I’ve spent all afternoon on my still life homework for the holidays… an exercise in two point perspective. An hour of reading, a couple of outline sketches and some more research led to a couple of hours doing all the construction with vanishing points at the zenith and nadir rather than on the horizon line – but I kinda like the effect. It then took another hour or so to enlarge, trace and shade the image, and here it is. Those that know, feel free to critique!
If you remember, I had a giveaway at the beginning of March in honour of this ‘ere blog’s first birthday. The first prize was for the person giving the most comments and is featured here. The second giveaway was to the longest active subscriber to the blog at the 12 month point – and that was/is Shirley at 11 months and three weeks. I asked her what she would like as her commissioned artwork and this was her reply: “I have been looking through your blog and saw the ‘largest ZIA to date‘. I used to do a lot of counted cross stitch (until my eyes rebelled). Samplers was one of my favourite things. Would I be asking too much to have that as my prize?”.
Of course I couldn’t give that particular example away again as it was a unique piece for that particular giveaway. So I’ve created this one instead, including some of my new Faberge patterns and using my first attempt at a Celtic Knot. It’s a biggie again, being A3 sized, and took almost 6 hours to complete. Well done Shirley, I hope you like it!
I’ve just finished designing my fifth tag in my Twelve Tags for 2012 series. This one features a distress stain background using techniques I learnt on my recent Tim Holtz’s Creative Chemistry 101 course, as well as air dry clay Lily of the Valley flowers. I love it when a plan comes together – I couldn’t find a stamp that I liked enough, so this was Plan B and I am rather pleased with the outcome, even if I do say so myself! I’ll be demonstrating how to make it and an accompanying card at the Manic Stamper Craft Club on 21st April. Instructions on how to make the tag are now available here.
I had an ‘interesting’ day yesterday at the fantastic Coleman’s Craft Warehouse Big Demo Day. I was billed to do a make and take with the Martha Stewart Craft Paints on Ceramics, but there was an unexpected influx of young children which resulted in me being asked to lead a children’s party next week! (I declined!)
That said, I’d done plenty of preparation for the make and take and here are pics of my samples. The plates are technique samplers and the text is written with a porcelain marker. All of the samples were baked, and are dishwasher safe – I actually tested this claim before I agreed to promote the paints, and I can absolutely say it does what it says it will do! The paints are more adherent than most acrylics I’ve used, and though water based, the box says not to mix with water – I presume this messes about with the resin technology that makes them multi-surface. You can thin the colour with the glaze product that is in the same range of products, which is how I managed to get the wood grain effect on one of the mugs using a brush. I would recommend applying the paint with a sponge onto non-porous surfaces and you can use a heat gun to make a layer workable, although it is not as stable as if left for an hour or so to dry between coats. The frosted glass effect paint is also applied with a sponge and is one of the most user-friendly frostings I’ve ever come across.
The paint itself is a creamy consistency, dabs on well and has good opacity. It comes in four varieties – a Satin Finish which seems more matte to me, a pearlescent – which is striking, a glitter – which is more of a coloured glitter translucent glaze, and a high gloss. The colour range available is comprehensive and there are various special effect bottles that I haven’t had the opportunity to play with.
I’m particularly impressed with the range of accompanying accessories, including the fine applicator tip that attaches to the bottle (see the high gloss black outlining) and the sponge dabber tips that do the same. Ms Stewart has also included an empty bottle in the pack which is for rinsing out the caps when done with clean water. Clean up is easy – as long as you do it while the paint is still damp. The paint by its nature sticks firmly and to any surface. I found that the stencils retained paint even after cleaning quickly after use, but any dried paint didn’t shift with subsequent applications.
To be honest, I’d probably use other acrylics for painting porous surfaces, but I’d certainly recommend these craft paints for any non-porous surface.
It’s been tricky to find five minutes this week to sit down and do the ‘Less Is More’ challenge card – but I managed to get it done just before the closing time this evening. The theme this week is ‘take three challenges’ and my card fulfils these three past rules:
Of course, the observant will note there are four squares… I didn’t notice I’d used a square card until it was all done and put together! Hope that doesn’t count toward the total number… The monogram was an accidental discovery – I triple embossed in WOW! Metallic Silver Ultra High and stamped my signature monogram into it. I then tried to catch the raised parts with Ranger Archival Jet Black ink, but missed, so carried on. Rubbing it back has produced this fabulous gunmetal finish. And I’d forgotten how tricky it was to photograph metallic surfaces!
Another part of my Extended Diploma in Art & Design course is a photography block. This term’s work followed the theme of ‘manmade’ and the challenge was to incorporate some of the items we’d drawn over the Christmas break into a digital studio photoshoot, followed by image manipulation in Photoshop. I chose to use a manual coffee grinder as that had been the most interesting shape to draw, and my imagination took me off on a flight of fancy – so I emptied the cutlery drawer and with a bit of jiggery-pokery, I came up with this:
If you would like your own photographic quality print of this image (without the copyright notice) then please contact me using the email button in the sidebar.
That’s another block of life drawing finished! This term we’ve looked at the paintings and sculptures of Antony Gormley and used wax and ink to paint the human form. This is the second piece from Week 2 – I’ve already posted my work from Week 3 here. I’m particularly pleased with the crouching figure. Many thanks to our model for his fortitude!
This second image is the result of a four 40 minute sittings over two weeks, starting with a measured outline, then addition of oil pastels for colour using David Bomberg’s paintings as an influence. In the second session, we then broke down the oil pastel with turpentine before adding the background and working into the figure more. The figure isn’t dark enough with the addition of the background, so some of the form is lost as a result. Many thanks to our model for allowing me to share the image (and for sitting so patiently!).
I spent the evening yesterday slaving over a hot oven… though 160 C is probably a moderate oven thinking about it. I was baking butterflies – not as cruel as it sounds, as they were made from embossing powder. I spent more time tying the darn things together than making them, but judge for yourself whether the results were worth it:
It’s Friday, and another mixed media lesson 🙂
This week we had to do a candle wax resist rendition of the still life – clear wax on whitish paper made the initial stages very tricky. However, as the dye wash revealed, I did fairly well! A bit of charcoal and a smidge of oil pastel here and there, and I was done.
I thought I’d give you some feedback on Judy’s commission for her prize winning piece of artwork for her being the top commenter on my blog for the first year. I asked her to give me an indication of what she would like, and here’s her reply: “I would love a Zentangle piece with a bit of Promarker and WOW powder for accent color! (or colour, as is spelled in your town!) I would love the quote, “Creative Minds are never tidy!” The regular 3.5 x 3.5 inch Zentangle tile size would be fine. It would also be easy to find myself a pre-cut frame for 4 x 6 inches (approximately 10 x 15.25 cm).”
She also provided an album of images from my blog as illustration:
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So… what did I come up with? I’ve put a watermark across it so that the original remains the only copy and unique to my winner. A combination of tangling, ProMarker, and a smidge of clear gloss WOW! embossing powder to make the colours zing. If you’d like to commission your own piece of art, either email me, or use the Commissions tab at the top of the page. This is now on its way to Judy 🙂
