DANIEL SMITH

“It’s not a waste of Time”

Deborah Burns — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:39:44 +0000

DANIEL SMITH: Artists' Materials

While watching the Oscars this evening, one acceptance speech really stood out from all the fanfare, fashion, glitz and glamour. Michael Giacchino, who just won an Oscar for Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score) for the movie “Up“, wrapped up his acceptance speech with:

“If you want to be creative, get out there and do it. It’s not a waste of time”

Those words really caught my attention because the pursuit of creative expression is so intriguing. To keep at it over time to draw, paint, print, sculpt, et cetera knowing in your heart that “It’s not a waste of time” to keep creating is a real leap of faith. I admire the perseverance of Artists who are very likely to run up against the “waste of time” opinion since creative expression tends to be valued less than other pursuits.

So I want to thank the Members of our Artist Community for Creating Art, remember…“ It’s not a waste of time!“

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

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Mixed Media Journal Making with Liesel Lund: FREE Demo at Seattle DANIEL SMITH this Friday

Deborah Burns — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:45:30 +0000

Shizen Design Bookmaking Kits and Shizen One Pound of Decorative Handmade Paper Pack

Special FREE demo this Friday, March 5th at the DANIEL SMITH Seattle Store with Mixed Media Artist Liesel Lund who will be demonstrating “The Joys of Journaling“. The demo is from 3 to 6pm.

Liesel will be using the Shizen Design Bookmaking Kit to show how you can make your own Journal and share tips and ideas for personalizing your Journal with mixed media. Liesel will be working with decorative papers like our Shizen Paper Sampler (One Pound of Decorative Handmade Paper) and other decorative papers like our Yuzen Chiyogami, Shizen Screen-Printed Paper or any other decorative papers that you may have.

Liesel has more to say about this FREE demo on her blog: Adventures in Pretty. Looks like like a fun demo to learn more about how you can make personalized journals! For more FREE demos and Workshops follow these links: Seattle DANIEL SMITH & Bellevue DANIEL SMITH

Come for Fun, Information and Inspiration!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

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Molly Hashimoto’s Watercolor Travel Journal Demonstration at Seattle DANIEL SMITH

Deborah Burns — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:48:27 +0000

Molly Hashimoto's Watercolor Travel Journal Demo

Molly Hashimoto was at the Seattle DANIEL SMITH recently for one of our FREE “How To” weekend demos. She was demonstrating her very popular Watercolor Travel Journal tips and techniques to a packed room, and a VERY interested audience.

Molly began keeping Travel Journals in 1998, and told us that: “The time spent drawing in your Journal while looking at your subject is more meaningful than just taking photos – you slow down time this way”. At the second demo Molly told us that making the Journals helps her to enjoy and extend the experience of her trip because of taking the time to sketch on site and working on finishing later in the studio “…stops time just a little bit…the experience is not over.” I would like to add that Molly’s blog is also a fascinating Internet “Travel Sketchbook and Journal” of what she is working on, thoughts on painting, her classes and workshops and more, really worth taking some time to read, look at and enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Arches Watercolor Book in the 10 x 14 size is Molly’s favorite for her Travel Journals because she can sit with it open on her lap. She really enjoys seeing her watercolor journals lined up in a row, about 20 now, giving her a nice sense of accomplishment. Keeping a “Travel” Journal is not just about painting them when traveling to major travel or vacation destinations, they are wonderful to have for a hike, a visit to a park or garden, or whatever subject that you would like to keep in a Journal. Molly has written a couple of articles for past DANIEL SMITH catalogs: “Garden Journal Watercolor with Masking Fluid and Italic Calligraphy” and “The Art of Watercolor Journals” that you may want to read for inspiration.

Molly’s traveling paint kits:

The simplest is just a ziplock bag with her basic essentials:

Water soluble pen.
Waterbrush like the Niji Waterbrushes.
2 small bottles of water (one for clean and one for dirty) but if you carry several filled waterbrushes then you don’t need these
Small watercolor brush such as a small travel watercolor brush.
Winsor & Newton Watercolor Pocket Plus Travel set, although Molly finds it does not work for her with larger sketches, since she can’t do washes not enough surface area from the mini palette in the travel set.

Molly also has two other travel paint kits she uses. One is similar to the W&N in size but you can fill with your own preferred paint choices. Fill with your watercolors; Empty Half Pans or Empty Full Pans and super glue them into an Altoids tin, again very little area for mixing colors on the “palette”, just the lid of the Altoids tin.

For more paint choices Molly filled her DS Empty Watercolor Boxes with her watercolor paints. The watercolor boxes have a folding out area, plus the sectioned lid for more areas to mix paint in too and for washes.

Molly also sometimes likes to use Derwent Inktense Pencils, though you do need to have a fixative to keep it from rubbing off on the opposite page. These water-soluble pencils are very nice for detailed sketches of small things like flowers, but Molly doesn’t like to use them for landscapes too hard to cover larger areas with the color.

Walnut ink is also a favorite medium of Molly’s’ for doing travel sketches, and is particularly great if you like Old Masters drawings. Walnut ink is water-soluble so you can dissolve your line with a brush. You can use a Speedball pen & nibs to draw with, and make dilutions of Walnut ink. Tip, don’t use Crow Quill nib since it catches on the paper and spatters. Molly showed us a sketchbook from a trip to New York City in February and her sketches of Central Park (almost empty so it seemed like being in a wilderness) done with Walnut ink. Using Walnut ink also be used with a waterbrush, you can fill them with different watered down strengths of the ink. I think the Pigma Sepia Pen Set would be especially nice when working with Walnut ink, you could sketch out the subject, then go back in with some diluted Walnut ink in a waterbrush.

Molly usually starts her journals on location and takes photos to use as reference to complete what she has started. Not all traveling/hiking companions want to wait around very long while Molly sketches, depends on the group. Sometimes Molly will work on her journal later that evening in her hotel room and look at the camera screen of the photo she took. Sometimes Molly will work on a journal months later in the studio, a great way to re-experience the trip.

Some miscellaneous things Molly mentioned in her two demos:

“Niji waterbrush really helps to loosen up your work. To clean squeeze it and wipe with a paper towel.”
“I like to carry several waterbrushes.”
“Best way to start is to come up with a way to do these [sketches] very quickly.”
Sometimes uses Drafting tape to control her edges, it just depends on the effect Molly wants.
Molly really likes preserving the white spaces (around the sketch) and negative spaces.
“Not a studio painting [the sketches] it does not have to be representational.”
“So many different ways to paint – no right or wrong.”
Molly does rip out sketches that she does not like
Molly likes to let things dry when she paints outdoors, and then goes back in and works some more.
“Tip – use a really fine point pen so that the notes in the journal don’t over power the sketch.”
Molly likes really beautiful letter forms in her journals, although doesn’t do it so much any more because it is time consuming.
Watercolor by itself does not work with calligraphy [for the letter forms] - not enough “body”, so Molly mixes the WC with white gouache, the “paints” the mix onto her calligraphy nib.

For the demos, Molly worked on adding some sketches to her journal she had started from her Taos visit. She worked from photos of some adobe buildings.

For the demo, Molly used:

3/4 inch bight brush – Molly also has a “good selection of flat brushes, makes it easier to paint windows, doors etc.” and DANIEL SMITH Watercolors:

Yellow Ochre

Quinacridone Burnt Orange

Phthalo Blue (RS)

Carbazole Violet

Cobalt Teal Blue

Cobalt Turquoise

Molly began painting the adobe building and painted in the shadow areas on red adobe with a favorite mix; Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Phthalo Blue (RS) and Carbazole Violet. Molly noted while she painted that the “nice thing about working wet into wet is the loose, soft quality.” She then went back in, and removed the excess shadow paint. After the sketch of building had dried, Molly then wet in the sky area with a brush to drop in the blue Phthalo Blue (RS) for the sky working around the clouds. Molly then painted in the gray (Quin Burnt Orange, Carbozle Violet, Phhtalo Blue (RS) for the undersides of the cloud. She then tilted the sketchbook, then went back in and blotted with a paper towel to soften the clouds edges – Also nice for transitioning some areas. For the sky, Molly used Cobalt Teal Blue and Cobalt Turquoise.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Molly also said that while she has sketchbooks of her trip to Taos, Europe, Yellowstone, and Central Park in New York City etc. that you don’t have to go to faraway places to make wonderful travel sketchbooks. Most of Molly’s’ sketchbooks are of local destinations, and painting at your local park, botanical gardens etc are excellent ways to learn and practice so that someday when you do have the opportunity to take a sketchbook on a dream trip, you will have had lots of practice, and know well which art supplies to pack for sketching!

