fooling around
Tonight I was just fooling around with some cutouts of those waves and clouds and sea monster that I made eraser carvings of for a sea monster ATC series several months ago. I was trying to make a sort of mock up of what it might look like if I made a shadow box picture with the cutout elements. This is in no way a completed piece...it is was just to give me a sample of how it might look. Obviously the whole thing needs a lot of work and a lot more carving.
I have a small stack of much deeper shadow boxes and they are what I would use if/when I really do this project with more attention. For this example I pulled apart a fairly shallow framed piece I bought at a garage sale with the intention of playing with the mats.
This is just paper cutouts with stacked paper stock underneath to prop up the cutouts. When/if I really do this project I will print the carvings on heavier paper stock or watercolor paper and take much more care with the dimensions. But for tonight, this was a fun process!
back to carving again
Today I tried carving some small circles to use to make the billion dots in the sugar glider-creature's design. I also (from a suggestion by Leann) tried making teensy stencils by using a paper punch and the stiff part of a self-laminating pouch.
and then....painting
Tonight I tried them out...as well as a flat rounded sponge brush, and the eraser end of a pencil.
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| nope |
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| nope |
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| nuh-uh |
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| not this either |
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| yeah...no |
What I ended up using was a broken in half cotton swab.
Tomorrow I will go back in and tidy up some of the rougher dots. And so begins the journey of adding bout fifty billion dots to this painted plaster cloth surface!
sea monsters ready for trading
The theme of this month's Artist Trading Cards group exchange is: sea monsters.
I assembled my cards tonight and then reduced them by half to the correct size for ATCs. I also flipped three of the designs...kinda cheaty pants for me...but I like how they look.
Yesterday's blog entry shows a bit of how I was printing multiple copies of eraser carvings I made and then cutting them out and today I assembled the cut pieces into designs.
I did 5 designs and 3 flipped designs.
design #1
design #2 flipped
design #2 original
design #3
design #4 flipped
design #4 original
design #5 original
design #5 flipped
All of the cards in both sizes.
No Tookies tonight -- I am too wiped out.
and now, for the sea monster...
Today I took a stab at drawing and carving a very simple sea monster. I am not sure if this is the one I will end up with for the final version of the card, but I am pretty happy with him.
My drawing with the inspiration illustration -- I also had images of some Magic: the Gathering cards in my head.
Not too bad for a first try.
I traced it, transferred it, then realized it was going in the wrong direction. Sometimes I get confused with flipping the designs too many times (and over-complicate the process).
So I re-traced him and carved him in the right direction. I figured if I left a lot of open area I could add details if/when I wanted them. And with no eye or nostril he could have an endless number of different faces.
As I was carving a couple of bits were left behind (as always) and they just happened to be in the area of where a nostril and eye would be. I left them for now...but they won't be there after I clean this guy up a bit...but I am not doing that today.
I pulled out all of those other carvings I made earlier this year (or was it last year around this time?). I think the sea monster and waves match the style of the other carvings pretty well.
I printed a few images and cut them out and laid them over an oversized playing card for size...I think this is going to work!
This is also the sort of dimensional look I was going for.
Eventually I would like to make a bunch of little dioramas or shadow boxes or something with carved images made into little vignettes.
I really like to carve
Drawing my own designs, not so much...but carving -- YES!
The original inspiration drawing segment that I traced is above and my attempt to draw something similar is below.
I put my drawing up to a pane of glass in my studio door so I could see through the paper and retrace my lines -- only going in the opposite direction.
Yay -- it worked!
Then I traced my drawing with soft pencil and tracing paper for the transfer of the design to the carving material.
I cut myself a chunk of carving material from the larger block.
I placed the pencil tracing into position and rubbed the paper to transfer the design.
Then I went over the smeary pencil lines with Sharpie markers so they'd be easier to see to carve.
Ready to carve!
I love this material -- it carves like butter!
There...all carved.
I inked up the carving with an old ink pad and made a test print. I still need to go back and clean up the lines, but I am pretty happy with my waves for the sea monster artist trading cards for the January swap.
carving waves for a sea monster ATC
Today I am working on teaching myself to carve some waves for the January artist trading card swap with the theme: sea monsters. At some point I will be drawing some sort of sea monster as well.
By enlarging and tracing some of the examples I found, I am starting to get the hang of the motion I need for drawing my own waves.
Tracings are on the top, my scribbles are on the bottom.
The look I am going for is like those theater sets where people are moving cut out and painted waves and other elements are hanging, being moved, etc.
Like this sort of thing...isn't this beautiful?
I know I have other examples in kid books but I can't find them today. I pulled up this still from the film "Moonrise Kingom" -- that sort of waves.
Eventually I will feel confident enough to draw and carve my own waves...and they will be combined with my clouds and other elements that I have made previously.
I am going to use the "make-it-twice-as-big-then-reduce-it-to-the-correct-ATC-size" method that I've used in the past for other artist trading cards.
The oversized playing card is the size I work in and then the Magic: the Gathering cards are what I use as a foundation/base for my cards.
