Funtastical Studios: like Dr. Seuss

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Thursday, March 19, 2015

Staying True To Your Own Style

Maybe it's just the sunshine we have been experiencing lately, but I have been in the mood to paint. So much so that I could have easily cleared the art store out of canvas. I have sketch book after sketch book full of ideas and paintings just waiting to happen. This week I did two simple ideas came to mind. For me, I love when I can find a meaning in what I paint and I also love how often others have their own interpretation as well. I always say art is the one universal language that can speak to anyone.

Trying to stay true to my style, I set out to paint these two new paintings. However, while painting them I found some of my old mindsets trying to set in again. I had to battle them and let's just say it wasn't easy. What do I mean by old mindsets? I began to think about what I thought people would like to see on my canvas. I began to look on the internet for inspiration (which for me is a big mistake). While looking, I seem to loose my unique style and instead try make things look like what I see. In the process of that, I start feeling really frustrated and it steals the joy of painting. So once again I knew I needed to turn the computer off and look through my daily doodles instead for inspiration. Let me just be clear... if you look on the net for your inspiration I am not putting that down. People get inspired from other people's work all the time and I believe we are made to inspire one another. I just can't do that.

As I began to let my style come out through my doodles I began to feel much better about what I was painting. There is a lot that goes into planning a painting. Not just the idea of the painting, but how to compose a painting. How to make it look balanced and pleasing to they eye. What colours work together and having proper perspective. Maybe at later date I will blog more on composing a painting but for now here are the two new paintings I have created. Enjoy!

Free to fly

fly to the sky

Nothing holding back

Breaking free from that shack

Beat to your own drum

Don't just let the crowd lead you

Nothing new will ever come

If you don't try something new.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Print Making With Kids

My daughter loves to make cards! She loves collecting used envelopes to re-use and then add them to her collection of cards. So for something different I thought I would do some printmaking with the kids for a different way of making cards. This is a fun activity that is easy for kids too, and they can repeat it over and over. We created our own template but there are also many other things you can use to print make. Potatoes and apples work well, or anything with a cool pattern. I also like to encourage kids to come up with their own pattern and designs. It gives them some freedom as well as allows them to create out of the uniqueness inside of them.

Some things you will need are foam, a pen, a brier, a plastic plate, paper or card stock, and paint.

You can use paint, however I really like to use block printing ink. It is much thicker and applies really nice with the brier.

I use pieces of foam with a ballpoint pen. I press fairly hard so that what I am drawing leaves an imprint on the foam.

Why not make a doodle print. The nice thing about making a print is you can use the template over and over trying different colours.

I like to mix more then one colour when I do a print. Here I have chosen two colours that I know will blend together nicely. I press fairly firm with my brier and cover the entire foam surface.

I then place it face down on my card stock. Anna is helping by applying pressure on the other side.

I generally find the second print is better. The first one usually has a little too much paint on it. This is my doodle print.

Anna's requested print...Strawberry Shortcake. We mixed yellow and pink together.

Nathan's print of Toothless from How to Train a Dragon.

Typically I like to eat these and not paint them, but I had few extra's kicking around and thought they would make some interesting prints if painted. I used acrylic paint with a brush to make these stamps.

The grapefruit!

The apple.

The pepper!

Happy Creating!

Trish

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Books! Books! And More Books!

Our house is filled with excitement... or maybe I should say filled with books! Steve and I spent the night organizing, signing, and preparing bags and envelopes for 100 books! Yes, that is right! We have pretty much sold out of our first 100 books already! SO a big thank you to everyone who supported us in this adventure! We learned a lot and still are leaning. All the books will either be shipped or delivered via Steve in the next week! Just in time for Christmas!

So what's next???? We plan on ordering more books and are going to be looking at doing live book readings. If you are in our area and are interested in us coming to your school or a program for children, please contact us! We have a few things up our sleeves to bring some fun into children's lives! We hope to inspire and bring creativity out of children as well as have fun!

Our next book is already a thought in my mind. This was so much fun that we can't stop at just one! Besides Steve is on a roll with all his rhymes!