!

DIY Acrylic Spraypaints

OMG yoo guyz!! ..... So, even though it's mid-Halloween-candy-art week, I had to share this! I found this idea while browsing the web and the wonderful world of art journaling!

DIY acrylic spray-paints! I grabbed a couple of old spray bottles -- the ones that our optometrist gives away with glasses cleaner in them (or an old perfume bottle would work). And:

1. Rinse them out.
2. Spray the sprayer a few times using only water, to rinse it.
3. Fill the bottle with about 1 part acrylic paint to 5 parts water.
   Or experiment with the ratio. Too much paint may gunk up the sprayer.
4. Add warm water, and shake to mix!
5. Spray away. Warning, it is messy!*
6. Add stamps, like I did with the "G" below, or doodles/tangles.

*This can easily be adapted to a toddler art project, with supervision. I'd just recommend using age-appropriate non-toxic paints, of course. You also may want to do this activity outside or with a lot of newspaper on your art table. The spray gets everywhere.

You can spray stencils, cut out your own shapes to put on the page, etc.! Today, I also picked up some supplies at The Art Store. I talked to the woman working there, and she recommended 2 new pens: a white gel pen (Uniball Signo) and a black artist pen (Staedtler Triplus Fineliner) for doodling/tangling on top of watercolors/watered-down acrylics. Both are working fabulously so far, though the Staedtler takes a little while to dry. I recommend propping up your finished pages in front of a fan while working on other pages. I love my Micron pens and will continue to use them for basic doodling, but the Staedtler is the first pen I've found that lets me draw over dried watercolor without picking up any of the pigment.

I Want Candy

In honor of the upcoming Halloween candy feast, we are drawing and creating all things candy!

Join us this week as we draw, paint, and create candy artwork (or healthier treats, if you wish)!

Check out some ideas for creating your own -- drawing candy, painting candy, painting ON candy, sculpting with candy, etc. -- on our Halloween Art Pinterest Board here!

And, of course, share your creations with us in Our Gallery via Instagram using #kasvtgallery.

This great little illustration is from the Charlotte Lucie Farmer Illustration Blog.

Letter Book

Using Post-It notes to work with negative space today!

We stuck strips of sticky notes on the page, painted over them, then pulled them off when the paint was still wet.

We're starting a letter book -- a page for each letter of the alphabet!

Dream Art

Last night I had a dream that my grandmother was cleaning her kitchen closet. She was wearing a surgical mask to protect her lungs from the dust, but the mask itself was covered in a thick layer of dust. It was a WEIRD dream, but I wanted so badly to illustrate this strange image! More inspiration to learn to draw better!

Dream Drawings are definitely on my art to-do list. What a fun art journal that would be! This week, I also set up a Kids Art Source VT Pinterest account. Now I can actually sort all of our project inspiration, ideas, and tutorials into different boards!

Check out this piece by Jaime Best and more on our new Dream Art board.

And share your art with us in Our Gallery by using #kasvtgallery on Instagram.