If you read the end of my last newsletter, you may remember that I am trying to get better at painting. I have always painted, but I have never been technically good at it. I think I am very creative, I have a unique sort of style that I think people can pick out, but my technical skills are so so. I have not had very much luck with painting lately... UNTIL NOW!!
My pal (shout out to Alex Skorija) gave me life changing painting advice. He told me to mix all my colors before I start painting. This is one of those tips that I was probably taught in school, but my hands move faster than my brain does, and I probably was not listening when they said that. Instead of listening, I was probably trying to teach myself how to paint. And by teaching myself I mean trying to listen, getting anxious, giving up, doing it on my own, guessing how, doing it badly, getting frustrated, taking a break, coming back, making a couple more mistakes, learning from the mistakes, improving, and solidifying the bad habits I built, not realizing they are bad habits, and repeating them for years to come. Bonus points if I claim the results of some of the bad habits as stylistic choices. Bonus points x2 if they actually legitimately turn into real stylistic “choices”. (Are stylistic choices conscious choices?)
Anyway.
So I mixed my paints first, and boy did that change everything. Of course! It’s just like cooking. If I have 6 different things to chop and I need to cook some of them for only 20 seconds on low, and some for 20 minutes on medium, why would I make my life harder by chopping and cooking all as I go, at the same time? By chopping all my ingredients first, I can enter the cooking arena as a calm, focused, girl chef, and I can also evaluate the entire dish. Do all of my ingredients before me seem like it will be a bland meal? Does it look like I will need more garlic since I have so many tomatoes? Am I out of milk and will I need to get creative and think up of some sort of substitute? It’s the same with painting. I found that from mixing my colors first, I was looking at the entire subject more holistically. I was checking my values more accurately, I was studying all of the shapes and seeing how they compared to each other, what parts have similar colors, etc.
I freakin set up shop in my kitchen, mixed the paints first, and tried to think not of an apple, a banana and a peach.. but a rectangle of color by another rectangle by another. And alas... I painted a still life I am super proud of.
This isn't conceptual and life changing or deep, it is just a practice still life of some fruit, but gosh darn I am proud. The peach kind of looks like a butt hole like, but life imitates art as they say.
Here it is smaller. Wow! Yes the corner is bent. (It adds about 10 million dollars to the projected price of this.)
Eggs
Here is another painting I did a couple days later. I am more proud of the fruit, BUT I am still proud of this because it was a pretty complex subject matter to wrap my head around. An egg carton seems simple until you really look at it. They're pretty weird. This also is not a world changing piece, and is just a still life to get the basics down, but I dipped my toe into the fun pool by painting the sides red and letting a slight “border” poke around. Wow!
Mark your calendars!
I’m hosting a little art show from my apartment
I am calling it We Have Art at Home, and it will be featuring tons of my talented friends. So far there will be visual art, writing, photography and possibly some other things from about 15ish people! Should be fun, and a little weird and messy as well. Homes aren't the typical venue for an art show, but I think it will be a very cool night and I hope you stop by. Also, if you would like to participate- let me know!
Fun Experiment
I needed a little break at work and wanted to get creative and messy so here is what I did. I got a scrap piece of paper, and started to cut a face out of it snowflake style (by kind of folding it and cutting it). Then I scribbled on it in blue marker. I was not satisfied, and I felt like it needed paint, but I didn't have any, so I put water in a cup, and soaked some red markers in the water to make “water colors”. Then, I took some tissues and poured the red water on it, and stabbed it with the markers. It looked cool, but kind of had some period vibes going on, so I decided to wait for the tissues to dry a little and cover them in glue (paper mache type direction) and then i peeled them off to give it a fibrous edge, and left some to cover the eye holes up. Then, the next day I scribbled over it in red marker. It still felt kind of lame. (Fun fact- the blue and red markers are Milkwaukee brand as in the tools. I got them from home depot.) I took it home and sprayed some bleach all over it to see what happened. Cool stuff happened- it bleached it. Wow. In the end, I just threw it away because I have way too much art stored in my apartment that I don’t know what to do with (let me know if you ever want to take anything off my hands) and I didn't feel like this was going in any direction other than an exercise, but it was a really fun experiment and I will def take some of these little “techniques” with me into other things. PS. Don’t tell me if the bleach thing isn’t safe. I do not care
100 days
I started a little personal project that many artists do generally called a 100 day project, where you pick a creative thing to do for 100 days. I saw this guys and it inspired me to do my own. I am calling mine “Vaguely Poetic”, where I keep my ears perked all day for something that sounds kind of poetic, and then I make a drawing about it. This is what I do with a lot of my drawings, but I like the idea of committing to it for 100 days to see how it transforms. If I miss some days, thats fine with me- I don’t want to make it feel like a chore, but I also want to try to be more disciplined. It’s been nice to turn to drawing more when I get stressed or frustrated or overwhelmed or whatever instead of engaging in things that make me feel lousy.
