Rooster 1

Sorry again to be late in posting an update. I'm refurbing and downsizing my garden beds and with my lung issues it takes the wind out of my sails in more ways than one. I wanted to get back to the watercolors for awhile and found some wonderful chicken photos on Paint My Photo that needed to be painted. Always on the lookout for a new approach to a subject, I stumbled onto Jon Lovett's blog. He's an artist I admire very much and I was taken with a few chicken paintings he posted. He managed to capture the craziness, silliness and potential danger these lowly birds possess with a limited palette and wild, expressive brush strokes.

This rooster was painted from a photo submitted by Gary Jones from PMP. I think he looks like he could be a CEO of some Fortune 500 company. Regal and in charge on the outside, ready to draw blood should competition get in his way. Painted with a palette of Quin. Gold., Quin. red and French Ultramarine with white gouache and India ink.
  

Homemade Stencils

Often I've wished I had a particular stencil for a project but couldn't find exactly what was needed online. Also I knew I may only use it once or twice so why pay a hefty price? One of my friends is an avid scrapbooker and she suggested, "why not use cardstock and coat it with Mod Podge?" Why not indeed! She has a Cricut so she cut out various shapes for me to try. For this demo I cut my own. I used 90# cardstock and cut out my pattern with an Exacto knife. Then I coated both sides with one coat of mat Mod Podge, allowing the first side to dry completely on waxed paper before covering the opposite side. This makes the stencil fairly waterproof so it can be rinsed off after use. I tried out my dragonfly stencil with Speedball silkscreen ink and a roller first with so-so results. I washed off the Speedball ink and tried again with metallic fluid acrylic and a makeshift stencil brush with slightly better results. Note to self: make sure the stencil is completely dry before reuse so the paint doesn't run under the stencil.

Note: 2nd image down>Notice how clean the stencil is after being covered with black Speedball ink. I just rinsed it under running water and voila!

Faux Batik Sunflower 2

I chose to revisit Faux Batik Sunflower using a different palette of colors. Also I used walnut ink in place of India ink during the process. The walnut ink toned the entire piece of waxed paper and gave it an antiqued look which, of course I totally obliterated with my color choices. Next time I will work with the result and not against it.

Next post: I will show you how to make stencils with 90# cardstock and Mod Podge.
  

One More Ink Painting on Copper Leaf

I'm finding that Simple Leaf is very delicate and can scratch easily. The silver leaf goes down on Yupo like a mirror (without burnishing) and is slightly resistant to the inks. Even after I allowed the ink to dry for a full day I could wipe it off with a dry finger and a little rubbing. I had used Tim Holtz blending solution on the silver leaf and that seemed to compromise the adhesion to the Yupo. When it was lightly scratched the leaf came off with the ink. I tried several (6) coats of Krylon UV gloss varnish spray in hopes of eliminating the problem. It helped but wasn't a perfect solution. At this point, I believe the blending solution is the problem. It doesn't play well with Simple Leaf on Yupo. Things fared better on the copper leaf so I was able to produce one decent painting.


FYI, these paintings are miserable to scan or photograph. The purple is actually blue.

Krylon 'Make It Acid Free'

I have had questions put to me and my own concerns about working with alcohol ink on waxed paper. How archival could these paintings be? From my online searches the coating wax is described as purified paraffin but I can find nothing about the paper that is used in the process. Is it acid free? Probably not and because I crumple the paper to expose it I felt I needed to address this issue. I found Krylon's 'Make It Acid Free' spray , (link) available at Dick Blick or Jerry's Artarama in the US. I crumpled my paper, then treated both sides with this spray before applying the inks. I found no difference in the way the inks reacted on the treated waxed paper and feel much better about the longevity of my faux batik ink paintings.

Alcohol Ink on Copper Leaf

Another experiment and I think this has definite possibilities! I applied Mona Lisa copper Simple Leaf with Mona Lisa leaf adhesive to a 5" x 7" piece of Yupo. I then applied the inks, hoping to create a semi-abstract seascape at sunset. The inks reacted well on the copper leafed surface giving me slightly more control than on plain Yupo. I was even able to apply ink in a more painterly fashion to the sky area with a small flat brush. I did add a little rubbing alcohol to the lower portion to get ink moving but it didn't seem to affect the leaf at all. I also like the texture the leaf created when applied. I've got another piece in the works using silver Simple Leaf. The silver leaf went on with much less texture so we'll see what I can do with that.

Back to the Inks

Butterfly I

5" x 7"

April 2013 has not been a productive month for me. I managed to create more paintings than usual, all of which landed in File 13. It seems that not only trying a new style but also a new subject has proved folly for me. I had hopes of whipping up a Shirley Trevena style still life but that didn't happen. In the meantime a laundry list of to-dos was piling up behind me so I had to stop and take care of business. I didn't expect to lose Digby either but it happened and I've needed a few days to grieve. It really threw me for a loop to be honest. Maybe as I get older these things hit harder.

Art is good therapy so I got out the one medium that gives me the most pleasure at the moment and painted this butterfly using my faux batik technique .

Note: My reference photo was courtesy of Veronique on Paint My Photo.

With Heavy Heart...

...I had to say goodbye to my cat, Digby today. I gave him several nicknames over the years but 'Bubba' seemed to stick. He was a rescue, less than a year old, when he came to live with us permanently. He'd lost trust in humans but once we resocialized him we couldn't ask for a better cat. I live in a park and he became quite a fixture here among the other residents. Everybody knew Digby because he was everybody's friend. In the warm months he would make his rounds of the park and do his 'sociables', visiting anyone that was home and had an open door he could wander through. He never overstayed his welcome, so I was told, and kept his visits brief. He adored kids, even the little ones that pulled his tail, and would head anywhere he heard kids playing. One summer the neighborhood kids must have been playing with squirt guns filled with colored water. Digby came home with his white fur covered in pink and blue splotches. I wiped him off but he must have rejoined the games because he showed up more than once that day sporting pink and blue fur. He was gentle and patient with me, slept in bed next to me and once he discovered how great a lap was he became 'the lap monster'. He left me alone if I was busy but when the day was done and I sat down on the sofa to watch TV it was 'lap time' and he was a great lap warmer in winter, a wonderful companion and a very special kitty. I will miss him so much.

Grandma's Singer ~ experimental

Okay....I think I finally got myself headed in a new direction. I'm not there yet by any means but I'm working on it. I have my grandmother's old Singer sewing machine and have always wanted to include it in a painting. I used to do a lot of sewing with it and am no stranger to those ole Jiffy patterns so one thing lead to another. I cut the last painting in half and flipped the pieces over. Waste not, want not and also it takes the pressure off to create something frame-worthy and allows me to relax and experiment.

Funny where inspiration can come from. I was looking online for different decorative patterns but found nothing I liked. Then I received a home decor catalog in the mail and found wonderful patterns on their selection of rugs. This is also a new composition for me but I think it works. My palette consisted of Ivory Black, Prussian blue, cerulean blue and Quin. pink. The pattern piece is diluted walnut ink and I added some silver leaf to the Singer and the bobbin in the lower left corner.