Learning Furniture Painting By Trial And Error

 Above, my Farm Chair in the "During" Stage

I have always wanted to try my hand at painting a piece of furniture... and in my head, I thought I knew kinda-sorta what would be involved. So, when I was asked last fall (2022) to paint a child's wooden chair for our church's Vacation Bible School auction, I didn't hestitate to say "Absolutely!... I would love to!" The auction isn't until this coming spring (2023), so I knew I had lots of time to figure out how to go about painting the chair. Plus, it was for a great cause!... The VBS kids planned to raise money to pay for cochlear implants for children in the Dominican Republic who are deaf. I was so confident that this would be easy-peasy that I volunteered to paint THREE chairs of varying sizes. Yup!... I was sure I totally "got this!"

So, I put on my researcher's hat and started Googling furniture painting. Armed with my new found knowledge, I headed to our local Home Depot and purchased sample sized latex paint in a rainbow of colors. I set to work priming the little chair (which took a whole lot longer than I'd thought it would!). Next up... sketch out my farm design on the primed surface and start adding color.

Well, that was my first big mistake!... It turned out that I had not been thinking about all the white background around my farm characters that needed to be painted in with white latex paint. It was an unnecessarily tedious job that could have been a whole lot easier if I'd just given the whole chair two good coats of latex paint before I started sketching. *sigh!* First lesson learned!

After painting all my little characters (multiple coats of paint on each!), I outlined them all with my water based Sharpie paint pen. That was my second big mistake, because when I started to spray the chair with my acrylic sealant (Polycrylic), my nice crisp black outline started to run and smear! YIKES!! Apparently I should have used an oil based paint marker instead!

Needless to say, I ended up having to repaint the whole "MOO" and part of a flower on the top of the chair. Thankfully, though, I found that my Krylon spray did not smear the outline, so I gave the design a good coat of Krylon and then added the Polycrylic on top of that to make it more scuff resistant.

 

You might have guessed by now that I ended up painting just ONE chair for the auction. By the time I'd finished the farm chair, I was DONE, DONE, DONE with chair painting! I will say though that the chair came out pretty darn cute in real life... my photos really don't do it justice!

Will I paint another chair in the future?... well, I might someday in the very distant future for a very good cause. I sure have learned a lot this time around about what NOT to do!... and maybe the next time (if there ever is a next time!) I'll know a whole lot better about what I'm doing! *wink!*

Do Artists Blog Anymore???

 "Cat Loves Bird Loves Cat"

Long, long ago (January 1st, 2006 to be precise!) I started my very first blog. I called it Simple Blessings... an arty blog that gave me the opportunity to capture my everyday thoughts and feelings and illustrate them with my doodles. Really, it was the first place where I shared my art publicly... and that was a very BIG deal back then for this shy, introverted artist!

I learned a lot from that blog!... the value of telling my story, even the small seemingly insignificant things.... that I really DID like to write... that it was worth it to take the risk and put myself and my art "out there," even when it wasn't perfect. I "met" other art bloggers and for the first time, developed a sense of creative community. And I even learned a little bit of HTML too!

Eventually, I decided to stop posting in SimpleBlessings and I started the PholkartStudio blog instead. If I remember correctly, I ran into "technical difficulties" with the darker background and white type I'd used in my old blog. Another lesson for me on the blogging learning curve!

I can't say that I was a regular blogger back then... but I did post quite a lot whenever the mood struck over the years. And it always gave me JOY!

Fast forward to the present...

Instagram became the "next great thing" and it seemed like art bloggers were abandoning their blogs in favor of this very visual (and fun!) platform. I held off on jumping on the Instagram bandwagon for a while... but eventually I caved and hopped on Instagram too. And my blog was put aside and got very DUSTY!!!

But lately I've been feeling the pull to get back to blogging. I quit Facebook a while back (that' a whole 'nother story!) and Instagram just isn't feeding the writer in me. I guess I miss blogging... but I'm wondering...

Are there any Art Bloggers out there anymore???

I sure hope so, 'cause I'd really love to find them!

** The painting "Cat Loves Bird Loves Cat" was created by me. You can find other whimsical & quirky paintings like this one in my Etsy shop, PholkartStudio!

Snowbound in Carolina

"Winter Friends"

Late last week, we had a winter storm blow through my home state of North Carolina. It's not so unusual for us to get a really good snow sometime during the wintertime... but I think this storm surprised even the meteorologists with the amount of snow it left behind! We had about six inches of snow... but with ice on the roads and our house perched on a hill, we were snowbound for several days 'til the temperatures rose.

