Weekend Workshop

Hello All,

Today I thought i'd share some photos from my weekend workshop at Sheffield Hallam Students Union. I was emailed a few months back to ask if i'd like to deliver an Art Journaling workshop to the students there. I decided, since I have been enjoying making my monthly journals so much, that this is what we'd make. That way I should not only show them some really fun journaling techniques but also teach them how to bind their work into a simple book.

I had eight lovely ladies on the day, done of which had ever tried Art Journaling before. They were a lovely group to work with, every new technique was met with great enthusiasm. They really got into it and didn't even want to stop for lunch. By the end of the day everyone had produced a beautiful and totally unique little journal.

Overall a very successful day :)

Bye for now xxx

New Courses Coming Up!

Hello all,

I am excited to have a few new courses starting up this month. Expressive drawing which is a great way of exploring drawing in a new and exciting way. In this course we explore using different mediums each week including pastels, watercolours and even coffee.

https://www.straightcurves.co.uk/class/expressive-drawing-course/

The second is an Introduction to Art Journaling which is a great way to get started with fantastic techniques to try each week. You also get a handmade journal to start you off.


https://www.straightcurves.co.uk/class/introduction-art-journaling/

Interested? come take a look! 

Bye for now xxx

New Art Journaling Club!

Hello All, 

Some exciting news! My new Art Journaling Club starts this week at Straight Curves in Chesterfield.

Art journaling club is a place to come and be creative with friends. If you lead a busy life and never find the time to be creative at home, if you would like to art journal but haven’t got the materials or space at home or if you don’t know where to start your pages and need the inspiration of others around you then this is the place to come! 

Art journaling is the combination of mixed media art and words. There are no rules, anything goes! Mix in creating with friends over a cuppa and a few biccies and the result is a club full of fun, laughter and lots of painty goodness.

In these sessions your tutor will be there as a guide but what you choose to do or create in your journals is up to you! If you are just getting started I recommend my beginners’ course as this will provide more support for you to start your art journaling journey. You can find all the details by following the link below:

https://www.straightcurves.co.uk/class/art-journalling-club-intermediate-advanced/

Exciting News!

Hello all!

Well the last few weeks have been both frantic and exciting! Firstly I went to deliver a trial workshop to a group called StraightCurves in Chesterfield with the hope that they would hire me to start delivering some art workshops. I did a two hour introduction to art journaling and I am happy to say that they loved it! I start work there very soon!
I am really excited about this opportunity. It is lovely to see a group enjoying themselves and trying out the new ideas that I teach and I love to watch how everyone progresses over time. I feel this is a really good step for me to start seriously doing this as a career which is so exciting!

To top this off I got through to an audition for 'The Big Painting Challenge' on the BBC which takes place this Sunday. I am both giddy and terrified in equal measures. I doubt I will get on the actual programme but it is a huge compliment to get this far. If I do get through I will have the opportunity to learn so much and work with some fantastic artists which will be amazing!

All this means that I have been frantically painting and planning and journaling in preparation! here is a little of what I have been getting up to....

The above is a selection of some recent journal pages that I have been creating either as samples for the Chesterfield studio or as ideas for workshops using a variety of mediums and techniques.

These last three are experiments, practicing painting things that I normally don't paint and to a time limit. The first is a watercolour, I usually avoid buildings like the plague! The second is a selection of plants from my garden which I have attempted to do in my usual mixed media style. The third is a timed 2 hour still life challenge. These three came out well but there were several that didn't! Painting in a time limit is hard cause I don't have my usual time to stand back and reflect on it for a few days and work on it bit by bit. I have been well out of my comfort zone but its been worth doing I think.

Fingers crossed it goes well on Sunday!

Bye for now xxx

Bookbinding

Hello All,

Recently I have been watching a lot of bookbinding vids on you tube. I would like to learn more myself and I have in mind a bookbinding workshop, creating a 'art journal to go' where all the pages will be bound with pre-done backgrounds making it great for travelling.

I found a fab you tube channel called Sealemon with lovely clear tutorials on different stitches and bookbinding ideas. So I decided to follow one of the tutorials and try out coptic stitch using sketch pads for the signatures and the board at the back of the pads for the covers. Here are the results:

This should be a perfect stitch for what I have in mind. I plan to also include my own video tutorials as part of the workshop so watch this space!

