ATC - Artist's Trading Cards

I just learned about artist's trading cards (A.T.C.) and I love them.  I made 8 today and can't stop. They are so much fun.  I found them on the internet and can't wait to take them to my art class on Tuesday and trade with my fellow artists.  Of course, they will have to make some, too, so we can act like little kids and trade with each other!!!

Art, LIke Life, Is a Journey, Not a Destination

After sending out my combo newsletter (belly dance and crafting) to 913 people, I got one response this morning from a  lovely lady who wants to get back into "art" and my reply seemed to cover a lot of ground, so I have reprinted it here for you all.

Dear Penny,

I enjoyed reading your blog today, which I received as a result of taking belly dancing classes a few years prior.  I loved art in high school (I am now 55) and my mother disposed of all my art work from then after I moved out.   My husband bought me a sketch pad several years ago that I've never touched.  It's not that I haven't wanted to use it as I am inspired to the point where I think "I can draw or paint that" but it just stays in my head.  While my kids were growing up I would always doodle.  There was a restaurant we would go to where you could color or draw on the tablecloth and they would want to save the doodles.  I guess my main question is, what paint supplies would you suggest a beginner invest in to start with?  Thank you for your time and insight.

Kathy

Hi, Kathy,

Thanks for your email.  I know what you mean about lacking confidence.  For me, what happens is, the more I paint, the better I get and the more confidence I build up.  Like any skill in life that you want to excel in, you have to practice, practice, practice. 

What medium do you want to start with?  Watercolor?  Acrylics?  Oils?  I have just purchased a set of water soluble oils that I can't wait to try.  Usually I paint with acrylics and I prefer the Jo Sonja brand because I was trained as a tole painter, and that's one of the best paints I have found for all surfaces.  I paint on wood, metal, glass, paper, canvas, furniture, walls, etc.  If it doesn't move, I am likely to decorate it. 

I have not tried watercolor, so I can't say what to use in that category.  But I do use a variety of mediums with my acrylics.  I like Liquitex and Golden Brands for art projects and usually purchase the glaze medium, flow medium, retarder (slow drier) in the brand I am using at the time.  I even like the cheap craft paints for some things.  It all depends on what I am doing.  Lately I have started doing mixed media using dimensional paints, gels and additives that make the paint thicker and give it texture on the canvas. 

Brushes seem to be addictive.  I have to have ALL the specialty brushes, and everyone says to buy the best ones you can afford because you will paint better with a good brush.  My favorite type of brush is an angle in various sizes, because I can float color for shading and highlighting, and I can do lots of tole techniques with it.  But I also have fan brushes, rounds, flats, brights, daggers, scruffies, mops, scripts, and comb brushes.  I can use them all for either acrylics or water soluble oils, but not for watercolor.  You need to keep those brushes separate, or so I have been told. 

I'm sure I have just confused you because you wanted to know what to use as a beginner to get into "art."  Well, my other addiction is books.  I love painting books, and recently found 30 of the Walter Foster series at a thrift shop.  I suggest you find a book on the type of painting you want to start with and purchase the items they list in the front that are necessary for that medium.  Or, watch the TV shows on Create TV.  I watch Bob Ross, Susan Scheewe, Donna Dewberry and Jerry Yarnell.  I love videos.  I learn from each and every one of them. 

In fact, Bob Ross is going to be on in a few minutes, so I am getting my tea, settling down in front of the boob tube, and am ready to soak up more painting info.

Good luck to you!  Most of all, have fun!  Life, like art, is a journey.  It's not a destination.

Penny


Penny Stewart, 951 763 2068
Visit my Blog: Painting for Fun and Profit, Becoming An Artist
http://penny-stewart.blogspot.com
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Chalk Pastels En Plein Air, in Anza, CA

En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air" and describes the act of "Painting" outdoors. On Saturday several members of the Anza Valley Artists met at the Cahuilla Market, ate pizza and "painted" with chalk pastels outside in their beautiful patio and yard area. The pizza was fabulous and the weather was superb.

