Summer Theme

I'm doing a swap at the moment (June 2006) with the Art-By-You yahoo group The theme is summer and the images need to be 4 by 4. I'm not the world's best painter by any means, but I am improving and these are my offerings.

This is based on a picture by Mary Cassatt.




These are lobster pots based on a photo I took in Aberdovey, Wales, UK in the summer of 2001.













I took this photo on the same trip to Aberdovey.













All these pictures are drawn with watercolour pencils and then painted over with a brush that has a water container. I'm finding it quite a nice way to mix different colours in the same part of the picture. Another advantage of using the water brush means that I don't dip it in my tea by mistake.

Below is a photo of the backs of the cards, again with watercolour pencils and the water brush. I have to thank Andrea at ABY for the inspiration here. She has sent me some fabulous water colour postcards which gave me the idea for my backgrounds. Thanks Andrea.

Imagepac Daylight Stamp Creating Machine

A few weeks ago I treated myself to an imagepac daylight stamp creating machine. What a wonderful piece of kit! It lets you create your own rubber stamps without carving.

You can find them at http://www.imagepacdaylight.co.uk.

The first few tries were not successful, but essentially my fault for not following the instructions correctly. I now have it cracked.

I'm participating in an ATC swap at the Art-By-You yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Art-By-You. The theme is Asian stamps. I didn't have any asian stamps I wanted to use so I made a couple with the stamp creator. This is the result.

The tiger is the stamp, printed on yellow paper and embossed with blue embossing powder.

The stamp is of the full image shown here.

This is the other card in the series (I didn't use the stamp maker for this one). My mum gave me a hand made birthday card recently using this stamp and gave me permission to take it apart! The white paper is some silk paper I made at a course recently. That was great fun and of course suitable for an Asian theme.

Introduction

I belong to the experimental acrylics group on Yahoo. At the moment, our group leader is holding virtual classes. This blog shows the work progressing.
I bought a couple of pictures from the £ store for a £ ($2) each some months ago. It makes a really cheap canvas. This is the one I used for this painting.



The first step was to create a background. Get rid of the white - or in my case, the original picture.



The next step was to add some texture. I used a large stamp to start with but didn't like it. I used cling film (plastic wrap) to cover it up.



The next step was to add some brush work. I chose green because it is the colour opposite red (and therefore complementary) on the colour wheel.



Some spritzing was done over stencils and finally, paint was spread onto a CD case and then the CD Case was placed on the picture.




















This is a section of the final painting.

Inspiration

I saw a piece of work by somebody recently who had created a mixed media art piece with lace and I fancied having a go myself. Of course, on that particular day, I didn't have any lace. My mum visited recently and gave me a bag of lace to use, and then I had to wait a few more weeks before I had time to start. Any way, that time has come.

My first step was to paint a background.
The second step was to add some lace.
The third step was to dab some white paint onto the lace. The picture you see here is after the third step.




And this is a close up:



After it had dried, I then added some puff paint and heated it.
I then painted with a rather gorgeous metallic purple paint that I have.



And this is a close up:



I want to add some buttons and beads next. I need to wait until next weekend, got to spend some time at work first, sniff, sniff.

Stencil

I've also used the craft robo to cut a stencil. These aren't as successful as I would like, the stencil is too thick for the machine. However, it can score the stencils. I'm finishing them off by using a soldering iron on glass.

This is a background in readiness for something - not sure what something though!

African Mask - Final Result

This is the final mask - somewhat different from the original.

I had to do a lot of work preparing this one for the craft robo. I created cutting lines in paint shop pro and had I cut them all, I would have ended up with lots of separate bits to be stuck back together. I just couldn't get my head around it. So, I printed it out and then drew the cutting lines I wanted on top of the print out in red. This meant I could erase and add on the image in PSP. The white bits in the middle were not wide enough when I first cut it so I had to make them wider. I'm pleased with the final result.

African Mask

Still on the African theme. This is for the mail art that I need to send in May. I plan posting it from South Africa. The image here is the one that my mask is based on.