Bye for now! xx

Workshop Session 25th July 2015

Hello All,

On Saturday I delivered the last of four workshops at Sharrow Vale School of Art in Sheffield. The theme for this session was 'Horizon' and I demonstrated a scratch technique with oil pastels and black acrylic paint. Here is my sample page.

We painted a layer of gesso then split the page with masking tape and painted a sky in the top half. The bottom half we drew block shapes in oil pastels, using many colours and then painted over the top with black acrylic. Once dry we scratched into the black to reveal the colour underneath.

Here are some photos from the workshop.

The session went really well. I will be arranging some more workshops in the Autumn.

Bye for now xx

Tags

Hello All,

I have been busy the last few days working on my July art swap. This month I have to create three tags, one in pastels, one in bright colours and one tonal. I have really enjoyed working on this, but I won't post piccies up until I have confirmation that my partner has received them. But piccies and a new video coming soon!

Whilst making the tags I decided that I am going to make sets of three tags to sell at my Dovefest craft stall in August to go alongside all the journals I have been making for it. I had a practice run for these and this is what I made:

I gelli printed the background and added the butterflies on top. I am going to do these in all colours and all different but going to try and keep them all quite simple.

In other news I have my last of four workshops this Saturday so looking forward to that and really enjoying working in my altered book but will post piccies of this when I have done a bit more. Once my workshops have finished my summer project is to get started on my portrait commissions!

Bye for now! x x

Art Journaling Workshop 11th July 2015

Hello All,

On Saturday I delivered the 3rd of 4 workshops. This one was titled 'A Word About Me' I demonstrated a woven paper background and we also created a textile and wax paper pocket containing a word about me and some little bead embellishments. Here is my sample page:

Here are some photos from the session.

 

Anna's

Becky's

Susan's

Jill's

Jill decided to turn hers into a book cover which I love, It inspired me to use the technique on some of my journal covers. It is a little fiddly to do but looks great once its painted. It is quite a simple layout for me but I liked the background and wanted to showcase that.

One more workshop to go for this season, really enjoying it!

Workshop Session 4th July 2015

Hello All!,

This session was titled 'Time Capsule' and the idea was to create time capsule letters. An idea inspired by the artist Jenn Garmen. The group wrote letters to their future selves and decorated an envelope to contain this using whatever mixed media their chose.

For the background I demonstrated a wax resist using wax paper and ink sprays and we also rubbed ink pads over the used wax paper and added this to create layers. Here is a little video I made demonstrating these techniques.

The group finished their pages by adding titles, further collage, paint etc and stuck in their time capsule letters with a date on which to open them in the future. Here a few pictures of their work.

Anna's page

Helen's first ever page!

Maxine's page

Self Portrait

Hello All,

Over the last few days I have been a bit poorly and stuck at home. I hate feeling ill and in the UK we are having a bit of a heatwave which just made me feel even more hot and bothered and unable to enjoy what let's face it is a rarity!

The only up side has been lots of time to get some things arty stuff done! I have been binding journals and planning my workshops but the made thing I worked on was this:

My parcel containing my spray inks and brushos arrived and of course I have been experimenting! This is a self portrait and I am really pleased with how it turned out! I started the background with a handmade Moroccan lattice stencil and by adding colour with the inks, brushos and acrylics. The portrait is done in acrylics!

Anyway thought I would share it with you all. I have lots on the go, more journals to make and a new monthly challenge which is to create a 'tonal page' plus more workshops! I will post about my latest workshop (which was yesterday in a bit)

Hopefully be feeling better soon! Bye for now x

Workshop Session 27th June 2015

Hi All,

Yesterday I ran my first of four workshops, this one was called 'Ten good Things'. I started by getting the group to prepare their pages with gesso and by scraping acrylic paint on to this with cards. Then they made a collage sheet with whatever materials they liked and then cut these into 10 shapes. Sticking these onto the page they added text into each shape, ten good things to them. We also made paperclip embellishments with the left over collage sheets and added doodling, text and titles to finish the pages.

Anna's collage sheet

Anna's

Anna's

 

 

Susan's

 

The session went really well, looking forward to next week!

Time Capsule

Hi All,

So I finished planning my workshop taking place on 4th July at the Sharrowvale School of Art in Sheffield and for this session I am using an idea from the wonderful Jenn Garman. If you don't know Jenn's work, it's fantastic, you can check it out here http://jenngarman.com/.

In this session I will be demonstrating some of the techniques I have been playing around with lately using wax paper, and creating time capsule letters.

Here is a sneaky peek at my sample page.