Christmas Train

I just want to say that my heart goes out to everyone in the east dealing with hurricane Sandy.  I wish you all the best and know that we are all thinking of you. 

This project is the second in a series of resin train projects that I've painted for Artists Club www.artistsclub.com, they are amazing and darling and are sure to be a keeper.  I have my Halloween Train out at the moment and as soon as I put it away will pull out the Christmas Train that you see in this photo.  Artist Club always has surfaces that are right on trend and sell out quickly.  The instructions for this project are available as a free download and the surface is still available but I'm not sure how many are left.  This is my photo of the project but if you hop over to Artists Club you can see their outstanding photography and download the project instructions for FREE!!!  That is a price that you can't beat. 

I just sent in my Easter Train project that will come out after the 1st of the year and is darling.  If I must say so myself. 

I just wanted to say thanks to all of my friends who have been adding their great comments!  I've enjoyed corresponding with you. 

 

I'm finally ready to post the finished wedding box and as I stated in an earlier post rarely does a piece come together easily and without having to repaint parts or pieces as was the case with this box.  The center landscape went together really well and I was optimistic that the remainder of the piece would, I was happy with the mountains, the trees and the foreground.  I emailed a copy of the photo to my daughter and had her look it over with her "scientific" eye to make sure that I had stayed true to the look of the location.  She was thrilled and felt that I had really captured the essence of the area.  This is an actual location just outside of Yellowstone Park between Cooke City and the Beartooth Highway.  Fortunately I had been able to spend some time in the area the previous summer and was able to get quite a few great photos that I could use as reference.  I also knew that I wanted to show an Aspen Tree and her flowers for the wedding were going to be sunflowers and I knew that I wanted to paint those as well.  Both my daughter and her fiance are outdoor type of people, they love to hike, backpack, and camp and I really wanted to represent an area that they loved recreating in.  I began painting the Aspen Tree and when I emailed a photo to my daughter with the comment "there is something wrong with this tree" she responded that it looked like a Birch Tree so back to the drawing board I went.  I went up into the mountains and took a look at Aspen Trees to try to figure out what I needed to change, repainted it and emailed another copy to my daughter to look at.  Fortunately I live in an area where I can view the trees.  My daughter has a natural resources degree which is a science based program and I often use her as my "go to gal" for her opinions and suggestions for my paintings, she is an invaluable resource.  This time we were both happy with the result and I moved on to the sunflowers. 

 

Today I was talking to a friend who had asked how the wedding went and I mentioned that it was an amazing, emotional, and exhausting experience that both my husband and myself were grateful to be able to celebrate with our daughter and new son.  For us this was one of those amazing events in your children's lives where you reflect on their lives up to this point during the course of the planning and the ceremony.  We both kept asking each other where the years went, it seemed just like yesterday that she was playing Cinderella in her dress up clothes and now she was a young woman embarking on her new life with her spouse.  I have to admit that I was teary through the entire ceremony and then enjoyed the reception completely.  Below you can see the box on the gift table during the reception.  The day was lovely and the happy couple are starting an amazing journey of their own.

 

This card box will soon be available on my website as a pattern and if you choose to paint it I hope that you are able to paint it for someone that you love as I did. 

 

Design Process

I spent the day shopping with my daughter today, we were shopping for new clothes for her to wear to a new job that she begins this next week.  We had a lovely day doing something that we haven't been able to do for a number of years as she recently moved back to the area, both she and her husband to start new phases in their careers.  As we discussed some of her goals and plans for the future I was reminded how the design for the wedding box visually illustrated many of those goals that she and I were discussing during the course of the day. 

 

Sometimes designing is all about an emotional journey, as was this box and because it was for someone that I loved it became a very personal journey.  Because of that I was even more critical and apprehensive at the same time.  A huge part of the journey also involved my comfort level and my need to visually represent the landscape in a way that I knew my daughter and her husband would find pleasing. 

 

When I began to design the Wedding Box I knew that I wanted pine trees to take up the bulk of the space in the foreground.  I also knew that I hadn't painted pine trees in some time and I needed to practice so that I felt comfortable and capable with my ability to represent the trees.  This is just one of the many practice sheets that painted when I was trying to decide how to paint the trees and which color scheme I wanted to use.  I also had to decide which paint brush seemed to work for me.  I ended up using the Loew Cornell 1/4" Angular Bristle and really felt that it worked beautifully for me.  It had just the right amount of play in the bristles to allow me the control that seemed to work.  I used it both dry and wet and found that I was able to control the paint and was delighted with the end product. 

 

I am happy to report that the final product did represent the trees and I was satisfied but more importantly my daughter and her husband were also happy with the result.  As I looked at the pine trees on the finished box naturally there were some flaws but isn't that the great thing about nature, nothing in nature is ever perfect.   In that way I decided I had something in common with the natural world.   

I love to get comments and am hoping to hear your thoughts on my past few posts.  It is pretty easy to post comments and certainly helps me when I begin to plan for new posts.  Give it a shot.  I'd love to hear from you.  Also consider becoming a follower of my blog, I'm really trying to blog more often this year and hope that encourages all of you to follow me.  It certainly gives my blog more credibility.

Using Stencils in Your Design

The photo you see above is the backview of the Wedding Box that I have been describing in the last few posts.  I wanted the front of the box to be the focal point of the design and the sides and back to not detract, I also wanted the design to flow into the front.  I was concerned that this might be a difficult task until I happened to be surfing the net and saw the most amazing stencils from a company called Nature's Vignettes. www.naturesvignettes.com  I had already decided that a diamond pattern stencil might be the way to go but had only been able to find stencils in a small size and this box is not small, consequently repeating that design might take a lot of time and effort.  Now I have to admit that I really prefer to make my painting job go as seamlessly as any creative project can go and didn't want to have to repeat a stencil as many times as using a small one would take.  Then I happened upon the Harlequin stencil that you see above #305 Classic Harlequin.  The repeat was super easy and it all went together seamlessly which was a good thing because the front proved to be somewhat problematic. But that is a story for a later post.   

Watching the Design Process Unfold in Young Learners

If you work with children you know that they are fearless when it comes to their artwork and I rarely hear from my students that they don't believe they are good artists.  Why is that?  Maybe it is the fact that they are more concerned about themselves than the world around them, I also believe that a child's world is centered on the here and now. 

This is a project that I call Movement Bodies and the published version of this project can be found and downloaded free of charge at

http://www.enasco.com/pdfs/Arts_Crafts/artworks/volume63_NP088_10.pdf 

For any of you who are interested Nasco as well as most of the online art suppliers have lesson plans available for your free download.  Many of them are provided by art teachers from around the country and have been kid tested and teacher approved. 

 

This is a project that I often use with my students and am doing so again this year, I provide each student the preprinted template for the body, the students determine the movement for the body and then put the template pieces together to simulate the movement.  My students transfer the body to a clean piece of paper and then design a different line/shape pattern for each section of the body.  They develop a background, and use watercolor pencils to complete the project.  The goal of this project is to understand the use of line/pattern/shape/rhythm in their artwork.  I often have my students outline their designs with black markers as this helps them focus in on the design/pattern when coloring as well as makes for a bold presentation. 

 

Watching children design is a fascinating process and is so different for an adult.  We as adults could learn alot from children in their fearless approach to art and design. 

 

 

Design Process

I love the design process as much as I enjoy the painting process.  I love the possibilities that designing brings with it, the ideas that float around in my head that eventually end up on paper is such an exciting process.  Then to transfer that design to a surface adds to the potential of a project.  I began the Wedding Box project thinking about how I would lay out the design and decided on a circular design.  I struggled with that for quite a while until one morning in the shower the idea of a circular design came to me.  The shower seems to be that quiet spot where my mind can just free float and I often solve design problems in the shower.  It seems to be my quiet place.  LOL.  Once I decided on that the rest became a matter of which trees to use and the mountains that the soon to be happy couple wanted.  From start to finish this project took me 6 months to design and get down on paper.   I don't usually take this long to design a project but I really wanted this one to be special for one of the most important days in my daughter's life.  I also worked on it in between other projects,  it isn't like I worked on it steadily for 6 months.  Once I had the design worked out it was time to find the box and fortunately my friends at Ideal Wood Products had a perfectly lovely box that I ordered.  The next obstacle became what to do with the remainder of the box that the design wouldn't cover.  LOL.  That will be for my next post.

Not too long ago I did a series of blog posts where I suggested other options for projects but I thought that for this series I might talk a little about the design process.  To me it is such a personal journey to design a project.  You as an artist are trying to appeal to the masses while staying true to your inner vision.  That can be difficult when you are trying to balance the two.  I have often felt like it was similar to when you have young children at home and you are trying to be wife, mom, career person, and artist.  That is a particularly difficult balancing act, while you can't compare your need to share yourself artistically to raising your family it still can be a difficult struggle and for those of us who love the arts it is the food for the soul.  My solution is to make sure that I have some time each week to paint or draw for myself. 

