Create Mixed Media

Color Outside the Lines

joneam — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:00:23 +0000

A guest post by Sue Pelletier

I had that blah blah blah…. art teacher in elementary school…the one who made sure you did EXACTLY as she did. Line by line, piece of boring manila drawing paper at a time. The only thing I remember doing is drawing my shoe on the yucky paper, with pencil no less. Where were the color, the spontaneity, and the pure bliss of a classroom of kids creating art with no inhibition? I am an elementary school art teacher and I am so not that teacher.

I encourage mistakes, drips and total, yes total coloring outside the lines. I have kids who come up to me during class with a tiny sequin they found on the floor. They ask me, “What I should do with the sequin?” I tell them, “Sell it on EBay.” It sets the tone in my room that laughter, play, experimenting, making mistakes and coloring outside the lines are all part of the art experience. Naturally at this point I am going to say it is the same with adults because, well, it is. The problem with adults (myself included) is we lose the playfulness in our art, we lose the spontaneity, and we lose the ability to color outside the lines.

When I say coloring outside the lines, it can be taken literal, but it can also be taking as a direction to take when you are creating, a mind set if you will, as in: Just go for it! Color, smear, plaster glitter, paint and ink and smear some more…. all outside the lines!

Reasons why it is good to color outside the lines:

1. You are on the voluminous path of artistic self-discovery and happy accidents.

2. It allows plenty of room for intuitive play with your paints or your mixed-media supplies. A bingo chip glued on a painting just is not going to cut it any more. It did at one time, but not any more.

3. Pure and simple color mixing…you smear, you mix, you color outside the lines, colors blend, overlap and like magic, you have created new, rich color.

4. You are on the way to heading outside the box. Inside the box is highly overrated (not that I would know, but I have heard.)

5. Coloring outside the lines allows you to work with vigor, almost non-stop if you want.

6. Check out the other people that color outside the lines. There is something to be said for that tribe. Something good–really, really good!

Coloring outside my lines.

I have a set of stencils through StencilGirlProducts called Loose Woman. I wanted to create a stencil where you are encouraged to be loose and very painterly with your image. You may follow the lines, but how easy is it to follow along just a little bit and then make it your own, add lines. Take away lines, color outside the lines…. perhaps my favorite lines of all are laugh lines!

1. For this particular piece I used one of my stencils.

2. I layered the background with one of my favorite first layers, vintage pattern paper. I always start with this as a base because at the age of 51 and having been painting almost as long, beginning with a blank white canvas always stresses me out. If I use a matte gel medium and vintage pattern paper, suddenly I am beginning with a texture and a neutral color palette. Sigh of relief.

3. My second step of layering includes using fabrics, which I attach using a heavy matte gel medium. I always use the heavy gel, because it can be used for adding anything on a canvas, fabric, and game pieces, light metal; it is truly multipurpose. If need be I add a bit of water to the gel if I am using something like the pattern paper. I am not a purist, a little water here…a little gel there… The fabric on my 12” x 12” canvas includes crinoline and heavyweight muslin. At this point I added my stencil.

4. Using a stencil on a piece of fabric gives you a step up on the coloring outside the lines vibe. As usual, the inks or paints you use will spread a bit when you are placing your image down. For this piece I used a bottle of black squeeze fabric paint, adding a bit of dimension to the piece also. Try black India ink on your stencil on fabric and watch the spreading begin. Your stencil outline may change a bit, but maybe it will point you in a new direction.

5. I played, I smeared, I outlined (askew). My absolute favorite material for coloring and smearing is the Portfolio Series of water based oil pastels. They are life changing, and very inexpensive. Wet them and draw dry-on-wet, wet-on-wet or use them to scribble into wet paint.

