Mark-Making with Briana
Hello to Your Wonderful and Creative Self,
I am here to share something that really gets me excited. It’s simple mark making. I would like to encourage you try your hand at making your own unique marks. Even though I believe that is within all of us, I understand that doing something that is totally YOU may feel intimidating. Thank goodness there are many resources, and there’s even an art challenge (April 1-30, 2017) created by Rae Missigman to help you along your mark making journey! For details on Rae’s “Art Marks Part 2 - 30 Day Challenge”, click here.
Mark making is just something I am completely and utterly drawn to. When I want to create, but I don’t know what to make, I often turn to mark making. I find it extremely satisfying, meditative, and visually interesting.
One of my favorite sets of stencils here at artistcellar is the “Marked Series” designed by artist Lynn Krawczyk.
Let’s Get Started with Mark Making
Allow me to share a process to get you started with mark making.
- First, create a simple pattern on a blank piece of paper, using a brush and acrylic paint. Let your paint dry.
- Next, using a ballpoint pen, trace some shapes from the “Marked Series” over and around your paper.
- Use a small round brush and Dye-Na-Flow to paint in some of the shapes you traced.
- Get out of your own way, and allow for creative flow takeover!
As you know, things don’t always go smoothly. So, when you have an itsy bitsy spill, make the most of it! Create drips, and prints from the bottom of the jar. These are all wonderful marks!
Dip an Art Foamies stamp into that spill and make some more marks.
What I love to see about this mixed media process is how all of the materials work together. Depending upon the ink in the ballpoint pen, the ink may or not bleed a little from the wet Dye-Na-Flow on your brush. When you put Dye-Na-Flow over acrylic paint, there can be a resist that is subtle, but awesome!
I felt like I needed a little more contrast on the paper, so I used the “Midnight” color of Dye-Na-Flow. Sometimes I like to simply use the cap to dip my brush into as I paint.
Painted paper is one of my favorite things. I love paper, and the sound of painted, wrinkly paper is quite wonderful, too. (The paper I worked on here is copy paper-nothing fancy).
Paper like this can be used in so many projects: art journaling, gift tags, handmade cards, mail art, collage, mixed media art on canvas, book making, etc.
In Summary, I hope this post helps you to see that mark making is fun, energizing, soothing, and creative, all at once!
For more mark making ideas and inspiration, I invite you to hop on over to my site OrangeSpiralArts.com
Blessings and Happy Mark Making!
-Briana
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