I recently designed a wedding box for my daughter's wedding and it was a labor of love.  Not only was it for an important person in my life but it was for one of the most important events in her life.   She had definite ideas about what she wanted the box to look like, I don't know why we would be surprised about that as we raised both of our children to be strong individuals.   She wanted a scene that reflected her and her soon to be husband's life and much of that revolves around the out of doors.  They love to hike and backpack. This design was to be the focus on their wedding invitations as well.  No pressure, right?  I was a little worried and hoped that I could pull it off for her.  Needless to say I got started designing and had three different versions by the time that I was finished.  I did all of these in pen and ink before ever starting to paint.

I knew that they wanted the mountains Pilot and Index which are down by Yellowstone Park and they wanted an Aspen Tree and Sunflowers somewhere on the design.  I started out with a rough sketch that just lined out the basic design and the format for the design and had my daughter look at it and naturally she had ideas using her "scientific eye" as she calls it.  Her college degree is a science based degree and she has often been called on to help me with designs when I needed an unbiased scientific view.  I then went back to the drawing board and made the changes that they wanted. This was another process and it took a couple of tries before we had worked out the details and   I think this was almost a year in the making but I felt that the process and the finished product were all worth it.  You can see the sketch below and of course once the sketch was finished it was time to start painting which is another story.  LOL. 

The box turned out beautifully and the day was perfect for the happy couple.  I'm happy to report that they are married now and working on starting this new phase of their lives together and we couldn't be happier. 

Watercolor Pencils Sunflower Tutorial

Have you every used Watercolor Pencils?  They are fantastic and so easy to use, my favorite brand is the Faber Castell brand although there are so many great brands available on the market.  I've done a quick tutorial showing how to use them.  The first two photos that you see above are steps 1 and 2.  I like to work light to dark and have roughed in the sunflower using a creme colored pencil in the first photo and then darkened it in using a golden yellow.  You can see where I've darkened in my shaded areas and have begun to layer colors over the top to slowly build up the cast shadows of the sunflower.  In the second photo I began to develop the colors in the center of the sunflower and have further deepened the shadows by using a Burnt Sienna colored pencil. 

 

In step 3 I darkened the shadows of the sunflower using a dark brown.  In step 4 you can see that I have activated the paint with clean water and further added detail by lightly adding a small amount of black.  It is not necessary to activate your paint and may just use them as colored pencils as well.  They are a very versatile medium and I would like to encourage you to give them a try.  

 

End of the Day Ornaments

I'm so thrilled that these ornaments have been published in the Paintworks 2012 Ornament issue.  These ornaments are so fun and EASY to paint, these are painted on porcelain ornaments from Bows Plus Bisque but can be painted on absolutely any ornament that is dimensional from paper mache, glass, tin, and wood.  The technique is so incredibly easy and to prove how easy it is I decided to video my first You Tube Video showing how to paint these ornaments.  I hope that you will watch the video and paint these up for your next show or for gifts for friends and family.  I hope that you will enjoy the video. 

New Patterns Available

When Art Mimics Life

Blooming Beauties

Coral Reef

Chicken Little

PET-O'-WEEN

Spellbinder Witch

I have a number of new patterns available this week.  Phew, finally got them ready to go.  LOL.  All of these designs will be available at HOOT in the Ideal Wood Products Inc. booth, this company recently took over the Turns in Time company and will continue to produce top quality wood products which are all made in the USA.  Their products are fantastic and such a delight to paint on.  I look at so many of these and they just make me smile.  I think that these patterns are really cute and I had a blast painting them.  Take a look and let me know what you think.  All of these are available on my website www.chartmandesigns.com

Trifecta Brush Tutorial

Here are the instructions for the Shooting Star color worksheet that is in the following blog post.  This project uses the Deco Art So Soft Paints but your could easily substitute the corresponding Americana paint color. 




Shooting Star

Leather Coaster

Christy Hartman

C. Hartman Designs                                                                       

www.chartmandesigns.com

info@chartmandesigns.com

Palette:  Deco Art So Soft Paint      

Sweet Melon DSS71

Dark Burgundy DSS50

Fuchsia DSS52

Cadmium Yellow DSS3

Hauser Dark Green DSS46

Olive Green DSS98

Bright Avocado DSS99

Lamp Black DSS24

Brushes:  Dynasty Black Gold

Trifecta #4,6

Series 206 Script Liner: #0

 Lets Paint Wildflowers: 

 Load the #6 Trifecta brush with Fuchsia, dip the heel of the brush into Dark Burgundy and dip the tip of the brush into Sweet Melon.  Paint the two outer petals first to form a “butterfly.”  Paint the two center petals last.  Reload the brush with the same triple load and paint the buds.  Load the #0 SL with Cadmium Yellow and line the triangle point of the flower, using short strokes add the upper portion of the yellow tip.  Reload this brush with Lamp Black and gently tap in the area under the strokework on the upper portion and add black lines to the point of the triangle. 