Here are some of my 100 days so far:
You prayed for rain and you got it
The water is the air
Good problem to have
I hear grasshoppers in the morning
Days
And You
Ring Ring
Stay tuned for more!
Work project
I rarely share work projects because hey who the heck wants to see that BUT sometimes it is cool!!! (If you don’t know I am a graphic designer at the Kansas City Public Library) and I draw these little owl characters for all kinds of things. These are vinyl stickers on the walls at some the branches in their youth areas with the guiding values for their early learning programming like story times and stuff. It’s in about 8 branches so if you see them, I hope you love it.
Fishing Doodle
I drew this at the pool! Not much to say about that.
The end!
Katelyn Betz
July
If you read the end of my last newsletter, you may remember that I am trying to get better at painting. I have always painted, but I have never been technically good at it. I think I am very creative, I have a unique sort of style that I think people can pick out, but my technical skills are so so. I have not had very much luck with painting lately... UNTIL NOW!!
My pal (shout out to Alex Skorija) gave me life changing painting advice. He told me to mix all my colors before I start painting. This is one of those tips that I was probably taught in school, but my hands move faster than my brain does, and I probably was not listening when they said that. Instead of listening, I was probably trying to teach myself how to paint. And by teaching myself I mean trying to listen, getting anxious, giving up, doing it on my own, guessing how, doing it badly, getting frustrated, taking a break, coming back, making a couple more mistakes, learning from the mistakes, improving, and solidifying the bad habits I built, not realizing they are bad habits, and repeating them for years to come. Bonus points if I claim the results of some of the bad habits as stylistic choices. Bonus points x2 if they actually legitimately turn into real stylistic “choices”. (Are stylistic choices conscious choices?)
Anyway.
So I mixed my paints first, and boy did that change everything. Of course! It’s just like cooking. If I have 6 different things to chop and I need to cook some of them for only 20 seconds on low, and some for 20 minutes on medium, why would I make my life harder by chopping and cooking all as I go, at the same time? By chopping all my ingredients first, I can enter the cooking arena as a calm, focused, girl chef, and I can also evaluate the entire dish. Do all of my ingredients before me seem like it will be a bland meal? Does it look like I will need more garlic since I have so many tomatoes? Am I out of milk and will I need to get creative and think up of some sort of substitute? It’s the same with painting. I found that from mixing my colors first, I was looking at the entire subject more holistically. I was checking my values more accurately, I was studying all of the shapes and seeing how they compared to each other, what parts have similar colors, etc.
I freakin set up shop in my kitchen, mixed the paints first, and tried to think not of an apple, a banana and a peach.. but a rectangle of color by another rectangle by another. And alas... I painted a still life I am super proud of.
This isn't conceptual and life changing or deep, it is just a practice still life of some fruit, but gosh darn I am proud. The peach kind of looks like a butt hole like, but life imitates art as they say.
Here it is smaller. Wow! Yes the corner is bent. (It adds about 10 million dollars to the projected price of this.)
Eggs
Here is another painting I did a couple days later. I am more proud of the fruit, BUT I am still proud of this because it was a pretty complex subject matter to wrap my head around. An egg carton seems simple until you really look at it. They're pretty weird. This also is not a world changing piece, and is just a still life to get the basics down, but I dipped my toe into the fun pool by painting the sides red and letting a slight “border” poke around. Wow!
Mark your calendars!
I’m hosting a little art show from my apartment
I am calling it We Have Art at Home, and it will be featuring tons of my talented friends. So far there will be visual art, writing, photography and possibly some other things from about 15ish people! Should be fun, and a little weird and messy as well. Homes aren't the typical venue for an art show, but I think it will be a very cool night and I hope you stop by. Also, if you would like to participate- let me know!
Fun Experiment
I needed a little break at work and wanted to get creative and messy so here is what I did. I got a scrap piece of paper, and started to cut a face out of it snowflake style (by kind of folding it and cutting it). Then I scribbled on it in blue marker. I was not satisfied, and I felt like it needed paint, but I didn't have any, so I put water in a cup, and soaked some red markers in the water to make “water colors”. Then, I took some tissues and poured the red water on it, and stabbed it with the markers. It looked cool, but kind of had some period vibes going on, so I decided to wait for the tissues to dry a little and cover them in glue (paper mache type direction) and then i peeled them off to give it a fibrous edge, and left some to cover the eye holes up. Then, the next day I scribbled over it in red marker. It still felt kind of lame. (Fun fact- the blue and red markers are Milkwaukee brand as in the tools. I got them from home depot.) I took it home and sprayed some bleach all over it to see what happened. Cool stuff happened- it bleached it. Wow. In the end, I just threw it away because I have way too much art stored in my apartment that I don’t know what to do with (let me know if you ever want to take anything off my hands) and I didn't feel like this was going in any direction other than an exercise, but it was a really fun experiment and I will def take some of these little “techniques” with me into other things. PS. Don’t tell me if the bleach thing isn’t safe. I do not care
100 days
I started a little personal project that many artists do generally called a 100 day project, where you pick a creative thing to do for 100 days. I saw this guys and it inspired me to do my own. I am calling mine “Vaguely Poetic”, where I keep my ears perked all day for something that sounds kind of poetic, and then I make a drawing about it. This is what I do with a lot of my drawings, but I like the idea of committing to it for 100 days to see how it transforms. If I miss some days, thats fine with me- I don’t want to make it feel like a chore, but I also want to try to be more disciplined. It’s been nice to turn to drawing more when I get stressed or frustrated or overwhelmed or whatever instead of engaging in things that make me feel lousy.
Here are some of my 100 days so far:
You prayed for rain and you got it
The water is the air
Good problem to have
I hear grasshoppers in the morning
Days
And You
Ring Ring
Stay tuned for more!
Work project
I rarely share work projects because hey who the heck wants to see that BUT sometimes it is cool!!! (If you don’t know I am a graphic designer at the Kansas City Public Library) and I draw these little owl characters for all kinds of things. These are vinyl stickers on the walls at some the branches in their youth areas with the guiding values for their early learning programming like story times and stuff. It’s in about 8 branches so if you see them, I hope you love it.
Fishing Doodle
I drew this at the pool! Not much to say about that.
The end!
Katelyn Betz
July
If you read the end of my last newsletter, you may remember that I am trying to get better at painting. I have always painted, but I have never been technically good at it. I think I am very creative, I have a unique sort of style that I think people can pick out, but my technical skills are so so. I have not had very much luck with painting lately... UNTIL NOW!!
My pal (shout out to Alex Skorija) gave me life changing painting advice. He told me to mix all my colors before I start painting. This is one of those tips that I was probably taught in school, but my hands move faster than my brain does, and I probably was not listening when they said that. Instead of listening, I was probably trying to teach myself how to paint. And by teaching myself I mean trying to listen, getting anxious, giving up, doing it on my own, guessing how, doing it badly, getting frustrated, taking a break, coming back, making a couple more mistakes, learning from the mistakes, improving, and solidifying the bad habits I built, not realizing they are bad habits, and repeating them for years to come. Bonus points if I claim the results of some of the bad habits as stylistic choices. Bonus points x2 if they actually legitimately turn into real stylistic “choices”. (Are stylistic choices conscious choices?)
Anyway.
So I mixed my paints first, and boy did that change everything. Of course! It’s just like cooking. If I have 6 different things to chop and I need to cook some of them for only 20 seconds on low, and some for 20 minutes on medium, why would I make my life harder by chopping and cooking all as I go, at the same time? By chopping all my ingredients first, I can enter the cooking arena as a calm, focused, girl chef, and I can also evaluate the entire dish. Do all of my ingredients before me seem like it will be a bland meal? Does it look like I will need more garlic since I have so many tomatoes? Am I out of milk and will I need to get creative and think up of some sort of substitute? It’s the same with painting. I found that from mixing my colors first, I was looking at the entire subject more holistically. I was checking my values more accurately, I was studying all of the shapes and seeing how they compared to each other, what parts have similar colors, etc.
I freakin set up shop in my kitchen, mixed the paints first, and tried to think not of an apple, a banana and a peach.. but a rectangle of color by another rectangle by another. And alas... I painted a still life I am super proud of.
This isn't conceptual and life changing or deep, it is just a practice still life of some fruit, but gosh darn I am proud. The peach kind of looks like a butt hole like, but life imitates art as they say.
Here it is smaller. Wow! Yes the corner is bent. (It adds about 10 million dollars to the projected price of this.)
Eggs
Here is another painting I did a couple days later. I am more proud of the fruit, BUT I am still proud of this because it was a pretty complex subject matter to wrap my head around. An egg carton seems simple until you really look at it. They're pretty weird. This also is not a world changing piece, and is just a still life to get the basics down, but I dipped my toe into the fun pool by painting the sides red and letting a slight “border” poke around. Wow!
Mark your calendars!
I’m hosting a little art show from my apartment
I am calling it We Have Art at Home, and it will be featuring tons of my talented friends. So far there will be visual art, writing, photography and possibly some other things from about 15ish people! Should be fun, and a little weird and messy as well. Homes aren't the typical venue for an art show, but I think it will be a very cool night and I hope you stop by. Also, if you would like to participate- let me know!
Fun Experiment
I needed a little break at work and wanted to get creative and messy so here is what I did. I got a scrap piece of paper, and started to cut a face out of it snowflake style (by kind of folding it and cutting it). Then I scribbled on it in blue marker. I was not satisfied, and I felt like it needed paint, but I didn't have any, so I put water in a cup, and soaked some red markers in the water to make “water colors”. Then, I took some tissues and poured the red water on it, and stabbed it with the markers. It looked cool, but kind of had some period vibes going on, so I decided to wait for the tissues to dry a little and cover them in glue (paper mache type direction) and then i peeled them off to give it a fibrous edge, and left some to cover the eye holes up. Then, the next day I scribbled over it in red marker. It still felt kind of lame. (Fun fact- the blue and red markers are Milkwaukee brand as in the tools. I got them from home depot.) I took it home and sprayed some bleach all over it to see what happened. Cool stuff happened- it bleached it. Wow. In the end, I just threw it away because I have way too much art stored in my apartment that I don’t know what to do with (let me know if you ever want to take anything off my hands) and I didn't feel like this was going in any direction other than an exercise, but it was a really fun experiment and I will def take some of these little “techniques” with me into other things. PS. Don’t tell me if the bleach thing isn’t safe. I do not care
100 days
I started a little personal project that many artists do generally called a 100 day project, where you pick a creative thing to do for 100 days. I saw this guys and it inspired me to do my own. I am calling mine “Vaguely Poetic”, where I keep my ears perked all day for something that sounds kind of poetic, and then I make a drawing about it. This is what I do with a lot of my drawings, but I like the idea of committing to it for 100 days to see how it transforms. If I miss some days, thats fine with me- I don’t want to make it feel like a chore, but I also want to try to be more disciplined. It’s been nice to turn to drawing more when I get stressed or frustrated or overwhelmed or whatever instead of engaging in things that make me feel lousy.
Here are some of my 100 days so far:
You prayed for rain and you got it
The water is the air
Good problem to have
I hear grasshoppers in the morning
Days
And You
Ring Ring
Stay tuned for more!
Work project
I rarely share work projects because hey who the heck wants to see that BUT sometimes it is cool!!! (If you don’t know I am a graphic designer at the Kansas City Public Library) and I draw these little owl characters for all kinds of things. These are vinyl stickers on the walls at some the branches in their youth areas with the guiding values for their early learning programming like story times and stuff. It’s in about 8 branches so if you see them, I hope you love it.
Fishing Doodle
I drew this at the pool! Not much to say about that.
The end!
Katelyn Betz