A Face in Watercolor and Pen + Inktober Day 2

I am extraordinarily happy with the way today's canvas panel turned out.

When I began the piece, all I had was a doodle of a face I had done on a scratch piece of paper with a Sharpie marker and the desire to work with watercolors. After quite a bit of working with those mediums, this piece came to fruition. It is piece (10/100) for this challenge (I'm at the 1/10 mark!!). 

I love almost everything about it - the coloring in the face itself, the sharp contrast of the doodling and the swirling, almost tattoo-esque designs. In the long run, I'm a big fan. If you're interested in buying this piece, the link is here.

• In the detail shots I took of this piece, you can see all of the work that I put into the eyes on the face. Though I have a hard time picking my favorite part, if I was required to choose, I might just pick the eyes. I love the way they turned out - solid black outlines in contrast with watercolors is a look I really need to experiment with more in the future.
• Another thing that you can see in the photos above, specifically the photo on the right, are the swirl stamps that I've been using quite a bit recently. When I was recently sorting through some of my art supplies, this stamp set caught my attention. A lot of the time it's the perfect finishing touch to a project. In this instance, I turned it into a highlight all it's own. 
• The colors of this piece are another thing that I love - I started out with some faint pinks and oranges, then added the blue and yellow highlights. The brown helps blend everything together into a pleasing color scheme. 

•  This is the final picture of this particular project I am going to share tonight, and it's one of my favorite photographs that I took. You can see the detail that went into the lips (though it's slightly cut off - there was a lot of cross hatching), as well as the letters stamped in the space between this figures eye and eyebrow. It looked a lot like eyeshadow to me, and I loved that particular aspect of the piece.
• In the above photo, you can also see a lot of the texture I was able to get into the face. This was partially due to the fact that the doodle I was working on top of was just your everyday printer paper, and partially because some of the Mod Podge I used to glue the piece down was also applied on top. At any rate, I love the way it looks.

In addition to the canvas panel, I also wanted to share this bird I drew using only ink. This was for Day 2 of Inktober (I probably won't be posting everything I do on the blog, but you can find the rest of it on my instagram). and I adore the way it turned out. Even just conceptually, it makes me happy. Overall, today has been a good day for art.

I thank you all for visiting, and I hope you enjoyed your stay! I'll see you next time, when I have more to share!

An Art Journal Page of Leftovers (9/100)

I'm back and joining all of you today with another couple of projects I worked on tonight that I'm really quite proud of. The first is the above canvas panel. I think that I'm slowly but surely starting to get used to this sort of surface, though it's taken a bit of experimentation and adjustment (though not quite as much as a full-out canvas. 

This piece was a bit of a play on my canvas from the other day, though when I started on this canvas it was a fairly unintentional sort of thing. I am happy with the way I was able to differentiate this piece and have it stand well on its own, while still working as a set. If you want to purchase this piece, you can find it here. 

• As I mentioned on my instagram this evening, this canvas was really inspired by the colors, specifically the color purple. It's one of those colors that I love, but don't tend to use very often, for reasons unbeknownst to me. I had a lot of fun playing with the blue in combination with the purple (then adding the yellow for good measure and a sense of flow). 
• I said above that this piece worked well with another piece I had made previously, and in that post I mentioned that the circles were made with a homemade stencil, that I reused here. I can't even tell you all how good it feels to be using my own stencils in my artwork, it just adds another layer of depth to it all, in my opinion.
• The purple in the circles was done with a Portfolio oil pastel, which I then proceeded to activate by rubbing it with a damp paper towel (you could also use a baby wipe). I love the end result. 

Now I want to share with you something that I have done previously on this blog, and I will continue to do it in the future. When I had completed the above project, I still had quite a bit of paint on my palette that I didn't want to go to waste. I actually have a special journal (not this one) that I use specifically to get rid of my paint leftovers, but there was enough to create a full page and I hadn't worked on an art journal page in a while.

And so, out came the composition notebook!

• The words placed on this page were very much inspired by how unique I felt this page was to me. Though it is fairly simple (and I'm not completely sure that I'll never add anything to it), I still feel as if it is very uniquely me. 
• There are several reasons for this, but first and foremost it is because of the doodled pieces that are scattered throughout the page. I had created these as part of a sort of collage sheet fairly near the beginning of last month, and I'm just now getting around to using them. They just seemed to fit. 
• Another thing that I felt was very much particular to my style in particular is that I used yet another one of my stencils I created in this piece. The oval shapes were this very stencil, and it's quickly becoming one of my favorites. 

