Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Flowers and Peeling Paint Effect

The mixed media online class has ended.  It ended with quite a lot of inspiration from the work of other students.  I have lots of ideas, and a few pages left in my journal that I would like to fill, as well as some pages that didn't get very far and could stand some more layers.  My goal is to keep working on that as I am enjoying playing with mixed media very much.  Time is barely allowing, however, now that it is fall and the garden harvest still requires a lot to finish and now we are supposedly doing school every day.  This year I have 3 school age kids, plus a toddler and preschooler (and put together those two are sort of tornado-ish these days).  I also have several of my own educational goals including working through a course about teaching writing and an online book discussion/study group.  Supposedly I am reading The Brothers Karamosov for a discussion next week, except that I have only made it to page 40 out of, I dunno, 4 hundred million or something.

But art is fun and addictive, so I have bee doing a little here and there in my journal.  Here are the results.

The idea in the class was to just "get something down" on the pages and see what happens.  I have trouble with this.  I really like having a plan.  I am a planner.  It's what I do, fruitfully or otherwise.  I most enjoy having an idea in my head of where I want to go with a page-- I feel like it is all more cohesive that way.  With this page, I had it planned out about this far:



That is ruler lines with black and white china markers, then concentric circles and paint marker dots on the circles, watercolor over it all.  I actually like it a lot that way.  But I kept going...






Here is what I ended up with.  Tinted texture-paste chevrons, stenciled dots and flowers, a little rubbed gesso to blend some of it back and lettering on top.  I feel like it's a little busy with a lot going on, but I really do like it.


Another thing I've been wanting to play with is a technique that gives the effect of old peeling paint.




My kids tell me that this one looks like ladybugs.  Indeed.  I guess it does, and that is not what I was going for... But maybe I should add something to that effect with collage.


This next one was really fun.  I'm not a big motorcycle fan myself (I want to live, thank you.), but I know lots of people who love them.  And there is something about a motorcycle that lends itself to an interesting silhouette.  




I actually would like to try this again and use a vintage motorcycle ad or logo as the underlayer, if I can come up with such a thing.  The bike itself was a silhouette that I printed out, but the print quality was so bad that I ended up coloring it in with black paint markers and then adding a few details with white.  I quite like the effect.

We have also done quite a few trips to interesting places lately --some while my Mom was visiting us, and yesterday to the zoo-- and it occurred to me last night that it would be nice to show those here.  However, I am ashamed to admit that I have been horribly remiss in taking photos of our excursions.  Something about keeping my  hands on the toddler causes me to keep my hands off the camera... I do have a few things I can show, so hopefully I will get to that soonish.

8 comments:

  1. Katie Dear! These are wonderful! It is so good you are still taking time to pursue your enthusiasm formed media. Those other endeavours sound highly interesting, too.
    regrading your pieces:
    1. You did a great finish on this. Yes, the start was interesting and yes, the finish is busy, but not too busy. It has cohesion, in that that you brought tones of the background into the foreground. the best part is the luminous depth in the piece. Good work.
    2. I would really like to know the method you used here. Is it the Vaseline rub technique from class, or the glue method? it would make a delightful background for a collaged lady bug, something like the one posted for class.
    3. This is super! All of it fits together and all the parts are just right for the effect. So well done.
    Quotes from the gallery: "OOOOH, I like that: the circles, the textures, the word...." etc. "Oh, trippy and retro, in the modern sense." And " Yes, it has a motorcycle. It's a Honda Cruiser." In other words, it is approved.

    Looking forward to seeing your outings.

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    1. Thanks for the glowing feedback!

      Yes, the method is the vaseline one. When I first watched that lesson, I thought "no way, that looks messy and gross and will be greasy forever and ever." But I tried it anyway and LOVE it. It's one of my favorites, especially now that I have figured out how to control it a little. AND it doesn't stay greasy at all. I just keep wiping with a paper towel and after a while it becomes very burnished with no remaining grease.

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    2. Also, for the motorcycle, I searched for "vintage triumph", but I do not know motorcycles well enough to know if that's what i actually got!

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    3. Hehe. Triumph was my first thought... I shall tease Florian about this mightily. :-D

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  2. OOPS. That should say "enthusiasm for mixed media," and "regarding" not "regrading," and some capitalisation and spacing problems... yikes.
    And I thought I proofread.

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    1. I figured it out fine. I hardly notice autocorrect fails anymore... :-D

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