Mindful Art Studio

Art journaling and mindful creation from the heart

Making Art with Simple Materials

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Dear Wonderful, Creative You:

When was the last time you felt completely engrossed in your creative process? Lately I’ve been incredibly engrossed in my art, making art with simple materials. I’d like to help you imagine the same for yourself. In your mind’s eye, imagine yourself doing the following, and see what it feels like:

You carry a small sketchbook and drawing pen with you everywhere, making little notes and sketches as something catches your eye, or an idea strikes. When you open your sketchbook, you see patterns, shapes, and notes for your art pieces. It’s a jumble of scribbles, sketches, notes, and little drawings. It’s not neat and perfect, it’s an inspiring place where ideas are free to co-mingle and marinate. Art making is not just something you do when you sit down at your art table, it’s something you weave into your life.

When you sit down to create, you flip through your journal for inspiration, and pull out some paper to play with one of the ideas. You sit for hours, making slow, steady progress, noticing the shapes emerging, the sounds of art making, and your breathing. You finish tired and happy.

It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  


This could be your story. Playing with simple art materials has offered me incredible creative license, and I want to show you that it can for you too.

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Making art with simple materials – just paper and a blade, is incredibly satisfying.

Limitation is the fuel of my creative fire.

But really, I am working with so much more than paper. Once you cut into a page, you begin dancing with light and shadow. All your focus is on shape, form, rhythm, and the way you let the light in.

Wouldn’t you like to let some more light into your life?

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    When you give yourself limited materials and permission to create intuitively, without a plan, magic can happen.

    I’ve got a brand new class, Layers of Light, that focuses on this kind of intuitive approach to paper cutting. Paper cutting is an old craft and art form, but it’s usually practiced in a very planned, exacting way. I want to open the door for you to create in a way that fills your soul, and brings you delight.

    You can learn to paper cut from a pattern. But when you learn to create intuitively, building your own mark making “vocabulary” you open up to your unique expressive voice. You can do more than you think with your art.

    Creatively Yours,

    Amy



    Getting Started with Intuitive Paper Cutting

    I’d love to show you more of what I mean. Enter your name and email to get a free copy of my PDF guide: Getting Started with Paper Cutting. You’ll also join the Mindful Art Studio community.

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      How to Develop Your Artistic Style

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      Dear Wonderful, Creative You:

      Here’s what I most want you to know about how to develop your artistic style: you can’t force it. When coaching clients and students tell me they want to develop a style, I suggest that what they need is not a style, but a consistent art practice.

      When you make art consistently, and with permission to experiment and indulge your curiosities, over time you accrue a body of work around some common themes. These themes are what help make an artist’s work recognizable. I can see my themes across mediums, which is pretty exciting. Art lets us dive deeply into the things we feel passionate about. I want to help you get there too, so here’s a few secrets to get you started.

      Secrets of How to Develop Your Artistic Style

      How to Develop Your Artistic Style, Secret #1: Make a Lot of Junk

      There are a few things many people don’t realize about being an artist. First, even incredibly talented artists make terrible art. A lot of what artists make is total junk. You never see it, but it’s there in the studio. Of course, few artists will exhibit their test pieces, or works that went to the cutting room floor. All this junk is necessary though. You have to make a ton of junky art in order to open space for the magic. So experiment freely, and give yourself permission to make a bunch of mistakes.

      Just before an important rehearsal, an acting coach once told me to make as many mistakes as I possibly could. It was the most freeing advice ever. With permission to make mistakes, I was able to focus purely on feeling the part, because I wasn’t nervous. I take his advice often. So please, make as many mistakes as you can, right now. If you really struggle with this, you might love my class, Freeing the Muse.

      How to Develop Your Artistic Style, Secret #2: Push the Boundaries

      The second secret to developing your artistic style is that you need to produce a lot of art in order to find your own way. Whatever your art form – writing, singing, dancing, or paper cutting, you begin acquiring skills by copying, imitating, and testing. When you only make 1 or 2 of something, there’s too much pressure to get it “right.” Also, over time, as you gain mastery, you put your own twist on things, and the art process becomes more adventurous, and your work reflects the freshness of your unique expression. Your work evolves from imitation, to something new that pulls influences from various resources. This post about working small can help.

      How to Develop Your Artistic Style, Secret #3: Let Your Interests Evolve

      The third “secret” about developing your own style is that it changes over time. Think about some of the great artists – Picasso worked in drawings, watercolors, prints, sculpture, and oil paintings. He allowed his interests and curiosities to lead the way. Even within his works on canvas, he shifted from realism, to the blue period, to Cubism, and of course there were other phases as well. Picasso allowed himself to explore life through art as it presented itself to him and to dive deeply into it. He was willing to go in new directions that weren’t easily recognizable as his “style.” Good art demands that you create a lot, and take a lot of risks. Why not give yourself this permission to play? This is a fun art journaling technique.

      How to Develop YOUR Artistic Style:

      Here’s my question to you: What would happen if you pretended that you had permission to dive deeply into your art process? To dedicate time to it? To work in a series, hone your skills, and push boundaries? What if you pretended that you had as much “permission” as Picasso to experiment, and indulge in your art process? What would that feel like? Visualize this: when you wake up tomorrow morning, a miracle has happened, and you are dedicated to open play and experimentation in your art process – what does your morning look like? Your day? Your evening? What changes have miraculously taken place?

