Thanks for taking the jump to read today’s newsletter. If you landed on this page by accident, subscribe to the Vanilla Beans Newsletter here.
CHECKING IN…
It was Livestreamapalooza this week.
I demonstrated the Allium project yesterday for Color Wonk members and today the UP group is learning to troubleshoot their finished Blue Peony projects with our Second Look livestream.
Lisa is back and she’s now our Community Manager. With big changes coming, I desperately need her calm wisdom and mad figure-it-out skills.
Plus, it’s nice to not be alone again.
Next week will be my first opportunity to work on the new course launch. Clear desk and blue skies? I hope so!
YOUR SLIP IS SHOWING
My grandmothers both wore girdles.
For the youngin’s and and men-folk here, girdles are Spanx that actually work.
My grandmothers were always locked and loaded. Back then, all women wore shapewear, the kind with underwire and boning. One grandmother called it her “support”, the other called it “battle gear”. Neither would leave the house in anything less than full Maidenform.
Feminists would say that girdles and corsets were part of a vast male conspiracy. The man is keepin’ us down.
But here’s the thing— girdles were only a thing because women wanted to wear them. Companies don’t make products people won’t buy… at least not for long. And it sure as heck wasn’t my grandfather bringing home the rocket bras.
Watch Mad Men, Bewitched, or Some Like it Hot to see the curves a girdle creates. Mid-Century fashion required under-sculpting.
Women wanted the va-va-voom.
Kim Kardashian does too. Her girl bits aren’t bobbin’ in the breeze. Full body elastication is making a comeback.
Why am I talking about this???
Because the secret of ladies undergarments is that they’re secret.
Undergarments, as in under-the-garments. Under.
Nobody walks around in nothing but Skims. Well, maybe Kanye’s new wife does…
Anyway, the support is not the fashion.
The support makes fashion possible.
Except in coloring.
Y’all don’t think twice about wearing your underwear over your blue jeans.
Take a stroll through an art museum sometime. Look at their collection of amazing paintings— the stuff that looks real enough to touch.
What do you not see?
Outlines.
That’s not to say the artist didn’t start with a line drawing. Every artist begins with at least a preliminary sketch.
But then the artist paints over the linework.
And here’s the thing… even when we’re looking at line-driven paintings— artists like Lichtenstein, Miro, or Modigliani who deliberately use outlines, they’re adding the lines back later in the process.
They’re also super picky about which lines to add back. They only use what’s absolutely necessary.
No artist ends with the same lines they started with.
Lines support the art.
Lines are not the art.
“Christina”, Amedeo Modigliani. 1916
But Amy, that’s how stamp art works. That’s the stampin’ style!
Really?
Which looks better to you? With or without?
Look, I know you’ve had it hammered into your head that “no line” coloring is a special technique reserved for quinceaneras and Leap Year blue moons. No line coloring is mystical. It’s only for the brave and incredibly talented.
It’s not.
No line is normal.
Walking around with your Playtex 18-Hour hanging out is what’s abnormal.
But Amy, I don’t know how to color no line!
Uhhhh…. exactly like you color everything else?
What you’ve been doing? Keep doing that. Just do it with a lighter stamp ink.
Stamp in gray. Stamp in light blue. Stamp in pink. Even chocolate bown is a step in the right direction.
Anything but black.
My no-pantylines peony above was printed in light gray ink. I didn’t do anything nifty to make the lines disappear, they buried themselves. There’s no magic to it. It’s normal coloring. No special colors. No special pencils.
The same old same old.
The only thing that’s different is you don’t see the free advertisement for the stamp company when I’m done.
Now look one more time at both peonies and think:
Which one looks expensive?
Which one looks professional?
Which one looks like talent?
Which one looks like art?
So tell me, why aren’t you doing this all the time?
Stamp images are the support for your coloring.
They’re the understructure. The girdle. The three pair of Spanx tucking in your muffin top.
The stamp goes under your coloring.
Under.
Stop showcasing the stamp.
And show your art.
Next week, we’ll talk about wearing white after Labor Day.
I made a video on a similar subject. Click above to watch. If your device doesn’t like embeds, click here at YouTube.
Hmmm…
NEW VIDEO
Click to watch. If your device doesn’t like embeds, click here at YouTube.
IF YOU LIKED TODAY’S BEANS & VIDEOS, SUPPORT FUTURE FREE LESSONS:
JUNE EVENTS
Click to view details
CLOSING SOON!
We’re moving to a 6 month enrollment window for The Blend to make room for my new 12 week course.
OPEN ENROLLMENT ENDS JUNE 31
No new students for the summer/fall
The Blend will RE-OPEN on January 1, 2025
If you’ve already purchased The Blend, nothing changes.
You will ALWAYS have complete access to all lessons and the forum.
I’m only halting new purchases.
PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
HUH?
Many of you have seen this on the class supply list but you’ve never seen me use it and you keep forgetting to ask.
Then again, some of you just assumed I’m using them to clean my desk afterwards.
Nope.
Now you’re really dying to ask, aren’t you?
Ever wonder how I keep the backgrounds and margins of my art so nice and white? I use Magic Eraser sponges to clean them!
Colored pencils leave a fine dust which grays down a white background even when you don’t realize it. The natural oil on your hands and wrist take a little longer to develop but if you’ve ever wondered where the yellow smear came from, it’s skin oil.
Buff your whites with a DRY sponge to remove dust and oil. That’s a DRY sponge. Now one more time for the kids in the back row: DO NOT WET THE SPONGE! ALWAYS USE IT DRY!
Remember, when you shop using my link above, any Amazon purchase over the next 24 hours supports the free content here and at YouTube.
THIS WEEK IN COLOR
CURRENT PASSWORD: RubberDuckie
JUNE DISCOUNT
Use code MACKINAC at checkout to save 15% on the Sweet Lilac artistic coloring kit. Special discount ends 06/30/2024.
LOOKING FOR LAST WEEK’S BEANS?
RECENTLY MENTIONED PRODUCTS
