Neurographica's Impact on My Art and Life

 

I've been kind of obsessed with neurographic drawing lately it has helped lower my pain level and my heart rate as well as nearly doubling my sleep. No wonder I don't want to stop.

I do it on my mail like this small doodle on the corner of an envelope and all over my other drawings and paintings.

I've been encouraging everyone I know to try it.

I've tried doing all sorts with the drawing it generates. Sometimes I cut them up and make notecards out of them. Other times I try making merchandise for my zazzle store.

I did this one with markers.

I did this  one with watercolors and found they worked much better as long as you used a waterproof permanent marker to do the drawing with.

These were some of the first drawing s that I did. The kind of star shaped one was on the corner of another envelope Everyone comments on how much they enjoy the extra decorations and they tell me that it entertains their mail carrier as well.

This mixed media piece combines pencils, markers, collage ad watercolors. I'm not sure where it's going yet. So far it is just my morning workout to get those creative juices going. come back and see where it goes soon.

Here you see  it with the neurographic lines completed and can see how much it unifies the design.

It wouldn't have done well as a stand alone art piece so I cut it up so that I can work on it further, add it to other art pieces in progress or simply make note cards out of them.

It was a fun and interesting process that taught me a lot about how different art materials work together.

Stop me before I wreck it. The journey of the square canvas

 

This is the way the canvas looked after all of it's transitions and I am pleased to report that by Valentines Day It was working well on products in my zazzle store and you will find a whole collection of them called "Jenny's Choice".

This was where I left the painting at the end of the session. I'm planning to use it as the foundation to another painting at a later date.

I've been wrestling with this canvas for two years so far and it has yet to go in a direction that I'm really happy with.

I really enjoyed all of the bright colors weaving in and out of everything at this point in the process.

It's interesting creatively as I look at these photos in reverse and useful to get a handle on where I should have stopped and considered the painting finished.

Adding the sheet music was an effort to save the painting after I ruined it with the orange glaze. No effort went into the decision, I just had some pieces of it left on the work table so I grabbed it and threw it into the mix too.

Here's where the painting went seriously wrong. I had a small bit of orange paint on hand and decided to use it as a glaze to balance out all of the cool colors already on the canvas.

I got a bit carried away with the process and should have stopped here.

It's so easy to loose track of things and get lost in the flow state. It feels so good that you just want to stay there. If you are a fan or follower of my work you know that it happens often.

 It has often spoiled possible sales but it helps deal with my many and varied health problems and reduces my need for medications so that alone makes it worthwhile.

Now that I have reviewed all if these photos I really wish I had stopped here. I'm liking this one the best. What do you think?

Monday on the New painting

 With the New Year well upon us I felt the urge to do an easel painting. The canvas I have had already been started but I did take photos each step of the way today.

Here we go!

My easel is on a wide shelf in front of a window so I started out by mixing a black gesso and painting over every area where the light shone through the canvas.

After that I applied some silver and a few other colors directly to the canvas and working them with brushes and palette knives.

At this point a large bird or something began to appear across the center of the canvas. I went back and forth between fighting it and helping it along. I'm still not sure what I want.

I finally decided to stop worrying about it and started to add neurographic lines and corner rounding as I was ready to relax and call it a day.

The problem with having to work in front of the window is that it looks so different at different times of the day. I'll have to remember that the next time that I work on it.

This painting took me on quite a ride before I finished with it and who knows, It may have more to come.

I kept adding more lines in different colors and was kind of pleased with this but felt it was too dark and felt that the wide red band threw the balance off.

As I kept adding lighter colors and crossing over that red band I liked it more and more but now it seemed too orange.

I worked on it a bit more seeking balance and this is where it ended up this session. Believe it or not, the canvas went through all of these changes in just 2 days.

What stage did you like best? I'd love to hear your feedback on it because I'm still afraid I tend to overwork things.

New Discoveries Revisit Old Themes

 Just as I was so excited about neurographic drawing and continuing to rearrange my work area I came across a photo of when we moved out of the old house in 2001 and I was surprised at how much one of the paintings on the front of the piles of drawings and paintings looked very much like this new method. And it had been done in the late 1990's.

