Arts and Crafts

Butterflies and flowers – mixed media

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A second done today!  A4 in size, just as ‘Hope – flowerpunked’ is.

I’ve just realised I’ve not done the shadows around various elements, but that’ll have to wait as the drops on the petals are drying.

It’s deuced hard to photograph these well; the butterflies shimmer with different iridescent colours, as do the flowers .  The leaves have a kind of verdigrised bronze look to them. The background is very matte in contrast to the shimmer of the elements affixed to it.  There’s also some vintage paper behind the elements – from a very old science book!  Well I am a scientist as well as an artist.

I’m going to have to find something to do with all these mixed media pieces as storing them is going to be difficult as the latest ones have a lot of ‘dimension’ to them.  On this one both the butterfly wings and the flower centres are raised up somewhat.

I also have to decided if I’mg oing to continue having acrylic nails and nice gel nail finishes as all this mixed media work has just about wrecked them!  I thought that was nigh on impossible, but perhaps not!

Hope – flowerpunked. Art and my mental health.

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Just finished this one.

Hope.

Sometimes I have to walk away from something I’m working on as I despair it will work out to be anything near good enough.  Actually, it’s not sometimes, it’s most of the time!  However, I do persevere.

When I went to bed last night, this one was looking horrible.  I had the background done, the first layers of collaged patterned paper and the kind of hessian looking die-cut added too  I really wasn’t happy with it at all.

However, a good night’s sleep and a bit of inspiration on waking meant I knew where I wanted to go next, especially after I sorted out the jumble of die-cuts I have (note to self-get some way to organise these!).

Once started from the point of inspiration, the picture just grew to it’s finished state (well, I think it’s finished, that may change when I look at it again later on).

Hope.  A really good word here.  There’s always hope that no matter how bad I think something looks, , pushing past that often results in something good.  Indeed, sometimes the work can just be cut into pieces for use in another piece, which is how the iridescent, textured circles came to appear in this one.

Hope.  Making art always gives me hope that I can overcome the trials I face when my anxiety/depression/complex post-traumatic stress disorder kitcks itself up a few or several notches.  Art always gives me a place where I can lose myself in something that is meditative, mindful, self-soothing, and shows me that I can succeed even when the self-critic is telling me I’m useless, I can never get anything right, nothing is good enough, I’m a failure, and so on.

This past week or so, challenging myself to work with mixed media – something I’ve tried in the past and not really felt I was successful at – has been good to help me with the aftermath of a couple of rather strong anxiety attacks.  I’ve not had any for around a year now.

I was surprised by them and at their intensity and how they have impacted on how I live my life at the moment.  I find it difficult to go out into the world, want to hide away from people, and when I do go out it’s often in the dark hours so I’m not seen.

It also surprised me that this is how I used to live every single day for a very long time, most probably most of my life, until a few months ago.

Even though these two episodes have happened, I know I’ll get past them; I have in the past, and I can learn more about the triggers for them and also where this all comes from, which will help greatly in the counsellinge process.

So there’s hope I’ll improve in the long term, and blips are just that.  Just as I’ve hoped that my confidence and skill and expression via mixed media would improve.  I’ve just had a look back at the mixed media I’ve done in the last fortnight or three weeks, and even I can see how it’s all developed, in a positive way.

What’s made the difference for me with mixed media is finding the confidence to do my best to do it my way and to explore it in my way.  I have a lot more exploring to do, and a lot more confidence building in what I do with it. I will journey along this road, along with my drawing and illustration skills, maybe even writing, and with healing what I can of my mebtal health issues.

So, choosing the word hope for it to appear on this piece of art was most appropriate.

Flowerpunked

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This is todays mixed media creation (approx 5.25″ x 11.5″.  I think ‘Flowerpunked’ is a good name for it, or for the series of works like this.

I found a way to lift the flowers up so they have more dimension; wish I’d thought of that when I was adding the cogs., still there’s always the next one!  It’s all a learning process – it never ends!  I also think the stenciled patterns on the background are a bit dark and heavy … and just didn’t quite know what to do about them at the time as I didn’t want to lose the pretty background colours/patterns I’d already created.

Two completed mixed media pieces

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Colorist Windows App – announcement and review

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Colorist

First, the announcement!  I’m doing some coloring templates for the Colorist App, and my first book of ten pages – called DoodleWorlds – is now available for it!

 

Review of Colorist

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Colorist is the only app that lets you color with exactly the same feel as coloring pencils! Relax on the couch and enjoy coloring a complex design, a vacation spot, or a crazy cartoon cat – tons of pages to choose from. Even color the same picture more than once, to see what else you can do with it. No need to worry about losing your coloring pencils in the couch anymore!

