Hey Hey good people, Tamiko here! At the start of every year for the last three or fours years I have given myself creative goals. What are creative goals for me? Well, for me that would include an area of concentration for my visual art; if I have chosen any teachers/classes/books to use for reference; and the time I have decided to give the process. I've come to the conclusion I am a lover of color, paper and glue! Have these things and you can almost promise my dedication to creating something awesome. I have completely fallen in love with the images and teaching styles of Danielle Donaldson. She is a mixed media artist with high concentration on the use of watercolors (sounds like me!! or at least where I wanna be). In one of her online classes called Inspire, she teaches you not to be afraid of colors and to let strange combinations create beautiful things and I'd like to add, beautiful things create their own stories (smile). So today's project was inspired by the DUCKS, LOVE and a Danielle Donaldson's compass! Check them out below.
Items needed:
Helmar Crystal Kote Fixative (optional)
Watercolor paper
Watercolors
Brushes
pencil
hand heart punch
scissors
patterned paper scraps
glitter
In Danielle Donaldson Inspire course, she teaches us how to appreciate and create from the colors within. How not to be afraid of putting things together and making beautiful imagery that tells stories. First I made a compass. A compass helps in choosing directions. In this case this compass will tell us the colors we may want to use for this project. I have a containers with scrap papers circles and hearts (something else I learned to do with papers tee hee) what we do is take a few pieces and form concentric circles, its ok to overlap, but they don't have to. You also want to pick papers/circles that are not so matchy matchy. That personal part reminds me to be organic in my selections. Now if you have taken Danielle's course, she may pull out a sewing machine and tracing papers and voila! As a maker I reserve the right here to use my creative license and make a few tweeks. I knew I wanted to use some watercolor paper scrappings also. As a matter of fact the same paper I use to adhere my concentric circles to was previously used as create heart confetti I knew I wanted to include in this project! I took the circles and I added drops of Helmar's Super Tacky Glue. That glue is sturdy and flexible and adhere quite fast to my water colored background paper. I did that with each circular layer and my heart for the center piece. I love how eclectic it looks…
I pulled colors from the compass to make a color palette.. I am using Daniel Smith watercolors and I matching as close as possible to the colors that jump out most to me, from the compass. I painted my image and then decided to add those confetti hearts I had punched, to go in the air and water. Not only does it add depth because of the small color variations, it will also add a dimensional texture. Used Helmar's Super Tacky Glue again. I used it because of it fluidity, fast tack and it dries immensely clear!!
As with many things I do.. I add a little sparkle whenever I can. I used Helmar's Super Tacky Glue! Its no wrong way to use it. I like it better than tacky glues because it really does dry fast and clear. I can use it directly from the bottle or I can put it in a fineliner dispenser bottle with an 18g or 20g needle tip!! Here are some close ups!!
The next step is optional. If I wanted to add some line work with some more pens. I could have easily sprayed a few quick coats of some Helmars Crystal Kote Fixative and allowed a few moments to dry between each layer, then did some fine line details with more pens and pencils. I hope this post encourages you to branch out and look up Danielle Donaldson or any other teachers you would like to learn from. Dont forget while you are researching head over to the Helmar's USA site and check out additional information about our products!!
