Isabella's Coffee House

Answers

2011-09-14T19:56:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted here. I'm taking a class by Katie Kendrick called Layered Impressions. Love it! This journal page shows a face that is the first painting from the class. Obviously they are not supposed to be realistic faces. I love the process she teaches. We are to do a whole series of these. This I can do! :)

I hope to post more regularly from here on out. I'm wanting to get back into my digital art and post more of that here, too.

Edges of Time

2011-04-25T01:18:00.004-04:00

The Edges of Time

--Kay Ryan

It is at the edges

that time thins.

Time which had been

dense and viscous

as amber suspending

intentions like bees

unseizes them. A

humming begins,

apparently coming

from stacks of

put-off things or

just in back. A

racket of claims now,

as time flattens. A

glittering fan of things

competing to happen,

brilliant and urgent

as fish when seas

retreat.

Free Spirit

2011-02-18T14:21:00.005-05:00

I'm taking the Graffiti of my Life Art Journal Class taught by Dina Wakley. You can read more about it here. I LOVE it! This is one of my pages inspired by the class. The idea is to use poetry, song lyrics or anything that moves you to add to your page once you've got your background finished.

I love poetry and song lyrics so I'm sure I won't have any trouble finding inspiration! :)

Balance

2010-11-23T13:23:00.004-05:00

Once again it's been quite a while since I've updated my blog. :( Seems I need to learn a little more about how to balance things in my life better. Things are a little hectic right now but nothing that can't be managed. A few health issues have come up. I'm going to need surgery in December, right before Christmas! Nothing life threatening, just something that has to be tended to.

I'm taking a wonderful painting class that has me very excited. It's called Paint Free (referring to the way you should approach your painting...free of any preconceived notions) and it's taught by the awesome artist Wyanne. Learn more about her and her wonderful art and classes here. I absolutely love this class. It has really been a great experience and I highly recommend it.

Other things going on: I'm stocked up on encaustic supplies and plan to really dig in this Winter and do some serious work with those. So, lots of things in the works.

The piece at the top of this post is a digital one I put together using various elements from Scrapbook Graphics. Tangie Baxter, I believe, supplied most of these elements in one of her art journal kits. This is exactly how I feel lately: trying to balance all of the different things going on lately. Hopefully I'll do a better job of it in the coming weeks!

Love Song

2010-10-14T15:17:00.006-04:00

This is a digital piece I did in response to a challenge at Digital Whisper. We were to take an image of smoke and add something to it. I thought this image of smoke looked like a spirit. So I had him meeting this lady in a secluded spot in a pond...

After I made this I realized the challenge was to add the smoke to an existing photo. Oops, I need to read those challenges more carefully. So I thought I would just post it here to my blog. I'm trying to learn some techniques for photomanipulation. I love some of the results you get with that technique.

Here is a journal page I did for my online journaling group:

This is in response to the prompt for a favorite musical instrument. I don't play any instruments but I have always loved the saxophone. And I love jazz music. So, I sketched this little guy playing the sax.

October 13 my hubby and I celebrated our 20 year wedding anniversary! Yay! So I dedicated this page to that event. We were both kind of in shock that it had been that long. A lot has happened over the years. We've lost some family members and have held together strong through many tough times.

I had many good memories making this page. Here's to many, many more to come!

Crumble

2010-09-25T11:08:00.004-04:00

This is another digital art journal page. I was going through my digital files and had forgotten about these silhouette shapes. I love them. Their mysteriousness draws me to them. They remind me of ghosts; ghosts of our past selves, maybe.

The text is from a wonderful poem by Frank Bidart called The Old Man at the Wheel. The first part of the poem starts out like this: "Measured against the immeasurable/universe, no word you have spoken/brought light. Brought/light to what, as a child, you thought/too dark to be survived./By exorcism/you survived. By submission, then making./...

Then later in the poem are the two lines I use in this piece: "As you grip the things that were young when/you were young, they crumble in your hands./" The more I read the entire poem, the more I love it.

I receive the journal POETRY every month and it has been a great inspiration in my art lately. Not to mention a big boost to my poetry collection. There is a little paragraph about each poet in the back of the journal that lists their publishing credits. I have been adding some awesome books to my collection through this resource. Yay! ;)

I go back and forth between digital and physical journaling. I am feeling the pull to get back into the studio now. I've finished a page recently where I painted the page only with my fingers; it felt great! I like the freedom of smearing the paint over the page with my hand.

Today the studio calls again. It is supposed to be much cooler this weekend so I can open the windows and set up the exhaust fan. That means I am going to play with my encaustics for the first time in a long while. We shall see what that produces. I have had a few ideas in my head for a while now and I'm not sure how they will translate with the wax. The best way to find out is to experiment!

Everyone Is A Moon

2010-09-13T10:08:00.008-04:00

I love the two digital kits called Stark and Void that I found at Deviant Scrap. They are full of inspiration! I used these elements from both kits to create this digital journal page. I loved this quote! It just knocked my Muse off her chair when she saw that! We are so in tune right now with the dark side and all things along those lines. ;)

Another thing I've been thinking about: Jamie Ridler has a wonderful feature at her website called Wishcasting Wednesday. You can sign up to receive an email from her every Wednesday which asks you a question that really gets you thinking. I love those and look forward to every Wednesday's question. You can read more about how it works on her site. It's a great idea! Every week I look at the questions and think about them and always say yeah, I should write about that one.

The question last week was What do you wish for less of? I think she meant maybe in a material sense, but maybe not. She leaves the questions pretty open. This question has been staying with me all week. I wish I could have less FEAR. I wish I could just create what I really feel and put out there without having to worry about what people would think and all of the baggage that goes along with that.

Usually I go ahead and do what I want but not always. Lately, I have really hesitated before starting some projects, afraid what people would think, and that has resulted in my not starting any of them. I hate where that is taking me. So that leads me back to Jamie's question and seeing the great timing for that!

And that brings me to this journal page. "Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anyone." Okay. But I'm not afraid to show just a little of mine now. ;)

Altered Heart

2010-09-06T12:42:00.002-04:00

Yes, it's been WAY too long since I've updated my blog. I've been taking some down time and doing a lot of reading: lots of poetry and some fiction. The poetry has really been calling to me, helping to feed my starving Muse.

I've discovered many new (to me) poets that have really spoken to me. Among my favorites right now are Matthew Zapruder, Alice Fulton and Andrew Hudgins. I've bought their latest books and have been poring over their words just breathing in the inspiration through their imagery. It's been wonderful! So,that's where I've been.

I put together this digital piece this morning while listening to some music. I love the idea of using ink blots as images. Tangie Baxter at Scrapbook Graphics had a really cool new digital kit out that did just that and I had to grab it up and play with it. I also had this verse of a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti in my head called, "The World is a Beautiful Place" and thought I'd put it with this piece. Here's the complete verse:

"The world is a beautiful place

to be born into

if you don't mind happiness

not always being

so very much fun

if you don't mind a touch of hell

now and then

just when everything is fine

because even in heaven

they don't sing

all the time..."

And now that Fall is finally coming and the oppressive heat and humidity is starting to go away maybe I'll be a bit more motivated to make some more art! I do know that words and images are bombarding me and I'm excited about where the direction they are taking me. And hopefully I will be checking in here a little more regularly!

Confession

2010-08-05T11:21:00.005-04:00

I can't keep up with posting to this blog! I seem to be behind in everything. This is the latest entry in my art journal. I belong to an art journal group called the Journal Journey at the Roses on My Table Ning site and it helps that we are given prompts to motivate us every two weeks. The last prompt was to journal about a favorite quote. I've always loved this one by Camus.

I am loving this over sized journal I picked up. I took a handful of my favorite Golden heavy bodied acrylics, a palette knife, cranked up my IPod and went to work just spreading paint. I may just paint a ton of pages this way. I love the look of the colors blending together; so vibrant!

I've been really inspired by poetry lately. We subscribe to The New Yorker and the first place I always turn to and read is the poetry. I have discovered some great poets in the last couple of issues and am anxiously awaiting their books from Amazon. Sometimes I'll read a poem and it just punches me in the chest: BAM! That's how these last few poets I've discovered have been. Their words have really spoken to me and given me some deep insight. And there is this continuing theme that they have all had that is running parallel with my own theme that I'm grappling with how to explore in my art. So it's all very exciting and serendipitous.

Plus I really want to explore all of this more using my encaustics. The first day it gets below 90 degrees I will head up to the hot plate. It's been unbearably hot here...not something I deal with very well. It affects my mood...I am a cool weather person. I just tolerate summer (barely) until it goes away. I am so ready for it to be over. Yesterday the heat index here was 104. Blah...

So that's a little of what is going on here. I will try to keep up better with posting! Hope to have more to show soon.

A Little Escape

2010-07-17T17:04:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted! Many things are going on right now and I'm also taking advantage of some down time just to refill my artistic well. One way I do that is to read fiction. I used to read a LOT but in the last few years my art has taken over and I've all but quit. I have missed it, though.

Hubby surprised me one day and came home with a Nook. I never thought I would warm up to an electronic book reader. I'm one who loves to hold a book in my hand, feel the pages, etc. But I'm also one who has boxes of books that are still unpacked from the last move and sitting in the basement right now. There are no more book shelves to put them in. We both keep all of our books and have built up quite the stash. So storage has become a problem. And I hate to part with them so I pack my books in boxes.

So I gave the Nook a try. This way I can buy new books (plus get a lot of classics for free) and not have to worry about a place to put them. I'm hooked. I can't believe how much I love this little thing. The only drawback...it's too easy to hit the shop button and buy a book, download it and start reading. I must control myself....

And since I was escaping into the world of fiction, I decided to really escape and see what all the fuss was about with the Twilight madness. So the first ebook I bought was Twilight. Then I had to get all of the rest of them. Now I'm hopeless. Even before the current wave of vampire madness, I was a fan of Anne Rice and all of her novels. So that made me go hunting through the taped up boxes in the basement looking for those.

Needless to say, not much art is getting done. But I'm enjoying my little escape into fantasy, I'm filling my well, and I'm getting some ideas for some darker art. And it just so happens that my friend Kimmie decided to open a group for "dark art" at her Digital Whisper site. So, I'm feeling right at home there!

This was a digital piece I did for Kimmie's moon challenge. She supplied the moon and some clouds, we were to fill in the rest. I had the girl in my files. I didn't keep track of where she came from so I can't give the proper credit. The sinister eyes belong to...who do you think? The piece is called, "Darkness Beckons". Hmmm...I think I'd follow him anywhere. ;)

My Big Three: Journal Page

2010-06-20T10:01:00.006-04:00

I just bought a BIG sketchbook that I love. It's 11" x 14" with nice, thick pages that are great to work on. I've been a little behind in the Journal Journey group I belong to and really wanted to get a page done for the latest prompt. Plus, I wanted to try out all of my new Golden paints that just came in. ;)

The current prompt is: Name three things that you like about yourself. *groan* Why was that so hard! I decided to have some fun with it and sketched this crazy face to get me started. I've been practicing my Zentangles and thought they would make a lovely jester-style hat for my girl. I LOVE those Zentangles! Check out their newsletter. They will often include new tangles with each issue. These are so fun to doodle, color and even incorporate into your own drawings.

So my three things were: creative (duh!), a big heart, and a sense of humor. These are what I call my big three. I collaged some papers from old textbooks onto the page before starting in with the paints. Oh, these are some yummy colors. More on that in a minute. I love this big surface to work in. Lots of room to play!

I sketched the face on some drawing paper and then scanned it. After printing it out onto copy paper I colored it in and then cut it out and adhered it onto the journal page. I'm doing more with that sketch in another piece. And I've just started another class called Technicolor Faces, taught by Sharon Tomlinson. This is where those luscious colors of Golden paints come in. We are learning to paint faces in technicolor! I'm already loving this! I'm starting to paint my first canvas today. I just reviewed the videos again to make sure I have an idea of what I'm supposed to do. I'll post my results soon. Stay tuned...

I've had four straight days of migraines and have not been able to do much of anything. This is the first day that I've started without pain. I want to paint and play art as long as I can today! :)

Looking In

2010-06-15T00:06:00.006-04:00

I admit it: I'm a lurker. I love to join social websites. I love to read the posts, enjoy the art, the tutorials, the conversations, etc. But I rarely join in. I don't really know why. I will occasionally chime in if there's a topic I feel strongly about or have something to contribute that I think will help someone. But I usually just follow the conversations and stay silent.

That's how I go about my art: silently working away in the studio. Sometimes I'll have music on but usually it's just the sound of my paintbrush or whatever medium I'm working on that day. I guess I just realized all of this while taking Kelly Rae Roberts' ecourse, Flying Lessons. We're talking a lot about social networking, especially Facebook, blogging, Twitter, Yahoo groups, etc. and I started thinking about how much I enjoy the Ning sites I belong to.

If you look at my sidebar you'll see a few of the sites listed. I haven't updated these lately so there are quite a few more that I've joined. I like checking in with them everyday to see what's going on; they really are little communities, buzzing away. It's nice to check in on the artists' work and what motivated them to create it. Now I'm not a complete recluse. I DO post my work on some of these sites. And I interact with the folks on these pretty often.

I guess I'm really talking about the Facebook, Yahoo groups and Twitter sites. I really don't do much at all with those. I just lurk. I'll read the posts and then check in later and read some more. At first I didn't understand Twitter at all. Now, it's pretty entertaining. I have my favorite people that I love to follow; not all of them are artists (most are). I've gotten used to how it works now and I suppose I'll eventually have some things to add. Every once in a while I'll "tweet" when I put a new work up on my Flickr or post to my blog. But I'm getting the hang of it.

Facebook, I still don't understand. I'll have to look at it some more to figure it all out. But I don't mind reading everyone else's little snippets. And I receive Daily Digests for the Yahoo groups I belong to. That helps cut down on tons of emails. These groups are very helpful in terms of techniques, new products, etc. So I like to check in with those and skim the messages for news that way.

So thinking about all of these different sites and my interaction (or not) with them, put me in a quiet, contemplative mood. I ended up making this digital piece called, "The Outsider". The tornado siren rang three different times here tonight! Luckily nothing major touched down. I guess that's where the lightning in this piece came from. ;)

Flying Lessons

2010-06-04T00:42:00.004-04:00

Yes, I am nervous if I get in a place that's a little too high and I am DEFINITELY afraid of water: I can't swim! So why did I create such a disturbing piece? Well, first of all, I made some CitraSolv pages today and one of my favorite pages left this guy hanging in the sky. Everything else on the page got melted away but he remained. So I had to use him in a piece of art. What's really cool is he came along at just the right time.

I'm taking Kelly Rae Roberts' e-course: Flying Lessons (see button on sidebar). It is fantastic! And it's all about taking the leap in starting your own creative business. I've had this desire in the back of my head for a while but I've never really pursued it seriously. Right now I'm gathering information. That was just one of the things that kept me from really going any further: I didn't even know where to begin. So now I'm getting some answers.

As I learn new things from Kelly, I'll be making changes (to the blog and in other areas). So don't be surprised to see me tweaking things periodically. I'm experimenting with what feels right and trying to find my way in all of this.

I hope to have some news to announce in the coming months. I'm working very hard behind the scenes and I will let you know when I'm getting closer to my goal. Right now, I feel a little like the fellow in the photo: trying to balance all of the different ideas, information and possibilities. It's scary, it's exciting and and I'm entirely out of my element. But I've got to give it a try. And you'll be right along on the journey with me! So periodically I'll update you on how I'm doing in the course.

I've been experimenting with some new art forms and I'll be showing some of those to you next time. The thing I don't like about them: they take so darn long to dry... stay tuned!

Arguing With My Muse

2010-05-25T19:51:00.003-04:00

I'm having a hard time getting things completed. The project I was so excited about got put on the back burner for just a minute. I kept sitting down to work on it and the minute I was ready to begin, nothing would happen. The Muse would shut down and refuse to cooperate. She even threw a little tantrum. No, she wanted to work on something else...something I hadn't even planned on tackling right now.

So I tried to reason with her...all it got me was a big mess. I put the pet project away; not out of sight, just to the side. I really want to work on that project. But right now there is this other thing that is screaming to come forth. *sigh*

This is just a check-in to say that it is in progress and I'm not sure what will come of it but the Muse is happy and at least we're on speaking terms now. I have no idea where this came from but it's ... interesting. This one, I HOPE, to have ready by the weekend.

Then, back on track with the other project. At least, that's the deal we made. ;) Stay tuned.

Life

2010-05-17T12:15:00.005-04:00

I've been busy re-filling my artistic well. Life gets in the way sometimes and you have to tend to things, despite what you may have planned. But that's not always a bad thing. A little down time gives new perspective and a chance to experiment.

The top piece is a canvas I just finished called, "Life". This was a total experimental piece. I started with the graphite and colored pencil sketch I had in my sketchbook. I adhered that to the canvas and then slathered the entire background with light molding paste. Then I just decided to see where it took me.

I ran into some problems after adhering the image and trying to paint over the molding paste. But I've learned that this is where things can get interesting. Solving the problems that arise can take you in a new direction with your piece; one you might never have thought to go otherwise.

The coloring in her face got all blotchy because I had inadvertently dragged something over the image while painting the background. At first I was horrified. All of the hard work coloring that face wasted! I knew I should have sprayed it with fixative! Ugh! But it only happened to one side...so I plugged in the hot plate and smoothed encaustic medium over the face. It helped a little, giving it a cloudy look. But then it turned some of the colors above one eye a bruised yellow color. That was different.

I sat for awhile thinking. This face is not going to be pretty. So I started to give her a story. OK, she's having a rough time. Just like in life: she's scarred by the things she's experienced. I decided to age her a little more and paint the one "damaged" side of her face with crackle paint. When it dried I liked the aged look. I even liked the bruised look above the eye. Life has started to take a toll on her looks but she's moving on. I put a steel cage around her neck to symbolize the different pressures that have been choking her. Yet she's determined to go forward. The quote is from Dante and I thought it added just the right touch to describe her Life at this point in time.

What could have ended up as a piece to be painted over with Gesso turned out to be a pretty cool mixed media painting! And I learned some lessons along the way. :)

I've been sketching faces every night just to stay in practice. Some are a lot better than others and I won't use all of them in my art. Here's one I scanned into Photoshop after coloring with different brands of colored pencils. I call this one "Dreamer"

I'm working on a really fun project right now that will be ongoing. But it is time consuming. It can be completed in stages and I hope to have the first stage finished by the end of the week. Stay tuned! This one has me pretty excited! Even hubby doesn't know about it! ;)

Dreams and Songs

2010-05-03T10:36:00.009-04:00

The arrival of Spring and all of the vivid colors outside my studio window have inspired me to change my blog background. I've been wanting to do this for a long time but never knew how. Thanks to my friend, Kimmie, I tried it out and will be experimenting with different backgrounds as I go along. The current one is a CitraSolv page I had scanned and then digitally added lime green paint splats. Vibrant colors, indeed!

All of this energy from Spring's stimuli has renewed my interest in drawing. I've been diligently practicing every night in my sketchbook. Monica Zuniga's classes have been such an inspiration to me. I've learned so much from her! I want to incorporate my drawings into my art more and not just digitally. I'm learning how to paint these faces on a canvas (way outside my comfort zone!) and that's exciting.

Here are a few of my latest drawings that I've put into digital layouts. They have been colored with pencils and then scanned into Photoshop. Oh, I found some awesome colored graphite pencils that I'm loving. Soft pastel graphite! So I've used those, some charcoal pencils, some colored pencils and some ink pencils. I love the softness that they give to the drawings.

The first photo is called "Muse Song". She inspires me by chanting the word "Believe" over and over as I sit down to create. ;)

I call the second photo, "Dream Weaver". She's bringing me such vivid and inspiring dreams lately that it's hard to keep track of them all. I write them down as they come to me. I think of these two as "the sisters" since they look so much alike. The Midsummer Night's Dream elements came from Tangi Baxter's Midsummer Night's Dream kit at Scrapbook Graphics. She does some amazing works and has beautiful digital kits.

I also like to draw more whimsical faces and this next one is an example of that. This is called, "Je t'aime". She's a curious one. I wasn't quite sure what kind of surrounding to put her into. I started experimenting with different colors and themes and this emerged. After I colored her, I named her "attitude girl" in my files. She may show up in some other art down the road.

I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate some of these into an encaustic piece. Still working out the bugs but I'm getting closer. It's always interesting to see what happens when you experiment. What doesn't work can just be painted over. Stay tuned!

My Fifteen Minutes of Fame

2010-04-24T14:08:00.006-04:00

Exciting news to report! First, here is the CitraSolv brochure, hot off the press, advertising the use of their product in art. Look who made it onto the brochure: my Warhol collage! Woot! Woot!

And to make it even more exciting...guess who won the "collage" entry in the CitraSolv Artist Contest? Moi, for the same collage! Woot! Woot! Here is the announcement on their artist website. Today I received my prize in the mail: a very generous gift card from Cheap Joe's Art Supply! I think I'll be able to think of something to order... ;)

All of this has been such a welcome surprise these last couple of weeks. Lots of drama going on behind the scenes here but this more than makes up for it. Andy Warhol's classic line: "Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes" comes to mind. Well, here is my fifteen minutes and I think it only fitting that Mr. Warhol himself was the inspiration for this piece. And I also think Andy would get a kick out of it!

I have been working on some other projects but nothing that I can show just yet. I found this awesome book in Border's yesterday and couldn't resist getting it:
Oh, my! Lots of ideas and inspiration pouring out of this...stay tuned for some results to be posted soon.

Shattered Heart

2010-04-11T13:55:00.008-04:00

I've been busy trying some new encaustic techniques and playing a bit more with watercolors. The first photo is my latest encaustic painting called, "Shattered Heart". I wanted to experiment with adding some glass to the wax. I had envisioned a piece with shattered glass and some screen wire.

This is close to what I had in my head when I started the painting. I also wanted to add more texture to my next piece. I like the deep scratches that I see in a lot of encaustic artists' work so I wanted to add more of those. If you click on the photo you get a larger view. I also used a wire brush for the pitted look you see in different areas. I then experimented with using a metal charm as a "stamp" in the wax. That is what you see in the four rectangles at the bottom of the painting. Once I had the scratches in and the "stamp" done, I then filled them in with oil paint.

The glass didn't want to stay in once I had finished the painting. The next day, I found the whole thing laying on the floor with the glass underneath it on the carpet! :( So I had to reinforce it with some E-6000. That stuff holds anything!

Then I did two more watercolor paintings for Monica's class. This first one was inspired by a photo I saw in an old photography book I got for free in the library discard bin. I loved the image of the little girl surrounded with the birds. I call this one, "For The Birds".

I have this rough, cream colored watercolor paper that I ordered by mistake and thought I would never use. I should have sent it back but I didn't want to bother with the hassle. I only have about five sheets of the stuff, so I figured I'd use it for a collage base, if nothing else. That's what I've been using for these watercolor paintings. It's nice that you start out with a little bit of color to the face (the cream paper).

This next one was inspired by a photo of a girl I saw in an old National Geographic magazine. I added different facial features, hair and background. I love the purple background. How I did it, I don't know! ;) I call this one, "Secrets" because after finishing the painting, she just looked like she had some secrets she was hiding.

I have a new appreciation for watercolor painters! I think it's a very challenging medium, but beautiful when you get the results you want. However, I think I'll stick to my other media: acrylics, oils and encaustic. But the experiments have been fun.

I saw a gorgeous encaustic painting from another artist in one of the online encaustic groups I belong to. She achieved the most beautiful effects using an iron. That's got me thinking...I have this little travel iron (never used) that is a perfect size for these canvasses...Stay tuned!

Heavenly Whispers

2010-04-04T12:25:00.004-04:00

This is my finished painting. I wanted to have it completed by April 2. My Mom would have turned 70 on that day and I try to make one piece of art dedicated especially to her each year since she passed away. I can't believe it's been six years...still feels so recent.

This painting was yet another stretch for me in the watercolor medium. I used both watercolor paints and pencils for her. I like the blending that you can get with the pencils but I find the paints to still be a challenge. I wanted her to have a stylized look; not so much a "realistic" color to her face.

For finishing touches, I added some tulips from some decorative napkins and then used a palette knife to lay down a heavy layer of acrylic paint. Finally, I sprinkled on some mica flakes to give it an ethereal feel.

This painting is dedicated to my Mom who passed away much too early at the age of 64 on April 4, 2004. I love you, Mom, and this is how I feel everyday...wondering about how it must be for you in Heaven right now. :)

Work In Progress

2010-04-01T00:37:00.005-04:00

I've been busy trying to learn how to use my watercolors. Let's just say I'm finding there's a huge learning curve. I have a couple of paintings going right now and I thought I'd show you a sneak peek at a work in progress. Watercolors are very cool when you can get them to do what you want. I'm just not there yet...

This is a painting on half a sheet of watercolor paper. It's for Monica Zuniga's Inspire Me Workshop. We were supposed to make a whimsical figure but I'm not quite there yet. I thought I'd do another lifelike (or at least at attempt at it) painting before tackling the next lesson.

One thing I'm sure of: as with any other medium, only with practice, practice, practice will you make any progress! So, that's just a peek at what's going on behind the scenes. I've also started another encaustic piece but am still waiting for inspiration on where to go with it next.

I hope to have some kind of finished piece to show soon!

Different Moods, Different Media

2010-03-24T18:37:00.009-04:00

What I love about art: all the different media! You can choose to work with whichever one you feel like using on any given piece. Such freedom! :) I've included a few examples to show you what I mean.

The top piece is called, "Roses For A Blue Lady". It's 14" x 19" painting on watercolor paper. This was my first foray into watercolors. I've been flirting with them but just never got it. I've always thought of them as too washed out. But I've been studying different watercolor artists that have produced the most amazing results. Pair that with Monica Zuniga's current workshop called Inspire Me (how appropriate!) and I was ready to wade into the world of watercolor.

This is a drawing I sketched onto a background collaged with music sheets. Then I started the experiment. The secret was the combination of watercolor paint, watercolor pencils and white acrylic paint. Voila! Perfect blending/shading of the watercolors. Her entire face is done with just those three items (plus a decoupaged piece of napkin on her forehead). I also added some foil strips to her hair. The background is a mix of acrylic paints and more decoupaged napkins.

I love the look of the watercolors when the white paint blends them out. Monica is an awesome teacher and the face she produced on her painting was exquisite! I wanted to try immediately. I'm pretty happy with this one. ;)

Next is a piece I painted onto Plexiglas (inspired by Gary's workshop). I drew the image onto the Plexiglas and then painted it with acrylic paint and opaque markers. That's it. The watercolor effect you see on the sky background is a CitraSolv page collaged onto a wood panel. When the Plexi piece was placed over that background, it gave the cool watercolor look. All that needs to be done now is to drill holes in the Plexi and attach it to the board. Voila! Cool Plexi art! I call it "Sideshow".

Now onto more encaustics. This first piece is called "Fly". It's just encaustic paint in multiple layers with encaustic medium. That's it. Then I incised some lines with a cutting tool and filled those in with oil paint. After rubbing away the excess oil paint, Voila! Cool encaustic art!!

And even with encaustic art, there are still options. Here is another wet shellac burn. I call this "Grounded". While you can Fly with the freedom of the pure encaustics on the first piece, this one is more earthy and keeps you Grounded. I loved the colors in the shell bead that I had and wanted to incorporate those into the piece. Then I added some polished stones at the bottom.

So that's a little of what I've been dabbling with this week. Lots more on the way using different media. Tonight: I'm experimenting with encaustic plus Pan Pastels. I saw this technique on the web and have to give it a try. Stay tuned!

Feeling The (Shellac) Burn

2010-03-20T11:07:00.005-04:00

I finally did it. I got up the nerve to try the wet shellac burn technique! I think what was holding me back was the whole idea of flames shooting up. That conjured up all sorts of fears of a fire out of control, house burning down, etc. Those are valid fears, but not so much with this technique. You just have to use your head.

So, these two pieces are done with the wet shellac burn. There is also a technique called the dry shellac burn which I will try next. Basically, all you do is lay down a layer of encaustic medium, paint over it with shellac (I used amber shellac) and while it's still wet, take your torch to it. Immediately the flames will shoot up. They aren't massive, just hovering over the board. You can blow them out when you're happy with the burn or you can let them burn themselves out.

The top piece is called "I Stand Alone". I did a few more steps with this one. It is my second attempt at the wet shellac burn. I first primed the board with encaustic gesso. I love that there is a gesso made specifically for encaustic. Then I painted a layer of white encaustic paint. Next I added a layer of encaustic medium, added the image, then two more layers of encaustic medium. When that was all cooled, I painted the outer edges with the shellac and then took the torch to it. I let it burn out and wasn't happy with it so I painted some more shellac and did it again. I liked that much better.

The image was printed onto rice paper. It just sinks into the warm wax when you lay it on. I also added Bronze mica powder. I put on more than I intended but then just went with it; next time I'll add smaller amounts. The mica gives a nice organic feel to the piece.

This next piece was my first attempt with the technique. I call it "Excavation". Here you can see more of the amber shellac (the yellow color). I only did one burn and I used blue-green mica for the color. If you click on the image you can see more the metallic properties of the mica, especially around the edges. I also added a little bronze charm:

I'm getting the hang of it now and plan to try the dry shellac burn in my next piece. The only difference with that technique is you let the shellac dry, then you take your torch to it. It won't shoot up with flames like with the wet burn and you control where you want the burn to go. You just place your torch on the area you want burned, then move on to the next area.

I love the bubbles and craters that form while it's burning. When the flames hit the mica they make a hissing, crackling sound. But it's all controlled. You can blow it out at any time. I do this in the garage with both doors open, away from anything that could be considered flammable. No problems. ;) Now off to try some more...

Stylized Warhol: Playing With Plexiglass

2010-03-17T11:49:00.007-04:00

Yes, my obsession with all things Warhol is still going strong. Just for fun, I made a stylized drawing of Andy Warhol from a photo I had in my archive with the Warhol quote at the bottom: "Think rich, look poor." This top photo is the painting I did, scanned into Photoshop and put onto a Citrasolv background that I've manipulated with different filters and blending modes. I call it "Cosmic Warhol" because the background just reminds me of outer space.

On Gary Reef's Ning site he is teaching small workshops on how to incorporate plexiglass into your art. Great ideas! So that was the impetus for the Warhol drawing. Here is the original painting done on plexiglass and then adhered to a wooden support that was collaged with a Citrasolv background painted with encaustic medium:

Holes were drilled into the four corners of the plexiglass and eyelets were inserted. Those were then adhered to the wooden support. The encaustic medium doesn't really show up through the glare of the plexiglass but it is there with the cloudy look I love.

Speaking of encaustics, I had the hot plate turned on all day yesterday, just playing with different techniques. Here is a piece I had started and then collaged a face from a magazine onto. The quote stuck with me so I adhered that with encaustic medium. This is called, "Beauty":

I was experimenting with incising into the layers of wax. The circle around the girl's face is done with a cookie cutter. You press it into the warm wax then fill the circle with encaustic paint. After it cools completely, you incise away the excess paint and are left with just the circle shape filled with your color. Then you fuse it once you are happy with the result.

What I'm wanting to experiment with now is working with shellac and burning it onto the surface of an encaustic painting. You use a butane torch for this. Stay tuned...this should be interesting.

This 'N That: Experimenting With It All

2010-03-08T12:05:00.009-05:00

I've been busy experimenting with more Photoshop techniques and also with the encaustics. I thought I'd show you a few of my latest pieces. The top photo is called, "The Road Home". It's more of merging the CitraSolv backgrounds and then amping up the Saturation levels and other blending modes to get bold colors. I think there are about 5 different backgrounds merged into this one. I like how the CitraSolv "bubbles" show up in the final version.

This next one is called, "Sisters". I wanted to obscure the vintage photo of the faces and just do some color play. Again, more merging of the backgrounds for a softer backdrop. I then played with blending modes for the sisters to get the bold color and distorted look.

Then I went into an ethereal mode. I wanted to get a misty, ghostly effect into some of the digital pieces. This one is called, "Out of the Mist". There are still several backgrounds that have been merged in this one but very subtle colors and textures were added.

Back to the bold colors and still sticking with the ghostly images, this one is called, "Serenity". You can really see the CitraSolv effects in the backgrounds of this one.

And finally, a new encaustic. This one is called, "Hiding in the Shadows". I started with a canvas panel and covered it with black cardstock. I originally planned on doing something else but that image didn't work out. So I added a portion of a CitraSolv background. There appears to be a person, partly obscured, standing behind a veil or a curtain. I liked the ghostly effects of this. I then added the clear encaustic medium to get the cloudy layers and then splattered on encaustic paints in neon colors. Finally I added a little flowing strip of encaustic paint to the bottom, sort of like a river flowing. Pretty cool effects and a lot of fun learning how to work with the encaustic paints. This piece was made in response to a challenge on the Art From The Heart.ning site. The theme was "In Darkness" and you could use any medium you chose.

So that's what's been going on behind the scenes. I'm expecting some new encaustic paint colors this week so I can expand my color palette.

I'm excited that my brother and sister will be visiting this coming weekend! Now I need to clear a path to the spare room so one of them can sleep there! This will make me put away all of the art supplies and papers that have been migrating to the spare room. ;)

I hope to have some more new pieces to show soon. I've finally de-cluttered the studio space (again) and am happy to say I have a clean work table! I don't know how long that will last, though...

Day Into Night

2010-03-03T22:21:00.004-05:00

More experimenting with the encaustics. The top painting is called, "Day Into Night". I'm learning to lay the color down, blend it and incorporate texture in the painting. I've got a long way to go. But this was a great exercise. I used another of the images I transferred onto muslin.

This next painting is a photo that I adhered to the wood and then layered with encaustic medium. It's called, "Sunday Morning Mist".

I've been reading a book that is nothing but techniques to try with encaustics. I hope to experiment with those in the next few days and really show some of the different looks you can get with this medium.

Just wanted to show what I've done so far. Definitely has the look of a beginner to it but, hey, I'm a beginner! ;) More to follow.

Experiments In Encaustic

2010-02-28T14:59:00.006-05:00

I've been having a lot of fun playing with my encaustics. I have to wait until the encaustic medium arrives in the mail before I can try what I really want to do: add collage papers and photos. You need the clear medium for that and that's one thing the mfr. forgot to include in my shipment. So hopefully that will be arriving early next week.

But I was able to play around with blending color and painting in different styles with different tools. The top photo is my favorite way to paint. Normally when you see encaustic paintings they are a little abstract or have the cloudy layers showing through. I was excited to see that there were some artists who had great success painting more realistic images with encaustics. The secret is in the tool you use.

For the top painting, "Wild", I used a woodburning pen tool with a very fine calligraphic point. You have to dip your point into the wax to do your painting, just like a brush. The pen doesn't fill up like a traditional calligraphy pen. It's more a dipping process: dip and paint. But you are able to get the fine lines, blend nicely (I'm still learning how to to do that) and have a smooth finish (I'm not there yet). The pen is already very hot so there's no need to do the fusing you have to do when painting with a brush.

Next, I experimented with the coarse brush strokes. I used a chip brush and scrubbed the wax on, blending as I went. Finally I just splattered white wax on the top layer. I had an image that I transferred onto muslin a while back. I adhered the edges of it with the white wax. As soon as I get the encaustic medium I'll go over that again and make sure she's adhered properly. Plus I'll get that cloudy, layered look I like so much. But here is "Attitude" minus the encaustic medium:

Along the same lines here is another one: "Bleeding Heart". The image is a very faint transfer onto muslin. I used more of the white wax to adhere it.

So I'm impatiently waiting for the rest of my shipment. When I get the last two items then I can really begin to experiment with the different methods. By the way, I've only burned myself once! ;)

Break On Through

2010-02-24T10:03:00.007-05:00

It's funny how the Muse works. I find myself wanting to continue with the "celebrity" theme in my art. I think it's a result of all those hours working on the torn-paper collages. Plus the fact that I've been poring over the book of Andy Warhol's portraits.

In one of the free image sites that I haunt, I found the photo of an old dilapidated building with the words "the Doors" spray-painted on it's door. I loved that and knew I had to use it. Then I cut out the archway and steps from another freebie photo and merged the two. The background is a merging of about four different CitraSolv backgrounds that I made. I thought when the backgrounds were merged that they looked like a stone wall...then it all came together. The Jim Morrison image is from a Photoshop tutorial on how to make your image look like a watercolor. By the way, I'm using that portrait of Morrison (only much larger) as the base for my current torn-paper collage.

Speaking of collages, here is my "Blue Marilyn". I used Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe portraits as the model for this one. At first I had all of the torn-papers showing in the background. But it became too distracting, so I covered most of them up with Shiva Paintstiks. I like this version much better:

And since he started the whole thing, I included another Andy Warhol piece. This is from the weekly challenge at Digital Whisper. We were to use the image of a ghostly swirl in our piece. Also, as part of the challenge, we were to include a watermark with our name. I did a lot of manipulation with the swirl image...I like the darker look. ;) The Warhol image is one of his many self-portraits; I just tweaked it a little to add to the ghostly theme. This is called "Warhol Ghost".

What's on the horizon: working on more collaged portraits. And something new: hubby gave me an early birthday present: the encaustic starter kit! Yay!! It should be arriving by the end of the week. DickBlick has an awesome starter kit that I've been drooling over for years. I've been itching to work with encaustic painting since I first saw Bridgette Guerzon Mills' work. My birthday isn't until May but my honey knows how to make me happy...buy me art supplies! ;)

As soon as I receive the package I'll be diving into the world of encaustics. I know from others that there's a big learning curve, but I'm ready! In between learning that art form, I'll still be dabbling in whatever else my Muse throws at me...

Wabi Sabi Paintings

2010-02-23T12:23:00.007-05:00

Wabi Sabi? What is that?! I had heard the term before and remembered that it meant something like things not lasting...of the earth...something like that. If you Google it you'll get all of the definitions. Then I saw this post. Ooh, I loved those paintings and had to try one right away.

I liked her idea of starting with small canvases. These are 5" x 5"; perfect size for experiments. The first tries didn't turn out so well. I figured out that you add acrylic paint first (at least I did) then add the alcohol inks plus the glazing medium.

I was limited on my stash of alcohol inks but I was glad to finally see a use for them! I've never had much luck using them in anything but they do like this medium. Now I need more colors. ;)

Here are the closeups. The first one is called, "Summer Sunset".

This next one is called, "Kiss The Sky". I call these two my Sky Duo.

I decided to do some experimenting with one of those that didn't turn out so well. So I covered the whole thing with acrylic paint and added more tissue paper. Then added some molding paste and this stencil (which I love). Then added the paint and alcohol inks. I call this, "Waiting".

Pretty cool technique! Easy, fun and with a little trial and error could turn out very nice. I will be experimenting more with this one.

Moody Blue

2010-02-20T11:10:00.008-05:00

I thought I'd show you a few things I've done in between working on my latest torn-paper collage portrait. These are all digital pieces and I've been experimenting with different techniques.

These first two pieces, "Moody Blue" and "Threshold" were made using some of my CitraSolv backgrounds. I started to wonder what would happen if I took two or three of the backgrounds and merged them together. I used different blending modes, opacity levels and other techniques to make these new backgrounds. I don't know why I didn't think of it before! There are one or two favorite backgrounds that I've made that I just can't bring myself to use. I scanned them into Photoshop but I still don't want to glue or paint or tear on them until I have the perfect project. Here is "Threshold" :

I used my friend Kimmie's background, merged with two of my own for "Threshold". The flowers that you barely see were from her gorgeous Citrasolv background. I found that merging certain pages gives this misty look, almost like a misty watercolor. I really like that effect.

I've also been practicing my "painting" in Photoshop. I'm slowly making progress on shading, brush types and sizes, etc. in Photoshop. This is a big learning curve for me but it's fun. Here is a sketch I drew using a fashion magazine model as my inspiration. I call this one, "Cherish" :

Still working on finding the right combination for flesh tones. I find that if I don't use some of these Photoshop effects every day that I quickly forget how to do some things. I love this program and there's just so much it can do. I haven't even begun to scratch the surface.

I'm about 3/4 of the way finished with my next torn-paper collage portrait. It's on a 12" x 12" canvas panel that is 1 1/2" deep. I'm pretty pleased with how it's turning out. I wanted to add more color to this one than I did with the Warhol piece. I'm finding I have a lot of different colors in my CitraSolv background stash to work with. Once again, this portrait will be made entirely from the CitraSolv papers that I have torn into strips and different shapes. I hope to have it finished within the next couple of days but I am taking my time with it. Stay tuned...

Soul Searching: Citra Encaustic?

2010-02-16T09:35:00.010-05:00

This is my latest experiment: CitraSolv backgrounds plus beeswax mounted on 6" x 12" plywood. I love encaustic art. Someday I want to try my hand at it. Right now the cost of all the materials needed is too prohibitive for me. So I started thinking about what I like about encaustics: the wax layers and cloudy look on the paintings.

Thanks to Suzi Blu and her Petite Dolls Class I had worked with melting beeswax onto paintings that were mounted on wood. I thought I would try that method with the CitraSolv backgrounds just to see what effect I would get.

The page I chose to work with wasn't quite 12" long to accommodate the length of the plywood. So I tore a strip from another similar background and then mounted both to the wood. Then I just melted the wax over the piece. In some places I intentionally had more wax buildup than others to give a more opaque look to the finished piece.

I had this charm that I ordered from Judy Wilkenfeld's wonderful Etsy shop. I knew I would use it in something special one day. So I dug it out and she fit perfectly in the little area near the top. I even used the beeswax to attach her. After she was attached, I figured out the title for the piece: "Soul Searching". I have a very old dictionary with pages that are literally brown and crumbling. I carefully tore the definition for "soul" out of the page and placed it near the bottom.

I really like the look of this piece. I'm not sure the photos do it justice. Here are a few closeups I took with the light hitting it at different angles so you can see the wax better:

The cloudy areas are where the wax is built up.

Here is the original Citrasolv paper cropped to the area in the photo above. You can see how adding the wax changes the look of the paper:

I love working with the beeswax again and until I can do the authentic version of encaustics, I think I'll stick with experimenting this way!

Letters Home: Backgrounds

2010-02-14T22:16:00.006-05:00

This is a hybrid piece: part digital, part acrylic. I call it, "Letters Home". I painted the background today and then did some digital tweaking tonight. Here is the original background on watercolor paper:

You can see I added some digital brushes and a few other elements and only used a portion of the background for the digital piece.

Monica Zuniga is teaching an incredible mixed media workshop on creating backgrounds. This is my first one from the workshop. It's got so many layers I lost count. The two figures and the post marks are stencils applied with Gesso. It took them almost a day to dry; I applied a very thick layer for those. Then the painting began.

This is on 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper. I don't really like the cold press for drawing portraits but it's pretty good for collage and painting backgrounds. So now I'll have some use for the little stash I've built up! ;)

I started the base layer with watercolors. I am not a big fan of watercolors because I usually like more bold color. But I wanted to try the exercise like Monica taught. Once the original layer was down I could see the attraction to working with watercolors. It took a while for me to get the hang of it. I actually threw this away after the first couple of layers. I just didn't like where it was going. But I persevered and kept at it.

This is a full sheet out of the pad. For most of the exercises I will be using an old atlas and altering those pages as I go. But I wanted to try my first lesson on a big sheet of paper just to play with the paints, collage, etc.

What I am really liking is the fact that every background I create will be scanned and used in my digital art, too. Her workshop will be a year long event so there should be lots of new techniques to learn and a lot of fun along the way.

Andy Warhol: Torn-Paper Collage

2010-02-11T16:16:00.005-05:00

How about something totally different and a little abstract? This is the last week of class in Misty Mawn's Portrait workshop and we are supposed to be working on self-portraits. I haven't worked up the nerve for that yet. But another lesson that I have been wanting to try was the collaged portrait.

One of my all-time favorite artists is Andy Warhol. I'm a little obsessed with him right now and have been reading everything I can find about him. I decided to do a torn-paper collage of him using some of my CitraSolv background papers. I tore a few different sheets into strips and started piecing together the collage onto a 9 x 12 canvas.

Here is the original portrait that I used as a model:

It's supposed to have an abstract look to it and mine is a little more abstract than I would like. But I have been wanting to try this lesson and now I've done it. I will be doing more of these. They are a little messy...all of those strips of paper and gel medium gets a little sticky.

Then you just use your graphite pencil to bring out some details. You can go as realistic or abstract as you'd like. I would like to try a more realistic one at some point. I have a lot of colors in my CitraSolv papers and could probably do a color version of something. I think it would be fun to try.

There are still a few lessons that I haven't been able to get a satisfactory piece out of and I'm working on those this week as well as starting the self-portrait. I think I'll use one of the older photos of myself. I don't have many that I like so it's hard to find something.

So that is what's on the agenda this week. Wrapping up the lessons I need to finish and then ending with the self-portrait assignments. We shall see what comes of it...

Doing The Happy Dance

2010-02-09T16:21:00.006-05:00

Some days I just feel like this! ;) I used another CitraSolv background for this top digital piece. Then added a couple of fun images and some little embellishments. I call it, "Dance". That's how I feel when I finish another painting, too. I have to say that I will probably never put away my Shiva Paintstiks. They are my new best friend.

I finished another painting in Misty Mawn's Portrait Class. Here it is set into a digital background. I call this one, "After The Storm".

And here is the original painting:

I worked very hard on her. It took a few days to do just the hair! But I was very happy with it when I finished. I painted each of her dreadlocks individually using the Paintstiks and a couple of packages of blending stumps. The blending stumps are really handy for painting small areas. I could use a paintbrush but then I'd have to clean the oil out of it. So, instead I find it easier to just use up packages of blending stumps and tortillons.

This is the final week of class and that makes me sad. I've loved this class! I hope she has another one soon. Do you know she even puts up playlists of songs for us to listen to while we work on each lesson? How cool is that! Definitely one of the best classes I've ever taken.

For this last week we are working on self portraits; not my favorite subject to paint! So, I'm digging in my archives for any halfway decent photo of me that I can use. Yes, I'm procrastinating for this lesson. But I'll get it started within the next couple of days.

There are still a few lessons that I want to at least produce something that I can show. My love affair with the Shiva's will have to go on hold while I try a few more of the other media she teaches. Stay tuned...

From One Sketch

2010-02-04T16:57:00.009-05:00

Here is another painting I finished from Misty Mawn's Portrait Class. This one combines three media: Dr. Ph. Martin's inks, acrylic paint and Shiva Paint Stiks. I love the effects of combining them all together. This was done on hot press watercolor paper.

Next, I scanned the painting into Photoshop and did a few manipulations with layers and textures. This version is called, "Sad Eyes". I placed the painting onto a CitraSolv background and at the exact spot where I pasted it, I noticed a tear shape under one eye. It is just an ink spot on the background but I liked it.

All of these pieces I'm posting today came from this original graphite sketch:

I knew after I drew this one that I would be using it again and again. Here is another digital piece called, "She Talks To Angels" inspired by the song of the same name by The Black Crowes.

And, for a lighter mood, I made this one called, "Dreamer of Dreams".

Between all of the CitraSolv backgrounds I'm making and the paintings, sketches, etc. from Misty's class I am loving all of the options I now have for adding my own elements to my art. More paintings and some collage are in the works and I'll post them when I finish.

We are expecting a big snow for this weekend. I've got my art supplies and plenty of coffee. I'll be just fine! Stay tuned...

Mixing It All Up

2010-01-30T16:18:00.006-05:00

I just finished up week two of Misty Mawn's portrait class. I am so loving this workshop! There are a variety of new (to me) techniques that she teaches in addition to the portrait drawing and painting. This is definitely one of the best classes I have ever taken.

The top piece is a mix of many different things. The girl is my first attempt at painting one of my sketches with oil paint; specifically, Shiva Paintstiks. I then scanned the painting onto one of my CitraSolv backgrounds, added a few digital brushes and a few other layers to get the finished piece. Here is the original oil painting on watercolor paper:

One of the challenges, for me, of working with the paintstiks is getting the colors to blend to achieve the color I want. Lots of trial and error went into a few discarded attempts. Finally I was somewhat happy with this finished one. I love the buttery softness of the paintstiks and once I got a little more familiar with how much to lay down for a base layer, I was very happy with how they blended together.

One thing I found out was the iridescent paintstiks do not blend very well at all for the effect I was wanting to achieve. Of course, all I had when I started out was a set of iridescents. I had to order the regular stiks and then wait for them to arrive before I could try this lesson. Have I mentioned before that I'm impatient?! Anyway, once I had the correct type of paintstiks, they worked beautifully (after much practice). There is still a lot about this piece I don't like but for a first attempt, it'll do.

The lessons using the paintstiks were from the second week of class. The first week, we sketched many different faces with our pencils and practiced shading them. I can never get enough instruction on the nuances of shading. I took one of my favorite sketches and put her into another CitraSolv background in this digital piece:

Here was my original sketch:

So we are now entering our third week of class and the videos were just posted. I watched them all this morning and am excited about yet another group of new techniques to mix with our paintings. Stay tuned for more to come.

Blueprint: More CitraSolv Backgrounds

2010-01-24T10:31:00.009-05:00

I have been busy making more backgrounds from the CitraSolv technique that I mentioned in my last post. I think I love this latest batch even more than the first! I want to use some of these in my art journals as backgrounds and also experiment with using some of them in mixed media.

What I love to do first is scan my favorite pages into Photoshop to have a "clean" version always available. Then I can either print it out or add to it digitally. The piece above started out with this CitraSolv background:

This photo doesn't do it justice. The colors are much richer and it just looks so full of texture. I think this is my favorite one of all, so far. I added a lot of layers, brushes, images, etc. to get the finished piece but I love that I have this one saved in my archive.

Here are a few of my other favorites from this batch:

And there's usually a surprise or two that surfaces when I'm working with this technique. While I am coating the pages with the CitraSolv, every once in a while I'll come across a page that just has text on it. I usually don't bother to put any of the solvent on that page since there is no color present to blend. What I will usually do is just coat the page opposite the text page and see how that one blends. That's what I did in this instance. I thought the colors around the man would blend into a beautiful background.

I was working pretty quickly and evidently I didn't saturate the page. Much to my delight when I went to remove the pages, this happened:

The photo of the man transferred to the opposite page! How cool is that? And the fact that one eye was left with a blank circle...this all happened by chance! What are the odds of having an inkblot form and cover just the one eye so perfectly! Kind of spooky if you think about it. I couldn't have planned it better if I thought of this myself. I was just wanting the colors to all bleed together...wasn't even thinking about the man. That's what is so fun about this technique. There are so many little "accidents" or things that you discover as you go along. I will definitely be using this guy in more of my art!

And speaking of surprises, after I posted my last entry I heard from the folks at CitraSolv. What a wonderful group of people they are! They were so kind in commenting on my post and I was excited to learn of their website where they post the artists' results using their product!

Check out all of the info they have posted about different ways to use CitraSolv in your art. But the biggest surprise of all was this package that arrived in the mail a few days later. Notice that they also included a few National Geographic magazines, as well:

Thanks again to Melissa and the gang at CitraSolv. I will definitely put these products to good use! Now I don't even mind doing a little cleaning here and there...this stuff smells heavenly! ;)

Dropping In

2010-01-17T10:21:00.007-05:00

I had every intention of working on my current project when I started out the day. But I happened to browse through the current copy of Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine and ended up taking a slight detour. There is a little workshop in there about the CitraSolv technique. I've read about this technique before and have seen the gorgeous results. But this time it really got my attention. So I headed out in search of CitraSolv (found at local health food store) and a National Geographic magazine (had to buy one; couldn't find any at the local thrift stores).

The photo at the top of this post uses one of my favorite backgrounds that I achieved with this technique. The digital characters are provided by Granny Art. While I was doing some digital work, I tried a short tutorial on "zipping" a photo:

Back to the CitraSolv papers. I scanned in all of my results. Here I've included a few of my favorites. This one, by far, is my favorite one of all. I've not only used it in these digital pieces but I've printed it out onto a sheet of silk. Gorgeous!

Here are a few more with lots of possibilities:

The hardest part about the technique is finding the materials! I did manage to find CitraSolv pretty easily once I located a health food store. None of the area groceries carried it. I tried this technique Thursday and today (Sunday) the house still has a faint smell of oranges. The CitraSolv is concentrated and you don't dilute it for the technique so you will have a very strong orange smell in your space for a few days.

Now I'm on the hunt for some used National Geographic magazines. I tried this with a few of my fashion mags but with no luck. There must be something specific in these pages that reacts with the solvent. I definitely want to build up a little stash of these for collages, painting, etc.

Now, back to my original project! I am beginning to see why finishing some things is very hard for me: need to stay focused on the task at hand!

Reflections On A Hornet's Nest

2010-01-14T11:59:00.008-05:00

This is a shot I took of a huge hornet's nest near my Dad's home. We took a walk the morning of December 26 (my Dad's wedding day!). He lives near a state park with lots of pretty areas to walk. This was hanging down over the lane we were walking down. I was a little nervous approaching it. But it was something you had to stare at. How in the world did they build it?

I've been thinking about this image ever since I took that photo. Actually, hubby took a better shot of it. This is a great example of why you should carry your camera when you're out walking. You never know what surprises await you! Here is the original image:

I'm definitely going to use it in some more of my art. I have a few ideas I'm playing with. I did quite a few digital manipulations in the top image. In this second one you can get a clearer view of just how cool this thing is!

So I did a little reading on them. Evidently the nest is made from chewed bark and hornet's saliva. It looks just like paper mache when you're standing under it. I am just amazed at how they did this. All the workers build the nest for the queen...( Ahh...what a life!) ;) It's hard to gauge by this photo, but this nest was huge. It hung way down off the branch. You couldn't reach it from the road because the tree is so tall. Evidently after the first freeze all the hornets die. So we didn't need to worry about getting swarmed when we came upon it in late December. Good thing because my Dad is allergic to bee stings.

Anyway, I've been wanting to do something with this image and you'll probably be seeing it again in some form or another. I have a lot of projects in the mix right now and will be talking about those soon. Stay tuned!

FINISHED: Fabric Paper Wall Hanging

2010-01-06T10:10:00.006-05:00

I finished the fabric paper wall hanging! Yay! Here it is freshly installed on one of the walls in my living room. You can click on the photo to get a better view of each square. The lighting isn't perfect but I wanted to take a photo as soon it was up. I'll take more photos of it in it's surroundings today. I love looking at it as I sit in my favorite room.

I'm very pleased with the colors I chose as I was dying the sheets of fabric paper. I think they all go together beautifully and tie-in really well with the colors in my living room. Even hubby got excited as I was joining the last few jump rings together. He said he couldn't visualize what I was trying to do as I worked on the individual parts. Now he gets it! :) I ended up with 94 squares (3" x 3"), all beaded, with 4 eyelets and jump rings to each square.

Here is a closeup of a few of the squares:

And another shot. Sorry, this one is a little blurry:

It felt so good to complete this project. It turned out just as I had envisioned it! I fell in love with the smaller version of this in the book, Stitch Alchemy, by Kelli Perkins. It wouldn't leave my head! As soon as I saw it, I fell in love with it. But I knew I wanted to do a much larger version of it than what was in the book. And I'd have to figure out how to hang it on something larger. It all worked out just fine. The rod is 36" wide and the finished piece fits perfectly in the space I wanted to put it into.

If finishing every project gives me such a feeling of satisfaction, I'm off to a good start for the New Year. I think I picked the perfect word of intent as my focus.

One Word

2010-01-04T12:31:00.006-05:00

I've noticed the trend in a lot of my favorite blogs to select a "word for the year". I like that idea. You pick a word that you would like to focus your intentions on for the coming year. My word this year: finish. That's a big one for me. And a close second would be "believe"; as in, believe you CAN finish what you set out to do!

It's no secret that I LOVE new projects and new challenges. I LOVE to start them. I LOVE to keep starting them...I fall a little short on the finishing part. ;) I really, really want to concentrate on that aspect this year. Involved in all of that will be my art journal. It will be my ally and my confidante through this journey. I set my intentions there...the follow through, the finishing will be recorded there as well.

And on that note: I am almost finished with my fabric paper wall hanging! Yay!! I need to get some larger jump rings and a bigger dowel for the mechanical logistics of it. The squares are all finished and beaded. The rows are all laid out in stacks. Now I have to connect all of the jumprings together (4 for each square x 96 squares) and assemble it. It looks awesome laid out on the floor. Though keeping the cat away from it is a full-time job.

I'm very pleased with the colors I chose as I was dying the fabric paper for this project. They all go together beautifully. Even hubby was excited after seeing the whole thing pre-assembled. He said he couldn't visualize what I was doing as I was working on it. But now he gets it! Though he can't believe how many jumprings I have to join! So, off to the store today to get the right sized dowels and a few more jumprings. The completed piece will be shown here soon!

I'm also working on some projects behind the scenes that I haven't really talked about yet. I'll be featuring those soon. But for now I concentrate on my word of the year: Finish! Lots of goals are tied into that one word and I'll share those goals when I'm ready. Stay tuned, it's going to be a full year!

By the way, the cute little girl sketch is by Maya of Scrapbook Graphics.com. I LOVE that site. Lots of great elements to use digital art. More on a project I'm involved with on that site later.

Anticipation

2009-12-31T14:17:00.005-05:00

I've been offline for a couple of days due to the copying of all the files from the old computer to the new computer that Santa brought me! And I'm also trying to get used to the new operating system along with the newest version of Photoshop (another cool gift!). So there's been a slight learning curve involved in all of this new technology. And I'm a slow learner...

While I'm learning my way around Photoshop CS4 I thought I'd make a little New Year's piece. I call this Anticipation because I am looking forward to all of the great things I envision with the unleashing of 2010. I hope to really grow in my art, my journaling and my writing. I have some personal goals that I want to achieve in the coming year and plan to examine those more closely in my art journals.

So here's to the New Year: may it be all you hope for it to be!

Heart Whispers

2009-12-23T11:14:00.008-05:00

Here is the latest art quiltlet I made. I sketched the girl onto muslin and then cut fabric for her hoodie and roughly sewed it on. The hearts are beaded with glass beads. I painted the background with a bronze metallic paint mixed with fabric medium. I painted the sun, her face and hair using Neocolor II crayons mixed with water. I left the threads hanging from her jacket because I like the uneven, loose feel of the stitches.

I was inspired by the fashion sketches of Kat MacLeod. She is an awesome artist and I love the loose style of her fashion sketches. I'm using her sketches as "models" while I try my hand at sketching in this style. I have a few other little fabric pieces in the works right now. I want to experiment more with this type of look.

I've really missed working with fabrics and my sewing machine. These little pieces are fun and there's no pressure to get the stitches just right; they are intentionally haphazard and uneven. I like that. I've got tons of threads, yarns, fibers, etc. that I'm playing with in another piece that I hope to post soon. The beading is what takes the longest. I'm no expert at it. I just pick beads I like and sew them on however they will fit. That works just fine for me. ;)

On another front: I finally received my Moleskine notebook for the Fiction Project from Art House Coop. Yay!! Here is what I was sent:

You can click on the photo to read more about the project. I have to fill this notebook with a story and accompanying artwork. The majority of the book needs to be the story since they are emphasizing the fiction aspect of the project. We are given a loose guideline for our story and I love what they gave me. My theme is "A Million Little..." . So many possibilities for that!

So I'll be mulling that around in the back of my mind while I set about creating my little story. This book will be mailed back to them and sent to a library along with the other entries they receive. There they will be housed in a permanent installation that people can check out and read while they are in the library. Very cool! I have another Moleskine that I'll be using to make a duplicate of this book. That way I'll have one to keep. Obviously we won't get these back if they are to be housed in the library. The Art House Coop has a great site and there are always little projects to sign up for. Check them out if you get a chance.

That's it for today. Everyone have a safe and happy holiday!

HeART Quilt: Part Two

2009-12-14T16:39:00.003-05:00

After having the base of the art quilt ready, I set about embellishing it. I spent the evening last night beading this as I watched football with hubby. After all the beading was complete, I sewed the quiltlet to a piece of black felt. I love the way this turned out. You can click on the photo to get a better view.

I have another one started and will be doing the beading on that one tonight. I've incorporated one of my sketches in this one. I painted the face of the girl and the muslin background with acrylic paint that I mixed with fabric medium. It really helped to keep the hand of the fabric soft and pliable. This is all a new area of exploration for me and I'm enjoying the experimentation. I hope to have something to show in the next couple of days.

The Shiva Paintstiks are a dream to work with. So soft and buttery! After 24 hours they are ready to heat set and then you can paint over them or do whatever you like. I've printed out a few of my newest sketches and transferred them to muslin. Now I'm working on designs for their little quiltlets.

That's it for today. Back to work on the quiltlets. I am beading the squares for my wall hanging in between breaks I take from the art quilts. Hope to have those ready to assemble this week.

HeART Quilt

2009-12-12T15:30:00.008-05:00

I've had quite a busy last couple of weeks. After battling the flu some more and getting rid of that, I managed to pull a muscle in my back. Ugh! Hopefully all of that is behind me now and I can get back to making art!

Lately I've been itching to play with my fabric stash. This is the base of a little art quilt I'm working on. It's just a 5" x 7" piece of muslin sewn to a felt backing. I sprayed the muslin with Adirondack Inks and then rubbed a Shiva paintstik over some rubber stamps that I held under the fabric. After heat setting the paintstiks, I stitched over the heart outlines with gold metallic thread. This isn't finished yet. I still want to add a few beads and maybe some words. I'm still thinking about it.

I have a series of these little quilts started. All of them will have at least one heart in the design. The next one incorporates one of my latest sketches. It's curing right now. The paintstiks have to sit for at least 24 hours before you can heat set them. Hope to have something to post in a few days.

We made it through the annual Christmas party for hubby's students. That was Thursday evening and also the day that I pulled the muscle in my back. Everything went fine. Here is a view of our Christmas tree right before everyone arrived. This is taken from the 2nd floor loft area:

Here's the view from the 1st floor landing:

And here it is on the ground floor:

I think it went pretty well. We had a good turnout and everyone seemed to like the ornaments I made them. Now that all the hoopla is over for another year I can get back to work in my studio. Yay! Stay tuned...there are some interesting experiments going on behind the scenes.

Watercolor Warhol

2009-12-02T16:01:00.004-05:00

There was this awesome Photoshop tutorial using watercolor effects posted at Digital Whisper and I had to sit down and try it. Unfortunately it took me a very long time to get it to work. It's still not quite right but at least it's close. I used my favorite photo of Andy Warhol and paired that with one of his quotes. I'm still going to tinker with the last few steps until I'm happy with it.

I have yet to receive the Moleskine notebook from Art House Co-op for the fiction project I've signed up for. The site says to allow 2 to 3 weeks for shipping. I hate to wait on anything; I am not a patient person. *sigh* I've been playing with a few ideas for this project and hope to be able to start on it soon!

I've also been playing with making journals. I've made a few more using Teesha Moore's method and just started a couple of other journals using hardback book covers and watercolor paper. I did finally receive some hot press watercolor paper and I love working with it; definitely worth the wait. My image transfer experiments are working much better with this paper. So I hope to have something to show very soon.

And I'm still battling this cold/flu thing that won't go away. One day I have no energy and ache all over and the next I think I'm getting better. Then I'll get feverish and congested. This has been going on for about three weeks. Yuk! Hope to get this thing beaten SOON!

OK, off to work on the journals while I still have some energy.

Listening To My Muse ... Again

2009-11-19T14:59:00.011-05:00

While I am enjoying my various projects with the fabric paper and my art journaling experiments, I have been wanting to branch out and do something else. I just didn't know what. Until today.

A while back I found a wonderful site called the Art House Co-Op and have been exploring the different projects they offer artists. I almost signed up for the sketchbook project. I was still kicking myself for not signing up before the deadline when I received an email from them today offering a new project. You can read about it here. This time I didn't hesitate to sign up. I wasn't going to let myself be talked out of this one. [A note about the link: sometimes it works and sometimes I get a message saying there is a problem with the gateway, whatever that means. I don't know if it's their server or mine (probably mine). When I try it later, it usually works.]

So I will be receiving my Moleskine notebook within a couple of weeks and I have until April to get my little narrative complete. I am curious to see what theme they send me. But they also added that you are not tied to the suggested theme. It's just something to nudge you in a direction. I am really looking forward to combining my writing and art skills in this project. I'll post updates to the book as I write it. :) I won't be getting my book returned to me since it will be part of the exhibit permanently, so I will be making a duplicate for myself that I'll keep.

Now back to my journals. Having NO luck finding hot press watercolor paper in this town, I had to order some online. I am hoping to receive it soon. I'm doing a lot of image transfers in my art journals (I'll post those soon) and am not happy with how they transfer onto the rough watercolor paper. Sometimes it is the look I'm going for but not usually. The images transfer beautifully onto a smooth surface so I'm wanting to get some journals made with the smooth paper!

I've also got an experimental journal started in a really nice size. It's an old atlas and the pages are so big...it's wonderful to play in them. I've been busy trying some new (to me) art techniques in this new size. I just finished spending a day in my studio using the Nevr Dull technique on oversized fashion magazine pages. Ewww does that stuff smell...but I love the results. I'm working on one of those pages today!

Lots going on now and I think my Muse is happy that I'm listening to her...ideas are pouring out. I'm just about 2/3 of the way finished with beading the fabric paper squares for my wall hanging. Stay tuned...

Journal Journey

2009-11-12T19:01:00.006-05:00

This is a journal page I'm working on. I love Dina Wakley's idea of using silhouettes on journal pages. This was a mask I had used for another project so I decided to use the back of it and adhere it to the page. I like the way it turned out with my inky blue fingerprints all over it and the white smudge in the center. I thought it looked like a heart so I filled it in a little more to bring that out.

The photo is a gel transfer (another of Dina's techniques from her class). It's a very rough transfer and there is still some paper adhered to it but I decided to leave it that way. This is a photo of me as a toddler looking through the railing on our front porch. I love this old photo. The original looks just about as bad as the transfer! It has a lot of scratches and dents in it for some reason. I don't know what happened to this photo but it's been through a lot!

I'm still experimenting with finding the right pens that will write over layers of paint, inks, etc. I had to switch a couple of times doing the journaling on this page but I was finally able to make it work.

Here is another page in progress:

I loved this little stamp when I saw it. The original size is shown at the bottom of the page. I enlarged it in Photoshop, colored it in with water soluble markers and adhered it to the page. The background on this page is a dyed paper towel. I love the way the dyes sink into the towel. But it is hard to write on! The little stamps around the central image are all stamped onto tissue paper from an old sewing pattern. I still have to do some journaling and see what else I can come up with on this page but I like the beginning so far.

I've made a few journals over the last couple of days using Teesha Moore's instructions from her blog. Ooh, the possibilities these hold! The bottom photo is from one of the journals I made. I used a sheet of my fabric paper on the cover and am pretty pleased with the way it turned out. I'll post a picture of it next time.

Teesha mentions a product called Pan Pastels in one of her videos about the inkwork. I had to order some when I saw her use them. They arrived today and I can't wait to play with them! More to come later.

Playing In Paint

2009-11-07T13:54:00.005-05:00

I am so enjoying Dina Wakley's art journaling class. One of the assignments was to go outside of your comfort zone and create a page with at least 10 layers and to use three silhouettes. This isn't something you'd do for all of your journal pages (or, maybe you would...who knows?) but it was a great motivator to push myself to see what else I could come up with for the next layer.

I love the silhouettes of the fashion models that she uses on her pages and I plan to use those a lot in the near future. I have so many fashion mags laying around here it won't be hard to find some great poses to use as masks. But I wanted to use another mask for this exercise. I had some scrapbook paper that had outlines of birds on it. I just cut one out and used that as my mask.

There are paints, dyes, inks, oil pastels, dyed paper towels, etc. on this top page. I still have blue fingers from the spray inks. I didn't pay attention to where the nozzle was so I missed the stencil the first time and sprayed full force on my hands. No worries, I made a great imprint on a paper towel and will cut that out at some point to use on another page. But my fingers are definitely stained blue!