      So that’s my advice: Stop trying to develop your “style” and start making more art. You can do it. You are an artist like any other, and if you are waiting for permission to indulge in your art process, here it is: Dig deeper. Make more. Let a bunch of it really suck.

      Helping You Take Your Art Further

      Learning to push your artistic techniques is one of the best parts of the process for me, and one I love sharing with students. It’s also a cornerstone of my upcoming class, Layers of Light. It’s a mindful and intuitive approach to paper cutting. I’ll help you build up the foundational skills and make YOUR way through paper cutting. I’m tickled just thinking about all the amazing work you’ll create and the unexpected places you’ll take it. I’ll be putting the class on pre-sale soon, very soon, so stay tuned and let me know in the comments if you are excited to learn more.

      In the meantime, answer those questions for yourself, and get ready to get really messy, tired, happy, and feeling accomplished because you’ve learned a lot, produced a lot, and you have one or two pieces you feel really good about this week.

      Creatively Yours,

      Amy

      5 Ways to Begin (and Finish) an Art Journal Page

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      Dear Wonderful, Creative You:

      One of the most common issues that folks run into when they first start trying to keep an art journal is how to begin an art journal page. Some people have too many ideas, some have none at all, and lots doubt their artistic ability. Art journaling is a beautiful practice because it welcomes us ALL – artists and non-artists alike, to record thoughts and feelings, explore, and play, in visual-written form. So how do you begin (and finish) an art journal page? I want to share 5 simple and fun ideas that will help you create expressive, beautiful pages.

      ART JOURNALING IDEA ONE: Your Words in the Stars

      1. Write all over the page. Let it all hang out. Write the deepest, silliest, craziest, boringest stuff down that is swimming around your heart and mind. Give it over to the page. It can take it, because it’s your art journal! But if you are worried about someone finding the deepest secrets of your heart, worry not! We are going to cover it up for safe keeping.
      2. Paint your page black. Grab some black paint, high flow acrylic, or ink and paint over the entire page. Use a dryer to speed up this stage if you wish.
      3. Make your personal galaxy of stars. Use a white gel pen or a paint pen to create your own personal galaxy with what I call “dot clouds.” Let your dots (stars) cluster together as feels good, or look up some photos of the galaxy for a point of reference.
      4. More ideas with dots and doodles: You may also like the idea of creating with a buddy. Check out this collaboration I did with another artist for inspiration.

      ART JOURNALING IDEA TWO: Adult Finger Painting.

      1. Use 2 – 3 similar colors – like a couple of blues and a green, or yellows and a red or you might end up with mud.
      2. Give yourself permission to play and tune into your senses as you paint. Notice the feeling and the smell of the paint as you push it around the page. Focus more on what feels good than what looks good.
      3. The one word. When it’s dry, use a brush or paint pen to write one word that summarizes what your experience felt like.
      4. More playful art: You might also check out this post on making watercolor and string prints in your art journal.

      ART JOURNALING IDEA THREE: Natural Object Tracing

      1. Trace a natural object that is meaningful to you. I’ve used shells and rocks mostly, but you could also do interesting shapes with acorns, dried flowers, or fruit. Imagine the fun of a banana page! Use a permanent drawing pen like a Micron so that it doesn’t bleed when you add other elements to the page.
      2. Trace the object multiple times on the page, or in multiple sizes. You might overlap them, or make it neat, or chaotic.
      3. Paint around the objects with a color that makes you feel peaceful.
      4. Paint in the objects with a color that matches and makes you feel happy. You’ve just created a cool pattern page in your art journal!
      5. You can find more ideas on making art journal pages with natural object inspiration here and one on making natural object sculptures here. I also have a whole Pinterest board on patterns where I save tons of inspiring ideas.

      ART JOURNALING IDEA FOUR: Recycled Art

      1. Cut up one of your own art pieces. You might use circles, stripes, or squares.
      2. Glue the pieces on the page in a way that pleases you.
      3. Pull the page together with paint. Use watercolor, acrylic, or Neocolor crayons to create unity on the page. Pick one of the colors in your cut up art piece and keep the number of colors you use limited so that you bring the whole piece together.
      4. There’s a bunch of fun and easy ideas for art journal pages right here.

      ART JOURNALING IDEA FIVE: Meditative Art Journal Painting

      1. Choose your favorite color in acrylic or watercolor and a small, round brush.
      2. Keep a loose grip and paint circles. Hold the brush LOOSELY, and paint loopy circles (or another shape) all over the page. It helps me to pretend I’m a small child when I do this in order to keep my marks looking relaxed and almost primitive.
      3. Keep painting and overlapping your circles until you feel loose and the page is getting covered. While the page is still wet, mix a lighter version of the color using a bit of white, and layer a few lighter circles on top of the darker ones.
      4. Make your pattern consistent. Keep your circle placement feeling either very chaotic and unplanned, or very orderly and graphic, otherwise it might feel stiff. Be sure to run your pattern off the edge if it’s meant to feel chaotic.
      5. If you like these ideas, you’ll love my free art journaling and creativity class, The Creative Self-Care E-Course. You can sign up right here.

      I hope this helps getting you creating today! Let me know your other good ideas for starting your art journal pages.

      Creatively Yours,

      Amy

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