Saturday, May 30, 2015

Garden in the Kitty-Animalitos

Another project inspired by Tracy Verdugo's Animalitos class (see link on sidebar). I learned a lot on this one too and can't wait to do a rabbit like this! :D

Mixed media on cradled wood panel, 8" x 8"...






Animalitos Collage Elephant

My version of a little elephant in Tracy Verdugo's Animalitos mini course (see sidebar for link). It was a lot of fun to do and I learned a lot on him! :)

Mixed media on gallery wrap canvas, 8" x 8"...







Thursday, May 28, 2015

Animalitos Inky Elephants-Class 2

My first practice elephant with black ink on mixed media paper from the Animalitos class 2 (see sidebar for link). I used india ink, because I didn't have any dark acrylic inks at the time. I have some coming though! I messed him up, but that's ok. I learned from him. I will try another one soon! :)


Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Inky Penguin Animalito

Another little practice animalito (see link on side bar), in acrylic inks, gelli pens, and Pitt markers!


I decided Mz Pengy had enough fru-fru on her and just let her be. I think she is sweet just as she is!

Monday, May 25, 2015

A Little Inky Bird

Another little inky bird from the Animalitos class (see side bar for link) has been born of my practicing! Maybe I'm starting to get the hang of it! :)


Acrylic inks, gellie pens, markers, marks all pencil, and a little imagination!

Friday, May 22, 2015

Animalitos Mini Ecourse

http://tracyverdugo.com/mini-mojos/animalitos/ is the link to the mini ecourse that I'm currently taking with Tracy Verdugo, called Animalitos, or little animals, and it is so much fun! There are five videos and a lot of notes that we can download and keep forever.


The first class is inky animals, and these are some of my practices. Some have embellishments, some don't yet, as you can tell...





I've been experimenting on different kinds of paper. Some are in my sketchbooks, some are on gessoed paper, moleskin paper, mixed media paper, wc paper, and I used a variety of pens, markers, etc. Mine are nowhere near as good as some of the others, but they're fun for a change, and I'm learning. I will post the other two cats and some more that I've done since I uploaded these pictures when they're finished.


Friday, May 15, 2015

Good Night Moon (Blue Rabbit)

I love this little piece on 9"x12" cardstock! I didn't photograph all the steps, because I got so caught up in the moment. I layed different papers down and gessoed over them and let them dry, then put dk brown open media acrylic over the gesso, plus some dk brown acrylic ink, let set a minute, then wiped some off and let dry. I used an off white acrylic paint on the bottom of a foam plate to stamp the moon on and an earless bunny shaped piece of foam plate painted with blue open media acrylic stamped over the moon. I later painted the ears, red vest, and tail on, and collaged a piece of one of my gellli prints across the bottom. I started to leave it this way, because I kind of like it this way...


A little bit of color made a lot of difference! I used  some touches of Gelatos paints spread with my fingers here and there, some Stablio marks all black pencil, and added the words with a bought stencil...


I have a tendency for everything to wind up in the middle range of colors and tones, and the photo looks a little more gauzy than the actual piece, but I still like it. It was fun to do, and I think it's a fun little piece!

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

On My Desk Right Now

Just some things on my desk right now...


A birthday card for mama with a gelli print background, bought stamps, and gel pens and Pitt pen...


A mandala in progress, started on an 8"x8" wooden panel, purple circle with white gel pen doodles and indigo blue outside the circle, acrylics...


A 6"x12" gallery canvas, which I thought was finished until I decided to gelli print over it. I like it much better! Still in progress?...


And a 6"x6" gallery canvas with layers of acrylic paint, runs, hand made eraser stamps, spatters, dots, marks, over a collaged background inspired by Tracy Verdugo's Paint Mojo book. Still in progress...


And the beginning of some 2"x2" Christmas ornaments, which I have since gelli printed over, still in progress...

I've also gelli printed backgrounds on several pages in a couple of journals...

Just some of the things I'm playing with right now!

Wishing you all fearless painting and creating!

Monday, May 4, 2015

Spirit Mandala

So few people visit my blog anymore that it has become more of a record of the steps I took to create my projects. Then at the end of the year I have a blog book printed to remind me. I guess I'm not working hard enough at getting my blog out there so people know about it, or maybe people just don't like it, but that's okay, I do! My blog and my FB page are just more projects that I enjoy doing to feed my soul! If others like them I'm thankful, that's gravy! :)


Anyway, this project began as an experiment in my large sketchbook. I painted the bottom of a foam plate red and stamped it on the page for a mandala base. The bird is an original stencil mask that I cut out and I was just seeing how he might look as a center. I liked him and fully intended on using him right up until the very end...


I used a lid off an air freshener jar, painted white, to stamp and divide the center of the red circle. I was sitting down and the book was laying flat, so the center is a little off, but that's ok. I'm playing, and besides it wouldn't be my art if it wasn't a little wonky! It's just how I see things...


The cross was stamped on to it using the mini Gelli plate loaded with green and magenta paint. Somehow the paint left a lighter oval in the center, which reminded me of an eye...


I brushed in around the cross with Chinese orange and Manganese Blue, and blocked in the eye...


The orange was a little dark, so I brushed Nickel Azo Gold over it and worked on the eye some more...

I used a hand carved eraser feather/leaf to stamp on the cross, a white gel pen to add marks to the outside ring, worked a bit more around the eye, leaving reflections in the iris...


I stamped in the yellow spaces with hand carved eraser stamps and in the iris with a tiny bought stamp of stars, which I colored in for "stars in the eyes", and I added words and marks in white gel pen to finish it. I like it! :)

I had no idea where I was going with it when I stamped that red circle on the page. It just came to me as I went along, but I like how it turned out. It was fun and very calming to work on, and that was good for me and my soul!

That's the fun of it. I may not have a plan, or even an idea of where I'm going, when I start a project, but all of the twists and turns getting to the final piece make for an exciting adventure getting there! :)