Creating the One Stroke Way - Day 15

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)

Last year I was asked by a friend to help decorate a bulletin board in the foyer of our church building. We threw around different ideas and settled upon the scripture you see above. We had been working through an in-depth study of the Holy Spirit in one of our classes and were going to be taking a look at this verse in Galatians, so it seemed very fitting. 

Now, whether it was from the moving of the Spirit, or just me looking for an opportunity to do something I've wanted to try for some time, I may never know. BUT, I told my friend that I knew just what we could put on that board. She liked my idea, and I pulled my paint bucket out and got to work. The picture at the opening of this post is what I ended up with.

The bowl of fruit you see above is the result.  I am strictly an amateur, it may not be a masterpiece, but it was great fun and I was pleased with the result. Now, look below to see the inspiration for my bowl of fruit.

This magnetic dishwasher cover was the perfect thing to brighten my kitchen and I had been wanting to try painting a picture similar. Come back tomorrow, and I'll share with you tips on creating this little 'still life' and maybe another fruit-y project or two.

See Day 1 for a listing of all the posts in this series.

If you'd like to know more about the One Stroke Painting method created by Donna Dewberry, or if you are interested in her workshops, instruction books or other products, you can check her website at http://www.dewberrycrafts.com/

You can find other inspiring posts from hundreds of over a thousand bloggers joining in the 31 Days series adventure hosted by The Nester. Click on over for ideas on everything from diy home decor to homemade gifts, new and improved recipes to how-to-clean and organize anything and lots more!

Creating the One Stroke Way - Day 14

Butterflies are free to fly, 

fly away!

Wouldn't it be fun to see these little beauties flying around your garden?

Follow along, and you can at least have them flittering about on your canvas, or flower pots, or bedroom walls, or well, where ever you wish!

 







Load your #12 flat brush with your main color (mine is purple) and a highlight color (white for me). The butterfly wings are created just like a flower petal. The first stroke will the larger wing that is in back, so lay your brush down with the darker color on top, lead with that color. You can see on the left I wiggled my brush back and forth as I pulled it along, creating the ruffley effect. On the right, I made a simple wing by pulling my brush around in a tight 'C' stroke.

 






Now flip your paintbrush over, with the lighter color on top, and make a similar wing, only a bit smaller, right on top of the first wing. This will give it the appearance of being closer, giving it dimension and depth. Be sure to have plenty of paint on your brush. Reload after each stroke if necessary.

 







We add two smaller wings by setting the brush down at the far tip of the wing and dragging it in to meet the bottom of the larger wings. To accomplish this narrower wing, you should pull your paint brush along the narrow edge, rather than laying it fully flat-out.

 






Already they look like butterflies, don't they? Or a springtime blossom maybe? We'll finish the details, so there is no question as to what they are.

 To make the body, dip your script-liner brush into inky paint (I used a dark green, you could use black or navy or whatever, thinned with water). Set tip of brush where head should be, pull and drag slightly in a comma stroke and pull up, trailing off a bit to make thin tail.

 
With the liner brush dipped into black paint, I roughly followed the outlines of the wings and added little anntenae. Now they are free to float around and add their beauty and put a smile on your face. 

C'mon! Pick up that paintbrush and give it a try!

For more One Stroke Painting inspiration, you can see a list of my other posts on Day 1 of this series.

If you'd like to know more about the One Stroke Painting method created by Donna Dewberry, or if you are interested in her workshops, instruction books or other products, you can check her website at http://www.dewberrycrafts.com/

You can find other inspiring posts from hundreds of bloggers joining in the 31 Days series adventure hosted by The Nester. Click on over for ideas on everything from diy home decor to homemade gifts, new and improved recipes to how-to-clean and organize anything and lots more!

Creating the One Stroke Way - Day 13

Remember this cute little guy from the other day? Read on, and you, too can have him popping up all over the place.

To begin, load your brush (I used a 3/4" flat brush) with plenty of green paint and a bit of yellow. Then stroke a rainbow-shaped curve, creating the top arch of the frog's head.

Fill in the arch, restroking to blend the colors, making a half-circle.

To make the eyes, I used a #12 flat brush, loaded with the same green and yellow, and painted 2 half circles to create a 'bulging' effect for the eyes.

For the whites of the eyes, did the point end (not the bristle end) of the larger paint brush into white paint and daub a nice-sized circle in the appropriate spots.

 You'll need to let these spots dry before adding more detail to the eyes.

 Let's give our happy little guy some pink cheeks with a little 'scruffy' brush -- a little bit of flesh and white paint (doesn't take much!), pounced on the picture, leaving a dry-brushed effect. 

 Now he needs a friendly smile - this is accomplished with a script liner brush that has been swirled into a puddle of black paint. Adding some water to the paint helps the script-liner brush flow more evenly and smoothly.

