Finally!
For over a year, I have been wanting to host live gatherings sharing simple, creative tools and techniques, but for some reason, I kept putting it off. After listening to an interview with Steven Pressfield and reading his book, The War of Art, I recognized The Resistance in me.
The Resistance knows me so well. It is ever evolving and more skilled at keeping me in a place of comfort and not moving toward the life I want to live. Here are some of the ways The Resistance tried to derail me in various ways.
- Egging me on to research scheduling systems.
- Whispering that what I had to offer was too simple to be of use to anyone.
- Suggesting that I wait until the new year.
- Distracting me with new types of technologies.
- Criticizing my pictures. “The lighting is uneven. The crops are different sizes.”
I pushed through it and wrote a date on my calendar and shared it with my mailing list. And yesterday, we had our first gathering on Zoom and it was GREAT! My mission is to help people get “unstuck” and grow by learning how to use simple, creative tools.
Join the mailing list to be notified of upcoming dates for our monthly “color parties”. First there will be a mini-lesson, then some work time, and finally a short time to share our work at the end. Odds are, I will also share something from whatever book I am currently reading or my favorite podcasts.
Here is a recap of what I shared with the group this week.
Basic Color Wheel
The color wheel is a great place to start when exploring color. Below are examples of how I use color palettes to create a unifying color theme in my coloring pages.
Tools + Techniques
Notes from the technique demo. Remember to play with your tools in a "mark making" exploration to discover new ways to use familiar materials.
Monochromatic
Monochromatic uses one color with light and dark values to create the entire work. Here is a monochromatic palette created using a PaperMate InkJoy gel pen. The different values of blue are created with the various doodles. Play with creating patterns when you learn your tools.
Triadic
Triadic uses three colors evenly spaced around the wheel. This is a triadic palette using magenta, turquoise, and gold which are different versions of red, yellow, and blue. This was done with the Pentel Sparkle Pop pens.
Monochromatic + Complementary
Complementary colors create an energetic palette and are across from each other. There are two different color palettes working in conjunction here. The outer border is done in monochromatic black and grays. The interior is complementary using red and green. Lost of doodles added into the inner circle.
Analogous
Analogous is using colors that are next to each other on the wheel. This composition uses only warm colors of red, orange, and yellow. These colors have a vibrant energy that I thought worked well with this message of "Enjoy the Little Things".
Rainbow
Using ALL the colors is challenging! Here is a rainbow palette created with Prismacolor colored pencils. The details and doodles came from using harder pressure with the same color.
Example from Session
Here is a close up of my work. I was using mainly blue with yellow and green for an analogous palette. Examples of shading (darkest), outline and fill-in (even), hard pressure (the and the shadow of sun), and dots with background (night).