Welcome to the Little Rainbow Moon Creative kit - MAKE YOUR MARK 

This kit features the super talented artist Helen Wells. I have been a fan of hers for a while now. I am particularly in love with her use of sketch books. If you check out her instagram @helenwellsart you will see why! Sooooo inspiring! I would also highly recommend her book, ‘Expressive Sketchbooks: Developing Creative Skills, Courage, and Confidence’, which is available on Amazon. 

So I was obviously delighted when Helen said yes to being a guest artist in this kit! Mark making is a big part of Helen’s artwork and creative exploration, so it seemed fitting to build the kit around that.

PAINT

The four colours in this palette were chosen by Helen Wells. I absolutely love her exploratory use of colour, so it was a real honour to create the colours she described to me. 

SHOCK WAVE - The first colour Helen requested was a neon pink, and this pink certainly packs a punch! Its super bright and opaque and I love it!

GODDESS - Next Helen asked for a rich dark green.

PRUSSIAN -The final matt colour Helen chose was a deep blue, I used a Prussian blue pigment as the base. 

MIDAS - Lastly Helen chose a metallic gold. I opted for an intense dark gold - the perfect compliment to the bright and rich matt colours.

STICKERS

You have two sheets of stickers; both featuring Helen’s beautiful art work. Firstly you have a set of washi strips and secondly you have a set of journal words.

STENCIL

The design for this stencil was taken from a part of Helen’s art work, isn’t it beautiful?! Now you can add a little piece of ‘Helen magic’ to your journal pages. I’ve included some BLACK ACRYLIC PAINT & SPONGE. Simply place the stencil where you want the image and use the sponge to dab a small amount of black paint through the stencil. I think it would be really effective to do this as a final layer, after using the watercolour palette to create a colourful base.

BLACK MARKER PEN 

If you look at Helens work, you will see that black pen mark making features heavily, so I have included two black pens to explore your own mark making and patterns; have fun mixing the two different thicknesses.

MINI MARK MAKING KIT

It’s also fun to explore mark and pattern making with less traditional materials, I have put together a few items for you to have a go with; 

A cotton bud - great for dots!

A mini spatular - experimen dipping in the paint to make repeated dashes

A pipe cleaner - bend into different shapes 

A piece of cardboard - make interesting marks with the corrugated ridges

Use the black acrylic paint to dip the objects in and then mark make directly onto the page.

Again this would look really effective over a colourful background - I actually love the irregularity you get when mark making with found objects. 

COLLAGE PAPERS

You have three collage papers of Helen’s stunning art work. Helen herself loves photocopying pages of her sketch books and using parts of the photocopies in new art works. So you could try cutting up these papers and incorporating pieces in your own art work.

CONCERTINA SKETCHBOOK

As I have mentioned, Helen’s use of sketchbooks is amazing! I love how she sometimes. makes her own; like this concertina one I have made for you. It is made using using 200 gsm mixed media paper. The idea being for you to use it to try out the ideas mentioned above; have fun getting loose and free, and filling each page with explorations of colour and mark making.