Description

Perhaps you haven′t had much experience of expressing your creativity with paper and paints - or you think that your picture must represent a real object or subject - don′t be put off. This project lets you jump in at the shallow end and have some fun with colour.

We think the essence of creativity is about having ideas and trying them out. If no ideas are flowing just do something simple like Strips & Stripes. Then ask yourself, can I do this in a different way? Change it - play with it - try it again. This usually leads to more ideas, often far away from where you started. The important thing is to GET STARTED.

Strips & Stripes is a great way to get started because it′s quick, loose, easy to change and we give lots of suggestions on how you can develop the idea and start the flow of your own creative juices. The project involves both simple painting and basic collage techniques.

Another Perspective

This project is deceptively simple and you may be tempted to rush ahead with your own ideas, but we strongly recommend that for your first attempt with this particular project you copy the instructions exactly.

We do have a reason.

When you have completed your piece you will probably find yours does not perfectly replicate ours. You could look at these differences as ‘errors’ or ‘mistakes’ or evidence that “I can′t do it”. We found when we looked closely at our ‘errors’ and ‘mistakes’ that they actually brought a different quality to the picture. For example when I tried to reproduce a straight line without a ruler I thought “I can′t do this”, but when I looked again I thought my wobbly line brought a lovely light hearted quality to the piece.

Look at the bits you got ‘wrong’ and see them as stepping stones to future pictures. Ask yourself “how can I develop these ‘errors’?” (or make them worse if you like!)

Description

Patchwork Squares was the first picture I made to put up in our house. I wanted a large bold splash of colour at the top of our stairs but couldn't afford to buy a picture. I knew that if I tried to paint a picture myself it would look amateurish. So I set to work with huge pieces of backdrop paper, inks and scissors and created 3 similar yet different abstract pictures to hang in a row. Very easy and simple but professional looking. What surprised me was visitors asking "who is the artist?" Apologetically I told them "although I made the pictures I am most certainly not an artist!"

This new version of Patchwork Squares involves both careless, random scribble with luscious water soluble crayons and careful, precise measuring and cutting. You can create a picture in glorious vibrant colour or subtle, sophisticated shades to suit your own taste, mood... or stairs.

Another Perspective

With Patchwork Squares you come face to face with the expression 'Artistic licence'.

Art is not an exact science! A square doesn't have to be 'exactly' a square; it must 'look' like a square.

This principle should be applied throughout your pictures. Don't get bogged down in complicated maths and calculations (unless you love doing it).

Stand back from your work and decide if you think it looks correct. That's what counts!

Description

Inner Circle is a really simple idea, very quick and easy to complete.

It's about harmonising colours and using them boldly. The soluble crayons are wonderful to use- thick & waxy with strong vibrant tones. There are many ways to use them and this easy project is a great way to try them out.

The project is fast and loose and a very constructive way to 'let off steam'. Although there is nothing to it the results are effective - an organised tangle of juicy vibrant colour. A real 5 minute wonder. You could do 2 or 3 within an hour, trying out several colour combinations, and because they're so easy to replace if you 'ruin' one you won't mind experimenting a bit.

Another Perspective

We recommend you follow the instructions for any project as closely as you can initially. While doing this you will absorb the principle behind the project.

Inner Circle, particularly, has the potential for more.

When you have completed a few try a far less structured approach. don't think at all about the colours you are choosing, just pick up whatever colour you like and start working with it. When you have had enough of that one pick up a different one that just takes your fancy, with no thought for if it harmonises or not.

Let your hand decide whether to be exact and careful or rough and random - don't think about it. Draw quickly and roughly or slowly and carefully - it doesn't matter.

Allow the sponge to do its work with no help from you - roughly, gently, very wet or almost dry.

When you have finished walk away; let your work dry. Try and mount it without looking at or judging it. Hang it on the wall and leave it till the next day before you have a good look at it.

What do you think you felt like yesterday? What mood were you in?

