Purple Polka-dot Witch...

Welcome to Blogtoberfest Day 16!

I worked on a fun little sketch yesterday, just some practice with faces...

 Her features and hair are painted with acrylic paints, and her dress and headband are paper collage...

When I was done, I decided to dress her up as a witch for Halloween, and put her on another ATC.

Until next time...enjoy!

The Halloween Fun Begins...

Welcome to day 10 of Blogtoberfest!

Today I figured I better get started on my ATCs for this months Flygirls Swap. The theme this month is Halloween and I worked on my backgrounds in preparation for them...

I will be needing six, so I used some scrap foam-core from an artist friend, and cut them down to 5" X 7". This is double the size I will need but it is easier to work with the larger pieces. I will be assembling these digitally, so re-sizing is quick and simple. For me, Halloween means black cats, witches, pumpkins and oddly enough, vintage. I have already collected different elements and clip-art, and with the backgrounds scanned into my computer, I am ready to create...

Here is my first, a mixture of images from vintage postcards, magazines and an advertisement for a funeral home. I just love this ladies costume, all ready for the Halloween Ball! 

More to follow in the coming days...

Until next time...enjoy!

Just Start Adding Paint...

Day 4 of Blogtoberfest finds me with some color smeared on my large canvas. I hemmed and hawed and had a moment of uncertainty. It is so easy to freeze, worrying over things like ruined canvas and wasted paint. All I can advise is "Just start adding paint!" Don't worry about things like value and worth. I have paid more to see a movie than I spent on this canvas, so Hey, it's just for fun, right?

I like working in blue and aqua, and I do have a habit of lightening the intensity towards the center. 

 

 I also worked on my owl element, on a separate paper. This is why I like mixed media collage so much. I can work independently on a single element, until I have it just how I want it to look, before adding it to the final piece. I will often make color copies at different stages of the drawing,  then do finish work on the color copies, especially when working on details like eyes and expressions. It saves a lot of heart ache over ruined attempts.

 This little pretty is sketched, then colored in using ink, color pencil and oil pastel...

Here she is, along with the basic branches, that are currently just blocked in with their base color. I haven't yet decided if I will use strips of paper to add texture to the branches, work solely with paint, or, most likely, a combination of both, along with more oil pastel.

I usually have more paint on my pallet than I like to waste, so I spread some onto an extra 8" X 10" canvas I had. That lead me down this path...

It is hard to see in this picture, but I added a flourish cut on my Sizzix. It blended in a little too well, so I started adding a bit of shadow using a bark colored Inktense pencil, and smudging it with a wet paint brush. It visually lifts the flourish up off the canvas, and adds dimension. On the lower left side, I tried the shadowing effect on the torn layers of paper. I like it, so will do that on the rest of the piece.

Well, that's my time in the studio today, until next time...enjoy!

Layered Background Canvases...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am working on another 50 blocks for the Art-o-mat Project . Somewhere about block 29, I realized I was going to need a larger variety of backgrounds to work with. I really don't like the idea of sending in 50, or even 10 exact same pieces of art. So this week , besides harvesting more veggies from the garden, battling a swarm of hornets at the cabin and cleaning out yet another rental, I decided to focus on background canvases. The plan is to scan these into my computer and assemble collages digitally, using my own art work and some elements from my collection of purchased royalty free clipart. I kept the colors compatible with the MDF blocks that I already painted, and am pleased with the diversity.

  Deciding it would be more convenient to keep the originals small, for purposes of resizing, I dove into my stash of 5" x 7" canvas panels. These are very economical, and make a sturdy piece that is flat enough to scan beautifully on my flatbed scanner. I could have also used the 4" x 6" panels. The 4" x 4" are nice, but being square, I end up cutting off much of the fun detail in order to get them to the finished size of 2 1/8" x 3 1/4" required to fit the blocks. I also made a couple of the backgrounds on heavy watercolor paper, and even though they curled just a bit, they still scan just fine.

I watched the movie Clash of the Titans this week, and that got me reading my Greek Mythology again. I had the idea for a larger canvas, featuring the Greek Goddess, Athena. After all, she was in charge of not only wisdom, but also creativity, art and handcrafts. Here is my initial sketch, which will eventually be transferred to a layered canvas and painted. The sketch will change drastically, but you got to start somewhere, right?

The theme for Every Inchie Monday is "wind", and I found it a difficult challenge. I mean, how do you paint something you cannot see? Then I realized that, though you don't see the wind, you do see it's effect on objects. Since the wind singing through the trees is on my list of favorite things, that is what I painted.

Until next time...enjoy!

Outside My Comfort Zone...

When my daughter started designing her new living room, she took a walk on the wild side by going with an African theme. She surprised me by asking me to create a piece of art that would work in the room, but also had some personal imagery. This sort of request is way outside my comfort zone. More painting than collage, custom theme, not really cutesy...But I decided to give it a try.

