An abstract page

The word I used for my DLP page was ink. The prompt was 'before the ink dries' and I was going to try and do something with that but my ink was drying before I had time to do anything with it.

I coated my page with gesso first and let it dry. This journal I am using is like blotting paper and any wet media goes straight through to the next page if I don't gesso first. I took out 3 bottles of Dr PH Martins Bombay india ink to use (teal, brown and yellow). I used a paint brush to randomly apply some swishes of the yellow ink first. Uh oh...it was a lot brighter than I thought so I tried to use water to mute it but it was already dry and permanent. Next I put the teal right on top of the yellow and added a few brown swishes too. I sprayed water on top and tilted the page so everything would run together. While it was wet I flicked on a few brown dots too and then left it to dry. The next day I tried to find an image in the ink but all I could see was a few butterflies. I did them and then started outlining the painted shapes. After that I filled in some areas with doodles and added white pen doodles too. It is not my usual style but it was great fun to do.

Printing workshop

Today I am sharing some of the prints I did when I took an online class at the start of the year about gelatin printing. The class was a lot of fun and run by Linda Germain (http://www.lindagermain.com/workshops/). It was called Making monotypes. This is not the typical gelatin plate printing that you see in the mixed media world. We did make gelatin plates to print on but the art making was very different. We were making finished images, not backgrounds.

I have not done any printing before so it was a big learning curve for me. I absolutely loved the class and will use what I learned in the future. I found it easy to follow and learn from the teacher. There were loads of videos, mostly short so I didn't have to spend a lot of time watching them. I did get better results as the course went on and as I got more used to the way the inks worked.  It is a skill that takes practice to master but I feel like I learned enough to keep experimenting and learning as time goes on.

We used plants and other objects to make our first prints. I thought it was fun looking around for things that would make good prints.

Another technique we learned was making our own images. I did make mistakes along the way but it helps me to never do that again. Can you see the bottom print where one layer was printed upside down, lol?

 We learned how to make prints more interesting with extra layers.

More experiments with nature printing.

A series of prints I made at the half way point of the class.  I was experimenting a lot with colours and layers throughout the class. It helps me find the colours that I liked the most.

One part of the course I really liked was drawing our own images to print. I loved doing birds. 

 We learned how to make a print with a border. It is more difficult than I thought and quite hard to keep the border clean.  It is a skill that gets easier with practice. 

 We experimented with printing on different types of paper. I liked printing on textured paper a lot. This was a lithograph paper and it took the inks really well. We also printed onto book paper.

Using multiple colours and images to make a complete picture was one of the main skills we learned.

 I seem to be making a lot of pictures with birds in them lately. The birds that live in our street are a major source of inspiration to me.

I don't only use birds though. All of these prints are beginner prints but I can see the potential of this art form. I had so many ideas as the class went on. I will be practicing a lot.

I will recommend this online class to you if these types of monoprints appeals to you. I found the attention given by Linda was more personal and more often than any other class I have done. She was always there to help and made many extra videos addressing problems that came up as we did the course.  Linda did limit the number of people that could sign up for the class at one time so she could respond to everyone as needed. I think that was a great idea.

This was my final online class for a while. I have decided that I need to do more of my own art this year, as well as more of the other projects that I have been putting off for a while. I will still be sharing the creative things I do here, it is something I love to do.  

The final week of Index Card a Day

I am a little sad that the challenge is ending this week. I have found so much inspiration from the challenge and the other artists I have connected with on the facebook page.  I have not had a lot of time to look through the flickr group yet but I will be doing that soon. This is my first time doing ICAD and it is so amazing and wonderful I will not be missing it next year. I have to say a huge thank you to Tammy for creating such a lovely group to be part of.

This week I didn't use the theme or prompts. I have been doing a print making workshop at Joggles.com and I wanted to use some of the papers I made. It was taught by Sandra Duran Wilson who has several books available. I have gone with abstract designs and used some of my scrapbooking supplies. I also used mostly metallic acrylics like Lumieres and metallic Folk Art paints.

 

My final collection of cards. I have put them into little 4 x 6 photo brag books so they are like a mini art journal.

ICAD week 2

This week the prompt was to use ink. I mainly chose to use spray inks like Dylusions and Moonshadow mist sprays.