6. I added my words and my gritty little hearts with a fabric squeeze paint bottle.

7. Dry brush gesso on top.

So coloring outside the lines is something some of us grew up thinking was against how we should “create.” Really it is a mindset and the only totally liberating way to make art. Ohhh and by the way I feel so strongly about the saying and lifestyle of coloring outside the lines, I had that tattooed on my ankle. I will show you. xoxox Sue

ABOUT SUE PELLETIER

Her Loose woman stencils, with which this piece was create, are available on StencilGirlsProducts.com, a blog at suepelletierlaughpaint.com and on Facebook.

Words, whimsy and humor inspire her art because that is how Sue approaches life. Drawn to collage and painterly surfaces, her art has naturally progressed into a combination of both. She works with images that are true to her—the house form, childhood toys, vintage dresses—because as an artist and a mother it is what she holds near and dear to her, her kids and the day-to-day journey of life. Sue’s work has been published numerous times in Cloth Paper Scissors and Somerset Studio. She has an MFA from Pratt Institute and teaches elementary school art. She is most happy walking around in paint-splattered clothes, drinking an iced coffee. She has two teenagers, Harly and Connor, who make her laugh each day. She lives in an antique farmhouse in New England with purple shutters. Sue has two painting DVDs from Interweave: “Textures for Collage” and “Preparing to Paint.”

You might also enjoy Acrylic Techniques in Mixed Media: Layer, Scribble, Stencil, Stamp by Roxanne Padgett.

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Summer Reading Give-Away: Art Journal Freedom

Rice Freeman-Zachery — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:00:34 +0000

I thought it would be fun to celebrate summer with some book give-aways, beginning today and continuing every Monday for six weeks (or maybe longer if I come up with more books). Because of scheduling, I’m going to do the actual contest each week on my own blog, Notes from the Voodoo Cafe, but there’s a reason you’ll want to come here first: you can enter your name once each week over at The Voodoo Cafe, AND you can enter it once on the blog post here. I read all the comments, and comments about the video (there’s a Book Notes video for each book, and there’ll be a link to that) or about the description (there’ll be a link to the shop where you can read more about each book) will be A Good Thing. Alas, there are a few rules, and here they are:

~~you can enter here and on my blog, for a total of two entries each week

~~you must have a US mailing address–I’m shipping these myself and will mail only in the US. Sorry about that.

~~you have to check back at The Voodoo Cafe on the following Monday to see if you won.

~~if you win, you must contact me, via email, as soon as possible. If I don’t hear from you, the book will go to someone else.

Sorry for the rules, but I’ve done a ton of giveaways over the years and have learned a lot in the process.

OK–that’s the rule part. Now for the fun part:

Our first Summer Reading Give-Away is Art Journal Freedom: How to Journal Creatively with Color and Composition, by Dina Wakley.

You can find out more about it in the shop, and you can watch the Book Notes video here. Go to my blog, Notes from the Voodoo Cafe, to leave a comment to enter. You can enter again by leaving a comment at the end of this post (to double your chances of winning), but you *must* comment at The Voodoo Cafe to enter (it’s a complicated scheduling thang), and that’s where the winner will be announced next Monday.

Good luck!

Ricë is the author of Living the Creative Life, Creative Time and Space, and Destination Creativity. She also blogs at The Voodoo Cafe.

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Paper, Lovely Paper: Making Tiny Envelopes

Rice Freeman-Zachery — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 10:00:59 +0000

For our last using-up-the-paper project, we’re going to make envelopes–teeny, tiny envelopes. Way too small to send through the mail on their own, they make excellent holders for gift cards and are the perfect size for most business cards. Plus–OK, I admit it–they’re just cute. See?

Download the PDF here.

I glued mine to cardstock because it was going to get a lot of use.

Trace onto the wrong side of your paper. I decided to use the scrap left over from Friday’s library book pocket project because the whole point of these projects is to use up scraps of paper. Duh.

Cut out and score. Fold.

For this one, you’ll need to be more careful about where you put the adhesive–I marked it with a pencil (below). If you apply glue all over the bottom flap, it’s going to stick to the inside of the envelope.

Press flat, and there it is.

Think about making a bunch of these and enclosing your business card in one when you pack an order. Make some to hand out at a workshop or opening, making your card special and less likely to get dropped in a drawer. You could make little bundles of these or any of our other paper-scrap projects to give as swaps at a retreat.

Whatever you do, you’ll feel good knowing every last bit of that fabulous paper was used. Enjoy!

You might also like Art Journal Freedom: How to Journal Creatively with Color and Composition, by Dina Wakley.

Ricë is the author of Living the Creative Life, Creative Time and Space, and Destination Creativity. She also blogs at The Voodoo Cafe.

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Art Studios: Feathering Your Creative Nest

joneam — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:00:47 +0000

A guest post by Victoria Rose Martin

Do you have an art studio? If you do, how does it make you feel? When you step inside and look around does it reflect your inner creative spirit or does it vaguely resemble a scene from a horror film? Is the floor of your studio lined with soft comfy carpet or rows smelly shoes? The road to becoming an artist can be a bumpy one; shouldn’t you at least enjoy the view? In my opinion every artist deserves a cozy nest where creativity abounds.

Be inspired! I am here to tell you that you deserve a dedicated workspace that looks as good as the artwork being made. Too often I see homes with a living room that bears a striking resemblance to a day care center with wall-to-wall toys. Why is it that so many of us put ourselves last on the list for fulfillment? And may I add if you’re paying the rent or mortgage on a dwelling, you’ve earned a creative space within its walls. Even if it’s a corner in your living room an artist needs a place where they can easily access or squirrel away supplies.

The good news is you don’t need to spend a fortune to set up a well-organized workspace. The most important part is a worktable. You’ll also need storage for your supplies so you can have them close at hand. Seriously, is there anything worse than tearing the house apart searching for something you need? No matter how big or small here are 5 tips to setting up your studio space.

1. Your workspace should be a direct refection of you so surround yourself with things you love. If something inspires creativity and sets your imagination afire then include it and if not leave it out. Art studios should be welcoming and enhance creativity.

2. Find items you can repurpose for both your studio and even as art projects. A recent favorite source of inspiration for me is Green Craft Magazine.

It’s filled with a bounty of great ideas for discovering new uses for old things. For example old tin cans make great paintbrush holders. Simply give them a shot of spray paint in a color that coordinates with your studio. I upcycyled old fence pickets to create a shelf with a rustic feel on my own worktable.

And if you come up with great ideas of your own then by all means post those images on your blog.

3. If your space doesn’t have a breathtaking view then create one. Hang a beautiful work of art or an inspiration board over your worktable. Display images of people, places or things, which you admire. Be sure to change the images as your tastes change to keep it fresh.

4. If your workspace doesn’t have a door or is part of another room then find a way to define the space. Perhaps you could use a potted tree as a partition or if you reside in a rural area gather branches and twigs and arrange them creatively in an old bucket or pail. Look for old shutters in a junk shop and add hinges to create a rustic room divider. You could also use paint to create an accent wall or use chalkboard paint to carve out an area where you can jot brilliant ideas or motivational messages. I painted the back wall of my studio bright tangerine and I love the warm glow it brings to the room.

5. And finally before you lift a finger to begin feathering your creative space, take a picture. Document your progress with photographs and post those images on your blog. Who doesn’t love a good before and after? To you it may not be a big deal but as I stated last month a lot of us out here are voyeurs. People are interested in watching you grow as an artist.

Inspiration can be found anywhere. An artist doesn’t need a diploma to be productive; they simply need a will to create. And even if your studio is right now the living room sofa remember it’s about being inspired and having fun.

Victoria Rose Martin is an artist and designer currently living in South Florida. She is the Department Chair for Fine Art and Graphic Design at Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth, Florida. You can visit her website at: VictoriaRoseMartin.com.

You might also enjoy the Art Studio Solutions Value Pack containing 3 eBooks and 3 eMags dedicated to making your art studio as awesome and effective as possible.

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Paper, Lovely Paper: Making Library Pockets for Your Journal

Rice Freeman-Zachery — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:00:52 +0000

Today I’ve got another really easy project–it’s so easy you don’t really think of it as a “project”–that’s excellent for 1) using those scraps and single sheets of paper and 2) making something really useful for your journal–or for the books in your own personal library. No matter how you use your journal–for notes, or sketching, or writing, or whatever–there are always little bits and pieces of things you want to include, even it it’s only temporary. Ticket stubs, receipts, business cards. You stick them between the pages and then, when you sit down to draw or write, everything cascades out into your lap. You can use paper clips or binder clips, but those can be unwieldy. So I went to the teacher supply store and bought a package of library book pockets–the ones they used in the old days for holding the cards that were stamped with the day date (I’m saying this because I’m guessing there are some people who are going, “Library card pockets? Huh?”). These were cool, but they were a boring kind of manila folder yellow-ish, and as I was stamping and staining them, I realized I could just make my own out of groovy paper.

Of course you could go get a pocket and make your own pattern, but I’ve saved you the trouble. See? Here’s a PDF of the pattern. You can enlarge it to make it bigger or shrink it down tiny, whatever works for you.

Here’s what the back will look like:

You’ll need:

–the pattern

–paper

–pencil

–straight edge and bone folder (or table knife or other scoring tool)

–scissors

–glue stick and/or double-stick tape

You might want to glue the pattern to a piece of cardstock–as you can see, I’ve used mine many, many times:

Trace the pattern onto the wrong side of your paper and then score on the dotted lines:

Fold on those scores and use glue stick or double-stick tape on the two tabs. Press flat, and you’re done. I said it was quick-n-easy, didn’t I?

I like to use an X of double-stick tape to adhere the pocket to a page or the inside cover of the journal, but glue stick works fine. When I first started making these, I had pockets stuck pretty much everywhere: pages, covers, fly leaves. It’s fun to make one for the inside cover of each of your own books, even if you never lend them to anyone: you can record where you got the book, when you read it, what you thought about it. You could put in one of those bookmarks you cut last week, ready to go! Plus you get to admire a piece of really nice paper that’s found a useful new life~~

For more art journaling ideas, check out the Journal Fodder 365 value pack that includes a book, a DVD, and a journal.

Ricë is the author of Living the Creative Life, Creative Time and Space, and Destination Creativity. She also blogs at The Voodoo Cafe.

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Giving Is Getting: Handmade Gifts

joneam — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 10:00:24 +0000

A guest post by Melanie Rothschild

I hate to buy anything that I think I can make myself. In a sense, I kind of pride myself on living that way. At the top of this list is birthday cards. They’re expensive. At $3 – $5 apiece if you give just one card per month, you’ve raked up roughly $40 a year in greeting card expenses.

Investing that same $40 in frivolous and random materials could be a much wiser outlay.

In addition to creating a little cash flow for extra supplies, making your own cards is a huge opportunity in a much more important sense. It’s a chance to get into a creative zone in a very genuine way; you’re working on something that’s important, maybe even deeply important, but in reality it’s actually not that important, at least not in terms of the whole scheme of living life important. Devoting yourself to making a card allows you the freedom to allot time, focus and attention to a project you care about. However, regardless of how it comes out, the intentions of showing thought and care are going to be fulfilled. Therefore, making cards is a chance to rip and roar, to try things you haven’t done before, to roam and wonder with ideas and to bust out of your usual style. It’s essentially an almost sure-fire recipe for working creatively.

I’ve found that making cards has often been a conduit for taking me to completely new ideas that I’ve used in other contexts. I was out to dinner with my friend Gopi and found out that his birthday was the next day. The only way I could send him a card was with email. Shoot. I had absolutely no intention of sending a pre-set digital template. But what to do?

To be candid, my tech skills are minimal, very minimal. The only post-industrial skill I could rely on was the ability to take a picture and send it. I got a silly idea in my head. I dumped a few cups of baking soda on a black tray and started to play. I spread the powder across the tray and tested out writing words in it the way you would write in sand at the beach. I used a few different implements that were in arm’s reach: a knife, a spatula, a fork, an eraser, and two of my own fingers (one smaller and one larger).

Voila. . . a new technique. I now had a way of working I could use all year long to send cards and messages. The presentation seems to delight people, it’s easy to do … and talk about economical!! The potential for application is just so rich: thanks you’s, congratulations, reminders, jokes and on and on.

The particular technique is not the important point. What is significant is using some reason – a birthday or some other occasion as a catalyst, a friendly challenge to propel yourself to come up with a new direction, to try something you might otherwise never have attempted. This is a potent opportunity for flexing creative muscle. The stronger that muscle becomes, the more easily it can be applied in all sorts of other, unrelated situations.

That can make it all the more appealing to dive into creating something new for the next special occasion. Rather than a vicious cycle, I’d call it a delicious cycle.

Melanie Rothschild is a self-taught artist whose elaborate interior accessories have been sold in stores throughout the United States including Neiman-Marcus, the shops at the Smithsonian Institution, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and hundreds of others for almost two decades. Her work is shown in fine art galleries and has been licensed to Target. She considers moxie, an irreverent nature, and a respect for mistake-making to be the tools of her trade. Melanie has a master’s degree in the Study of Creativity and an undergrad degree in Anthropology. She is from and lives in Los Angeles. “Like” Melanie on Facebook today!

Click here to see more of Melanie’s artwork and a short preview of her documentary, MISTAKE.

You might also enjoy Art Saves by Jenny Doh.

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Art is You: Go Forward & Retreat

Rice Freeman-Zachery — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Last week Tonia and I told you about the Art is You contest, and how each week here you’ll have a chance to nominate someone to win a fabulous (and generous!) prize package to make attending a retreat possible for someone. This week, I asked the organizers, Sallianne & Ellen, to tell us a little more about how the retreats change lives and create community. Here’s what they had to say:

Go Forward and Retreat: How meeting face to face can cause a shift in your life.

Ellen walked around the registration table, put her arms around a woman and squeezed tight. She had a smile so wide and her excitement was palpable. She was a first timer. She was on her own. As she gathered together her registration pack, I turned to greet the next artist. She was one of our alumni but the hugs and welcome were no less intense or meaningful. We introduced our alum to our “newbie” and within moments they were gone, off to connect over schedules and art.

Our family was assembling. We are the guardians of this family. No matter what the story, no matter what the mindset, we are there to nurture the art…crafting a face to face movement of belonging.

Many of our family are already connected through various forms of long-distance technology. Some have created friendships in online forums and groups, blogs, and online workshops. However, using the internet to get away from the internet is where the real transformation and the real stirring happens. They come looking for something more and it finds them. New paths are forged and they gather united face to face, hand to hand, sometimes for a week or even a few days at Art is…You.

Our family consists of men and women from all walks of life. Some work, some are retired. A number have left frozen dinners in the freezer for family while others have organized doggy daycare. Many have saved all year for this moment. There are the handful that comes pulling a rollaway truck of supplies, workshop and itinerary details neatly printed and collated. While others fly through the door, their Michael’s plastic bag bulging with last minute purchases. No matter how they arrive, they all have something in common…they are finally listening to what life is telling them and giving themselves permission to play.

The laughter of anticipation can be heard and the deep exhaling of many who have held their breath for a whole year can be felt. At the end of each day the atmosphere is overflowing with joy and celebratory glee as our faculty and their students come together to gloat over the beautiful pieces that were created with their own hands. To stroke and treasure another artist’s piece, rub shoulders with their joy, and to hold their hand while they share their process is life changing for many.

