Category Archives: Mixed Media

Day 30, That’s A Wrap Folks

12 Replies
Day 30. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.
Day 30. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

The Creative Gathering was created to carry on where the Leslie Saeta challenge left off. Meant more for painters, our gathering is also open to artists in the visual arts. Watercolor, acrylics, printmaking, photography, journaling, crafts, sketching, charcoal, pastel, to name a few. It is open to professionals, beginners, and everyone in between.

The goals of the gathering:

  • Create daily and post it in the daily folder
  • Develop a daily habit
  • Connect with new friends and old
  • Have fun

Our first gathering has been a huge success. Thanks entirely to the participation of the members. Give yourself a high five! Keep up your new habit, continue to create daily. Or at least regularly. Find the time for your creativity. For you.

If you pick the right small behavior and sequence it right,
then you won’t have to motivate yourself to have it grow.
It will just happen naturally,
like a good seed planted in a good spot.
BJ Fogg

Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand,
as if it were necessary to understand,
when it is simply necessary to love.
Claude Monet

Habit is a cable; we weave a thread each day,
and at last, we cannot break it.
Horace Mann

Day 28 Of The 30-Day Creative Gathering

2 Replies
Day 28. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.
Day 28. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

This was a fun practice. I was intrigued by Carla Sonheim’s free tutorial. Looks like a fun way to make flowers. She uses watercolors with gesso and pencil. First, you lay down patches of color. After that layer has dried, you cover each circle with gesso, “drawing” designs in the wet gesso. She suggests using the end of a brush. I used a small embossing stylus.

I knew I was going to count this as one of my daily pieces. But really it was more for fun, and to play. I made a few mistakes. I should have used darker colors for the blooms. I chose two shades of blue, shiraz, yellow, a flesh tone and green gold. There isn’t enough contrast with some of the colors and the gesso. I also need to expand my floral marking alphabet. Maybe I should have looked at zentangles for ideas.

I used a pencil to make marks, as she does in the instructions. But it was too light. You can see below, some of the marks just disappear. So I used the same Inktense watercolor pencil I had used to draw the hexagons. I wet some random areas of the lines. The marks in the final piece are more noticeable. But they look more messy to me than artistic.

I had fun, and it was meditative. I didn’t make a plan or think about composition. Next time I can use what I have learned and build a better bouquet. 🙂

Day 28, before. 8 x 8, mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.
Day 28, before. 8 x 8, mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

Day 24, 25 And 26 Of 30

2 Replies
Day 26. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.
Day 26. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

I goofed. I forgot to add the purple pears. I had already painted most of the pads before I noticed. There was only a small area of clean paper left. And so, only one pear.

If I were to name this, it would be the loneliest number. Haha. I also just noticed, I did not outline this in pen. Hmm. Should I or shouldn’t I?

Day 25. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.
Day 25. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

Inspired again by Carla’s wacky florals. Haha. I found the tutorial after I did the painting. The point, for me, is to loosen up. To not be so tight, so literal. I admire Carla’s playfulness.

I used a stencil with Inktense pencil. Painted with thinned acrylic. Then I used the stencil to outline some of the shapes, again with Inktense. The shadow areas this created are more viable in person. I added the vase, collage, and painted it with watercolor.

I scribbled the blooms with Caran d’Ache crayons. Wet some areas. Added pen details to the purple, and used watercolor pencils on the orange blooms. (Thanks Nelvia!) I added the green, (leaves) which turned out to be too light. So I added scribbles to that. I wasn’t really happy with this. But I added splatter, and now I feel it is not a total loss. Haha.

Day 24. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.
Day 24. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

Trying to be a little wacky and loose. Maybe I shouldn’t have made the Crysanthmums perfectly round. And the green line on the top flower is too light and too close in value to the rest of the bloom. I really like this color combination. I’ll have to use it again 🙂