Monday, March 19, 2012

Suzi Blu...for you

One of the artists I follow is Suzi Blu. Her style is authentic and unique and so fresh. She has tasked us to do a special blog post to back link to her blog and I gladly oblige!

Check out her artwork and amazing classes and I am sure you will be hooked if not more than I am! Go here to Suzi Blu Blog


Art Therapy

Last year I started the year with Soul Restoration. It was the first time I really ever thought about Healing through Art. Once the course was over I continued as suggested until the Soul Restoration 2 course started. I learned great things but mostly was Art based.

I made books and collages and journals galore...now here it is again the words to use Art through healing. I like how she says at the end you don't have to be an "Artist" just do whatever is artistic for you.

This is from my recent Step to Heal course with Amelie Chance

Art therapy has been empirically studied by hundreds of different researchers to effectively help people overcome past trauma.

The results of art therapy on PTSD patients:
  • Art helps process difficult emotions without the short-term negative side effects of talk therapy
  • Art combines a pleasurable activity with processing of past trauma
  • Art helps re-consolidate disjointed memories from a past event to provide coherence and closure
  • Art helps to express events that are hard to express in words alone
  • Art has healing power
It does not matter if you cannot draw or paint. It makes no difference if you feel you are not creative. The creation of art can facilitate your healing.
I recently was diagnosed with PTSD because of things that have happened in my past to me and around me. As well, a recent  loss of a relationship sent me into overdrive and I sought professional help to learn of this diagnosis. As I said in a comment below that most people think PTSD only is for those who have served in the military. Let me share with you what I learned so you understand this part.

"Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder which is triggered by a traumatic event in your life. There is no absolute list of traumatic events that can and cannot cause PTSD. Therefore, a traumatic breakup, events from your past, rape, molestation, loss of a child, loss of a loved one, and a series of all these events together after a period of time could cause PTSD.  PTSD causes symptoms that include unwanted flashbacks of the event in question, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and nightmares. The symptoms must last longer than 30 days after the event for it to be called PTSD. The symptoms of PTSD and other anxiety disorders are sometimes difficult to distinguish. In addition, PTSD overlaps with many other symptoms of depression. In many cases, people with the diagnosis of PTSD also have diagnoses of depression. Traumatic breakups almost always cause disturbances in mood that can look like depression, anxiety, PTSD or other mental problems. If your breakup happened very recently, then you may be experiencing normal human emotions associated with the event."

Last year was the beginning of me releasing my past and the hurts and hangups that were keeping me from moving on. I now have learned and accepted that I am not the Broke girl anymore, I am not the Target, I am not the victim. I am whole, complete and wonderful WITH all my flaws because they have made me who I am today.

I wanted to share with your my progression from last year and the art I made while "Healing"...

The first set is from Brave Girls Club Soul Restoration Courses...

Truth book

Morning Pages Journal

Collaging

Special Aprons


Truth Holder


 I went on to take other art courses...

I made Value cards on a key ring

Summer of Color class

In the Sun Art Journal

Bracelets

Summer Wish Lists

Bags

Books for friends

Declaration of You

I challenged my artwork

Learned to draw owls and new things


Fleece Shawls



Art through decorating

Challenged myself to do a Halloween print

Made fun paper bag owls

Toilet Paper People

and even an Advent


This year I decided to stop swallowing whole the idea that I could nto draw, that I could not draw people and that I could not draw faces...when given the time to hone my skills, the results are now staggering to even or especially me.







 Remember the mind can play tricks on you and the last image is the truest. Just go, do, be. Do any form of art that moves you. Allow it to Heal you. Allow it to be a part of you. Don't swallow whole that you a re not Creative. You are. As you see I did many things in a form of "ART". You can too.

Healing through Art has been an eye opener for me in more ways than one and even more so astounding lately.  You just do whatever Artistic thing you need to do to help you heal and I guarantee you will start feeling better in no time...

I am...and you can too.

Air Kisses,

Trisha

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Floral Fantasy

Floral Fantasy
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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Tree of Love Art Challenge Shwe Khit

This tutorial from Shwe Khit was great for a beginner like me! I was so excited to do this I stayed up until after 1 am....(I am becoming more and more like an artists every day lol)

I followed her tutorial and made my own "Digital Art" called Tree of Love.

We were tasked how to do everything and I could pretty much follow it even though I only have CS2. I had to improvise a bit on the brushes but I figured it out. Then we were to add out own quote and so I took from the Shiny Apple poem and made my own.

As alwasy I almost forgot to signed it, but after I saved it three ways (Photoshop, Jpeg, Png) the first time, then I added my own unique "digital signature" and the re-saved it three times again.

So here is my Digital Art-Tree of Love....What do you think?


Sunday, March 11, 2012

Passion People

Passion People
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Friday, March 9, 2012

Art Styles, Faces and Figures

As I said in a previous post I have been drawing faces lately. Well, on top of that I have been challenging myself to draw eyes, faces, full figures, etc. Let me tell you. It has been CHALLENGING. I am definitely learning things about pencils, drawing, etc. I am learning things about my style, things I didn't know were "My style" just as I wonder if other artists learned their style.

