Happy March! Time to pull out your green!

March 1, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I’m planning another Instagram art series and I’d like you to join in the fun! The theme is St. Patrick’s Day. Include #mcrstpatricksday in your Instagram post. Join me for a day or all 17 days (March 1 – 17th). It will be fun!

I had a great time last month posting Valentine’s Day art for 14 days. Working within the same theme was really interesting. You really explore the theme as the days go by, and you come up with different ideas. I used several different mediums: watercolor, watercolor and ink, scanned doodles from my sketchbook and painted them in Photoshop, created a pattern, and a linocut.

Hope to see you on Instagram! Look for me: mycreativeresolution 🙂

Creating fades (Gradations) with Watercolor

February 22, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I’m looking forward to the warm days of Spring and Summer. The weather this weekend was a combination of extreme cold (4 degrees), followed by snow and rain. I’ve had enough! I tried to stay busy, which included painting. 🙂 First I painted some blobs, with the intention of adding ink and turning them into feathers.

Then I painted the sunset above. I was inspired by a watercolor heart I created a few weeks ago, where I blurred the edges of the heart so there was a soft edge. To blur the edges I let the paint mostly dry. With a wet brush, I pulled up some of the color at the edge of the shape. Then I soften the edge into the white area to create a fade.

I wanted the sun to have the same soft effect as the heart and I wanted to keep the sunset simple. I painted the sky part first and let it dry before painting the bottom. I didn’t want the bottom bleeding into the sky! In addition to softening the edge of the sun, I added water (to the water) to soften the blooms.* (This word was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t remember what they are called. Thank you to this link for the definition below.)

*Blooms or blossoms – are cauliflower looking marks created when extra moisture creeps back into a damp or partially dry area of a painted. As the excess water levels out it will “push” the tiny pigments of paint to the outside edge of the watermark. A back run can totally ruin a smooth flat area of a painting, unless you add the excess water intentionally. (also known as back runs, back wash, and water blossoms)

I’m not sure what my next project will be, but that’s part of the fun, right?

Valentine’s Day Mantle

February 13, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I’ve been having fun the last couple of weeks creating art with Valentine’s Day in mind. I challenged myself to post my creations on Instagram for 14 days in a row. If you’ve been following, let me know which one you liked the best.

It’s been great, working within the same theme – coming up with different ideas and using different mediums. I’ve used watercolor, watercolor and ink, scanned doodles from my sketchbook and painted them in Photoshop, created a pattern, and a linocut. One more to go! Hmmmm.

My daughter’s art teacher gives them one word and they can execute it anyway they’d like. I love seeing her creations. It must be fun to be in the class and see how other people interpret the word. Their words have included – bounce, sticky, and bump. For “bump” my daughter drew a pregnant woman (focus on the bump) with a crib in the background. I thought it was very creative. Maybe I can sneak into the class!

I’m planning on another themed Instagram challenge – March 1 – 17th. The theme is St. Patrick’s Day (of course). Join me in the fun by including #mcrstpatricksday in your Instagram post. Join me for a day or all 17. It will be fun!

Have a happy Valentine’s Day!

Striking while the iron is hot.

February 11, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

It is an amazing feeling when you are “into” a project and the creative ideas are flowing and you’re excited and inspired and motivated. I’m always better off “striking while the iron is hot” and working on a project when the inspiration first hits me. If I wait, sometimes the spark is gone. The enthusiasm dies down and it’s hard to motivate myself to work on the project.

When I’m in the “creative mode” I can move from one project to another and get things done, while new ideas are popping up, and it’s great! I’m on fire! Other times, I spend days thinking, “I should sit down and paint something.” For some reason, it is hard to sit down and do it, and gets harder as the days go by. Once I do sit down, and start, it all seems to come flowing back.

I also feel this way about blogging. I’ll be on a roll with ideas and posting, and then a couple of days go by and I start to question myself – “What should I post? I can’t post that!” I get kind of shy and start thinking, “Maybe I shouldn’t share that mistake.” Sometimes I have to remind myself that I’ve made a commitment (to myself) to be honest about my successes and failures. The best medicine, again, is to sit down and share and get the ball rolling again.

Cupid was a Sharpie doodle in my sketchbook that I scanned and painted in Photoshop. Follow me on Instagram to see my other Valentine’s Day inspired posts!

The Winter Sky and Bare Trees

January 27, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I’m somewhat obsessed with the Winter sky – the different colors at sunrise, sunset, the clouds throughout the day. All of this shown through the bare branches of the trees. I love how the bare brown trees have a bluish tint to them.

A sunset from my window:

Another pretty sky.

The start of the painting – watercolor.

Letting it drip.

Adding the ink to the trees. I was hesitant to even do it, but the painting didn’t look complete without it and I wanted to follow through on my vision.

Watercolor Brushes in Photoshop

January 23, 2015January 23, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I’ve been doodling in different themes lately, in the hopes of making patterns out of these doodles. I decided to add to my resolution, to create one pattern this year, and instead I’ve committed to creating one pattern each month!

I knew it was inevitable that I’d be bringing these ink sketches into Photoshop to color them. I have been using Photoshop for twenty years, but I’ve been using it as a Graphic Designer, not as an Illustrator. I decided I needed to learn more about Photoshop from an Illustrator’s perspective.

I found a great tutorial by lynda.com on youtube, which shows how to create watercolors in Photoshop, using one of the Watercolor Brushes. I didn’t even know there were Watercolor Brushes!

