Saturday, January 16, 2016

Get up. Get dressed. Paint. Sacred transformation painting

Painting the exercises in Paint Mojo is quite different than painting along with Rae Missigman’s 15 Minutes of Mixed Media.  I did not anticipate the time investment involved in each piece.  I had gotten used to completing a paining in an hour or two each Saturday morning.  This new journey takes over a week because of the various layers.  I find myself getting impatient, anxious to get it done, frustrated because I have to wait for the layer to dry before I can continue. 


Spirit is imparting a lesson and I am protesting!  

Step 1: paint your thoughts.  This took me almost an hour.  It was liberating, and frustrating at the same time as I would get a burst of thoughts then nothing.  I would sit looking at the rest of the blank page knowing I had to fill it before I could continue but my mind was having none of it.

Steps 2 & 3: wipe your words with a paper towel then cover them with a coat of thinned down gesso.  Because I took so long to get the words down, the paint had mostly dried and there was little paint to smear.

Step 4: Using an oil pastel, draw a spiral and create a design inside the spiral.


Step 5: Using harmonious colors and white, use your fingers to apply the paint in your spiral.
I know nothing about the color wheel so I had to do some investigating to figure out what harmonious colors were.  She used reds, oranges, and yellows.  Not wanting to imitate her totally I went with the cool colors.

Steps 6 & 7: I inadvertently skipped step 6 which was to spray water on the wet paint then let it run down the page. The next step was to paint a symbol; I chose to paint the butterfly like she did thinking I would repeat this lesson again using something different.

Step 8: paint in the area around the butterfly using bold strokes and allowing your paint to blend.  This was challenging for me and I ended up painting it twice. Once I got the hang of allow the paints to blend and mix I didn't want to stop!
Note:  I painted over the dark outline and antennas which meant having to repaint this.

This is the finished piece.  I was so engrossed I missed taking step photos here.
Step 9:  Introduce a new color and paint the tips of the wings.  Here I goofed up.  My lack of understanding the color wheel got me into trouble.  I followed her lead and painted them turquoise. I then realized she chose turquoise because it was a cool color, the opposite of the warm colors she used in here butterfly.  I needed to paint with a warm color.  Painting over the turquoise with yellow was hard, it took 3 coats of heavy body acrylic paint to cover it.  

 Step 10 Use the ink dropper to draw your main design then play with a bamboo skewer to pull the ink away to create a more intricate design.
Note:  I did purchase the Flame Orange and Sundown Magenta (pearlescent) but not the silver. I improvised and used silver metallic paint and a paint brush on the top wings.


I found when using the ink dropper that my line was too think in some spots while too thin in others.  And using the bamboo skewer to draw with...  I ended up tossing it aside and reaching for my brush.


I don't like how the orange line varies from thick to thin back to thick.  
Step 11 Add design using white paint and flame orange ink.  

What I learned

  • These lessons are meant to be meditative, drawing slowly and deliberately, creating with intent.  I have a lot to learn painting in this manner.
  • I need to continue practicing using the inks and learning to control the flow of ink from the dropper. I love the color of the sundown magenta and will be using it often.
  • Using the color wheel; I got a glimpse of how to use it but I have so much more to learn!  But I don't want to find myself loosing my intuitiveness, and instead finding myself stopping to think about which color goes with which.  I need to learn to balance this, but how?
Joining Paint Party Friday where having paint under the fingernails is the norm.  What colors are under yours?

9 comments:

  1. wow! this is nice; enjoyed the process and the results

    much love...

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  2. Thank you for sharing your creative journey on this lovely piece.
    Your observations at the end are very insightful too.
    oxo

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  3. Sounds like you are on a long and winding journey, keep going! Hugs, Valerie

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  4. I cannot begin to tell you how I enjoyed reading about the lengthy process you went thru to get to your end product which is WONDERFUL. How creative. So glad you got up and started. You have reminded me I need desperately to get out my color wheel and keep it with me all the time. Loved the post and loved your original painting.

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  5. I love your color choices here and notice that you used some sparkly ink or paint (I am sure that is not the correct term but I am at a loss) and I love it. I just looked into a golden set that I would like to add to my drawings and even calligraphy. Great stuff here--thanks! xo

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  6. Great process and a wonderful result!
    oxo
    Susi

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  7. Good for you!! I love the last three photos with that pinch of orange in there... really pretty!! Thanks for sharing this process...have you thought of getting an art dryer... it's like a blow dryer for art...they are pretty good to speed up the steps! Got mine on amazon.

    Hugs Giggles

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  8. Love your colorful bold approach!

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