Description

The version of Swirlpool that we are demonstrating here is rich and opulent with lashings of gold paint and velvety texture. Of course you could paint a lighter, airier version if you choose by using white instead of gold. It's a very strong, sensory picture. Enjoy making large brush strokes with mounds of thick paint straight from the tube, sliding smoothly over the paper in wide arcs.

Swirlpool is a very good interior design project and looks at its best in a row of three - each one slightly different to its neighbour.

Another Perspective

I just love Swirlpool. I'm not sure which I love most - putting the thick paint down with easy sweeping curves or looking at it afterwards. I can lose myself for ages in the one on the front cover.

It never ceases to amaze me how things I didn't intend or even notice while doing the painting, become a major part of my enjoyment when looking at it afterwards.

It seems to me that if I was to have a clear idea of what I wanted to create, and be too careful while doing it, I would miss out on all the wonderful things which happen by 'accident'.

I sometimes wonder if they really are accidents or if there is some secret part of me that knows exactly what it is doing when I just give it the space and opportunity to express itself.

Description

Orange Tree is a fairly lengthy project with 5 or 6 separate stages, including stamping and stencilling.

It is simplified like this to make things easier for people who think they can't draw. Those who are confident could skip a stage or two.

The steps build up layer by layer to create a stylised but very convincing orange tree; impressive if you thought you were not artistic!

A pair hanging together look even better - make a lemon tree too.

Another Perspective

Before we publish these projects for you to try, we have a group of 'non artist' guinea pigs who test them on their own to make sure the instructions make sense and they can achieve a result. After we had tested the first 10 we asked them which one they liked the best. Orange Tree was chosen as a favourite. It seems that the combination of several completely different skills and techniques, and the satisfaction in the finished result, make this project a favourite.

Orange Tree is a very stylised picture which can be developed for many other images and subject matter. You will learn several techniques which you could have fun with on their own and in completely different ways should the mood take you. If one of the techniques here appeals to you, do your own picture using just that one. Play around with it and see where it takes you.

Description

Zig Zag Colours is very therapeutic for those with patience. You can lose yourself in it for hours. It’s repetitive and you don’t need to think a lot once you begin to paint so you can listen to music or a radio play at the same time - Bliss. The project will teach you about mixing colours: making tints (light colours) and shades (dark colours). You will notice the different consistency and strength of various pigments and the best thickness to apply the paint. Don’t be afraid to waste a bit of paint. Use it lavishly and keep to the same dilution throughout. Mix your colours thoroughly and make enough to finish that section. When you're done with it, wash your palette and start clean for the next colour. Take it slowly and don’t be tempted to rush and cut corners- there’s always another day.

Another Perspective

Once again this is a very simple idea but I bet you will only realise the subtlety of this project after you are well into it. I also bet that before you have finished it you will already be deciding how you will do it next time. So many possible variations, so many different pictures and all from one very simple technique. Just think what you can do with an effect that lets light come right out at you from your picture, or how you can be drawn down into the depths of it if you feel so inclined. Alternatively you may like to use both effects to play with the eye of the beholder. This has just got to be beauty.

Description

Face Profile Put on your pinny and have a bit of fun with this project. You will need a friend or two to help or join in and paint a profile too. It is quick to finish and quite slap-dash, in fact those people who find themselves being very neat may have to resort to using their left hand (or non dominant hand) to keep life and spontaneity in the painting. Using masses of thick gloopy acrylics and a big bold brushstroke, which the knowledgeable would call ‘impasto’ (and we do as well now), this is a good loosening up exercise. It allows us to stop trying to control our ideas of perfection and just lay down the paint. Warning - this project can become addictive.

Another Perspective

As a ‘non artist’ it would never have entered my head to offer to paint somebody’s portrait. I suppose in fairness these are not exactly portraits but never the less, without question, these pictures do capture something of the model and you will be able to recognise them. If you take some photocopies of your work after step 2, you will have spare copies of your model’s profile to paint again. The painting phase doesn’t take long so you could whip off 2 or 3 different paintings and play around with the colours you use. You may find you have captured more than just a profile of somebody you know. Wouldn’t it be interesting to choose the colours and brush technique without thinking too much about it and see what comes out.

Description

Tropical Fish is an introduction to using water colour. Although the finished picture looks full and complicated the elements are all broken down into easily managed stages. Watercolour can be exasperating as it glides across the wet surface to mingle with its neighbour in its own delightful way. It takes skill to control, but here of course we cheat a little and enjoy these ‘happy accidents’ as beautiful, special effects. Tropical Fish has many repetitious stages which are needed to produce a good clean drawing, so a fair amount of concentration is needed (although some of these could be skipped if you have confidence in your drawing ability). Don’t worry about your artistic skills as this vibrant watercolour is far easier to achieve than you might expect.

Another Perspective

This is a classic project for style. Once you have copied our style and found your feet start again, using exactly the same technique, and paint a picture of fish swimming in water - but do it your way. It will be recognisable as a picture in the same genre but it will express your style. It might be interesting for you to find out how yours looks. Hang them side by side for a while and notice the differences. Appreciate your style, look at your style in a detached way, learn to recognise your own style and love it. Somewhere in there you shine. Don’t judge it better or worse than any other, just celebrate your uniqueness.

Description

Vases. Lovely fat vases - with an abstract harlequin design. Big comfortable contours you can shape without the need for drawing skills, then overlay with a loose wavy grid, before colouring in using the superbly creamy, matt gouache paint. This project is really a glorified colour-chart. You will see how colours relate to each other on the colour-wheel and learn how to mix intermediary colours and tints. You will gain, through experience, an awareness of composition, which is no more than the arrangement of shapes on the page, and you’ll observe how the various curves work together when moved about into different positions. And always remembering of course, they only ‘work’ if you like them. In the end, the only person to please is yourself.

Another Perspective

Colour - what a nightmare! Like ‘blue and green should never be seen without a colour in between.’ There are so many rules, sayings and opinions about colour that they make my head spin. I constantly hear people say things like “Oh no, you can’t possibly put those two colours together,” and I find myself thinking “why not?” I have now discovered the answer.... That person doesn’t like it! It is not ‘wrong’ they just don’t like it - which is fair enough. Having made this earth-shattering discovery my next one was that I had likes and dislikes too. My problem was I knew what I liked when I saw it but didn’t know how to get there without an enormous amount of trial and error. So Vases will give you a couple of basic principles to work with - short cuts if you like. They are not fixed rules or dogma just tools to help you discover how to create colour balances that you like.

Description

Brushstrokes. This project, as its name suggests, is about making a mark with a brush. Each brush has its own signature or mark that it leaves on the paper when laden with diluted watercolour and flattened. The beauty of this picture is in the way we build up a pattern using just one brush’s signature, whilst also graduating the colour. The brushstroke, once mastered (after a few tries) is a bold loose sweep of transparent colour, especially satisfying if you can afford a large, silky sable brush. Light reflects from the paper underneath giving the colours the glow of stained glass. You can work slowly and deliberately or with quick confidence. Don’t think too much, get out of the way and let your creative self take over and the picture will appear, hypnotically, before your eyes.

Another Perspective

When you have mastered the technique and principle behind this project, and become proficient with your brush, you’ll find it perfect for relaxation or meditation. If you have a problem on your mind or can’t relax, try settling down with your paints and some paper and just start doing it. See where it goes - don’t think about it at all - go with the flow and just enjoy the sensation of sweeping the brush over the paper. The technique you learn while doing this project will stand you in good stead for many other paintings. It is another little bit of painting technique to tuck under your belt on the road to realising you have talent to create truly original pieces of art. Don’t judge it, just learn it and do it. Anybody can.