Art, Synchronicity, and the Power of Yes

I recently accepted a friend's invitation to go through 12 weeks of journal-writing and creativity exercises together using the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I'm three weeks into this intriguing process and in the third chapter Cameron discusses the idea of synchronicity, "We like to pretend it is hard to follow our heart's dreams. The truth is, it is difficult to avoid walking through the many doors that will open. Turn aside your dream and it will come back to you again. Get willing to follow it again and a second mysterious door will swing open."

I know I'm not alone when I say that this is an incredibly busy time of year. I've been busy with the usual holiday preparations but also very busy making new art and accepting new art opportunities when they arrive.

This week the Diva gave us all a second chance to try out the ideas of Reticula and Fragments. There's that door swinging open again, and this time I'm saying yes.

Diva Challenges #294 and #295 

reticula and fragments
for diva challenge #294

reticula and fragments in offset grid
for diva challenge #295

I've been wishing for more chances to connect in person with other artists and hopefully meet mentors for my art learning journey. An internet search for local art classes a few months back helped me discover the nearby artEAST art center. They have a variety of classes just as I was hoping to find, but they also have opportunities for sharing studio time with other local artists. Yes!

I've already posted about the wonderful evening workshop on printmaking I took last month but I also enrolled in a colored pencil realism class that meets once a week. The class size is so small that everyone gets one-on-one time to be mentored by the instructor.

Realism takes a lot of time but I have some work in progress to show. I like how you can see the various stages and layers that each petal will go through from just the wispy beginning of an outline to fully saturated with color.

purple hydrangeas, work in progress: colored pencil

tulips, work in progress: colored pencil

I have been wanting some guidance in getting better at drawing people and places. Craftsy, a resource for online crafting and art classes, has been offering a ton of holiday specials lately. I snatched up a few drawing classes on urban sketching and capturing likenesses. Here's some of my "homework" (click the thumbnails to see a larger version).

I've been dreaming, and I've been practicing, and synchronicity has been bringing me opportunities to practice and dream some more. What are you saying yes to?

Artist Spotlight: Seb Barnett

It's been a while since my last post. One thing or another took my focus this past few weeks.

Today I learned some terrible news that a beautiful soul lost the battle with depression and took their own life. Seb Barnett was an incredible artist who inspired me and encouraged me. I wish I'd known you better when I had the chance. The world is less bright without you in it.

Blodeuwedd by Seb Barnett

I remember that Seb often railed against the idea of artistic "talent" as something you either had or you didn't. Instead Seb championed the notion that accomplished artists were the ones who put years and years of work into honing their craft.

So here I am, back at it with blogging my progress, still at the beginning of my journey, trying to follow your lead and put the work in.

Diva Challenge #287

I started with a watercolor background, created the design using Staedtler fineliner pens, and then I deepened the color shading with Neocolor II watersoluble crayons and Prismacolor colored pencils. I learned a valuable lesson about the way that finely sharpened colored pencils can sometimes scratch through the softer, more fibrous watercolor paper I was using for this piece. You might notice that one of the abstract orb shapes looks a bit more like a pearl than the others. That one got a bit of Liquid Pearls paint to cover the damaged paper.

Windsor & Newton watercolor in
Transparent Yellow and Quinacridone Magenta

Work in progress, after inking the design I
added shading with watersoluble crayon and colored pencil

Diva Challenge #287 on watercolor tile
Dreamcatcher, Nebel, Yincut, and Sandswirl

Daniel Lamothe's Dreamcatcher pattern is quite stunning all on it's own. Here I let it take center stage with a mandala-like circular symmetry. I used a Uniball Signo white ink pen and a white chalk pastel pencil on coal black Strathmore sketch paper. I was inspired to try my hand at the convergent shading technique shared by Lynn Mead.

Diva Challenge #287 on black tile

This post is for you, Seb. You are missed.

Glow on the Dark

I learned an awesome new technique from artist and instructor Eni Oken. It's called Glow on the Dark and it focuses of making 3D Zentangles shine with a metallic gleam and an effect of soft, glowy backlighting.

I spent a whole weekend pouring over her ebook and trying out the techniques, learning how to make my ordinary white ink on black tiles into the realm of "Ooh, shiny!"

initial experiments 3.5" x 3.5"
with Eni Oken's Glow on the Dark technique
tangles: Zing Zing variation and Raindotty

I don't want to give away too much of Eni's technique because I hope you will go visit her blog to find out more! So for now, just more pics from me. Enjoy!

testing my materials and practicing
Eni Oken's technique Glow on the Dark
tangles: African Artist and Teenos

monochrome experiments with Glow on the Dark
tangles: Zander and Kaurikunda variation

Glow on the Dark with color
tangles: Zing Zing and African Artist

Then when this week's It's a String Thing Challenge #151 included a tangle that reminds me of fireworks, right before we in the USA celebrate our Independence Day, it seemed like a good fit to apply this new technique to the challenge. Happy 4th of July to all who celebrate!

Floatfest and Ahh!
for IAST #151

Gaining Confidence through Accessible Art Practices -- Focused Practice

I have big ambitions when it comes to my personal growth as an artist. I've mentioned before, that I have my own definition of artist:

artist  /ˈärtist/  noun:  anyone who yearns to express thought-idea-emotion in a passionate, intuitive, or even spiritual way

But sometimes there's a chasm between visualizing that thought-idea-emotion and bringing it to life on paper in a way that captures the moment and compels an emotional response in the people who see it.

