365/2013 - Day 80

more coloring with paper

Last night before I went to bed I worked a little more on the bear-like guy.

I decided to put a layer of pale blue on over the colors instead of white

still working on him, but you can see some of the aqua poking through the layers

how I left him last night -- still wet -- but I covered all of him except his muzzle and ears

Today when I looked at him after he had dried quite a bit -- I think he is really starting to look pretty good -- the colors are hard to photograph, but they blend into each other pretty well.  I am still thinking about whether he should be very blue (like he is now) or very very pale/mostly white with just some color underneath.

the colors look pretty cool

the colors in the marbled paper on his base are really deep

Tonight I thought I would give the cat-king-creature a layer of marbled paper.  I am not sure how well it will dry because his surface is extremely rough.

cat-king-creature

mostly yellow/green marbled paper

blue/purple/black/gold marbled paper

I was having a hard time deciding which color of marbled paper I wanted to use.  I liked them both.  Since I have a lot more of the blue than I do of the yellow, I went with the blue.

this is as far as I got tonight

I think I like him in blues...plus I think I like that he was purple underneath

drying -- thinking about his legs and crown

365/2013 - Day 79

trying to add some color

Today I have been trying out some various papers in shades of (mostly) blue to try to give a base color to the bear-like guy.  I will try to tone them down with white papers.

the first few pieces of the marbled blue paper are applied with matte medium

I think I like this look

now some navy blue for the bottoms of his legs

the reverse side of the marbled paper has a sort of tie dye look

now an aqua Unryu paper

you can sort of see the white tissue paper that I have been building up on this guy...the pale blue from his arms up is a tinted gesso

the cats went back to bed this afternoon -- Bootsy gets under the covers

now that the matte medium has dried for a while you can see the tie dye look paper

still a long way to go

365 Day 198

arty trips on an incredibly HOT day

Geez...could we have picked a hotter, more oppressive day? It was even an ozone action day. Today it was registering 95 degrees on my car's thermometer...it was absolutely blistering. And yet, we survived...LOL. (It is supposed to reach 100 at mid-week with storms every other day -- wow, do we EVER need the rain!)

ANYway...

Today Carla and Juana and I went to Ann Arbor to go to Hollander's, a store of nearly indescribably fabulous decorative and artistic papers. They also have classes there for various bookmaking and printing techniques. And this week there are artists in residence showing demonstrations. Hollander's has open studio time for their students, as well. Just a magically marvelous place! EVER color and pattern and texture of paper you can imagine...ANYthing you could need for bookmaking, cardmaking, collage, gifts, origami...all things paper!

Here are some of the photos...I was trying to give a sense for the vast amounts of paper displays and the endless racks and stacks...but the photos don't really do it justice...this is a must-see place!







Carla outside the door at Hollander's












waaaay cool spiraling paper display

















just a sampling of some of the luscious orange papers

















these are for bookmaking















Carla looking at some textured handmade papers









The papers for printmaking are behind a table -- you need help to see them...Carla and I were both at Hollander's mainly for paper for our relief printmaking class.

Sarah is so friendly and knowledgeable and patient. She had many suggestions and enjoyed showing us so many papers for printing and told us the differences and showed us color variations within the different papers we chose.






Carla starting to make some choices while Sarah pulls more to show us.










Sarah helping Juana with a paper Juana saw in a binder


















wandering back through the never-ending racks of glorious papers












oh...and another weakness of mine...ribbon...although I managed (somehow) to stay on track and only purchase paper (and a pair of scissors) today











Juana looking at the huge array of origami papers










We were going to go to Zingerman's Delicatessen but the line was half-way around the building (pretty much) waiting to get inside...it was just too much with the heat and everything. We will definitely go back sometime soon and hit Zingerman's on a weekday!

The three of us piled into my car and headed back to Northville. We ended up at Tuscan Cafe for lunch instead and had delicious sandwiches, coffee (me), ice coffee (Juana) and iced chai (Carla) and yummy desserts (Tuscan Cafe features breads and desserts from Zingerman's). Then we stopped back at my house so Carla could take a look at some Magic: the Gathering cards/decks to see if she might want to learn to play. (Fingers crossed!)

Then Carla went home and Juana and I went to Ferndale (where Juana lives) and made a quick stop at Rust Belt Market. Here are some pics from that excursion:














































































cool black sheep doll





yikes...wild pine cones in a cage












the owls are not what they seem, you know...















neither are the penguins

















gigantic floating skulls


















THE most wonderful chandeliers!













oooh

















isn't this way wonderful???











Then we trudged back out to the car which seemed about twice as far as when we went in. On the way back we passed this intense periwinkle wall with greeeeen ivy on it. I am glad the camera caught the striking colors.















All in all a really fun day filled with so many wonderful colors and textures and things...and stellar company!

365 Day 42

LOTS of progress today!














The day started off with picking up 55 magazines from my wonderful dentist's office -- wow! Denise was glad to weed out their magazines and I was thrilled to bring them home. I promise to recycle whatever I don't use.














When Juana and I were at Green's Art Supplies yesterday, we looked at a lot of their art paper. They had some of the same papers I have at home including two of my favorites.

Today I decided to use the paper I have instead of just looking at it.












I had another canvas that was set aside "for later". This one was once a sort of birthday card I received a long time ago and it had lots of beads and glitter and puff paints on a black background. It was an appreciated and thoughtful gift at the time, but it had outlived the greeting many times over so I decided to repurpose it.













I also got out one of the jars of matte medium that I have never used before. Ever. Had it forever, never tried it. I originally bought it for use in collage because I read you can use it in place of glue.













I think it is turning out pretty cool already. The canvas is textured with the paper itself and the remaining beads and puff paint under the paper. The orange stripes are not as visible anymore because of the black paint underneath, but it looks pretty darn cool. I have no idea where I am going to go with this yet, I am just happy to have finally tried the matte medium. I think I will let the paper tell me what to do.

The other paper -- my absolute favorite -- the green with black rectangles pattern -- is now a part of the ghost on the right. And it is also part of the mouth of the ghost on the left, the ghost who is made up of a bit of everything on the canvas.














I really enjoyed tearing the paper. I would normally have cut it with scissors in the shape of the ghost, but I am fighting my comfort zone(s) with this canvas.


















I really love all the layers of color that are developing.














I love how the paper is almost like a mask around his eyes.














And here is the mouth of the ghost on the left.



















AND -- I am very excited about this...my friend and I were able to coordinate some time for him to come by this evening and look at my plans for my submissions for the Come Play With Me show. He thinks that it will be a quick thing for him to put the wood parts together for me. He took some of the parts home and will get started on them and I will go and get some of the other parts tomorrow morning and we will meet up again tomorrow and get rolling! Now I have to get to work on the toy parts!!!