Shine On

I have been on such a creative roller coaster, thank God I've learned to just ride it with my hands up in the air and the wind in my hair! I had the worst block in a long time and I was getting so upset thinking is this it, am I done, do I have nothing left to give! Then it happened last night at around 1:00am I ran downstairs to my studio and just jumped in! I am so exhausted but in a really great way so I painted all night and after I took the kids to school and came up with this painting and Wild and Free. When you get blocked you just have to go with it and do something else write or play with your babies it will come back it's part of who you are.

Wild and Free

It's way too late to be painting but sometimes it's worth it!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66901278/wild-and-free-fine-art-mixed-media-print

How to make a print of your artwork

I was recently approached by a customer of mine who also makes art. She reached out for some help because it can be very overwhelming and intimidating to try to figure out how to make prints of your work. I remember when I was starting out it took what felt like forever to figure out and I wished I had some more information . Since I am a big believer in helping people follow their dreams I thought I would post what I do to make a print of my artwork.


I lay my painting flat on the ground or on a table either outside or by a window with natural light. Turn off any other artificial lamps or light in the room.


I stand directly over the image and try to zoom in as close as possible while still leaving a little space around the edges to crop out later.

I turn the flash off of my camera and take about 10 pictures just to make sure there are no shadows .

I then download my best image and open up in photoshop.

I crop the image and then I just go to Enhance

then adjust color

adjust color curves

then click ok

I don't usually change anything else because I want the print to look as close to the original as possible I just want it to be as clear and blanced as it can without altering it much but you can change the contrast or highlights according to how you like it.

I then go to image

resize

image size

I usually make mine 8x10 or close to it.

Then if you'd like to make a border go to

Image

canvas size

I usually do 8.5x11 which is nice for matting and framing.

I hope this helps inspire you not to be intimidated by the process and get your beautiful art out there for the world to see! Trust me if I can do it you can too!

A letter to my 14 year old self

I'm taking this awesome workshop by Misty Mawn http://www.mistymawn.typepad.com/ and we were asked to write a letter to our 10 year old self but I thought my 14 year old self needed me more.
I'll try to post my little writing assignments here when I'm done so here goes.

To my 14 year old self

Respect your body
Treat yourself with kindness
It will be o.k  better than o.k  beautiful even
You are worthy of love
You are not who they think you are
You are definitely not who you think you are

You are so much stonger than you think and you will grow up and actually find peace, you will learn to see the magic instead of the fear.