One thing that bridges that chasm is skill. And the only way to build that bridge is to practice.

I think the first time I truly understood that drawing was a skill that almost anyone can learn, was when I came across the book You Can Draw in 30 Days by Mark Kistler.

Kistler doesn't just tell you it's possible, he shows you through many examples of student work. Real people who thought they didn't have "the gift" or "the knack" for drawing discovered for themselves that drawing is a discipline (a branch of knowledge or a field of study), not a talent.

I try to carve out time for focused practice every day.

Some days that means spending time getting to know my materials better. Recently I went through my box of 48 colored pencils and I created swatches of each color to determine how they related to each other. Which could be used together to successfully create shading and highlights? Which could be used together in a gradual progression from light to dark? Where does each fit on the color wheel?

They aren't pretty, and they don't need to be. You can even see where I was practicing some strokes with my Pigma Micron brush pen alongside my color swatches.

No one but you needs to see your focused practice unless you want them to. Their only job is to help you make progress in your pursuit of improving your skills. Over time, those improvements will show in your work and in your creative confidence. I feel more confident when I reach for my colored pencils now because I spent time getting to know the colors I have available to me and how they will work together.

Challenges and prompts are another way to approach focused practice. The constraints of the challenges themselves already create a focus. There are many places on the web where you can find weekly prompts for whatever kind of artwork you want to develop, from drawing to photography, journaling to Zentangle®.

For example, It's a String Thing Challenge #145 prompts us to create a small, square drawing using only the two tangles Skye and Antidots in a diagonally striped composition. These narrow limits invite us to really look more closely at what opportunities are available. How can I create variety when I have only two patterns? How many different ways can I use the composition to my advantage? If everyone has the same constraints, how can I make my tile unique?

Lately I've been practicing my shading techniques to take flat, 2D shapes and turn them into dimensional, 3D forms. I've been getting more and more comfortable with the techniques of where to add shading and how to blend the graphite, but there was one technique I'd been avoiding: cast shadows.

According to CreativeGlossery.com:

A cast shadow is a type of shadow that is created on a form next to a surface that is turned away from the source of light.  When a form blocks the light, it causes a cast shadow to be formed.  Every object that blocks light has a cast shadow associated with it.

I saw the intricate pattern for Skye in this weeks challenge and I knew it was time for me to get over my resistance. It was time for me to apply some focused practice . There's no other way to actually improve my skills if I never try it.

Here's my line art, before I began shading.

work in progress
Julie Bazuzi (c)2016

Next I added more contrast with ink and graphite and added some shading for dimension. Finally I braved the fearsome unknowns of cast shadows!

Don't worry, I managed to emerge the other side unscathed. Are they perfect? Nope. I know just enough about what they should look like to see what I can work on the next time I practice. But I overcame my resistance and I lived to art another day. I reminded myself that it's just a skill, and it's one I am confident I can learn. That's two thumbs up for me.

Spéir Scáth
ink, graphite on paper
Julie Bazuzi (c)2016

Remember, no one but you needs to see your focused practice unless you want them to. Though I will continue to post mine here for you in hopes that you can get some inspiration for your own growth as artists!

Update 5/31/2016: Just a few days after I posted this tile for It's a String Thing #145, the Diva posted Challenge #270 with an emphasis on the new tangle Skye as well!

Skye is a new tangle from Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT) Margaret Bremner, who is well worth checking out!

The Diva's Weekly Challenge #268: "A bit-o-black"

This week the Diva's Weekly Challenge is about creating more drama by adding more black than you normally would. I love challenges that push me out of my comfort zone. Those so often become my favorites works!

Nebel with Gems
ink, colored pencil on paper
Julie Bazuzi (c)2016

This tangle started life as a few practice strokes on a scrap of paper and then miraculously evolved into a piece I really loved creating. This reminds me of some advice I picked up from an interview with painter Robert Burridge:

Always use good materials 

because you just never know when 

a great piece of art will appear!

He talks about using high quality paper even in his sketchbooks from 5:58 to roughly 7:55 if you want to skip right to it, but the whole interview is pretty interesting if you want to learn more about how a prolific artist generates and keeps track of ideas. He also shares his art-making knowledge very generously, which is how I first encountered his work.

The belief in using quality materials as a way of showing respect to your creative journey is also part of the Zentangle® philosophy, which is why the kits and accessories come with archival ink pens and tiles made of such fine paper.

I love, love, LOVE art supplies. I want to try everything when it comes to art. (Why, yes I did pin those DIY instructions for making a kiln in my backyard, thank you very much!) When I go into the art supply store, I want two of everything. And when I get a sale catalog from Utrecht in my mailbox, hold me back!

But sometimes I find it a challenge to justify spending the money on the good stuff when it comes to my art addiction, despite how passionate I am about learning more about making art and how good I feel when I've spent time doing it.

That's the inner critic showing up again.

And while I do need to pay attention to my budget, I also need to protect and nurture my creative spark if I want it to keep growing. So take that, inner critic! (insert karate chop here) I'm very glad that even though I was just experimenting on a "scrap" I was still using the best materials I currently have, and I love what I created.

Julie Bazuzi (c)2016