In the long run, I'm very happy with the way these mixed media pieces turned out, though I think I prefer the canvas panel. That's only if I had to pick a favorite. I've actually been spending a lot of time with my art today, and I ended up finishing a digital piece and my first drawing for Inktober if you want to check my instagram (@worldofimmensum). 

Thank you all again for visiting me, it's greatly appreciated, and I'll see you all next time!

2 Panel Update (7+8/100)

Hey everyone, I'm back with another one of my 100 Day Challenge updates! If you're following me on Instagram, you'll have already seen that I did in fact still do a mini canvas yesterday, despite the fact that I didn't update the blog. If I'm not around on here, you can find me over there at worldofimmensum.

However, back to the art itself! Yesterday's piece was definitely a way for me to try to work through some rough emotions I was experiencing. I got through that by scribbling with pencil chaotically on the very first layer. I further emphasized it through the thick black outlines and gestural shapes. I definitely did feel better by the time I was finished. At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but it's definitely starting to grow on. 

• By this point, you guys are probably starting to spot some reoccurring shapes/materials in my artwork. In this piece in particular, you may recognize the diamond stamp. You can see this in both of the above photographs. There's just something intriguing to me about the texture it gives. It's similar to dots (another weakness of mine) but varied just a bit. 
• Another thing you may recognize is the polka dot tissue paper that is collaged inside of the oval shapes. This is one of my very favorite things to add to pieces, just because of the way it almost appears as a stamp, since the background shows through whatever parts aren't black. 

 Next up is today's piece! I do like the way this little canvas turned out, since in my opinion it is pretty personal. In my eyes, this canvas is a representation of my artistic journey, which is why it looks vaguely chaotic. All of these different styles are originating from the same point, and I love that. The colors were also fun to play with.

• Looking at some of the finer details of the piece (the photo on the left stands out to me in particular), you can see that a lot of work went into getting this piece to look the way it does. There was stamping, stenciling, finger painting, collage, and basically whatever else I could think of. 
• The fine details of this organized chaos are really what I love the most, and you can see a lot of that in the photo on the left. The blue plant is the final of three stencils I made about a week back, and I've loved working with them. The dots were done with the tips of my fingers and acrylic paint. 

In the photo on the left (another one of my favorite photos I've taken of this piece), you may recognize the mushroom from a while back. I had drawn them, then photocopied the drawing I did, to use the copies in my art. That was exactly what I did here. 

In the long run, this is the way my mind works. It's crazy, it's a little bit structured and a little bit not, but in the end it all comes together. I'm glad it worked out the way it did, even if it does make me feel kind of vulnerable putting it out there. 

If you would like to buy either of the canvas panels in this post, they can be found here and here.

Until next time, I hope you all do well!

Pinks and Grays in Canvas Form (5/100)

The more I create mixed media art with the intention to portray a specific message, the more I tend to enjoy the work that I produce. This piece is no exception. 

When I started today's 4x4 canvas for my 100 Day Project, I only had one idea in mind. I knew that I wanted to completely cover the base in newspaper (though the majority of it ended up being covered completely in the final project). However, after that point, I didn't have the slightest clue as to where I was headed. However, as soon as I stamped the butterflies (one actually was covered up), I knew that I wanted to tell something about flying, or moving forward. The catch? I've recently been trying to avoid words. I think it worked out in the long run. 

The link to purchase this piece is here.

• In looking at the finer details of this piece, the thing that stands out to me as something I want to explore in the future is the graphite I used on this particular painting. With some experimentation, I discovered that graphite actually blends incredibly well on top of acrylic paint. I have ideas in mind for how I will play with that in the future.
• I used my gold marker for the arrows in this particular piece - that is certainly an investment that has been well worth the $1.50 I think I paid for it. Gold details are quickly becoming one of my favorite things to add to a piece of art as the final finishing touch. On top of that gold marker (which I layered on top of white acrylic paint), I doodled some lines with a white gel pen.

• The photo on the left is probably my favorite photo I've taken of this piece. You can see the texture incredibly well, that was created from smudging graphite over top of the acrylic paint, as well as some tissue paper that I layered into the background. 
• The stencil that I used to create the horizontal ovals was actually one of the hand cut stencils I mentioned yesterday. I have been enjoying playing with those pieces (I still have one more to play with before I start repeating myself), and I'm sure they will soon become essentials in my mixed media stash. 
• Finally, the little pink dots scattered throughout this piece I actually just made with my fingers. My paint had been sitting out for a little while, seeing as I had taken a break to eat, so it was too tacky to use a paintbrush with. I love the result of these little dots.

Ultimately, I love the way this canvas turned out, and I hope you all love it as much as I do! Thank you all for visiting, I've been having so much fun sharing my art with all of you!

