Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Spring Art Journaling the Magic

 Normally this time of year we would be gathering our tribe together at either DisneyLand or Disney World for Art Journaling the Magic. But this spring and fall of last year we gathered as best we could....virtually! And it was AMAZING! The themed of the retreat was Hopes and Dreams from Small World. My Mary Blair heart was over.the.moon! I was giddy and could barely sleep. It really felt as close to an in-person as you can get! The lessons from April, James, Tangie and Brittney was so inspiring and I learned a TON of new things! Like for one, I can do buildings now. My buildings are just seen through the eyes of how Mary would paint them. A million thanks to Tangie for the "Blairdings" lesson. Urban sketching has always been a struggle because I don't really do the drawing of things as they are supposed to look with perspective and such. But this was the perfect balance. Use the buildings as a loose reference and create magical shapes like Mary would do! Just Brilliant!


Here is my Blair-dings Fire Dept and Haunted mansion from Tangie's lesson

James' lesson has me all giddy! His magical Peter and Wendy flying under the moon is inspired by a Tokyo DisneyLand float. His inspired line-work from Mary is so so magical and I had an absolute BLAST creating this page. ps. I have never painted Crocodile before...and he made it super easy. I could just live here!


Check out this line work drawings that James had us do before the final page. 



Tangie had us play with an elegant writer pen and paint the Tree of Life. If anyone knows about Animal Kingdoms tree of life, it can be super intimidating to try and draw/paint. I used Tangie's idea of simplifying like she did in the buildings and applied it here for the animals and tree. I used the elegant writer, watercolor and gouache. This is was so so FUN and I kinda surprised myself.

Hot air balloons are one of my favorite things about Small World. Brittney created this amazing lesson inspired by one of her childhood books that she shared with us! This lesson was such a beautiful balance between loose and fun, whimsy. We also learned how to paint clouds using a method with paper towels. I can paint Clouds now and they actually look like clouds!!! see full spread below



Tangie had us create different clocks inspired by the clock from It's a Small World

This is a collage and stream of consciousness writing lesson. Just beautiful simplicity and you can do this quickly in your journal and document some moments.

This was April's lesson. ok, if I'm honest when I first saw the lesson plan I was a bit intimidated. Buildings have a way of doing that....lol! She taught us that the building don't have to look "correct" because this is toon town and you can make them as wonky and fun as you want. Throw out perspective and things that make sense because this is your world and your art. Surprised myself again here. This is what these lessons will do for you.


This is an up close of my Blair-dings Haunted Mansion. See the cute gargoyle...?!





my cute Macroons from April's lesson

LOVED creating these darling Kawaii caramel treats from Brittney's lesson.
anyone hungry now?! I could fill a whole journal with these. I am sure I have more treats I'd love to drench in caramel.

I still have more to share. I need to finish up James' Japanese treat lesson with the Frushi and cute Geisha girl. and I'll post my Orange Bird girl in another post as well. yes! we created all this in a whirlwind of magical fun! The next retreat is in July themed after Summer camp. Can't wait!!

2 comments:

  1. Oh Mindy! These are so awesome! Will you be starting a Mary Blair class sometime in the future? 🥰😍💕

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  2. These are all so awesome! Mary Blair would be so proud!

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