Loving me some PEBEO Mixed Media! Watch what I did at CHA Mega Show 2015

I really love my Pebeo paints, and I really enjoyed spending a few days demonstrating so many fun things you can do with them. I painted a realistic seahorse floating in the seaweed to show how you can control the reactions with the paints and lay them down to create exactly the painting you want-

but here, in this video, you can see me using the pouring method. When you pour the paints and swirl them together, you can get some really interesting effects. You can also apply SOME control to this process. When you get to know the paints you will see that some reactions can be predicted. Such as:

Vitrail + Moon = lace
Moon + Ceramic = lace
Prisme + Moon = flat mica sheen (no honeycomb)

There is an awesome almost water-lily pond effect if you pour droplets of Moon into Vitrail or Ceramic after you let them set for a few minutes. And of course, different colors have slightly different effects. So if you want to learn to control the paint, like everything else in life... practice makes perfect!

Enjoy my demo :)

Real Mixed Media and why I love it

I really love mixed-media art. I mean REALLY. I like the ability to use whatever tools and supplies make my paintings, sculptures and jewelry come to life and look how I imagine in my mind.

I decided I needed to work on a submission for the Allegany Arts Council holiday cards. They sent out a notice saying they will be choosing 6 pieces this year to make a set. Since I love a creative prompt to get my juices flowing, and I immediately knew what I wanted to draw, it was really easy to start and finish this piece. This is just a detail- the artwork has more to it, but I'm keeping the full thing off the web until after I submit :)

I live in Cumberland Maryland, in the mountains. There are lots of old houses here, on lots of hills. Winter is coming- the trees aren't bare yet, but they will be. I live around the corner from the animal shelter- and pets are really important here. I have a pretty kitty, and fond memories of my dog Kasha. I can't take Tigerlily out for a walk but I can remember how Kasha enjoyed the snow.  I knew I would paint a woman walking with her dog, along cobblestone streets with gentle blue and purple sunset clouds on new fallen snow. There are gorgeous white-barked trees along a path I walk on frequently so they just had to be in the picture, with a row of cute houses atop a distant hill. My town, abstracted.

I used so many art supplies to make this. Started with a home-made large rubber stamp and some dye ink pads to create background texture, then spray dyes over stencils to block out the hills and trees. Ripped some paper to use to mask the hills further while I rubbed Pan Pastels on the edges to make them stand out. More Pan Pastels for the buildings, bushes, and path. Cute floral small round stamps for the "snowflakes" texturing the sky. I used the most AWESOME metallic Gelly Roll pens all over the place but most noticeably for the cobblestones. It was like drawing with fine glitter and I love how it looks. Then I cut up some very old 1920's sheet music to make the woman's dress and head, and rubbed dye inks and pan pastels onto the music for color (used mostly my fingers to control the color application.) Next I painted white gesso on the face area, hair, and to draw the dog. The cool thing about the spray inks is that they rewet with the gesso to create a kind of muddy/blue base color for the hair and dog. I then used a myriad of 2oz craft paint bottles along with floating medium (which is basically clear gel that thins the paint) to paint layers of fur on the dog and hair on the gal. Prismacolor pencils come next, to define edges, faces, and details. Then watercolors to detail the trees and stones in the path. Finally some last touches with the gelly roll pens and then my favorite part- opening up my second floor studio window- the one without the screen, to spray some PYMII on the paper to fix all the various pastels, pencils and dyes in place. Whew!

I like not having to say "I'm a watercolor artist" or "I paint in Acrylics." To me that is an incredibly limiting thing to have to say about yourself. And since finding Pan Pastels, I really honestly don't know what I did without them, lol.

Digital Art Journalling with an iPad and apps

So I got an iPad. It was inevitable, seeing as I've been having a 4 year love affair with a guy named Mac who spends a lot of time warming my lap :)

I immediately downloaded a bunch of drawing apps, and I also investigated the stylus angle since I know I don't want to draw with my finger. I found what I believe is THE BEST stylus available for artists, it's called The Hand, and it was a Kickstarter project. It's awesome and you can find it here.

