Learning & Resources Art Blog

This blog was created to share art tips and tutorials, art resources, share cool things about other artists, and also let you know about upcoming learning opportunities and contests. Do you have something art-related you’d like to learn about? Let me know!

Creating a Growing Family Tree

Working with a local childcare center to create a painting of thanks.

In early March, 2020, Growing Room Child Development Center of Berlin, MA had to temporarily shut its doors for an unknown amount of time due to the COVID-19 pandemic as schools everywhere were forced to do. They were wondering how they would manage to keep their doors open, support their teachers and staff, and when they might ever open again. Through this time, some families stayed on board paying partial tuition to help keep the school from closing its door permanently. Early this year in 2021, they chose to honor those families by commissioning a painting to thank them for their support through the crisis.

"A Growing Family Tree", acrylic mixed media painting by Victoria K. Chapman. A tree, butterflies, and cone flowers in a field with a stream.

I feel so lucky that I had the opportunity to create this painting for this wonderful local learning center. When they mentioned a tree, butterflies, and flowers, it was almost an instant “yes”! Growing Room reached out to me because we have been one of the families to have a child as part of their school. They were excited to hire one of their parents to be the artist for the special piece for their parent room.

The key pieces to this painting were:

  • a large tree to be a center piece
  • colorful butterflies and flowers
  • large enough to take up a good amount of space on a wall, but not a mural
  • and it should include the 45 names of families who supported them

The painting ended up being 36”x48”, which is much larger than I typically work. Because of this, I chose to stray from my typical watercolor mixed media and go with something more suited to large canvases. I chose acrylic paint as the main medium, but used various pens to assist in small details and to add the names. Pens give a smoother look for typography, especially at smaller sizes.

The initial first steps included brainstorming ideas and then sharing of sketches. I presented my friends at Growing Room with three initial sketches, all similar in concept but with some key differences. They ultimately chose sketch #1, which featured a flowing stream and a fox peaking out from behind the tree. I love this phase of the process because I get to explore ideas and come up with creative solutions. The creative thinking piece of art is one of the parts that I enjoy most.

I also took some time to research local and native butterflies and flowers. I chose six species of butterflies native to New England to feature in the painting: monarch, black swallowtail, tiger swallowtail, meadow fritillary, clouded sulfur, and the eastern tailed blue. For the flowers, I chose a native pollinator favorite—cone flowers. Also known as echinacea, the cone flowers come in both purple and orange varieties. To continue the celebration of native pollinators, I added one more pollinator friend—the common bumblebee.

Initial concept sketch and pencil outlines on canvas.

Once the sketch was approved, I moved forward with the final work on canvas. After prepping the canvas and adding white gesso as a base layer, I started by creating pencil outlines on the canvas to block out where all of the elements would be. Going from a 6”x9” drawing to a 36”x48” drawing can be challenging and I wanted to make sure everything was proportional and flowed together on the larger surface. I also penciled in all the family names so I knew I had a spot for each of them that worked with the length of the name. Once the outlines were complete, I took photos to use a reference for when I’d have to add the names back in with pen over the final painting. The names would disappear beneath the paint and I didn’t want to forget where they would be placed.

When I started the paint, I worked from back to front. This means I started with the elements that would be perceived as being in the background and added the foreground elements later. With this in mind, I started first with the sky and the tree line in the back. I found this way of working worked best for acrylics, since they are opaque and can easily be painted over. I layered the finer details over the background colors. The nice thing about acrylics is that they dry relatively quickly. My technique is quite different when I use watercolors, which are transparent.

The final painting in various stages of progress.

The canvas I was working on had a gallery style profile, which means the thickness of the canvas off the wall is 1.5”. Because the piece wasn’t going to be framed, I made sure to paint all four of the canvas sides as well. Continuing the scenery around the sides, top, and bottom posed another interesting challenge that I don’t have to contend with when working in watercolors.

After I built up all the paint layers and completed the picture, it was time to add the names back in. I used a pencil to sketch in the names to make sure the lettering was even. Then, when all of the names were placed, the marker was added. I used fine tipped permanent felt markers in different colors to go with the piece of the background the name was on. If the names were in the grass or leaves, I used a dark green marker. If the names were in the water, I used a dark blue marker. To bring the names out just a little more from their backgrounds, I finished them off with a white gel pen to create a highlight around the lettering edges.

Once the names were placed and dry, I added some final touches. To bring a little bit more magic into the piece, I added iridescent medium to the water to give it a hint of shimmer. And to protect the whole piece, I coated the entire canvas in a layer of Gamvar matte varnish. Once completely dry, the hooks and hanging wire were added to the back and the entire piece was wrapped up in cardboard for safe delivery.

Images of the final painting.

It was so exciting to deliver the final piece and unveil it in front of the staff who were there. The excitement and joy on everyone’s faces made the experience completely worth it. I hope this painting continues to bring joy to all of the staff, children, and families at Growing Room. It was an honor to create something beautiful that celebrates families and the joy of nature. I’m so excited to share this with a caring part of the community and I hope for similar opportunities to celebrate art and nature in the future.

Morning Sketches—An Artist’s Survival Tool

At the end of July, 2020, I was let go from my job as a web developer. I spent many years in the web design and development field, all the while a nagging feeling tugging in the back of my mind and heart that I was in the wrong place. Right when the straw almost broke the camel’s back so to speak, fate would have it that I was freed from my position. It was frightening from a financial security perspective, but ultimately, a blessing. I decided to use this as my opportunity to shift gears and return to my artist roots, this time full-time.

