Tuesday, January 28, 2014

The Secret Place

I have been progressing on my journal and have a few new pictures. This is the section I call the Secret Place. The page on the left covers the next two pages so part of it is hidden. I will add the words The Secret Place here and probably paint the background red. I want it to be a different "door" than the blue door. but I have to do the other sections that will show with this page and make  sure the colors work together.
This is the page I did to represent the secret things God does for me that no one knows about. Things that are just between me and Him. This butterfly was done in colored pencil and the background is acrylic paint and colored pencil. 

Friday, January 24, 2014

Keys Journal front cover

Here is the front of my journal. It has 17 pages if you count all the flaps and pages back and front. You'll see as I go along. This first photo is how it looks when it's closed. I still have pen work and more words I want to add, but I wanted to post this to give you an idea of how it's beginning to look.


This photo shows the first flap open and the rest of the left page is completely revealed. It's kind of like a treasure box as it unfolds.  I am skipping around doing pages I have solid ideas and sketches for first. 

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Keys

Here is the first two pages inked and ready for color. It took a few hours to plan out all the pages around my theme. I had to make sure each touching page related to the other back and front. Conceptually this is a real challenge for me. Now that I'm past the planning stage and have completed these pages, the rest are starting to flow.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Journal

Starting a new project - a visual journal. I found a great blog which inspired me to try and make a prayer journal. Valerie Sjodin is an artist that uses visual (or art) journals to express herself. She also paints. So this is the beginning. It's made from 3 sheets of watercolor paper each cut 22" x 10" and folded to make the journal. I'll post more as I go along.

In case you aren't familiar with visual journals, or art journals, just Google it and you'll see many awesome examples. I love the idea of combining words and images in a book format. I am excited to add to that a theme for the whole journal. Let me know what you think of art journals, and if you have a favorite artist doing journals, share that too.

Saturday, January 18, 2014


I have finished all the 6" x 6" monoprints need ed to fill my sketchbook. I am happy with them all except now my book won't close. But it's a learning curve. I'll have to solve that issue next time around. These are three prints I did using my brand new stencils from Stencil Girl.  Mary Beth Shaw has collaborated with many artists to design really wonderful, interesting stencils for artists and crafters to use.


Three Birds on Stilts


Landscape

                                                         
                                                         Heart

Friday, January 17, 2014

Gold squares and a blue sky


Gold squares over navy scallops- 6 x6" monoprint.


                                Blus Sky - Vermont vista 6 x 6 oil on canvas.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Layers

This one has three layers and each one surprised me. finished enough prints today to dil the sketchbook. A bunch of really nice stencils arrived today from Stencil Girl. Can't wait to try them out.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014



More mono prints today. I am almost finished filling the small 7 x7 sketchbook. It really looks neat with all the prints together in one book. My larger "real"  8" x 10"  Gelli Plate arrived a few days ago and I am ready to put that to work. I wanted to work small first, because I could work faster and figure out some of the problems (challenges) I was having with resolution, color mixing and just getting an image I was looking for.
The 6" x 6" size work great for that.

 I find that if I set a goal for myself with certain parameters, I tend to stick it out, and progress, at least a little. If you need a break from the intenseness that can come from painting, try mono- printing. You just can't worry to much about perfection. Surprise is the name of the game. You really can't make corrections - just do overs. And that alone teaches you lot of things. Like patience, technique, and not too take your work too seriously. You can make an image in just minutes - which I really LIKE! Fun, fun, fun! All you need is a gelatin plate, a ink roller, acrylic paint and paper. Stencils are optional because you can draw on the play and use objects as stencil.

Here is one done with two prints. First the background was a ghost print - which is the second print made from the original plate. With the gelli plate these all come out very soft and watery looking. The second color was from the first print, using a 6 x6" flower stencil from   The Crafter's Worskhop. You can see from the purple edges that my home made gelatin plate is shrinking and getting pretty wonky around the edges. This won't happen with the store bought plate from Gelli Arts.

This is a photo of two prints pasted into the sketchbook. I really like the way the purple (Dioxazine Purple) looks over the olive green color.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Water Lily , Swirls and Dots

Here are two more mono prints. What I am finding so interesting, is trying to take a print and then print another image over it, to create something else. This was the first print I did. It was a happy surprise the way the shape (square on point) of the lily stencil created a window, or peep hole effect, over the first layer (green leaf).

This one is actually three separate prints. First the swirl using dark blue. Then the red dots and then the yellow. The transparency of the acrylic paint creates all sorts of surprises for me because I am much more used to working in oils.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

I've been working on a new series of mono prints using my homemade gelatin plate. The original size of the plate was about 9" x 12". Since then I have had to cut it down twice because of large tears that happened. I have a small sketchbook I am going to fill with 
6" x 6" prints. Stillman & Birn Delta Series in the 7 x7 size,  is the perfect place to keep all these prints. I have another of their sketchbooks and they really are awesome. Markers, paint , whatever don't bleed through the pages and they are great for mixed media.

Blackbird - 6 x 6 monoprint - acrylic

Forest Fire - 6 x 6 mono print - acrylic

Friday, January 3, 2014

More prints

We had a big snowstorm here, which started yesterday, and is just winding down this evening. But no worries here! We've got power, plenty to eat and lots of art making to do! I am experimenting today with the gelatin plate I made a few days ago using acrylic paint in stead of water soluble printers ink.
What a difference in what you can do. Layer after layer until you like it. Here are three that I was especially happy with.


                                        My husband named this Blueberries.

 Here I used a falcon stencil I made from a photograph I cut out and covered in clear contact  paper.
Stripes.