As a former elementary school teacher, snow days will always hold a special place in my heart.  Snow days meant unexpected artful days in the studio.   We didn’t get the snow today that the weatherman promised, okay, predicted…But I decided to take a snow day for play anyway with icicles on a canvas!

You can watch Soul Play with Paint and Stencils on YouTube here.

Here’s what I started with from another day’s play. Just a touch of color…you know me…

 Supplies Used

• Use Your Words stencil
• White Stabilo pencil
• Heavy bodied white paint
• Paint Pens
• Acrylic inks
• Crystal Effectz Opal Essence

Thanks for stopping by for a bit of color and play!

Saying hello to my friends at  Inspire Me Monday and Creative Every Day.

There are all sorts of crazies you can meet at Art Is You.  I should know since I meet the best artsy friends there!  I still remember my first Art Is You.  I nervously went by myself and left with friends.  The theme this year is Art Is Your BFF and it says it all.  But that’s not the kind of crazies I mean…this post is about meeting the crazies in your paintings, the workshop I am teaching in October.

You can watch Meet the Crazies Workshop at Art Is You on YouTube here.

The Crazies are fun characters that pop up in paintings!  These people live inside every paint tube and I’ll show you how to unleash them as we play with paints.  Don’t feel comfortable drawing people? No problem! Drawing these Crazies isn’t drawing at all.

We’ll be using stencils with acrylic paint in very playful non-traditional ways as we lay the foundation for the Crazies.  Along the way you’ll learn how to use your 6 colors for bold and subtle effects before we add the outlines of our Crazies.

I’ll share with you my 3 simple steps to telling the story behind your characters. It is amazing to watch their personalities emerge.  Although no experience with paint or story telling is needed for this workshop even experienced painters will start seeing all the crazy characters popping up in their paint!

Your finished piece will be mounted on a wooden board no larger than 12×12 so it will easily fit into a suitcase for easy travel.

Supplies brought by students:

Bring any supplies that you have that do the job of the supplies listed.  We are not going to measure the width of your brush but I included sizes to give you an approximate idea.  I have links to the products I use but please please please use what you have!

• 6 colors of acrylic paint (any brand) that you like plus white. Here is the link to the paints I use frequently.
•  This is the link to the heavy bodied white paint called Titanium White.
• 4 Stenciling brushes (I use kiddie ones as shown in the video. These can be found in the kids section of craft stores or  Kids Stenciling Brushes can be found on-line)
• Paint brushes: 1/4” flat, 1/2” flat, and 1” flat (any variation of flat brush works)
• Rubber brayer any size (if you don’t have one I’ll have some to share)
• Matte Gel medium (any brand)
• Heat gun
• A water container to clean your brushes (this can be as simple as a plastic cup)

$15 Kit fee includes all other supplies.

Hope you can join me for some colorful play time as we Meet the Crazies in our paintings!