 We had great fun making our art and some friends of mine joined us, some of them actually painting, and others just watching.

Scott and his brother sat and watched, and Sylvia decided that Scott would make an interesting subject for her piece.  I think he was just in her line of vision, but the chalk painting was awesome. She did the drawing on dark colored, almost black, 320 grit waterproof sandpaper, purchased at the Anza Valley Hardware store.  It is so impressive, I am going to frame it, as soon as I figure out how to do that so the chalk won't smear. 

Thank you, Sylvia! It certainly looks different than the pastel I tried to do of Scott (see below in another post).  She does not blend the colors like I did.  It is so vibrant and colorful, and it sure looks like him!

We all had a learning experience and each one of the finished paintings was completely unique.

Scott's brother and his wife have been visiting this week and we have been to the Swap Meet, the AVA meeting, visiting friends in town, and enjoying the moment.  There's always something to do in beautiful Anza, California.  Well, not always, but this was a good time for them to come.

Tuesday, we are not only going to have the weekly Watercolor Painting class in Sunshine Summit, but also going to the Temecula Valley Artists, meeting that night.

Paint, Paint, Paint!

Roosters and Chickens

Yesterday's art class in Sunshine Summit was tons of fun.  While the rest of the class worked on self portraits, I experimented with wet-on-wet techniques with water colors.  It's coming along well.  I think it will be easier when I get the new water soluble oils in the next few days.  I also have my white rooster to work on, and I found a better "face" for him by searching the web.  It's great to have this fabulous resource at my fingertips.  Any subject I want to research or to find a reference photo, all it takes is a couple of minutes and "bingo" - there it is.

Here's a photo of a rooster painting I sold to my friend Nancy for her daughter's birthday.  Kathy collects roosters and her kitchen is full of them.  I have to admit that I started painting roosters because my friend, Peggy in Albuquerque (another artist) said roosters, sunflowers and cactus paintings sell well for her on craigslist.  So I have been doing those subjects more often.  It doesn't matter much to me what the subject is, as long as I get to paint and practice my craft.

I am painting more from mu "head" lately instead of working from pictures.  That's where this landscape I am doing right now is coming from.  I am not sure how it will turn out, but here it is on the easel.  Underneath the ocean scene is a portrait I did in class, but did not like.  So it is the "underpainting" of this masterpiece.


This weekend is the chalk painting en plein aire at Cahuilla Market in Anza. The Anza Valley Artists have invited the public to come and watch.  I think Scott will be able to attend as well.  As long as they have enough hamburgers, he should be fine.  He likes to eat.

Right now he is outside in the shop bead blasting an old cast iron pan I found at a thrift shop.  I want to paint another pan with a fried egg in it.

Large Round Saw Painting, Autumn Scene

This was a Super Bowl party gift to my friend Dave.  

It was one of the largest saw blade I had painted up to that time.  As Scott says, "It's a beauty!"

I really enjoyed doing this one and probably won't do it again, but every project is a learning experience.

Dorothy Dent is the only one I have found who gives you saw blade painting instructions.  She paints in oils, but I have only done them in acrylics. 

I varnish over them with 3 coats of liquid or spray varnish, and they probably would work outside, but I don't know how well with our Anza winters and the changes in temperature.

Expanding My Horizons

I usually paint more realistically and try to capture the essence of the photo I am using, or follow the directions in the Walter Foster book to learn a new technique, but this painting is a real departure for me. I call it "Expanding My Horizons" but it could also be called "Palette Scrapings" because that's what it is. I hate to throw away paint. And I had painted sunflowers and had all this lovely paint left that was about to harden up. Acrylics are like that. With water colors you just rewet and paint some more.

So I took a palette knife and some paint and a little canvas and this is what happened.

