Extraordinary Art

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Hello! I'm Gillian Adams and a colouring book artist the UK. Welcome to my website where you'll find information on my colouring books and printables, plus colouring tutorials. Having studied at art college I worked as a graphic designer for many years, and love painting, colouring and drawing, and started creating colouring books in 2016. Click on the menu bar at the top of the page to find out more about me and my work. Remember to take my fun quiz to find out what colour palette suits your personality.

 

 Here's what people are saying about Gillian's art... 

  

 

Are you feeling stressed, anxious and can’t relax? Are you worrying about health, work or family issues? Are you trying to lose weight or break bad habits?

When you colour, your mind is totally absorbed by the activity, which can help you to relax, and reduce stress and anxiety.

 

 It’s been called ‘colouring meditation’ and people have found it relaxing and helpful
for a number of conditions including anxiety, depression, stress, dementia, and chronic pain.

   

•  Research on US college students in 2013 found that colouring pre-drawn patterns significantly reduced signs of stress and depression.  • A study in 2006 found that mindfulness art therapy for women with cancer,  helped to reduce symptoms of physical and emotional distress.

 

Psychologist Carl Jung introduced the concept of colouring as a relaxation technique in the early 20th century.

   

 

'How do you come up with the ideas for your designs?' is a question often asked
- this short video gives the answer...

You can also find colouring tutorials on my YouTube channel.

 

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 Note: Colouring is a therapeutic practice and not a substitute for seeing your doctor. 

 

© Gillian Adams 2018   Privacy Policy 

 

How to easily colour lots of leaves

TUTORIAL 

If you love colouring flowers and forests, but sometimes feel daunted by a large amount of leaves and foliage, then this technique is for you! It's fun and will also save you lots of time, as you won't have to shade every individual leaf. Using pencils, paint, a sponge and some cotton buds, you can create wonderful effects and end up with a beautiful colouring that everyone will love. Watch the video below, and there is also a list of things you'll need listed underneath it. If you like colouring outside the lines, you'll love this technique. Have fun!

 

 

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

•  A mid green pencil for the base colour of the leaves. •  A water jar. •  An old paintbrush to mix the paints. •  Acrylic paints to mix a dark green, light green and a yellow. •  Palette or ceramic plate to mix the paints on. •  Cut down a cosmetic sponge (or any sponge if you don't have one). •  Cotton buds. •  Kitchen towels. (After you dip your sponge/cotton buds into the paint, it helps to do a couple of dabs on kitchen towels so it's less blobby on your picture.) •  Other coloured pencils to finish your colouring. (I used Marco Raffines here.) •  Choose a picture! •  You could also use a white gel pen for highlights if you wish, though I didn't use one in this demonstration.

What else could you colour using this technique? Comment below and let me know. 

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If you enjoyed this tutorial and like colouring flowers, fantasy and cute creatures, then CLICK HERE to learn more about my adult colouring book - Drawn to the Enchanted Garden

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 CLICK HERE for more colouring tips and tutorials

 

© 2018 Gillian Adams 

 

 

Having a play with silver clay

After hearing other students talk about silver clay on a recent small metals class, I took a look was delighted to discover a medium that seemed to combine ceramic and metal techniques.

I hastily bought some to try out and made some jellyfish earrings - part of my ocean inspired collection. (Or trying to give some sort of theme to my various artistic enterprises!)

It was amazing to think that this clay, once heated on a normal gas stove in my kitchen, was fine silver. I think I have finally found true love!

This is the finished piece and below is a step-by-step guide on how I made it. I also read Magical Metal Clay Jewellery by Sue Heaser which is great for techniques, equipment and some project ideas.

 

1. I had bought a starter kit on ebay so I rolled out the clay using the edgers to get the right thickness of clay.

2. Using the roller I textured the silver clay. (Note: vegetable oil is used on fingers and roller and the pattern so it doesn’t stick to the clay.)

3. I cut a circle out of cardboard so gently put this on top of the clay and drew around it and cut off the excess clay with a ceramics shaping tool. You can get fimo ones which may be a better size. (I didn’t have a proper circle cutter to hand!). I also smoothed around the edges with a blunt wool needle

4. The final part of this wet clay stage was to cut the circle in half and then using the wool needle again, press in where the holes will be needed.

5. Then I put it under a clear glass on a windowsill and left it to dry for a couple of days. 

6. While they were drying I had a play with the jellyfish tendrils using eye pins - thought about length, how tight the twist should be and if it needed a bead. I settled on what I thought would work best and made six.

7. Then came the fun part. I put the wire mesh onto the gas hob of my cooker and lit it briefly. This showed me where the flame would go. Then I carefully placed the earrings on it and let it heat for three minutes. Once they were done I quenched them in water.

8. They were now cool and also looking white, so I cleaned them up using a wire brush.

9. Using a 1mm drill bit I made the holes then did a lot of finishing which included wet/dry paper, a burnisher and a fibreglass brush.

