OMG! Art can be dangerous

Had a fall 10 days ago in my studio. Slipped on damp floor after cleaning up some spilled paint and broke my shoulder in 2 places. First ride in an ambulance, a week in hospital and a metal plate and pins in my shoulder and it's my PAINTING hand!!!! Ugghhhhhhh....

So just a little warning guys, do be more careful than I was! Pleeeeeeze

More Ballet

Yet another ballet piece, fresh off the easel. Acrylic and pastels on canvas. Hasn't got a name yet as *Swan Lake 2* just doesn't do it. How about *DEAD Swan*? LOLS

Postscipt - Dead Swan wasn't a popular choice LOL so I called it *Finale* instead. It's entered in an art comp and exhibition this week, so fingers crossed.....

Tell me what YOU want (and WIN a prize)

Hi everyone, trying to do some housekeeping and would really LOVE to know what you would like to see more of here on the blog. Please help me by ticking your interest and pushing the VOTE button below. AND If you also join my newsletter list - sign up at left (or are already a member) then leave me a comment to tell me so and you will go into the draw to win this beautiful ATC, designed by me. I will send it anywhere in the world, so don't be shy. Poll will be up for about a month.

Swan Lake

I learned ballet when I was young and dreamed of becoming a ballerina. Sadly I had to give it up at around 13, but still love ballet. So elegant and romantic and yet takes such discipline. So I painted this one for a local art competition in acrylic and pastel.

Sketching on the Right Side of the Brain

I have been taking part in a sketching group recently and reacquainted myself with the method of sketching from the book *Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain* by Betty Edwards. While Betty has written a whole book, essentially and quite simply this method involves drawing UPSIDE DOWN! No, silly! not YOU!! (Visual of everybody standing on their heads and attempting to draw here! LOL LOL). Simply by turning the subject matter upside down and sketching it from that perspective produces amazing results!

It is based on the theory (for those of you with inquiring minds) that the left side of the brain is the *smarty pants* who *knows* what a chair, a nose or an apple looks like and bosses you around when you place marks on the page that don't match it's stored version (which does not allow for such things as foreshortening or the odd shapes that perspective or shadows produce).  It's also this very precise side of the brain that keeps time and is good at lists!

However when the left brain cannot easily recognize or label a subject, the right (or creative) side of the brain kicks in and just sees the shapes and angles without trying to turn them into *something*. So, by working upside down and simply seeing those shapes and angles and repeating them, we produce a strange *map* which sometimes makes little sense until we turn it right way up. VOILA!!! Suddenly those ugly shapes become perfect shadows on a face or landscape. It's (almost) magic!

Of course it does have it's limitations as we can't turn a fresh vase of flowers upside down to sketch it, BUT we can take a photo and work from that, and over time, one develops the ability to be able to switch that pesky left brain off and work in right brain mode without the need for upside down subjects.

So I challenge you to draw something upside down TODAY and post the link here for us to see. Go on, surprise yourself!

FREE e-book especially for all you ARTISTS!!

Recently, while reading comments made regarding some of my free video classes, especially the How to Make and Use you own Alcohol Ink, the word FRUGAL kept coming up. I must admit I was a little surprised, because my intention in making my own ink was not actually to save money, so much as have easy access to a product not readily available to me. I actually ENJOY finding ways to duplicate products, methods or techniques I see around me and often get much more pleasure from working out the HOW TOs, rather than just going and buying it. Call me crazy, but I just love finding the answers to the *what if* questions!

So anyway, it occurred to me that I have collected or invented a whole bunch of money saving ideas relating to art, craft and general creativity over the years and decided to put them all into one place in the form of an e-book THE ESSENTIAL ART BOOK FOR THE FRUGAL ARTIST or How you can be an artist and still EAT! This book contains 11 pages of helpful, creative and money saving tips for just about everyone who creates, paints or crafts with tips ranging from organizing a studio or saving your favourite brush from certain death right up to making your own glitter mist.
There are even links to those free videos I mentioned at the start on how to make your own alcohol ink.

To get the book, simply click HERE Please SHARE this with your friends

Interview

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to tell you that Connie over at DirtyFootprintsStudio is interviewing a group of art journelers over on her blog and has asked us to all share our own stories. You can see the rest of the interviews HERE, and my interview is below. Enjoy!

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN ART JOURNALING?
Ummmm..... about 2 1/2 years I would say as it became part of my creative routine while studying for a Holistic Art Therapy diploma

HOW HAS ART JOURNALING IMPACTED, CHANGED OR ENHANCED YOUR LIFE?
Well it is a totally new and very FREE way of expressing my creativity with NO RULES. It allows me to write what I want, paint or draw what I want and then cover it up and start again if I wish. Splash paint, stamp, scribble, doodle, experiment without the restriction of needing to repeat, explain or justify it as art. It is just for me unless I choose to share and it helps me process feelings and situations.