I left the first house with over 100 paintings and moved into a downtown loft for nearly a year before moving to a 604 square foot house in Forest Lake with 95 paintings. All of these years later I couldn't begin to tell you how many I Have except to say that I got rid  of a a lot of the large ones and stick to 8 x 10 inches most of the time that can be kept in a small box.

As you can see here a lot of these lines and color areas are very much like the drawing method I was telling you about earlier this week. No Wonder I was so excited about it!

I'm also doing more works on paper because they take up  less space and the supplies are cheaper. As you may have guessed by now, after painting for over 50 years, compromises have to be be made. Age and financial insecurity take a toll but it doesn't mean that you have to give it up.

Keep on working to Paint Yourself Happy,

Julia

My husband remarked that I'd been using these sorts of design elements off and on for years without really thinking of it. He was right, now that I think of it, I have. The question is Where do I go from here?

Art in Mind, Exploring Neuoggraphics and neurographica

 The most exciting thing to me about neurographics is the way that they seamlessly connect art to the the way the neurons fire in our brains creating new pathways and having many mental and physical benefits. 

I was very interested and just had to try it right away.

Here is the first drawing, both before and after I began to add color.

The first thing I noticed was that my pulse had slowed and my sleepless nights disappeared. I can't wait to see what happens next. The only down side I can see is that you can easily get obsessed by it because it feels so satisfying that you don't want to stop.

I added color to a lot of the main colors and then began using smaller marks to connect each of the color areas to themselves and I can still see a lot that can do with it so please come back and follow my progress.

This is the second drawing (still in progress) which I plan to keep working on in just neutral colors to see how it affects the drawing as well as how it affects me.

I wish you would join me so that you could experience for yourselves what this feels like.

The beginning and the end of drawing # 3.

Come back again soon and see where it takes me.

Julia

These drawings came next:

I thought I'd try some with different colored markers and did this one (#4) plus several around the edges of letters that I was writing other artists to tell them about the health benefits of working  in this way.

This one was number 5 in the full drawing series. I find myself being drawn to doing them every day. As I said, the health benefits make them well worth the time you put into doing them.

After I did this one I decided to do some detail views to see what effect some of the different color areas has on it.

I had chosen these colors to represent a rocky shore and the grass beyond a winding stream.

The Road Ahead

 Before we can really move ahead we need to come to terms with what had been. I'm not the sort of person who likes loose ends. 

I needed to work out something to do with the small works on paper from the mixed media project and the thought occurred to me "why not tear up the last of the paper projects and turn them into one larger and more complete work". 

So I began by tearing and sometimes cutting them up and applying them to a mixed media sketchbook page that I had started a collage and some drawing on. The adhesive that I am using is is Acrylic Gel Medium.

I did stop to make notecards out of these last two before moving on as I was telling you about.

This is more or less how it all looked at the start of the day.

And this is how it looked when I took my first break the next day.

As you can see, a lot of things happened in between. Let me break it down for you.

1. Filling Holes: The thicknesses of the papers that I had used varied widely. That meant there were fairly deep holes and cracks between some of the pieces. My workaround for that was acrylic paints in several colors and a palette knife to spread them into and across the gaps.

2. Tone down the brightness of the sheet music to help it blend in and "play nice": This was accomplished by dipping a brush into water and turning some of the acrylic paint into light washes to lightly cover the sheet music.

3. Throw in a twist: I often listen to art videos and tutorials - face it kids, none of us know everything. What I learned today is about a type of painting called Neurogenic or Neurographic art that has the ability to create more neurogenic pathways in the brain and cause neurons to fire more often which is helpful for pain relief, emotional and physical healing. 

Even though I'd found these on You tube the ideas behind is seemed sound and I said "that's for me!" Right away I grabbed a black permanent marker and a liner brush with white paint and worked in a lot of those lines over the piece I'd been working on and I think it improved thing quite a bit. 

I'm very excited about the direction this piece is going it. I just haven't decided whether of not it's finished yet. What do you think?

I'd love it if you left a comment or followed the blog. It gives it more weight and meaning for all of us. Most of all KEEP CREATING, don't let anyone or anything stand between you and your quest for a better life.

Everyone has the right to " Paint Yourself Happy"

Come back and join me next time. Thanks!