Joy - Gelli plate, acrylic, ink, water soluble pencils.

I thought I'd challenge myself to add more line into my work, and to use some tools that leave an obvious line. This proved kind of neat.  She's smallish, only 6x8 on hot pressed watercolor paper (really more of a bristol.)

The House Whisperer - Mixed Media Canvas, 11x14

I have an urge to work bigger on canvas, and in a rough way, more like the scratchy lines from scratchboard drawings.  I still feel like this is a little tighter than I want it, but that's something I can keep working on.

Journal Page - The Difficult

I got out the gelli plate the other night - monotype with a press is my "thing" - years ago I had an artist residency at MN book arts for my monotype work.  It's completely different without a press, but I think I'm going to enjoy wrestling with this little silicone blob until I like the results.

 Her crown and dress are some very subtle mossy gelli printed papers. Collage, watercolor, stamping, drawing - other than the water color washes almost all the paint is applied with a tsukineko fantastix foam stick. I'm still crazy for those things.  I should keep a running list of supplies I find "worth it."

Mixed Media on Loose Fabriano Watercolor

I am trying not to go ape and throw poo be bummed about YET MORE SNOW. Enough. Any time now.

Well, even if I'm kept indoors at least I can play. This is like the rainy day activity that never ends.

In GOOD news, it is the anniversary of Paint Party Friday! PPF has introduced me to many talented and friendly bloggers/artists, and it's one of those nice blog parties that makes a self-employed freelancer feel just that tiniest bit less like a cave dwelling hermit. YAY PPF. Here's to many many more!

liquitex Acrylic Inks and Journaling.

Hi friends.

I love to shop. I love to buy things as much as the next person.  Hence my expanding stash. Ever ever expanding.

But I am also pretty hard on products for the mixed media market.  I'm kind of a manufacturer's design team nightmare, but the one who takes me on and gives me good product will love me forever.

I've actually got more formal training than I'd like to discuss, and I tend to compare crafter's products to the things I used in school - and usually they do ok.

But in the case of pens, they often come up short. Pens, what gives?

Wanna know the *only* pens that get me hot and bothered?
1. Uni Posca. Good luck finding these babies, but when you can get them in a 1 mm tell me you're not in love.
2. Uniball signo white. But it was a bad ro-mo-ma-ha-ha because it has gummed up on a dry ground that had a tiny bit of watercolor crayon in the mix.  ET TU SIGNO???
3. PITT - but generally for lick your finger and intentionally smear that stuff applications only.

I don't like seeing people caught up in the hype of product wasting money over and over.  OK I'll speak for myself -  I feel like I did, when it came to pens which are either not archival at all  (sharpies, gelly rolls I have doubts over) OR they're just cranky and terrible to use and you go through a hundred nibs. (Sharpies! A million sharpie carcasses ALL OVER. Copic likes to die a seven dollar death over any kind of paint or medium. Coloring stamps has to be the ONLY great use for a Copic, or under watercolor or something really transparent and inky and washy and too pretty for me to have made, ha!)

 Like a lot of art journalers, I'm often on the quest for a better pen.

One that won't dry out. One that won't gum up and make you cry the second it might touch wet paint. One that you don't have to shake like a maniac.  One that covers. You hear me pens? COVERS.

 One that is KIND to my left handed chicken scratch inscrutable handwriting. Blah.

Well, I found my pen! Actually what I found are my inks - Liquitex acrylic inks, to be exact.  I use a good ol' dip pen. Why?

Control is terrific - if you're a lefty like me, you have to watch out for smearing, but other than that, your line quality gets 1000 times more interesting in just one easy installment, ha.

The white ink (how I love it) allows you to mix opaque pretty colors with great coverage - and you can get the exact shade you need without having to run out and get another six dollar pen that is only going to die the second it encounters gesso (I'm looking at YOU Copic!)

Honestly, don't be intimidated by brush and pen and ink - really. The simple speedball set which comes with a tiny crowquill pen is the way to go, for me, but I'm probably going to want some calligraphy tips too.  The sets are about 9 bucks, and the ink is about 20 in a primary color plus brown black and white set - but the life that you get from this setup seems MUCH longer than a lot of the journaling pens I've collected, all of which disappoint me except for Uni Posca.

What do you think? Have you played with traditional pen and ink? Any mileage with the liquitex inks?

New Art Journal Page - Also Available as ACEO

Got to play again the other night - I'm not a huge fan of cold press paper, but she was done on cold press. You can see the texture of the paper. Undecided on whether I like that.

It's going to get cold again, after a balmy couple of above-30 days. Blergh.  This is me, trying to cheer myself up.

She's available as an ACEO for now @ my etsy shop. 
You can request a full size print if you want!