WHAT ARE A FEW OF YOUR ART JOURNALING SUPPLIES?
Love, love LOVE gesso!! A little used material up until I started to journal, I now use it to base coat, cover up, stamp on, stencil to create texture, write or scratch into, etc, etc, etc........ Also love my watercolour crayons, copic markers and white gel pen!

WHAT WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT WOULD YOU GIVE AN ART JOURNAL NEWBIE?
PLAY, PLAY, PLAY!!! Take the pressure off yourself to create art and just experiment and practice going with your intuition. The more you do it, the more reliable it becomes and you end up with something better than you ever could have planned or imagined. TRUST yourself!

WHERE CAN WE CONTACT YOU - give us some LINK LOVE!
On my website www.janfoxdesigns.com
Facebook
On my blog

Digital Magic

I like to play around in Photoshop too so decided to alter the original handpainted image below into ATC format at right. What do you think?

Tin Shrine

Playing round with a old sardine can and made this shrine which I have named "Grace Has Wings". Very textured piece with collaged hand painted papers, lace, oils, embellishments, metallics and wax. Had fun with this and think I will do some more....

Serene Power

Another on my goddesses. I seem to be *collecting* them and I envisage them as cards in the not so distant future. I think I have about 8 so far now. This one is *Serene Power* thus named as she reminded me a bit of a lioness with her mane of hair, but oh so calm and serene.........gentle power

Nana Luv

Did you know I started my teaching career teaching stretch sewing? Mmmmmm...used to whip up those tees and track pants in a jiffy. Obviously a LOOnng time ago now though as I just spend an hour fighting with my overlocker to get it threaded and working. I lost! Grrrhhhhh!!!! Gave up and painted a whale on a purchased suit - made me feel much better! LOL

Try before you BUY

I always want everyone to be happy with anything they purchase from me whether they be goods or classes. I have had the unhappy experience of signing up for classes online that have disappointed and it's a tricky deal I have to admit. So, I have decided to offer a TRY BEFORE YOU BUY *taster* class for my ARTBOOK/Journal 101 class which gives you a very good idea of the quality and content of the rest of the class. No guesswork! Simply visit my website here, click on FREEBIES and scroll down to the free class. Enjoy and I hope to see you in the full class!

More bang for your BUCK

Thanks Bev for reminding me of this very *Aussie* expression which is just perfect for this post. I told you I was going to use crops from my last painting to produce more artwork and so I have. Here are two miniature pieces I have just completed in the ACEO/ATC acceptable size format of 2.5 X 3.5 inches. Both are Butterfly Goddesses with BLING! LOL The single butterfly is silver foiled and the multi butterflies are 3D barely kissing the surface, both with diamonds (real of course! LOL - not!). i will be selling these beauties on Etsy

Do you crop??

This is a pic of my latest mixed media piece *Keeper of the Birds*. It is mostly acrylics and pastels with some of my papers collaged into the background. It is a largish canvas so after taking my pics, I went into Photoshop to resize. I then decided to play around with cropping some areas to ATC size (2.5 X 3.5 inches) just for fun and to see how many different pieces I could get from the one finished painting. So far - SIX! The original large canvas and five ATC size works. I am planning on printing these out and using them as a basis for more works just to see how far I can take it. At my age, I need to work smarter and not harder! LOL

Tweet tweet

Since becoming a grandmother 7 months ago, I seem to be drawn to birds. Particularly baby birds so have been painting, collaging and even making 3D birdies. I am also much more aware of recycling in my studio for a couple of reasons. Firstly - ROOM! LOL I love collecting and hunting for new treasures and supplies in the thrift shops, stores and markets, etc. however the thrill of the hunt is addictive and I now have far more than I can use stored away in drawers, boxes, bins, shelves and now the floor!! Secondly I am even more aware of the drain of resources on our planet and want my grandson and any potential brothers and sisters to have the best possible planet of the future. So this little birdie is almost 100% recycled - made from security envelopes, rescued stuffing, wire and vintage wallpaper and trim, along with a few scraps from my art table. He is in my ETSY shop at the moment. What do you think?

DO YOU LOVE COPICS?

I LOVE these markers and use them mainly with my airbrush for spraying. Have you seen my Youtube video on how I do this?? (BELOW) Anyway if you too like these pens, would you like to win a set? I know I sure do!! So Karen (a fellow Aussie) at Karen's Doodles is GIVING AWAY some wonderful blog candy INCLUDING 24 Copic Ciao markers!!! So click here to RUN over there now to vote on which of her cards you like best and learn how you can get your hands on this wonderful set.

