PaperArtsy Topic 21: Abstract Art. Bubbles

I thought abstract art was mainly a mess on canvas or a sculpture which doesn’t look like anything! But after reading about different types of abstract art on the paperartsy challenge I realised there was much more to it than a ‘mess’! It's all about layering colour and textures and drawing the eye into the piece of art.
I thought I can't do this I'm medically trained not art and design trained! But after mulling it over I said to myself it's like doing a background, which doesn't sound half as scary as ‘abstract art’.

The main posts that Inspired me were Jo-Myhill and Seth Apter.

To begin with I brushed watered down white paint over Kraft card, leaving areas of card showing.
Using scrap sequin material I applied grunge paste with a spatula.

Once dry I painted a wash of colour sanding back the grunge paste in some areas each time so it was different colours in various areas of the design.
I love circle/spots and wanted to reflect the grunge paste so I used a ‘smoothy’ to apply the paint in circles, using the paints listed below.
I wanted the eye to follow the circles so I made them smaller as they went up the canvas.
To finish I added stamped circles and doodled circles in white pen.
I hope I have interpreted correctly  the art of making ‘abstract art’.

Materials used;
Paperartsy grunge paste, Fresco Paint-Beach Hut
Indigoblu paint-Pantry White. Bubbles background stamp.
Pebeo Dyna-357,358,359,360
Creative Expressions-smoothies.

From my stash;
Kraft card.
Sequin waste.
White pen.

Challenge entered;

paperartsy.co.uk

PaperArtsy Topic 20: Triptychs

I really enjoyed drawing the face for the last challenge so for this one I wanted to try and draw a big eye!

The inspiration came from watching the video made for this challenge link..

I practised on some copier paper first. Once I was satisfied with the design I needed to prepare a background.

For this I wanted it to be part of the design but not take the eye away from the focal point, in this case it is the eye!

I used some card already with some of the background painted so I added some drips.

Once dry using paint I added the stamping around the edge.

Pencilled the eye so that I knew where to stamp the flower, it is supposed to show the reflection from the flower border, I hope!

Painted the white of the eye.

With a sharpie pen drew over the pencil and filled in the pupil but the pen started to run out! Only used it a few times! So used a Promarker to finish. Went over the black with Zig pen for glitter effect.

Used some paint and Zig pens to add colour to the eyelid and iris. Using water to blend the colours.

Once happy with the design I cut it into 3, mounted it on card.

When I looked at the finished design the eye didn't seem to match up so had to tweak the black lines so it looked aesthetically pleasing to the eye!

Stamped saying onto scrap bit of card, cut and edged with blue pen. Arranged on design with 3D form pads.

Materials used;

PaperArtsy- paints- Tango, Orchid, Beach Hut. Stamps- JOFY24, ELB22.

Indigoblu paint- Pantry White.

Cosmic Shimmer paint- Teal.

Decoart- Glamour Dust paint- Neon Pink.

Zig Wink A Stella- Black, Purple, White.

Promarker- Black.

Challenge entered;

paperartsy.co.uk

PaperArtsy Topic 19 – Faces

When I saw the title for this challenge I said to myself ‘OMG’ exactly what Leandra said not to do! Lol.

I have never been able to draw faces. I've even been to an art class, at night school! It was for only 6 weeks and I didn't learn much at all. We were asked to draw a face and I'm afraid mine looked like a pig, lol. So I haven't tried since, until this challenge. I am totally out of my comfort zone.

I read the challenge a couple of times and studied the pictures again and again. I wanted a basic description of how to draw a face. The video I picked to watch in the post was-

Learn To Draw Artistic Faces with Dina Wakley (YouTube) Link

Dina’s explanation was clear and straightforward. So I gave it a go and this is a photo of the 1st face I have ever been able to draw! I felt quite ‘chuffed’ with myself.

Now for ‘the real thing.

I wanted this to be stress free as possible! I didn't want to get hung up on perfection. So for the background I squirted paint on a glass mat, sprayed with water and plonked the card on top, moved it around until I got the desired effect. Left it to dry.

Used stencils.

Drew the face and lots of hair as that could detract from the face incase it went wrong!

Actually I’m quite pleased with it.

Painted the hair first then with a Sharpie pen drew over my pencil lines.

Finished off with stamping around the edges using the paint and the brilliant JOFY stamps.

Completed, my second ever drawn face!!

Materials used;

Paperartsy's - Fresco Paints – Tango, Beach Hut, Orchid. Stamps JOYF 38.

Decoart Paint – Glamour Dust.

Sharpie pen.

Tonic Studios Simply Screens dies (used as stencils in this challenge).

Challenge entered;
Paperartsy.co.uk

PaperArtsy Challenge 18: Wearable Art.

I was so excited when I saw the theme ‘wearable art’. When I left school many moons ago I wanted to do fashion design course at college but when I went to the college to have a look what the course involved there seemed to be an awful lot of sewing (I had learnt the basics at home on a very old Singer sewing machine, the ones you had to turn the wheel!) But I  wanted to get straight stuck into designing on paper and play with material and textures! I so wish now that I had done it but I eventually ended up doing a YTS in engineering! I needed the money so I could go night clubbing and concerts! 

After reading the introduction to the challenge I had so many ideas. One of which was to stamp and colour a design on a t-shirt. 

But me and my family have had some upsetting news about my 4year old great nephew. He has a brain tumour don't know whether it is benign or malignant until we get the results.He has had shunt in situ and his headaches have gone. He is a brave little soldier and We all love him so much.

So as I haven't had much time left before the challenge ends.