10. Then all that was left was to attached the jump rings, tendrils and the ear wire.

Now it’s on to my next project! I hope you have as much fun with silver clay as I did.

Creating with small metals and an art show

Metal is a medium I’ve never worked with before. I’ve always thought of it as hard and unweilding, so when a friend suggest a jewellery with small metals evening course at Plymouth College of Art I thought, why not?

The first term was very intensive with learning the basic techniques. I never knew creating delicate jewellery required such heavy duty tools.

I liked the course and eventually decided to do another term. Then I started to love it. It is so absorbing. I can sit down and cut out a shape or solder a few things together and before I know it the whole evening is gone!

After two terms (20 weeks) there was a summer show and I put four pieces in. Other people in the class were a bit shy about this, but I think if you have the opportunity to get your work out there you should snap it up! Especially if you wish to work as an artist.

Now there’s a break for summer so I’m going to work on the theme of the sea and have lots of ideas for pieces of jewellery and metal art. I was going to do a hot glass course but don’t feel ready to leave small metals yet.

I also gave a pair of earring to a friend and she was delighted with them so I got my first testimonial.

“I have been absolutely delighted with the  copper and bronze drop earrings created by Gillian Adams.  They are a delight to wear and have attracted no end of compliments  from people of all ages – even my teenage  daughters  like them! The lovely gilded colour is great for lifting your spirit and they enhance virtually any outfit. Absolute delight and look forward to acquiring my next piece of Gillian’s jewellery.”
- Mrs Malone, Plymouth

The work below involved lots of soldering, forging and sawing. We mainly worked in copper and brass, but I also bought some silver for my ring.

Here are some of my pieces:

My pieces in the art show.

  

Enamelled earrings, left, and copper and brass, right (the far right drop earring were the ones that inspired such a lovely testimonial.)

I textured this silver band ring with a leaf.

An early piece making and forging links to form a bracelet.

This copper cuff was one of the first things I made.

The confidence to sell your art

I worked as a graphic designer for many years and now work in the media so regularly see my work in print so I should be okay with putting my own creations out there, but I’m not. Fear grips my stomach and I look at all my creations and decide they are not good enough.

When you are working for or with someone else the final version tends to be a merging of a lot of ideas, yours and theirs, but ultimately you’re tailoring towards the clients commercial needs.

Creating something for yourself, maybe also to sell, and the goal posts seem to move. For me, they move so far away I can’t even see them anymore. It’s case of aiming in a certain direction and hoping for the best.

I recently posted about my lack of self confidence on the Facebook page of The Shed with the Chandelier and had some very constructive replies which in a nutshell included being patient, allowing time to creatively play, having a project and thinking of myself as the client.

These thoughts percolated around in my head for a few days before I realised that I’m setting the standard for myself too high. I want to create the ‘perfect’ piece of art and anything else isn’t good enough. When I look at one of my paintings, for example, I see all the things I would have done differently and this lessens it in my eyes.

My realisation today is that there is no perfect piece of art. What I create now is a reflection of where I’m at in my life and on my creative journey. In another year I may be creating different things but that will be because I have grown as a person and an artist. And that’s okay.

To put my art out there now doesn’t scare me at all. If someone doesn’t like my work they can move on, if they do then I hope they enjoy it. 

I’m not aiming for goal posts anymore. Just wandering around and enjoying the view and meeting interesting people!

My new way of looking at things has helped me to move forward, so if you are reading this and trying to find your way good luck and you’re not alone.

Playing with bead and gem jewellery: a pair of Lepidolite and Swarovski bead earrings.

Getting my hands dirty with ceramics

When I was in my teens we had a pottery class at my school for just one lesson. This felt quite ground breaking a the time for my strict grammar school and we were tasked with making a ceramic tile.

I made a hippopotamus rising out of the water in what I thought was a clever design. Alas, someone’s work exploded in the kiln and mine and many other pieces were caught in the crossfire so I never saw the fired tile.

My brief foray into ceramics made it into a mystery that I would one day explore so I finally took two terms of evening class (20 weeks) at local art college and explored hand-built ceramics.

Clay is fascinating to work with, as aside from its different types, there are many stages to work with it and decorate it.

My biggest lesson was that no matter what you plan, once you put your work into the kiln you have to let go of your expectations - it doesn't always work out how you planned. Sometimes it's better, sometimes worse!

The course finished last year (2012) and here are some things I made.

 

The best thing I made. I wanted a bird bath and like sci fi, so what better than the Millennium Falcon? It certainly made a talking point in class! It may look complicated but essential it's just one big bowl with bits added on and lots of scoring.

This was a spur of the moment idea. I cut out lots of circles and arranged them into a bowl mould and pressed the lettering in. After the first kiln firing I glazed it with the lovely blue/green colour and then dabbed on the darker colour.

With these two dished I was trying out the feathering technique. I like the effect, though getting the white to the right consistency was difficult.

One of the first things I made was this vase. It was suppoed to have a lichen type of glaze but I didn't put enough on so it's just a cream colour.

