Doodles Unleashed!

This was one of the paintings that I did in this workshop. It included using actual leaves as stencils and paper doilies to create printmaking effects and white out as an outline.

This was a large painting that I cut up into four pieces.

 At the website of  Strathmore Online Workshop, there are opportunities for anyone interested in art to sign up for free workshops. This had been recommended to me by a Facebook friend. I was curious, and I decided to try it out, to see if I would like it. I had no idea if I would be capable of learning art through such an unusual method. I had always thought that an ever-present art teacher was a necessity. Yet, I discovered that I could learn something entirely new and different by watching videos on the internet and by posting my own pictures and by looking at the efforts of other students in the workshop.
Some of the other students are professional artists with years of experience; others are complete beginners in the world of painting. I am somewhere in the middle.
I had never done anything like this Doodles Unleashed concept. It is a very free technique and very creative. I learned how to make handmade stampers with a piece of foam and a ball point pen and some acrylic paint. You can use any sort of foam that you like: a styrofoam plate, a meat tray from the supermarket, etc., etc. Then you take your stamper and put a layer of colored acrylic paint and some white acrylic paint on it with a foam brush and you place it upside down on your painting, which is done on mixed media paper. Then you roll a brayer over the stamper and... voila!... you have the impression of the stamper on your painting. Since I spent so much time this fall drawing leaves in my fall foliage project, I chose to make leaf stampers. Oh, and by the way, do not get your foam brush wet! I made that mistake and, to my overwhelming sadness (OK, that might be a slight exaggeration), I discovered that the magic was gone. The stamper does not work when wet!
Another thing that I learned in this mixed media workshop was that I can use all sorts of media in one picture and get a good effect. One thing that, until now, I never imagined to be a drawing tool was White Out! Yep, that's right!!! I never liked the stuff because it was hard to write or type over it. But I can draw with it. It makes beautiful white lines on the paper, unlike paint, that tends to blend into the background and become a little (dare I say it??) gray. Here are some samples of my work and, in my next post, I'll share the stylized faces.
Oh, and by the way, the workshop was taught by Traci Bautista, who is a professional artist and author. She's written several books about her technique. One of them is called Doodles Unleashed: Mixed-Media Techniques for Doodling, Mark-Making & Lettering . I intend to buy this book. I truly loved the workshop.

Another portion of that same painting.

The third section.

Here we go. Section four. I have since cut up one of the pictures even further to make bookmarks and small cards, suitable for sharing.

This was my first painting that I did with this technique.