 Some people say it looks like a forest fire reflecting on a lake. Others think it's a sunset or sunrise.  I have no idea.  I just painted it and I had fun.  And I listed it at etsy.com so maybe it can be a profit thing too.  I like doing these abstracts because it is very freeing and working with the palette knife is very different.  But I like it.  Of course, I like it ALL.

Water Soluble Oil Paints

I just ordered some water soluble oil paints, which sounds like a contradiction in terms, but is an exciting concept to me.  I like to paint wet on wet and with acrylics it requires lots of retarded and mediums to keep the paint soft long enough to get the effects I want to achieve.  So we shall see if this will work better for me.  There are lots of brands, and it is a GREEN product, so the environment and the painter will be safe from harm. I think the Weber brand is the best deal and has a good quality of paint from what I have read online.

Today I tried to paint but things just weren't going well at all.  So I quit trying to force it and went online and listed two hand saws on Etsy.  My favorite is the Desert Cactus Sunset scene.  You can't really see it well here, but it has iridescent paint, (Jo Sonja - one of my favorite acrylic brands) and the colors are awesome.  Recently I have tried Golden Acrylics and I like the texture and the mediums they have. 

Keep on Painting!

Baby Raccoon Acrylic Painting goes to Julian

I think I have decided to take my acrylic painting of a baby raccoon to the Art Show and reception that our class is going to do in Julian on May 8 at Banner Queen Art Gallery. I like it best of all my paintings so far, and it took a long time to paint. I fiddled with it and played around with it forever.  The reason I chose to do a raccoon is that our class was doing wildlife and we watched a video that inspired me.

NOTE:  Did you know that there are painting shows on television every day?  I watch Bob Ross, Susan Schweewe and David Dunlop right now.  Go to www.createtv.com and see the current schedule.  It's a PBS station, and we get it even though we don't have cable, just an antenna.

Back to the Racoon:  My eyes are not that good so I at first thought he had 6 toes, but one of the toes was a knot on the tree, so I had to paint that out. That's the beauty of acrylics for me, never impossible to fix a mistake.

I guess he is Rocky the Raccoon, but that's not very original -- Any suggestions for a better title?

Painting with Pastels

Another two days of painting.  What a treat!  Yesterday was the regular weekly meeting of our Palomar Painters group with Carol Ravy's watercolor class, only the teacher was sick so we painted by ourselves.  We were supposed to start our self-portrait, but since I had finished mine, I decided to start on one of Scott using pastels, a medium I had never tried before.

This was my second attempt at a portrait and my first use of pastels, so I am pleased enough with the results, even if the "sketch" didn't turn out looking much like Scott.  It shows me where I need to revise the final painting, higher forehead, smaller nose, work on the eyes -- just about everything except the colors which I like.  I also really enjoyed using the pastels and will go get some REAL paper tomorrow.  This one was done on newsprint which was thin and had no tooth, or rough surface, so it was prone to tearing and not much of a cooperative support.  But, live and learn.  I was just making a sketch anyway so it will look entirely different when I paint it in acrylics, or when I redo the pastel portrait on good paper.  But not bad for a first try.  I love expanding my horizons.  He sort of looks Chinese, but he isn't.

Today, I went to Sandy's to paint with the 3 musketeers, Alicia, Sandy and me.  We had a blast.  I painted a floral bouquet in acrylics on paper and started a rooster.  The rooster still lacks feet and he needs more feather work, but the flowers are done, I think., except for a frame and to list it on etsy.

We were only at it for four hours and I was trying to show them a few tricks with their paintings as well.  Tole painting taught me lots of shortcuts and ways of using brushes and flow medium, etc. for shading and making fur.  Alicia finally finished her Leopard and Sandy is working on a landscape with a squirrel that looks a little like a chipmunk.  But everything is part of the learning experience.

Now I am off to add more of my art projects to etsy.com. I am up to lucky number 13 already, with about 20 more to list.

Have fun painting.  I know I do.

Variety is the Spice of Life and Painting

Today was a day working on the computer. I do have another job actually, working on the internet for clients updating their web sites. As a writer, I also work on editing and submitting monthly newspaper articles for a Physical Therapist. I do wear many hats. Being versatile and having lots of interests and talents brings more to my art. It keeps me from getting stagnant.

Variety is the spice of life, and my life is very spicy. I like to paint every subject imaginable and it's hard for me to pick just one style or technique, so I keep trying them all. Maybe that's just my personality because it seems to spill over into the rest of my life as well. For example, I cannot make the same breakfast sandwich for Scott every day. I have to vary the bread between English muffins, whole wheat hamburger buns, and biscuits. Then it is either sausage or bacon, plus the egg and cheese. He insists on American cheese, so that variable is not a part of the equation. That means I can make six different sandwich varieties and there are seven days, so on the seventh day he gets cereal.

My next project will be a portrait of Scott from this photo, I think. He has a wonderful sense of humor, and this captures it quite well.

The 6 P's of Professional Crafting

The 6 P's of Professional Crafting (an article I wrote several years ago)
Penny Stewart, aka The Pink Gypsy and The Crafty Lady

Penny Stewart, owner of Crafty Lady Boutique online, was a professional crafter for over ten years selling her trompe l'oeil and decorative tole painted pieces in boutiques, craft malls, consignment shops, beauty salons, and craft shows. After displaying her painted furniture and crafts in Crafty Lady Boutique in San Gabriel, California for over a year, Stewart purchased the store and became "The New Crafty Lady." She opened an online store a few months later, and eventually after two years owning and operating a "real" store, she closed the shop and now devotes her time exclusively to the Internet Mall, designing web sites and selling products over the internet.

Some people know her better by her other nicknames - "The Cat Lady," because she painted and sold cat rocks and taught classes in rock painting, or "The Pink Gypsy" because she took up belly dancing and sells belly dance items on http://www.pinkgypsy.com.

Becoming a professional crafter means turning a hobby into a business, but what does that really mean to the average woman who decides to sell her hand-made dolls at a gift store or boutique? There are so many things to consider, like where to sell, how much to charge, how to make a profit, advertising, etc.

The following article outlines the steps in moving from hobbyist to professional crafter, and the advantages of joining forces with other crafters for support and profit. A side bar entitled,"The Six P's of Professional Crafting" is also included, offering suggestions on purchasing materials wholesale, preparing items assembly line style, packaging with an image in mind, pricing competitively, promoting your product, and maintaining a professional attitude.

THE SIX P'S OF PROFESSIONAL CRAFTING There are many things to consider when deciding to turn your crafting hobby into a business. Here are just a few reminders from the owner of an online hand-crafted gift shop where professional crafters sell their crafts. PURCHASING Even if you plan to sell your items through a craft mall or blended boutique where the store owner collects the sales taxes, you should obtain a Resale Certificate and order your supplies in bulk. The money you save by purchasing materials wholesale will increase your profit margins considerably. PREPARATION Plan to make at least six to twelve items at a time and work in assembly line fashion doing repetitive tasks all at once. This will increase your overall profit by decreasing the time it takes you to make an item and you can therefore make more inventory in less time. PACKAGING Consider purchasing professional looking price tags or labels with your name imprinted on them, or use your computer to make some sort of hang tag that creates an "image" for your line of products. It will encourage customers to contact you for special orders and they will be taking home your advertisement each time they buy one of your products. PRICING Comparison shopping helps you keep your prices within a fair market value for the area you are selling in. You need to be competitive, but do not undervalue your time and talent. People do appreciate quality, so if your goods are exceptional, don’t be afraid to ask a better price for them than mass produced imports. PROMOTING Advertising pays, and you pay for advertising. But in some cases, a small ad in a collectible magazine promoting your hand-made dolls or touting your collectible cats in a cat-lovers magazine will do wonders to increase your sales. Mention where the customer can go to see your crafts online or in person. Co-op ads are great because the cost is divided by the number of people involved, and everyone gets exposure. If you sell in a craft store that does direct mail advertising, be sure to give them a copy of your mailing list to add to theirs. Let your customers know where to find your crafts on display virtually or in real time. PROFESSIONALISM Always do what you say you will do. If you promise to deliver a special order this week, do it. And don't promise what you cannot deliver. Taking an order for 100 stuffed animals for a department store that you have doubts you can complete is not only foolhardy, it is unprofessional. Don't be afraid to say, "no thank you" or "I'm sorry. I can't do that." People will appreciate your honesty and they will be back another time with a different request, maybe one you can fulfill.

Why do women love to craft? What possesses them to stockpile paints, fabric, brushes, wood, feathers, flowers, etc., for future projects? Is it some form of temporary insanity that leads a person to spend hours needle pointing, tole painting, knitting, embroidering, gluing and such? Crafting Forever, Housework Never, is the humorous slogan cross stitched or tole painted and hung over the kitchen sink. According to Penny Stewart, owner of Crafty Lady Boutique, an online crafter's mall, crafting can be a serious business, when a person decides to go "Professional." From that moment on a lot more dedication, planning, time, energy, and money are needed than most people realize. Making a commitment Once the decision to go into business has been made, time needs to be allotted not only for making what is going to be sold, but also for pricing, packaging, promoting and selling. "Sometimes a crafter doesn't realize how much actual work is involved," says Stewart." It's best to face all the facts before making a big commitment and end up wasting a great deal of time and money. Talk to others who are successful, and also to those who have failed. Learn from their experiences, so you won't have to make all the mistakes yourself. " Finding an outlet If you are still determined to give it a go, then try selling to friends, family and co-workers. There are many practical advantages, such as no overhead (rent) and less commitment than doing craft shows. Plus, according to Stewart, it helps a crafter to establish a price range and determines whether or not there is a market for the product. But, eventually, if sales are going well, the desire surfaces to expand the customer base, increase profits, and move on to bigger and better things. Now more decisions have to be made. Where is the best place to sell? Craft malls, consignment stores, seasonal boutiques, craft shows -- the list goes on. "There are lots of opportunities to sell crafts these days. Especially with computers," says Stewart. "Every day a new on-line crafters' marketplace surfaces out there beckoning for people to sell their wares on the web. It's a great place for crafters to test the waters with their products. If you shop around you can rent a booth for as little as $10 a month. There's usually a set-up fee for scanning the images and a percentage goes to the store when an item is sold." So, what will it be? (Today, etsy.com is a great place to sell your arts and crafts!) A winning combination By joining forces with other crafters, you could become an entrepreneur without all of the headaches of going it alone. Crafters like to craft, but as a rule they don't particularly like the business end of it," says Stewart. "Joining a crafter's mall on the internet gives you an advantage because when everyone joins together, they get greater advertising exposure for their dollars, and the store has the responsibility of paying the sales tax, collecting the money and dealing with the customers. You get to spend more time at home doing what you love to do most - make more crafts. It's much like renting space in any crafter's mall, only you ship the merchandise to the customer after they have ordered it, so your inventory doesn't have to be as large. And you don't have to lug it into the store." The store has the responsibility of advertising, promoting, and merchandising your crafts for you. It's a winning combination. The more people who visit the mall to shop, the more crafts are sold, and the more crafters want to join the mall. Word of mouth on the internet works even better than it does in the "real" world. Email gets your information out there faster than the grapevine or party line telephones used to, and everyone benefits."

Fried Eggs In Pan: Acrylics on Metal Surface

Fried Eggs anyone? I really had fun painting this one. The aluminum pan was old and stained, so I painted it with a lovely shade of ultramarine blue and black, to resemble enamel ware, and I spattered it with white dots from a toothbrush.