I had a great time with this lesson. Here is the opposite page in the journal. It's not finished yet. I may not do the whole ten layers for this one. I like how there's some white space here and there. I will add some more to it later but I want to think about it some more:

One of the next lessons she wants us to do involves self-portraits. Ugh! I am NOT photogenic and I was already thinking of reasons not to do it. One good thing about the lesson: I read the manual for my camera and have figured out how to use the self-timer. I'm ashamed to say I've not taken the time to figure that out before now! It was so strange taking photos of myself...such a weird feeling. I've already taken over 100 photos and out of all of those may have three that are usable. Even then, I will probably use only part of my face. But I'm going through with the lesson, just for the experience.

The class has definitely made me want to journal. So there's a plus right there! OK, off to figure out this next assignment.

Graffiti Journal Page

2009-11-03T15:52:00.003-05:00

I am taking an art journaling class online taught by Dina Wakley and I love it. This is exactly the type of effect I want to have in my art journal. OK, here it's done in digital, but I wanted to do it digitally, too! Next I plan on getting my hands dirty and doing it for real. :)

There is a poem in the background that I saw on someone else's blog recently. Sorry to say I forgot whose blog it was. But here's the poem:

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley
(1849-1903)

I especially love the last two lines. Now, off to play in the paint...

A Treat and a Tute

2009-10-31T16:28:00.003-04:00

I recently came across a Photoshop tutorial called Manga Doll. You can take a photo of a face and distort it into some really creepy-cool results. Here is how the witchy woman in this piece originally started out:

I created this collage for this week's challenge at Digital Whisper. I call it Black Magic. I love the tutorial and think I may be using it a lot! It's so nice to see artists who are willing to share their work and their knowledge for people like me who could use all the info we can get.
Happy Halloween, everyone! :)

Before The Storm

2009-10-27T15:10:00.000-04:00

This is a photo of my Dad (far right), aunt and uncle as children. I mentioned in my last post that my aunt had passed away Friday. I created this piece after thinking about their lives and the diverse turns they took. In their adult years they haven't been close and have rarely talked. I still find that sad but there are circumstances that figure into the equation.

I was looking through old family photos and this is one of my favorites. They grew up having very little and had to make the best of it. I named this piece Before The Storm because here they look like a happy trio out having fun, before the complications of life as an adult set in; these just seem like better times. And that's how I'll remember my aunt: happy with two brothers who loved her.

Saying Yes To ...

2009-10-24T11:22:00.006-04:00

On Jamie Ridler's website she has a wonderful weekly feature that she calls Wishcasting Wednesday. The idea is you respond to her prompt on your blog and then place your response on her blog. People are to read what you wish for and leave you a comment that says, "As (your name) wishes for herself, so I wish for her too." How cool is that?

The topic for this week was "What do you wish to say yes to?" That's a great one! After a very tough week physically and emotionally, I thought I'd reply here. So, I wish to say yes to...

Taking better care of myself
Not giving my energy to negative people
Having more compassion for those I don't understand
Showing my friends how much they mean to me
Supporting my family more with positive thoughts and actions
Healing my heart

What a great exercise to participate in. Jamie has a wonderful site and is such an inspiration to me. While I'm not one to join a lot of the challenge sites publicly, I do enjoy them. This one, in particular, struck home for me. By the way, do you know what the last week's subject was? "What do you wish to let go?" Considering my recent post on just that subject, how timely was that? I wasn't aware of that particular wishcast until after I'd posted about Letting Go. Just another example of serendipity at work again!

My aunt passed away Friday. She was my Dad's younger sister. She had led a very hard life and made some bad choices along the way. She hadn't really kept in touch with the family much but Dad always seemed to keep tabs on her. During the last few years she had reunited with her daughter who was able to arrange for her care. I'm sure she was thankful for the love and forgiveness her daughter gave to her in her final years.

When Dad told me she had died I just thought about how even those who we don't understand need to know they can always come home. I hope my own siblings always feel they can come to me for anything. I plan to make that very clear to them immediately! :)

No Fear

2009-10-22T00:30:00.005-04:00

I participated in a webinar Tuesday night that introduced Photoshop actions. Oh my... I never understood the actions feature and, frankly,didn't think I could figure it out. I still don't know how to create my own actions but I have a little better understanding of how to download and run them. There are tons of free Photoshop actions on the web available for download!

Basically they are a saved set of commands that produce some awesome effects on your images. For example, here I supplied the image of the dock going out into the water. The action took that image and created the water/sky background. I adjusted the ripples in the water and chose the time of day (dusk). The background colors were different, depending on the time of day you chose. I added the girl later.

Needless to say I spent the better part of the day hunting for these jewels and downloading them. Ooh, the possibilities! So no more fear of that particular unknown! I am trying to push myself to learn new techniques and try new media in my art. Now I have another tool to play with!

I just realized that the figure in the last image I posted is very similar to this one. Hmm... something about those outstretched hands and leaping into the unknown is weighing on my mind. I'm exploring that in my art journal too; no finished page to show yet. For now I'll go with this theme and see where else it leads me!

This and That

2009-10-14T16:55:00.006-04:00

OK, are you in the mood for Halloween yet? It's coming! It's very cold and rainy here today and that put me in the mood to create a digital piece reflecting the season. I've used the image of the hooded doll before but I love her! She's just perfect for haunting scenes!

Other news: Here are my latest sheets of fabric paper that I'm making for my wallhanging. First, though, is a finished square! I decided they will be 3" x 3". This one is cut from a sheet I showed previously. I added some bronze seed beads and now all I need to do is put in the eyelets:

Here are the two sheets with the color added:

I think I'll add the gold spray webbing to these. I really like the look and the texture it gives. I may add a few more bits of color in spots. We'll see.

I'm not having a whole lot of luck in taking my own photos for the photo journaling course. So, I'm still using free images that speak to me. They fit the theme and this allows me to keep up with the course. I plan to take some photos today as soon as I find something I've been looking for all day! Eventually I will find it and then I can at least have one of my photos in a journal spread.

I did originally print out a few photos that I had in my archive for this latest assignment. These may still work; I'm thinking about it. They were photos that my Mom and Dad had taken, so technically I guess they're mine. ;) I'm working on the background now and hope to post the spread by the end of the week.

Fabric Paper: New Sheets and An Embellishment

2009-10-11T14:59:00.004-04:00

Now I'm starting the sheets of fabric paper that I'll be using in my wall hanging. Here are two sheets that I made today. These are in the raw state right now (no color). Actually they were still wet when I photographed them. I'll leave them to dry overnight and tomorrow will decide on a color scheme. I love both of these! I took some of my favorite scrapbook papers and cut the designs out of a whole tablet. Yes, this took a couple of days. But the beauty in that is you decide the design of your own fabric! Here is the second sheet:

I also took one of the previous sheets and added some gold webbing spray paint to the top. I love the look of that webbing spray and plan to use it my journal, too! It's a very cool metallic gold color. Here's the result on a portion of the paper:

I may add more. I didn't want to overdo it since I've never worked with spray paint before. Love the effects of this so I may give it another swipe.

Today I'm also working on my next photo journal assignment and hope to paint some in my journal after I pick my photos. Thought I'd show you my latest fabric paper, though. These sheets will be cut into squares of approximately 3" x 3". That's all I'll say for now. I'll get a copy uploaded of the type of thing I want to make so it will make more sense to you in my next post.
Right now, back to work.

Fabric Paper: The Next Step

2009-10-08T19:57:00.005-04:00

Today I colored the base fabric pieces that I made yesterday (see yesterday's post). Here are the results from my experiment so far. The top photo is my favorite. The pink is just the right shade for what I think I want to go for in my huge batch I'm going to make for my wallhanging.

Here is the second piece. In this one I used more of the butterscotch color than the pink. But I like this one, too:

This last one is very vibrant. I used the butterscotch and plum spray inks at full strength. For some reason the plum shows up as more of a red color here. It's really more of a dark purple:

Overall, I like all of these samples. I am still going to add something to this last one. Also will start tomorrow on a big batch for my wallhanging squares. I'm thinking about doing most of them in the design of the first two. I used scrapbooking paper, wrapping paper, tissue paper with iridescent dots, wallpaper border and plain, white tissue paper. The inks I used were Adirondack Color Inks in Butterscotch and Wild Plum.

Today I wanted to spend more time on a new batch but somehow ended up destroying my Yahoo email account and now am unable to access it. Spent way too many hours trying to figure it out to no avail. So I opened another one and spent all afternoon trying to change my email address in all of my Yahoo groups...big headache. Hopefully my mail will get to me via this new account now. I couldn't access my old email addresses to even tell people that I can't read it anymore... Needless to say I'm not loving the computer today.

Anyway, tomorrow I will spend working on a new batch and adding a little something else to the bottom piece. I highly recommend the Stitch Alchemy book. There are a ton of ideas for embellishing your base fabric paper. I'll keep you posted on any new ones that I try.

Fabric Paper Revisited

2009-10-07T21:14:00.007-04:00

If you've been following my blog, a while back I made a big batch of fabric paper for a fat book swap. I really loved the process and still have some of that paper. Now I'm experimenting with taking the fabric paper a bit further.

These photos are just the first step. Basically, I've made a raw batch of fabric paper without adding any color yet. What little color you do see is from the collage papers. So I have my muslin backing, my collage papers and my tissue paper all glued down and dried. Here is another sheet using the same collage papers:

Here is a larger sheet using different papers and more variety of tissue paper:

I belong to a Yahoo group called Mixed Media Art Friends, led by Belinda Spiwak. We are doing a book study following this book:

The author has taken fabric paper a step further and applied all kinds of techniques to the basic layer. So, first things first: make a raw batch with no embellishments. That is what you see here. I'm going to let these get really good and dry and leave them be overnight. Tomorrow the fun begins. There are a ton of ideas in the book for coloring the paper with dyes, paints, inks, etc. and embellishing it with everything. First, I'll color these and then will show you the results of that.

What I'm wanting to do, eventually, is make a really nice, huge batch of these sheets colored the way I want and then cut them into squares (size yet to be determined). The book shows this awesome wall hanging with squares that have eyelets in them. The squares are connected through the eyelets by wire. That is what I want to do but on a larger scale. First I need to make a batch with the colors I want. Then, I'll figure out how to proceed. Stay tuned...

Risk

2009-10-02T12:45:00.005-04:00

Risk

And then the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to blossom.

--Anais Nin

I found this poem on a great poetry website. I go through spells where I read a lot of poetry, write some poetry and just get immersed in it for awhile. This poem stuck with me and the images just came together pretty quickly for this digital piece. Lately I find that poetry has been very inspirational for my art and my journaling.

Speaking of journaling, I found a wonderful journaling class on LK Ludwig's blog. If you aren't familiar with her work, she is a very inspirational photographer, journaler and author. She has written some very good books on art journaling and keeping a journal. I was thrilled to see that she had just now started this class (Oct. 1).

Serendipity is at work. I was just thinking yesterday about how much I love journal prompts and how they can really get you thinking about so many different possibilities for a page. That's one reason I'm trying to get my studio space finished up today. I'm itching to get back to the journal and try some new techniques. I also want to write more in my journal and was looking through a couple of books on the subject. Then I started blog hopping and lo and behold there on LK's site was the class. Coincidence? I think not! ;)

So today I'm going through my photo archive and picking out some photos for my first spread in this class. I'll post a few of the pages as I go along. Another serendipitous finding: browsing through a thrift store I came upon a blank, hand-made journal filled with the nicest watercolor paper just waiting to be filled... the gods are speaking to me! I'll include a photo of that, too, in my next post. I just now thought about it or I would have included it here.

So, enough talk. Time to play.

Autumn Magic

2009-09-29T16:39:00.003-04:00

I made this digital piece for this week's challenge at Digital Whisper.ning. The challenge was to take the autumn forest scene that was given and make a piece incorporating your favorite Fall poem. I added the park bench, the fairy and the girl looking out of the fogged window.

I don't really have a favorite autumn poem but I did a search on the web for poems with the words "autumn" and "magic" in them. I found this poem:

Autumn Magic
Lysia Holub

On a cool autumn night,
When the air is still,
You can see a great sight,
Just beyond the mill,
The place where leaves dance,
In the still air,
There Fairies will prance,
With the seasons in their hair.

The greatest sight you may ever see,
Even still you will believe,
Because they live with you and me.
Only on an autumn eve,
Will you see them there,
Sneaking out of sight,
Only the trees know where
To find them at night,
But, in the morning through the dew,
And beyond the trees,
You may see them peeking at you,
Hanging on a breeze.

Never overlook these sneaky fairies,
They may look like leaves,
They may be hung up in the black berries,
But their only joy comes to tease,
So spare them the time,
And chuckle on the wind,
To complete the rhyme,
And bring it to an end.
--

Just something fun that I thought I would post today!

Confrontation

2009-09-25T10:17:00.005-04:00

I've been neglecting my digital art lately and when I found these awesome images, I had to get back into Photoshop! So, what to put into the room? I've been playing with the idea of reflection, self-reflection, the future self, etc. and this came together.

It's not my usual type of thing but it speaks to where I am right now: taking a look at myself and wanting to change so many things, physically and mentally. I like where I am with my art. I like that I'm branching out and experimenting with different media, all the while learning and growing.

But physically (both with my body and my living space) there is definitely room for improvement. I think it's time for another good de-cluttering of the studio space as well as the entire upstairs. I've been avoiding my studio because it is so cluttered with current projects, past projects, future projects and a lot of items I've held for too long "just in case". So, today I begin the purge. I need to clear my space (and my head) so I can work in there!

I think a lot of this has to do with the arrival of Fall. This is my favorite time of the year. Some people love the Summer but I come alive in the crisp air, the turning leaves and sweater weather. Bring it on! And I become more physically active; something I've neglected for way too long. I love long walks in the cool, or even cold, air. I am NOT a fan of heat, humidity and temps over 80 degrees.

So I'm having a little confrontation with myself; facing hard facts and finally beginning to act on them. I know the results will be worth it.

Taking A Deep Breath

2009-09-22T18:45:00.005-04:00

This is my latest painting (11 x 14, Acrylic). I finished it yesterday and it's called Sunday Morning Mist. It must have about six layers of paint on it. I kept painting over it until I figured out what it was I wanted it to be. That's why I love abstract art; so much freedom to experiment and bring it along until you're satisfied. I think it looks peaceful, almost like a mist rising. I didn't intend to create anything like this when I started. What I originally had in mind will come out when it's ready. I haven't given up on that idea just yet. :) This one is hanging in our living room and every time I look at it I just want to take a deep breath. Hubby was very complimentary on it, too.

I want to finish the paintings I've started before tackling the 18 x 36 size that we'll paint in the next class. Here is Mountain of Mine which is from Jared's free video found here:

This one gave me a few fits but I was happy I finished it. I'm still working on Black Ice and hope to have it up soon.

I finally joined FaceBook. I'm slow to come around, but I'm glad I did. I'm discovering lots of my friends on there and it's like a little party whenever I hear from them. *waving to you all*

Other projects in the works: I've got a couple of face sketches that want homes in a digital background so I'll have to tend to them next. Then there's the big (for me) canvas to start... Jared's painting is 18 x 36 but there was no place in town that carried that size canvas so I ended up with a 24 x 36. We'll see how it translates. And I've been neglecting my art journal so I need to give it a little love. So, busy trying to juggle all of these at once. I'll post whichever one I finish first!

Exploring Possibilities

2009-09-19T00:15:00.002-04:00

This is one of my favorite sketches so far. I found the model for this one in a fashion mag. I often use fashion models as the base for my sketches. I'm not real good at producing a face completely out of my imagination. They all seem to look alike. :) I'm still having issues drawing the nose, as you can see. And drawing at an angle gives me fits but I keep practicing. I am also trying to give them more emotion. I think she looks like she's exploring possibilities.

I'm certainly doing that. I'm enjoying the abstract painting. It really is fun! The whole idea of painting with no preconceived idea of an image is very freeing. You paint your emotion. Good stuff. I put on some music that reflects my mood for that particular moment and then go with it.

I am finding the artist tube paints very nice to work with. They don't dry out as fast as the Golden fluid acrylics. And my new best friend is titanium white. I have gone through three tubes of it so far. I found out you can actually order it by the gallon online so I did. In the long run it's cheaper than buying tubes every few days. The next painting we will do in class will be 18 x 36. That will be a blast!

Another cool thing I learned about was painting with skewers. Who would have thought! My painting buddy, Kimmie, sent me a YouTube video showing how to paint Jackson Pollock style using skewers. You have to have liquid paint, of course, to be able to fling it around but it looks so cool! You can vary your marks, drips, etc. I'll have to work that into something...maybe just painted backgrounds to scan for digital works.

Like I said, exploring the possibilities...

Inner Storm

2009-09-16T09:04:00.005-04:00

This is my first finished painting from Jared Knight's class. It's 11 x 14, Acrylic, and I call it Inner Storm. This was not the painting that you do along with him in his video. This one is from inside of me. It's funny because I started painting his painting Black Ice along with him in his video and when I got to the best part of the painting (the knife work) I couldn't get it to turn out like I wanted. So I've started three more Black Ice paintings in hope I'll get one of them right. It's just my perfectionist taking over. I let myself off the hook and decided to start my own painting and use the knife however it turned out. I really like this one and am hanging it in our living room. Hubby said it looks exactly like the title says. You see all that unrest below the surface, churning away, and eventually it rises and explodes. :)

It's been fun challenging myself to do something that, for me, is totally different. I love the freedom of abstract painting. I had Melissa Etheridge blaring in the background and just went at it, painting my soul. There are lots of paintings in the works now in various stages. This particular one started out as different shades of violet. There are probably four or five layers painted over in this one. I kept changing my mind as I went along. What a rush! I told Jared that now it's time to make a new class video and he said he's working on one.

Other things I'm working on: I have a bunch of new sketches that I'm playing with. I've been scouring the fall fashion mags for pretty faces to sketch. I don't make up my own faces very much.; a few have been and I've liked them. But there are so many different looks and poses in the fashion mags that I'll just pick a girl and concentrate on her facial features and sketch her. I'm working on giving them more emotion. Looking over the earlier ones they all seem to have the same frozen expression. So, hopefully, you'll notice more emotion in these later sketches.

That's it for today. Off to paint and play.

Rebel Spirit

2009-09-12T09:33:00.004-04:00

After sketching this gal I noticed right away that she had an attitude. I liked her rebel spirit so I placed her in an appropriate atmosphere. Part of the background is from the super-talented Christine Honsinger (Fidlette Designs) at ScrapArtist.com. This is from her black and white collage kit. I added a bunch of brushes and lots of color, a cool font, etc. but the black and white background was a great starting point.

So it's with this attitude that I'll start my painting with Jared Knight's videos (see previous post). I've done a couple of preliminary warm-ups while following along with him on his videos. Now I'm ready for the real thing. I don't have any expectations of doing this perfectly. I just want to experience the freedom of the abstract design. I acknowledge to myself that I am a beginner and I will only learn by doing. So I'm off to do just that ... bringing with me a little bit of this rebel spirit!

Indecision

2009-09-09T00:01:00.004-04:00

This little lady was a sketch I did last week and she certainly proved to be ... how I'm feeling right now! Have you ever just had so much stimuli coming at you at once that you didn't know what to do first or what direction you should follow? That's where I am right now.

It's all good! So many new things I'm learning and being introduced to and now my mind is reeling. I was recently introduced to a new artist through Kimmie, the awesome artist and host at her website, Digital Whisper.ning. She introduced me to the art of Jared Knight through his website at Jared Knight.com. He's a fantastic, energetic, awesome abstract painter. I loved his work as soon as I saw it. And, guess what, YES, he teaches classes.

So I watched his intro video and am completely hooked on his process: action painting. I've just ordered my first class and plan on starting it tomorrow. Yes, yes, I know, I'm in so many different classes right now going in so many directions. Where do I focus?

I don't know. All I know is to follow my heart and what I want to do. I want to do it all! I want to draw, paint, do mixed media, and I'm doing all of that. I don't see anything wrong with multiple interests. Someday what I really want to "concentrate" on will reveal itself. I've got a passion for all of these things right now and am pursuing all of them with the same zeal. The more, the merrier.

So, in addition to more faces (Yay! Monica's class this week is on drawing the mouth), a new SuziBlu class on Marie Antoinette, and a Frida Kahlo shadow box (you didn't know about that one, did you?), you will see some abstract art thrown in just to mix things up.

So, to answer the little lady in the above piece, indecision isn't a bad thing. You don't have to decide on ONE thing! Go where your Muse leads... and follow your bliss.

Rendezvous

2009-09-04T09:11:00.002-04:00

This is my latest sketch. I told myself I wouldn't make any more until I finished painting the ones I have mounted on wood first. But my Muse didn't listen, as usual, and I started this one a couple of days ago. So now there are three faces mounted on wood waiting to be painted. ;)

I wasn't sure what to do with her after I looked at the raw sketch. I just stared at her for awhile and I thought she looked like she was waiting on something...or someone. A secret meeting? A rendezvous, that was it! Scanning the sketches into Photoshop does open up a lot of possibilities. We'll see where she goes when the real painting begins.

I like this color palette. I can't take credit for the poppies (aren't they gorgeous?) I got them from Scrapbook Flair.com from their Labor Day kit. There are some awesome digital scrapbook kits out there that make gorgeous backgrounds for digital art. I don't scrapbook but I love the papers, embellishments, etc. that they have. This paper is just a plain peach background with the poppies. I added some overlays, brushes and some other elements but I loved the soft color of the peach and the contrast with the poppies. Another favorite site for digital collage kits is Scrap Artist.com.

I also told myself I wouldn't sign up for any more classes until I finished the ones I was in. Wrong again. Suzi Blu has a new Petite Dolls workshop starting Saturday: Petite Marie (Antoinette). I wasn't going to sign up for it at first but then I saw Suzi's painting. Now I have to do it. My obsession with faces and fashion keeps growing. I had so many ideas for things I want to try with these paintings that I woke up twice the other night to write them down in my bedside notebook so I wouldn't forget them.

Ooh, speaking of classes, Suzi also has a Petite workshop coming that has something to do with Tarot. I'm already planning for that one without even seeing what she's going to do. And I think there's one that has to do with the circus...and then there's the Goddess & Poet 2 in December. I may as well just get a permanent spot in her little school! Plus, Monica's class should have the next lesson up any day. I hope it will be about drawing the mouth. I seem to keep drawing the same mouth; I want to learn different looks. So I'm looking forward to that lesson.

That's it for today. College football started last night and tomorrow is the first full Saturday of games. Hubby and I LIVE for college football! I wanted to post this today because I probably won't be around the computer for a few days (except to register for Suzi's class). Ooh, how I miss going to the Ohio State Buckeyes football games! Go BUCS!!

Dancing In The Moonlight

2009-09-02T09:06:00.006-04:00

This is my entry for this week's digital challenge at Digital Whisper.ning. The theme for the challenge was moonlight and we were given the image of the moon reflecting on water (provided by Stock Exchange). I added this incredible background from a kit I bought a long time ago that I keep coming back to again and again. It is from Madame Mim and Milla Designs and it's called Enchanted Forest. It is an awesome kit; tons of gorgeous, magical elements. Love it!! The kit and her designs can be found at catscrap.com in their shopping section. The dancer is an image I cut out of a fashion magazine a couple of years ago. I just loved the silhouette and have used it in some of my other digital art. I added some more moonbeams coming from the moon just to highlight her a little better.

I've got two face sketches mounted on wood that I am starting to work on today. I always get a little nervous when I start these paintings. I'm afraid I'll "mess up" the sketch. I need to get over that; the worst thing that could happen is I do mess it up. I still have plenty of options. The sketches are saved on my computer and I could print out another one and mount it. Or I could go with the "mistake" and keep painting to see where that takes me. Suzi Blu said in one her classes that procrastination is fear. I can relate to that! I've been putting off working on these pieces because of my fears that they won't turn out like I want.

Also on the agenda today: mail out the Artist Trading Pin I made for a swap in the Art Techniques Yahoo group I belong to. I've said before that I am not a jewelry maker but I love jewelry. I've got a little workshop set up in the basement with my Dremel drill and lots of wire, charms, beads and miscellaneous findings. I push myself to sign up for some of these swaps just so I'll go down there and work with these fun things.

I had never even heard of an artist trading pin. It's just what it sounds like: you make a little pin to trade using collage, paint, beads, whatever you want. There are some very talented artists in that group and I'm always learning from them. This is the same group I made the 240 fat pages of my fabric paper for. As a matter of fact, part of that batch of fabric paper was used as the background for the little collage in this pin! The theme of the swap was the fall season. I thought the fabric paper had the perfect fall colors. I added a transparency of a snippet from a song called "October" that I found in a song book I picked up at a flea market last summer. And I found the perfect little leaf charm to finish it off. The pin is 1.5" x 1.5" and I made it two-sided so the wearer could have two options. Here is the "front":

Here is the back:

There is a glare on the glass in this photo. That's why it shows up kind of pale. This is basically the same background with a butterfly rub-on added.

I had made another pin first but was not happy with it at all. It was something that I had tried on wood. At least I did try. But after looking at the album of some of the other pins that were made I was reminded of all of these little supplies I had down in the workshop. Yay! I think I will make some more of these for gifts (with different themes, of course). Hopefully the person that gets this pin will like it.

Now, off to the post office and then I'll tackle my fears and my paints and get started on those two faces. ;)

Rose-Colored Glasses

2009-08-30T14:20:00.002-04:00

This is the latest face I've been practicing on. I scanned the sketch into Photoshop and started "painting" with the mouse again. I'm getting the hang of it better, but still not where I want to be. Once I get the opacity down, I hope to be able to blend better.

In Monica Zuniga's drawing class we are working on noses this week. This is a rough one but I have all week to practice them. Then we are to try to sketch what we've learned so far combining the eyes and noses. I did this sketch and filled in the mouth and hair from what I've learned in Suzi's class. Monica is such a fabulous teacher. Both she and Suzi are number one with me. :)

I know she doesn't exactly have glasses, but I couldn't figure out another title. I thought about "Gypsy Spirit" but I'm working on something else that will probably have that title, so I went with "Rose Colored Glasses". That rose is a temporary tattoo! Suzi showed us how to add those to our art. So cool!!

Until I can do something with the actual sketch I thought I would show what I did digitally with her. I think she's pretty cool. :) I'm thinking about adhering this sketch to wood and seeing where that takes me. Now back to the sketchpad.

Dream: A Journal Page

2009-08-27T11:46:00.007-04:00

For this page I decided to do a tryptich. I like the idea of little surprises throughout the journal. I want to do another version of a window at some point, too. The verse says: "Even amidst the chaos of life, dreams are born and begin to take flight." It's a little verse I made up to go along with the theme.

Here is the page with the extra flap closed:

One thing I keep forgetting to do is date my pages. Doh! The little charm under the girl says: Beautiful Dreamer. I liked the aged look of it so I thought it would look good there. I ran into trouble painting the girl. Didn't like the way some of the pencils were not blending so I added Titan Buff to smooth it out. Here is a closeup of her face:

I had a chance to try out some new watercolors called Twinkling H2O's. Ooh, I like those! I used those in her eyes and hair. They are shimmery and you can vary the shade with just adding water to what's already on the page. I also added more of the Golden's Interference Gold color over top of the Twinkling H2O in her hair. Made for a nice shimmer, I thought. Here's a closeup of the verse page:

Those little iridescent chips are so cool! They are made by Stewart Gill. I can't quite figure out what they are made from but you can adhere them pretty well with gel medium. I have these in purple and teal. I like their shimmer. ;) The butterflies are rub-ons, of all things. Suzi Blu used those in class and they really pop when added to the page. If you don't like the shiny look, you just go over them with some matte medium and they blend in even better.

I'm expecting the next lesson of Monica Zuniga's pencil drawing class today. Can't wait to see what part of the face we'll concentrate on next. I've got pages and pages of eyes sketched. Hubby says it creeps him out, all of these eyes staring at him. :) Anyway, time to get back to the sketchpad. More to come...

My Sacred Self

2009-08-24T12:26:00.004-04:00

I put together this digital collage using some of the elements from this month's Artella studio kit. It's a gorgeous kit about architecture. Part of the background paper is from the kit; I've changed a lot of it. The girl is a new face I'm working on in my journal. I haven't colored her in with the pencils yet, so I thought I would scan her and have a "clean" version of her to use in my digital art. I am not very good at "painting" in Photoshop so I just gave her a little color here.

I just loved the different imagery I pulled together in making this piece. It's fun being able to incorporate my little drawings in my art now. :) Hopefully, when I get better, I'll be able to paint them for real (not just in Photoshop!). I'm taking my time with the journal page trying to really work on my shading so it will be awhile before she's finished. I wanted to show you a glimpse of her now.

And Check out the video on my sidebar! It describes Monica Zuniga's workshops that she offers at her Hands and Heart ning site (link also on my sidebar). She gives you a background on each workhsop and shows you her gorgeous artwork that she will teach you to make in each one. She's an awesome teacher! I'm enrolled in her pencil drawing class now. We are learning how to draw realistic faces. I've just started the first lesson: drawing eyes. I practiced the eyes with the girl in this piece. With all of the digital manipulation it's not easy to see the detail. After I finish her in the journal I will post her again. So check out the video. It's worth it!

Shabby Princess: An Alter(ed) Ego

2009-08-20T17:07:00.008-04:00

And now for something totally new: another journal! I like to work in different journals because they are not all about the same thing. I have my goddess journal for my sketches from Suzi's classes, I have a technique journal for trying out new products and now I have this one.

I love fashion and fashion magazines; I always have. No, I don't dress like it. I'd rather spend my money on art supplies! But I love to LOOK at fashion magazines. I've been working on little fashion sketchy pieces but I'm not crazy about them. They weren't exactly what I wanted to do. Maybe it's the fact that Project Runway starts tonight, but I've been obsessed with these magazines for a little while (much to hubby's chagrin). ;)

Also, poetry writing and all of that internal searching has me thinking about my childhood and my adulthood...all of this sort of came together the other night. I have had this big blank book that I bought a while back thinking it would be a perfect art journal. But after I bought it I didn't want to "mess it up" because the pages are all cotton and very nice. So it sat in my closet glaring at me.

Then it hit me. I would like to use some of these models (altered) and put them in my book. Some of the photo shoots are a work of art in themselves. I wanted a place where I could put my favorite ones in a world that I create. So I picked some models that spoke to me (or, more precisely, different parts of me). These are my little alter-egos; different sides of my personality that, for good or bad, are still there.

This first one drew me in immediately. I think it was that dress...in another life I own this dress (and fit into it, too!). Anyway, the pout was what did it. I have a lot of memories of pouting and sulking as a child because I couldn't have exactly what I wanted. (Maybe it was because I'm the oldest...who knows, but that's another story). So I call her the little Shabby Princess, pouting because things just aren't quite right. Here's the other side of the page and the story to go with it. If you can't read the story, click on the closeup under this photo and it will be easier:

She's all alone in her shabby little world. She realizes things haven't quite turned out like she thought they would. And, although at first everything looks glamorous, upon closer inspection the flowers are a little dirty, the fabrics a little rusted. She's not quite sure why things are tarnished and shabby, she just knows she's not happy with it.

Here's a closeup of the journal. It doesn't look like it but it's over 15 1/2" long. So a good space to work in.

So from time to time I'll add to this book as well. I haven't decorated the cover yet but as a working title I put a little one together in Photoshop:

These are just little glimpses of the parts of myself I'm working on. The Shabby Princess likes to come out a little too often. She needs to learn to be satisfied with all that she has and to quit comparing herself to other people. She'll find that the sparkle will return to her life if she would learn to be grateful for what is already in it!

Circle of Life: Journal Page

2009-08-17T17:39:00.006-04:00

I worked on these pages this weekend, shading the girl with Prisma colored pencils last night. Ever since Suzi Blu introduced me to Clear Gesso I use it as a base for my shading all the time. I do like the rough, gritty texture it gives. Lime green is my current obsession; don't know why. It pops out at me everywhere. Looking through my stash of fabrics and papers, it seems I have a lot of it!

Thought I'd do a little stitching on these pages. They seemed to want that. The verse is from an Elton John song, Circle of Life. If you click on the photo you can probably read it better. Another serendipitous event: I couldn't get circles out of my mind. I noticed them in everything: magazines, on TV, doodles, etc. So I started thinking about them. I'm doing more poetry writing and am working on a poem now about stages of life. So, the two came together: circles and life...circle of life, the song, etc.

I was able to use a few of my new toys: a dip pen and Dr. Ph. Martin's Gold ink. I first heard about the dip pen from Beryl Taylor in one of her books I was going through. I made a mental note that if I ever saw one I would like to try it. Well, Michael's (of all places) had one. So I picked it up. It takes a little getting used to but I may get the hang of it yet. I used the dip pen on the swirls in the girl's "hair". On the opposite page I used Stickles gold paint for the couple of swirls there.

I had this Batik fabric (with the perfect colors) that I've been wanting to incorporate into something so I thought I'd use it. And, not intentionally, I had just picked up some embroidery floss in a bunch of colors and among those were lime and raspberry. Hmm...must have been meant to be. :) Ooh, and I did get to use my Interference Green paint in her eyes. They are very shimmery even though it doesn't show up very well in the photo.

I found the metal button at JoAnn Fabrics. I loved the bronze girl and thought I'd be able to use her in something. When I clipped off the shank (which took some real effort!) it went sailing through the room. I still haven't found that little piece. But I was glad to finally get the smooth surface to adhere her better to the page.

I wanted to make her a little more abstract, with the hair and all. It gives more room to play. I used an old metal door handle in the shape of a swirl for a stamp and stamped that into a thick application of clear gesso. After it dried I then painted over the raised areas with the ink and the dip pen. I liked using the ink. It's really yummy...

So today I come full circle! Hopefully I can move on to some other fixation for my next page. And maybe the poem will come together now that I can concentrate on that without the circles distracting me. ;)

For Mom

2009-08-14T23:12:00.005-04:00

Here's what I've been working on this week. I posted the "before" photo a few posts back. I'm not sure if it's finished. There is another thing I want to do to it but I'm testing the technique on a spare piece of wood first to see what it will look like. You can click on each photo to get a larger view of the texture.

And there is a LOT of texture to this! Suzi Blu had us piling on the media for this lesson. This has a bunch of modeling paste, some oil pastels, Liquitex inks, colored pencil, and paints (that's just the things I can remember). I didn't have the Light Modeling Paste and had to go with the regular. It's not too bad. I have since made a trip out to get the Light Paste and will use that on my next one.