Like Justin. If you look at Justin's art you can see a trend in how his "eyes" are done. He does the same most of the time. His lips tend to be the same too, but not always. This is just Justin's style. I have been combing through his artwork lately since he does so many figures and noticing this.

Justin's Art
Just like Tam from Willowing has a certain style to her art as well. If you look at the image below you will see w Whimsical character. This is often how Tam's art is. This is what she is known for.

Willowing
One of the other artists I follow Kristen also has a certain way of paining her art. She often has large round eyed females with full faces. Once I started seeing that everyone has their own certain way of doingthings, it really helped open me up.

Twinkle Twinkle
Ok one more then I get to show you mine... Suzi Blu. I admire her talent so much. She is an amazing Mixed Media artist and I am always blown away at things she comes up with and put together. HEr art pages or paintings are just phenomenal to me.

Suzi Blu
SO now onto my recent works and what I have learned:

  • When drawing from a  reference, I don't have to follow it exact. I can do the eyes how I want, the lips, etc. Most especially, the hair, which now that I have done a few is starting to become "My Style" of doing hair.

 See, I used the reference photo but I the the hair my way, I didn't do teh earrings exactly the same and I didn't add her hand like the reference photo has it. So in essence this is "My Style" of drawing.

  • Something else I learned. Funny as this is to say, I didn't want to put the above drawing down until I was done. I get it now. I was up until 3 am one morning trying to finish this and I just couldn't. But I was in a groove or the Zone or whatever you want to call it. I never understand why some nights J would be for hours. Now I get it. Funny.
  • When I came back to it, I didn't quite feel the same and it was really hard to get back into it. But I made myself do it or else it would end up as another one of those unfinished pieces us artists hate to admit that we have all over the place. :)
 Just like how I did the girl in this picture. I didn't have to draw all of her hair to make it a great drawing. and there are a lot of features that were in the original that I didn't even do.

  •  I learned from other artists to have your own art up in front of you as a form of inspiration.  So I cleared off a space in my room and put my art on the dresser and as you just saw on my mirror. How fitting I put that drawing with that bumper sticker huh. I did that on purpose to remind me that I used to think I couldn't draw. Amazing what one can do when one has the time. I don't know what I will do when I get back to the "Real World" but I am quite disciplined so I will make time. I have to. Look how good I am! :)


 This next piece is one I am working on right now. I have been using reference photos from Vogue and Glamour and In Style Magazines. I saw this add as well as some other men's ads and thought, hmm, I should try my hand at men. (That sounded SO wrong) I should try my hand at DRAWING men. There you go much better. But I didn't want to leap into the unknown charted waters just yet. So I decided to start with this one where I have a make and female as a reference.

I know it's a bit hard to see because it is in the works. If you click on it it, you can see it in the image slideshow and you can see more detail.
  • Lesson: Men stubble is hard to create on paper! GRRRR! I tried to apply "My Style" to his hair and well, I just don't know yet. 
  • Lesson:Two lips kissing and two noses touching is not an easy feat. Maybe I need to draw a man by himself. I have two reference photos I plan to choose from next. Hopefully they will be much easier.
I still need to darker the plaid in her shirt and finish his lousy stubble. I like stippling and this is kind of like it but so much harder. I did find one or two pics from J's artwork of men with stubble and it looks like a whole hell of a lot of stippling. I don't know I am sure I will figure it out.

So to sum up, I am really enjoying this time to "hone in" on my drawing skills. No more swallowing whole that I can't draw, because well, I can. I can quite well if I put my mind to it. Most of these pieces I am not inking right now as I really feel in the groove to draw faces and figures and eyes right now. Maybe once, if I get bored with that or if something jumps out at me, I will ink it.

Other than that I have been sketching a bit still but not as much sketches as I have been doing more drawings. I did however find these two kewl (Trishism) sketch books when my friend Cindy and I went to Ouray, Colorado. It's funny, we went to this little tourist town and the only thing I bought was sketchbooks.

"You know your an artist when..." 

Borden & Riley Sketchbooks
Marmot Art Supply Painting and Art School

Well, she wasn't that much of an art school. Or maybe J has schooled me too well cuz her and I got into it about how even though the one book #234 Paris Paper for Pens, says it's for pens it's 108lb and is great to slide your pencil across. She insisted on the other other one #116 Artist Drawing Sketch. I bought both, but the one designed for pens really is much smoother, even fore pencils.

  • Lesson: You may know something about art others don't and you can try to share but other might not believe you and it's not worth discussing. All that matters if you know and have a better knowledge about it for yourself. In the end, I guess that is something that sets you apart from the rest.
So I only played around with them for a bit, but I did a couple of pages of eyes. My noses still need a little work but that wasn't my focus. I am tryling to get "My Style" when it comes to eyes as well. That is not as easy to do. I can draw eyes when they are big but when I have to draw smaller eyes I feel like I am drawing an Asian person (please no offense, it's just an observation).


