Come Follow One of my Works in Progress

Happy New Year everyone ~ a little late to the party, I know!  I am dusting off the art supplies and getting back to the painting and blogging.  As January is always such a gray month, I decided to start a large, colorful painting (not that I have to be convinced to use color).

I thought I would share with you the piece as it progresses.

So...kind of fun to watch the progression, yes? Make sure to check back and I will post again with finished results!  I will also be posting pictures on Instagram if you want to follow me there!

Evolution of a City

Today I will take you on a tour of my city...Nashville.

Well, sort of.  I will show you how my cityscape painting of Nashville came to be through progression photos!

Here is where I began with my 24x48 canvas.

And this is where I ended.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

This painting will debut at my next show, Centennial Holiday Show, November 22-23. Hope to see you there.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check my past posts and some of my free tutorials on my blog page above or at  Kirsten Reed Designs or just follow me on Bloglovin' and get them delivered to your inbox!

WISH...an art journal page with PanPastel

Welcome to the StencilGirl & PanPastel Blog Hop! The StencilGirl team has been featuring wonderful PanPastels and StencilGirl stencils in their creations all week!  I hope you have been tuning in and learning all the versatility of these projects.

I decided to create a journal page.  I began with my favorite thing ~ collage ~ gluing down torn music sheets on my jumbo moleskin journal. I love to work BIG.  I then gave it a light white wash with Titanium White.

Before adding any PanPastels or other texture, I stenciled the word WISH with Carolyn Dube's Jumbo Typewriter stencils and some Teal paint.

I then took Andrea DeMeng's Free As a Bird and Fowl Play stencils and scraped molding paste through it in various parts of my journal page.  I also used Cecilia Swatton's Queen Anne's Lace stencil to create a garden of flowers.

After the paste dried, I did a light wash in watercolor.

After the watercolor wash dried, I began with some PanPastels for color mixing in Diarylide Yellow pan pastel in various areas, beginning the layers of my sky.

I used Magenta pan pastel on the flowers and came in with different layers of Bright Yellow Green, Chromium Oxide Green and Phthalo Green Shade PanPastels to create the stems, grass and brush.

I painted Titanium White inside the birds to block out the music notes and after they dried, I went over the texture on them lightly with Phthalo Blue PanPastel. As a finishing touch I went around the edges and into the sky with violet and turquoise PanPastels.  I then took my wet paintbrush and dipped it in the watered down white and flicked sprinkles over the entire page.

Here are some close ups:

Here is the whole page.

Here is a list all the PanPastel colors I used in my project.  

Magenta

Bright Yellow Green

Diarylide Yellow

Phthalo Green Shade

Chrom. Oxide Green

Phthalo Blue

Violet

Turquoise

These are the sponges I used to apply my pan pastels:

Angle Slice Round

Angle Slice Flat

Point Sponge Bar

Knife & cover No. 1 Round

They can be found on the PanPastel website.  For more ideas, be sure to "like" their Facebook Page!

Here are the stencils I used:

 

Keep Watching More Great Tutorials This Week with the StencilGirl Design Team.
Here are links to days past and ones for those coming up!

Monday

StencilGirl Talk

Mary Beth Shaw

Mary C. Nasser

Tuesday

StencilGirl Talk

Janet Joehlin

Jennifer Priest

Leslie Tucker Jenison

Wednesday

StencilGirl Talk

Gwen Lafleur

Kirsten Reed -- You are here today! :) 

Julia Kellogg

Thursday  - These you will have to come back and visit tomorrow!

StencilGirl Talk

Carolyn Dube

Maria McGuire

GIVEAWAY!!
Make sure you leave a comment because StencilGirl will be giving away a stencil per day for all four days and all comments are an entry to win!  Good luck!

We know after you see all the techniques we show you this week you are going to want to play too! Enter the GIVEAWAY to be eligible to win the prize below. Just leave a comment and tell us if you use PanPastels with stencils and your favorite technique. You can also leave comments on all of the individual posts this week on all the blogs from our team members for another chance to win! All comments within the 4 day period are eligible.

GIVEAWAY closes Sunday, August 3rd @ 11:59PM Central Time.

One comment per post please.

This is YOUR PRIZE if selected!!!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, be sure to check my other free tutorials on my website at

  Kirsten Reed Designs or just follow me on Bloglovin' and get them delivered to your inbox!

StencilGirl & Traci Bautista Create Flower Power!

Welcome to the StencilGirl Blog Hop with Traci Bautista's new stencil line!

I received the Flower Party stencil to play with, which is perfect for me because I love to paint flowers!

I began by prepping my 12x24 canvas with a layer of Golden Fluid acrylic Naples Yellow paint and dabbed Titanium White through the stencil.  After that dried, I used a combination of Color Shine, Adirondack and Tattered Angel's Chalkboard sprays and made lots of layers and drips as seen below.

I added drips of Daler Rowley india ink in grass green.  This is one of my favorite supplies of all time. I adore the vivid color the inks give and the bright green just pops off the canvas!

I used the drips from the top to "create" my vase and painted it in with raw umber and gray.

I have been on a kick lately of NOT using my brushes as much as possible, because I love the organic feel it gives to my paintings.  I used my fingers to bring out, define, highlight and shadow my bouquet.

Here is the final result.

Some close ups:

Here is a picture of the supplies I used ~ most of which can be found here.

Hope you enjoyed this flower party and got some ideas stirring for another way to use Traci's stencils! 

If you enjoyed this tutorial, be sure to check my other free tutorials on my website at

  Kirsten Reed Designs or just follow me on Bloglovin' and get them delivered to your inbox!

