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If you've been paying attention to my recent uploads on YouTube you'll know how obsessed I've been with these Fountian Pen inks!! My vintage bottle collection hasn't slowed down either (sorry wallet!!). But I love "shopping" for my favorite color on my ink shelves!!! Check out this fancy new bottle I discovered on Etsy!  In today's video I am seeing if PanPastels can work over Fountain Pen ink to make a mixed media portrait! I used my beloved Noodler's ink in my favorite strathmore watercolor sketchbook and was pleasantly surprised by my experience!
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I have a new, free (as always) mixed media art tutorial for you! I'm showing you how simple is it to create a monochromatic painting, art deco style! I'm working to render this 1920s fashion illustration with only a SINGLE color of watercolor paint on my favorite Fabriano watercolor paper. Through this video I want to show you that shading and making objects, faces and figures can be done by anyone, even if you only own a single color. Let that sink in! I hope that this video inspires some new watercolor painting ideas and shows you how easy it is to get fast results (and SERIOUS DIMENSION) with such ease!! If you've been following my journey, you know I've been obsessed with teaching people how to draw!!! There's just something so magical about having an idea in your head and then making it come to life on your paper! It's also such a great distraction during these very difficult times. It's been hard having three kids home for so many months and I find myself wracked with a lot of emotions. I am worried about my children, growing up in an age of a Pandemic, wearing faces masks and not shaking hands or seeing their friends. I get anxious when I think about this as being the new "normal" when there's nothing but fear and worry when we leave the house. We left the house for the first time in four months this week, for just three nights. We went to a small cabin, close to our house, that was on a lake. My kids and I didn't leave the water all day I don't think!!! Just getting OUTDOORS for an extended period of time was heaven. Being out of the same four walls, also heaven.  I find that drawing, for me, offers me a similar feeling of peace. When I'm in the lake, I'm fully absorbed by the water, staying afloat, watching my kids to be sure they're safe, totally immersed in the beauty of nature. When I'm drawing I am so totally absorbed in my lines, in the gorgeous reference picture I may be using, in my drawing tools and if they're behaving and moving in the ways that my brain is envisioning. And in both instances I'm leaving all outside thoughts and anxieties behind to focus on the task at hand. I also did a drawing while we were at the lake! It's supposed to be of a video game characters my kids play although they informed me afterwards that it looks nothing like her. Nice. Thanks boys.  I also love drawing so much because it takes very little in the way of supplies! You can create so much using so few tools! Unlike mixed media (my other true love) which usually takes everything and the kitchen sink to make the same effect! lol! Oh well, I still love them both equally. I also love to come up with systems for things, to make art easier for people. I know a lot of my students just want to get to their happy place, and start creating, but that's really hard if you don't know how to do it!! In the past I've come up with a fun system for creating successful mixed media projects. I call it my "Hamburger" system. People LOVE IT!!! Well I also know how hard it is for people to draw PEOPLE and so I've come up with a cool, fun and easy method for drawing people as well!! Although in reality, you can use this exact system to draw really ANYTHING. It's a little bit tricky to explain but it's similar to the Grid Method. Although instead of drawing an exact grid on your reference and then using the same grid lines to draw the object on your own paper, you draw Quadrants instead. The beauty of this Quadrant Method is that there is no limit to how many Quadrants you can draw to help you out if you need more reference lines!! You can see in this photo how the Quadrants look on both the reference image (left) and my own drawing (right).  It's a little bit easier to explain in person that on paper (although in my new Art Deco book I take quite a lot of time and project and pages to explain it as best as I can!!) so I made a video that shows exactly what this entails. If you're skeptical if this system can work for you, don't take my word for it!! I've been teaching this to my students who are in the Fun Fab Drawing Club (at AwesomeArtSchool.com) and the results have been OUTSTANDING!!! Even beginner drawings have had HUGE success with this!! Here's just one example of many...  So if you're looking for a way to break down difficult subjects into easy ones, I highly suggest to give this a shot!! You can also check out my brand new book, Learn to Draw Art Deco Style Vol. 1 (available on Amazon's worldwide and soon-to-be in my Etsy Shop) where I teach you, step by step, this exact Quadrant method to draw amazing fashion figures of the 1920's and 30's. SOOOOOO fun!!!  I also included videos for many of the projects in the book as well!!! All of these are completely free and are on BOTH of my YouTube channels. Just follow the links inside and you can get another whole spin on each project!! One of my favorite projects in the book (and favorite videos to boot!) is making SMOLDERING eyes from the 1920's!! This era was a BIG DEAL to women because it marked the first time in history that women got to where make-up, OTHER than stage performers and streetwalkers that is!!! Also, these make-up techniques are SUPER fun to draw!! Want to see? Of course you do!!! You can watch (and hopefully draw) along with me right here!! Just press play and away we go! Subscribe to my YouTube channel while you're there so you never miss the new videos when they are posted weekly! Have a great week and I'll be popping back over to the blog soon for more fun news and videos for you!!
I feel like I keep needing to apologize for all the new free lessons (3 a week?! that's nuts! I know!) but I just can't help myself!! I am learning so much which means I am teaching so much in turn! For those of you who continue to welcome the distractions from the Pandemic and the stressors of normal life, I will continue to give to you. So last week I did an intro to Fountain Pen Inks on my Mixed Media YouTube channel (you can watch that by clicking here in case you want to revisit it or haven't seen it yet and need to catch up!) and why I love painting with them so so much! But in today's video I'd love to show you HOW!!! Watch today's freebie YouTube video for so many reasons! ❤️ To see how inks work compared to watercolors. ❤️ To watch how you can "Lift" the color to make really amazing highlights. ❤️ So you can a sneak peek at more of the Furniture projects that I'll be teaching in my Art Deco Drawing Book (Vol. 2!!) ❤️ To see how my favorite Fountain Pen Ink Color compares to my favorite Daniel Smith Watercolor!! ❤️ To learn how to make 2D objects looks INSANELY realistic!! Which one is better you may asking?? I'll let YOU be the judge after you watch and see how they compare! Speaking of Art Deco, my newest book, Learn to Draw Art Deco Style Vol 1 is due out next week!!! The cover was JUST finalized yesterday (huge thanks to my Patrons for voting and helping me decide yesterday!!)! No joke!! Here's a peek (that NO ONE ELSE has seen and no one knows is the final!!! It's THAT hot off the press!!!). When I get a copy I will show you all the pages in a video! In the meantime, here's the cover, whatcha think?! Earlier this week, I was talking ALL things Copic markers! I showed everyone how to use them so they don't streak while coloring, tips for blending, how to refill your favorite color if it runs out, AND I even showed a range of alternative alcohol markers that are MUCH CHEAPER (in case you're a beginner and don't want to drop the big bucks that Copic markers often cost)! You can watch the full video below! (pssst...you'll even get a big sneak peek at my new Art Deco Drawing book that's coming out next week!!). The feedback from those who have seen this video is that they are CRAZY helpful so I wanted to make you knew about them. One woman remarked, "I just learned more in 15 minutes from you than I ever did from cardmaking and taking classes over the past 15 years". So yeah, how can I not pass this information on to you? Plus, it's free so there's that. In this same video my student is referring to also share with you everything you ever wanted to know about which brands to look at (including nibs, quality and pricing), how to blend properly so you don't get those awful STREAKS in your drawings, and soooooo much more! Drawing and coloring with markers is an artform that requires much more skill than you'd think! I'm happy to help! Then on Wednesday, for those wanting to take these tips and techniques and apply to it specifically to a face drawing, well I've got you covered there as well! In this next video I show you, step-by-step, how to use markers to take your face from the sketch on the left, to the full and VIBRANT face on the right!!! I also offer 2 free resources to those that watch the video. One is the drawing of the sketch itself. Actually, if you click the button below, you can grab it right now! If you HATE drawing, but LOVE coloring then this is perfect for you!! You can just download the image, print it out and goooooo!!! Want to make sure it's on the right paper? I teach you how to do that in the video too! I also have a Shading Guide (which is actually page 55 of my How to Draw Fun, Fab Faces Book!) which you can have right away by clicking on this button below! That download gives you 6 different shading patterns that you can use to help inform your own face drawings. Knowing where to shade is SUPER helpful!! So you're not just randomly throwing shadows and highlights around that don't make any visual sense!! That's it from my new Drawing YouTube Channel this week! I'll be back on Monday with a POWERFUL new video on how to use my Quadrant Method to draw...anything!!! Stay tuned!!
Here is a TOP SECRET SNEAK PEEK at one of the millions of projects in the new Art Deco Drawing Book that is mere weeks from being published!!! I use fountain pen ink to render in quite a few of the projects in the book from clothes to dogs to chairs, as you can see! Aren't these colors INCREDIBLE?!?! These aren't enhanced or photoshopped! These colors just ARE THAT GOOD!!  Today's YouTube video on my Mixed Media channel is all about Fountain Pen Inks. How is it different from other types of inks? What makes it so special? Why am I obsessed with it? How do you swatch it? Store it? Watch here if you're interested in this SUPER COOL art supply and get a head start on the book projects! In Monday's drawing video from my new YouTube channel (another one, YES!!!), we’ll be sketching a girl's face in just 5 MINUTES! NEVER DRAWN A FACE BEFORE? Don't have a sketchbook yet? Don't worry! We're gonna start with sketching basics. All you need is a pencil & a piece of paper to get started. First I’ll help you learn how to sketch a face with accurate drawing proportions for the female face. If you've never used guidelines and have tried doodling faces before, you'll be shocked at how much sketching guidelines in for reference will increase the sophistication of your work! CLICK HERE to receive your Face Drawing Guidelines Cheatsheet so you can draw along with me. Then press play and begin the easy, fun lesson! After you draw that face I'm going to teach you about shading a face & how to draw beautiful eyelashes. We're going to use the face sketch we created together in my last video to do our shading practice. The shading techniques I demo in this video are SUPER SIMPLE and totally for beginners, so jump in and play with me! All you need to get started is a pencil and a tissue! Since 2016 I have been offering fun and education mixed media and art journaling lessons on my YouTube channel!! I've loved every minute of it!! Well as I've developed and grown as an artist, I started to realize that more and more of my time is spend drawing nowadays. I LOVE to draw!! I also notice that my published drawing books far exceed the number of my published mixed media books (like 3 to 1)! To celebrate my love of drawing and to bring my lessons to YOU, I thought it was high time that Drawing had it's own home on YouTube! Does your art room or corner sometimes lay untouched because it's just a pile of a big fat messy disaster??? I know the feeling!! I work in so many mediums, teach so many different lessons, and am working on so many different projects and books that it is WAY too easy for my studio to become a hot, insurmountable MESS. Luckily, the COVID-19 lockdown has me completely organizing my art supplies and I am taking you into my art studio today to show you exactly how I keep all of my materials sorted and stored.  Inks, Watercolors, Acrylics, Oils, Stamps, Stencils, Markers, Pencils and on and on and on we go! It's all in here in today's video, together with my best advice and tips on some great ways to sort YOUR stash! All you have to do is click play! Last week my good friend, Kristin Van Valkenburgh and I swapped backgrounds and challenged each other to create foregrounds on top!! Here is the background that I made for her...  It is sooooooooo easy!! Just grab your favorite spray paints and some stencils and you're good to go!!! And she made a gorgeous background for me as well!! Well this week we each had the challenge to create some magical on top!!! This was for sure a challenge! I did a test on the background she sent me and I THOUGHT it was permanent. So I proceeded to slap on some ink but then discovered quite quickly that the background was, very much, totally water-soluble!! If you're new to mixed media you may not know that water-soluble means that when you add any liquid (in this case, inks), that underneath layer is sure gonna move!!! And move it did!!! I've learned long ago that mixed media art is more or less a matter of problem solving and so that's what this project became! Watch here to see how I was able to overcome the watercolors mixing in with my inks on top! If you could learn from my trials and errors, than it's a double win! Plus you get to see the little added bonus character that showed up along side my magical watercolor mermaid!! After you're done watching this video you should DEFINITELY go and check out Kristin's video!!! You would not believe the ADORABLE little creature that showed up on her canvas!! Omgeeee!!! Here's a tiny sneak peek!!! Isn't it the cutest?! The craziest part is that I challenged Kristin to incorporate something sparkly into her project. She ended up having these little hexagonal mirror stick on thingies that were the EXACT same size as the chicken wire fence stencil I used to create my background. Say whaaaa?!! are the chances of her having those...on hand?? I still can't believe it!!  At the end of the day, the most special aspect of this collaboration was that we both inspired in each other, a new sense of curiosity (what do I do with this???), creativity (I have these mirrory thingies!!), and friendship (that was sooo fun, let's play again!!).
So while we are still in a period of uncertainty and COVID-19 strangeness, we were able to create a connection from the comfort and complete safety of our homes, even though they are 3,000 miles apart! If you are in a fun Facebook Group (and if not, come join mine!! www.facebook.com/groups/awesomeartschool) and can "meet up" with some others, virtually, maybe you can suggest a collaboration just like this one!! It's a great way to spark YOUR creativity and make a friend! What a beautiful way to spend a day. ❤️ |
Karen CampbellFounder of Awesome Art School. Mixed Media Artist. Author of 9 Instructional Art Books!   
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What Fans Are SayingKaren, you are absolutely fabulous! You make me feel like I can draw anything. I have recently retired and finally have the time to do some of the art that I have loved since I was in school. I am really at the beginning of my art journey and I hope to learn as much as I can. Thank you for all you do. |
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