Getting Down To Business with Jeanne Oliver

{E-Course from Jeanne Oliver}

A few months ago, I took the Creatively Made e-course by Jeanne Oliver and absolutely loved it because it has opened my eyes to a lot of things that I was finding so hard to understand about myself and what I desired as an artist. Most of my life, I have struggled with self-doubt and insecurities. I knew I wanted to be an artist, but have been so afraid of taking myself seriously for fear of rejection. Or I simply didn't think or believe I could achieve anything great with it. My lack of confidence was limiting my growth and caused me to feel stuck. Deep down, I wanted so much to reach my dreams and just be who I knew I was meant to be. I'd ask God over and over, where am I going in life? What is my calling? I knew that first and foremost, I am a mom and a wife. Yes, I am fulfilled and complete because they mean everything to me and I value my role and purpose to love and care for them. But, I also knew that as a very creative person, that there was so much more I needed to do in life that served a bigger purpose using the gifts I have been blessed with. Finally, I can honestly say, I KNOW (not think) who I am and what I was born to do and now I'm more than ready to take it further and let my destiny unfold... This time no more holding back by fear! Yeahhhh!!!

So in regards to finally taking the step to realize my gifts and creative abilities, one of my dreams is to really build and grow my own brand and sell my art to retailers and wholesalers. I know that I can't do it alone and need the help and mentoring of others. Unfortunately, I don't have many people in real life that I can talk to or call upon for business advice or anything related to it. Thankfully, there's some wonderful people out there who are willing to help and share their experiences with others. When I heard about,  Building A Creatively Made Business, I knew I had to go for it. Jeanne Oliver has been so generous with her life to offer this course to those who are searching for the support and guidance in starting their own creative business. Her genuine and honest approach in what she shares and teaches are exactly what I believe has made this so invaluable and empowering. I look forward to discovering the things that has helped her build and grow her creative business. So thankful and excited to complete this workshop which started yesterday! And it's not too late to join in if you're interested!

  Being a SAHM for so many years, I am extremely grateful for having found so many creative and inspiring connections through the virtual community, many who are willing to share their advice, insight, and experiences with people like me who need direction and guidance. Otherwise, I don't think I would be where I am today. It feels good to be able to connect with other artists from all over the world who share in the same passion and creativity as I do. The beauty of it is supporting and learning from one another and watching each other grow. I truly hope that I can even meet some of them in real life one day :) So, if there's any creative artists or crafters reading my blog that is in my area, please do not hesitate to contact me! 

xoxo,

iPhoneography Inspiration To Paint

Last night, I was going through my iPhone photos and kept coming back to this photo I took of the blooming Cherry Blossoms that are starting to make its appearance everywhere. I love the colors of the pink and white against the blue sky. It is so gorgeous.... Spring is definitely in the air and I cannot wait to see more signs of spring reveal itself as we begin to see flowers in bloom and hopefully more sunshine... Because this girl needs me some SUN and I'm so looking forward to feeling its warmth up here in Northern California.

Spring, just come now already!!!

Anyways, onto what I was saying.... with Instagram and my latest favorite photo app, Tadaa, photos are instantly turned into works of art. I love playing around with the filter affects and making colors pop or give it that retro affect. If you think about it, long gone are those days when cell phones were merely used for just calling peeps, but now its used for almost everything from email, shopping, social media, planning, listening to music, watching videos.... my goodness, technology has definitely changed and evolved. But, I absolutely love the fact that smart phones have the ability to transform into a camera or video recorder. NOW, that is such a huge breakthrough for us photo geeks.:)

One thing I knew I had to do when I came across the photo above was to paint it and practice my still life painting skills. I came across another artist on Instagram--@bettyann--who has truly inspired me to learn this other concept of painting. I'm sure there are many still life artists out there who are amazing, but seeing this lady's work led me to give my hand a try at it... Betty, if you're reading, thank you for inspiring me :)

Down below is my painted picture of Spring Blossoms using Caran d' Ache Neocolor II crayons and a water brush pen and that's it. I lightly sketched out the branches and from there I painted the flowers first, then branches, and then filled in the blue sky last. I wasn't sure how it would turn out as I randomly painted the blooms with no predetermined idea of how to do it. Everything just flowed so freely, something that doesn't happen too often as I'd like. To me, although it may not seem like a big thing, it's a pretty huge accomplishment. Yay! So, here's to my first watercolor still life painting in my art journal! I have lots of practicing to do and as I go about life, I'm going to keep my eyes open and will continue to be inspired by the beauty around me and paint, paint, paint...

Little Artists

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." 

Pablo Picasso

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My youngest niece, Ava, coloring with crayons. 

My niece, Arielle, drawing with me and creating Valentine's art.

Arielle drawing a big heart for her Mama.

Coloring in action.

Love this sweetie!

Asia, whom I call my Little Shadow, and I. 

Lucas got messy with Mommy's spray inks, paints and stencils.

Josiah also got to create his very first mixed media page using spray inks, paints, and stencils. 