So, while I was inside, enjoying the snowy view out my window and giving thanks for a warm house and a full fridge, I spent some very happy hours in my studio, creating this happy snowman! I did some experimenting with 'floating color' (read here... lots of trial & error!) to give the snowman and cardinal a bit of shading and depth. This is a growing edge for me. I had watched some YouTube videos that made the floating technique look so easy... but I'm going to need to keep practicing, that's for sure! 

I hope that"Winter Friends" brightens your day today!  :)

Learning To Add A Pinterest Board To My Blog

I've been wanting to share some of my Pinterest boards here on my blog... but, I was unsure how to go about doing that. I knew it was possible, but for some reason, I couldn't get it to work. As always for me, I learn by researching and a whole lot of trial and error!

Today I stumbled upon a YouTube video by Ana Maria Menezes on How to Embed a Pinterest Board to Blogger. I watched the video a couple of times and it cleared up the issue I was having about where to add the extra small piece of HTML code that is needed to make the board show up.

As I'm writing this post in the "Compose" mode, I can't see the Pinterest board that I've added using HTML. However, when I preview  what I've written... Voila! There it is!  :)

Another cool thing I've found in this process is that, once I've published my post and the Pinterest board is 'live'... you can scroll up and down on the board. If you click on a picture, it will take you directly to that Pin.

Pretty nifty neato!

I hope you enjoy my I {Heart} Etsy Pinterest Board! My collection of all things handmade will keep growing... It is such a huge part of who I am and what I love!

Showing Up On Etsy

"Every Child Is An Artist"

I thought it was really very simple... I just wanted to create my kinda fun, quirky, whimsical, colorful, silly art and offer it in my (very cute!) Etsy shop to people who like fun, quirky, whimsical, colorful, silly art too.

No big deal... right? But as it turns out, it's not quite as straight-forward and easy as that...

What I quickly discovered after listing my whimsical little pieces of art on Etsy was that I couldn't find them ANYWHERE when I searched for them later! And if I couldn't find them... then it followed that nobody else who might like to find them was discovering them either...

My heart felt soooo discouraged!!  :(

So... I started to research. And I began to learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how to optimize my Etsy shop.

It didn't take long before I found out about Danielle Spurge-Swavely from The Merriweather Council! She offers a free Etsy Lessons Email Series that contains a 20 minute SEO training video that was a HUGE help to me! After implementing Danielle's suggestions, I was so happy to see my artwork showing up in Etsy's listings so buyers can finally find them!... YaY!!!  :)

I highly recommend The Merriweather Council Etsy Lessons Email Series to any Etsy seller who is trying to get their products to show up in searches on Etsy. Danielle explains the process of titling and tagging your products in a very clear and helpful way. I was thrilled with the results that I've had from following her advice... and I think you'll be happy with your results too!

My Very First Mixed Media Pumpkin Project

"Harvest Pumpkin"

A few weeks ago, I was browsing in my favorite local craft shop... and discovered the PERFECT pumpkin-colored piece of scrapbook paper! I knew right then and there that that orange polka dot paper was coming home with me, to be used for some future pumpkin-y project.

I've been painting for a while now and have gotten pretty comfy with my self-taught technique... but I'm a newbie to mixed media and I've been wanting to try my hand at it. So I printed out an enlarged version of one of the digital stamps I used to design, "Folk Art Pumpkin"...

...and modified it so it would fit on my 5x7 inch canvas base. I had to crop one of the 'swirlies' and flip another 'swirlie' around to the opposite side. I also decided to delete the heart on the pumpkin for this project.

After base coating my canvas panel with black paint (it took two coats!), I flipped my printed pumpkin over and transferred my pumpkin design onto the back of the orange paper using dark graphite paper. I did the same thing with the leaf design, transferring that onto a textured green paper. It took no time at all to cut out my pumpkin pieces, since this is such a simple design.

Next step was the Modge Podge. I carefully brushed the back of the pumpkin with a thin layer of Modge Podge. Then I adhered it to the middle of the canvas panel, making sure to smooth it from the center toward the outer edges, so the edges were glued down firmly. I eyeballed the placement of the green leaf and Modged Podged that too.

Last of all, I transferred my 'swirlie' pattern to the black canvas with a light colored graphite transfer paper, and penciled in 'harvest' in the upper left corner. The rest of the design was finished by painting the lettering and the 'swirlie' freehand using a small round brush. A couple of coats of Krylon matte acrylic spray and my Harvest Pumpkin was done!  :)

Now that I've created my first mixed media project, I've definitely caught the bug! Can't wait to figure out what my next project will be!

(...and of course, now I have an excuse to collect all that gorgeous scrapbook paper I've been resisting! *wink!*).
 

Tell Me A Story . . . .

I like to write... and if you're a regular blog reader of mine, you'll know this is so very true! I can also be kinda, just a little bit, overly wordy (*wink-wink*).

I don't have any aspirations to write books... My hat is off to those who are called to put deep & inspiring thoughts or delightful characters who have amazing adventures down on paper for others to read. That's such a great calling!... but it's not my calling.

Lately I've become more aware that I want to add words to my illustrations. Not lots of words... just a small taste of a story or a peek at what's going on 'behind the scenes'.

Mini-Stories For Tiny Art

And so... I thought I'd show you today what I mean by posting this silly doodle of mine. The illustration style is all me, the mini-story mine too... and so is the lettering. No downloaded fonts here!... It's all done from start to finish by hand... my hand. And I kinda like that!  :)

I'm sure as I play with this 'tiny pictures with mini-stories' idea that things will eventually evolve. But for now, I have no idea what will come of this... It's just another fun avenue to explore as I keep putting my pen to paper & doodling my little heart out!

My Recent Rx for Creative Block

There's a funny thing about my Creative Blocks... No matter how hard I try to push those big old blocks aside, they just won't budge! And that's just what I found this month as I sat down to update my blog... I was completely at a loss about what to write.

Now normally, my tendency would be to press on, hoping that inspiration would magically reappear. But this time was different...

This time I got busy!

I am NOT at all excited about house cleaning (or cooking either, for that matter!). But since I was getting nowhere with my writing efforts, I jumped into cleaning my studio & "This Old House." It felt good to chase some of the dust bunnies away that had multiplied during the winter months.

My wintertime reading had been James Herriot's book, All Creatures Great and Small. I enjoyed traveling around the English countryside "with him" so much as he cared for the animals & the farm people there, that I immersed myself in his second book All Things Bright and Beautiful ... Nothing like a trip to faraway places (even if only in book form!) to bring new inspiration to me.

And since it's been so pretty outside...

...I've spent extra time enjoying the newness of Spring in our neighborhood. I must say, though I'm not a photographer at all, I've had so much fun capturing pics with my new phone camera as I've walked our lab Winnie on the block each day!

Taking pics has really challenged me to see with fresh eyes... There are interesting things, inspiration & beauty around me everyday!

So... Yet another lesson learned for me about being a creative person... Sometimes it's best to put my project aside for a while & let my creative brain gain some fresh perspective.

Thank you so much Lord for "wiring" me to be a creative person. Please help me to honor You while I allow creativity to grow in me.

Hi, My Name Is Patti And I'm A Pur-fek-shun-ist!

I've been working away at my Zazzle shop for a while now... having lots of fun creating cards, prints, & more from my original artwork. Finally, I decided the time had come for me to order some of my designs so I could see the final products...

The day the mailman delivered my Zazzle Mail I was sooooo excited to see what was inside! And there it was!... a glossy postcard of my "Pumpkins For Sale" illustration. The printing was crisp & clear, the paper was top-notch... I was thrilled with my arty mail!

That is, 'til I realized one thing!... The colors were not an exact match to my original art.

Uh-Oh!!... Enter Patti's Perfectionism! 

For the next two days I plunged myself into research & study, trying my best to understand the language of sRGB & CMYK. Now, as a self-taught artist, most of what I've learned art-wise has been through research, plus LOTS of trial & error!... So at first, my quest for new art knowledge felt like another challenging adventure.

However, that feeling of adventure was soon replaced by the cross-eyed, head-throbbing feeling of bumping my head against something I just couldn't figure out or change, no matter how hard I tried!

Well, to make a very loooooong story short... I decided to "back away from the edge" of my "unreconcilable problem" & get a fresh perspective. I placed the postcard on a tiny easel & took this picture in my sunny kitchen... and then I walked away.

The next day, I felt like the Lord had given me a whole new outlook on my problem...

I realized (once again!) that some things are just plain out of my control. The printing process Zazzle uses allows me to offer my artwork on products in a print-on-demand way. Other printing methods might allow more exact color matching... but the process would be much slower & the products would need to be purchased in bulk at a higher cost.

... Basically, that just wouldn't work for me.

And as I looked with fresh eyes at the photo I'd taken the day before... and at the postcard still propped up on its' easel... I realized it was OK. I could like this version of my artwork just the way it was.

Perfectionists really don't like to settle for less than perfect... But today I'm feeling thankful for learning one more lesson on the road toward embracing "good enough."