Also @ Creativity Portal

Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life
On NaNoWriMo, Personal Writing Style
By Natalie Goldberg—What's your personal writing style? Delve into the meaning of your own writing style. BTW, NaNoWriMo stands for "National Novel Writing Month".

A Guided Imagery On Nourishing The Artist Within
Have someone read this guided imagery exercise to you as you relax in your chair, couch, etc., and imagine yourself in the setting described. The words should be read calmly by the reader. Give it a try—you'll like it!

Do you have an interesting story to tell? Get interviewed by the Creativity Portal and get new exposure about your life, your profession, and/or your product or service.

Alleviating That Thin Constant Writer's Anxiety

Whitney Ferre is on a mission to open you to living life as both the ART and the ARTIST.

Get Your Super Star Bookmark

A Talk with Dan Millman and Sierra Prasada, Authors of The Creative Compass.
Q: How can The Creative Compass help writers and artists who seek inspiration but struggle with self-doubt and inertia?

Magic Crayon Journal: Pearls of Wisdom
With our heart, there is a wisdom that unlocks the answers for all of our questions.

Reflect and Write 9: Crossing Bridges
Under construction from 1933 to 1937, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most famous bridges in the world. In fact, it's been declared a modern Wonder of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The Performance Zone
The great thing about performing live is that when it's over, it's over. There’s no need to do it again.

Create A Fall Inspired Mixed Media Painting : Page 3 of 4

Create a Fall Inspired Mixed Media Painting in 7 Steps

continued from page 2

Step 3

In this step you will embrace the most tactile side of creating your painting. Oh, did I mentioned the messiest, and, of course, the most creatively-nurturing, too? Also, plan for, a mild to moderate, color alteration to your clothing. Begin the painting process by first spreading the following Golden Acrylics' paints' colors onto your paper palette: Phthalo Green (Yellow Shade), Sap Green Hue, Turquoise (Phthalo), Green Gold, Cobalt Green, and Van Dyke Brown Hue. I suggest you use a flat synthetic brush #10 by dipping it in a couple of colors simultaneously. Next, with one hand holding a single leaf in its place let the brush deposit a thick layer of paint against its entire outline (I strongly recommend that you work with one leaf-at-a-time, your messiness factor will be greatly diminished). Also, if you're working with a larger surface begin the painting process by starting with the sides or corners of your artwork first, that way you'll be able to diminish the unintended movement of the remaining elements. I found that lifting each already traced leaf off the surface prevented the fresh paint from unintentionally staining the background. This is a step that calls for a heavy paper towel use, keep it handy as your immediate surroundings may soon be adorned with layers of acrylic paint…. Once all the negative spaces are filled with color let your artwork dry completely before proceeding onward.

Step 4

During this step your painting will begin to come to life as you'll be filling the negative leaf shapes with colors of your choice. For my own artwork I prepared a variety of fall palette colors such as: Golden Acrylics Quinacridone Crimson, Indian Yellow Hue, Green Gold, Iridescent Bright Gold (Fine), Transparent Red Iron Oxide, Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, Quinacridone/Nickel Azo Gold, and Quinacridone Burnt Orange. Though I dipped my brush in a couple of colors simultaneously, in the painting itself, I tried to say away from blending colors in order to create a bit of visual texture variety. In fact I went slightly overboard with developing texture in my artwork ~ let me share. After filling each separate leaf space completely I pressed a piece of dry paper towel against the still wet surface (without rubbing) and lifted off bits of paint. Next, as you can see in the photo below, I got even more 'physical' with my texture ~ by using a side of my palette knife I begun to scrape off selected areas while creating some decisive gesture marks by exposing the underlying gesso. Of course when it comes to your own painting, you as an artist are free to take the textural-aesthetic experimentations as far as you'd like to. Finish this step by filling all the leaves' shapes with color and let your painting dry.

Continue to page 4 »