I dedicate this to my Mom, who I know would have liked it. Hopefully she can look down from Heaven every now and then and see I'm always thinking of her.

Here is a closeup view of the face, showing a little better view of the texture:

It was my first time working with the water-soluble oil pastels. They take a while to cure (I found out the hard way). But any "mistake" only lends itself to the aged look of the piece, I think. The intent was to give her an aged, fresco look. I put modeling paste on her face in certain spots and all over her hair. This was definitely an experiment in how to work with the media. I have to say I LOVE working on the wood panel again. Good thing hubby has cut up a bunch of different sizes for me.

I like the way it turned out and I used my favorite colors: blues, purples and a little pink. Plus Golden's Interference Violet and Interference Blue. I want to take a bath in that stuff; I LOVE it! If I decide to add the one final thing, I'll show a photo with that. I'm still undecided on that one.

Another Realm: Journal Page

2009-08-12T17:23:00.008-04:00

In working with my Goddess Journal I decided that, try as I might, I probably will NOT draw a face for every journal page. I'm not that good and I want to try other techniques. But the pages will still tie in to the theme.

This two page spread was an experiment in two things: 1) a different color scheme (for me) and 2) using windows on the page. First, I love this window technique.

I came across this particular window in a wonderful workshop I'm taking on altered books. The teacher is Monica Zuniga and she's absolutely amazing. You can find her website at Hands and Heart, another ning site (see side link). I'm enrolled in a portrait drawing class that she'll be teaching starting Aug. 20. Check out her beautiful site. This altered book workshop is free and you can see all of her cool techniques in her beautiful books!

Here is a closeup of the two pages individually. You can click on each page to get larger views:

The verse is from a poem I'm writing. It's not finished yet but this is my favorite verse so far. I'm trying to keep with the idea of including some form of poetry in each spread. After adjusting the size of the verse in Photoshop, I printed it out onto matte brochure paper and then inked around the edges. It is adhered to an envelope I made, painted and inked up. Then I stitched it with embroidery thread onto the dyed cheesecloth underneath. The little page fits perfectly inside the envelope.

I like the aged look of the pages. The page with the eye reminds me of an old, weathered page that has burn marks on the edges. Monica's technique is super easy. For the "eye" window I used 6 pages from an old book on oil painting that I had. When I finished with the technique I glued all of them together and then adhered them to the Moleskine page. I used the criss-cross staples for more texture and then repeated that theme in the stitches on the envelope.

I don't use a whole lot of oranges and reds in my work but I am trying to branch out and use other colors besides my faves of pinks, blues and violets. The fun thing about trying some of these new techniques is I never know where it will take me once I start!

Cherish: A Journal Page

2009-08-09T13:31:00.006-04:00

I've been in the mood to work more in my art journal(s) lately. This is another page from my goddess journal. I wanted to incorporate the word cherish in this two-page spread. I listed three of the most important things that I cherish: the precious people in my life; magic moments that I've experienced; and, finally, my sacred self.

My 70-year old dad recently had a motorcycle accident. His bike was totaled but miraculously he escaped with no broken bones or internal injuries. He is severely bruised, though, over his entire body and very sore. He came to visit last weekend and it was heartbreaking to see the bruising all over his legs and arms.

After he left I thought a lot about the different aspects of my life that I do cherish and how I need to make more of an effort to acknowledge those people, places or things that mean the most to me. So I made this page to remind myself to do just that. Once again, I played with the lettering in Photoshop before actually inking the words onto the page.

It's been very relaxing and insightful to work on these two pages. I have fun playing with the inks, paints, techniques and embellishments. It's like an exercise in meditation; just keeping mindful of what I'm trying to convey on the page.

On another note, I thought I'd post a photo of the "before" portrait on wood that I'll be working on over the next week or so. It will take awhile before it's finished and I'll be working on journal pages, new projects, etc. in between time. Speaking of new projects, I'm learning to make and bind my own handmade "dream book" journal. I'll show you a few steps along the way for that, as well. For now, here's what's on the agenda to begin today:

It didn't photograph so well. For some reason there is a shadow going across the front. No worries, though. This is just a page from my sketchbook adhered to a 6" x 12" plywood panel. The only thing I've done to it is cover it in clear Gesso to give it that great, gritty texture. Yes, I ripped it adhering it to the page. This will never show once all of the media get applied. I think I've written the perfect verse to go with the mood I want to bring to this piece. Now if I can bring all of that to fruition, I'll have succeeded!

I also want to thank Grayangi and Taluula for their wonderful comments on my pages! Thank you ladies. I really appreciate your taking the time to comment!

Sisters: A Peek At Faux Encaustics

2009-08-07T01:15:00.005-04:00

The background in this piece is my first attempt at trying the "faux encaustic" technique from the workshop I'm taking. I decided to enhance it with some digital imagery from a Degas painting and the word love.

My sister had to put her 16 year old cat to sleep today. I was so sad after talking with her. I know what she's going through; I had to do the same for my little guy just after he turned 20 yrs old. After we talked, I got to thinking about when we were growing up and how she would follow me around trying to do whatever I was doing. All of these emotions were going through my head when I finished this first canvas today. I was looking for something to enhance it and when I looked in my files I came across the Degas painting that brought those memories back. So I took the image of the two girls and put them into my background.

Here is the canvas alone:

The technique is really cool. I didn't have the correct gel medium for one of the steps and had to use a soft gel gloss (instead of semi-gloss). This little town doesn't have much in way of art supplies so I'll have to stock up from Dick Blick. I went ahead and used the gloss on the other four canvasses, too, since these are only 5" x 5" samples used just to try the technique. I'll definitely do bigger canvasses when I get the correct supplies.

I did vary my technique just a little bit. The teacher used charcoal and graphite pencils to doodle on one layer. I tried that with some of the canvasses but wasn't thrilled with my results. No problem; you just cover them up in the next layer if you don't like them. I didn't repeat that step later in the process and just kept with what I had already done.

This is a great workshop and can be found at Creative Workshops (see side link). The teacher is Jodi Ohl and she's really thorough and fun to watch. I'm loving the possibilities with this technique!

I'll post the rest of the canvasses after I do the final step on them. I decided to jump in and finish one today. I wanted to make a little something for my sis, hoping it would at least make her feel loved. :)

Sweetness: A Mixed Media Journal Page

2009-08-04T19:38:00.005-04:00

This is the first double-page spread in my Goddess and Poet Moleskine journal. The idea is to shabbify (is that a word?) the background with layers of mixed media while still enhancing your goddess. Then you write a little poetry to accompany the mood of the piece.

I started out with a color palette of lime and raspberry, taken from the rub-on on the goddess' neck. Then it varied between pinks and greens and golds. I ended up having to paint her hair with Dr. Ph. Martin's Bombay White India Ink. It started out a pale lime green paint which was cool at first but then blended too much into the background. Then I added heavy layers of clear Gesso to give a lot of texture to the hair (and the background, too, while I was at it). Next I tried painting the hair with Silver Lumiere paint and a small brush. I didn't like that so I just painted over it all with the India Ink. I did like this. Ooh, I have a whole set of these...must paint with more of them!

Next, I wanted her eyes to be luminescent. I used Golden's Fluid Acrylic in the color Interference Violet. I am sold on the Interference colors; I'm getting them all. This photo below was taken at an angle so I could try and capture the iridescence of her eyes and the texture in the two pages from the Clear Gesso. You can click on the photo and get a better look at these:

So I'm playing around with the poetry in Photoshop first. When I decide on the final poem (or verse) I'll write that in with something, either a gel pen or one of the inks. I WISH I knew how to do Calligraphy. I have a how-to book and a beginner's set but have never really sat down with it and applied myself.

This workshop of Suzi Blu's is so much fun! All of the experimentation with the layers and layers and layers of paint, papers, inks, etc. really motivates me to start more pages and expand the journal even further! So I'll be working on these for awhile. I won't post all of them all of the time, but wanted to give you a peek at the journal work from the workshop. Tomorrow's lesson, when posted, will be the first of a two part series on working on the graphite portrait that's been applied to a wood support. I'm really looking forward to this one. I want to start working more with wood. I talked hubby into buying the 36" x 36" piece of birch plywood and he's been cutting it up into 6" x 12", 9" x 12" and 12" x 12" pieces for all of the art I've yet to make. :)

Now I've really got to get serious about the faux encaustic workshop canvasses I've started. The process looks to be so cool! I haven't forgotten about it...just been giving all of my time to these little goddesses! I hope to have something to show by the end of the week.

Magenta Muse

2009-07-31T11:23:00.004-04:00

Still experimenting with the faces I'm drawing in Suzi Blu's Goddess and Poet workshop. I really liked this face but I couldn't draw any suitable hair for her. So I didn't give her any. She's been sitting in the sketchbook for awhile waiting for something to happen.

I just began another experiment in Photoshop: painting my sketches! Duh! The paint brushes are called that for a reason! You paint with them! I've never used them to paint my own art; only to "color" in images that I would use in a layer mask. I was in Barnes & Noble the other day browsing the digital art magazines and kept reading how the artists would scan in their art and paint it. It's not so easy with the mouse but I gave it a try.

This is why I love Photoshop: The photo below is what I started with (scanned from my sketchbook with a few adjustments so you can see it better).

The result at the top of the page is just my playing with painting her face, lips, etc. All of the elements in the finished product, except for the font, the face and the hair, come from the Somewhere Beyond collection at Scrap Artist.com. Love them for their cool elements!

I had this photo of these gorgeous flowers called love lies bleeding in my files. I thought how cool they would be as hair! Voila! Now I'm thinking I need one of those Wacom tablets to help me paint better (no pesky mouse to try to maneuver!). Hubby will have to be convinced first, though. He's already promised to get me the new version of Photoshop. A Wacom may be pushing it... ;)

As for the actual sketch, I think I'll adhere her to wood and work on her along with the other graphite face in next week's lesson, "The Portrait on Wood". Right now she's still in the sketchbook. And I'll always have her in the computer if I ever want to give her a new look. We'll see what happens.

Wisdom

2009-07-28T20:42:00.004-04:00

Companion pieces to the one I posted earlier. Had to add some words to these journal pages...

Shine!

2009-07-28T16:09:00.004-04:00

What to do if you spend hours shading your goddess with colored pencils and still don't like the result? Scan her into Photoshop, put her into a cool background, embellish a little and then you won't have to throw her away! Plus, you really don't want to start ripping pages out of your new Moleskine do you?

Ugh! I worked on this one for a long time trying to get the shading just right. I'm okay with most of the colors even though I have a LONG way to go before I will get the result I want. But when I finished, I stepped back and looked at her. I'm just not that into her. ;) Her proportions are all wrong, her face is too long, I should make this a song... blah, blah, blah. So I put her into a digital world and now she's much more goddess-like placed there in the heavens.

I scanned her into the computer, made her a PNG file and used the Hard Light blending mode to give her the look I wanted on that background. Much better. And what a cool background! It's from the Gloaming collection at Scrap Artist.com. Love it!! Then I added a few embellishments from some other digital files and now she can shine!

Here she is in the bare Moleskine state:

Not too hot. I learned a lot from the mistakes of this one. So I'll keep practicing...drawing and shading until I get it right. Hopefully by the end of the workshop I'll have created something I love. The next lesson goes up tomorrow. We will be embellishing our journal backgrounds. Then in the final two weeks we will work with the goddesses that we did only in graphite. Mine was posted a few postings back. I really like her and hope I don't mess her up. She's now covered in a layer of clear gesso and mounted to wood ready for ... whatever the lesson will have us do!

Now, back to the sketchbook. I did draw a goddess last night that I'm kind of liking...we'll see where this one takes me. :)

Portraits and Goddesses

2009-07-25T14:55:00.003-04:00

We are only on Lesson 2 of the Goddess and Poet workshop but I wanted to show what I've been working on. These portraits are done in a Moleskine sketchbook. I LOVE the soft paper and the buff color. First we were to sketch a goddess and use minimal shading with the graphite pencil. Then we were to lightly color over the graphite using only creams and browns for the face/hair and reds for the lips. We will add more to these pages later. We were just to sketch and color.

For this next goddess we were to sketch her in and do only a few lines of graphite shading. Then we were to color her with the pencils gradually building up the layers. I'm not too crazy about this one but it's all part of the practice. Then we were to color in her hair a base color. I'm in love with Golden's Iridescent Bronze Fluid Acrylic so I colored her hair in that. I need a lot more practice on the building up around the eyes and the cheek area.

The next lesson will be posted Wednesday and we will be adding more to the backgrounds of these pages. For the final two lessons we will work with the first portrait that I posted a while back (the goddess done only in graphite) that is mounted onto wood.

I've also done some work in an art journal that I'm having a little success at maintaining! Still pulling together images for the faux encaustic collages and will post those when I have something to show. That's it for today.

Chunky Book Love

2009-07-23T21:22:00.003-04:00

I love chunky books! It's been awhile since I had participated in a chunky book swap so I signed up for this one with the theme: Home Sweet Home. These photos are listed in order of my favorites. You can click on each photo to get a larger view. The first house is called, "Home of the Muse". I used my own handmade fabric paper as the background and embellished it with napkins, chipboard, mica (for the window) and a white picket fence! I really had a good time with these. I love house images and seem to use them a lot in my art.

This second house is called, "Paris is Home". I used two of the Digital Grounds images that I printed onto soft gel medium and layered them over each other. The bottom image is a map of France and the image of the woman is overlapped onto that. The Digital Grounds makes the images transparent and gives them a mysterious effect, I think. The background is this really cool wrapping paper with a French theme that I toned down with some Titan Buff paint. I also collaged a sheet of French Textbook paper onto the background and covered that with a little of the paint. I really like the softness of the image and the muted colors.

This next house is called, "House of Memories". It has more of a vintage theme. I used mainly scrapbook papers and assorted collage papers for the background. I found these cool things called Fragments by Tim Holtz. I used one as the "window" that I placed over the image of the little boys. These fragments come in a big package with assorted sizes. I'll definitely use those again in my collages.

This last house is called, "Childhood Home". I wanted to give it a playful feeling so I used a lot of vintage images of children, some rubber stamps, a transparency of some dolls, a ribbon and a little heart patch I had in my stash.

I've been doing a lot of work in my art journal and my sketches for the Goddess and the Poet class are coming along. I'll post more of these soon. That's it for now.

Venetian Mask Swap

2009-07-20T11:35:00.004-04:00

Faced with the final days to complete my masks for the Venetian Mask Swap at The Sum of All ATC's Group, I did spend most of the day Sunday working on these masks. This first one is modeled after a gorgeous porcelain mask that my dear, dear sorority sis, Joanne, sent me. (I heart Joanne!) Of course, the one she sent me is much more colorful and ... I can't say enough about how gorgeous it is. Why didn't I include a photo of it? Doh!

Anyway, I tried to draw similar shapes and designs onto this one. I started with a heavy watercolor backing and I used my favorite Golden product, the Pearl Mica Flakes, as the background. I painted the gold and silver with Lumiere metallic paints and then added small glass beads over the silver layer and covered those with Diamond Glaze. I covered the ATC with a pretty metallic paper that I had, and adhered the mask with large glue dots so that it would stand out from the card a little bit. Hopefully, the person who gets this will like it!

This next one I used a product from Stewart Gill, which I'm LOVING, called Byzantia. This is the Jewel Bright Texture Media and I got it in two colors: Phoenecia and Labrynth. This particular color is the Labrynth. It is the turquoise colored metallic flake around the border. The interior of the mask is the Golden Mica Flake in Gold and the border around the eyes is the Golden Pearl Mica Flake. Then I added my favorite fiber called Trellis.

So now I'm off to get these in the mail. I have been keeping an eye on the swaps I'm signed up for: up next is the chunky book house swap. So cool! These are chipboard house shapes that we embellish however we want.

The next lesson in the Goddess workshop is due tomorrow and I'm going to cover my girl in clear Gesso and get her onto the wood. And, the little canvasses for the Faux Encaustics workshop are patiently waiting for me to add their collage papers! More to come...

Goddess Sketching

2009-07-18T21:52:00.003-04:00

Yes, I've been busy with the workshops! I've been sketching and erasing for two days now but I think this is the face I'll use for the Goddess and Poet workshop. I am still working on the shading and have a few more things to do before I put this onto the wood panel. It's coming along and I've made progress since my first sketch.

We had to start out making a gray scale (8 boxes that go progressively from white to black), a sphere (with 4 shades in it plus a shadow) and crosshatching. So I did that for a couple of days. Then we were to try a face. I really liked the first one I did until I watched her videos again. Then I decided to forget that one and try again. It's all practice, practice, practice but I'm getting the hang of it.

I loved the faux encaustics workshop, too! I watched all of the videos and have four canvasses gessoed and ready for collage. Hope to have something to show in the next few days. That's it for now. I wanted to post this while I still had the courage. ;)

Twilight

2009-07-13T23:15:00.003-04:00

Kimmie, the wonderful host at Digital Whisper.ning, posted a really nice piece of art featuring a haunted house for a group called "The Darker Side". It was so intriguing...I just couldn't forget it. I checked out the group and it's like a Gothic art site. I find myself really intrigued by the vampire trends in today's fiction. I am tempted to read the Twilight series of books but I haven't done so yet.