The communal time is very important. Mornings are a mix of powerful messages and motivating moments. Luncheons are large, loud and festive. Intimate and low key art evenings round out each day. When there is not an official function, you can find artists grouped together over coffee, over wine, over dinner and over art…old friends greeting new friends like they were old friends. This is an experience bursting with inspiration, friendship, and art.

At the end of the week, we all go back to “real life”, but for many there is a shift. Awareness and priorities change. Fresh ideas surface. Instead of jumping back onto life’s treadmill, and feeling bound by routine, artists are incorporating what they have discovered into their lives. Discovering that the impossible becomes reasonable and the unfeasible becomes simple. This change for some is immediate, for others it takes time but once you have held the hand of another artist, that shift is inevitable.

Building a weekend retreat for artists to come together was intentional. However, the formation of our generous family, the remarkable life that it has created and the heartwarming journey that it has taken us on was something we didn’t imagine and we couldn’t have predicted.

Song writer Gary Portnoy put it so succinctly in the first line of the theme song from the Cheers sitcom: “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came; You want to be where you can see, Our troubles are all the same; You want to be where everybody knows your name.”

We encourage you to join us!
Sallianne McClelland (The Information) and Ellen Legare (The Decoration)
June 2013
Find out more about Art is You here.

Remember: To nominate someone to win the prize, leave a comment here explaining who it is you’d like to see win and why. At the end of the month, Art is You and Create Mixed Media will select the winner. And . . .one winner will be randomly chosen from each week’s batch of comments to win the North Light book of their choice.

To find out more about art retreats, check out Destination Creativity.

Ricë is the author of Living the Creative Life, Creative Time and Space, and Destination Creativity. She also blogs at The Voodoo Cafe.

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Paper, Lovely Paper: Making Page Corners

Rice Freeman-Zachery — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:00:43 +0000

OK–so this week we’re using up those single sheets and scraps of fabulous paper that you just can’t bear to throw away. We’re going to start with a really simple but oh-so-satisfying project: page corners.

The beauty of these is that they’re super-quick to make, you can make four of them from one sheet of paper, and they’re perfect bookmarks: they don’t mar the pages of books, they make it easy to find your place, and they’re excellent gifts: if you’re giving someone a book, you can make a dozen of these to go along with it.

I have no idea where I got this pattern–I’ve had it for years, and it’s dingy and marked up and curled at the edges. I’m guessing someone gave me some page corners and I took one apart and made a pattern. If you think you’re going to be making a lot of these, make yourself a cardboard pattern–print out the pattern and glue it to cardstock or chipboard:

Download the PDF page corner pattern–full-sized, ready to go.

You’ll also need:

–paper (at least 1/4 of a sheet)

–pencil

–ruler or straight-edge

–bone folder (or the dull side of a table knife)

–scissors

–glue stick

Here’s a regular-sized sheet of paper–you can get four page corners from this.

Flip it over to the back side:

Cut out your pattern and trace it onto the back of the paper:

Score where the dotted lines were:

Cut it out and fold it on the scored lines:

Use the glue stick to cover the little tab–not too much or it will squish over the edges and make the corner stick to itself, but enough: you want it nicely sealed and flat, with no curling-up edges:

Press flat, let dry, and there you have it:

If you have trouble with the corner sticking to itself when it dries, try inserting a little corner of waxed paper in there until it’s dry.

On Friday we’ll do another book-themed paper-salvaging project: library pockets, which are perfect for using in your art journal to hold all kinds of bits and pieces.

If you find yourself getting into paper folding, check out Origami World, by Didier Boursin.

Ricë is the author of Living the Creative Life, Creative Time and Space, and Destination Creativity. She also blogs at The Voodoo Cafe.

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Grid Drawing from Doodle Draw Journal

joneam — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 10:00:46 +0000

Doodle Draw Journal: An Art Journaling Workbook edited by Kristy Conlin is full of awesome doodling tips and prompts to provide you with inspiration for your art journal, and to help improve your doodling-drawing skills. Below you’ll find an exercise from Doodle Draw Journal, “Draw Within a Grid” originally from Dreaming from the Journal Page. You’ll also find a bonus project not included in Doodle Draw Journal, about “Asymmetry” from Art Journal Freedom. Have fun with these grid drawing challenges!