 

Working with clay:

1. It’s raw stage where it can be shaped and moulded.

2. Roll it out and leave it a few days become leather hard. You can then cut out shapes, score and decorate it.

3. It’s first firing at a low temperature is called bisque. Once this has been done you can apply the final glaze.

4. The final firing to either earthenware or stoneware.

Making a splash...

On a summer’s day I drove to a nearby national park and had a lovely wander around a reservoir. I also had great fun throwing different sized stones into the water and then taking photos of the splashes.

I was fascinated by the different splash patterns and ended up taking quite a few!  I could pick out one or two outstanding ones but not enough for an exhibition. Last week I had the idea to put them together into a slideshow and create a piece of visual art.

These slideshows are relatively easy to create and a great way of showing off some nice photos.

   

Creating this visual art.

 I use an apple mac so it has all sorts of useful programmes already on it.

• I picked out a variety of images – I ended up with 22
• I altered each image a little in a basic manipulation programme. I can also recommend GIMP which can be downloaded for free. I played around with adjusting colour, contrast and exposure.
• Then I dropped all of the images into iMovie. I had a little play around there are it sets up an automatic crop on each picture so that it zooms in or out a little. The speed was too fast so I altered them so that it was more a slower pan in, out or across.
• Then I set the times for each photo and also made the first one longer and put a title on it.
• For the music I went into GarageBand and had a play around with the different track on it. It comes with some pieces already made up but I wanted the sound to be slow paced and quite light, so constructed the piece myself.
• Then I pulled the music into iMovie and it was finished

 

Mixing it up with mixed media art

Mixed media is using different techniques and bringing it all together on one canvas, usually layered on top of each other.  I've seen this effect many times so wanted to try it out for myself.

After many hours scouring the internet I happened upon an artist called Ann Baldwin and I loved her work and she has also produced a book called Creative Paint Workshop which I can highly recommend.

Here is my first piece of mixed media art called Identity created from acrylics, pen and ink, crayons and collage. If you want to find out how I did it then read on.

  

First of all I gessoed the canvas. It was my first time using it and apparently Gesso seals the canvas so paint doesn’t seep through. As I was going to layer stuff on I thought it a good idea. 

I stuck a few things down that I'd created (using Matte Medium) and put purple and green acrylic paint all over the canvas and a bit of tissue paper, then sealed it all with Matte Medium.  I used a sponge for most of the paint work.

 

Then I added more purple in certain areas and crayoned in a figure and added Who am I?  Some areas I ‘sent back’ by painting over them.

 

Using orange paint wrote on the canvas top left and bottom right and also used some lime green paint. I was going for a 'pop art' type of colour with lime green and purple.

 

Then I put Matte Medium over the whole canvas and went to bed!  The next day I added a softer purple and the barcode. I wrote on the pound signs with black ink and drew a car in black crayon and stuck it on with matte medium.

 

I stuck some crosswords on and then created a Venetian-style mask with pen and inks and stuck it on.  I painted over the Who Am I’s a bit more to fade them in to the background and stuck the identity quotes on too. I wanted the mask and these quotes to be at the fore of the finished painting so didn't paint over them.

 

After leaving it overnight the final thing I did was to darken up a couple areas (see top photo) and then it was done!

 

Raising awareness for Wateraid

Here are some great paintings and photos by artists from the South-West of England.  I asked some creative people to let the theme of WATER inspire them. This was partly for fun and also partly to raise awareness of a charity called Wateraid. 

WaterAid is an international non-governmental organisation focused exclusively on improving poor people’s access to safe water, improved hygiene and  sanitation. WaterAid works in Africa, Asia and the Pacific region and campaigns globally to realise a vision of a world where everyone has access to these basic human needs.  

To find out more about Wateraid visit click here and if you want to donate then hit the orange button on their homepage that says 'donate now'.

Now sit back and enjoy the art!

 Dolphins at Whitsands by Deb Hoskin, watercolour

by Corinna Butler, acrylic on canvas

 

by Pam Goodall, watercolour 

by Gillian Adams, oil on board

 Photograph (New Zealand) by Lyn Stidwell

Sunset over Whitsand Bay, photograph by Pam Goodall

River Avon, photograph by Gillian Adams

 

The eye of the beholder

I quite like the visual effects that some 2D art can do - remember the magic eye pictures?

An artist called Escher created a lot of visual trickery using mathematics - his pictures are quite well known, you’ve probably seen Relativity where people are impossibly standing on staircases at different angles.

For a project I had to illustrate the term ‘support structure’ so thought about how the world was one giant balancing act where everything interlinked and supported each other.

And yes, I tried to reinterpret the staircase image but quickly discovered that it might melt my brain, so instead used Escher’s image of a waterfall as the basis of my pen and ink drawing.

I tried and failed many times - it’s based on impossible triangles and I nearly admitted defeat a couple of times but stuck with it and am pleased with how it’s turned out.

My deer could be a little bit more defined but I was on a deadline so it it what it is.

Now what to do with it - t-shirts, cards or what! Any ideas?