***STENCILGIRL GIVEAWAY***

Make sure you leave a comment because EVERY comment on EVERY blog is an entry to win FREE stencils on StencilGirl Talk!

TWO Lucky Winners will be chosen to win one  ENTIRE SET of Traci's new stencils.
Giveaway will close Sunday, July 27, 2014 at 11:59 pm CST.  That's two whole weeks to enter to win!!  Remember to keep hopping along with those artists listed below and the more comments you make the more entries! 

Good Luck!

BLOG HOP ORDER:

StencilGirl Talk

Traci Bautista

Mary Beth Shaw

Carolyn Dube

Jennifer Priest
Gwen Lafleur

Kirsten Reed You are HERE

Leslie Tucker Jenison Go HERE next

Mary C. Nasser

Julia Kellogg

Maria McGuire
 

I like 'em Sunny Side Up...

I really love flowers.  I love gardening and growing things.  I love looking out my studio window and seeing blooms.  One of my favorite flowers, besides tulips and peonies, are daisies.  Just simple white daisies.  I know, they are cheap, but there is something so sweet and innocent about them.

I was thinking about them the other day as I started this canvas in my studio and although I didn't quite create a daisy, I was inspired by the simplicity of the white and yellow blooms.

I wanted a simple painting but with a lot of texture.  The entire bottom half of this painting is collage of book paper.

I kept my palette simple ~ blue, gray, brown and yellow.  I used Golden molding paste to create flowers that popped off the canvas. It is important not to use "light" molding paste for this kind of piece or joint compound (which is water soluble and will dissolve with paint on top).  I used a  charcoal pencil for definition.

Can you see the texture?

My flowers kind of look like flying eggs, sunny side up.  I think it works any way ~ a little funky, fun and elegant!

Be sure to check out all my free tutorials on my blog page above marked ART TUTORIALS,
or visit me on my website at Kirsten Reed Designs.

You can also follow me on Bloglovin' and get them delivered to your inbox!

Here are the supplies I used for this piece:

Golden Molding Paste

Charcoal stick

Golden Fluid Acrylic Paints

Liquitex Basic Acrylic Paints

Fly Away with Me, StencilGirl & Craft Hoarders Anonymous Challenge #10!

Come join me as I use my stash & a challenge to create a new piece of art!

You don't have to ask me twice to get messy when it comes to art, so when I read Challenge #10 from Craft Hoarders Anonymous Challenge Blog ~ I was scrambling to pull out supplies and make a lovely artsy mess! 

Challenge #10 Spray It! Ink It! Paint It! Smear It! Emboss It!

Show us your inner mixed media diva! Use spray mists, inks, paints, modeling paste, embossing powder, pastels, chalk, and whatever messy media you can find! Let's dig into that hoard, pull out some of that "messy stuff," and use it up! There is a mess-maker hiding in all of you! Let her/him out to play!

I started with a canvas I have in my pile of canvases with backgrounds but nothing else on them.  I call it my Lonely Tribe of Backgrounds - there are quite a few!  This one in particular I had created this amazing background with Golden Fluid Acrylic paints and glazing medium.  I allowed it dry for 24 hours and got this scrumptious background.

Here is a close up.

I began by layering different stencils with some paint to try and "unstick" my mind.  I had no plan at this point.  I love using lots of different stencils for texture and helping me free my creativity.  Read at the end of my post for the StencilGirl stencils I used.  I know, I know "Holy Stencil Hoarding!" :)

I started with the Queen Anne Lace stencil, only using the top part.  This made my background remind me of the sea and the "lace" looked like coral to me.

I used some of the stencils with Heidi Swapp Color Shine sprays in various colors. I love these iridescent sprays because they are waterproof and oh so shimmery!

Look at that shimmer! Yum...

I started seeing an underwater picture and sketched out some fish.  But then I got majorly stuck.  I didn't want to cover anything but it was too chaotic to leave it like it was...so I went a completely different route.

 I scrapped the underwater scene because there was so much of the background I loved that I would lose by having to 'paint out' with water.  I decided to sketch out a butterfly with my stabilo pencil in black.  These pencils are great because they erase with a little spritz of water and wipe with a paper towel.

I used wood icing for texture with Carolyn Dube's Uplifting Words stencil and Nathalie Kalbach's What's the Point? stencil.

I began painting around the butterfly with titanium white to bring it out and separate it from the background.  I allowed lots of drippage because I think drips are gorgeous!

I continued with layers of color using splashes of Dr. Ph. Martin's Bombay India inks   and Daler Rowney India inks~ my favorite is the light green (it should be called lime green)! I also used lemon yellow, flame orange, teal and flame red.

 To add detailing to the butterfly, I began doodling on top of it with my white Fine Point Sharpie.  I continued to add other India inks for more color and depth around the wood icing.

Here are some close-ups of the butterfly.

 

And here is a photo of the final 24x24 canvas.

My butterfly is escaping a chaotic world and pursuing everything she believes in!

Hope you enjoying "flying" along with me today!

For more art tutorials, click my page above or you can make sure you don't miss a post and follow me on Bloglovin and Kirsten Reed Designs on Facebook.

Leave me a comment to be entered in the  GIVEAWAY!

StencilGirl Products will be picking FIVE winners this week--one from each day!

Visit each blog and leave a comment. 

The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN! 

One comment per blog please.

You will have until Sunday, June 22nd at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments. The winners will be announced on the StencilGirl Facebook on Tuesday, June 24th.

Stencils Used:

Just click on each one and it will take you directly to the page to purchase.

  

  

Supplies Other than Stencils Used In This Piece: