I decided to put up a variety of different videos today.
If you are having problems viewing the video here on my blog, click the title on the top left of the video and it will open in youtube.
Techniques Today: Variety
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Author Archives: leslie
Book
I made this book for my human development class. It's an accordnian fold book that measures 4×11 inches. the covers fold over on itself and the line continues throughout the book and the waves connect creating a loop.
The waves represent the varius stages of human development and the figures represent the physical development.
Technique Today: Collage
Collage can be done in a million different ways, here are a few.
If you are having problems viewing the video here on my blog, click the title on the top left of the video and it will open in youtube.
Lessons Learned
I decided to try a new binding for a class project. I've done a couple of Keith A. Smiths's complicated single sheet bindings, with good success, I might add. I decided that for this project I wanted to work on panels then bind the resulting art into a large 11×14 book with about 13 leaves. I decided to try a binding that I hadn't tried before, one with linked stitches.
Holy crap this is probably the hardest binding I've ever attempted. I'm about half way throguh this book and it's taken me over 2 hours. I've made a ton of mistakes, backwards links and looks, and have broek threads. Man, tough stuff.
Also a learning lesson. Next time I have a complicated project, I'll use a binding I know.
Winner Winner Can Lid Art
Of 57 total entries we have a winner of the can lid art! yay Free Art Friday!
The winner (and confirmed, she answered the winning email right away!) was Jean M of Michigan! I'll be sending a bit of brightness her way!
If you'd like to get your own can lid art you can find mine on Etsy pretty inexpensively. 🙂 I priced them to move. I'd strongly encourage you to get a safety can opener, a little liquitex super thick gesso (goes on soooo smooth and not gritty), and a Sakura Pigma Micron and start doodling!
Techniques Today: Basics
Here are some videos for the basics of art journaling. you don't need everything listed, but a few basic supplies will be helpful for you.
If you are having problems viewing the video here on my blog, click the title on the top left of the video and it will open in youtube.
Tips for Drawing Portraits
Pretty frequently people ask me about drawing portraits. How do you draw a "good" portrait.
Here are 4 tips:
#1. Don't draw from fashion photos. Use well lit images of real people from Flickr or anywhere else you can find them. Fashion magazines and their photography involve a great deal of softening the image to remove the kind of lighting you need to make a good drawing. They also remove every last wrinkle and bump in the face, the stuff you really need to navigate the contours of the face with your pen/pencil.
#2. Don't be so hard on yourself. If you spend 90% of your drawing time worryingabout how much your drawing sucks you'll never get down to the business of enjoying the process. First concentrate on the process of making your image. Enjoy the feeling of the pen or pencil on the paper. Enjoy hte moment of creation. After you are done with the image, then critique it. It's alright to go back and say, "Next time I'll try putting the line for the nose here," or suggesting to yourself, "If I put the lower eyelid in more of a gentle curve, I'd like it more."
#3. Embrace imperfection. You will make some drawings you hate. That's okay. You learn the most from your bad drawings. You learn where you went wrong, so that in the next image you know what you don't like and what you should do with the curve of the nustril and that little divot above the upper lip.
#4. Keep at it. Don't give up. the most important thing is that even though you are going to make some really bad drawings, you will eventually make some really great drawings. But you won't make great drawings if you give up. I make a lot of bad drawings. I'm okay with that. Part of art is learning what your style is and embracing that style.
Here's a late add on to this post, MIllande has some great ideas about portraits. I love what she does with her self portrait.
Can Lid Art
In addition to my free art friday post I have loaded up some of my can lids to my etsy shop. they are original works of my art done on can lids. They are a super fun thing to do because they reclaim something that would go into the waste stream and turns it into something fun. Anyway. I'm having a blast making them between paragraphs in my papers.
Here are some pics: 
CLOSED- Free Art Friday
Jean M. has won the drawing!
I started to make these little recycled mixed media mandal styled images. (The mandala is around the center image of a weirdo/automatic drawing.) I’m obsessed with the idea of “Free Art Friday.” I’ve written about it before so I won’t go on about My Dog Sighs and all his crazy good art. But I want to do some of that in my area as well as on the blog.
So I’m doing a rafflecopter giveaway where you can enter to win this piece:
You can enter a couple of times in different ways. Check out the raffle copter below. Enter, share win a little peice of my art!
Techniques Today: Gesso
Gesso is a great tool in the art journal. It's great for so many things. These videos detail just a few.
If you are having problems viewing the video here on my blog, click the title on the top left of the video and it will open in youtube.