A pencil sketch of my two-year-old son.
A pencil sketch of my two-year-old son.

I was burned out and tired. I spent the previous two years almost completely abandoning my art to raise my baby who I was blessed with in 2018. My son is beautiful and lovely, but young children take a lot of time and energy. The demands of a high-pressure job and a small child were making it difficult for me to pursue my creative dreams and it almost felt like that part of me was drowning. Add to it a global pandemic with my small child and two older children in school at home all the time, I was beginning to lose all hope. When I left my job, it felt almost like a veil was lifted and a light was starting to shine through the dark clouds. I was finally coming out of the dark. But, I needed some reviving. That’s when I turned to The Artist’s Way.

The Artist's Way book cover.

The Artist’s Way is a book and 12-week program to help blocked creative people find their way back to their art, designed and written by Julia Cameron. I first did The Artist’s Way back in 2010 when I was laid off from another job. My friend and fellow artist, Christopher (of ArtMuffin) introduced me to it the year before. I took the free time I had as an opportunity to try it out. The revival was refreshing, but more than 10 years later, I felt like I needed resuscitating again. One of the key components to The Artist’s Way is the “morning pages”. Each morning, first thing when you wake up, before doing anything else, you write three pages of stream-of-consciousness journaling. It doesn’t matter what you write—just write. It’s a great way to get your brain working and thinking. Some interesting things can come out of the morning pages. New ideas, insights, and revelations sometimes trickle out between the stream of brain junk.

I completed my 12 weeks of The Artist’s Way morning pages, activities, and artist’s dates (where you take yourself on a date by yourself every week). But, I felt I should continue the morning pages as part of my continued course toward a creative career. Since the beginning of August, I have nearly filled up three journals and gone through numerous pens. I just ordered myself a lovely handmade refillable pen so I can lower my impact of pen trash and support a fellow artist as I continue my journaling journey.

A few months into morning pages, I realized I needed another component to help me as a visual artist. I needed to be drawing something for myself every day. But, I needed a schedule to make this work. So, I added “morning sketches” to part of my routine. I wake up by 6am or earlier most mornings now. I start with morning pages and then continue on with morning sketches. The sketches can be anything. Sometimes I’m trying out a new tool, like the new Pentel brush pens my husband recently gave me for Christmas. Sometimes, I’m just drawing my hand or my dog curled up in bed because it’s a subject that’s there next to me. Other times, I may work on an idea that came to me while I was writing, or on a sketch toward one of my many projects. Either way, it gives me dedicated quiet time for me to just draw. And it is so important to me to do this now.

  • A morning sketchbook pencil drawing of a Bodhi Tree, or Sacred Fig Tree.
    A morning sketchbook pencil drawing of a Bodhi Tree, or Sacred Fig Tree.
  • A morning pencil sketch of a young girl playing with a ball.
    A morning pencil sketch of a young girl playing with a ball.
  • A morning sketchbook brush pen drawing of my dog, Daisy.
    A morning sketchbook brush pen drawing of my dog, Daisy.
  • A morning sketch of leaves using my new Pentel brush pen.
    A morning sketch of leaves using my new Pentel brush pen.
  • A morning sketchbook drawing of a tired mother in pen.
    A morning sketchbook drawing of a tired mother in pen.
  • A colorful morning sketch of a tree, mountains, and a sunrise.
    A colorful morning sketch of a tree, mountains, and a sunrise.
Some of my “Morning Sketches”

If you’re a creative person feeling blocked or lost, consider making yourself a routine and time just for you and your artist self. If you’re a visual artist, you can make time for morning sketches like I have. If you’re a musician, you could make time to play music, without expectations or a plan—just play. If you’re a writer, spend time doing morning pages, and then perhaps move on to some other composition just for fun. Do what feels right for your own creative self. Morning pages and morning sketches have helped me immensely. So many creative people discount the time they need for themselves, but it is in-fact, a crucial part of the creative process. This hour of time for writing and drawing has been vital to my revival as an artist—and I suspect will continue to be important to my creative process in many ways. Perhaps it could be for you, too.

To buy your own copy of The Artist’s Way, ask at your local book shop, or order online and help support local book shops on Bookshop.org.

Tutorial: How to Stretch Watercolor Paper

Watercolors are a lovely medium and it’s one of my favorites to work in. You can get some interesting layers of textures and colors because of its transparency. It has a great ability for being light and washy, and also deep and detailed. But, as many beginner artists find, working with watercolors can be challenging when your page gets wavy and warps while working on it. There are a few methods for holding your watercolor paper flat on your work surface. In this tutorial, I’ll show you my favorite way to keep watercolor paper flat while I’m working.

Tutorial I: How to Stretch Watercolor Paper

Here is the list of materials you’ll need for this method of stretching watercolor paper:

  • Preferred watecolor paper (sheets instead of blocks/pads preferred—I am using Fabriano 300lb Hot Pressed)
  • Light duty staple gun and staples
  • Metal edged ruler
  • Hollow wood (or lightweight) drawing board (here is one of the drawing boards I use, made by Helix)
  • Flat-head screwdriver
  • Source of water in a large sink/tub

Art, Education, and Magic

Welcome to the refreshed Weyakin Designs blog! This space is to share educational resources, fun information, and general updates with friends and followers to utilize and enjoy. Among the types of posts I plan to share are art tutorials and tutorial videos, tell you about some other cool artists I know, or show demonstrations of how I make my art.

I’m excited to share with you in the magic of art and nature! Thanks for joining me.

Victoria