I have made a pendant.

I was inspired by Lynne Moncrieff's post.

Firstly I rolled some paper clay into a ball,flattened with my had then pressed the flower die into it.

The first was,very thin and when I removed the die I  pressed a script stamp into it. The second attempt! I made thicker. 

I haven't done this before so by making 2 I can choose which one will do a pendant.

They were left to dry overnight.

The flower with the script stamped into it had curled a bit but I liked that one the best.

I sealed them with mod podge, then painted them.

I stamped the flower onto tissue using Pebeo paint. Painted on the reverse. Cut them out.

Stuck them to the clay flowers with mod Podge.

Once dry I didn't like them!! The flower was far too dark for me.

So I stamped and embossed 2 of  the flower stamp on to black card.

Painted them and cut the stem and small petal from one of the flowers and the large petals from the other flower.

Shaped. With 3D gel Stuck them over the top of the tissue flower.

Glued a bail on the reverse and threaded onto cord.

Materials used;

PaperArtsy - Fresco paint – Tango, Stamps - ELB22, Flower die.

Tonic Studios paper clay.

Pebeo Dyna paints.

Mod Podge.

Wow Silver Bells Embossing powder.

Challenge entered;

Paperartsy.co.uk

PaperArtsy Topic 17: Pigment Powders

I looked at this challenge and though I haven't got any pigments! Then as I was reading the explanation of all the pigments available it suddenly dawned on me that I had 2 kinds! Mica and Luminarte pigments. 

Primary Elements Artist-Pigments are created by hand blending bright clean high quality pigments with our proprietary blend of mica's and other minerals. The result is brilliant colours refracting light similar to a crystal. The sparkle and shimmer of Twinkling H2Os add depth and dimension, even when used in washes. Luminarte Artist Pigments are perfect for mixed media. 

Luminarte Artist-Pigments TM, mixes with ease in gum binders, any acrylic medium, water-based polyurethane acrylic glaze or gel mediums. 

So that's what I have used, but I really need some Brushos! Obviously because I need non sparkly pigments, lol. 

For this challenge I was inspired by the design done by Kay Carley.

But I wanted to try embossing powder over the wet pigments! I haven't seen it done before, then realised it would be very hard to achieve as with this method there is too much water on the card! So I didn't bother, lol. 

Here goes; 

Stamped with Versamark and then applied white embossing powder and heated with a heat gun. Anyone new to embossing must understand that a heat gun gets very hot so to melt the powder a hair-dryer doesn't get hot enough and will blow the powder away. 

I spritzed the watercolour card with water. 

Sprinkled the pigments all over and waited for the magic,adding water if needed in different parts. 

Dried thoroughly. 

With a wet brush lifted the colour from areas that I wanted to apply another colour. 

Dabbing with a paper towel to help lift even more colour. Then applied more water with the brush and sprinkled with the pigments. 

Once happy with the distribution of the powder I dried the card with a heat gun. 

I liked how Kay had applied a shadow to the stamped images. I wanted to give that ago but I forgot to do it before fixing the design with Spray n Shine, lol. 

Stamped the wording. 

Applied Spray n Shine to fix the design. 

Matted onto black card. 

Will either use for a greeting card or may hang it on the wall. I've really enjoyed this technique and it's one that I know I will use often. 

Tip; decant your powder into a shaker type container or if original container allows make a few small holes in the lid so that you can shake the powder onto your design. I didn't do this and found it hard to shake the powder from a stirring stick because most of the time it fell off in one big clump and so I had to use a brush to move the powder and water. Dipping ( just touch the surface is quite sufficient) a stiff brush into the powder then flicking it over the card and water gave a better result. 

Materials used; 

Luminarte Artist Pigments – Ginger Peach, Blushing Rose, Sky Blue, Key Lime, Sunflower. 

PaperArtsy stamps –  

Wow Embossing Powder- White. 

Versamark  

Distress Ink – Peacock. 

Crafters Companion – Spray n Shine. 

From my stash; 

Watercolour card. 

Fine mist sprayer. 

Black card. 

Challenge entered; 

PapaerArtsy

PaperArsty Topic 16 – Circles

Hi there bloggers this post is going to be a very quick one as I'm really late writing it up! My project was finished Tuesday (it's now Sunday 2pm!) but I had a message from my friend about a dog that needed re homing and he's coming all the way from Spain! I will blog about him and his journey once I get him this next Friday but through messaging the person about him I got it in my mind it was Friday just gone n went into panic mode getting things ready for him, lol.

Anyway back to the challenge.

Inspired by  

Gabrielle Price 

I used white card as my base, ripped up pieces of a book and some bits of patterned paper I found.

Stuck them to the card with Matt glue.

Washed over with dilute white paint.

Once dry embossed and dry brushed with blue paint.

Applied grunge paste through a stencil and then stamped into it for even more texture.

Stamped with paint onto the background then stamped on spotty tissue paper.

Painted them on the reverse side.

Applied to background with Matt glue.

Highlighted with white pen.

Glitter and pearl drops added to finish.

I will make them into cards when required and add a sentiment to suit the recipient.

Materials used;

PaperArtsy -  Fresco Paints Beach Hut, Yellow Submarine, Orchid, Tango. JOFY38. Grunge paste.

Indigoblu – Slap It On. Pantry White paint. Stamp.

Clarity Stamps – Stencil

Distress Stickles

Liquid Pearls.

From my stash;

Spotty tissue.

Embossing folder.

White pen.

White card.

Bottle tops various sizes.

Challenge entered;

paperartsy.co.uk