After the demos everyone crowded around to look at Molly’s sketchbooks (a few had been passed around during the course of the demo) to look through the pages, they were really fun and inspiring to look through! Thank you Molly!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

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Evergreen State College Art Class Tour at Seattle DANIEL SMITH

Deborah Burns — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:14:24 +0000

Evergreen State College Art Student Tour at Seattle DANIEL SMITH: Gregory Fricker at the Watercolor Stick demo table

We love having students come for Tours at DANIEL SMITH - so many people don’t realize that we ACTUALLY DO make our wonderful paints and printmaking inks here in the same building as our Seattle DANIEL SMITH Store!

Today it was Lucia Harrison’s Art class from Evergreen State College that came for a tour. Dave Pruneda gave a presentation on how we make our DANIEL SMITH paints, which are made just one wall away from our Art Gallery where the presentation was given. We also had Art stations where the students could try out many of our paints plus two Art demos. We had two Artists: Gregory Fricker demonstrated how he uses the DANIEL SMITH Watercolor Sticks, and Dave Bloomfield (from DS) demonstrated DANIEL SMITH Acrylic Paints. …I also heard there were “Goodie Bags” for all the students!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

DANIEL SMITH Art Supplies website

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“Shoot to Show: Assignment Bellevue” Photography Show at the Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Store Gallery

Deborah Burns — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:44:40 +0000

"Shoot to Show: Assignment Bellevue" Bellevue College Instructor Ray Pfortner's Student Photography Show at the Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Gallery

Today is the official opening for the “Shoot to Show: Assignment Bellevue” Photo Show at the Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Store Gallery! While the show has been up for about a week or so, the official Opening is Today, February 26th, 2010 from 4pm to 7pm and runs through March 15th.

Bellevue College Photography instructor Ray Pfortner has 16 of his students showing their work for “Shoot to Show: Assignment Bellevue”. Ray Pfortner gave to his students this assignment during October and November 2009:

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“Assignment: document Bellevue by photographing:
    -anything inside the official boundaries
    -views looking in from outside those boundaries
    -views looking out from within those boundaries

In addition to practicing photographing and camera settings and polishing visual literacy, a major focus was on the ins and outs of exhibiting visual art, from signing and editioning to framing, pricing and hanging. The hope is to empower each photographer to go on to hang many more shows of their own in th future, for to sell art your art must be seen.”

So for all you Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Customers, be sure to stop by for the Opening or any time until March 15th and check it out….you are sure to recognize the subject matter in these photos!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

DANIEL SMITH Art Supplies website

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DANIEL SMITH Valentine’s Card Contest Winner!

Deborah Burns — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:07:51 +0000

Valentine's Card Contest Winner - Anita H. Lehmann

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DANIEL SMITH Valentine’s Card Contest

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How to choose?

We had an avalanche of Valentine’s Day Cards (and emails) asking us to “Be Mine” and choose them! And there were so many cute cards, funny Valentine’s, pretty ones, painted ones, drawn ones, carved ones, even sparkly ones!

Well…in the end a choice had to be made, and we were seduced by a pair of glorious red poppies painted by Anita H. Lehmann.

Congratulations Anita H. Lehmann you are the winner of 2 DANIEL SMITH $100 Gift Certificates (one for you and one for your sweetheart!)

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

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DANIEL SMITH Comparative Paper Chart: Find out the uses of DANIEL SMITH Art Supply Papers

Deborah Burns — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:20:18 +0000

DANIEL SMITH Comparative Paper Chart

One of the great resources that you can find on the DANIEL SMITH Art Supply website or Reference Catalog is our very extensive and comprehensive Comparative Paper Chart. Our buyers have put this together for you over a period of years, and update it in our Reference Catalog when we add new papers to our selection. This is a quick and easy way to find out the different uses of our papers.

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On the chart you can find out if it is:

H – Handmade
MO – Mouldmade
MA – Machine-made
WL – Waterleaf
LS – Lightly sized
MS – Moderately sized
HS – Heavily sized
NA – Not Applicable

The features:

Deckle Edges (and how many sides have deckle edges)
Acid Free

Used for:

Book Arts
Collage
Scrapbook
Stamping
Restoration
Decorative
Calligraphy
Drawing
Digital Printing

Printmaking uses:

Block Printing
Chine Colle
Etching
Embossing
Hand Lithography
Offset Lithography
Silkscreen
Letterpress

You can find our Comparative Paper Chart on our website when you *click* on our “Learn” and “Art Tutorials, Articles, Techniques” links at the very bottom of all our pages.

