Curiousity Cabinet of Love


curiousity cabinet of love, originally uploaded by howtouseart.

Today I wanted to show you a few of my favorite things in a little corner of my new place! :) Some of these goodies were handmade by me, some by friends and Etsy artists, and others are vintage thifted finds.

Yup, that is my puppy made into a snow globe in the center!

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who commented on or watched the painting video - it means so much to me that people are out there watching it and enjoying it, and it totally makes me want to make more videos like this! I am still new at the whole video thing, but I have lots of plans for what to show in the future, and they are so much fun to make; I will definitely keep updating with more in the near future. In the near future, I hope to do a DIY stencil tutorial for paper and t-shirts, more speed painting, and maybe a gouache painting (thanks for the suggestion, Jesse!).

I'm also really thrilled that people are liking the paintings. I have piles (literally) of paintings to share with you, but I wasn't sure anyone was interested and I am still pretty shy about my paintings, since I always used to be so fearful of the process. Even in art school, I would shy away from taking any painting classes, because I was so sure I'd be bad at it. I know my pieces could be a lot better, but at least I'm finally forcing myself to try and am *finally* really enjoying painting instead of it being such a stressful, scary thing for me. Painting is now one of the things I look forward to the most every day, and I'm so glad I can finally say that! The artists I have always admired most have been painters, so it's something I've always wanted to work on and get better at.

I know there are people out there who are scared of painting but want to try, and my advice is to force yourself to jump in, but do it slowly. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on canvases when I started, so I just found some throwaway scrap wood and tried painting on those. My first efforts were horrible and were painted over many times (layers and layers of gesso!). I realized I didn't draw enough to be able to make paintings and figures that made sense...if that makes any sense! So I drew each and every day, even when it started out looking terrible, and even when sitting down to draw felt like going to the dentist. I drew the same 5 faces every day for a month, and by the end, you could really tell the difference that practice had made. After that, I started craving color in my figures, so I started just adding watercolor. I made it so light that it was like a stain, coloring things in like a coloring book. That was really fun, so I started to add depth and color with the watercolors, not watering them down as much any more. This led in to painting with gouache (a water-based paint that is more translucent then water color). Then I painted with acrylics, then oils. I don't paint with oils as much any more because of the clean up and toxic materials involved in the process, but I love how they smell and hope to get back into it someday soon, if only just for the scent of the paint, ha ha!

I'm excited to share more tips and techniques in the future, and maybe we can even do some projects together via video and blogs. All my "art friends" have moved out of town, so it's awesome to find people online who are interested and willing to do creative stuff and make things. Okay, off to spend quality time with the doggy...

Comments

  1. I would LOVE to see some tutorials and your advise to 'want to try painters' really spoke to me! In my opinion, I can't draw worth a lick, but maybe the way I interpret objects is something I can build on? Don't know, but I am bouncing the idea around in my noodled head!

    I for one appreciate you showing your art however you may think it looks, it is gret guidance and inspiration to people like me. Please continue to add more!

    Thanks for you suggestions and advice!

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