Hand Study Enhanced

After staring at that hand study for over a week, I decided to add to it and make it more of a finished piece.

As I was adding the water to the orange Neocolors in the background, I noticed the black ink was bleeding. Turns out I didn't use a permanent pen for it. So I went with it and added water to the whole hand.

For something that took less than 5 minutes to enhance, I'm happy with it.

Hand Study

 

Crosshatching in Pen

All About Texture - After

This is a project I did with my Advanced Art II class.

They were to take random items that I had collected from the dollar store and garage sales and create a non-objective composition focusing on texture and the principles of design. It was then going to be painted white with gesso. 

Here's my piece after I painted it: 

(see the "before" here)

I am generally happy with the real thing. There's more doily texture that doesn't show up in this picture. It's really subtle. I did have to go back and add several more layers of things to get the texture to show. The paint ended up filling in the texture so it appeared flat. Plus the orange vertical lines and the blue dots of yarn still show through though, which is annoying.

So I would do things a little differently next time:

1. Definitely no crepe paper, tinsel, or anything else where the color bleeds when gesso is applied. It was a beating having to do SEVERAL coats of gesso and still have the color showing through.

2. Use spray paint not gesso. It covered much easier but still needed a few coats.

3. Because of #1 and 2 above, use all white items. Just plain easier!

All About Texture

Before...

Back Shading

I am trying to get my students to understand what back shading is (well, at least that's what I call it. Is there another official word for it?)

So while this is not EXACTLY what they were to do for their assignment, it's close. 

This a drawing of flowers in pencil with red ball point pen back shading.

Their project was to draw flowers shaded (and back shaded) on a painted watercolor surface. It was my first attempt at this assignment, but I'd say it was successful!

Stamp Making

I'm currently teaching my advanced class how to make stamps.

We are making square designs that can be rotated to create larger designs, but I had a long strip of the speedy cut left over and thought I'd make a pseudo-chevron stamp out of it since the chevron (aka zig-zag) pattern is super popular right now.

It doesn't line up perfectly when repeated in a row like this, but I don't mind. It's not supposed to be a finished piece. Just to be used as pattern and texture in non-focal point areas.

I'm happy with it and it only took about 40 minutes to complete from initial design to what you see here.

Tall

The topic for the week on Illustration Friday was "tall".

I don't have a lot of experience with this word as I am only 4'11".

However some of my best friends are 6' and my husband is 6'1".

So this is a tribute to you Kac and Steph, and KS! Love y'all!

A new painting cont (& IF: Lost)

Here are the remaining steps:

Step 5. I seem to have either deleted the photos or didn't take any between step four and five because I made quite a few adjustments. We have a reddish brown leather couch so I added maroon stripes on the yellow circles and added black outlines around the circles. Originally I had used black around the edges, but at some point I realized there is no black in our living room so I changed it to brown.

Step 6. Our wooden coffee table has yellow and orange undertones so I added some orange in the background to mute the purple a bit.

Step 7. I knew I wanted to put a quote on top (even though I wasn't sure which one yet) and thought all the colors wre a bit too vibrant and there was too much going on for the quote, so I used zinc white to try and soften the colors without losing them completely.

Step 8. I used ivory white to add the quote (which was the theme of the sermon on Sunday that started this whole adventure). I am NOT LOST when I have my shepherd guiding and protecting me. That brings me such peace.

Step 9. I added a little brown cast shadow to make the letters pop just a bit more. You can't really tell from the couch that the shadows are there which I like. Just makes it stand out a bit.

I'm very pleased with it. And it's refreshing to have a new painting hanging!

A new painting

I got inspired at church to create a painting for our mantle.

There were lots of steps so I'll be breaking it down into a few posts. They are all in acrylic paint.

Step 1. I started with gessoing an old canvas that I had already made two paintings on, so there was a lot of texture before I started.

Step 2. I painted purple circles with a stencil.

Step 3. I used a paper towel to swipe on an off white color to pick up the texture.

Step 4. I added yellow ochre circles.

Stay tuned for more...

IF: carry

Kitty cat

Here is a collage I made using magazines with Citra Solv. It looks like my kitty!

IF- Refresh

Since I have recently been creating a lot of layered mixed media lately, I thought it would be Refreshing to have something minimalistic yet still intriguing.

Cloud Banner

This is a little something I did while out of town with limited resources. The background is Neocolor crayons with water dripped/washed on top and a sharpie design of cloud banners inspired by Julie.

9x5" mixed media

Hurry!

I finally got motivated to play in my sketchbook. 

I sat down at my messy desk with visions of repetition and stencils bouncing around my head. 

Once the taste of Nerds had dissolved from my tongue, I noticed a horrible stench coming from the litter box. 

Seeing as how I'm now pregnant, little things like cleaning litter boxes have been taken off my to do list. And alas, my wonderful husband was outside mowing the yard and could not empty it out right then, so I had to relocate.

So I grabbed my sketchbook, 2 sharpies and my circle stencil and headed to the living room. 

I found this old page with acrylic paint I was using up and decided to draw on top of it.

It's not much, but at least it's something. Quite appropriate too for Illustration Friday's theme of Hurry, since it took me less than 10 minutes to complete!

8x5" acrylic and sharpie

Pink Honeycomb

I can't seem to find a large chunk of time until school gets out, so here's a little goodie

I made in less than 30 minutes. 

Gotta love me some mixed media with repetition and texture!

My layers include: marker with water dripped, stamps, stencils, Neocolor I, and sharpie on masking tape on a page in an old book. 

A New (to me) Artist

While perusing Pinterest I came across this artist. 

Graham Franciose

I love his work!

It's so emotional, captivating and creative.

I don't have permission to post his work, but you should definitely check it out for yourself. 

It'll be worth your time!!

Hitched

A quick sketch for Illustration Friday's theme of Hitched. 

5x7" Red China Marker

Balloons

I seem to be on a balloon kick lately. 

Several things I have made while just playing around have included balloons. 

This one is no exception.

Actually, it may have been the first. 

7x12" Watercolor, Marker, Ink

Prayer Flag

The Prayer Flag Project has become quite something in the art world.

It is featured on the cover of the latest issue of the Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine and I have seen various artists reference it on their blogs. 

I finally made one of my own for a very dear family battling cancer.

8.5x5" Mixed Media

  I thought this worked well with Illustration Friday's theme of heights--prayers to God high above.

You Scream I Scream

We all scream for ice cream!!!

I mean, really. Who doesn't like ice cream?! 

Here's a tasty little mixed media piece I started a few weeks ago and finally finished up. 

There were lots of steps involved, but of course I forgot to capture each one. 

9x14" mixed media

First, I drew out the ice cream on cardboard and glued yarn to it (two layers actually so it's quite raised off the cardboard). 

Once it dried, I glued tissue paper over the entire thing (well, most of it since the paper wasn't quite big enough) and made sure to push the paper down around the yarn. Then I panted it with a wash of acrylic brown paint. 

Not really sure where to go from here, I added some text from an old book just to give it more texture I guess. But really it has enough, right?!

Once the glue was dry I used some acrylic paint (no brown this time) and painted over the paper and enhanced the ice cream cone. I wish I had taken more pics as I painted, but this last step took less than 10 minutes, so I honestly didn't think about it. I enhanced the raised yarn with some darker black/brown/red paint and gave the ice cream and cherry a bit of color. 

I'm really pretty happy with it and hoping that I can make it into a project for my students.