This first card decided the style I was going to use all week. The daily prompt was city or map. I traced a map stencil onto an index card and cut it out. I then drew the Eiffel tower on another card that had been sprayed blue. I mounted the cut out above the blue card with mounting tape. It has a great 3D effect that I liked so I continued that all week.

The prompt here was sun. I drew the sun on the back of the sprayed card and cut it out. 

The prompt was a list of favourites. I chose my favourite ideas that I have seen on the ICAD page so far.

The daily prompt was circus. I had to draw more circus tents and cut them out. I used markers  for the colouring and blue spray for the sky.

The prompt was ivy. I think this is my favourite for the week. The veins were done with gel pen so they are a little raised.

The prompt was junk mail. I cut the fruit from supermarket catalogs and the butterflies from a Target catalog. They were stuck to green sprayed card and cut out, then mounted over orange sprayed card. 

The final prompt was camera. I sketched my own camera and mounted it over a sprayed card. I have enjoyed playing with cut outs this week but will be looking forward to the next challenge. I love to change things all the time, it keeps me inspired.

Mosaics

I have family staying with me at the moment and it is very difficult to get half the art done that I usually like to do each day.
Last week on Book of Days the prompt was: something that challenges you and the technique was mosaics.

As I thought about what challenges me I thought of my relatives staying and how hard it is when we have been empty nesters for about 6 years. I am not used to having children and dogs around. I was flicking through a magazine thinking how lovely all the pictures were and it would be a shame to throw them away. Then I came up with the idea to use them for my mosaics.The other techniques I chose to use from Effy's work was the stencilling she did and the big writing. I am quite happy with the finished page. I did journal under the mosaics but had to cover it up. The quote reminds me it is about my nephew.

Tile Art part 2

Now that you have colored all of your tiles it is time to add the images. I do this with stamps. I suggest you use some of the extra curved pieces of CD we saved to practice stamping on first so you get the feel of it. When stamping on the alcohol inks you can not wipe it off if you make a mistake because it will take off the color as well so you only get one go at the stamping unless you want to redo the tile from the beginning.

I start by selecting quotes or words that will fit on the tiles and stamp them using archival ink. You could use Stazon or other brands that work on glossy surfaces, I just find the archival is less slippery for me. Next I stamp a selection of insects and birds. I try to keep the butterflies and birds pointing towards the center of the picture, I think it looks more balanced that way. I also think it looks better to use have some of the images stamped off the edge of the tiles, like the large butterfly in the middle.

You can heat emboss some of the images. It is important to use an antistatic powder on the tile first (like the embossing buddy) because the embossing powder will stick to the whole tile if you don't. After I wiped the tile with the powder I stamped with Versa Mark and then used fine gold embossing powder on the image. When all the insects were stamped or embossed I stamped the large flowers. Then I used a variety of flowers and scroll stamps to fill in the rest of the tiles. You can leave some of the tiles blank if you like the way the color looks. I try to have the flowers towards the bottom pointing upwards and the branches near the top pointing down. It leads your eye to the center of the picture. The tiles need to be left overnight to dry or you can speed this up with a heat gun. Just make sure you do that in a well ventilated room.

When you are happy with the overall picture you need to glue the tiles onto the background. You could use double sided tape instead but I like to use the glue so I can move the tiles to get them straight when they are in place.  I used Scrapbooking cardstock for all my backgrounds, but you could use anything you like. You could even glue the tiles onto a canvas that you have painted first. I used a ruler to get the edges straight because it would have been noticeable when framed if they were wonky. I started with the 4 corners and glued them down first. I then do the tiles on each side trying to keep them fairly evenly spaced. Lastly I glue the tiles in the center and the picture is done. If I am doing an uneven layout like my first piece I would start gluing in the center of the picture and then glue the other tiles in place around that center one.

 

I have tried to be as detailed as possible but if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. I enjoy talking to people. 

Tile Art part 1

Hi everyone. My name is Wendy and I am an artist who likes to dabble in all sorts of techniques and media.  I am starting this blog to answer questions I have received about some of my work that I have posted on flickr. At the moment I am taking fortnightly classes in art journals and ATCs.  They are really just a social outlet but cover a variety of techniques as well. These are the things I will blog about. 

The first technique was Stamping on CDs. I have changed this completely to develop my own technique that I call Tile Art. My first version is on the cover of my ATC book and was quite experimental. It took several hours to complete because I kept changing it until I was happy with the finished look.