***

I enjoy creating with my kids and nieces. It gives me a sense of purpose and fulfillment to why I love being an artist. I not only enjoy being creative, but I also discovered that I enjoy teaching art as well. Hopefully, this journey will lead me one day to teach the youth to explore their creative gifts and grow as their own individual artists. It's a lot to hope for, but I believe deep down that it's where my destiny truly lies.

xoxo,

{Doodles Unleashed} Stylized Faces | SHE Knew...

Hello!

Gah... This last week, my son and I got sick with the flu :( Hence, my long absence and lack of motivation to create... But, thank goodness we are recovering and life is slowly getting back to normal.

Just want to briefly share my final project from the last two lessons of Traci Bautista's Doodle Unleashed workshop at Strathmore. It was definitely a fun class and enjoyed every minute of it! The last two lessons were about preparing and painting a stylized face on a doodled background. I must say, I am not the best at painting faces and feel like I have a lot to work on, but overall I thought I did pretty good for an amateur. :)

I totally forgot to take photos during the whole process of creating this page so I only have photos of the final outcome. I did follow along in Traci's videos using some of her techniques so if it's not too late for you to join the workshop, you can register and still see all the videos.  I hope this inspires you and if you like what you see, please leave me a comment! No harsh criticism, k? LOL.

{Doodles Unleashed Workshop}

Stylized Faces

 SHE KNEW....

 "She was stronger than She thought She was."

Flower power.

 "SHE finally knew who she was meant to BE."

EYES. 

 LIPS.

 FACE.

 Layers and layers...

TRANSFORMED.

{CREATIVELY MADE} Week One : Altered Journal

{CREATIVELY MADE WITH JEANNE OLIVER}

WEEK ONE: Altered Journal Cover

Just letting you peek on my current project for Creatively Made, workshop by Jeanne Oliver. The first week has really been amazing as I watched some of the videos from Jeanne sharing some of her wisdom and insight about the creative gifts that have been instilled in us. I sometimes had moments where I would choke up and feel like crying because a lot of her messages were very relational to what I had gone through as I began my journey towards discovering my dreams and desires to become an artist. The challenges of balancing life with family, to overcoming fears about finding my purpose in what I do, to not giving up on the dreams I have for myself and family and some of the realities that she and many women struggle with, was very encouraging and eye-opening that it taught me the importance of finding that voice in ourselves and connecting with the God-given gifts that was placed in us. We all have a gift and it is to inspire and bless, not only ourselves, but to inspire and bless others. One thing that really resonated in my heart, was her insight that our gifts and creativity, will always be in line with our family values and dynamics, it will never oppose and conflict with what's important to our family. Simply an amazing revelation, at least to me. It just felt so good to have that affirmation that I am not alone. Hearing her stories, as well as the stories shared by everyone in the class, has been such a blessing to me so far and really uplifted my spirit and soul in an immeasurable way. 

***

We had already finished Week Two, but I am still behind in creating an Altered Journal cover from Week One's lesson. I had such a busy week that I couldn't begin on it right away, but I am determined to work on it and finish at my own pace. 

I spent today looking through magazines and found some clippings of words, quotes, titles, and also images of models and cool backgrounds, like the peacock feathers which I love. This is my first time actually doing a mixed media collage using cut outs from magazines, so I'm not that familiar with this technique, but I'm really excited to finally experiment with it and see how it turns out.

So, here is a peek at what I've done midway, using this lady that I cut out from a magazine ad, ephemera, acrylic paints, stickers, rubber stamps, and a butterfly die cut. Will share more details on that once I complete this project. :)

I'm about to leave to watch the Niners playoff game, so this is going to be sitting on my table until I get back! Woot, woot!!

GO NINERS!!!!!!

Doodles Unleashed : Inspired By Traci Bautista

Traci Bautista's Doodles Unleashed online workshop is a free class on Strathmore's website that I am currently taking and because I've been so inspired by her work already, it was a great chance for me to get to know Traci and learn from her. Doodling comes so naturally to me already which is why I was so excited to join in and I'm so glad I did because I am having so much fun with it. So far, I've created a few pieces from the last two lessons that were posted and wanted to share my take on them as I applied some of her cool techniques in my art work. There are two more weeks of her workshop and I will also be posting about that as well, so don't forget to come back and check out my blog!

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Lesson 1: Playful Printmaking

In lesson 1, it was about printmaking and creating doodles shapes for the background, but I didn't really create too many doodles because I was more focused on creating a theme for an art journal page and wanted to incorporate a title as you can see above and some writing onto the page. However, I did love this lesson because one of my favorite things to doodle, are flowers and botanicals. 

Dream: "Never let go of your dreams...you and only you can live out your dreams."

One of the dreams I have is to 'write a book' and to 'teach'. 

I know that these dreams can bloom, grow, and flourish if I hold on and never give up.

I used a white gel pen to journal with, but Traci has a list of her favorite white ink pens + markers on her blog which I want  to try out in the future.

