Oh my… what a busy time… new projects to paint, commissions to finish, deadlines for magazines… and a new Decorative Painting Zoom Class: “Mr. Chilly Mittens” for Artful Webinars!

Although the past few months have been a kind of rollercoaster, I didn’t want to leave my teaching behind! I had to “squeeze” myself here and there, but I eventually made it through 😊
Teaching for Artful Webinars is always a pleasure and knowing that some students are coming back to my classes makes me really happy!

As usual, I must tell you the truth… I was struggling a bit with Mr. Chilly Mittens…
I really liked how it turned out, but I spent over a week thinking about the name of the project and… nothing… no ideas. And I had to hurry up because the Decorative Painting Zoom class was close!
Then I told to myself: “why not asking for some help?” I asked and, thanks to all the comments I received on Facebook, I had many suggestions. So, with a Mr. Mittens and a Chilly Mittens, I had a Mr. Chilly Mittens 😉

The day of the class I was a bit nervous because students had to prep the canvas on their own and creating a textured background and laying down the color could be a little challenging the first time, but they turned out to be all wonderful!
Teaching this Decorative Painting Zoom Class has been really interesting, mainly because it was a new thing for everybody!

The textured background technique is something I actually came up with by chance. I bought a fan brush some years ago, but I never found the right way to use it. I tried a couple of times, but no good results, so I had this nice fan brush that was staying in my brush carrier… looking at me like “well… you still haven’t found a way to use me, have you?”
I have always been fascinated by textured and the contrast between shades and highlights that can be created just by having an irregular surface.

Sometimes it takes a lot of work before coming up with something I like, but not that day. I had some gesso, I looked at my fan brush and I combined the two things. (See the tutorial here)
And many new projects came out from that attempt: Summer Memories, Purple Beauty, Welcome Spring, Winter Wonder, Fall in Love, Mr. Chilly Mittens. Oh yes, there are also 2 Free Patterns: My Flower of Hope and Snowmen are Kisses from Heaven.

Well??? Are you ready to paint your own Mr. Chilly Mittens???
The pattern with step-by-step instructions is available on the SHOP section!
Have fun painting!
Marika