Load the #4 Trifecta brush with Olive Green, dip the brush heel into Hauser Dark Green and the tip into Bright Avocado.  Paint the leaves around the buds, stems and leaves. 

© Christy Hartman

Trifecta Brush Tutorial Shooting Stars

Above you can see the Shooting Star Wildflower which was painted using the Trifecta Brushes found on my website www.chartmandesigns.com

Small Angle Butterfly Brush Tutorial

I did this tutuorial in Wichita in 2011 using the Dynasty Small Angle Butterfly Brush and thought that you might be interested in viewing it. 

Copic Demonstration

 Good Morning,

I seem to be on a Copic theme these days, don't worry I am still painting like crazy trying to get ready for my patterns to be at HOOT in August.  But what a fun way to spend my time when I'm not painting.  I'm going to share with you a few other stamped images that I have colored using my Copic Markers that were fun to color and used a technique that you can actually find on the Stampavie Blog that is excellent and I'm providing you the link.  http://www.stampavie.com/dt/2009/02/28/sarah-kay-coloring-tutorial-limited-copic-markers  I used this technique to color the hats and hair on this stamp.  The tutorial is excellent and shows step by step how to achieve the subtle shaded areas.  There are so many great tutorials out there on the web that you just need to do a Google search of Copic Tutorials and you will find a wealth of videos and blog posts about using these great markers.  Give it a try and get started using Copic Markers.  The markers are expensive but worth the extra cost in my opinion but you don't have to shell out a lot of money to learn the techniques as there is a wealth of educational material on the web and that is all free.  The stamps that I colored are Sarah Kay Designs stamp and is available at http://www.stampavie.com/. 

As you can see I've used a variety of marker colors and as I've stated in the past I do not always use the marker colors in the way that Copic has set up and I don't think that you have you.  Be as creative with these markers as you are with your other art media that you use.

Here is the same stamp only with a different color combination.

I love the color that I used on the boy's pants, I think that it isn't necessarily traditional but is certainly a color combination that I would have used if I had been painting.  Keep in mind that using Copic Markers is similiar to painting in that you can work light to dark and achieve great results very quickly. 

And the last color combination.  I'm not sure that I ever finished coloring the boy but you can see all of the combinations that I chose to experiment with. 

I'd love to hear about your Copic experiences or any other markers that you've tried and felt successful with. 

Copic Marker Tutorial

As many of you know I'm a huge fan of Copic Markers and have been using them for a few years now.  I've never taken a class instead have just taught myself how to use them by viewing online videos, a DVD that I purchased from Copic, magazine articles, and a variety of books but the other night I had a chance to take my first Copic class from Wendy Jordan and had a good time.  It was good to be able to know that I was on the right track and to share my love of Copic Markers with other enthusiasts.  I took the class through my favorite local scrapping/stamping store Memory Lane www.missoulamemorylane.com/.  I love this store as it isn't just for the scrapper but for stampers and paper enthusiasts of all kinds. They usually carry the newest and greatest products and the owners are two amazing woman who welcome everyone into their world.  They greet most customers at the door and even for those of us who only come in once in a while feel like we are old friends.  We colored a darling stamp that is called Tutu Cute from www.sarahkaystamps.com. 

On one of my online painting groups I was asked for more information about Copic Markers and thought that I would post a step by step using this stamp for any of you who are interested in learning more about these amazing markers.  I usually use them for coloring my own designs but like many of you, enjoy using darling stamps from other artists as well.  At a later date I will post additional photos of some of my designs that I've colored using my Copics and you can search through my older blog posts to see other posts about Copic Markers. 

