Hello! My name is Effy Wild, and I’m very pleased to present this lesson for you in Life Book 2017!

In this lesson, I’m going to walk you through the process of creating a mixed media patchwork tree that includes branches, roots, and a sweet spot in the middle that is meant to represent being present, grounded, and centered in your truth.

This lesson is easily adaptable to many different themes. You could ‘root’ into your childhood, honour where you are in your adulthood (sweet spot), and express your hopes and wishes for your future (branches). You could root in a memory or trau-ma, acknowledge where you are right now in this moment in your healing journey, and express your belief in your ability to continue growing. You could, as I’ve done, root in your artistic lineage, express your gratitude for what you’ve learned, and ex-press the impact your artistic journey may have on your future.

What really works for me about this kind of spread is that it acknowledges and honours everything we’re made of - our history, our present moment, our hopes and dreams. Grounding in the roots of where we’ve been allows us to rest more easily in where we are, and dream more potently about where we’re going.

I’m a holistic healer, by which I mean that I heal (myself) by acknowledging all parts of what I’ve experienced, and by remaining mindful that things change, that I can ‘get there from here’, and that I can hold space for everything I’ve ex-perienced. This spread perfectly expresses the balance that comes from being as present as possible with all parts of our selves and lives. The patchwork can easily represent all of our various parts of self - all the experiences, all the bits and pieces, all the things we think or feel or dream or do. Creating the focal image as we’ve done in this spread can help bring a sense of order to the swirling chaos that sometimes happens within us. The act of making sense of the background is a lot like magic. We tame the chaos. We hone in on the present moment. We acknowledge the past. We acknowledge our possible futures. We know that the sweet spot is *right here, right now*.

Alternatively, a spread like this can just be a pure delight with no need to engage the healing component at all. :)

The supplies list for this painting is pretty basic, and in the video, I talk a bit about substitutions should you find you don’t have something I’m using. If you find yourself struggling, or if you have any questions, you can ask in the Facebook Group (make sure and tag me!), and I’ll get to you as soon as I can. You are also welcome to email me at effythewild@gmail.com.

Grounding & Centering In Your Truth with Effy Wild for Life Book 2017

SuppliesPretty papers in colours that represent the emotional charge of where you are at. I also included some text pag-es and a touch of washi tape.

Something to glue with, such as soft gel (gloss), polymer medium (gloss), matte medium, etc. I prefer gloss for these projects, but matte medium is fine.

A gift card or credit card to scrape up excess medium and burnish your papers down as you glue.

A heat gun (or patience!)

Stabilo All pencil, Black. If you are afraid to work with something so ‘smearable’, you could use charcoal, Derwent Inktense, or just sketch your focal image with black marker or pen. You could also ‘fix’ the Stabilo with workable fixa-tive.

White gesso, thinned with a bit of water

Sakura Glaze Pen, Black (or any waterproof black pen that will work on your collaged surface).

Punchinella or other good background stencil

Fluid acrylics (I used Green Gold, Quinacrodone Burnt Or-ange, Transparent Red Iron Oxide, Iridescent Fine Gold, and Turquois Pthalo). If you don’t have fluid acrylics, you could thin your heavy bodied acrylics with a fluid medi-um, like Polymer Medium from Golden, or Acrylic Glazing Liquid. If you only have craft paints, see if you can make them transparent enough to glaze with by mixing them with some water or acrylic glazing liquid. If you can’t get a transparent paint with your craft paints, do your glazes with markers, such as Copics, Faber Castell Big Brush, Spectrum Noir, etc.

Ink pad (I use Stazon)

OPTIONAL: Tea light candle (or any other white candle) to seal the spread.

Soft cloth for buffing

Rip your papers into pieces, and overlapping them, cover the entire spread. Scrape up excess medium with the gift card as you go.

Add bits of washi tape to fill in any areas that need a bit of extra oomph. I also look for areas that are feeling too ‘same’ or unfinished, and add papers there.

Sketch out your focal image (in this case, a tree with lovely, gnarled old roots) with the Stabilo All pencil. If you are super freaked out about the water reactive nature of the Stabilo, you can use workable fixative at this point, but I really enjoy the grunginess that comes from leaving it work-able.

Whitewash around the focal image with a diluted layer of white gesso. I just add some water to it, mix it up, and go for it. I keep a baby wipe handy to wipe up excess gesso. I want this layer to be milky and translucent so that the original back-ground shows through, at least in most of the spread.

Activate the Stabilo All pencil with a wet brush to create an inky outline. As you go, notice how defined the shapes are. With gesso, tidy up any shapes that need a bit more refinement. You may also want to remove any excess Stabilo with a baby wipe or damp cloth.

With gesso, tidy up any shapes that need a bit more refinement. Make the branches as pointy or curved as you like using the gesso as an erasure wherever needed.

With a Sakura Glaze (or other black, waterproof pen), draw leaves symmetrically wherever they make sense, and outline the entire tree.

Paint the leaves in with Iridescent Fine Gold (or other metallic). Stencil in the background with punchinella (sequin waste) and gold paint.

Glaze over the leaves with green gold paint.

Glaze the ‘sky’ area of the background with tur-quois pthalo. If you don’t have transparent paint, use a marker, like Copic, Spectrum Noir, Faber Castell Big Brush or Pitt Pen. These will create a waterproof, transparent layer.

Glaze the tree with Transparent Red Iron Oxide

Glaze the root area of the background with Quin-crodone Burnt Orange. I add a little tiny touch of Payne’s Grey to darken this, but that’s optional.

Add Quin burnt orange to the sides of the trees to round them out and create the illusion that the branches are spherical.

Tidy up your outlines with the Sakura Glaze pen

Add text using the Sakura Glaze pen. I also filled in the open areas of the letters with gold paint for an extra bit of bling.

Using an ink pad, ink the edges of the spread to create a finished look.

Rework the lettering with the Glaze pen, if desired.

Seal the spread by heating it up with a heat gun, and rubbing a white candle all over it, and then buffing with a soft cloth.

Ta Da!!!

Please note that there is an additional PDF provid-ed for you that will assist you in befriending your inner critic. You will find it in the classroom!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as I enjoyed creating it for you!

Please come find me at effywild.com, on YouTube, Facebook, and in my teaching network at http://learn.effybird.com.

xo

Effy Wild effythewild@gmail.com

Notes

Notes