Zendooles | Visionary Art by Carmen Alicia

Bonus Lesson With Ivy Newport

Patch It Up – Make it Shine

This was an amazing lesson, and at the same time very frustrating for me. We had a similar lesson last year, but we collaged the main image’s hair, face and dress.

We began with a short writing exercise about what we want to leave behind in 2015. Whether it be fears, anger and other things that limit our creative process. I cut out some images from magazines as well as words I wanted to highlight in my journal and pasted them on top of the writing to keep it secret.

I used an 11×14 watercolor paper and then chose a color palette to work around the image . Ivy does a superb job, but I’m still working on blending the paint around the girl’s face.

The purpose of the image and the words was to incorporate them into a representation of our intentions and goals for 2016. We added metalic paint and glitter at the end to illuminate our creation.

I took a long time going through magazines looking for just the perfect image of a girl, the background, and the words to go along. I found a page in a fashion magazine of Greek columns and the models sitting around in various poses and that is what I used for my background.

I finally found a picture of an actress in another fashion magazine with a contrasting color palette.

This was my plan before I started gluing everything down.

My plan was to have a heading with New Year New You and how to achieve it, but I ran out of space because I wanted to add more words.

So instead, I made the quote “it starts with a dream…” and then Make IT Happen,” followed by having a Game Plan. The first thing would be escape from the past and ignite the moment and stay forever strong.

Since the word IT was in turquoise, I added that color to the background and the columns to make it more cohesive.

Here is the left hand side column I fell in love with. I didn’t have the whole column running across the top of the page, so I used my acrylic paints to add another column to the top and a floor to the bottom.

Since we’re to make our project shine, I added some vines with metalic gold acrylic to the columns on either side.

I’m still working on incorporating the paint to the gir’s face in the color pallete I chose, so instead of the colors Ivy used, I chose more earth tones. I applied clear gesso on her face, but when I started using the color pencils after the gesso dried, the gesso came off so I stopped after I outlined her features.

In this corner I used a lighter color of her skirt to blend in the background. I like how the arms and hands came out after I outlined them.

And, finally here is the completed collage after adding metalic gold acrylic paint around the words and glitter around her face and several other places in the background.

I really enjoyed the process in this one eventhough I got a little frustrated when I was doing her face. But I am not going to let the inner criticto rob me of the joy of creating this piece.

Bonus Lesson with Tamara Laporte

“This year I’m letting go of…”

This was so much fun! I zentangled the butterfly after I applied several coordinating color sprays. I also used a stencil and sprayed color through it as well as use the negative to add texture.

After I drew the butterfly, I sectioned the wings and added zendoodling in black and a bit of while on the left hand side that portion was very dark even after I lightened the butterfly to make it pop. I started zendoodles or, zentangles as they are also called, about five years ago and found the process of the repititive pattern very relaxing.

After the butterfly was completed, I then drew a flight trail and wrote some of the things I want to let go of.

The butterfly flying toward the sun is very symbolic, indeed, because it signifies what I’m striving for in 2016. Once again, I used the beauty to remind me that everything has beauty even the things we want to let go and the things we want to achieve.