While waiting for the eyes to dry, we need to give our little fellow a puddle to play in. Take up the 3/4" brush. If you haven't already, on a paper towel wipe off any excess paint from earlier. No need to wash it, though. Just go ahead and double load that same brush with blue and white.

Beginning on the side of one cheek, pull brush around in a semi-circular motion, pick up more paint and do the same from the other side, pick up more paint and fill in the blank spaces. 

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With the handle-end of a paintbrush add a black dot to each eyeball. With the liner brush, or the chisel-edge of your paintbrush, you can also add the puddle-swirls for extra detailing. Cute little guy, isn't he?

While I was busy working out this step-by-step tutorial, look-see who else was busy painting her little heart out. 

 Lil' Miss Bekah has been watching her Mama, and followed right along - all by herself! She wants everyone to know it really is not difficult, all you have to do is try!


You can see a listing of all the posts in this series by clicking here.


If you'd like to know more about the One Stroke Painting method created by Donna Dewberry, or if you are interested in her workshops, instruction books or other products, you can check her website at http://www.dewberrycrafts.com/

You can find other inspiring posts from hundreds of bloggers joining in the 31 Days series adventure hosted by The Nester. Click on over for ideas on everything from diy home decor to homemade gifts, new and improved recipes to how-to-clean and organize anything and lots more!

Creating the One Stroke Way - Days 11 and 12

Yesterday it was butterflies . . .

 

Today it was Cute Critters . . .

While playing around and trying out some ideas for Christmas gifts for our grandchildren, I filled a couple of sheets of scrap paper with pretty little butterflies . . .

happy little frogs and friendly little turtles.

Tomorrow I'll show you step-by-step how to paint these little cuties.

In the meantime, take a peek at the little gift idea I whipped up.

              

Just perfect for a couple of sweet grandchildren's Christmas stockings, don't you think?


To view all my posts in this 31 Days Series, click here.

If you'd like to know more about the One Stroke Painting method created by Donna Dewberry, or if you are interested in her workshops, instruction books or other products, you can check her website at http://www.dewberrycrafts.com/

You can find other inspiring posts from hundreds over a thousand bloggers joining in the 31 Days series adventure hosted by The Nester. Click on over for ideas on everything from diy home decor to homemade gifts, new and improved recipes to how-to-clean and organize anything and lots more!

Creating the One Stroke Way - Days 9 and 10

Welcome! I'm glad you have stopped by. I'm taking some time this month to do a little creating each day. 

Today's Creation - Coneflowers

(You can see what I have been up to thus far on Day 1 of 31 Days of Creating with One Stroke Painting.)

Did you see the sunflowers I painted on Day 8? Just look at what 11 year old Esther created out of my practice sheets. 

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Using a wordprocessing program on our computer, she printed a verse over the top of the painted sunflowers, cut them into strips and glued them to color paper for a little extra pizazz. Beautiful, aren't they? She's tucking some of them away for Christmas gifts. 


I tried something new today. Coneflowers. I began by double-loading my 3/4" paintbrush with green and a bit of yellow and painted in stems and leaves. Just random-like. 

 Then, with a #12 brush, I double-loaded a dark blue and some white. Leading with the white edge, pushing and dragging and standing the brush up to a point, I made a fan of petals at the top of the stems, reloading my brush often. This formed the backside layer of petals. I flipped the brush and led with the green, pulling along the white, making a second row of petals right on top of the first, to form the frontside row of petals. For interest and variety, one flower is made using a burgundy-wine color and white (same technique).

To finish the flowers, I used a 'scruffy' brush (short, full bristles), dipping it dry into the yellow and white. Pounce, pounce, pounce I went, trying to create the 'cone' or center of the flower. A little green and burgundy was added for some dimension around the base of the center.

I was not totally happy with the outcome, but as a first try, I'm happy enough. Actually, my first reaction was one of disappointment. I left the pages to dry and came back later in the day. The colors and dimension, shading and highlights seemed to stand out a bit more then. Much to my surprise, I DID like the results. Not perfect, maybe not masterpieces, but they make me smile. Not a bad accomplishment for one day.

If you'd like to know more about the One Stroke Painting method created by Donna Dewberry, or if you are interested in her workshops, instruction books or other products, you can check her website at http://www.dewberrycrafts.com/

You can find other inspiring posts from hundreds of over a thousand bloggers joining in the 31 Days series adventure hosted by The Nester. Click on over for ideas on everything from diy home decor to homemade gifts, new and improved recipes to how-to-clean and organize anything, and lots more!

Creating the One Stroke Way - Day 8

All that determination and persverance I wrote about in my last post is paying off. 

(You can see all the posts in the series on Day 1 of Creating the One Stroke Painting Way)

I pulled out my paints, brushes, paper and started playing around a bit. With all the autumn decorating going on around here, I was in the mood for sunflowers. 

