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Let's Get Your Creative Juices Flowing!!!
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I'm about to get started on an art journaling challenge on YouTube, and thought it would be fun to show you a flip through of the mixed media art journal I just completed.  If you're new to my channel or haven't tried art journaling before, it's an amazing outlet. I feel like it's super personal. It's my place to go have FUN, be weird, try out new art supplies - and get creative. For me, it's a place I often go to for stress relief to let go of my day and whatever's bothering me emotionally or physically, so in a way I also art journal for mental health.  You'll see lots of watercolor in this journal because I used this sketchbook to prepare for my lesson day on my Scotland Castle Art Retreat last August. So lots of fun botanical watercolor doodles as well as some faces I did while I was in Scotland and after I got home. I've also got some graphite drawings and mixed media girl lessons I taught in the in the Fun Fab Drawing Club and Mixed Media Society recently. Stay with me till the end because I've also got an intimate peek at my FIRST project in my new 2020 art journal. We recently had a gorgeous day here in NC and I decided to paint on my back porch with my black cat Zoe! So you'll see her walk across my page ;) I kinda love how this girlie turned out and think you'll enjoy watching me sketch and paint her with watercolor pencils, noodler's ink and some chill music.  I'm addicted to my strathmore watercolor journal at the moment for art journaling, but always love trying out new supplies, so PLEASE leave me a comment and let me know what YOU LOVE to journal in :) CLICK HERE to see my ART JOURNAL FLIP through or PRESS the play button below! See ya on YouTube!
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I JUST finished teaching how to draw realistic hands in the Fun Fab Drawing Club, and learned something HUGE… Tracing is NOT cheating.  That may sound contradictory, but CLICK HERE, and I’ll explain. I am not an advocate of cheating, let’s be clear… However, I AM an advocate of saving time and putting in the time where it’s needed most. If you’ve been watching me for a while, you know when I teach how to draw a face that’s forward facing, I talk a lot about building up muscle memory in your drawing hand and arm. I tell my students to sketch tons of ovals until a face shape begins to emerge that they like. The more often they practice face drawing, the quicker they will get at drawing a more accurate outline of a face. This is called muscle memory drawing. In our 25 hand drawing challenge, each hand we drew was in a different pose- so we weren't building muscle memory when we sketched in the outline of each hand. The MOST IMPORTANT PART of this drawing practice was actually SHADING and using the value scale to make each pose look realistic. In the case of these hand drawing exercises, I think using tracing tools for drawing is a PERFECT way to speed up a drawing project that could potentially take forever ;) CLICK HERE or Press play above and I’ll demo how to use transfer paper to trace a picture on paper. It’s a pretty amazing mixed media drawing technique for any artist, really. Especially if you’d rather spend more time bringing your subject to life via shading in your favorite art supplies … from graphite to watercolor or acrylics. Would we be better artists if we did every single drawing without tracing? ABSOLUTELY!!!! Every time you practice- your skills grow. The more you do from scratch, the better you will be at drawing freehand. That is a HUGE SKILL worth investing time into! If you’ve only got a little chunk of time to art (like I do most days!) give yourself permission to trace here and there.  And do yourself a favor by picking up some of this amazing transfer paper by Arteza. 60 sheets will literally last you FOREVER.
Now go work on your shading ;) See ya next week!! We’ve all got at least one page in an art journal that we’re not in love with. In today’s mixed media tutorial, I’ll show you just how EASY it is to collage, draw, and paint your way to something new, like a mysterious mistress! I covered up an old teaching page in my journal with a layer of collage, using tattered pages from a tiny, old book I found in a Scottish thrift shop last August. They’re thin and adhere beautifully to the paper in my art journal with matte medium.  This particular journal is hardcover made by Strathmore and is a favorite of mine for mixed media projects because the paper is amazing! Since it is strong enough for watercolor, it lends itself well to mixed media art journaling. This paper has literally rocked any mixed media art supply I’ve thrown at it so far. I started my mysterious mixed media girl by sketching a female face over my collage layer with a Blackwing pencil (like butter if you haven’t tried them). I decided to reserve my acrylic paint for the lips, eyes, and hat because I didn’t want to completely cover up my collage papers. Click the play button below to see the whole process unfold in the short, entertaining timelapse tutorial set to swing music...Mysterious Mistress indeed! I outlined the face using my black stabilo all pencil. If you haven’t tried it before, press play for a quick art supply demo to watch one of my favorite mixed media drawing techniques in action.
When the pencil lines are activated with mod podge, they darken, smear, and spread to naturally add shading and depth. Enjoy!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope you had a fab celebration to ring in our new decade! I've had a blast! But between you and me, I'm ready for things to settle back down so I can get a little alone time in my studio ;) If you've got any gift cards to craft stores or amazon burning a hole in your pocket and are thinking about trying a new art supply... Check out today's tutorial! I'll teach you how to paint with NOODLER'S INK.  Ink behaves a lot like watercolor, so if you're not in the mood to ink, or just got some new watercolors for Christmas, today's tutorial is PERFECT for you too. If you need a refresher on how to draw eyes and eyelashes, or how to paint hair and lips - you guessed it! Today's tutorial is PERFECT for you, too! Grab your watercolor journal and a pencil. Then PRESS the PLAY button above or CLICK HERE to begin. See ya there!!
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Karen CampbellMonFounder of Awesome Art School. Mixed Media Artist. Author of 9 Instructional Art Books!    
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