I have tried the Colorist app out, and here’s an honest review of it.

I had a quick look at the app before I agreed to do any design work for Faction Apps as I’d not want to have my artwork on any platform that I didn’t think was a good thing.

I’ve given it a test run using my Surface book and the Surface pen.  I haven’t tried it out in touch mode with my finger. You can see what I did in the image above, which is one of the free downloads as my own weren’t available at the time I did this test.

Here’s a close up of the section I coloured in.

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The colour palette

There’s a large number of colours available in the palette, and the bar that appears beside the image retains the last eight colours you’ve used, which is really useful and makes colouring in areas you want in the same colours easy to do.  It also means it’s easy to use many colours to get a smooth colour gradation, something that you can’t do with other colouring apps I’ve seen.

The pencil tool

There’s a slider bar with the tool so you can select the width of the pencil stroke, which is great.  The finest settings allowed me to add patterns to the image.  This is something that sets the app apart from others I’ve seen, which only allow a flood fill.

The finer lines and the ability to zoom in to the area you’re colouring mean you can get into the tiniest areas to colour, which at the original image size may have been a challenge, especially when printed on paper and coloured using coloured pencils.

The line isn’t a solid line, it has texture to it just as if you’re colouring on paper with a ‘tooth’ (texture).  This means that optical mixing of colours is possible, as well as adding texture to that mixing.  It also means that a smooth blend of colours is achievable.

The colours lay nicely on top of each other, thanks to that bitty texture; one colour doesn’t obsure the other, unless you use a lot of pressure and it’s what you want.

Oh, the colours don’t obscure the black outlines of the colouring page, no matter how hard you press.

My surface pen is pressure sensitive, and that makes the colouring experience a lot more comparable to colouring on paper with pencils, but without the mess!  I don’t know what it’s like on a screen that isn’t pressure sensitive, or how it works if I use my finger instead of the pen.

I am really impressed with the results and how the pencil tool works.

Also, I can get a bit irritated when I’m colouring with physical pencils; they often make my arthritic joints ache.  No such problem here; indeed, I wanted to carry on colouring but had to put it aside so I could get on with other things.

Eraser tool and Undo Button

It works!  However, I preferred to use the white from the palette to erase small areas to add highlights as I could control the thickness of the line being used to remove colour.

The undo button would be really useful too.

Together, they are things you can’t do when you’re colouring on paper, well not easily.

Saving your art

You can save your work at any time by using the save button on the app. You can also colour each page in as many times as you like in as many different colour schemes as you like too.

Final thoughts

I like this app, very, very much.  I found it easy to use, quick to master, and it gives really lovely results.  It’s a well thought through app, it does what it says it does, and the experience and results are a lot like using coloured pencils on paper!

I just want to repeat that although I have done some artwork for the app, these views are my own and not influenced by me working for them; if hadn’t htought the app was a good product I wouldn’t have agreed to do work for them!

Unnamed mixed media work in progress

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I’ve been working on this project over the past three or so days.  It’s not finished, far from it I think.  I’m having to take a break from it to let the glue that I’ve used to stick some metal embellishments to it cure.

I’ve tried to take photos that show how the cogs and foliage look almost verdigris from one aspect, yet metallic from another.  The paper I’m working on is A3-ish in size; I’ve used 300gsm watercolour paper as the substrate – it’s sturdy and doesn’t warp too much when water and water-based media are used on it, or when heat is used to speedily dry each layer as they are added.

I know I want to add some gems to the cogs (gotta have sparkle!), I may add some flowers, maybe not.  I do need to add shadows too.  I’m not sure if I’m going to add some kind of quote up in the top right corner or whether I’ll just leave it as it is.

More mixed media

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I’m really enjoying this, perhaps a bit too much as I’m not focusing on what, perhaps, needs focusing on. However, it is true that a change is as good as a rest!

It’s a nightmare trying to photograph these pieces of artwork as they are so metallic and iridescent, but hopefully you’ll get a fairly good idea.  I’ve tried to scan them, and for the ATCs it’s a no go, and the scan of the other image isn’t any better than the photo.

The ATCs have been so much fun to do, especially as I’ve been collaging and playing with texture, and gears…gotta try a little steampunk-ish type stuff every now and again!