The Night Sky + A Watercolor Portrait (4/100)

I am extremely happy with the way today's canvas panel turned out. The colors turned out exactly the way I wanted them to, and circles have always been a bit of a signature motif for me. Because of that, plus the fact that the vision I had in my head actually came to life, I don't know if I could be happier. 

If you would like to purchase this piece, it can be found here.

• Now we're moving on to a few of the detail shots. In the photo on the left, you can see one of my favorite bits of this little painting - the focal point. I was at the point where the piece was almost completely finished, but it just felt like it was lacking to me. I've really been enjoying playing with this color of paint and I thought I would try it out. I could always paint over it if it didn't work. I like to think that it did.
• I used several different methods throughout this piece to attempt to tie the circles into the background, in addition to letting them stand out on their own. This included, but wasn't limited to, splattering white paint, stamping, watercolors and NuPastels. 
• There was a good bit of collage in the background, a lot of which disappears completely, but I know it's there. If you look closely, you can see a few places where words show through and some black dots that were from a piece of patterned tissue paper.

• I absolutely adore the texture in the first photo. The canvas texture shows through in some places and is completely covered in others. It's one of the things that I've really enjoyed about working on these canvases. 
• Another part of this piece in particular that I adore are the bits of dots that were stamped over the piece. I feel like it helped to tie the piece together and gave a different size of circle for interest. In the long run, I feel like this piece does exactly what I wanted it to in the first place - shows the concept of a night sky.

I also mentioned the other day that I was still extremely interested in doing faces, and just because I had started a new project, I wasn't going to let creating new characters fall by the wayside. The other night, I was feeling in a watercolor kind of mood, and this girl was born! If you follow me on Instagram (@worldofimmensum), you may have seen progress shots of this portrait in my story.

Honestly, I adore the way she turned out. She feels like she's just screaming for a story, and I think she definitely would have a sword. I've been having a ton of ideas lately based on the art pieces I've created, and that's something that I absolutely adore. It's a big part of my reason for doing art in the first place - this blog is my development place for World of Immensum. I've really been enjoying this whole journey so much, and hope all of you agree with me as well.

Again, thank you all for visiting, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Canvas Panel in Blues and Greens (2/100)

As I mentioned yesterday, I have officially decided to embark on a new journey in my little world of mixed media. This is 2/100 in my 100 day project, where I create one 4"x4" canvas panel a day for that duration of time.

This piece in particular is one that I'm quite fond of. Not only is it done in some of my favorite colors, deep blues and greens, but it just generally makes me happy to look at. I had a lot of fun with the doodling that is showcased throughout the piece. If you would like to purchase it, you can click here.

In looking at some of the finer details of this piece, a lot of it was done as stress relief. With school and work taking up a lot of my time lately, it hasn't exactly been pleasant. I had just gotten finished struggling my way through a math assignment (that I'll still have to go back to) when I decided that I needed to let off steam. Thus, this little canvas was born. 

• The bigger circle that takes up the majority of the canvas was done with a combination of acrylic paint and oil pastels - I had scraped some dark blue paint in the background, then before it was dry, I applied black Portfolio oil pastels then wet them to activate their water soluble nature. This mixed with the blue in the background, creating an affect that I am personally quite fond of.
• The doodling on top of the circle was done with a Sharpie paint marker in white. I'm still trying to get used to how the Sharpie markers work, but I just bought another on clearance for 75 cents at Target (in turquoise!) so I'm excited to play around with them more. 
• In the photo on the right, you can see another doodled element that I worked with. This was simply a shape that I freehand cut out of college ruled notebook paper and collaged down, before working on top of it with a regular Sharpie and shimmer watercolors. 

• In the left hand photo, you can see the doodled border up close, as well as the little stamped word "dreams", which serves as the title. I was experimenting with fading out the stamping for a more square title design, but I decided to ultimately just go with the single word. The other effect may make an appearance at some point in the future. 
• Another thing that is more visible in the first photograph is the stamping I did in a silver ink (which I also used on this page). This is quickly becoming a favorite element of mine to play with, simply because it's extremely subtle, but still beautiful when the angle is just right.
• Finally, in the photo on the left, you can see a bit of the detail that I played around with in the lower right hand corner of this little canvas. I attempted to imitate the dots of the doodling on the circle in a more random way, and you can also see some subtle diamond stamping (which is actually one of my favorite little bits of this painting.

Finally, before I leave you today, I wanted to a fun result of creating these canvases thus far. I typically will use drop paper to catch excess paint and stamping, as well as testing out pens, and whatever else I decide I want to experiment. These two papers are from yesterday's and today's (in that order), and I personally love the way they look. Who knows, maybe these will all become a project of their own someday!

I hope you all enjoyed viewing this piece, as I really do love the way it turned out. I'll see you all next time!

Starting a New Project + A Major Announcement

Seeing as I have officially finished 29 Faces (though as I previously stated, I will continue to do faces on a more consistent basis, as I did enjoy it so much), I thought it was about time to start a new project. This has been an idea in the works since before this post, which was a bit of an experiment with a new medium and preparation.

For the next 100 days, I will be creating a 4"x4" canvas panel. 100 days is a big commitment, but I'm super excited to see where this will lead, and I think sharing what I create is a good way to motivate myself to keep up with it!

 As of right now, I think the majority of these panels will be mixed media, as that is the thing I am most comfortable doing, but sometimes it's good to push out of your comfort zone, so we'll see where it ends up!

At any rate, enough talking about the project and onto the actual panel itself! This is (1/100), and I absolutely adore the way that it turned out.

• The big doodled flower is a piece I've been saving for a good long while now, along with a whole other sheet I did. I just used a paintbrush dipped in India ink and painted shapes and designs in order to create a piece of paper that I absolutely adored. I've been hoarding this for a while, but I've been using it quite a bit recently - it seems like it's going to have to be something I continue doing, since I do enjoy it so much!

• In these photographs you can better see what is probably my favorite part about working on canvas in general - the texture! The way the paint catches in the nooks and crannies is just so beautiful, and it definitely makes me want to play with it more. 
• There were many layers of play on this little square (at one point I thought I had went a bit overboard, since I always have trouble knowing when to stop, but I managed to reel it back), from paint to collage to stamping and stenciling.
• I also played around with using a brayer a little bit on this square - it was the very first layer that I put down, in a neon pink color. I've been trying to work my art in stages, though a lot of it just has to do with me wanting to squeeze in a little bit of art before work. However, this morning I slept a bit later than I intended, and that one simple layer was all I was able to accomplish. I was thinking about it all day, and when I remembered I had this doodled flower, it all sort of fell into place.
• The word "magic" is also something that's been floating around in my brain recently, for no real reason in particular, and it will probably end up making its way onto an art journal page in the very near future.
• I'm linking to Paint Party Friday!

As I stated in the title of this post, I also have a major announcement to make, something that I'm extraordinarily excited about!

I have officially opened an Etsy shop! And in that Etsy shop, you will be able to purchase all of the pieces I create during this 100 day challenge I have started out on. You can find today's piece available here.

This is a big step for me, and something I'm extremely excited about. In the future, I plan to expand the shop, but for now all that will be listed is these canvas panels. Thank you all so much for visiting, and I hope you all enjoyed viewing today's piece. It really means a lot that you took the time to stop by!

"Rain" Prompt Illustration + WIP Journal Pages

 Hey everyone! It's good to be back, even after as short a period of time as a day. Yesterday was a bit chaotic for me, and I didn't have time for much art at all. I added a few layers to a couple different art journal pages, but it was nothing to write home about, so I figured it wasn't worth posting yet. However, today is a bit different!

I've been trying to take slow steps into creating more professional quality drawings as of late; I'm not sure why the idea appeals to me so much, it just does. I've also been practicing for Inktober, so I figured that an ink drawing would be a nice thing to attempt, since I had a bit of time to dedicate to my art. In addition to all of that, the Illustration Friday prompt has been floating around in my head for a couple of days, and I really felt the need to do something with it.

This illustration was born as a result of all of that. I'm a really big fan of interesting/weird conceptual types of art, and I feel like I was able to capture that with this piece. Perhaps in the future, during Inktober, I'll get a bit more intricate with my details, but for now this sort of cartoon-like style suits me just fine. I like the way she turned out, and much like my post from the other day, it inspires many stories.

As for my mixed media work, I don't have any finished pages to share yet, but I do have a few works in progress that I've been playing with and am super excited with the way they're turning out.

The first page up is a single page, and uses a lot of bright colors, quite a bit of paint, and one main piece of collage. This page is a bit of an experiment in the long run, and I also worked it over top of a base layer that I ultimately hated. The colors clashed and it had been sitting in this journal for freaking ever, so I finally decided to just paint over it completely. I think this has a lot more potential.

