Wax On - Mixed Media wax finished collage art

I'm having a blast covering things with wax! Recognize the background images? I love to use up all of my various printer misfires - you never have to waste good paper!

First, I cut them up and tiled them into a background for this girl.

She's also a print out of one of my paintings - the painting is actually in a progress state, and what I'll do is scan the image before I do something silly to it. Every time I hit a stage of the painting that I like, I'll stop what I'm doing and scan. Then, in the event of a problem, I at least have an underpainting I like, or a record of the work when it was at a stage I thought sort of worked.

Anyhow, after collaging her onto the piece, I painted over her to change the hair, painted over the background, drew over things, stamped some butterflies onto her dress, sealed off the work, and added a layer of beeswax for that misty integrated look that I like. I rounded out a few things with sennelier oil pastels over the wax layer.

 

Would you consider a piece like this a print or an original? I think of it as an original - it's a mixed media piece with collage elements printed out - the collage elements happen to be things I've drawn and painted in the past in a lot of cases.

She's available for sale, and only one person will have a shot at her, clearly.  Visit my Etsy Shop . 

Use the code SHIPFTW and you'll get free shipping (it adds up on art!) worldwide - until Valentine's day!

Mini Print Quartet

I have all of these 4x4 masonite coasters, which I love using as a small format. They have rounded corners.

I made a suite of collages directly onto 4 of them, then printed the collage - and then applied the prints to more coasters - voila, miniature prints.

Not content to stop there, a coating of misty looking beeswax and a little german glass glitter makes these a little more special.

I like propping these up in random shelf spaces - they're so cute, and I had such a good time painting, stamping, image-transferring and inking these into existence!

Oh - these also are available in the shop. You can get them with wax only, or no finish if you want. Only $21 for all four.

printemps

printemps, originally uploaded by paperyum.

6x6 vintage paper, transfer from vintage paper, japanese paper, inks acrylics, etc.

I might do the other seasons, we'll see how motivated I am in that direction.

I'm listening to this - oh is it good. If the TV on the Radio one doesn't come up for you, scroll down and grab it. It's a good listen, and the interview made me laugh a lot, too.

They do drop the f bomb a lot, so if you are squeamish you won't like it, but you're missing out, really. Provinces sounds amazing.

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.