I remember to draw in the little white dots in the corners like I was taught

I was trying to work on my lashes here
Little by little "My Style" is coming around. Hopefully one day someone will be able to look at my art and say, "Oh, that is a Trisha Hunter piece"...oh what a day that will be! :)

Until next time...Love and Light,

Trisha Trixie

SOAR-Worry

Funny how the longer I do SOAR the less I put in my book and the more Anita does SOAR the smaller her assignments are!
Let Go of Worry

My Ex husband Scott used to always say this...
Then the stuff I was doing this week that I wanted to put in my Art Journal...

As you know I am a Part of the Goddess Circle and one of the things I am participating in 30 Days of Goddess. One of the assignments was to color a Mandala. So here's the funny thing that happened when I was coloring this. I couldn't stop thinking about my friend KSM from Normal is a Setting on a Dryer. I remember how much she loved Mandalas. I remember how she had one in her purse when she was talking to this business person. Isn't it funny how certain things about people just stick out in our minds? So weird.

 When I was coloring the mandala I just let my mind go. I just picked up pens and started coloring. The fun thing is how I love to color. I always have. So for me, this was a fun exercise.  I started mostly on the outside and worked my way in. I started seeing it come to life little by little. I started seeing how one color could complements the other. I don't know why I picked these colors. They were part bold, part calming.
I did notice how in the middle and on the ends I have yellow. Funny. Because to me Yellow represents Sunshine. Shining. Brightness. Light.

 What do I think hat means? Well, to me, if I were to read into this I would say I see the light at the end of the storm. I Shine. I was meant to Shine. I was born to Shine. I will Shine again. I am starting to Shine again. And DAMN it feels good! There is light in the center of me...at my core...deep inside. Those who know me know this.The Yellow in the middle represents the light shining inside me. The Yellow at the end represents the light I send out. I Shine and thus when something shines it doesn't just shine in one direction. It shines in many directions. The Yellow at the end is me Shining outward.

The other colors I am not sure but here is what I found:
Aqua is the color of high ideals.
Violet is the color of purpose
Brown provides a warm, comfortable feeling of wholesomeness, naturalness and dependability
Orange is a power color and said stimulates enthusiasm and creativity. Orange means vitality with endurance. People who like orange are usually thoughtful and sincere.

The prominent color in the Mandala is Pink and Green.
Pink provides feelings of caring, tenderness, self-worth and love, acceptance.
Green is the color showing change or growth
(Color meanings from Crystal Cure )

Then I moved onto the Hell Yes Hell No that I have mad a vision Board for but I wanted to put this in my Art Journal and I had not done that yet.


Blissbombed-Hell No Hell Yes
 This is more in the part of Project Trisha


 I am now doing the Paleo Solution and it is going amazingly well. I still suffer from wanting carbs and sugar and I know if Robb Wolf were in front of me he would scold me for keeping those in my diet but I guess I am just not ready to give those up yet, if ever.

I am doing so well though. I got this kewl thing called a Bobble. I fill it with water and it has a filter in it. I only have to change the filter once a month. It is kind of like having a Britta purifying system with me all the time. I drink way more water now. I have this small pink one. I should have bought the bigger one, but this one works for now.

I eat Sushi often for lunch. I eat fish mostly for dinner. Salmon, Tilpia, etc. As I said I am still filling my dies with things like Mac and Cheese, but at least it was my homemade kind, not some store-bought crud. I eat lots of protein as well and many veggies.

That along with my Body Sculpting-Jazzercise Class I go to twice a week, let me tell you, I am not only going to be fit, but I am going to have one rockin body! I Burn up to 600 calories in one fun and powerfully effective 60-minute total body workout. I work my whole body and it kicks my butt. I do this every Tuesday and every Thursday.


This leads into my Self Love part of my journal. I have been working on Self Love a lot in the past few weeks and accepting that it doesn't matter if anyone else likes me, loves me or pays attention to me. All that matters is if I do. I have been doing a Self Love series with a few of my life coaches and I made Collage boards you saw before. Three of them have self love quotes I read every day.

But this one I saw in the 30 Days of Goddess I first laughed and then thought, ok. The concept is when in the shower or bath to literally tell yourself that you love yourself. To say to yourself "I love my arms" while washing yours arms, "I love my legs" when washing your legs and so on. Let me tell you something...when I do this I giggle like crazy. Yes, I think it is silly, but the first time I did exactly as she said and I felt a bit better. A few times after that, I started saying "You know I have a really nice set of gams!", "You know, my breasts are amazing for a 41 year old!" "My ass is divine!" and though I still giggle and laugh, I feel more and more amazing! Try it, you might surprise yourself.

So that is it for my SOAR stuff and Art Journaling for now.  Don't forget to Stretch Out And Risk. If you still want to join SOAR it's not too late  JOIN HERE

Oh and if you want to know more about Social Media Anita gave me a group to moderate called Just Be Social and if you have ANY Social Media questions or concerns you can join that group called
Just Be Social-How to Be Social in a Social Media World JOIN HERE

Both are free, though Donations are gladly accepted :)