Learning how to paint what people want and keep myself happy at the same time.

 How Do I Keep Myself Happy and Gain More YouTube Subscribers?

Good Morning, it is a wet Saturday morning here in Australia.  I am still in my pajamas and it is almost 12pm, oops. 
I have recently uploaded my latest YouTube video, but I do have reservations about it.  Here is a pic of the finished painting.  There is a gold bokeh background and lady with blonde hair and a red dress, with some punched butterflies flying away.  I don't mean I punched the butterflies lol, I used a punch and some card to stick them to the dress.  I like her, but she is not my usual style.  Here is the link if you wish to paint her:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO-zVKNhJIM

You see I love to paint complex and perfectionist paintings.  I love to have many many layers, and lots of thinking when it comes to painting.

I have been trying my best to get my YouTube subs up, now it is hard.  I paint something I love and I do a tutorial for it and I get excited, only to be disappointed in the amount of views.  Am I not doing the tags right?  Are the paintings too complex?  Do I just completely suck? Am I the problem?  I know when I get into a painting I go quiet, and since I am the only one in the room with the camera it can get a little quiet on the video. 

So I am having a crisis of faith, or I am lost, or maybe I have never had a clue.  Why am I doing YouTube?  Why have I always wanted to do it?  It's not like I am going to make any money from it.  If anyone has an answer I would love to know lol.

I would love to be able to get my subs up to 1000 over the next year, but it is such a huge mountain to climb.  I have never liked myself so why would other people want to listen to me?  It is so hard for a person like me with absolutely no confidence in myself to be able to do this kind of stuff.  I really want to succeed though, I am determined to do my best, and not listen to the voices in my head telling me to give up.  So I suppose the only solution is to keep trying, keep going, and maybe one day I will get that 1000 subscribers.  Until then I will keep uploading videos, easy and more difficult.  I love the difficult ones, I love showing people that anyone can paint them, but in hindsight they could be intimidating to the beginner.  So a happy medium needs to be agreed upon in my mind. 

I really like the way she turned out, she is a simple and quick painting, and hopefully she will be liked by viewers. So let me know what you think of her, and my other videos.

I have a finger painting video of Mario from Super Mario Bros coming up next Saturday, as part of the Aussie YouTube hop, which I really love taking part in!  Here is a sneak peak of the final product of Mario.

This is the bokeh background to the lady in red painting.  If you wish to just paint the bokeh then just follow the beginning of my YouTube tutorial.

Just as a little sneak peak, I will show you the Pixabay photos that have inspired me for my next YouTube painting tutorial.  These are all off the Pixabay website.  https://pixabay.com/

So as you can see, flowers and baskets are the common theme here.  I have not designed the painting yet, but it will be a basket of flowers, somewhere, somehow lol.  I cannot wait to show you what I come up with.

So for now I will bid you adieu.  Have a wonderful week, look after yourselves and don't forget to art.  Art as if your life depends on it, because for some people like me, it does.

Please follow me on facebook........... KristinaObrienart

I am also on Instagram.......... https://www.instagram.com/kristina_obrien_art/

Aaaand Pinterest....... https://www.pinterest.com.au/krystalrose316/pins/

And now Youtube.......https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpgFuUdFo0dyREOhcSgXBrw

Making an acrylic pour swipe diptych with lots of cells, using helmar PVA glue and silicone

Making an Acrylic Pour using Helmar PVA glue and Helmar Silicone Oil for Cells

Hey guys, Kristina here again with my very last post for Helmar.  I decided to do something I have wanted to try for ages, and that is an acrylic pour using PVA glue as the pouring medium, and silicone oil for the cells.  It actually worked better than I expected.  I covered the diptych in resin to enhance the shine once it was all dry, because I just love the gloss finish resin gives.