I found several photos on the web of bacon and eggs and decided that would be the best thing to paint Trompe L'oeil (fool the eye) style. Sort of a yolk joke, but the joke was on me. I cannot paint bacon. Eggs, yes. Bacon, no. Maybe because I am a mostly vegetarian person. Bacon is from a pig, unless of course it's turkey bacon. Thus, after trying to paint bacon, I just painted over it. That's the beauty of acrylics. All mistakes can be painted over. Some of my canvases or masonite panels have four or more paintings under paintings that I have erased and started over. This one only has hidden bacon underneath the eggs.

This unusual piece sold at the antique/thrift/second hand store in Anza called "Twice Loved Treasures," where I had rented a space on the wall for two months before Christmas. The rent was $20 a month, and I sold this one "Frying Pan with Eggs" for $25 so I didn't even break even. So much for renting space in thrift shops to sell my art.

April Fool's Day, April 1, 2010

No Fooling. To all of my friends and family, who probably will not be surprised, I am starting another new chapter in my life. So, here goes!

This is the day I proclaim to be the First Day of the Rest of My life as an ARTIST. Most of my interests seem to last about 10 years, so, from now until I am 75 or so, this is probably going to be IT.

Not to brag, but almost every thing I have ever attempted to accomplish has come to fruition, including but not limited to getting married (5 times) and having children (total 2, one of each gender), becoming a professional puppeteer and ventriloquist, traveling around the country in a converted school bus working for National School Assemblies doing shows in small towns for groups of kids, moving to Hawaii, living in Prescott, Arizona, living off the land in Grants, New Mexico, becoming a lowly secretary, highly paid executive assistant, legal assistant, escrow assistant, having my own secretarial service, teaching tole and decorative painting, owning my own craft store in San Gabriel, California, starting an internet business creating my own web sites plus hosting and maintaining sites for others, selling on Ebay and . . . that's all I can think of right now, but I know there's more.

Now it's time for Art. My photo is actually a self portrait I painted today. First time I ever tried to paint myself. The problem with being 65 is there are too many wrinkles and you have to keep looking at them in the mirror, but I solved a lot of that with a turtleneck sweater. The glasses were a bit tricky, and I am not sure I like the nose yet, but it is a work in process, or work in progress? so I am not going to varnish it yet, and as I make changes to it I will update my "photo" with the latest version.

This current art phase actually started about 6 months ago when a friend asked me if I could paint trees on a hand saw she had purchased at a yard sale, and she was willing to pay me $40, so I said yes. I checked my supply of old tole paints from 10 years ago, and decided they would work just fine. Most of them did not have too much "snot" in them, and there were plenty of greens for pine trees. I finished the saw, which turned out okay. Everyone loved it. Then I found out there were patterns for painting on saws, notably by Dorothy Dent. I purchased several of her books on Ebay, bought dozens of old hand saws, blades, etc. This required an investment of more paints (my favorites being Jo Sonja Acrylics) and lots of brushes and mediums and more books. I like to read. Scott, my significant other, decided the handles looked too crummy, so he stripped them all and rubbed them with 6 coats of linseed oil to make them look new again, and polished the brass screws and the Diston and Superior medallions. I have learned a lot about saws.

Phase one was SAWS.I even painted Elvis on a saw blade for Scott's sister-in-law for Christmas.

Phase two started when I joined a FREE watercolor class in Sunshine Summit, not too far from Aguanga, California, where I currently reside. I sort of gave it a go with watercolor, but I definitely prefer acrylics. Since the class had recently opened up to "all mediums," the teacher let me stay and I now paint on canvas, masonite, saws, milk cans, you name it.

Scott decided I needed to have frames for my art. He has a huge pile of used redwood fence palings which he makes into lovely mitered and rabbeted rustic wood frames, much beloved by the girls in my art class. He is now making them to sell as well as keeping me supplied. And that's a big job because I paint at least 4 or 5 projects a week. Between saw handles and frames, he is a busy boy.