More Hybrid art blocks - analog and digital collage

If this snow doesn't quit I may lose it. They're threatening us with more of it at the end of the week. Sometimes I think the Minnesota art scene is a result of cabin fever. People tend to have one of two relationships with nature here - we're in the land of 10,000 contemplative landscape painters, and 10,000 quirky introverted screenprinters who never leave the studio. And one and only one Scott Seekins, goes without saying.

I've been meaning to get into some camera walks, but sadly my body is not being very helpful lately, and the only visually interesting views I've been getting are doctor's offices. Blah.  I'm not one of those people who's going to blog illness a lot, and no, I'm not going to keel over imminently, but I'll summarize it all with a hearty this sucks and get on to the art. 

Yes, it's my Calgon, my shrink, my transportational key outta here when things are dark.  I do see the work taking a more serious look on, but I'm trying to stay upbeat more often than not.  I'm also wondering how many people would be interested in possibly a course, or a swap or a blog hop or a challenge or some kind of social coming-together around what I'm choosing to call Hybrids (though my sweetie likes "digilog" or "origlicates")

 

More fun still with the hybrid technique.

 

This one is a work in progress, though almost done, I think.

Recognize her?

 

Work In progress

A fast look at one of my canvases in progress.

We had some nice weather. I've been trying to get a good hawk in silhouette photo.  This should be easy, because they're typically everwhere. There's almost a one-hawk-to-a-lightpole population density! Of course the days I actually HAVE the camera and go out with a purpose, there are no birds anywhere, practically.  This was the only good photo op I got in two days!

 strolling

Journal page - The Garden of the World

Some stamping and stenciling with abandon, and a quote. And --- green. Finally broke 40 degrees here!

Simon Says Stamp and Show : Quotable Challenge

...And the original image - mixed media painting @ paperyum

Here is the original image. I worked back into it and you'll see some subtle differences.  It's great fun layering all the papers and seeing what emerges in the end - while a lot of the first layer gets covered, bits of it come through.

6x12, acrylic, inktense pencils, decorative papers, stenciling, vintage book pages, stamping.

Print and Process - using the epson for hand-altered art variations

 

Here's one of my first prints - a mini print on a four inch MDF panel with rounded corners and hand-aged edges. Sweet huh?

Even sweeter is the way she came to be.  In this case, the evolution is right to left.

On the right, my original. Gouache and collage on a canvas, 6x8.  I know I want "more" in this image, it's not a finished piece, but if I had a dime for every time I added "more" to something I like and killed it, I would be a rich lady.  Now, with the epson and my stash of Somerset Velvet papers, I can experiment with much less potential artistic fallout. Whee!

In the middle: a hand altered print. This is a test print that misfired actually, cutting off part of the image. Waste not want not. I went back into her with more collage, more acrylics, intensifying and brightening -  and some stamping, even.

 (I'm such a hypocrite, the wide world of stamps opens before me, yay.)

Last, to the left is the mini print you see above.  The color fidelity is pretty good - I'm actually not a huge stickler for that, as long as it looks good and consistent among the final print outputs.  The only alteration here is a little distress ink aging and some light sealing. My original lives on to play another day and another way - let's see where else she goes!  

 Anyone else use their printer this way, not quite digital art and not purely analog art either? Comments are always welcome below!

Rustle of Spring

 That's the theme for this week's challenge at Three Muses.

I'm in favor of spring. 'Nuff said!  Miss Bunny is over the wait, too.

Here's a 6x6, acrylic, collage, vintage papers, stamps, inktense, vintage ad.

Illustration Friday again already

Prompt: "Whisper" for illustration friday. 6x6 acrylic and inktense

Journal Page

I'm starting a surface driven journal. All the pages in this one, I think, will start with surface treatment and build from there.  I've been restless for spring, tired of getting slammed with all the winter weather in one month. That's what I thought this little entry was about.

After adding the text, I realized this has nothing to do with seasons at all, rather someone dear to me who was lost out of the blue.  It's interesting how the mind and emotions have their way with you when you let them open up.

Artspiration

I haven't done anything with collage in the longest time - but all these great papers got me interested. There are a lot of papers that simply aren't suited for pendants, or only part of them are.

I set myself up with the following parameters: only vintage papers. Only my hand alterations. Vintage trims as much as possible.

No reproduction, no scanning, no xerox, no new stuff, no "artists papers" no stamps.

The finished collage is coated with sanded resin, for a more opaque and smooth surface.

Have you ever given yourself parameters like that to get out of a rut? Does narrowing it down from totally infinite help you or hinder you? I find it a huge help to have a few things pre-decided for me. I plan on doing more challenges for this reason.