I recently joined the Mixed Media Monthly (M3) creative team at The Lilypad. I had been a subscriber for a few months before, as this is ideal for me: a monthly collaboration by four designers whose work I love and use. This weekend you can check it out for free, and I'm betting that if you like to do this kind of art, you will want to subscribe as well.
For the first time as a creative team member, I have written up a challenge. This challenge and prize is open to M3 subscribers only (except this weekend!) but of course you can use the prompt wherever and however you like.
My prompt is a bit different than the usual (a lot longer, for one thing) because really it's just a description of my own process. At least, the process I use when I'm not following a prompt!
Art Journal / Collage Challenge
deadline: October 21st
This challenge is an art journaling/collage prompt in steps:
- You will not be using photos for this challenge.
- Locate the images on your computer that are from Lilypad designers. Why Lilypad? Because that is where we are! This step, depending on how your files are organized, will be either the least or most difficult step of this challenge.**
- Are you new to The Lilypad? Are you a bit short of images from Lilypad designers? Check the Freebies section of the shop. Also click the names of your favorite designers; each designer page will have links to their blogs, Facebook pages, and/or newsletters. Most offer freebies through those links. Go for it!
- Make a new folder. Let’s call it . . . Intuition.
- Now set aside a bit of time, ½ hour at least, to just sit and cruise through those images. You are going to select only the images that speak to you today, at this moment, and copy* them into your new Intuition folder. No templates and no word art. Just images.
- Don’t forget brushes, paint, splatters, masks, graffiti, & other abstractions.
- Do not think about what you will make. Do not muse on themes or colors or what will or won’t go together. Don’t select from only one or two kits. Just follow your heart and choose those images that whisper to it.
- When you have nice plump Intuition folder – maybe 50 or more images, from at least five different designers – walk away for a bit. Have some coffee. Take a nap. Added to clarify: you will not use all of these images on your page. You only want a big field to choose from.
- Come back!
- Open a new page. It can be an 8 ½ by 11, an 11 by 8 ½, or a 12 by 12. Not smaller, though.
- Now just start playing. Put some images on the page. Alter and recolor and blend to your heart’s content.
- Again, don’t plan ahead. Just choose some things you like and move them around a bit. That page is going to begin to make itself. Just wait and see! Be patient. Follow where it leads. Save, save, save!
- At some point you will begin to feel that it’s done, or nearly. Save it. Take another break.
- Come back.
- Do you feel it still needs something? Choose something else from your Intuition folder, or, at this point (you’ve probably met the 75% requirement of Lilypad images to post here by now) you can look elsewhere in your files for just what you need.
- Or maybe there’s too much on the page? Take something out.
- Maybe now you really, really want words. OK, then. Add them. But only if you think it needs it.
- Save!
- Pat yourself on the back. You have made something new, something fresh, something original. Something that is just yours.
- Post it in the Mixed Media Monthly Gallery and in this thread by October 21st so we can pat you on the back, too.
- One winner, randomly chosen, will win a $5 gift certificate to the M3 Shop.
*Why copy rather than move? Because if you move, you’ll have to move them all back when the project is done. This can be a chore. If you just copy, then you can merely delete the folder, or save it, if you like, for future inspiration.
** Unless, of course, you are reading this at Watermark, in which case you may use whatever images you like and post, or not, where you want. Feel free to post links in comments here, to point us to your work. I'd love to see it!
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Below is my first page, made according to this prompt. My Intuition folder had about 120 items in it. I had no idea I would end up with a black & white image:
INTUITION IN BLACK & WHITE
For my own Art Journal/Collage challenge at The Lilypad. Elements are from Just Jamie (M3April); Little Butterfly Wings (M3Feb15 - recolored); Michelle Godin (Build Your Wings); Alison Pennington (Bite Me & Twisted); Amy Wolff (Circles); Kim Jensen (Rubdowns); Lynne-Marie (M3May16 Add-On & Unwritten - recolored); Nanci Rowe Janitz (M3May16 Add-On - recolored & M3Jan - recolored).
And here is another:
INTUITION 2: Another day, a different mood
For my own M3 Art Journal/Collage challenge at The Lilypad. Elements are from Little Butterfly Wings (M3Jan16, M3Aug16); Lynne-Marie (M3July16, Sketchbook12, M3May16, Sketchbook10, M3Aug16, M3Sept16, M3Aug14, FirmFoundations); Nanci Rowe Janitz (MyBirthdayCup, Thrive, M3May16 Add-On); Paula Kesselring (M3June); Quirky Heart (M3Aug14-She); and Sissy Sparrows (M3April).
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So, that's it. I hope it works to inspire you to try something new. And check out the M3 Gallery at The Lilypad for more inspiration.
BONUS NEWS: I just learned today that Tangie Baxter and Rebecca McMeen will be opening shops at The Lilypad! Tangie is, of course, the founder of Art Journal Caravan, now Art Journal Emporium, and a long-time guide and mentor for me. I am so delighted at this news!
your challenge is amazing ! it was very fun
Posted by: Ga_L | 17 September 2016 at 03:58 AM
I saw this on the forum! I think I will give it a try! It IS different and I like that. I, too, just joined M3!
Thanks, Sharon!
Su
Posted by: Su Hall | 17 September 2016 at 07:55 AM