For those of you who don't know a lot about Copic Markers they are an alcohol ink marker that is used by Anime Artists, graphic artists, used in illustration work, altered art designs, just to name a few.  I can see how they would be easy to use in Decorative Painting as these markers can be blended just like you would blend your paints.  In my opinion that is the beauty of Copic Markers as well as the fact that they are refillable, so once you purchase your markers in theory you will never need to purchase another and many of the retail stores that sell them also allow you to refill your markers for a cost as well as replacing the nibs when they wear out.  Copics are designed to make your coloring experience easy for anyone to use, the number on each pen represents the color family, the color tone, and the color value for example BG05 tells you that it is from the Blue Green color family, the 0 is the tonal color, and the 5 tells you that this is a midtone value.  This helps you choose your colors to use to get the fantastic blends that Copics are know for.  If you go to www.copic.com you can learn more about Copic Markers. 

I will be honest when I say that I do try to use the system that Copic has developed but frequently find myself using my own color combinations and because of Copic's amazing ability to blend colors find that my own color combinations are as easy to blend however when I took the class the other night Wendy used her markers as they are designed to be used and the colors were spectacular so I may need to rethink that.  LOL.  Probably not 100% of the time though.  I will admit that I have quite a few markers but do not have them all and because of that use different color combinations.  These markers are an investment and because of that have collected my set slowly but once you get the Copic fever you might find yourself collecting quite a few of these amazing markers and then as is the case for many of us then you need something to carry them in and purchase the bags and wallets as well as an interest in their other products.  LOL. 

Hand Cut Stamps Using Kwik Cut

I just stamped my most recent hand cut stamps using the Kwik Cut Product available from Nasco.  I know that I am repeating myself but it is an amazing product and so easy to use.  I used the Colorbox stamp pads to quickly ink each of these three stamps shown above, my favorite is the sun and think that this stamp will be something that I can use often.  The birds are just ok in my opinion and did not stamp up as easily with this stamping pad and want to try them with the black stamp pad, shown below, and the result was still not quite as good as I would have hoped.  I'd say that this stamp needs additional work and I may consider cutting more out of the center so that I have just the bird outline instead which will allow me the opportunity to color each bird.  I'd say that this process is meant to have good results with the not so good and that makes it a learning process.  I really liked the sun though and can see that I will have many opportunities to use this stamp.  Give it a try and see what you think. 

I have a new pattern available on my website that I just love.  The photo doesn't show how vibrant the color is on this piece or how adorable the frogs and the character is.  It is painted on a small photo album but could easily be painted on a variety of surfaces including a canvas covered sketchbook for someone you care about.  Wouldn't that make a wonderful keepsake to give.  I hope you enjoy the newest patterns that I will be releasing this summer. 

Happy Summer,

I'm happy to say that in spite of the weather, I am in the summer mood.  Actually it is typical June weather with rain and yes, even a little snow.  LOL.  The joys of living in the mountains.  School is out and I have the summer to enjoy and I am going to enjoy it.  I have so many plans for this summer that I may need to put in 24 hour days to get them all accomplished, which is typical of my summer time plans.  Needless to say I'm hoping to post often this summer about some of the new patterns and projects that I am planning.  If any of you are on the Tole Town site you know that Susan and Lorrie put out a wonderful E-zine that I have been a frequent contributor to and they have a new issue coming out soon with a darling fish themed project from yours truly that I hope you enjoy.  Look for it at www.toletown.com and if you are not a member give it a shot the benefits are tremendous from online classes to opportunities to connect with fellow artists and crafts people.  I love it. 

I was posting on another blog about sculpting with Kwik Wood and I thought that perhaps it would be a good time to revisit adding detail to your projects with sculpting material.  I have chosen to use Kwik Wood but I know that many of you use other products such as Paper Clay, they all should work the same.  It wouldn't be necessary to change your product that you prefer.  Kwik Wood is a marvelous product that is designed to fix or bond wood pieces together because it has an epoxy base and when placed onto a wood piece or to other Kwik Wood adheres rather quickly.  JB Weld is the manufacture and produces other Kwik Products such as Kwik Plastic which I have also used in the past and is an equally great product.  In my patterns I give detailed instructions as to the use of Kwik Wood, how to activate the epoxy, templates for sculpting, as well as a number of hints and tips to make your sculpting experience fun and exciting.

When I started publishing my patterns with sculpted detail on them the response was tremendous so I know that folks are interested in exploring the media.  I have a few new patterns using Kwik Wood that will come out this summer that I hope you will look for in the near future.  I'm going to post a few photos of some of the projects that I have completed with Kwik Wood.  Let me know your thoughts about sculpting with any of the products out there.

This pattern is called Honey of a Bruin and is available on my website at the link:  http://www.chartmandesigns.com/store/WsDefault.asp?One=144  This is one of my favorite sculpted projects that I added to a wood piece from Cupboard Distributing but could easily be added to a variety of surfaces. 