Helmar products used:
Silicone Oil
Helmar craft and hobby pva glue


Other Items required:
Paper Towel
Floetrol
Pouring medium or Airbrush medium
Water
Mixing Jug
Acrylic paints for pouring
Plastic cups
Popsicle sticks to mix the paints
Resin (if you decide to cover it in resin)

Procedure:
First of all there is a formula for making the pouring medium that you need to know.  This is the formula from "Pouring Your Heart Out" YouTube channel.  It is Floetrol 3 parts: PVA Glue 2 parts: Pouring medium 1 part: water 1/4 parts.  So, you use 300g of Floetrol, 200g Helmar pva glue, 100g of pouring medium and 25g of water.  You mix all of this together in a plastic jug and let is sit for a half hour.
Then decide on your paint colours, and the swipe colour.  Black or white is generally a great beginners swipe colour.  Add some of your pouring medium to the plastic cups, then add the acrylic paint to the pouring medium and mix well.  It is a great consistency when the paint stays on your popsicle stick when you lift it out of the mix, but it also flows straight back into the cup when you tip your stick.  If it is too thick, add more pouring medium or a little bit of water.  If it is too thin, add more paint.  I found Jo Sonja paints to be the best consistency for this type of pour.  Once you are happy with your mixes, leave them for at least an hour, this helps the bubbles settle to the bottom.


The paint colours I used in this pour were:
Carbon Black (Swipe colour)
Titanium White
Yellow
Aqua
Burnt Sienna
Rich Gold
Pacific Blue
Metallic Copper
Yellow Ochre

Once the paints have been mixed and left for a while, arrange your canvas that you will be pouring on.  Lay down a plastic covering on top of cardboard or plastic, so you don't make a mess on your floor.  Put your canvas on top of some cups, so it is not on the ground, otherwise it may get stuck to the ground.


Right before you are going to do your pour, add the silicone to all the colours except the black (swipe colour).  Add approximately 4-5 drops in each cup, and stir once or twice, not too much.

Now it is time to pour.  Pour the paints in any order you want, but just make sure your swipe colour is in the middle of the canvas and a little at the top.



Once you are happy with the paint, get your paper towel, I had to use two joined together because my canvas was wide.  Place the bottom of the paper towel into the black paint and drag it slowly down the canvas, making sure it is dragging the paint down the canvas,



Then grab a new paper towel, place it in the black paint and swipe up the canvas in the same way you swiped down.  Almost immediately you will see the cells forming because of the silicone oil added.  It is absolutely beautiful to watch.


This was the most fun I had had in a long time, just watching the colours mix and cells form.  If you have any spots on the canvas that are not covered in paint, just pour a little bit on them, or mix it around with a popsicle stick until you are happy.





Just leave the canvas on the flat surface until it is dry to touch.  It can take up to three days to be dry to the touch, depending on your weather etc.  Mine took two days, and even though it may look dry, refrain from touching it unless you are absolutely sure.  Yes, speaking from experience here, I touched it, it wasn't dry.  Once you are absolutely sure it is dry, give it a wipe with a slightly damp paper towel.  The silicone will rise to the top of the paint and make a slight film on the canvas.  Just wipe it off and it's done.

Next step is to wait about two weeks to ensure the paint is fully dry, and the pouring medium too.  This can take a while.  Then either varnish with your choice of varnish, or you can cover it in clear epoxy resin.  I chose resin, I have a pretty bad allergy to resin so I probably shouldn'y have, but I just love the gloss shine when it's dry.

Mix up your resin how the instructions tell you too, wear gloves, mask, fully cover up and do it in a well ventilated area.  I didn't do this when I first started with resin, and it caused me to become allergic.  I cannot even be touched by the fumes of the resin without getting a serious allergy burn with rash and severe itching.  It is not fun so I recommend always covering up.
You should always wear a mask, the fumes are pretty harsh, especially on your respiratory system.


Lay your canvas flat and above the ground, like you did with the acrylic pour, and drizzle the resin over the canvas.  Help it smooth out and cover the canvas using a long flat stick or your hands with gloves on.

Then when you are happy with the coverage you need to remove the bubbles using a heat gun.  Go gently over the whole canvas with the heat gun.  Then leave it alone to dry, it should be touch dry in about 12 hours, depending on weather.  This is what you should end up with, a gorgeous acrylic pour thanks to pva glue and silicone oil.










Thank you for these awesome last six months, I have enjoyed using my creative side again.  It has been a pleasure and I hope everyone keeps creating with Helmar.  Don't forget you can purchase Helmar products from here:  http://www.helmar.com.au/shop/manufacturer/





Please follow me on facebook........... KristinaObrienart
I am also on Instagram.......... https://www.instagram.com/kristina_obrien_art/
Aaaand Pinterest....... https://www.pinterest.com.au/krystalrose316/pins/
And now Youtube.......https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpgFuUdFo0dyREOhcSgXBrw

Reviewing Color By Feliks Youtube Painting Tutorial

Reviewing Color By Feliks Painting Tutorial

Ok ok it's not as bad as it sounds, I am not judging him, I am just letting the world know how I think his tutorials are.  One opinion in a billion voices.

Let me start by saying he is a huge Instagram star, and I am slow off the post and have just recently started watching his videos.  The paintings he makes are so peaceful and make me feel like there's something worth smiling for in this world.  

I actually tried his boat painting, the sunset is to die for.  

 Color by Feliks Boat Tutorial

He makes it look so easy, sigh.  First off, my fluffy brush, too fluffy.  Actually no, it worked well, the way his did, it was blending like a bad ass, but, and a big but, for every stroke I did with it, it lost ten hairs.  These hairs stuck in the paint, making it impossible to flick them off.  So I had to scratch them off, leave a mark in the paint, and fix it up with more paint.  I specifically went to Spotlight (Australia's Hobby Lobby I guess), and spent $30 on this Mop Brush.



This is it.  A one inch Royal & Langnickel Mop brush.  $30.  I was super excited to try it.  That is a lot of money for one brush, but I love painting, and I wanted to try his technique.
If I could list regrettable buys, this would definitely be on the list.  It made me so frustrated and upset with myself that I just couldn't stop the hairs from sticking to the painting.  I wet it, plucked the hairs out that I could see were loose, but it would still lose more and more hairs.  I swear it was mocking me.

So luckily I remembered a previous purchase of a mop brush. (Ooops)  I bought it from Officeworks here in Hervey Bay, it is a J.Burrows number 20.  Barely lost a hair, not a hair was there!  By this stage I was too agitated to properly be able to follow Feliks.  I wanted to cry.  This is no reflection on his teaching, this was a bad purchase, bad timing and frustration.

I ended up painting this and then stopping.  It was pointless, I couldn't salvage it sigh.

I will come back to this tutorial when I think I am better prepared.  So, I tried another Feliks tutorial.  It is a snow scene with trees and a little cabin.  Ok, I was ready......


ColorbyFeliks snow scene tutorial


He talks clearly, I can understand every word, he shows the mixing of the paint and uses minimal
colours, which makes things easier.  He isn't selling super expensive brushes to me and he worked at a speed that enabled me to follow his progress easily.  I will say that I am still a beginning painter and I am used to the Youtubers like The Art Sherpa, and Painting with Jane.  They specifically explain every brush stroke, and tell the reasoning why a colour is being put on the canvas.  Feliks does do this fairly well, just not to the extent that the beginniner tutorials do.  I had some issues with the way that he made his trees, I couldn't grasp the concept straight away.  I did have to watch a few other painting tutorials on pine trees to get what I was doing wrong. 

My trees were too pointy. And too sparse, and just wrong.




His explanation of mixing the colours was absolutely perfect, nothing amiss there.  Easy to understand, easy to follow.  The only problem I was having was, he is just a step above the beginner painter.

These are ColorbyFeliks' winter trees, I just couldn't get mine to look like his.  That said, every other aspect of the painting I could follow, and understand his reasoning one hundred percent.








This is what my final trees ended up looking like, after a couple of attempts and some repainting and fixing up of the things I did not like.  Still nothing like Feliks' but I was "happy" lol.  I followed the rest of the tutorial easily.  Not a problem.  He is funny, easy to understnad and most important of all he makes some gorgeous paintings that I just want to paint and paint and paint with him.  In all honesety, I loved it.  I like the way he teaches, albeit not quite as detailed as others, I like that he uses a minimal colour palette, his paintings are, well words cannot describe them.  That said he is not for the absolute beginner painter, unless you are one of those people that catch on really quick.  I am not.  Takes me a little time and explanation to get some things.  Considering he is only "new" to youtube (less than a year I believe), he still has lots of time to improve on the small little things.

I wholeheartedly recommend watching his tutorials and trying them at your own pace, to be able to paint even a little bit like him would make me super happy. I love painting tutorials, and I love trying new techniques and teachers.  To put him in the same category as The Art Sherpa is a little difficult right now.  She does many many live paintings with questions coming in as she paints and so she can answer them. 

If I was to crituque myself on my painting below I would have lots to say.  😉  So luckily I am not lol.

Remember, mop brushes shed, they shed a lot, be prepared for that.  I have not tried all brands of mop brushes though, so maybe one day there will be a non shedder lol.  That said they blend perfectly, like a dream, like using oil paints.  It's just those darn hairs.

I am currently working on a few different things, like I said, trying to find who I am and what is my niche.  I am selling my art items on Etsy, although my goal is to own my own website and be an Artist, whatever that means.

Tomorrow I will be working on finishing my miniature resin geode tables and the miniature resin river table.  Perfect for dollhouses and anyone who likes miniatures.  These are prototypes, experiments, and I have no idea if they will work out.  I am just trying to make a name for myself, make something I am proud of.

This is a sneak peak of my river resin table, not looking flash just yet, but I have my fingers crossed after I have done everything to it, that it will look freaking awesome!

I am also working on miniature resin geode tables.  I just have the legs left to do on these babies.

Anyway, until next time.......

 Please follow me on facebook........... KristinaObrienart
I am also on Instagram.......... https://www.instagram.com/kristina_obrien_art/
Aaaand Pinterest....... https://www.pinterest.com.au/krystalrose316/pins/
And now on Etsy.........  https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/KrystalRoseCreations?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Glow in the dark resin dragon egg, painted with acrylics

Set backs, mistakes and frustrations.

As I sit here writing this I realise that I am not in a writey mood. All my effort and thoughts are elsewhere and I am struggling to put down the words.  The longer I type though, the more I am getting into it. I find that this is similar to lots of other things, until I actually start and make myself do something, it seems too daunting and big of a job.  Once underway, I actually enjoy it, so without further adieu here it is.  My blog post about my gorgeous dragon egg.

My vision was this magnificent dragon egg, glowing furiously, with a polymer clay dragon tail that protruded out from it.  First off, me using a jigsaw, ugh, we are not a good match.  My mdf cutting of an egg shape not so great.  So all my dreams shattered I had to wait until I had help to cut it.  This completely demotivated me and to be honest I did feel like a failure.  Every time I saw that badly cut egg I would remind myself how useless I am.  Why bother Kristina, I would think.  Nothing you do is good.

I put the egg in the too hard basket.  I would get annoyed every time I saw it.  There was always this part of me though, that saw it and wanted to start, wanted to make it turn into the vision in my head.  The old me, I have to be honest, would've thrown it away and never tried again.  I have this little bit of determination now, that I never used to have.



So with it newly cut by my wonderful husband I decided I could start.
I originally painted the base of the egg in Cadmium Orange hue acrylics.  Then I applied a layer of Golden's glazing medium mixed with the encapsulated glow powder.  It glowed, but not enough.  I wanted the orange to burst out from between the scales when I painted them on, like fire, not like badly painted s%#t.  This set me back again, I don't handle stuff ups very well.  So there the egg sat, taunting me, laughing at me, again.  Until I got so angry that I wanted to teach it a lesson lol.

There are two types of glow in the dark powder available from Glowing gecko.  There is the normal one which can be mixed with most things except water based materials, like acrylics.  They also have an encapsulated powder that costs a little more, glows a little less, but it can be mixed with acrylic paint, water etc.  

I decided to just paint the egg, and make the glow between the scales by painting the areas in.  I started with red acrylic paint as the base layer, added black to make the shadows, and put the scales on.  OMG ick.  Just ick.  Anger again grew within me and I wanted to scream, it looks like crap!!  Well maybe a little more profanity than "crap" was used lol.  Walk away, again.  I walked back though, and even more determined than ever I decided after two hours of individually painting on the scales that I had to redo them all.  Then I had to shade them, covering some up in darker colours, but I was finally seeing an egg shape appearing.  GLIMMER OF HOPE!! 

 I put some cracks in so I could make them glow instead of the scales, less work shhhhhhh.

The cracks I hated with a passion.  I won't go over how long it took for me to get the darn things right.  I almost gave up again.  I was beginning to hate this egg.

NO NO NO.  It just looked wrong no matter how much fiddling I did.  GRRRRRRRRRRR.














I decided to focus on the dragon tail that I wanted to come out of a crack in the egg.  Using polymer clay I made the tail, baked it.  Then held it up to the egg and hated the way it looked.

 I had come this far I was NOT giving up.  I painted the dragon tail but it still looked like some weird tail that didn't fit with the egg.  I think it needed to be bigger.  I kept the tail but it is for something else.  This egg was not it's place.  Dammit.  My 9 year old son said to me, "I thought you were going to have an eye in a crack?"  Hmmmm, no I didn't but that sounds like a good idea, thank you lol.

 Painted the eye, wrong, wrong wrong.  It took me a while to realise that I needed black paint in the cracks, because inside the egg would be dark.  Once I did that it was like angels were singing in the background.

Still desperately trying to make the tail fit, lol.  

I got the normal glow powder, mixed it with the resin and slowly and delicately poured it on the cracks and the eye.  I left this to dry, because I wanted to make it super glossy so it needed another resin layer.  I used Solid solutions resin, I haven't had a problem with it, except for the occasional patch of the art or table that doesn't get covered with resin, no matter how much I spread it.  It's called a dip or something like that.  Very frustrating.  I call them oogies.  So I did pour another layer of clear resin over the egg, but I got oogies.  three of them.  FFFFFFFFluffy puddles!!!!!

I poured another layer, carefully ensuring that the oogies were covered, and agh, nope.  I love solid solutions resin, it does everything I want, and because I am still a beginner perhaps it is something I do to make the oogies happen.  I don't know.  I do absolutely adore that resin.  I'm just trying out new ones to see what I like.  Bunnings the hardware store here in Australia, sell a beautiful gorgeous glassy oh so glossy resin.  Oh I love it, perfect, but almost $60 a litre.  A little bit too pricey.  Save it for the special pieces.

The egg glowed, it was shiny, it looked like a dragon egg, the majority of it was a glass finish, but those damn oogies were killing me.  

You can see the defects in this video on the resin.

I ran out of resin while doing the egg so I bought in bulk a different resin.  It is designed not to have oogies!!!!!  It kept it's promise!!!!  NO oogies!!!!  YAY.

 AND SHE GLOWS!!!  I put glow powder and resin on the side of the egg to make it appear like there is a glow all around it. 

 This is the final product, after weeks of hatred, anger, disappointment and mistakes.  I actually really love it.  

 And here is my pugs reflection in the egg.

Wow,  I just realised that after my initial frustrations of writing something, I have gotten more done than I thought.  It is good to get this out of my head and accomplish something, even if it's never read by anyone, I did it.  I finished the egg, I didn't stop trying.  I love the end product and I feel good about myself momentarily.

Now onto the next project.  I have been focusing too much on tables and resin geodes etc that I have neglected my main passion, painting.  My next big goal is a huge canvas painting of Aquaman's face (Jason Momoa).  With water dripping off it.  In oils.  I cannot wait to grid it up and start.  I just have so many things to get done.  I also think Aqua man is going to take me two weeks to paint so it won't be done in time for my next blog.

I am unsure what my next blog will be about.  I'm thinking maybe a detailed (kind of) blog about the products I use in the resin geodes, like the glitter and the gems etc.  Or possibly I could do a blog about the Captain America table I will be finished this week.  Or the one I am looking forward to but I know I will fail and get angry at for a while, the harry potter glowing table I have plans for.   I also want to address mental illness and it's ability to kill every thing and every relationship in my life, and how I chose to fight everyday.  Some days just making sure my kids are happy and safe is enough.  Mental health is very important I am learning.

Anyway, enjoy your week.  It is my daughters birthday this week.  She is a beautiful 22 this year.

Enjoy yourselves.


Please follow me on facebook........... KristinaObrienart
I am also on Instagram.......... https://www.instagram.com/kristina_obrien_art/
Aaaand Pinterest....... https://www.pinterest.com.au/krystalrose316/pins/

Hopefully within the month I will have my own website selling my one of a kind products, and if I can conquer my fear of being seen I will have a Youtube channel.