As I was experimenting with letters, the letter 'd' was actually not freehanded like the rest of the word. I used a chipboard letter as a mask when I sprayed ink over it and then traced and painted it. I think I will do that with all the letters next time to give it a more cleaner look... But, it is what it is and that's okay :)

***

Lesson 2: Creating Spontaneous Watercolor Backgrounds

Lesson 2, was all about playing with watercolor and creating watercolor backgrounds with doodles and stamps. I particularly LOVED this lesson since I primarily work with acrylics in my art and never really use watercolors very much. But, I think this class turned it all around for me and I absolutely love the whimsical, dreamy feel to this project. I used watered down acrylics and watercolor crayons.

I BELIEVE I CAN FLY

I used a butterfly rubber stamp and inked it up with my paintbrush, being careful to not mix the colors on the rubber stamp before applying it onto the page. It came out beautifully.... When everything was dry, I went in and added some detail with a white gel pen and black india ink pen.

Of course, I had to add journaling... "With God all things are possible."

Hand painted the words with watercolor took some practice.

Used a round metal cap to add circles. Then journaled, "Spread your wings and fly away."

Close up on the butterfly.

I went in and splattered paint in different colors...

The splatters left a trail in the right place which I think gave the butterfly a sense of movement and direction. 

THANKS to Traci for being an amazing inspiration to the art community. Looking forward to creating a stylized face in the remaining lessons of Doodles Unleashed online workshop :)

Japantown in SF :: Treasury of Cool Art Finds

Last weekend, my family and I spent a few hours downtown and originally, we only set out to visit one of my hubby's favorite places on earth, The Guitar Center. He and my eldest son, Josiah, are musically gifted and love spending hours in there playing guitar, drums, keyboard, etc. My youngest, Lucas, is more like me and loves anything colorful and artsy. So while they spent time doing their thing, I grabbed out my smartphone and browsed through the Yelp app for art and craft stores nearby. Surprisingly, I didn't realize that Japantown was just a 10 minute walk away, so Lucas and I set out on our little adventure.... Luckily, the weather has been really beautiful in our neck of the woods, sunny and mild, a little strange for winter, but I am not complaining!

When we get there, we take a moment to take a break and sit in the center of Japantown where they have one of their popular attractions -- The Peace Pagoda. Usually in the spring, the cherry blossoms are in bloom everywhere.  Every year, thousands travel to Japantown for their annual event--Cherry Blossom Festival--celebrating the Japanese culture, traditions, and diversity. Spring is just around the corner, so I am hoping to make it out here this year....

This is inside the Miyako Mall, Peace Plaza.

Strolled into Ichiban Kan, a Japanese Dollar Store, and saw these poster markers that were 2 for $1. Used them on a project that I will post about soon.:)

 

Next we walked over to Daiso Japan, another Japanese discount store where almost everything is $1.50. I absolutely adore it here. They sell everything from household, kitchen, hardware, stationary, art, gifts, food, and more. Sometimes I'll find the most unique items that you would've never thought was invented. Sooooo cool. This location is one of the biggest stores I've been too and has more products than the one closer to home. 

So, my first cool find is this foam placemat. Look at those details and can you guess what I am thinking of using this for?? A stencil mask!! I would probably cut it up to use on different sized projects, but I already know it would really fun to play around with it...

Then walking down their craft aisle, they have washi tapes, decorative ribbons, gift bags then I spotted these Lace Border Tapes... I am already imagining the uses for these on my art journals and canvases. I love the designs, especially the black lace. 

In the art aisle, the have tubes of acrylic paint in so many colors... I don't know if the quality is any good being that they are cheap, but I think it would be great to have on hand to play around with and incorporate it with other mediums.

Paintbrush packs, carving tools, drawing accessories, inks, palettes, etc... Very basic stuff, but affordable if you are on a budget. Love it!

Origami papers in so many pretty patterns. Yummy!

When I wandered by this end cap, I had to stop. These stationary packs with papers, envelopes, and stickers brought back memories of my childhood. Though they are not Hello Kitty or Sanrio, I remembered how I loved collecting these and pretending to play office with them or simply to just have and write letters or make cards.

***

 

Kinokuniya Book Stores are just one of those places that I immediately fall in love with, mainly because I love books AND secondly, I love their Japanese collections of art and design books, magazines, and stationary. It's heaven!

Here is a whole table spread of artsy journals and notebooks.

I love the doodled design and the simple words-- I WRITE.

This face covered the entire front of a notebook. It totally caught my eye, kinda mysterious like me.

Here is where I can stand for hours just browsing through the art eye candy of graphic and print designs.

In their craft section, there are tons of instruction books on drawing, painting, ceramic and textile arts, etc. But they were all printed in Japanese.... One of my goals: Learn to read, write, speak Japanese!


Well, these are just a few of so many artful and creative finds that I discovered during my impromptu visit to Japantown. I can't wait to go back!

I've been thinking that maybe I can start a series of posts relating to creating mixed media or art and craft projects, using items we may already have at home or by purchasing affordable and inexpensive art tools, mediums, innovative supplies etc.  Hopefully, I can encourage and teach others out there who want to learn mixed media, but are on a tight budget like myself.

Let me know what you think????