Eclectic Studio - Tammy Morrison-Koenig

Painting faces with darker skin tones doesn't  have to be a complicated process. Using a limited palette of just 3 colors a yellow (quin gold), a red (quin magenta) and a blue (Prussian) can create beautiful vibrant clean skin tones.  I love using these colors for darker skin tones due to their saturation and their ability to create rich darks.  After you complete your sketch, start with wetting your paper until the shine is off and then take a med. wash of yellow and touch your paper. Use the wetness of the paper to assist in letting your colors flow. Keep the edges against the white highlights clean and soft. I don't use masking fluid anymore, for the tiny highlights, I will come back in at the end of the process with a white pen and add them back in.   Let your layers dry in between as to not muddy your piece. work in small sections and build up the variations in the skin.  Add caption Don't get hung up with det...

Capturing the essence of a person without overloading on detail is one of the advantages of working with ink within a time limit. As Bob Ross used to say "there are no such things as mistakes, just happy accidents". That is what makes it art instead of a being a copy of a photograph. Here are some 20-minute portrait sketches that I use to capture the mood and moment. Don't look for perfection, look for a reaction from your audience.  Using a quick watercolor washed background this crabby old lady has a little more character than just a using a plain white background. It doesn't have to be perfect or refined to add a little zip.     This dude with a crazy-eyed expression is far from perfect and even with the corrections made along the way it is hard to tell what was an intentional mark and what was not. Don't be intimidated by ink, be confident in your strokes and embrace your mistakes. 

A rt has always played a major part in my life. Whether it be grabbing a sheet of printer paper and pen, some charcoal and wood or if I am really lucky I can find time for a brush and canvas, I have always used art both as a therapy and as a gauge of my mental health. I feel it is very important to find 1 hour a day to focus on your personal well being. I don't consider it selfish or negative. Our lives get so crazy and easily become of control that I find it an essential part of my emotional health and I am very lucky to have someone in my life that recognizes that.   I find 20 minutes hour a day of uninterrupted time when I take lunch. I drive down to the river, and either grab my running shoes and zip around a quick 2.5km trail or I crank up the stereo and grab my travel sketch bag. I take this kit everywhere. It contains the essentials for my style of sketching which is not really fancy, is easy to transport and knows how to get the job done. I emphasize ...

Working over a messy mixed media background for this painting.  I quickly drew in an image of a house on the cliff. Then proceeded to carve the image out and add a little brighter color to draw the eye in. This background was just muted enough as to not compete with the focal point instead it plays right into the weathered facade of the house. Perfect. I love it when a plan works out. Hope you enjoy.

Well, I finally broke down and bought a permanent 6 * 6 inch permanent Gelli printing plate. I have been using the DIY gelatin plate I made a few years ago a lot in my work but it has a limited shelf life. What started out as a 10 * 10 inch, after time, shrinkage and remelting it is now a 3 * 5, which works well for tags or small note cards but I felt the investment in a permanent plate was worth it. This is one of my most favorite journal pages to date and I think I am going to convert it to an art card for an upcoming show. I would love to hear what you think.

I pulled out my art journal the other day while it were were watching the first snowstorm of the year and I was inspired by the start of the Halloween season. This, as you know, is my most favorite time of the year.  When I start a new journal page I try not to start a painting on a white background so when i finish a different piece I will clean my palette by scraping and smearing the left over paints on other pages throughout my journals. This page started with a smeared purple background then I went a little wild added some gesso, stamps, stickers, dictionary page, acrylic paints, heavy body gel medium, gel pens, oil pen and pencil, decoupage, ink and sgraffito, pretty much everything AND the kitchen sink from my art box to create this fun little mixed media piece.  If you like this journal page feel free to search out a some of my other Halloween inspired props, decor and art projects here: Halloween projects   Wishing everyone a HAPPY HALLOWEEN! If yo...

5*8 inch mixed media over monoprint With the background already done for me, this acts as a mid-tone in which to add lights and darks. During this painting process, I felt like a sculpture pushing (adding darks) and pulling features (adding lights). I used a very simplistic palette of just Prussian blue and white over a Gelli print strong in oranges and greens, I feel it has some impact with the texture of the print showing through. Thoughts?  

Cockadoodle Doo 5*8 Mixed media (Gelli print, acrylic, watercolor, oil pencil, ink, pastel) Good morning sunshine! Rise and Shine!    One of my more favorite Gelli paintings as I love everything chicken. Having a small flock is one of the reasons we moved out of  the city and into a community that is chicken friendly. So to honor this funny little man I pulled a page from my paper journal and just went at it. One of the benefits of painting on either a toned or pattern background is that not only does the mid tone color of the underpainting works to tie the painting together, but the subtle texture in the print can add a certain je nais saia quoi, even of you only see specks of it here and there. You can see that interesting pattern come through in the area behind the waddle and in the eye area and it really lends itself to adding the texture without having to paint it. I love it! As 2017 is the Chinese ye...

How quickly an idea can change. I have an art journal full of unused Gelli prints and some basic supplies that have been calling my name, so when I get 5 minutes to unwind I use what's in front of me to do something wild and crazy. Today I grabbed some cheap chalk pastels and just started to play. As I get to the hair you will see that the pastels are a little weak in value and saturation so I sprayed with a fixative added some sewing tissue and paper to cover the red pastel and turned her hair green. I added some contrast in the background and pumped up the color with little touches of acrylic and oil pencil. Don't be afraid to layer and think outside the box. Use crazy colors, don't be a perfectionist, use items that are completely out of your comfort zone. Grow. This painting is one of those ideas that went off the rails and turned out pretty good. It has all the characteristics I personally look for in my art. Value, Composition, Contrast, and Interest. Hope this ins...

This painting is an example of recovering from a major disaster. Everything was going along wonderfully and I was using my black paint pen to add some details when it exploded - see the viewers left eye - and when I was sopping it up I touched the paper towel on the shoulder area. Ugh. As I had originally intended, this is a little demo on how I achieved the final painting even through adversity.   This art journal is nothing fancy, a plain lined paper notebook, it's about 5*8, with a tough vinyl cover, that I picked up from the dollar store. Some of the pages I have gessoed, some have been decoupaged, and some papers are Gelli print one-offs - like this one. The only reason I like to use this one is that I like the size of it.  I didn't have any idea when I started on what I was going to do with this sheet. I try and use the most patterned part of the paper as the focal point. So I took my blue watercolor pencil and sketched out a basic cat shape. Even when ...

Once upon a time I was a little nut and the older I get the more this quote couldn't be truer. This is another page in my inspirational art journal. My journey of what keeps me going from day to day. This piece is done on a gelatin printed background with some collage, ink and oil pastel.

If you love scrapbooking, paper arts or mono printing you will love gelatin plate printing. These plates are available through your local craft store or online but I have chosen to make my own using this recipe: Ingredients: Recipe 1 6 T of unflavored gelatin (7 of the small packs) 1 1/2 cups boiling water 1 1/2 cups glycerin 2 bottles of rubbing alcohol (some people have not had any luck with this ingredient but I have found it works for me) also please do not microwave rubbing alcohol it may cause explosion or burns. or you can use this recipe Recipe 2 4 oz. unflavored gelatin (4 boxes or 16 packets) 2 – 6 oz bottles of glycerin 1/2 cup COLD WATER 1 1/2 cups boiling water Equipment: You can use a rectangular glass pan, one of those clear acrylic frames, or a metal pan or tray. You can also make plates in round shapes or cut fresh ones into geometric shapes or organic forms. If the pan is 9×13, the plate will come out about 1/4 inch thick. Adjust the recipe ...

My dd and I have been busy printing gift tags, Christmas cards and background papers on our handmade Gelli plate. If you haven't had a chance to experiment with this type of monoprinting, you should! There is no right or wrong way, just ways that work out better than others. If you don't like something it is very easily covered up to create another dimension. We cut our own stamps (texture plates), basic stencils and used found objects to print a multitude of papers. This is one of my not so good prints that I turned into an inspirational mixed media piece. Gelli print, acrylic paint, oil pastel, ink, collage.  I love the way the paper does a lot of the work for you.