— I’m excited to begin bringing to Quill and Camera a bit of behind-the-scenes inspiration and training from some of the elite designers from “AWAKE” and “The KAIZEN Group.” In this first session we have the truly extraordinary Denise Love of 2 Lil Owls Studio.
Allow me to pass this over into her capable hands . . .
“I secretly want to be a painter. I have an aunt who is a very talented painter, and you would think that that would give me an edge since it is ‘in the family.’ But not so.
“I have studied many creative arts along the way, and while I might not have mastered many of them, I do love the challenge of trying things out and just learning from the journey. I try to give myself the patience and grace to do things without the expectation that it has to be some amazing piece of art when I am done. Something I struggled with for many years. I let it frustrate me to the point that I would give up if I weren’t mastering it fast enough.
“But not everything has to be fast, done today, right now. Sometimes it is better to let things simmer. Work on them for a while. Think about them. Add things in over time so that when you finish, you have a multi-layered, more interesting piece than if you just rushed through and put out something that ultimately wasn’t your best work because you were in a hurry.
“So back to the painting … By experimenting with different paint mediums, and not really getting any usable masterpieces, I have discovered that many of them lend themselves to backgrounds and textures that blend especially nice with my photography. Working in cold wax with oil paint and alcohol inks are two of my very favorite mediums. The cold wax is one you can layer on paint for days then scrape back layers for interesting texture and color. The alcohol ink is a bit more organic in the feel, and I love how unpredictable that can be.”
Cool Tip / Trick:
“If you love painting original backgrounds to add into your art as I do – you might explore alcohol inks on Yupo paper. These are high flow inks that have a rather organic less predictable outcome that I absolutely love. I mix the ink, a bit of alcohol, and some blending solution. But the secret to really getting the most from your inks is to use an airbrush to move the inks around! It’s so much easier than trying to blow them around with a straw! I also like using masking tape on the edges sometimes to hold the paper down as it lets the ink seep and creates some very cool edge details. From there you can simply photograph them for use in your digital art.
Click here to grab a free sampler set of the ink textures from this video …
“While photography and photographic art will always be my thing, I will continue studying other arts to push myself and grow in my creativity. Ultimately anything you study can only help you grow as an artist and may inspire your work in new exciting directions.
“I find that working with the textures I paint or create in my photos I’m am getting that depth and interest in a digital mixed-media style with the many layers they introduce into my work, and I love that.”
by Denise Love
Denise Love has been creating Fine Art Textures, Lightroom/ACR Presets, Creative Workshops since 2012. She is the founder of 2 Lil’ Owls Studio and has become known for her passion in providing top quality digital art tools and photography workshops. You can find all of her training and resources at https://2lilowls.com/