On to some thoughts on which apps to try. First, I downloaded ArtRage. I have it on my computer, so I figured the natural extension was to get it on the tablet. It's ok, but not my favorite thing to use. The cool thing is it's connected to my Dropbox and I can send the source file to my laptop for more refined paintings. The bad is that it's a little too complicated for doodles.

Next, I got Bamboo notebook- which is my favorite program to write and doodle in, by far.  And Sketchbook lite, which is nice when you want to do a more robust drawing. But there are a LOT of tools, and it takes some time to do a good drawing.

I tried several others, not worth mentioning.

And then I got Paper by 53. I started just sketching with the free pen, which is nice...but then I decided to get the add-ons for the felt-tip pen and the watercolor brush. Voila, my life is complete :)

Self Portrait Sundays....Mixed-Media art time

I've decided that Sunday afternoons are a perfect time to make a mess, reflect, and be quiet...while making art and expanding my drawing/painting/mixed-media skills.

Art is a language with it's own vocabulary. If you don't practice, just like any other discipline, you lose your skills. So during this quiet time, I am putting my skills to the test while trying out some techniques I've thought about, read about, watched on a youtube video, or just simply haven't tried before. Some are tried and true- it's amazing how many people are teaching "how to draw a face" but really there is just one way. After you learn the "proper way," developing your style is all about drawing how YOU like to draw. My faces tend to be slightly idealized and very soft- often the softest part of my painting is the face, with the other details much more textured and prominent. I think that has to do with the fact that I have freckles, and I seriously envy clear porcelain skin. lol

Here's the full painting. I've been thinking about some things I need to do, want to do...so "She knew she could do it" came from within.

She Knew She Could Do It- Mixed-Media painting by Kira Slye

Clay Mosaic Plaque! A New video I did live today

I have decided to use Tuesday Schmoozeday as my very own creative outlet. I have WAY too much going on in my life, lots of businesses and a part time job, plus I'm trying to get certified to teach in Texas and continue my actual career.... So often, my own art is the first thing to go. I'm always trying to make something to sell or market, and never making something just for me. But I have a whole room full of art supplies because I'm a hoarder! So on Tuesdays during my live show, I'm making things just BECAUSE. Things that are in my heart, things I want to try. Today, I made it and gave it away. That makes me feel good- because I'm a lightworker- I want to enrich the world with the talents I have. So a big thanks to Finra, in New Zealand, who wakes up in the middle of the night each Tuesday and has watched my show faithfully since we started a month ago. Today she was the winner.

Art Journal- SCORE! at the Goodwill

I found this awesome blank book for $3.50 yesterday at our local Goodwill. I couldn't resist, because the pages, which I assume are for gluing in photos, are big, blank, and a nice heavy weight. Perfect for an art journal, a task which I have often thought about undertaking but have never actually done.

This book is bound in a very time-honored traditional way, it's called Japanese stab-binding. Basically a fancy way to say, there are holes going all the way thru the pages and the covers, and a string is holding them in. Rather than having a spine, the spine is open and you can see the edges, and the front and rear covers bend when the book opens. So if I want to, I can even remove pages in order to paint them. I plan to use a lot of gesso- tip- sometimes I keep a container of Kilz primer around- it's cheaper than gesso, and does the same thing.

Part of my creative anxiety stems from the question "Will it matter?" and I have decided that yes, it will, even if only to me. Now the anxiety that comes up next is, do I have time for this? With all the other things in my life that I am dying, or trying, to start up, do I really have time to write, scribble, draw, paint and collage in this book? Or is it just another creative diversion? Well, I suppose creative diversions are important too. I always tell my students that it is important to practice, you can't "think" your way through a project. So it's high-time for a taste of my own medicine. I recently got several new books on mixed media techniques, all of which seem very logical to me- but I can't own those techniques until I really try them out. So, here we go...

mermaid again

Post Dr Who. This very large canvas has been sitting in the corner of the bedroom for over a year, painfully waiting to become beautiful. Finally, I am unblocked.

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