Other Art Pieces/Techniques
Printing: Christmas Linocut

Posted on 13th October 2019 by Neil

I’ve recently been asked by a friend to teach him how to do a linocut. That got me thinking… ‘I really ought to review how to do a linocut’! The last time I did one was a school humpty-hump years ago. Things have moved on a little since then – the tools are the same, but there are various different hardnesses of lino and even a lino replacement. I chose to use Speedball’s Speedy Carve block, a (4×6″) piece of pink rubber which is softer to carve than lino. I designed the cut in Illustrator and then transferred a laser copy to the rubber by ironing it on face down. Top tip – wait until block is cool before peeling off for a better transfer.

Continue reading →

Art Journal
Art Journal Page: Mini Stamps

Posted on 25th September 2019 by Neil

Next month’s art journal session (spaces are available) puts to use the small clear mini stamps that are available on the front of Craft Stamper magazine. Over the months I have collected a fair number of them, and the challenge is to use them in an art journal spread.

Continue reading →

Art Journal
Bible Journaling: Acrylics, masking and off-the-page

Posted on 18th September 2019 by Neil

It’s a while since I have done any Bible journaling, but for this month’s session, I did an off-the-page piece. I wanted to encourage my class to work outside their Bible and show off their skills. This is designed to fit into a Ribba frame from Ikea and is approx. 8″ square. It is available to purchase here.

Continue reading →

3D Projects
Altered Art: various bits ‘n’ bobs

Posted on 16th September 2019 by Neil

My crafting mojo has wandered off, somewhat inconveniently for earning an income, but hey ho, it happens. I have been doing some ‘pottering’ in the studio though and here are a few altered art pieces I have managed to get made…

Continue reading →

Tangle Patterns
Tangle Pattern: Punctuation [!?]

Posted on 31st August 2019 by Neil

I don’t think enough is made of the double punctuation emphasis that is ‘!?’. Is it possible to have an exclamatory question? And if you’re a grammar purist, which way round should they go? Instead of answering those questions, I made a tangle pattern from them.

Available to purchase
Laser Cut: 3D Mandalas Part II

Posted on 28th August 2019 by Neil

I’ve had a couple more goes at layering 3D mandalas. Making the layers sometimes causes some head scratching, but as I have been used to editing layers in other design work, it’s not all bad. The first two are based on my hand drawn mandalas, and the second is based on a photo of a real snowflake.

Tangle Patterns
Tangle Pattern: Pretty Tile

Posted on 24th August 2019 by Neil

More repeating patterns for your zentangle inspired art, this time a Pretty Tile (I couldn’t think of a more descriptive name…).

Available to purchase
Laser cut: 3D Mandalas

Posted on 23rd August 2019 by Neil

If you care to remember, I have been drawing mandalas from scratch. I’ve also been expanding my skill set designing and cutting on my Glowforge laser cutter. I’ve seen several 3D mandalas online where the design has been cut from layers of wood, with variable complexity and some true artists whose work must have taken days, if not weeks, to do.

My first attempt at a layered mandala, using 1.5mm thick birch ply:

Continue reading →

Tangle Patterns
Tangle Pattern: Lozenge II

Posted on 17th August 2019 by Neil

In another naming fiasco when the sequel bears no resemblance to the original, here’s Lozenge II, another tiled repeating pattern for your zentangle inspired artwork.

Tangle Patterns
Tangle Pattern: Aztec II

Posted on 10th August 2019 by Neil

I thought this repeating tile pattern had a South American folk art feel to it with the geometric repeats. Part of an ongoing series of tangle patterns for zentangle inspired art (ZIA).