Anyway, I wanted to create a "darker" image of my own and came up with this little montage of images. I think it's funny how I gravitate to different subject matter. But when I see something that grabs me I want to explore it further. I'm mulling all of this around in my head while anticipating the next couple of workshops I'm taking. Wednesday will be the first day for two new ones: Suzi Blu's "The Goddess and The Poet" and over at Creative Workshops "Faux Encaustics". Both of these look to be fantastic workshops and I'm making notes of all of these ideas I have swirling in my head right now.

"The Goddess and The Poet" will be cool because not only are we drawing more lifelike portraits but we are adding our own poetry. What a great combination for art! And the "Faux Encaustics" looks to be really inspiring. I love encaustic work but after investigating the cost of the equipment I decided to hold off on that for awhile. From the sample artwork that Jodi Ohl (the teacher) put in the promo, it looks like the next best thing. So, we'll see!

Just thought I'd put this piece up today. Lots of images coming to mind for future work. Stay tuned...

Two Journal Pages

2009-07-12T12:51:00.004-04:00

I've been a little behind in some of the projects I committed to doing and thought I would take a deep breath. I've been so excited about the Petite Dolls painting that I let other things kind of slide. So, I started to catch up today. I like to keep up with the digital art journal that I have going at Digital Whisper.ning and I've missed the last two prompts.

The first photo is from the prompt that showed a stone wall. The prompt was something like "you've been told that you CAN'T do something. What is your response?" I changed the wall a little bit and added other things that brought out what I was thinking when I made this piece.

The second prompt said to think of a word that applies to how you felt this week. Well, I had two words: hurried and under pressure (ok, three words). That's why I'm so tired! So, this page just kind of came together pretty quickly with that prompt!

Now I can re-group and start these other little projects that I've been putting off. AFTER I take a nap!! ;)

Jazz Baby Finished

2009-07-10T12:35:00.004-04:00

I just finished applying the beeswax to my painting and I LOVE the effect! It adds a dreamy, gauzy look to the piece and definitely gives it more depth. I admit I was afraid to work with the wax, thinking it would mess up all the hard work but I'll definitely be using it in more of my art. If you click on each photo, you'll get a better look at the texture.

In Suzi's technique you don't need a small crock pot to melt your wax in. You just take the bar of wax and a small quilting iron, hold the iron to the wax right over where you want to drip it, and then smooth the drips out with the iron. That way, you control where the wax goes and how much of it you want to add. So easy!

I especially like how it made her face look so soft and dreamy. Beautiful effect. That was one benefit of really applying a thick coat of colored pencils. That wax base blended perfectly with the hot wax when added! Here is another view that shows more of the texture and detail with the wax:

Just for comparison, I put up this "before" photo that I posted yesterday. If you compare the two, you'll be able to see the difference. So fun!

Now I'm gearing up to do more of these with some faces I've got prepared. I'm also looking forward to Suzi's new class called, "The Goddess and the Poet" which starts July 15. This class teaches more lifelike portrait drawing. We will add a little poetry to the mix and see what happens. Stay tuned...

Jazz Baby

2009-07-09T15:10:00.004-04:00

Here is my first Petite Dolls painting from Suzi Blu's class. She's all finished except for the beeswax. I wanted to get a photo of her before and after beeswax. I'm a little nervous about doing the wax; I've never used it before. But I'll give it a whirl tonight. You can click on each photo to get a larger view.

Here is a close-up of the painting before I added the pearl mica flakes to her hair. All of the closeups with the mica flakes in the hair make it look like glitter and it's not. Anyway, this was the best photo of the background detail.

Here is a closeup (sorry about the blur) of the mica flakes and more of the background. The music note to the right of her doesn't show up very well on the camera but it is raised above the wood. I used molding paste and then painted over it. Looks a lot better in person. I also wanted to show the irridescence of her pants. That doesn't show up too well in most of the photos either, but it does in this last photo:

After I get the beeswax on, I'll post one more photo of the complete look.

The idea behind the Petite Dolls paintings is they are supposed to be your dolls that have been placed onto a "shabby" background. That means lots of layers, lots of paint, collage, etc. Then you add some BOOM (gold leaf, glitter, mica flakes, etc.) all of which I've added here. That's a Petite Doll painting -- Suzi Blu style. I think I captured the look pretty well.

Since this was a Bluesy, jazzy style of doll I wanted the colors to be darker and deeper. I mentioned before that I had chosen the colors scheme of: olive, purple, gold, black and white. The olive doesn't show up in this final version but it is subtle in the background. There are a lot of layers to this piece and every once in a while you get a hint of the olive color.

Wish me luck with the beeswax. You are just supposed to drip it here and there. I won't cover her hair because of the mica flakes but most of the rest of it will at least receive a drip or two.

Dancin' Dottie

2009-07-07T12:07:00.004-04:00

Today I feel just like Dancin' Dottie up there. Cha-cha-cha, Ooh-la-la! ;) Hubby cut some plywood for me last night and today I'm laying down the first layers of collage for my Petite Dolls paintings. I have about three dolls I'm working with right now but I've only settled on a color palette for one of them so far.

The jazz girl doll (see previous posts) is the first one I'll be working on today. I settled on the palette of black/cream, purple, olive and gold. I have this awesome book called, The New Big Book of Color, by David Carter. It is mainly for graphic designers and is full of examples of different color palettes and how they work in different layouts. He even breaks it out into "moods" that you want to create. For this painting I wanted a more sophisticated color scheme just because of the jazzy style. The perfect palette was the one I just described.

I think I can intuitively put colors together okay but this book is a great help. I was stumped on color choices for the paintings but now I'll be able to browse through the book and see if my ideas will work. Yay!

Also new: have discovered a cool new artist: Kat MacLeod (awesome figure/fashion drawing with a mod twist). She is definitely an inspiration and I hope to get more ideas by studying her work.

I think it's funny how you can come across something you see on a website and then be so inspired by it that you just keep searching, searching, searching and narrowing your search until you end up with all the info you need to take off from there. I'm talking specifically about the little girl in this collage. She was from a piece of French wrapping paper that was put up on Helga Strauss' blog at Artchix Studio. I loved her face and the little outfit (I changed the colors for this piece). I just had to make a little collage with her in it! She reminded me of the little Japanese girl that Suzi Blu had on a piece of wrapping paper she used in her collage.

So I Googled (is that a verb now?) "Japanese wrapping paper" and "Japanese dolls" and "Japanese dolls on paper", etc. I got such a wealth of images and info! These little cuties will definitely be showing up in my art soon, along with my own little twist of course. Those little faces are perfect inspiration for petite dolls and other works that can blossom from there.

They also remind me of the Kawaii style of art which is kind of funky, cute art that incorporates characters like these along with other elements. I remember when I first saw Kawaii art I didn't really get it. Funny how all of a sudden your tastes or likes can change! Now I totally get it and I think I can twist it into something more to my liking.

Anyway, that's what's going on today. Hopefully the Gesso is dry on the wood by now and I can start the painting, inking and layering. Stay tuned for results...

Tiny Dancer: Part 2

2009-07-05T15:52:00.001-04:00

Couldn't stop fiddling with this one (see previous photo). I like this version better. ;)

Tiny Dancer

2009-07-05T14:39:00.002-04:00

One of my all-time favorite songs is, "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John. It brings back bittersweet memories of growing up. Every time I hear it, it takes me back to another time. I was putting together this collage and kept thinking about the song. I was THRILLED to find a downloadable music sheet for it! I'll be using this in more of my art.

Anyway, I just felt like making something pretty today. Now, back to works in progress.

Frozen

2009-06-30T22:44:00.005-04:00

I've been made painfully aware that some people close to me have suffered or are suffering from domestic violence. I made this piece for them in hopes that they will eventually have the strength and courage to get out of the dangerous situations that have been occurring. Enough said.

Little MissUnderstood

2009-06-24T12:32:00.004-04:00

For the first time EVER, I can say that I'm finally able to use a little bit of MY original artwork in a piece! Yay!! The face in this piece is my little suspender girl (see last post). The rest of the artwork is from digital files I already had but the face is mine!! :)

I'm on the hunt for the birch plywood I'll need to mount my doll onto. Suzi uses 6" x 12" but we can use any size we like. I'm painting the body of my girl today. The face is to be drawn and colored with color pencils (done) and the body is to be lightly painted with acrylic paint. All of this is done on our sketchbook paper. Then we cut them out and separate the head (off with the head!). That way we can place the head at an angle if we like when we collage it onto the wood. So, lots to do today.

I was looking at her face and thought how she kind of looks sad (not intentional) and decided to make a little digital collage with her in it.

First Attempts At Shading

2009-06-23T17:13:00.004-04:00

So we've moved on to Lesson 2: Shading the face with colored pencils. I never really understood the whole color pencil thing. Now I get it! You BLEND them! Duh!! Anyway, these are my first attempts at trying to give the face some depth. This first girl is the one I'll probably use for my project (the suspenders girl). I'll probably do another face or two of hers before I get it exactly like I like it. I kept the original in the sketchbook and just hold it up to a window and trace the face onto a new page of sketch paper to practice my shading. That way you always have your original intact.

This next one was just a practice face I made up. She was actually the first one I tried. Not bad but need to watch the videos again to see how Suzi did the hair.

These will be adhered to a wood support and then painted on here and there to jazz them up a little. I'll definitely use paint to bring out the first girl's blonde hair. Plus the wood support will already be collaged by the time we adhere the doll. So, still a lot to learn before we get to that point.

That's all for today. Just wanted to show first attempts. :)

BOO! Just For Fun

2009-06-21T15:02:00.004-04:00

Here's my creepy, sad-eyes girl. She's a little on the ghoulish side but would be great for Halloween. I like the Tim Burton style of art and this is sort of along those lines. She's sad, yes, but she has her dolly to keep her company. Hr dolly is pretty happy, though! Hubby said she's too sad. I said, Duh! That's the point!! Anyway, thought I'd put her up today. She's one of my favorites and I'm going to use her in the class, too. I'll have a pretty doll and a ... uh, her. ;)
Loving the class. One thing I learned: the lessons run two weeks at a time. That's good! I have a whole week to work on more faces and settle on what doll I'll use in the workshop. She is putting up a critique video sometime today. That's all for today. Back to sketching...

Les Petit Doll: Suspender Style!!

2009-06-19T23:31:00.003-04:00

OK, this is the last one I'm posting tonight. I've been drawing all night while the TV has been on. I like her a lot but I also like the one I just posted before. Not sure which one I'll submit for tomorrow. Anyway, can you tell I'm loving this class? ;)

One More Les Petit Doll

2009-06-19T17:32:00.003-04:00

Here is another doll I just finished. I really like her. Her shoes don't show up completely but she's all there. We have to have an outline to submit by tomorrow. If I don't come up with anything else I like as well as this one, I'll submit her.

Drawing Les Petit Dolls

2009-06-19T14:57:00.005-04:00

OK, here's what I've been up to. I found out about this awesome drawing class being taught by one of my favorite artists: SuziBlu (see side panel). It's teaching you how to draw dolls. You all know I LOVE anything to do with dolls and I've been wanting to figure out a way to paint them...well, here it is. She teaches you to draw her kind of dolls: Les Petit Dolls. They are kind of whimsical, kind of primitive, big eyes, exaggerated features, just what I love!

I just found out about the class Wednesday. It started Monday so I was only a few days behind. The first lesson is drawing, drawing, drawing, practicing, practicing, practicing, faces and bodies. By Saturday we have to have a sketch of our doll posted for the critique. Right now I've been drawing like crazy trying to come up with something I want to use as my doll for the remainder of the course. I've got three sketch books going and have posted some of my favorite pages. I love the little girl at the top. The paper she's drawn on is kind of a funky texture so I had to increase the contrast so it would show up. Same as with the second photo. These are my two favorites so far. I've got to settle on a face soon because I have to give her a body and clothes and post her by tomorrow. So the first two are my favorites and then they are listed in random order:

One of the things Suzi emphasizes is DO NOT DRAW THE SAME FACE over and over. She wants to see different faces on each doll sketch. She shows you how to vary your faces so there's no excuse for the same face each time.

Some of her dolls have completely round faces, some have more angular faces. I'm trying to mix it up and see which I like the best. I have a ton of ideas for body poses and clothes so I'm narrowing the faces down this afternoon. I'll sketch the body and her outfit tonight.

This last one is an example of what she calls a more stylized face. It has exaggerated lines for the nose and usually is used with more elaborate costuming.

So I've been a busy little sketch artist. Have I ever drawn in my life? NO! I usually just doodle. But I love faces and dolls so I think I can do this. I just draw page after page of eyes and then start to add the rest of the features. When I have my finished sketch, I'll post it.

Eventually, after you've got a workable draft, then you begin the process of painting a background onto a wood support. Then you add your doll, paint her and add some 3-D embellishments. It's a five week course that seems to move pretty fast. So, off I go.

This is all tying in to my series I'm working on but I'm not going to tell you any more than that for right now! Also, I'm sewing down the finishing touches on the woven collage and will post that soon as well.

Submerged

2009-06-10T17:35:00.005-04:00

This is a mixed media collage on canvas that I made using more of the monoprints I talked about in my last post. I call this one, "Submerged" because after I finished it I noticed it looked like the little girl was submerged in water.

The story behind this one: The image of the girl in the center is from my work with the Digital Grounds that I talked about a while back. This particular image was printed out onto two layers of molding paste and a layer of pearl mica flake. I loved how it looked when it was finished and was very happy with all of the images on that particular piece of molding paste.

I don't know if you remember but I mentioned later that I had tried to "seal" those with the recommended sealer that came with the Digital Grounds kit. It was a satin finish, I think. After I applied it to the whole sheet of molding paste images, they all started to get this green tint! I was horrified! All of my beautiful images were now green-y. Big Disappointment. But I kept them anyway, thinking I'd be able to do something with them. I'd worked so hard to make those. But I did end up making a lot more of the molding paste/mica flake images and they are all safe and just as nice as the first ones! Lesson learned: do NOT seal the molding paste! ;)

Anyway, back to this image. I mentioned before that I'm working on a series around the theme, "Finding My Way Home". This all centers around the death of my mom and my still trying to come to terms with my grief. The first canvas had the title, "No Tears In Heaven". After finishing this one, I just saw water images... the greens, the blues, even the mica flakes looked like air bubbles under water. Then I thought about how I felt when I learned of Mom's death: like I was drowning... with grief, loss, anger, all of it. So, without even planning it the little girl and her green image fit perfectly in this piece. Here is a closeup of that image:

After looking at it for awhile I noticed what look like tears coming out of her eyes in a little trail. I don't know when that happened; probably when I was adhering the image to the canvas. It even adds more to the piece! Just another "accident" that brings more meaning to it for me. If you look real closely you'll see part of a very thin mica tile over her eyes. There's another little piece of mica in the bottom right part of her photo which you can't see at all. After placing those down it really looked like a shattered window. I like that effect a lot.

And here's another view taken from a different angle. It was hard to get the little girl to show up in the photos due to the glare coming off of the mica.

This photo was taken BEFORE I added the numbers and finishing touches that you see in the first photo. The "5" is in reference to five years since she died and the "April" and "94" are in reference to when she died. I am just now able to start looking at all of this material without completely shutting down. It's my way of working through it all and FINDING MY WAY HOME.

No Tears In Heaven

2009-06-08T18:12:00.008-04:00

So while I was tinkering with my woven-fabric collage I started playing with monoprints. This is a mixed media collage on canvas (5" x 5"). Other media used besides my own monoprints were copper mesh, plastic mesh, tulle, tissue paper, fluid acrylics and a metal charm. The title for this one is "No Tears In Heaven". It's part of a series I'm working on with the theme Finding My Way Home.

A few sets of the monoprints I made are posted below in order of my preference. I spent the better part of yesterday just cranking them out. I used the artist Paula Grasdal's technique as described in the book, Mixed Media Collage by Holly Harrison. Ooh, I love this book! In Paula's technique you don't need a printing press (something I don't have) to make your monoprints but you still get decent results.

You just need a sheet of plexiglass to use as your printing plate, some rice paper (or other translucent papers), water soluble oil paints (gouache), newsprint and a brayer. These papers are all about 6" x 6". They will be torn later and used in larger works.

I like the colors in the first two sets the most:

The blues and the peachy reds turned out much better than the photos (as usual). I used a bird stencil for one of the prints just to see how it would translate. I did like the result with that one.

And in these last two sets I just mixed colors that were left over on the printing plate, placed moistened rice paper over top of it and burnished with a brayer. The shapes are made by tearing newsprint into whatever shape you want and laying it over the wet paint before you lay down your rice paper. This was the set I used for the collage I just finished:

Paula suggested making small art studies with the torn papers to play with the composition before trying a large canvas. That's what I did with this first canvas. I have a bunch of small 5"x5" canvasses that I got on sale a long time ago and those will work perfectly.

I still need to work on mixing colors but for a first try working with the gouache I'm pretty happy with the results. I have a lot of other sets that I didn't photograph. Once I got on a roll yesterday I made sure to make a big stash to be able to choose from when I sit down to do another canvas. I also included one of the Digital Grounds images that I printed onto tulle a while back. It's the face in the lower left corner.

I keep adding to and taking items from the woven-fabric collage. It's about 75 percent finished; still looking for one more piece. I'll know it when I find it! ;)