BrownPaperBunny Studio Tour

Recently my little art studio was featured by UPPERCASE Magazine – only my all time favorite magazine! I'm pretty excited about it all, so I thought I would share the write up so you can have a little peek inside my work space. 

The text is a bit too small to read, so here it is, along with some extra photos of my studio:

"I'm an Australian artist, living in Colorado, and I'm trying to bring color to the world, one bright painting at a time. I mostly work in watercolor, although I've recently fallen in love with acrylics and am experimenting with working digitally as well. 

I only started painting a few years ago, after making a New Year's Resolution that I would take an evening art class. As soon as I picked up a paint brush I was hooked! When we move to America I enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts, majoring in Illustration, but with all the preliminary classes involving endless hours of charcoal still life drawing it quickly became a chore and I decided to do my own thing – gravitating to bright colors, and whimsical topics. I most love to paint fashion illustration, conversational patterns and bold abstracts. 

I'm lucky enough to have a pretty little room to myself in our house, with a view of the Rocky Mountains. I've lined the walls of my studio with colorful art, which inspires me every day. I'm also a serious bookwork, and although my collection is only a couple of years old (we couldn't bring all of our books when we moved countries) it's growing rapidly! Of course my UPPERCASE collection gets pride of place on the shelf in my studio."

Leave me a comment below and let me know where you do most of your creative work – kitchen table? Living room floor? Break room at work? Or do you have your own little space carved out?

Book Review: Watercolor Secrets

If you're just learning to use watercolors this is a great beginner to intermediate book! 

In full disclosure, if you purchase Watercolor Secrets by clicking on this link Amazon will give me a small percentage, which goes towards covering the expense of running this website. However, I promise that I will never, ever, recommend anything I haven't used myself and believe in 100%!

So, let's take a little look inside and talk about what was most useful.

Topics Covered:

• Supplies and equipment
• Mixing colors
• Composition
• Wet and dry techniques
• Color and tonal value
• Painting subjects (landscapes, water, flowers, animals, urban, people etc)
• Capturing motion
• Special effects (spattering, throwing paint, glazing etc)

The first thing I really appreciate about Watercolor Secrets is that they explain all of the common terminology from half-pans to dry brushing, in an easy-to-understand way, and using a lot of illustrative images so you can see exactly what they're talking about.

They also walk you through all of the different types of equipment and supplies, showing you photos of each, so you can decide which paints, papers, and brushes might be right for you.

Watercolor Secrets is also the best book I've come across for teaching you different techniques for achieving the results you want, such as splattering to give texture to an old building, masking and layering to achieve depth in your painting, base layer washes to get color harmony, and they show you lots of step-by-step images so you can follow along at home. 

You won't be disappointed with this book, every time I pick it up I find something new, or get inspired by one of the gorgeous example paintings they include throughout. Like this horse, painted by Sarah Rodgers.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you would find most useful in a watercolor book or class.

Modern Day Mermaid

Recently I had my art studio open to the public so they could come and see how I paint, ask me questions, and generally take a look around. While people were visiting I painted a few different things, some abstracts, florals, and this Modern Day Mermaid which is a portrait of my friend Allison (yes her hair really is that color).​

If you've been reading the blog for a while, you know that I have a thing for rainbow-haired ladies, and painted a whole series of them, which you can check out here. ​

​Would you ever be brave enough to dye your hair a bright color? Leave me a comment below, and let me know!

Sketchbook Project Tour

I've been participating in the Sketchbook Project almost since it started (10 years ago). In fact, it's one of the things that got me into art when I was just starting my creative journey.

If you're not familiar, it's a global project run by the Brooklyn Art Library where you purchase a small sketchbook, complete it (there are themes but you don't have to follow them) and send it back by the due date. Then all of the sketchbooks from that year go on a global tour, then live permanently in the Brooklyn Art Library, where you can go and visit them whenever you're in New York.  

In all the years I've been participating I've never been in the right place at the right time to see them at one of the mobile tour stops - until now! I made sure to fly back from L.A. a day early, just so I could see the tour when it stopped in Boulder on Saturday. And I'm so glad I made the effort.  

Not only did I get to chat with the staff, look at so many incredible sketchbooks from around the world, but I also met a few local Boulder artists who had their books in this year's tour!

This is Allison Wheeler, a Boulder artist who's sketchbook I got to check out from the mobile library

There is such a variety of amazing artwork as part of the project. I would have stayed there all day and looked at books, if it hadn't been 95 degrees in the shade that day!  A few years ago I started a Pinterest board just to save all the cool Sketchbook Project books I came across, check it out: http://www.pinterest.com/BrownPaperBunny/sketchbook-project/

I've signed up again this year, so stay tuned for more paper tests, tutorials on how you can remind your sketchbook (while still staying within the project guidelines) and more. Leave me a comment if you have any questions or want to see anything in particular.  

Street Art

I've always been fascinated by graffiti and street art, and I seek it out whenever I'm visiting a new city. 

In fact, it is not uncommon to see me madly refreshing my browser, trying to acquire the latest limited edition Shepard Fairey print, or to see bold, brightly-colored pieces from street artists hung amidst the fashion illustrations and girly watercolors in my art studio!

Below are just a few Shepard Fairey prints I have framed, and hanging at home.

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My new favorite artist though is See One, a Brooklyn street artist with a striking style. He works in both an abstract style he developed, called 'shards' and also has a cheeky, lovable, dragon character named 'Miru' - who I have quickly fallen in love with. Actually, Miru now has his own comic book - I'm waiting to get the first copy in the mail!

Image: 'Dragon Talk' by See One http://miruthedragon.com/walls/dragon-talk/#main

A while ago, I got to meet See One, interview him, and work with him at an event. Not only is he super talented, but he's smart, kind, and generous with his time and knowledge.

When I told See One about my love for street art he was sweet enough to take some time to show me how to achieve different effects on a large wall he was painting at the time. So you can expect to see a lot more spray art from me as I practice my skills!

If you love street art too, leave me a comment and tell me if there are any great pieces where you live! 

And if you're ever in Paris, I can recommend the Street Art Tour by Paris Underground, and also just walking around Brooklyn in New York! Here are a few pics from my recent trips to both places!

PARIS STREET ART

BROOKLYN STREET ART

90 Days Into The 100 Day Project

Back in April I signed up to do The 100 Day Project, where you pick a project and commit to working on it every day for 100 days. I couldn't come up with one single topic I wouldn't get bored with in that amount of time, so I decided to paint something, anything, every day for the length of the project. 

So. We're 90 days in, and what have I found? Here are my tips, and things I wish someone had told me going into it. 

Don't put too much pressure on yourself or you'll give up on the project all together. It's meant to be fun after all.

Make it easy to succeed. For example, tell yourself you only have to spend 5 minutes on it - if you do more, great, but if you don't, you've still met your goal. Some days I simply put paint on paper. Any paint, in any fashion, with no goal in mind. But it felt good, really good, just to do that.

Evening sky, in my travel Moleskine. 💙💗💛

A photo posted by Jessica Mack 🎨 Colorado Artist (@brownpaperbunny) on May 31, 2016 at 7:19am PDT

Don't feel like you have to post about it every single day on social media, that can become an onerous task in itself. It's fine to post your favorite thing from the week, or just post about it every so often. Here are just a few of the paintings I posted - there certainly aren't 100 in there.

With all of that being said, I certainly found that I started to hone my style, and experiment more with paints and techniques I wouldn't have tried if I was painting less frequently, so I'd say it was definitely worth it. Plus it got me in the habit of creating more regularly and not making excuses..."I'd have to clean my studio first before I can start", "I don't want to start something new I can't finish tonight", "I don't have a clear idea of what I want to paint yet" etc etc. 

Flamingos for Days! Day 11/100 of #JessPaints100 for #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Jessica Mack 🎨 Colorado Artist (@brownpaperbunny) on Apr 29, 2016 at 6:59am PDT

Let me know in the comments if you've ever done any kind of time-bound or themed project like this!

Day 18/100 of #JessPaints100 for #The100DayProject - geometric patterns in my travel sketchbook.

A photo posted by Jessica Mack 🎨 Colorado Artist (@brownpaperbunny) on May 6, 2016 at 7:06am PDT

I Forgot Your Birthday, Card

Hopefully you aren't easily offended by bad language. I'm Australian after all, and we tend to have rather salty language. 

I missed a friend's birthday at work, so I designed this card on my new iPad Pro (if you're interested in learning which apps I use, check out this blog post).

I wasn't entirely sure if she'd be offended or not, but she burst out laughing when she opened it, so that's a good sign. Right? 

Anyway, if you're as forgetful as me, you can now buy one for your own neglected friend. Visit my Society6 store. 

Leave me a comment and let me know if you have a potty mouth or you keep your language lady-like. ;)