Cath Sheard Art

Tag: Tim Holtz

  • Going back to go forward

    I’ve talked about this before, but didn’t get any forward momentum … until now.

    My art journals were always a combination of the ‘craft’ side of art journaling that grew out of scrapbooking, and a place to learn about materials and develop ideas. For lots of reasons, they became almost solely product-based; Tim Holtz, Dyan Reaveley and Dina Wakley.

    I miss the part of art journaling that’s internally driven, and know the habit was good for my art practice. Projects such as the tiny squares help, but the scale is limiting.

    I started following Denise Love on YT recently. I like what she creates but I *love* her art practice. After a few weeks of watching, I had an aha moment (no one can accuse me of being a quick thinker!). I ordered a Color Cube from Sarah Renae Clark – I’ve been seeing a lot of artists use them and knew it would help.

    I’ve started two new art journals, both my fav small Dylusions ones, and am doing seperate but connected projects. I’ve set an additional rule that, aside from setting up the colour swatch pages, I can only use my neglected StencilGirl or other stencils. No reaching for my Dina Wakley or Dylusions ones as they’ll take me back to my usual post-scrapbook style again.

    In the first I pick a card then choose two of the colours and swatch them onto pages I’ve prepared with Dylusions stencils or Dina Wakley Stamps so there’s a framework to work in. On the right hand page I do a small piece using just those colours.

    In the second journal I choose a card, and record the six colours on the left hand side then do a small on the right.

    My aim? More practice with colour mixing, developing my mark making, exploring my interests in shapes and composition, and hopefully working looser.

  • Using it up

    All crafters know this story … buy something you love – paper, paint, ephemera – and it’s so good you don’t use it, you just stash it away. I bought a very expensive tube of paint once and when I finally decided to use it the paint had gone hard in the tube.

    Yesterday the weather was miserable and, in some ways, so was I. I decided to haul out the drawer I keep my general supplies in. Things like Stamperia rice paper, Tim Holtz paper dolls, and so on and just play.

    I did a bunch of pages using up things I love, while I still love them. Now I have space for more supplies when I see something I like. If you’ve got things tucked away that are “too good to use” why not treat yourself by pulling them out of your stash and using them? You’re worth it.
    Here are some of yesterday’s pages.

  • Circling back

    Circling back

    I’ve been learning to draw faces. Today is day 50 of this #100dayproject. I can draw a recognisable face with no real effort now. What I can’t reliably do is convey a specific emotion, but hopefully in the next 50 days that will come.

    I’m also doing #100daysofcollage with Froyle Art and loving it. We’re doing a different colour each week. These are in a small Dylusions journal, so not overly time consuming. I’m using up some of my stash of gelli print and hand printed papers.

    But I’m also circling back to my earliest art journal love, Tim Holtz and Distress. Sometimes I put it away for a bit, but I always come back. I just got some new paper dolls, transparent wings, and some other bits and pieces. Heaven! Thanks to Fiona at Create for having great stock.

    Using my new Tim Holtz supplies, and some Finnabair rub ons.
    The first face I tried, and some of my most recent. Centre top is today one.
    A few recent collages from the series.

  • Back to the dark side

    Tim Holtz unveiled the latest colour is his Distress line today, Prize Ribbon. Love it! Watching the reveal video, with all the makes, reminded me how much I enjoy using Tim’s products. I’ve been very focussed on the Dylusions and Dina Wakley range for a while now.

    Tony was home for the day from the rest home and had brought his Paint by Numbers with him, so I grabbed a fresh journal and a pile of Distress Oxides sprays and Distress paint. I made a stack of backgrounds, then went back and added splatter with Distress Ink, Distress paint and DWM white gloss spray.

    Once that had all dried I hauled out Tim’s paper dolls, the new wallpaper range, quote stickers and other bits from his range, plus some paper dolls I’d made recently inspired by Niamh Baly on YouTube. The paper dolls used Tim’s etching heads as a starting point.

    Tim Holtz often mentions the dark side … referring to grunge and using browns in your art, rather than bright and cheerful. Although I didn’t go fully to the dark side, I used Walnut Stain, Black Soot, and Ground Espresso on every layout.

    It was fun to do something different, and break out some old favourite supplies – I’ll be sure not to neglect the, for so long from now on.

  • Art videos

    While I’ve been off work recuperating, I’ve watched hours and hours of art tutorial videos by Dyan Reaveley, Dina Wakley, Niamh Baly and Tim Holtz. Sometimes I learn new techniques, or new ways to use existing products, other times I’m reminded of things I used to do. It’s always good to find new ways to use existing products. And, yes, I’ve bought quite a lot of new stuff too 😉

    I’d had one of Dina Wakley’s small white journals before and loved it, so bought another one recently so I could practice what I was seeing in her art videos in an accessible format. I’ve been playing with creating abstract figures using her acrylic gloss spray, different ways of creating backgrounds including using her black gesso, and experimenting with colour combinations. I’ve found the wee abstract figures are great for playing with colour combinations and think this journal is going to be quite full of these quirky characters!