You can also find our Comparative Paper Chart on pages 105, 106, and 107 in our 2009-2010 DANIEL SMITH Reference Catalog.

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

DANIEL SMITH Art Supply
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This Saturday FREE “How To” Art demonstrations at the Seattle and Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Art Supply Stores: Acrylic and Oil Bar

Deborah Burns — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:19:45 +0000

DANIEL SMITH Art Supply Stores

This Saturday at DANIEL SMITH Art Supply, our FREE “How To” Art demos at our Seattle Store: Acrylic with Gail Howard and at our Bellevue Store: Oil Bar with Cissy Gray.

Seattle Store

Saturday: Gail Howard will be sharing her tips on “ACRYLIC: The Mediums Are the Message” she notes on her website that: ”I’ll demonstrate how I use pouring mediums to get smooth surfaces, pouring multiple layers to get great depth and how to do encaustic-like effects.”

Saturday, January 30th at 11 am & 1:45pm
ACRYLIC: The Mediums Are the Message
Gail Howard

Bellevue Store

Saturday: Cissy Gray will demonstrate how to work with oil bars and “…how they compare to oil paints. [she'll] use nitrile gloves when painting with the oil bars to apply them much like finger painting. [She'll] occasionally use a brush for detail. Because the oil bar color are so vivid, you can achieve a jewel like finish.” Cissy will also touch upon “principals of design, composition, value, color and shape….”
Saturday: January 30th at 11am & 1:45 pm
OIL BAR: Colorful Impressions
Cissy Gray

Come for Fun, Information and Inspiration!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

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Sneak Peek of our New DANIEL SMITH Art Supply 2010 Spring Sale Catalog!

Deborah Burns — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:46:51 +0000

*Sneak Peak* of our New DANIEL SMITH Spring Sale Catalog!

Here is a *Sneak Peek* of our new DANIEL SMITH Art Supply 2010 Spring Sale Catalog!

These are being mailed out now and should be “sprouting up” in your mailboxes any day now!

Shhhh….let’s have a little *sneak peak* on what’s inside….

* We have 5 (YES, five!) new Watercolor Sticks, and 3 (YES, three!) of them are PrimaTek colors…our first ones offered in our Watercolor Sticks line. Page 5.

* Three new DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors, let’s just say they are all three in *warm* colors! Page 2.

* Something *HOT* and new! Page 63.

* Cool new Artist article….love her work! Page 74.

* And packed with Sales and Special Prices through out! Too many pages to list!

Okay, remember…..shhhhhhh……this is just between us! : )

All will be revealed when you get your catalog, and when I post about the new catalog sometime next week…stay tuned!

Want to receive your own copy of our

DANIEL SMITH Spring Sale Catalog?

Just *click* here and request one!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

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FREE “How To” Art Demos at Seattle and Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Stores this Saturday: Oils, Watercolor, and Pastels

Deborah Burns — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:17:18 +0000

DANIEL SMITH: Art Supply Stores

This Saturday for our FREE Art Demos at our Seattle and Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Stores we have Oil Painting with Donna Trent, Watercolor with Ann Breckon, and Pastels with Don Lee.

Seattle Store:

Saturday, Donna Trent will be demonstrating in Oil Painting how to: “Save the White-Reveal the Shapes” in your paintings.

Sat: January 23rd at 11am & 1:45pm
OIL: Save the White-Reveal the Shapes
Donna Trent

Seattle Store:

Also on Saturday, Ann Breckon will have a fun demonstration on painting Lamp Posts with Hanging Baskets in Watercolor. Get in the mood for spring while Ann shares watercolor tips!
Sat: January 23rd at 12 & 2pm
WATERCOLOR: Lamp Posts with Hanging Baskets
Ann Breckon
Don’t miss Ann’s Workshop Feb 24th & 25th Seattle Store!

Bellevue Store:

Saturday, Don Lee Portrait Artist Don Lee will be demonstrating how to do Portraits in Pastel. Don’s demo is a good introduction on getting started with painting portraits in pastels, and to find out if you would like to know more and take his workshop in February.

Sat: Jan 23rd at 11am & 1:45pm
PASTEL: Pastel Portraits
Don Lee
Don’t miss Don’s Workshop Feb 8th Bellevue Store!

Come for Fun, Information and Inspiration!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns