How do you finish your project?

The design of this project is one you have seen before, and today I wanted to talk about finishing a project. 

I'm sure we have all done this, Its the start of something new, your excited to get started,  enthusiastic and can't wait to get stuck into it. You spend sometime loving it, but as you go along  your enthusiasm starts to waiver you feel like its "done". It might not be coming out how you like or it might be wet and you can't work anymore on it (which happens often when your working on a mixed media or painting ) Or you simply just aren't feeling it anymore.

If you have ever been to a workshop or attended a class you might want to come out with a finished something to take home then you feel like you have accomplished something. OR You want to have something to show your loved one or maybe its just to justify to yourself that it was worth spending the time on you!   I am here to say that you don't always come away with a finished project!! and that's ok.  Its actually worth more to you to spend a few sessions to experiment in the process rather than just finishing something because you can in the shortest period of time. Getting to revisit something a few times you will discover new things rather than staying in the starting phase all the time.

Creating takes time, you might need to revisit something again and again and again to get it right. There is a process involved that you feel more and more comfortable with the more you do it.Especially as i mentioned with Mixed Media you need materials to dry before you can add on your detail. You might not feel like its NOT worth your time, to revisit something your not happy with but why not try a different technique on it? Usually what happens is that you discover something new, or a happy accident happens and it turns into something wonderful!

So, today have just a few short pics about adding the DETAILS to the > Schminke Ink Project I did recently.  I find in my classes, its important to remind people to be mindful of "what stage" you are in. It helps them progress in their craft / art.  Its tempting on some projects to get the paints or inks out and start painting over everything when you hate it.. but when you do that then you are back to the creation  or the background stage you aren't in the Details stage.  Sometimes you can get stuck in the creation stage again and again and again, and this is where you have lots of unfinished things and nothing completed!

So anyway .. here I was on up to the DETAILS stage.

My board was dry, there are parts of this i don't like i find messy but there are also parts i like but just need a bit of refinement.  I have no hesitation to go over those bits completely with something new. Now, I don't want to get the inks out just now, as then i have to wait again for it to dry.

So for this I am bringing out my Mepxy Markers, Coloured Pencils, White Gel pen, and the Pen that has the ink in it from my Schminke Set.

 First step choosing my colours. Like I say in all my classes particularly with coloured pencils, you can get too overwhelmed with colour choices so just choose 3! Normally a light and a dark value. Have the other colours there but to start just limit your choices. I did this for my markers and pencils.

I decided i wanted to introduce Turquoise colour as this would go well with the blue, originally I wanted it to be mainly blue in colour but there is no reason you couldn't now introduce another colour if you wanted to in your details stage.
Next I started to block in and draw more shapes around the place with all of my various materials.  I used the turquoise wide tip of the markers to colour squares that i didn't have anything in. Because I used a paper board, it was absorbed nicely by the markers and I was able to blend a few colours together.

 

Using coloured pencils with Mepxy Markers

 One technique i will share that i love to do with pencils is to blend them together with the Clear blender markers. So here I have put down a few layers of colour and simply gone over it with the colourless Mepxy blender. This blends the layers of pencil beautifully and you can do this process a few times to build up some good rich colour. Next I just re added the original pen detail with the Shcminke ink pen which was filled with the Cyan Ink.

Finalise all over! 
As this one is in little boxes i can move around from place to place as i start to be a bit unsure of where to go next. In each box I am just deciding: What do i like about this box? What is in the box next to it? What colour haven't i used yet? Can I tie in a symbol i used somewhere else in here?

I worked out that there was a nice little scene playing out which was so unintended across a few boxes. Its quite cute, it looks like a sun or moon with clouds and the ocean going from big waves to small.  This idea would be nice to incorporate into a new project. So you see what happened there? I created something i can use, despite not setting out to do that. Thats what happens when you have a play and let go, something sometimes magic happens and then I get excited again to create something new.

Here is what happened as a whole.
I hope you enjoys this post, I hope it encourages you to go work over a existing project that might be sitting in your cupboard or helps you focus on a stage you might be working on in an existing project. Ie. the "Details" stage.