  The second piece I made was to fit a frame I already had.  This is the piece that was asked about and is why I have started this blog. Instructions will follow. The frame size is 23 x 18 cm (9 x  7 in)

 As I had already completed that piece I made another piece and framed it with a mat to use as my demonstration piece for this technique. I decided to change the orientation of the last one. I like it the most so far. The tile art in the middle is 14 x 19 cm (5.5 x 7.5 in)

To do these projects you need 3 or 4 CDs depending on the finished size. You could do a larger piece but I suggest starting small because cutting up the CDs is hard work. I chose old computer CDs but it doesn't really matter. You are using the shiny side only so they can all be different on the printed side. Try to get CDs that are the same color on the shiny side. Sometimes they are gold or purple in color. They can still be used but you have to be aware they may cause the colors you apply to look different.

The first step is to cut up your CDs. I like to cut mine with a sharp knife and a nonslip metal ruler. Extra care must be taken when using a knife to do this as the CDs are very slippery and it is easy to cut yourself.  It takes about 10 cuts to get through the cd but once you get halfway through some cds will snap along the line.  You can cut some soft cds with scissors but test on one corner first because the metal backing may flake off. Another method is to heat the cd for about 30 secs with a heat gun then cut it while it is still warm. If you are heating try not to breathe in the fumes and do it in a well ventilated area.  I don't worry about the sizes, I just cut lots of rectangles. Discard the curved pieces but keep a few of the largest ones in case you will need them later. Next I sand all the edges to get rid of any roughness being careful not to breathe in the dust. This step is optional. 

Take a piece of paper and mark out the finished size you want your picture to be. Arrange all the pieces you have until you are happy with the way it looks. You may need to cut more small pieces out of the curved pieces you saved previously. I usually start in the center with a large piece then arrange others around it. When it looks right I trace around the outside of each piece and number it. This helps later on, and also if some little helpers come along and accidentally knock the whole thing on the floor (this I know from experience, lol). 

This preparation takes a couple of hours depending on how long it takes to cut the CDs but it is worth taking your time.  

Now the fun begins. I take three pieces out and color them on the shiny side with metallic acrylic paints. I dab the paint on by pouncing the paint brush up and down. Try not to put on too much paint so some of the shiny surface can still be seen. I like to use two colors for this step but the maximum I would use is three.

Another way to color your tiles is to use stamp pad ink.  There are several brands available that will work on shiny surfaces but I like to use the Brilliance ink pads because they are metallic. They do need to be heat set if you want them to dry quickly or leave them overnight. Again I let some of the metal background peek through.

The rest of the tiles are colored with alcohol inks. This time I am doing 5 tiles. I try to use odd numbers of tiles when I am adding color, usually 3 or 5.  When I finish with each set of tiles I put them back on the piece of marked paper so I can see the whole piece of art.

This photo shows the first step. I have lightly sprayed rubbing alcohol on the tiles then added a drop of 3 different colored alcohol inks to each tile. 

 Next I again spray the tiles to help the ink move around more. I wear rubber gloves during this stage so I can use my fingers to move the ink around if it is stuck in one spot. I then dried these red tiles with a heat gun, it only takes about 10 secs. Using the heat gun makes the inks blotchy.

If you don't like your colors use the rubbing alcohol to clean the tiles and start over. You can redo this part several times if you need to.

These tiles were done with only two colors and left to dry naturally. It only takes a couple of minutes to dry and the effect is much smoother than the heat gun. I try to use a variety of techniques so it is more interesting to look at. 

For these tiles I used the blending solution to make the ink cover the tiles. It makes the colors paler and allows a  lot of the background to show through.

When all the tiles are colored review the overall look. You may find you don't like some of them or they may need a little adjusting. I thought the blue painted squares were too light so I went over them with a little more blue and added some gold paint as well. I also added the same gold paint to the copper ink tiles and the small dark blue tiles.  

 I changed the lower left red tile to blue and swapped its position. I thought the light green tiles were too shiny and it was then I remembered an important step I had left out. To make the alcohol inks go cloudy you need to blow on them while they are drying. It turns them matte and you can still get the shine of the background coming through but it is softer. It is up to you which effect you would like in your work.

Alcohol inks applied

Sprayed with alcohol, still shiny

After blowing on it the ink is cloudy.