I didn't get step-by-step pics this time, but I'll quickly walk you through my practice session. 

First, I loaded my brush with brown and a touch of green. Using plain ol' printer paper this time, I pulled my paintbrush around in a 'C' stroke that made half a circle, and then flipped it making a backwards 'C' to fill out a full circle.

Next, I loaded a slightly smaller brush with yellow and a touch of white. (The white didn't do much, so my second set I used a touch of green as a contrast color. Much better) Laying the brush at the edge of the circle, I pulled out from the circle, with a slight turn and lift of the brush, like I did when making leaves. I repeated this all the way around the sunflower, making a full circle of pretty petals. On some, I made a second row of petals, right over the first row, to give it a fuller effect. 

Then, I used my brush loaded with brown paint again, painting another center circle, just darken/deepen the color there. I used my scruffy brush to add some highlights - green, white, yellow. I did it all, but can't decide what I like best. That's the fun of a practice session!

Now, once these sunny flowers began coming to life, they looked, well . . . rather undressed. So I grudgingly began adding a few leaves. Wow! They flowed out so much better, so much easier. Not perfect, but acceptable in my eyes. What a difference a day makes, eh? 

Sunflowers are so bright and cheerful, especially this time of year, don't you think?

If you'd like to know more about the One Stroke Painting method created by Donna Dewberry, or if you are interested in her workshops, instruction books or other products, you can check her website at http://www.dewberrycrafts.com/

You can find other inspiring posts from hundreds of bloggers joining in the 31 Days series adventure hosted by The Nester. Click on over for ideas on everything from diy home decor to homemade gifts, new and improved recipes to how-to-clean and organize anything and lots more!

Creating the One Stroke Way - Day 7

Persistence will pay off. 

Really. 

I'm told it is true. 

I'm determined to find out for myself. 

My 31 Day theme is painting and creating (the One Stroke way), so what am I doing talking about persistence and determination?

 

Well, you see, I have a problem. A definite weakness. Leaves. They just do not, will not, flow from my paintbrush and onto my paper the way roses do. And so, I have to practice. And try, try again. I have some great little projects to share with you this month, but I'd really like to improve my leaf-making, because what is a bouquet without some luscious greenery? Or a potted geranium without round, curling leaves? 

I'm not giving up! I'm going to stick with it! And you will see the results! 

Oh, how I wish I could attend a live workshop with Donna Dewberry or one of her certified instructors. Ah, well, a girl can hope (and add it to her Christmas/Birthday wishlist).

This is Day 7 of this year's 31 Days of . . . series. Wow! It's been a week already. I'm looking forward to the weeks to come, hope you'll be able to join me. To keep up with my whole One Stroke Painting series, you can go here to see a listing of all posts.


If you'd like to know more about the One Stroke Painting method created by Donna Dewberry, or if you are interested in her workshops, instruction books or other products, you can check her website at http://www.dewberrycrafts.com/

You can find other inspiring posts from hundreds of bloggers joining in the 31 Days series adventure hosted by The Nester. Click on over for ideas on everything from diy home decor to homemade gifts, new and improved recipes to how-to-clean and organize anything, how to write to how to parent and lots more!

Creating the One Stroke Way - Day 6

All those beautiful roses. Now what do we do with them?

 

The possibilities are endless - greetings cards? note paper? a wall plaque? how about the walls in your girls room. I decided to start with something simple. Bookmarks.

I painted 3 rose, spaced across a page. I trimmed up the edges to be sure it fit nicely through my laser printer. I typed up a Bible verse on my word program on the computer. I set the page to print the same verse in 3 different columns. After printing, I cut the columns apart, making 3 strips, or bookmarks. The roses add a special touch in the background, each one different from the others.

To finish these beauties, I 'laminated' them by covering them front and back with clear contact paper. I was thinking how nice a lamenating machine would have been, but I'm still pleased with how these turned out. Making do with what you have on hand is not a bad thing, right?

I then trimmed up around the edges of each bookmark and they are ready to share with my friends. For all you ladies from Monday Night Ladies' Bible Study, guess what you will be receiving next meeting! I printed Psalm 8 on these, to help us recite together.

If you'd like to read along from the beginning of this series, or if you missed a post, you can find all of my One Stroke Painting posts here.

If you'd like to know more about the One Stroke Painting method created by Donna Dewberry, or if you are interested in her workshops, instruction books or other products, you can check her website at http://www.dewberrycrafts.com/

You can find other inspiring posts from hundreds of bloggers joining in the 31 Days series adventure hosted by The Nester. Click on over for ideas on everything from diy home decor to homemade gifts, new and improved recipes to how-to-clean and organize anything, how to write to how to parent and lots more!

Creating the One Stroke Way - Day 5

A rose is a rose . . .  

. . . and today we are going to create this old-fashioned beauty.