• I mentioned above that this page was an experiment, and that's because I recently got a few things that I wanted to play around with. I had ordered some Sharpie Pens from Amazon (because they were on sale and NaNoWriMo is quickly approaching!!) and to bump the order up to free shipping, I got a brayer and a diamond stencil. I figured that they would work in combination with the Gelli plate I recently bought, as well as having other applications. That was what I was attempting to do here.
• As you can see, there are a lot of bright colors and a lot of layers. The neon pink applied around the circles are Portfolio oil pastels, and though I haven't done anything with them yet, they are water soluble and one of my very favorite (and inexpensive!) art supplies to use. 

• The second work in progress I want to show you guys is actually a spread; one that I'm actually afraid to do too much else to for fear of messing it up. It's something that I definitely love conceptually - it was a way of experimenting with the branches stencil used along the bottom but I ended up adoring the way it turned out. I may have to do a more finished piece separate from my journal at a later date.
• One of my favorite bits of this spread currently is the background that shows through the tree stencil. There is some copper metallic paint in there, and in certain lights it gleams.

So, as you can see, I've definitely been up to some things, despite the fact that I've been pretty busy and tired as of late. The art definitely helps balance it out!

Thank you for stopping by, and I'd love to hear from you!

Inspiring a Character + 29 Faces FINISHED

There are several interesting things to me about art, and this finished page in particular says a few of those things. This page was actually worked on top of something I had already started - every now and again I find it worthwhile to look back through my journals and look for pages I haven't finished yet. I didn't have a whole lot of time tonight, so that was what I decided to do. I love the way that it turned out.

That leads me to my first point about art that I adore. Even when you're happy with the way your art looks on a consistent basis, when you think that you've developed a style, there's still more room to grow. The more you do, the more you work at it, the happier you start to become. At least, that's the way it has ended up working for me.

• The second thing that I find interesting about art is that, at least for me, the more that I do, the more ideas I seem to have. The words in this particular page illustrate this point. They read as follows. "In all my days, with all the things I've seen - there is nothing much more difficult than fixing a broken heart."
• As I was working on this page, the drips coming from the heart immediately started screaming to me that it was a broken heart. I didn't have a quote in mind, or any sort of phrase, but what I did know was that I wanted to incorporate a broken heart somehow. As I worked, and continued to build up the page, the words continued to jumble around in my brain, and eventually I managed to spit this out. It didn't come from anywhere except for my own brain, and I can imagine it coming from a wizened old man in a fairy-tale esque story. In fact, a character started to develop out of this page, and that was something I didn't intend to happen when I started it.
• The sharp contrast of the black with the bright colors is something that I love about this page, and I feel like it plays right in with the feeling of the page. Besides, it's just something that I generally enjoy. 

•  In both of the above photographs, you can see some black outlines of collage bits I cut out and glued down onto this page. I've been hoarding this scrap for a good long while now, but I've decided that I can't keep things just because I like them - that I need to start using them so that I can buy new things that I like even more. It was just a piece of copy paper that I painted a lot of doodly scribbles on with india ink, and I think it fits this page beautifully.
• Also in these photos, you can see a lot of the beautiful layering I was able to achieve with this page in particular. The color layered much better than I had even been expecting (I actually never painted the color purple onto the page, which can be seen in the first photo - the colors just mixed that way) and a lot of it I don't even remember doing, since some of it was already down when I got to this page.

• I want to finish off talking about this page with a close up of the heart itself and the drips that inspired the words. I created the heart with Prismacolor NuPastels, which I've talked about quite a bit recently as something I've been experimenting with and having a whole lot of fun. They're water-soluble, so they spread beautifully, and if you wet them enough when the page is tilted, they create beautiful, inspiring drips like these. 

That brings us to today's face I completed for 29 Faces. It's been a crazy journey, and this actually marks my 29th face. I've finished with a bit of time to spare, but I've definitely learned a lot these past 20 days. I've learned that I love painting faces, and I've awoken a love of watercolor that wasn't there before (as you can see in the sketchbook page shown above). 

After painting my ocean-inspired girl, I felt the need to give my watercolors another go. I also wanted to try out this sketchbook, which I typically use more for pencil sketches, but it has 98 lb paper. It warped a bit, but I think it's manageable, so I'll probably be doing more watercolor in this sketchbook in the future! Ultimately, I like the way this girl turned out. The coloring is perhaps a bit more brown overall than I typically tend to go for, but I'm certainly not opposed. It's definitely better than I could have done at the beginning of this month!

If I've learned anything, it's that painting people is definitely something I'm capable of if I put my mind to it, and that continuous practice is a good way to make significant improvement. Essentially that's what I plan to do this October with Inktober (as well as a top secret upcoming project that I'm super excited to share with all of you).

Thank you all for being with me through this month, I hope you've enjoyed viewing the work I've been sharing as much as I've loved creating it!