Media used :

  • Distress oxide inks
  • Die cuts of gears and snowflakes
  • Ranger Gloss Multi-medium
  • Tim Holtz’s collage medium, matte
  • Perfect pearls
  • Imagination Crafts Rusty Patina
  • PaperArtsy Fresco paints
  • Posca paint pens
  • Liquitex and Pebeo iridescent and metallic paints
  • Various gems, glues, papers

Blooming rain

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Another mixed media piece just finished, I think. I may add glossy accents or 3D crystal lacquer to the bubbles/drops and parts of the flowers, or maybe not.

The image has been scanned so the iridescence and glimmer doesn’t show up, sadly.  Also, I’ve been a bit heavy handed with the shadows around the flowers and bubbles/raindrops.

Here’s the list of media I used:

  • PaperArtsy Fresco paints
  • Distress Oxide inks
  • Liquitex and Pebeo iridescent and metallic acrylic paints
  • Perfect Pearl spray in gold
  • Posca pens in black and white
  • Derwent’s Inktense pencils
  • Uniball Signo white gel pen

Rainbow verdigris

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I really need to learn to take better photos!  This doesn’t do the artwork justice at all, neither does the curled paper.  If I manage to take a better photo I’ll update it.

*Update*  The image on the left is a scanned image – the iridescence and metallic sheen are lost in the scan, but the image is clearer.

There are patches of textures ‘verdigris’ which has a rainbow iridescence on them, as well as similar colours and patterns elsewhere.

The background shimmers with copper and other iridescent colours, over a soft, chalky coloured surface achieved by using Distress Oxide inks.

I loved the background so much that I really didn’t want to work over it. However, this morning I decided to be brave and to wield a Pebeo Posca black pen to draw circle patterns on it, with the aim of adding colours that would be reminiscent of verdigris on copper.

I think I’ve achieved that in some small measure, and perhaps in a different way.

I learned a lot of things along the way, not least of which is to paint the circle BEFORE I add patterns to them with a pen!  What I may do is prepare sheets of paper with the colours on I want in the circles, draw the patterns on them, cut them out and then collage them on the background to give a more 3D look to the art.

Art is all about experimentation, learning when things don’t work out as you’d like.  However, when things don’t turn out or you think you’ve made a mistake, learn to accept it as a ‘creative opportunity’ and work with it.  There are many ‘creative opportunities’ in this mixed media piece!

Media used:

  • Distress oxide inks
  • Perfect Pearls
  • Liquitex, Decoart Media and Pebeo Dyna iridescent and metallic acrylic paints.
  • Posca pen
  • Stencils by Prima
  • Fresco paints by PaperArtsy
  • Rusty Patina paints by Imagination Crafts
  • Inktense pencils from Derwent

 

A colourful bunch

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This is just finished, though the 3D Crystal Lacquer on the flower centres hasn’t dried yet, so they’re a tad on the cloudy side.

I’m really pleased with this.  Not least of which for bravely, possibly even crazily, using some of my entangled, abstract art to make the flowers!

So, how did I do this?

Firstly, I made the background.  I used a piece of cream paper that has a texture on it that is designed for use with pastels, charcoal and coloured pencils, and I added colour using Distress Oxide inks.  I then sprayed it with a solution of gold Perfect Pearls which gave water spots and gold shimmers to the background.

Next, I’d had this crazy idea to use some of my art to create the flowers.  I chose some art that had colours that would stand out against the background and each other and I used circle punches to cut out circles of varying sizes.  I used a mini ink blending tool and sponge to add jet black Archival Ink to the edges of the circles to distress them as well as to give them a definite edge against each other.

The circles were stuck together in groups of three and then stuck onto the background in a pleasing arrangement, as if they were flowers in a bunch.

Next, came the outlining with a black Sharpie, as well as adding patterns to the circles to create petals and so on.  The white was added using a Sakura Glaze pen.  I also added gold patterns and highlights using a UniBall Signo pen.

The next step was to draw the stems and leaves, which was done with the Sharpie pen.  I used a waterbrush with paint from some of Derwent’s line painter pens.

Next, I intensified and added shadows under and around the flowers, stems and leaves using Inktense pencils and a waterbrush.

This was followed by the creation of the border using a black Posca pen.

Finally, the mixed media panel was adhered to a black background and the gold pen was used to add lines around the panel.  Oh, and then I decided to add 3D Crystal Lacquer to the flower centres.  An accidental drop of the lacquer on the background led to me adding more drops.

I’ve really surprised myself with this project.  I really enjoyed it, and even though I was wondering what on Earth I was thinking in ‘destroying’ some artwork I liked, I came to realise it was repurposing the artwork to create something new, different and allowing me to explore the world of mixed media more, particularly how it relates to myself.