365/2013 - Day 85

this is beginning to try my patience

Oh bother!  I get through a step with the cat-king-creature and think things are going well then BAM the alcohol ink bleeds through from some other impossible place...including from under two-part epoxy.  So I had to switch gears and go from what I thought was going to be paper-to-paint on the paws to paper-to-paint-to-paper-and-lots-of-cover-ups.  This had been a day-long project and I also got the second of three injections in my left knee this afternoon so I am on my last nerve with this whole thing tonight...gah!  Here are the photos -- I am not going to do captions (at least not right now) because I am too frustrated and "done" for tonight.

2012/365 - Day 309

no!

No, no, no, no....NO...no, no, no, NO!  Dammit!

This is NOT what I wanted at all.  I wanted spritzing/splattering -- not dripping!  The misters are just not working -- not one of them.  Granted, this is only the bottom coloring layer...but it looks NOTHING like what I had in mind.  I even compromised on the colors.  It is just disappointing because it took me all day to locate my mister bottles and then they don't work.  They worked the first time -- I guess they are meant to be disposable.

It will all be covered up eventually -- I am just a major control freak and this is NOT what I wanted.

2012/365 - Day 245

distressing a frame

On Friday I will be taking my entries for the Collage, Assemblage, and Construction Art exhibition to Lowell, MI.  In the meantime, I need to do something to the frame for my collage.

 This is the original frame that came with the canvas that I altered.  Well, actually, it is the frame for the other painting that I bought on the same day...they are pretty much the same except this is silver and blue and the other is gold and brown...both have cream linen on the inner frame.

 I started by thinking I was going to paint cobalt teal squares all around the linen...but that soon got out of hand and I made it all one solid color, then I dry brushed the thinnest silver part.

The collage looked pretty good in the newly painted frame but the paint was a little bit too stark for me.  I felt like it was fighting for attention with the collage.

You know how much I love my alcohol inks in the spray bottles.  I pulled out the denim and the slate.  I spritzed the denim on first and then put the sprayer into the teensy bottle of slate and spritzed that on as well.

This is being done in the hallway because I am using the light from the skylight in the bathroom to try and see some actual color.  (I laid it out on the back of another repurposed

collage-in-progress.

Well...we will have to see if the alcohol inks dry or if they disturb the ancient finish on the frame.

There were a few smeary parts in a few places, but they may work out okay.

another detail of another area

And you know what happens when I use my beloved alcohol inks, don't you?

I end up wearing more of them than what gets on the project.

Fingers crossed that this frame dries.  Then I will need to figure out how to seal it without disturbing the inks...sheesh.

2012/365 - Day 6 part two - Animal People collages part 4

background paper

For this series of 50 Animal People collages for Art-o-mat I am using snippets of sections of butcher paper that I put underneath watercolor color paper sheets when I was making larger Animal People collages for a group show last winter.

I sprayed the watercolor paper with alcohol inks and water and the butcher paper protected my dining room table from the overspray. I really liked the alcohol inks on the butcher paper and I couldn't toss it out when I was done.



I think it works well for the smaller format versions of Animal People. The butcher paper is slightly textured and adds a little "something" to the collages.

The colors are sort of limited, but I like that.









A really cool thing about all of this is that I still have quite a bit more of the alcohol ink butcher paper left, too.

I am sure it will find its way into other projects.















This was my favorite larger format Animal People collage that I made for that group show. This is 8" x 10" (rather than the 2" x 3.25" for Art-o-mat).


This is called "B-I-N-G-O" and it is with its new owner (another artist) in New York.

I made ten collages for that show -- five 8x10 and five 5x7 -- and I only have two of them left.





Here are collages 16-20 (of 50) for this new series for Art-o-mat:

365 Day 284

coloring paper

Whoa -- how did it get to be Tuesday night already???? Benadryl, you giveth (some relief from my allergy symptoms) but you taketh away (entire afternoons/early evenings). Ah well...get to work, Took!

Tonight I am putting color on paper for the ATCs I need to get done in time for tomorrow evening's trade. I love the alcohol inks so much. And yet, they are not acting like I am used to them acting. Perhaps it has to do with the sprayer...I have larger bottles of inks with pump sprayers -- they didn't have those at Scrappy Chic (where we meet on the 2nd Wednesday of the month) but they DID have individual teensy mist bottles and the small bottles of ink in colors that I didn't have...fair trade off I'd say.

I think maybe that the ink dried almost immediately as it hit the paper in that fine, fine mist rather than sitting on top of the paper in bigger drops like I am used to...and the colors usually blend more easily...and I usually need to mop up pools of color.






The alcohol inks in the colors I didn't have and the
wonderful little mist bottles.















The sheet of paper -- not exactly what I had in mind but I really really like it a lot. The colors are really intense in person.














I guess the point-and-shoot camera isn't sure what it is trying to focus on...LOL...but you get the idea anyway.





Now to get back to work on the cards!

365 Day 189 (catch up post)

still painting guys...slow going

Today is a day of two posts because I have to make up for yesterday's missed one while I was Bendaryl'd.

Today I was back to painting plaster cloth guys. It is very slow going with these three. I am pretty happy with the green/brown cat-creature and the blue/purple wolf-creature is okay but I keep changing my mind about the knobby guy. I decided I didn't like his metallic dots.


Today he started out yellow(s) with metallic dots of different colors...green, copper, blue, purple, turquoise in variations of combos.












The two other guys got a base coat of white for their eyes. (Thank You, Juana, for the painting the eyes tips.)












Next the knobby guy got a thin wash of very pink paint. The light in the bathroom gets an odd glow because of the green walls. The countertop is actually white...so are the paper towels.













This is how the eyes look after a couple of color washes each. The cat-creature is getting yellow eyes and the wolf-creature is getting orange eyes.

















Another wash of color on the eyes and a thin wash of orange over the knobby guy's coat of pink.














I was still not happy with the knobby guy's progress and then I remembered my alcohol ink(s). I couldn't find the bottle of stuff that spreads the colors, though...so -- for now -- I practiced with layering some of the colors I have and seeing how they would run and blend. They got a bit muddy in places, but I basically like the look. I will locate the bottle of stuff that blends the inks and after I re-coat this guy with yellow again, I will take another stab at spraying the alcohol inks.









I still need to experiment with the tips Juana gave me. I won't be able to paint eyes as well as she can (of course) but I am dreading the painting a little less than before.


This is as far as I got on these this afternoon because my sister arrived and it was time for all of us to go to the student show at Art & Ideas. See photos in the post for today, 365 Day 190.