I practiced with the Photoshop Watercolor Brushes, to create a design for an invitation I’m working on. I scanned my Illustration and painted it in Photoshop. Using the technique from the lynda.com video is so much faster than I would have thought! And I love the look – it’s less “digital” than what I previously would have created in Photoshop.

I’m really excited to apply this technique to my pattern for January, which, in honor of My Creative Resolution, is “draw, paint, create!”

But where am I going?

January 19, 2015October 9, 2019 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Armed with a list of all the things I want to try (and do) in 2015 and with a year of My Creative Resolution under my belt, I was feeling good. Until I started thinking, “Where am I going? Where is all of this leading? Am I just randomly jumping from project to project?”

The book “Making Art A Practice: How To Be The Artist You Are” by Cat Bennett came along at the perfect time. Here are several quotes that were so spot on, Cat Bennett could have been writing them just for me.

“Here is where we are right now, so we go from here. We begin with one small step…It’s in doing the work that we see the next step.”

“It’s well worth our time to make work without a goal or end product in mind.”

“Try things. Learn what you need to know, and who you are too. Skills open us up to more ideas and possibilities.”

To me it all meant – calm down and continue what you are doing. Continue being creative, continuing exploring new things. Before reading the book, I planned on looking through my work from last year, and years prior, to look for common elements in subject and style. (To convince myself I wasn’t working randomly) The book elaborated on this and suggests “looking for connections throughout your work in theme, point of view, materials, etc., and noticing variations and change points.”

I’m excited to analyze my work up to this point. And to continue one step at a time.

Want to explore creativity? My new ebook takes you step by step through the process for introducing regular creativity into your life, finding inspiration, and exploring mediums. Learn more about Creative Exploration: A Six Week Process for Introducing Regular Creativity into your Life by clicking here.

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Lessons for your creative journey | creative purpose | finding your art path style medium | art practice

Cutting away the mistake

January 15, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

and I cut my first mat too! Mom’s painting is finally done. I’ve been struggling with it since Thanksgiving, when she requested it. I love the beach and feel so inspired by it, but I often struggle with trying to paint it. She requested a landscape. Sometimes I think I’m more of a “zoom in” and paint the details type of person. When things are so far back – you can’t even see the details. My attempts at beach paintings often look a little flat and boring. But she asked for it, so what could I say?

I decided this time I’d add ink to the painting and try to incorporate my “still developing” style. I was so nervous to add the first ink marks! You can’t get rid of them or cover them up, the way you can with watercolor. Another challenge for me – perspective! The photo I chose was perfect for my mom, but the perspective was a challenge for me. After I added the lamppost, I knew I’d messed up. It was way too tall. To be honest, if the painting wasn’t for my mom, I would have ditched it.

But I persevered. I pulled it out every so often and continued working on it. I already bought a frame. This week I measured the frame and decided to cut the painting and get rid of the too tall lamppost. In doing that, I’d need a custom mat. About 3 months ago, inspired by the Frugal Crafter, I bought mat board and a mat cutter. It was the first time I’d seen a tool that wasn’t an expensive table top cutter. The Logan 2000, has a line that you line up to prevent you from cutting past the corners. Since I already have a cutting mat and a straight edge, and am used to trimming with an exacto knife, it seemed perfect for me.

Isn’t it amazing how something sits for months and then in two days, you’ve completed the job. (It only took 2 days, because on the first day I mistakenly thought the Logan 2000 didn’t come with the blades. I was so disappointed! Eventually I realized I had everything I needed.) I found it a little hard, especially the corners, but I was happy with the outcome! I think with practice it will get easier.

I posted Mom’s painting on Instagram (mycreativeresolution) to see if she’ll notice. I hope she likes it! Wait, breaking news: She saw it and she likes it! 🙂 And it feels good to be done and to finally have used my new cutter!

My Steps:

See the start of this painting in the post “Pressure and Painting,” and the middle in the post “Mom’s present has entered the ugly phase. Can it recover?”

Cutting off the lamppost.

Figuring out the correct height of the lamppost, before drawing a new one.

Logan 2000

2015 – off to a great start!

January 9, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

So far I’ve been working on several of my 2015 goals and it’s only the first week of January! Here’s what I’ve hit so far.

Lettering and Doodling – Every couple of days I pull out my sketch book and doodle and practice my lettering. I’m finding that I can create more whimsical, simpler illustrations if I’m not looking at the object. If I’m looking at an object, I feel compelled to make it realistic looking.

Patterns – While I was doodling the other day, I realized that some of these doodles could be made into a pattern. This pushed me to continue with a theme – cosmetics. So my pattern plan is to continue doodling and at a later date, I’ll look through my sketchbook to find things to use.

Linocut – I’m totally intimidated by all those tools! But, I haven’t forgotten about my number one goal! Right now I’m sketching out some ideas and I promise (oh no, why did I just write that?) that in the next few weeks you’ll see my first linocut. I’m planning on trying it on dark paper, which would encompass goal #4 too!

Video – I made my first videos. I wanted to share one with you, but I need to first figure out how to make the videos compatible with WordPress. Even though I compressed my videos, they weren’t in a format that I could upload to WordPress and I’m not ready to open a youtube account. Don’t worry, you aren’t missing much – it was a shaky video where I’m painting some branches!

Here is my complete list of 2015 goals in case you missed that post.

Things I want to try in 2015: