My Girl(s) made me a real artist….

Beautiful weather has finally hit Michigan. This past spring was hard to take- we had only 1 warm spell and it only lasted 2 days.  We are on to greener pastures- literally and figuratively.  Unfortunately, the dandelions seem to LOVE the cooler spring and are everywhere.  I wish that the lilacs or the peonies were everywhere instead.

I am currently in between eArt courses.  Hard to believe, I know.  I thought about looking for one and then decided that I needed to catch up on all the projects I planned and haven't finished.   As for the blog- I have lots of stuff still to show from the other classes I took.

I took a mixed media art class called SheArt giving by the cutest artist around, Christy Tomlinson.  She owns Scarlet Lime which I think started out as a "kit of the month" club for scrapbookers.  It has evolved with a "bead of the month" project and the recent addition of a mixed media store.  She also jumped on the eCourse train and taught SheArt as a 3 week class.

I've always wanted to learn how to make those junky cool backgrounds that my favorite artists make.  To me, those backgrounds are truly the defining line between "crafter" and "artist".  I know... that is pretty stupid and not even close to being accurate…  At least I know it "intellectually" but "emotionally" the messy junky background is my line in the sand and I want to make some.  I have asked for instructions, I have purchased magazines for directions and bought books with step-by-step instructions but I never figured it out.  Instead of something an artist would make and worthy of hanging in a gallery (or even my kitchen wall), I would end up with a muddy messy mess destined for the trashcan.

Here is how my class experience went:
Monday:  In the first video of SheArt Christy should her technique and while it seemed pretty simple, I must admit I was terrified.  How would I know what colors to use?  What amount of paint is good to start with?  How will I now what else it needs?  How will I know when to stop?  Will I know to stop before I am left with a brown sloppy mess?  Shading?  What?  Are you serious? I hate shading.  I get the concept but I can never do it.  I end up with every line shaded like a big nuclear bomb just illuminated the world. UGH! I suck….So I went to bed without starting.

Tuesday…. Ok, you can do this.  Start with one color and we shall see… go slow….. ok this is working…. slow……slow down……. watch out…….. Whoa!  What just happened?  I made three girls and they look ***** (I know what word I would use here but you insert whatever word you feel comfortable with) AWESOME.  OHMYGOD I did it.

Wednesday: cranked out 2 more pieces of art.  I can do this for sure.
Thursday:  Started the backgrounds of 5 pieces

I'm addicted.   The process is just as fun as I knew it would be and I am pretty good at it after all.

Without further ado…. my "girls"

Ryann took this girl for herself.  The bottom is covered with German Glass glitter

My first attempt at a non-girl based work of mixed media

Laters...