I started with a 14"x18" canvas panel, and layered it with papers and ephemera. I found magazine photos of elephants and giraffe, a map of Africa, and a great line on cardstock called Safari Chic, by DCWV. I gave it all a really good coat of gel medium and used my brayer to smooth it out as best I could. The magazine pages gave me some real fits, right from the start and even after they were down flat as can be, when I started adding paint, they lifted right up again, and made bubbles, which I don't like, but have to live with...
I added washes of color, and used the brayer to added thicker, grungy layers of acrylic paint. Then painted the mountains and background, working my way forward to the tree.

My daughter is a redhead and became the warrior in the piece. She is very fond of her cat, so I made him a bit larger, more of a panther sized, to be a companion in her wanderings. I was pretty nervous about painting the two figures, so I created them on a scrap of paper first, using a sketch and watered down acrylics, then cut them out and collaged them to the painting. I left the foreground mostly untouched, so that more of the collage papers would show through. I can't seem to do anything about the wrinkles in the lower right corner, and I am trying to accept them as a "textural element"...

I added a coat of acrylic encaustic, which did help smooth the pieces out a bit, and blended the figures into the background, so they didn't seem so "cut and paste". So here it is, my finished mixed media canvas; "Forever Fierce". I hope she likes it...

This weeks Every Inchie Monday theme is "makeup", you can see the others in this challenge right here!

Studio Play Day

Over the weekend, Mr. How2 and I went to Spokane to visit with family. It has been a long winter and we hadn't seen many of them for months. I was pleasantly surprised to get an e-mail invite to a Quote Collage Studio Play Day hosted at Spokane Art Supply. I was able to wiggle our visiting schedule around enough to attend and had a wonderful time playing with other local artists for the better part of the day.
   Our instructor was Maryjo Mcgraw, and she is not only an amazing artist, but she is generous with both her knowledge and her art supplies. You can learn more about her, see her art and consider taking her new online class by clicking here. Here are the canvases I worked on that day...

 This one, I felt, I had ruined, the top portion lost much of it's detail while I was experimenting with Montana Spray Paint, and stencils. However many of the other artists there said it was their favorite...

I really love how this one turned out but I don't believe it is finished yet, so I am waiting for inspiration to hit me...

  If you are like me, you spend a lot of time alone in your studio learning your style of art. But art shouldn't exist in a vacuum. It is meant to be shared, otherwise why bother to get it out of your head and into the world? Next time the opportunity arises, go out there. Go to workshops, classes play days and art shows. Meet other like minded souls, learn from them and then teach them what you know. You and your art will be better for the sharing, and you never know what may come of it...
Today is also Every Inchie Monday; and today's theme is "River"...

Thanks for visiting me this week, until next time...enjoy!

Watercolor Inchie and a Background Doodle...

Today is Every Inchie Monday, the theme is "dance" and I just happen to be playing with my watercolor paints, so...I continue to be challenged by these tiny little treasures, but I do have fun with them. If you would like to see all the art work for EIM, please check out this site!

This is a doodle background I created using acrylic paint, stencils, oil pastels and sharpies. You can never have too many backgrounds in mixed media art, and they are a wonderful free playtime in your studio. Meaning I don't sweat the finished product, I just play with color and design, adding layer after layer until something tells me to stop. After this is scanned in, it can be used in many different projects, including ATC and canvas art. I love having a collection of my own papers to play with, it ensures that my own personality is showing up in my work. Until next time...enjoy!

Gadabout Artist: Home Again!

After a rather uneventful three day trip, we are finally home, safe and sound. The last few days have been all about emptying out the motor home, getting paper work together for taxes, and just generally trying to catch up on everything, and with everyone. The kitties seem to have fared well, they either missed me or not, cats are so sphinx-like, it's hard to tell. I haven't spent a whole lot of time in my studio yet, except to unload all my art supplies. The place is a bit of a mess, but I did stop long enough to make a birthday card for mom-in-love...

My main focus, now that we are home, will be to finish putting together my submissions for the Art-o-mat project. I am still trying to learn how to better leverage my art, but haven't had as much time as I would like to learn more about digital art, so I am using a bit of both new tech and old. Here is a raven I painted, and scanned into my computer...

I then reduced the size, printed it out and cut and added it into my finished piece...

The words at the bottom read... "Tempus edax rerum"...meaning; "Time devours all things"...which is a somewhat  theatrical way of saying time marches on...

I will start posting some of the works I made during my travels. Until then, enjoy...

Gadabout Artist: Playing in the Sunshine...

Well, we are firmly ensconced in sunny Yuma, AZ, and enjoying days of 70+ degree weather. I have no real complaints, we are hooked up to power and water, so no more batteries or sponge baths, very nice after dry camping in the desert for so long. There are many wonderful snow-birds to meet and I spent a lovely evening playing bingo with 253 of them! No beginners luck for me, though...too bad, it would have helped pay for all the extra beads and art supplies I bought in Quartzsite!

There are not a lot of art supplies available there, but a store appropriately named,  "Addicted To Deals" seems to be a clearing house for just about anything under the sun, and they had a wonderful assortment of scrapbooking supplies. The large rubber stamps were only 3 for $5 and the sets were under $2. I think they will be great for my ATCs and the art I am working on for Art-o-mat. Speaking of which, one of our new neighbors here is a wood worker, I am going to ask him later today if he might be willing to cut out the little blocks of MDF that I need for my first shipment to Art-o-mat. I have been working on the art, and had planned to affix them to the blocks once we returned home, but this would allow me to ship much earlier. There is a lot of trading of skills back and forth down here, and I thought I might join in...

Here are just a few of the beads I bought, there are hundreds of tents and stores selling them in Quartzsite, and you can find everything imaginable for jewelry making. I haven't been in the jewelry business for a very long time, but I just could not resist, old habits die hard. So when I finally get around to opening that Etsy shop, you will likely find a collection of jewelry as well as art. My sweet daughter has recently started making jewelry, so she will receive some as well. She likes the more ethnic/hippy style, so these pendants and wood and coral beads were purchased for her. Until next time, enjoy...

Learning to Leverage my Art...

I first heard this phrase while watching an art tutorial video online, in which the artist was explaining how you can get more mileage out of your art work.As I understand the meaning, after creating a piece of art, on canvas, paper or even cardboard, you can then scan, copy or photograph that work, and print it out. This gives you an unending supply of your own original work, to tear, crumple, paint, tint, layer and paste to your hearts content. I find the concept intriguing. I decided to give it a try;

This piece will eventually become a background image for some of the tiny art I am currently working on for the Art-o-mat project. I have been learning my way around Pinterest, and got caught up in some posts using paint chips as art components, so this influence has made an appearance here.

 I am also just finishing up Traci Bautistas Doodles Unleashed Strathmore Online Workshop, so the colors and the free style are also making themselves known. What I didn't realize while working on this one, is how much it was also influenced by my current location, out in the Arizona desert. Mr. How2 took one look and said he loved my cactus picture! I never even noticed, but it does rather resemble a desert garden, doesn't it?
I guess you could say my mind is a bit like a crowded attic, the last thing dumped in there, is the first thing you see when you open it up!

Back to leveraging your art; I also came across this video, and the concept really started to come together for me while I watched it, thank you to the artist Zorana!
 When I get back to civilization, and can plug into an actual outlet, instead of a cactus, I will scan these backgrounds into my computer. From that point, I can print them out in pieces, in their entirety, in different colorways or intensities, and use them in a variety of ways. I wouldn't want to overuse the same art, but I can certainly do much more with it than just one painting. I am currently working on a full page of faces, and another of birds and flowers to use with these to create mixed media collage art.
So go ahead and look at your art again, but look in a different way. You may find a whole new world of art in there! Until next time, enjoy...

A little stolen time in my studio...

The massive whirlwind that is the holiday season is in full rush around here, and even though I swore to sit this one out, it does tend to catch me up and toss me about, now and again. Short of holing up in a storm cellar, I just have to go along with it for now, and try not to instigate any additional breezes. All this to say, I have been away from my studio for a few days, and it is starting to show. I start to get antsy, and my hands get too clean. That probably explains this little project;

In a large bundle of mail, along with the ads, bills, and various generic greeting cards from local businesses, I got a decent sized magnet. You know the kind, the insurance guy, and plumber send a business card sized one every year. Well, this one was big, about 4" X 6" and was advertising a little boutique I went to last summer. It had a calendar on it, with numbers too tiny for me to read...I hated to waste it, to just throw it away, so I decided that, since I am a collage artist, and any surface is fair game, then hey! I need a new magnet for my fridge. The days of my children's art adorning my fridge are long gone, so I decided to make my own grown up version.
    I cut a piece of background scrapbook paper, and used Mod Podge and a brayer to smooth it down. I then added a strip of text from an old poetry book, I found thrown out at the thrift store because the spine was missing. Images were stamped randomly over all, using my StaZon ink pad, and then more embellishments and words. I coated everything with another layer of Mod Podge, then did a little detail drawing with a copper metallic Sharpie pen. It looks good in my kitchen, and reminds me to find my grace, during this frantic time of the year. Enjoy...

AEDM: Day 2 (10) Background papers

   In keeping with my post yesterday, today I am making my own art papers to use in my paintings. I made this sheet using a 5x7 scrap of watercolor paper, water color paint, foam stamps, bubble wrap, shelf liner and acrylic craft paint. The plan is to make a large assortment of my own paper samples that I can print copies of and use to my hearts content.
   I like this idea because;
1: It is my own work, so I get to skip worrying about the whole copyright thing.
2: I can make as many copies as I want or need.
3: No problem color coordinating with my piece.
    Here you can see the original paper, and under it, an enlargement on plain copy paper. I simply ran the sample through my scanner, and selected "fit to page", and copy. It is maybe a little too monochromatic, but I think I can work with it...