Lesson 10

January  2013      by Marie Scott ©

Welcome to a new year of Profusion Art!

        I will gradually improve this website during the coming year, so prepare for small changes.

          This January lesson will be in the same form as past lessons, but starting next month, instead of giving monthly lessons with four new designs to use, I will break up the lessons into more manageable pieces by putting on one design per week. Later in the year, I will begin offering downloadable 12-page coloring books—at a small fee—for those artists who just love to color or paint, but don’t want to have to create the designs. And as always, there will be extra freebies including one coloring book page per month.

SNOWFLAKES

        I will start January off with a bang by teaching you how to make beautiful snowflakes. Six-sided-radial-repetition—or making snowflakes—is one of the most beautiful art forms of all time, and Mother Nature knows it. I give you an easy way to do it.

Colored Snowflakes

 Snowflakes 

 Exotic Snowflakes

Now that you know how it’s done, here is the template so you can make your own snowflakes. Again, you don’t have to be perfect—Mother Nature’s work is not perfect either—but she is very neat, and so must you try to be neat.

        The following are four filler designs that you may use to fill in snowflakes, making them what I call “exotic snowflakes.”

Below are easy instructions on how to create the fillers.

And here are examples of how I have used each design in a snowflake. 

Assignment:   Now, make your own snowflakes, and use any design you can think up to decorate and make them exotic. You don’t need to limit yourself to black and white—paint or color your snowflakes too.

I LOVE DESIGNING SNOWFLAKES AND RADIAL DESIGNS. My guess is that you will too!

Lesson 9

Lesson 9:  Christmas Tags

You know you’re extra special when someone puts a homemade tag on your gift. This lesson is on making Christmas gift tags, and includes four new patterns

Decorated gift tags

Many of you are working on Christmas projects now, or all year long, so I've put this lesson on the blog early.  

Here are templates of the gift tags.  Copy and paste them, then blow them up to whatever size you want.

Here are the four new patterns for this month. Use them, with previous patterns, to put designs on the gift tags.  You could also put designs on envelopes for your very special friends or family.

Assignment:  Use the new patterns, along with any others you choose, and decorate your gift tags.

Now, here are my “Twelve Days of Christmas” bonus chains. Use them with other patterns, to decorate the tree. 

Here is the tree for you to decorate.  Sit and watch it snow outside your window, or watch, (mostly listen to), a Christmas video while you do your artwork.  Have fun!              

Copy, paste, and enlarge tree as desired

 When I tell you to decorate your Christmas tree, I don’t mean to hang real balls and wrap real tinsel. I mean to do what profusers do and PROFUSE!  Be different and creative. See what you can come up with.

And have yourself a very merry Christmas!

Lesson 8

Lesson 8:  Leaf Profusion

Leaf Color Palett

Artists have painted leaves, painted on leaves, made leaves into designs, used leaves to enhance designs—you name it.  Leaves are one of my favorite subjects, and because of their prolific variety, lend themselves to endless artistic profusion.

A profusion of water colored leaves

Below are some leaves. Use them to decorate, to decorate with, or to decorate around.

Copy, paste, and enlarge these leaves to use in your artwork

Here are four new patterns and their instructions to add to our collection. Use them in combination with any patterns we have had, or any you make up, and see what beautiful designs you can create.

Assignment:  Create a profusion of anything you’d like having to do with leaves.

These leaves have been decorated inside, or around, or both

These decorated leaves have been put on an acrylic rainbow background

Lesson 7

Lesson 7:  SWAG BORDER

Have you seen those fancy swag borders they started using in the romantic art era clear up to now?  They look too complicated to try, right?  Well . . . I hope this system will help untangle the mystery for you. Now you can create beautiful swag borders like the one above for your scrapbook,  personal history, or any document.

Here’s how:

 

1.         You draw  a large “C,” an “F,”a foreward/backward “S,” or any simple vine.

2.       Then, you add a few shorter stems onto the basic vine.

3.        After that, you encase all the lines in a wide border.

4.       Finally, you add lines or veins to the leaves—for that’s just what they are—glorified leaves.

5.       Now, you are ready to put your swags together into a fancy border and voila!

Assignment:  Create a lovely swag border of your own.

As you get proficient at this technique, you may add flowers, celtic knots, shields, or anything else you like. You can darken or paint the leaves, stylize them to your own taste, or add scallops and whimsies to your borders.

There are four patterns in the chart below. (S1-31, S2-31, and S3-31) the swag curls, and (M1-14) the mistletoe.

Notice the chart below.  

             Follow the steps for each piece of border starting from left to right.

 There can be many variations and deviations. Below are a few to consider.

           Add the thick and thin line technique to help finish your border.

          The border below is enhanced by gold paint (It looks dark tan in this picture)

This is an example of the same border at the top of the post, but painted in acrylics.

            Now, enjoy and surprise yourself!

LESSON 6

Lesson 6:  Pumpkin Decorating Fest

Pumpkin:  drawn, painted with acrylics, and detailed in black ink

"Spooky Jack"   Paint a profusion of Halloween art on a Jack-o-lantern

This lesson is pure Halloween fun.  You get a pumpkin to decorate, four Halloweenish patterns, and a page of big and little Halloween shapes to draw and use (or trace and use, as necessary).  You can use the basic patterns, the quilt patterns, and any of the other patterns we’ve had to decorate your pumpkin in any way you like. You can even make up your own patterns. Have fun being creative!

Assignment: Copy, paste, and print the pumpkin, then decorate it as explained above.

You are welcomed to send me a copy of your pumpkin to post on the profusionart blog!

Found below, are the pumpkin, the Halloween shapes, and the instructions for four new Halloween squares.  Following those are three more examples of decorated pumpkins.

Copy and paste, enlarge, and print this pumpkin; then decorate

Use these shapes as desired; print, trace, or manipulate on your computer

Below are the four new design squares. Draw the squares to use for future artwork.

Use these lines of art to carry and move the eye around in your picture

This versatile vine pattern can be used to fill large areas or pull sections together

This type of pattern can use any small shape. Or, make the shapes without borders

This is a great filler, or it can be used as a divider of compartments to fill with good things

The following are my example designs. 

Use your imagination and ENJOY!

LESSON 5

Lesson  5:  Card Making

      Study the picture sets below. Notice the same steps were taken in each set of pictures.
     Though I've used pictures that look like real things in this lesson, you don't have to make anything look real in expressive art. You can make everything abstract--and as long as it's done neatly--it will be great. Remember not to be in a hurry. Your goal is to enjoy your Profusion Art time.

     You can do Profusion Art on any kind of card, but these cards have been simplified to         make the most of adding color. In this case it’s water color.

1.        First, make a simple line drawing

2.      Next, watercolor the line drawing

3.      Then, draw details in black pen, just as you have learned to do in Profusion Art

ASSIGNMENT:  Using the next twelve patterns, mix and match to make a never-ending supply of cards. You’ll have fun making the cards, and they’ll show an extra measure of love for those who receive them, so everyone is enriched.

( If you don’t know, or have forgotten what the TnT line technique is, go back to Lesson 1. )

In this lesson, I’d also like you to consider how you could dress up names or words to put on a card or another project.  Notice the word art illustration below—and have fun with your patterns, or make up new ones!

Word Art