Monday, June 30, 2014

The Documented Life Project week 16



The planner page prompt for the Documented Life Project this week was to add a cardboard food box in a creative way.  Here's mine using a Cherry Coke box. I combined a couple of Dylusions spray inks to get a good cherry color for my background. This page makes me laugh because I really do try to eat healthier, but this is one thing that always trips me up! : - )

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Compendium of Curosities Vol. 3 Challenge Week No. 5

Here's my tag for CC3C #5 - part 1 of the distress watercoloring technique on page 39 of Tim's Book - sponsored by Inspiration Emporium.  I have been drawing all kinds of faces in my journals - it's the only way to get better! - and so I drew a face with graphite pencils on watercolor paper and used the technique to add color to it.  I'll admit that I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out - the subtle color from the watercoloring technique suits it well.  I also stamped flowers with a Hero Arts stamp and colored those too and then cut them out creating a wreath for her head.  The big #10 tag is covered with tissue wrap and colored with water spritzed Distress paint after gesso was brayered onto the text to tone it down a bit.  The final touch is the quote by William Wordsworth.

Friday, June 27, 2014

LifeBook 2014 week 13


This LifeBook 2014 page was a lesson by Lesley Riley using TAP for an image transfer. It is such a cool way to do a quick transfer.  I did learn that it has an expiration date and had to get new sheets to play with it - oops! I used a photo I had from a Newport, RI mansion window and layered it with a script ledger sheet in my computer first before doing the transfer.  I'm sure it also would have worked by  layering one transfer over the other too; just haven't tried that yet.  I added gesso through a stencil for the background and did acrylic paint washes over top. I liked using the window shape for writing. It was fun reliving the memories of my trip to Newport and touring a bunch of the Gilded Age mansions - such a gorgeous era. I love all the opulence from that time.  Do you ever think about what it would've been like to live at that time?  I probably would have been born a servant!!

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Documented Life Project week 15

The prompt for this week's Documented Life Project planner page was to be monochromatic. I sketched a face with a pencil and painted it in using just phthalo blue and titanium white acrylic paint, mixing them in different proportions to create a range of tints and shades - a fun thing to try.  There is a tiny bit of black Stabilo pencil to bring out the eye details. This technique I learned in a class by Pam Carriker - she has great tips for creating faces and you really can start to understand shading the face a lot more by painting it all monochromatic and mixing the colors as you go.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

48 weeks: week 13

This 48 Weeks page explores abstraction - and a richly layered and textural background. I certainly don't feel that I understand abstract art - I am always wanting my objects to relate to each other and be grounded somehow, so I do like the line for helping with that.

Here's a close -up where you can see the layers and texture.  Inside the circle you can see a texture I created from a paper towel that I pressed to the area because I used too much paint - I love that effect and find myself using it over and over.


Monday, June 23, 2014

The Documented Life Project week 14

Embellish your name was the prompt for this week for the Documented Life Project. I chose to sketch out my name in block letters and paint over it with masking fluid. After it dried I added watercolors using Caran d'Ache crayons and rubbed off the masking fluid to reveal the letters. I added a little bit of subtle text stamping using a light grey StazOn ink and a bit of shading inside the letters with a grey colored pencil.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Compendium of Curosities Vol. 3 Challenge Week No. 4

I had such a fun time creating my tag for CC3C's 4th Challenge and I think I was inspired by our hot weather which has been way too hot for my liking - I hate it when it gets over 80!  Actually, I'm probably in trouble because summer hasn't technically started so I'm sure I'm in for many much hotter days. Enough about that - on to my project! The challenge is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique and uses texture paste with layering stencils as described on page 49 of Tim's book.  I love to play with my stencils probably because they are so versatile - use them with ink sprays or ink pads, paint, gesso, gel medium or any other fun textured mediums like glass bead gel, fiber paste or molding paste - endless variations!  I did the technique using the stripes stencil and the bubbles stencil over an old Claudine Hellmuth background technique using book paper and randomly sticking down masking tape then pulling it off to distress the paper. This has the added benefit that the paper will take up your ink differently creating extra depth with little effort.  The vintage image from my stash was just what it needed. What do you think?

Monday, June 9, 2014

LifeBook 2014 week 11

These two LifeBook 2014 pages were done in the same week using inspiration from Tam Laporte and her assistant Gracie Howle who each did a different take on the same theme. The first page is with inspiration from Gracie - a nice and simple page that for me became a fun escape into lettering, and the second page is with Tam's inspiration:


Now here is a face I really like that I drew! I used a graphite pencil to sketch it out, and then added color with a few Golden high flow acrylics.


Friday, June 6, 2014

LifeBook 2014 week 10

This page comes from a Life Book 2014 lesson from Tam Laporte.  OK, this face looks really weird!! It's a paint-over-collage technique using a magazine photo. By the time you're done, the face looks nothing like the image you started with - would you believe this was a magazine picture of Charlize Theron?  Really.  My proportions are all off with the face and the eyes are too odd; I think the lips are better.....it's funny how when you start to draw faces you can really tell what you don't like - the hard part is getting it to look like what you DO like.  I always remind myself that it's a process!  I do really like the depth of the background with all the bits of collage, stamping, tissue tape and painty layers - that is always fun to do!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

The Documented Life Project week 13

For the Documented Life Project, the prompt this week was to ask someone to draw in your journal, then finish it. I bugged my husband to draw something for me, but he kept delaying, so I used my left hand to draw a wavy line on the page - maybe it works for the prompt.......not so sure.... Anyways I finished it with a half face drawn using colored pencils over gesso. I had been watching videos by Jane Davenport and was inspired to try out her style of drawing.  The blue side of the page does have written journaling that is very subtle as it's done with a white paint pen - hard to tell in the photo. I do always think random book text sentences are a fun addition to a journal page and like when I can find fun words to use.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

The Documented Life Project week 12

This week the prompt for the Documented Life Project was to cut up a magazine. I used bits from a duplicate copy of Somerset Life magazine (such fantastic photography!) and found colors that appealed to me. I then cut shapes and collaged them down and added water activated stabilo pencil as a soft shaded outline.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

The Documented Life Project week 11

The prompt for this week at the Documented Life Project was to add a bird. I created a collage with a random bird image and some other bits over top of a page gessoed first so that I could do some reductive stenciling with acrylic paint - I love the visual texture that technique gives! The gesso layer is definitely necessary in order to be able to rub away some of the paint through the stencil - don't forget that step!

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Compendium of Curosities Vol. 3 Challenge Week No. 3


This is my tag for CC3C's 3rd Challenge sponsored by Inspiration Emporium and using the technique on page 65 of Tim's book - faux tea roses.  I wanted to play with my new Dina Wakley paints and see what they could do - wow are they nice! They're heavy body paints, but they're translucent so they work beautifully when layering over text that you want to see, and they have a nice matte finish that is easy to write on.  Very smooth to spread over your surface, and they blend so nicely creating even more colors to work with.  My tag's background is my very favorite Dina technique - reductive stenciling.  Start with gesso on the tag (it won't work without that step) scrape on a bit of paint with a credit card, then place a stencil over top while the paint is still wet and rub away with a baby wipe. I added a little extra regular stenciling - something else the paints did perfectly when using a tiny bit on a cosmetic sponge. My flowers use deli paper that I created just by wiping off my brush trying out the different colors of paint.  The quote is one from pinterest - I love finding quotes there, but can't always find who it's credited to.