This pattern is called Giraffe, Rat, Turtle Zoo Sculpted Ornaments and can be found at http://www.chartmandesigns.com/store/WsDefault.asp?One=141 I think that these guys are so darling and are so easy.  Can't you see these sculpted and given as gifts for Christmas this year or my thought was to put them on a baby mobile. 

This pattern is called Penguin, Snow Cone Lady, and Partridge in a Pear Tree Winter Ornaments and can be found at   http://www.chartmandesigns.com/store/WsDefault.asp?One=143  Isn't this pattern darling?  These turned shapes can be found at Cupboard Distributing. 

This pattern is called Santa's Helpers and is available at http://www.chartmandesigns.com/store/WsDefault.asp?One=142  I loved sculpting these onto the acorn shapes that are available from Cupboard Distributing.  I think these little guys have so much personality. 

Check back in a couple of days and I will discuss further sculpted projects that I've done with Kwik Wood. 

Butterfly Brush Step 3 Tutorial

Here is step three of the tutorial for the Butterfly Brushes.  Because this brush is so versatile you can actually do some simple stippling with the brush if it is placed on the chisel edge, it isn't a brush that you want to do any heavy duty pouncing with but will dab color in nicely.  I loaded the brush with Milk Chocolate by dabbing my brush into the paint and lightly pounced the paint color around the center of the flower, using a dirty brush added Antique Gold to one end and gently pounce blended the paint colors until I was happy with the mix and pounced the paint onto the highlighted area.  The last step was to add Asphaltum to the mix and pounce blended the base of the center of the flower. 

To finish these off you might want to try using this same brush to paint the stems of the flowers.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Using your Small Shader Butterfly Brush Step 2

I love to paint wildflowers.  I'm not a great gardener, my thumbs are pretty brown but that doesn't mean that I don't love flowers.  We are coming up on wildflower season in my part of the world and there will be an abundance of beautiful wildflowers for all to observe.  Fortunately for them they aren't dependant on my gardening skills to bloom. 

I do enjoy observing and painting them however and the Butterfly Brushes are some of my favorite brushes to use when I paint wildflowers.  The Small Shader is an excellent brush to paint this Daisy with, from start to finish in all three steps, I will use just one brush.   As I mentioned before this brush is very versatile and in addition to what I've discussed in my last post you can do linework by simply setting the brush up on the chisel edge.  Will it replace your liner brush?  Absolutely not, but for small areas that need a subtle highlight why dirty another brush if you can use the same one.  In highlighting the petals of the flowers on this worksheet I simply loaded my brush with Snow White and set the brush on the chisel edge and added a soft subtle highlight to each petal.  I then loaded my brush with thinned down Antique Gold and washed in a shadow using a corner of the brush.  That concludes step two of the process. 

That was fairly easy, wasn't it?  Can you start to see the flowers taking shape? 

I seem to recall that I promised some educational posts on using different brushes that are available on my website.  I started a few posts ago by discussing the traditional and nontraditional uses of the Butterfly Brushes.  The Small Shader Butterfly Brush is an extremely versatile brush that can be used in so many ways but my favorite is to use it to paint wild flowers.  When the brush is placed on the chisel edge the cut brush heel is facing your paper which I would say is a more traditional use of the brush, or can be used by turning your brush upside down so that the brush heel, cut edge, is facing up when the brush is placed on the chisel edge.  These three samples of painting a daisy show examples of the traditional use of the brush as versus the nontraditional use of the brush.  Practice this technique and see which one works for you. 

No matter which way you choose to use the brush you double load the brush in the same way, load your brush with your base color (Light Buttermilk), tip the brush heel into Moon Yellow.  To paint each petal place your brush on the chisel edge, slowly spread the brush out to "splay" the bristles and distribute your paint and pull it gently back up to the chisel edge working your way around the outer edges of the center of the flower.   It is a fairly quick and easy way to paint a lovely Daisy.  Check back in a few days and I will post step two of using this amazing brush. 



Cutting Your Own Rubber Stamps

The following stamped images have been stamped on computer paper and 80# white sketch paper.  The computer paper allowed for a slightly smoother image.  It would be interesting to see how a smooth watercolor paper interacted with the stamping process.  I may try that sometime in the future.  Take a look at these images and see if you can tell which was stamped on computer paper as versus sketch paper. 

