Five Easy Steps to Juggling …Not Really 🙂

Hastypearl

I can’t juggle.

Well, maybe I can, but I’ve never worked at it, so who knows ? !

My husband Can juggle, and Im sure that he worked at it.

I wonder how many times we confuse not being able to DO something,

with the reality that we just don’t want to WORK at it ?

Probably a lot!

I DO know how to show you how I made this

little Juggler Mixed Media Watercolor, though…

so lets take a look.

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The first thing that I did in this case,

was take measurements of the existing frame that I wanted to use.

Did you know that you can find AMAZING frames at estate sales,

that people ABSOLUTELY WONT buy ?

We see it happen at EVERY estate sale, so I promise its true.

There are tons of amazing framed pieces,

that end up getting dumped at thrift stores in every city.

This particular frame came to me from my parents in laws estate.

They were custom framers for many years in San Antonio.

This frame had a sun faded photograph in it, that I removed.

A frame like this would have been very expensive, but I instead recycled it 🙂

Here’s what I did next.

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Cut your substrate paper to fit your frame.

I used watercolor paper.

Do a simple pencil line drawing, of your subject.

I am doing a series of circus characters, lately.

I’ve even done some sculptures.

Its been crazy fun.

People love to color in coloring books right now, but I think its fun

to do original drawings and THEN color them in 🙂

(If you say you can’t draw, just remember the “juggling rule”,

if we practice, practice, practice we can all do just about anything 🙂

After you have done all of the drawing, go over the pencil lines with a pen.

I use Pigma pens.

They come in lots of colors and points. They even have cool brush tips.

This point was an 01, but use whatever size that you like.

Erase your pencil marks.

Of course, Im always going to incorporate something vintage in my art,

so I used tracing paper over the curtain on the right, cut it out to make a pattern

and then repeated the lines on a vintage book page.

Next, paint in with watercolors or gouache,

or colored pencils or markers.

Use whatever you have !

If the existing mat colors in your frame work for your piece,

make sure that the colors of your piece, compliment them.

I liked how the vintage book page looked on the curtain,

so I decided to use it again on some of the juggling balls.

It made it look more interesting to me to mix medias.

I added some stamps, touched very lightly all over the piece,

just to give it some texture.

Finally, I removed the faded photograph out of the frame,

and cleaned it all up.

I placed my watercolor in and there you go !

This frame is a 14 ” x 12 ” size, of some very high end molding

and the mats were still in great condition.

It would have been very costly to have taken this piece to a framer.

Instead, I made my art FIT the frame.

I hope that you will consider approaching your art from this direction.

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So, I hope that you enjoyed this little process.

Sometimes its fun to try new things,

even when we don’t think that we will be successful.

For me, its just the process of discovery and putting things down on paper.

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As Always, Im So glad that you stopped by…Laura

…I hope that you will stop by my hastypearl etsy shop and see whats new.

I’m having lots of fun listing new things for all of the early shoppers out there.

My customers are the Best ! 🙂