2022 X Art Journey

2022 was about finishing that insane amount of stuff I started in 2021, a 6 month long mammoth task of using up pre-made bits and creating a new style of art; still without the stars or cosmic theme for a lot of the year, I've stuck backgrounds and painted and done very little drawing compared to other years. I focused on creating abstract art, looking at different textures like swirls and grass and used celebratory card cutouts and other recycled materials in A4 and A6 books. I also did some pieces with the pre-made cardboard collage bits, some of them pre-painted some of them not, they're A4 and A5 size pieces themed around creatures but there's once again no stars. I've since added stars to pieces now i'm cosmiccreativebits again but for 6 months i'd stopped doing that. 

For around 4 months I did an abstract fairy series comprising of 133 pieces using cardboard packaging, painting the space around black and obviously having fairy themed pieces using acrylic/poster paint and paint pens. The idea behind the fairy theme is that mental health has made me feel so small which the fairies represent. I really enjoyed making this series however I've overdone the production and have creative block on the fairy theme. either that or I've healed the subject enough that I don't need to produce it anymore.  

I've done a crazy amount of books in 2022 from A6 to A3 size, there's still 15 books to finish drawing on. I kinda struggled to paint the backgrounds due to being on medication, which means not having all the complex emotions that I did. I'm painting with one colour at time compared to 3-5 colours that I was doing before. Creating art is just a different experience now, my approach has completely changed it's like I've gone from being an intuitive artist to a normal artist while I upgrade my skillset; I've done a lot of research on the fundamentals of art in the year and i'm starting to notice my work isn't just elaborate stick men drawings anymore they've actually come to life. 

I've experimented with gems and sequins (in A5 book 17+18) and drawn more concept art than abstract stuff. I even gave a mandala a go, i'm not very good at symmetry but a lot of people say they have magical healing powers from creating and also if you meditate on them; the centre of the mandala represents something different to the outer section. I'll do a post more in depth on the topic with quotes and stuff soon. 

I also did a time travelling book where basically I started the book with the funky tape in 2021 and I left it till 2022 to finish, you can see the contrast of my mental health from then vs now, it's interesting to see how drastic the difference is. It's a much calmer picture done with the same methods as used previously in the book. I really love the concept of a time travelling book and may do it again in the future.

I did a Halloween theme with a cosmic twist which was pretty fun; Alien witches, lots of pumpkins including an alien wearing one and even did a cosmic sugar skull! 

I worked on some cosmic themed pieces in the same art style as the fairy pieces, but using old compositions and bringing them to life with a poly-chromatic colour scheme which I've never intentionally done before. I used a selection of colours I was initially drawn to (blue, yellow and orange) and used intuition to help bring the pieces together. This poly-chromatic colour scheme is an advanced scheme which is super difficult to do at first and is about "organising the colours so it doesn't look like rainbow vomit", which I think I've achieved well; I assigned the colours to certain things like yellow for the steps and orange for the cobbles, the creatures I used the other colours like pink, green and purple and I also added the metallic paint pens for the souls and stars...the pieces feel balanced despite the range of colours used. 

Towards the end of 2022 I began to art journal everyday doing what I was initially drawn to whether that was pens, painting, gluing or all of the above, I even did a mind dump journal page where you write everything on your mind; it helped me to realise I was living both in the past and future so I learned I needed to be more present from journalling. I really recommend art journalling because it's a nice easy way to record your mental health journey, its cool seeing which colours you were drawn to each day and the methods used. A method I've really loved doing is repeating patterns where you put some paint on a page and shut the pages together to reveal a painting which matches the other side... it's been great for unblocking creative block! 

2022 has been a journey to say the least with a lot of style changes along the way as I've grown and changed...who knows what 2023 will hold in store for the art journey

Till next time,

Stevie x