Cut Your Own Rubber Stamps

This blog continues to help inspire me as an artist and I hope helps you as well, in order to grow as an artist you need to challenge yourself. Whether that is in your media of choice or perhaps in a new media, it isn't necessary to be an expert with the media you simply need to enjoy the process. You might surprise yourself when you discover that you find new and interesting techniques that will carry over. There are so many fun creative techniques out there in this day and age that we should all be excited by something new and different. To me it is fun to find some opportunity to expand on my current knowledge base and pass that information on to you. When I set out to write this blog I intended to write about creativity and how that will enhance all of you and myself as artists. These current posts have dealt specifically about cutting rubber stamps, I love finding new and interesting ways to enhance my painting repertoire and this may be one of those techniques. Not to mention the fact that they are just fun to do.

To date I have cut a number of stamps and used acrylic paints to stamp with them. My next plan is to try using my stamping pads but my initial thought was that I could duplicate a design element on a project quickly and easily. I have not tried them on wood as of yet but am hoping to do that when I find the right surface. I began by stamping with just one paint color and then continued to apply two and sometimes three paint colors directly onto the stamp with a variety of results. The nice thing about this technique is that once you have your stamp finished the material will hold up for years of use and is pliable enough to bend around a 3-dimensional surface. It is necessary to clean your stamps but do not be concerned if the paint stains that stamp. It will not interfere with the use of the stamp.

Creativity with Cutting Rubber Stamps

These past few posts have all centered around finding creativity in new and unusual places.  Do any of you like to use rubber stamps in your design work?  I think stamps are so much fun and simplify so many aspects of what we do as artists/crafts people but I often want to use my own stamp designs in a project.  I've started cutting my own, all you need is a few simple materials that can be ordered at a variety of artist supply companies, Dick Blick and Nasco just to name a few.  Purchase a basic set of Linoleum Cutters, I started with two, the fine and medium V shaped cutters and then purchased an inexpensive handle.  The cutting tools can be changed out and I found that I preferred the handle to be longer which would be similar to a pen holder that you might purchase for the interchangeable pen nibs for doing pen and ink. In fact if you already have the pen holder they will probably fit and save yourself the costs of the pen.  It had been years since I have done any linoleum block printing and thought that I'd start with an inexpensive material that cuts very easily and will hold up over time and chose to use Nasco Safety-Kut Printmaking Material.  It was fairly inexpensive and came in a variety of sizes.  I cut mine all down to 3" X 3.5" approximately.  You can draw directly onto the material and then cut it out using your cutting tools.  It was fun, not terribly expensive and turned out very similar to what you'd expect from a woodcut but without cutting my fingers.  The first one that I tried didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped but by the second and third I had it figured out and was enjoying the process.  I haven't printed with these as of yet, I could easily use my stamp pads, or I might try them in addition to my painted papers that I've been doing.  What do you think of this sun?  Is this something that you think you'd like to try?   

My last few blog posts seem to revolve around finding your creative center through experimenting with paint so I thought that I'd expand on that and include playing with brushes.  How many of you purchase a new brush either online or at a show or store, take it home and then set it with your brushes to never do another thing with it?  Often we are intimidated by the look of the new brush and feel unsure as to what to do with them and often that fear is because we don't want to do the "wrong" thing with the brush.  We seriously need to get past that because brushes should be our friends not the enemy.  They are designed to help us get the job done and there does not exist the "brush police" to tell us how to use that brush.  We should feel free to be as creative with our brushes as we are with a design.  Brushes are fairly hardy items and can withstand a lot of abuse just make sure that you clean your brushes properly before storing them at any time but especially if you plan to use them in non-traditional ways.  My past few posts discussed trying something new on a piece of paper or card stock or something that you feel you can throw away if you hate the look of the piece, or something crazy might happen and you might find that you absolutely love the look of the new paper.  Well while you are allowing yourself the luxury of playing with paint throw in a new brush to try at the same time.  Use that brush in a nontraditional sort of way. 

I recently was asked by a customer if I have done any books using the Butterfly Brushes or if I had any educational information regarding them and I had to admit that I didn't have a lot although I do have a You Tube video showing me using the Angle Butterfly Brush.  You can view that by searching for Christy Hartman on You Tube.  Unfortunately there aren't a lot of publishing companies out there right now publishing books and book deals can be hard to come by but there isn't any reason why I can't give some information on this blog. 