Supplies you'll need:

-2 colors of paint (I used white and burgundy wine)

-a flat paintbrush (#12 is the size I used)

-a painting surface (I used art paper, in order to practice, practice, practice)

-a bit of water (only used to dampen paintbrush to start, and clean up afterward)

-paper towels

In the past few days of this series, I have shared about how to load paint onto your brush and how the colors work together to shade and highlight. If you'd like to start at the beginning and read over these you can see a list of those posts here. 

To begin, load up your paint. After picking up plenty of the burgundy color on one side of the brush and a good amount on the other side of the brush, remember to blend your paint into the paintbrush back and forth, back and forth few times.  

Now take your loaded brush to the paper (the white on top/outside, the burgundy on bottom/inside) and press out a short stroke, and restroke the same spot three times. This blends the dark and light paint togther, creating a beautiful gradiation so you really can't tell were one color ends and the other begins.

Beginning at the same spot, press your brush, pulling and wiggling to make a ruffle type of stroke. Kind of like a shell, only mine looks more like a ruffle. The idea is to have a soft, wavy petal as the base of your rose. Do you see how the light color acts as highlight, and the dark color acts as the concentrated, shadowed inner side of the petal?

Move your brush to overlap slightly where you began that first petal (keeping the light side on the top/outside) and make a second petal with the same wiggly motion, only working your way to the left. You can see how the petals will curl around to form a circle. The empty space in the middle is a good thing. We are building from the underneath petals now, and will fill in the center in a bit. Take note of how the color in my second varied quite a bit from the first petal. That's ok. No two strokes will ever be the same, which is what helps create the beauty! 

At this point, I did notice that there was not much definition in the white edge. I took my brush back to the palette and picked up more paint, working it in and blending it on my brush. This is to be done often. On this project, I dipped my brush probably every other stroke. Use LOTS of paint. Don't skimp - it makes a world of difference!

The next step is to flip your brush back to the other side. Beginning at the end of the first petal, start stroking this petal at a point that slightly overlaps the ending point of that first petal. Using the same wiggling, sweeping motion, swing your brush around. You can now begin to envision the rose opening up before your very eyes! Again, this petal is not like the other two. Each is individual and unique. Isn't that how The Great Creator makes His flowers?

A fourth petal, started from the end of the second petal and swinging around to meet the end of the third petal finishes off the first layer of your rose. 

We are going to tuck the center bud of the rose in next. Load up your brush (white on one side, burgundy on the other.) Work the paint in on your palette and the work it on your paper with three 'mini' strokes to blend the paint nicely. With your brush overlapping your first petal, make a small curved stroke the comes up near to, but not quite to the outside edge of, your first petal. A quick stroke - up and back. It kind of looks like a backward 'C' or a cut-away of a small tube. 

To close up the bud, we make a 'U' stroke. Set your brush down on the left side of the stroke you just made, and pull your brush slightly down and around and up, to meet/overlap the end of that previous stroke. The closes the tube, or bud.  Look at how the lighter colors are showing around the outside, where the light hits and the darker colors are concentrated in center of the flower.

We'll now add the next layer of petals. Three will fill in nicely. Load up your brush as we have been doing, lay it down at the right edge of the bud you just made, and pull your brush around, making a slightly smaller ruffle/shell stroke, overlapping the first layer of petals.

Make another on the left side of the bud. and a third, joining the two petals you've just made.

You can see in the picture just above, how my petals are not perfect and evenly matched. That's part of the beauty. But you also see some messiness and sloppiness in the center there. Now worries - our next strokes will cover all that.

To finish off your rose, we make a couple of short, sweeping, cup-shaped strokes (a quick down-over-up stroke) leading with the dark color and dragging the white, back and forth across that bare middle section at the base of the bud. And there you have it! Step back and enjoy the beauty you have just created. 

From experience, I can tell you, most any rose I have painted and not been happy with, has become gorgeous if I leave it and come back the next day. I'm super-critical of myself to start, and giving it time and space gives me better perspective. Now, how do you improve upon what you've just done? Practice, practice, practice - not only does that get you to Carnegie Hall, but it will bring you amazing Classic One Stroke Roses, as well.

It was quite fun working this flower step-by-step for you, and I just couldn't stop. I went on painting until the paint on my palette was dried up. Probably a dozen roses worth. In my next post I'll show you what I'm doing with them all.

To follow along with my entire 31 Day series of Creating with One Stroke Painting, you can begin by clicking here.

If you'd like to know more about the One Stroke Painting method created by Donna Dewberry, or if you are interested in her workshops, instruction books or other products, you can check her website at http://www.dewberrycrafts.com/

You can find other inspiring posts from hundreds of bloggers joining in the 31 Days series adventure hosted by The Nester. Click on over for ideas on everything from diy home decor to homemade gifts, new and improved recipes to how-to-clean and organize anything and lots more!