Draw Within a Grid

Originally published in Dreaming from the Journal Page by Melanie Testa

Try drawing like items around the house—cups, plants, spice jars or scissors will work nicely. Using a pencil, draw a grid in a size appropriate to your journal (mine is a 2″ [5cm] grid). Play with the idea of maintaining the grid without necessarily filling every bit of each square. Fill in just enough so you know a grid was used. Use every pen in your collection, one pen per square. Fill each portion of the grid with a new drawing. Use decorative marks to shade, fill space and define each drawing.

Materials List

journal
choice of drawing utensil
ruler
random objects

YOU TRY IT:

In her introduction to this technique, Melanie Testa suggests a few items (cups, plants, spice jars) you might consider for this exercise. What other subjects might you choose to focus your efforts on? Do you have any collections? Is there a subject that is particularly meaningful or important to you? Another popular grid-based exercise comes from some of the first classes you might take at art school. Or maybe you’ve done this in your high school art classes: choose one item (like a tube of lipstick or doll or figurine) and draw it in different positions or from different angles.

Asymmetry

from Art Journal Freedom by Dina Wakley

Confidence
by Dina Wakley

I love asymmetry. I am not sure if it’s a reflection of my right-brained mind, but I find asymmetry exciting. When I start a page, I tend to automatically move toward an asymmetrical composition. I tend to resist rigid structure in my art (and even in my life). Asymmetry speaks to me.

Asymmetry is when the elements on one half of a composition do not mirror the elements on the other half, but there is equal visual weight on both sides. Asymmetrical compositions are informal, energetic and even chaotic. There’s no one formula for asymmetrical compositions, and that is what makes asymmetry so interesting. Oh, the possibilities! With asymmetry, you’re not bound by the rigid structure that symmetry requires.

Every now and then, though, a symmetrical page will pop up in my journals. Sometimes symmetry is what a page needs to express what is in my soul at that moment.

If you draw a line down the middle of my journal page, So This Is Progress, the asymmetry is obvious. The black silhouette is on the far left. I balanced the visual weight of the strong figure with the three white circles that start behind the figure and move to the top right. The white space on the bottom right also gives visual weight to the right side of the page.

One way to create an asymmetrical composition is to use the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is a compositional tool that helps you know where to put your focal point. To use the rule, divide your surface into thirds vertically and horizontally. The areas where the lines intersect are called “power points.” By putting your subject in one of the power points, you create balance and visual interest.

The rule of thirds is related to the rule of threes. In its simplest form, the rule of threes means that the human eye tends to prefer seeing odd numbers of things, particularly three things. For example, if you are using circles on a page, the eye tends to prefer seeing three instead of two or four. If you’re creating a page and something seems off, check to see if the rule of thirds and the rule of threes can help your composition.

When you use three elements on the page, your eyes look at each one and connect them together to form a visual triangle. Our eyes like visual triangles! A visual triangle adds stability and flow to a composition. In So This Is Progress, the large silhouette is in the two left power points. The three white circles in the background form a visual triangle. If there were only two circles, the eye would bounce back and forth between them. Because there are three, the eye follows the visual triangle around the composition.

Symmetry Grid
from Dina Wakley

Is Your Art Unbalanced?
If you create an asymmetrical composition with unequal visual weight on both sides, it is considered unbalanced. Unbalanced art is an art school no-no, but anything goes in an art journal! It can be harder than you think to make an unbalanced page. Even large areas of empty space can be a balancing influence

So This Is Progress
by Dina Wakley

Exploring Symmetry and Asymmetry

Use a symmetrical composition when you want to:
Play with pattern, repetition and order.
Force a viewer to look at every detail equally in your page.
Convey a sense of calm.
Use an asymmetrical composition when you want to:
Heighten drama in your work.
Create a sense of motion and play.
Create visual interest and complexity.