Let me start with the Small Shader Butterfly Brush.   I use that brush to paint daisies/sunflowers as well as a variety of different wildflowers.  The brush seems to be just the right size for many of the techniques that I use, I'm sure that you can use other brushes and achieve the same result.  I painted this sunflower/daisy by turning the brush upside down, you can still double load the brush to achieve highlighting and shading at the same time and stroke in the petals of the flower starting at the tip of the petal on the chisel edge of the brush, flatten it as you move in toward the center.   I then tipped the brush up on the chisel edge and stippled the center of the flower to finish up the piece layering my brown tones.  You can easily add additional detail with this brush to add some shadows by washing paint out into the center of the petal.  It was quick and easy and took very little time and is certainly a "non traditional" use of this brush.

Do you have any wonderfully creative ideas to use your brushes in non-traditional ways. 





How about another couple of crazy painted pieces?  I can't tell you how fun these are and I'm sure that many of you are thinking... What to do with them?  Why do you need to do anything with them?  That is part of the fun and spontaneity of these.  Just do it... copying a famous slogan.  LOL.  Seriously anything that gets you out of your creative "box" is a good thing.  These free up your mind and open you up to creativity and I know that these crazy painted pieces have allowed me to loosen up. Over the years I have been accused of being a very tight controlled painter and I feel that these have allowed me to see my art work in a new way.  Give them a try and see what happens.  There isn't anything wrong with throwing something away that you just hate or maybe by completing something crazy like this will open you up to creative ideas that you haven't thought about before.

Are you using your brushes in a new way on these wild and crazy papers, maybe try a completely different type of brush that you aren't comfortable with like a Trifecta Brush or even a Butterfly Brush.  By allowing yourself the opportunity to make mistakes is the perfect time to try a brush that you might not be comfortable with. 
  



This is the second in a series of posts designed to reawaken your inner artist.  I don't know about you but I frequently seem to struggle with creativity and I either doodle or now do some free exploration with paint.  Like many of you I enjoy Zentangle and love the opportunity to free my mind and just let my "fingers do the walking".  This is the same concept but with paint and is sooooo fun!  There isn't a right or a wrong way to get this accomplished and these can be painted on anything and even combined with a variety of media.  These are just painted on computer paper and I'm not sure that I will ever do anything with them or even have to feel like I need to.  Why  not think about using these in scrapbooking, card making, or even used in a mixed media collage.  The point is to just explore paint with a variety of colors, textures, patterns, and develop a free flowing composition.   Try this and see what you can come up with. 



Happy Spring,

I think that we might have spring this year in the Rockies.  That would be a welcome change.  Today was gorgeous. 

I know that I have sadly neglected all of you this winter and I was embarrassed every time that I signed in to my blog.  Unfortunately life got in the way and family matters had to come first.  But I am happy to report that I am back or hope to be.  LOL.  There aren't any guarantees in life. 

I've just posted a new free pattern on my website that I had a blast painting.  I know that many of you are Zentangle fans and I use Zentangle with my upper elementary and middle school students to help free their minds and allow their creativity to come through and they have really enjoyed it although I often find that what they really want to do is free paint.  They adore that, even the middle school students.  They love the freedom and the opportunity to paint without restriction or having to adapt to required elements.  I tend to agree with them and decided to do something completely out of the norm for me and put it on my website as a free project.  I love this piece and hope to do more of them because they are just so darn fun to do.  I purposely kept the instructions fairly vague so that you had the opportunity to express yourselves creatively. 

I hope that you enjoy the process, because the process is often just as important as the outcome.  I'd love to see what you come up with.

Hugs to all of you and Happy Spring.

 

Merry Christmas to all of you!  

I've posted on my website homepage and here on my blog the finished card which is in the Tole Town Cyber Palette online magazine.  If you are unfamiliar with this publication be sure to check it out at www.toletown.com, Susan and Lorrie have done a great job of publishing a terrific online magazine full of painting hints and techniques as well as recipes, crafts for children, and a terrific variety of painting projects.  

This project is called Crisp and Cold Snowman and is a card but he could easily be made into an ornament or put on a variety of surfaces.  I've also posted using watercolor pencils on this little guy on my blog but in the actual magazine article are the instructions for using Copic Sketch Markers to color him as well as using acrylic paint.   

In this design I've used the Spellbinders dies for the background and I absolutely love the dies.  I have quite a collection of them now and recently acquired a set of ornament dies that I am hoping to use on a card/ornament design for the future.  

If you like this little guy leave a comment because I am considering designs for stamping and am trying to get a feel for which designs will be good as stamps.  It is quite expensive to develop a line of stamps and I am trying to get a feel for which designs the public will be interested in.  Fewer missteps that way.