Personally I just ADORE pop-ups of any kind and Karen's pop-up card is just ADORABLE. I love the way she has several different layers coming forward and the leaves on the tree! Well done girl!

art journal backgrounds

fold it FLOWERS

In the process of preparing pages for the aforementioned online class, I made some COOL paper flowers based on some files made by the talented Ms Penny. There is definitely a trick in folding these little beauties and I didn't have enough fingers to begin with! However I kept on going and with a little help from the video here the penny (Ha, ha- no pun intended!) finally dropped! It really is quite easy, once you know how. Isn't that always the trick though? I didn't end up using the flowers this time, but know they will end up on something special soon. Thanks again Penny.

Playing with Paint and Paper

Been busy preparing for my ONLINE Art Journal/Mixed Media class. So much fun playing with paint, paper, crayons, stitching and embellishments. Kind of makes me feel like I am a kid again! LOL I missed out on going to kinder so making up for it now.

This page is using gesso, washes and various other techniques along with some of some rose art. Very SHaBBy I think. LOL

The Making of Heart Strings Art Journal

PART TWO


PART THREE

Art Journal cover

This is how the page I was working on in the VIDEOS worked out

part TWO

MAKING YOUR OWN ALCOHOL INK

Paint a simple Flower

Find more videos like this on Jan Fox Designs

FREE vintage mag

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Artella! And they are so generous too. Enjoy the free magazine and look out for more here in the future. Download a FREE copy of the Artella eBook, Artella Mae's NEW Altered Ancestors!, a 58-page eBook overflowing with ideas and techniques for using vintage photos in your artwork. Download your copy here!

FIRST YOUTUBE video

Yahhhh!!! I worked out how to share video on Youtube. Here is my first one! You can get more details about this online class here

More Art Journalling

I call this page Love is...

The face painted over part of a magazine page with the printing still showing. Added collaged rose and borders, penwork, acrylics and watercolor crayons. Fun!

After the Storm

Had a *mad* day yesterday - literally! I was MAD about all sorts of things and did a bit of stomping, yelling and even punching pillows before i decided to take it out on some craft materials. In NO mood to do pretty, pretty acrylics or soft pastels, I got out my WIRE, beads and paper and scrunched, tore, bent, cut and generally had a great time being MAD. LOL who knew it could be such fun! Anyways, after I was done I decided to create something out of it and change the energy. Result is this prayer scroll necklace. I think I might have a MAD day regularly!

Mixed Media Fun

Been having lots of fun with mixed media lately. Lots of layering and glue, paper, paint, pens and MESS! Just need to find someone willing to clean up after me now and I will be in heaven. LOL

So this is the before and after pic of my latest project. As you can see, I left some areas, painted over others and added more painted roses to match. I have a challenge going on over at my Ning site to follow my lead and do a Rose related mixed media piece incorporating collage so if you would like to join in the fun, hop right on over there now. You will need to join if not a member, but it is free. There is a prize up for grabs too!

WHO KNEW??????

I have just found out about subscribing to RSS feeds. Mmmmmm....you say- behind the times!!. Well, sometimes it takes a while for me to catch up, LOL but I LOVE this discovery. For those who DON'T know, it's a way to keep up with all your favourite blogs and newsgroups in ONE place. I have a lot of lovely places I like to visit for inspiration, ideas and just cause they make me happy but I often forget, lose track or just simply don't have the time to click on each page and check what's new. So this solves that problem for me. Yahhhh! I simply went to Google Reader and signed up, then visited my favourite blogs and clicked on the subscribe link to add them to my Reader page (sometimes it's a text link and other times an orange logo thingie). Now I simply visit that ONE page and all new posts are collected there for me to read at leisure. And if I forget to visit, it is of no matter- I can catch up on a whole week at once if I want. Happiness, happiness! LOL

Want to add this blog? Scroll to bottom of page and click on SUBSCRIBE TO POST link. Then choose Google. It's that simple! Have fun........

Art JOURNAL fun

Just getting into art journals and having so much FUN! This one is mixed media with a couple of collage borders. Learning to do the funky lettering is cool too!

For ALL artists - take the time to watch

Paper Roses

Toooooooo SIMPLE Tutorial by Dozi Design which I thought you all might enjoy.

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Draw a spiral on a 4"x4" square sheet of paper
2. Cut out spiral along the lines you have drawn
3. Begin rolling up the spiral from the outside
4. Keep on rolling until there is no more left to roll
5. You're done

PAINTING CLASSES

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a fantastic start to 2010! I have finally launched some long awaited online painting classes. I was doing these *live* a couple of years ago but everyone is so busy these days, it's hard to get everyone in the same place at the same time (particularly when I am in Australia and everyone else is .....well everywhere else! LOL) So I have designed these classes to be *on demand* where you work at your own pace, along with video and other instruction. You can join in at http://janfoxdesigns.ning.com/