Chakra tree of life eCourse
Materials List

Recommended Materials List
for the Chakra Tree of Life E-Course.

Hi Everyone,

Its lovely to have you join me and everyone else for the Chakra Tree of Life E-Course!
Especially as we as a collective, are going through such a challenging time.

I have compiled this materials list as a guide for what you will need to create your own gorgeous paintings during the course. You can start collecting things in advance and then you should be all ready to go, once the classroom opens.

At the moment it may not be as easy as usual for everyone to get all the paints and stencils. Certainly you will have to opt for online shopping and maybe be a bit inventive if you can’t get exactly what I have suggested.

I discovered Golden Fluid Acrylics a couple of years ago.  They have a beautiful pigment and perform extremely well when used in liquid techniques.  Their transparency is what makes the different layers work so well and they glow in a truly amazing way!

Golden Fluid Acrylics are a more expensive paint but because of the strength of pigment you will not need to use as much. Atelier also have a “Free Flow” paint. They are similar to Golden Fluids, but they don’t have all the colours that Golden does. Certainly they are more easily sourced here in Australia.

If you can’t source either, you can use your good quality existing paints instead. You have the option of making your acrylic paint into liquids by adding flow medium or water with a ¼ paint to ¾ liquid ratio and mixing them into little bottles.  You will still achieve a lovely result. Please make sure that the paints you use for the glaze are translucent*. Not opaque. This can be determined by the little box on the tube. An empty box is translucent* and a solid box is opaque. Or the Goldens have a stripe with a smear of paint.

Suggested Paints
GOOD QUALITY
ACRYLIC ARTIST PAINT*
Tube paint.

Eg. MATTISE /ATELIER /GOLDEN/WINDSOR NEWTON/LIQUITEX
or similar

Titanium White
Dioxizine Purple
Green Light( Jo Sonja) or similar
*These are necessary for using with the stencils.
Fluid paint will run under the stencils and cause bleeding.

GOLDEN FLUID COLOURS.  Below are the colours I use in the demo.  You can pick what colours you
want in your painting. Below is just a guide.

Golden Fluids come in different sizes. The small 30ml(1 oz) will be more than enough for a couple of paintings. It goes a long way. Of course the 119ml (4 oz) size is more economical

SEE BELOW

If you are unable to source Fluids at the moment you can make your own Fluids instead from Tube paint

MAKE YOUR OWN FLUIDS

I like to use Golden Fluids or Atelier free Flow for this technique.  But things are not quite as available at the moment as they were when I first ran this course. Hopefully you will be able to source them online? We may need to be adaptable though and need to make our own fluids. Remember the tube paints must be translucent though.  Fluids can be made by mixing in bottles with water/ flow medium or glazing medium. Bottles can be sourced from online art shops or you can use empty spice bottles or similar?

Reminder:  tube paint needs to be TRANSLUCENT (see through)

BRUSHES

I prefer nice soft brushes, not scratchy ones.

Flat : A couple different sizes from 6cm down to small sizes. You will need a nice 1 inch to 2 inch synthetic brush for the glazing.

Round : A couple of small round brushes for detailed work.
One very fine for our line work

PAINT PENS
We do quite a bit of outlining in this technique, so if you don’t feel confident with a fine liner brush you could buy a couple of fine paint pens? One in a dark colour such as purple or blue and one in white? Suggested brands are Liquitex, Posca ? I am sure there are lots more.

CANVAS 

It is optional what size you go, but I wouldn’t go any smaller than a 76cm x 76cm (30inch x 30inch) which is a good size  to start off with. I will be demonstrating on a larger 90cm x 90cm (36 inch x 36 inch) canvas.

Please choose a good quality canvas. “Student” canvas is fine, but stick to the double thick width as they usually have a better quality canvas.

I have used Stencils in the demo

And *below is what I did recommend before the Lockdowns.

But if you are having trouble sourcing stencils we can improvise by “transferring” images or drawing them on freehand. ( Saral Transfer paper in White)
I will be doing my own demo along side everyone during this course. So I will offer some tips.

*Make sure you purchase enough stencils to give you a nice balance of images and marks. Think about a theme you would like to create? Maybe a flower garden? Maybe more of a Buddhist feel with Lotus and symbols? Have a look at my paintings and get a feel for what stencils work together?

It is nice to have some words stencils. The Stencil Girls in the US have some lovely words
http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencils-letters-words-numbers-s/1878.htm?searching=Y&sort=3&cat=1878&show=30&page=2

Or Kerry from *Which Craft Do You Do here in Australia has a huge range on her website. Which Craft Do You Do

Also any special symbols you may be drawn to? Totem Animals for your “Theme” stencils? istencils in the US have some lovely Animal ones
http://istencils.com/animal-stencils.html

For the Chakras in the tree? I use Whitney Freya’s Spirals from her Sacred Symbols
http://whitneyfreya.com/product/831/

You can also buy actual “Chakra” stencils from Artistcellar
http://artistcellar.com/collections/artistcellar-pocket-stencils/products/chakras-series-stencils?variant=1239247064

*Which Craft do you do also have Chakra symbols. See Above

These are all optional and you can buy lots of different stencils on Ebay as well.

If you are having trouble sourcing something in particular just email me and I will see if I know where you can purchase them. I will have a small supply of some of my own Stencil designs ( flower balls etc).

Email susanfarrellart@gmail.com

The other option is to draw your own symbols on to the canvas.

SUNDRIES
A plastic pallet or a disposable pallet available from art supplies shops
For STENCILLING
A packet of high density foam roller ends (10cm)from hardware stores
Or Stencil sponge (makeup sponge)
Or Stencil Brush
Water Spray Bottle.

About the Tree itself:

I do think it is nicer to source your own tree rather than copy mine. But that is up to you. My original tree was not a stencil. I drew it on to my canvas free hand after photographing lots of different trees in my own neighbourhood. Then drawing from them as inspiration.

Now I know some of you may feel that you don’t feel confident drawing freehand. So in the first week of the course I will show you a couple of different ways to transfer an image onto your canvas. Keeping in mind when I created this course, we were able to shop locally and in store, a couple of my suggestions won’t be available. But here is an exert from the content with what I suggest.

So how do we get the tree onto the canvas?

“You can draw it on yourself freehand using a soft pastel, so if you make a mistake it can easily be wiped off. If you don’t feel confident enough to draw the tree on yourself you can use a template.”
I usually recommend you go to your Office Supplies store and ask them to enlarge your image. Usually they can do a black and white A2 size while you wait. Once you have the image the size you want, then you can decide whether you use a template or trace it onto the canvas.

But at the moment you may not be able to access an office supplies, so you may need to be brave and just draw the tree on yourself.

TEMPLATE: This option involves purchasing table protector plastic from a hardware store which may not be open in your neighbourhood at the moment.

TRANSFER PAPER: You can buy Saral Transfer Paper from some Art Stores. Blicks Art Supplies carries it in the US and The Art Store in Bayswater Victoria, Australia in their online store. It comes in lots of colours but for this application you will need the Graphite or the blue? Tape the paper together to make it large enough to take the whole image. Place the transfer paper right side up (test first)
and then tape it down, then place the image on top, tape it down. Finally use a sharp pencil or pen to trace the actual image. It will transfer onto the canvas. It is quite chalky and can rub off easily so be careful to not to smudge it before you have retraced it with the purple paint.”

I will be sending you the Link to our Tree of Life Facebook Group as we get a bit closer to classes commencing.

I am so looking forward to sharing the “Chakra Tree of Life” experience with you!!

See you soon!!