Orange Silhouette
by Dina Wakley

Page Challenges

Create a grid composition.
An easy way to add some symmetry to your work is to use a grid. You could draw a grid right onto your page and create in the squares. For Butterfly Grid, I created a grid with inky and painted papers. The gridded composition forces you to look at all the squares. None of the squares is overly dominant, so you must discover them all equally.

Create a center-weighted composition.
I very rarely put my focal point smack in the center of my page, but doing just that is a simple way to create a symmetrical page. For Girl With Attitude, I placed my silhouetted figure right in the middle. Instant symmetry! I surrounded the figure with journaling so the visual weight of the journaling would be spread across the entire page.

Butterfly Grid
by Dina Wakley

Learn more about the books featured in this post:

Doodle Draw Journal edited by Kristy Conlin

Dreaming from the Journal Page by Melanie Testa

Art Journal Freedom by Dina Wakley

MORE RESOURCES FOR MIXED MEDIA ARTISTS

Paper, Lovely Paper: Using Up That Scrap Paper

Rice Freeman-Zachery — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 10:00:58 +0000

Oh, my. Have I had a long-term relationship with paper. I wouldn’t want to say that I used to hoard it–”hoarding” has been plagued such horribly visuals lately–but I did have The Paper Room, an entire room in our house that was filled with shelves and boxes and stacks of amazing, wonderful, fabulous paper–most of it free. Years and years ago when I first started rubber stamping, I made some intricate pop-up cards and took them around to the printing companies in town and asked if they would save their scraps for me. I developed a relationship with the largest company, and for over a decade, Kitty saved everything from vellum to heavy cotton paper to tissue paper, from business-card-sized cardstock to sheets large enough to fold into pages for over-sized books. It was marvelous, and I gave away a ton of paper I didn’t need–schools, churches, after-school programs–and still had enough to do anything I wanted that required paper. It was amazing.

Of course, I also had paper I bought: marbled paper, bark paper, painted paper. Then, when I wrote about Arnold Grummer and they sent me a huge box of paper-making supplies to play with–including a wonderful paper press–of course I started making my own.

I think you get the idea: I had a *lot* of paper. And when I began to turn from paper crafts to focus more on my first love, fabric, I needed to do something with what I had left after giving away boxes and boxes and more boxes full of paper. There was some that was just too cool to get rid of, in single sheets that wouldn’t really work for schools (who’s going to get to use the cool neon paper? Who gets to use the half-sheet with flower inclusions?). I found some patterns for useful stuff–envelopes, book pockets, page markers–and created a stash of things I still use today, years later. I wanted to share those this week; I’m sure I’m not the only one with a little bit of a paper issue, maybe a little extra paper I can’t bear to get rid of. Right?

So for the next several days, I’ll be providing PDFs, photos and instructions for really simple projects that are actually useful–really!–and will let you use (and keep, if you can’t bear to share) all those sheets of fabulous paper.

But first, before we start, this: if you’ve got paper you love, save all the scraps you trim away in the making of these. When I cleared out The Paper Room and all the drawers of handmade paper, I gathered up the sheets I loved the most, hauled out the paper trimmer, and made myself enough bookmarks to last approximately the rest of my life:

I love using these–so much better than the random bit of torn newspaper or tissue hastily grabbed to mark your place. Every time I use one, I admire the paper. It becomes softer with use, and that’s lovely, too.

So check back to get ideas and instructions for using your stash~~

You might also enjoy checking out Mixed Media Storytelling Workbook: Art Journaling Inspiration, Words and Prompts, edited by Kristy Conlin.

Ricë is the author of Living the Creative Life, Creative Time and Space, and Destination Creativity. She also blogs at The Voodoo Cafe.

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Color Outside the Lines

Reasons why it is good to color outside the lines:

Coloring outside my lines.

ABOUT SUE PELLETIER

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