Moody Blue

So I was playing in Photoshop again and wondered what would happen if I ... merged some of my CitraSolv backgrounds together to create new ones? I don't know why I hadn't thought of that before. I love the results!

Miss Moody Blue...love her hair! That vibrant blue is what comes from using different blending modes, hues, saturation levels on the merged backgrounds. It's almost iridescent-looking. I have a special background that I'm using to merge a lot of these with. Here is a subtler version of the blue merged with two other backgrounds:

I call this one, "Threshold". So now I have even more versions to play with!

Lots of things going on behind the scenes here. I'm working on another torn-paper collage, Warhol-style, but that's all I'm going to say about it for now. You'll have to wait until it's finished. ;) Hopefully, that will be in the next day or two. I was asked to enter the first Warhol collage in an Andy Warhol contest. How cool is that? There are some awesome entries so far but it was nice to be included!

That's all for now. Just wanted to share these new finds. More to come shortly.

Soul Searching 2: Minor Adjustment

I kept looking at this thinking that the bottom area needed something...so I added the definition of "Soul" that I tore from an old dictionary. Now I think it's finished! ;)

Soul Searching: Citra Encaustic?

This is my latest discovery: CitraSolv backgrounds plus beeswax mounted onto 6" x 12" plywood. I love encaustic art. Someday I want to try my hand at it. Right now the cost of the materials needed is too prohibitive for me. So I started thinking about what I like about encaustics: the wax layers and the cloudy look on parts of the paintings.

Thanks to Suzi Blu and her Petite Dolls Class I had worked with melting beeswax onto paintings that were mounted on plywood. I thought I would try that with the backgrounds just to see what effect I would get.

The page I chose to work with wasn't quite 12" long to accommodate the length of the plywood. So I cut a strip from another similar background and mounted both to the plywood. Then I just melted the wax over the piece. Some places I had more wax buildup than others to give a more opaque look to the finished piece.

I had this charm that I ordered from Judy Wilkenfeld's wonderful Etsy shop. I knew I would use it in something special one day. So I dug it out and she fit perfectly in the little area near the top. I even used the beeswax to attach her. After she was attached, I figured out the title for the piece: "Soul Searching".

I really like the look of this. I'm not sure the photos really do it justice. Here are a few closeup shots that I took with the light hitting it at different angles so you can see the wax on the piece:

The cloudy areas are where the wax built up.

Here is the original CitraSolv paper cropped to the area in the photo above. You can see how adding the wax changes the look of the paper.

I love working with the beeswax and until I can do the authentic version of encaustics, I think I'll stick with experimenting this way!

Andy Warhol: Torn-Paper Collage

And now, something totally different! This is a torn-paper collage of one of my all-time favorite artists, Andy Warhol. As an added twist, I only used torn pieces of my CitraSolv background pages. It is a little abstract (ok, a lot) but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

This is the final week of class in Misty Mawn's Portrait Workshop. I hate to see it end :( The lesson this week is on self-portraits. I have managed to dig up an old photo of myself and will make a sketch based on that. I certainly don't want to sketch how I look now (maybe when I'm braver). ;)

Before tackling that assignment I thought I would complete another one I hadn't gotten to yet: collaged portraits. Andy Warhol painted a lot of portraits...so I thought it only fitting to make one of him. Here is the original sketch I used as a model for the collage:


I had a lot of fun doing this one. I wanted to keep the color palette pretty narrow; mainly lights and darks. The example that Misty made was just black and white, using only text from magazines. The highlights used the white background, black text and the shadows used black background, white text pieces. I would like to try something like that next time. And then maybe something using more color. I like the way the CitraSolv papers tear into strips. It's very easy to work with.

There is still the lesson using the black pencil/white paint on a portrait that I haven't gotten to work for me yet. I'm determined to get something decent from that technique. It will just take me a while to get the right combination of paint/water to mix with the pencil.

And I'm working on my second page for the digital altered book. I already like the "canvas" I have to work with: the top of the page has the heading: artist's studio. Sounds like a good starting point!

Another Digital Altered Book

It's been awhile since I've done one of these. For those of you who don't know, Artella offers what is known as "digital altered books". Here's how it works: there are 10 pages from an old book (including the covers) that have been put into digital form. You buy the packet and then alter each page as you would a traditional altered book; only you do it digitally. When you have finished altering your pages and covers, you send your files back to Artella. They, in turn, will convert your digital files into a finished digital book that you can enjoy. There is a feature that lets you turn each page with your mouse, and you can even hear the pages as they turn!

This is where all of the digital elements I like to use come in handy. You can alter the pages to your heart's content! You don't have to keep any of the book text at all. Just "paint" over the whole thing if you like.

I've done three of these so far and had forgotten to put the links to them in my sidebar. They are there now under "My Digital Altered Books". Click on the link and it will take you to the Artella site where the books have been converted. My user name on the Artella site is "Isabella" so that's why the author of all my books has that name. ;)

So today I'm starting another one. The book is called, "A Romance of Two Worlds" and I have just finished page one. I always save the covers for last. I did keep a few snippets of text from the original page and then digitally altered the rest of it. So, every now and then I'll show a page from this project. It's been fun paging through the books again. I can see such a difference in my digital style now versus then. I've had another year of experience working in Photoshop but it's fun to re-visit older pieces.

Artella is hosting a digital altered book contest and the entries have to be completed by March 1. Digital art is something I really enjoy and can do pretty quickly so I should have no problem completing the 10 pages. The other three books I've done have been a lot of fun. Check them out!

More Shiva Painting

I think I'll never put my Shiva Paintstiks away. I love them. This is my latest painting placed into a digital background with lots of layers and added textures. Here is the original painting:

After much adjusting and fussing, I finally had to stop. I want to learn more about how to blend the colors better; especially skin tones. First, I need to get more colors in the paintstiks. I'm pretty limited right now in my selection. Then, I just need to practice.

I am making progress in Misty Mawn's Portrait Class but there is one lesson that I just can not get and I really want to do it. We are to use only a black pencil and white acrylic paint on a portrait. I've thrown away about four or five attempts now. For the life of me, I can't get the paint and the pencil to blend right. I always end up with something right out of Night of the Living Dead when I'm finished. Yuk! Why is it that when instructors do something, it looks so natural and easy? ;)

So it's back to the drawing board or, in this case, the sketch book. We will have a new lesson up this week: self-portraits. Uh...hmmm. I may have to dig in my dusty archives for a decent photo of me. But that's a few days away. In the meantime, practice, practice, practice...

From One Comes Many

Yes, I'm still painting portraits in Misty Mawn's class. This first photo shows a painting where I combined three media: a base layer of Dr. Ph. Martin's inks, followed by a layer of acrylics and then finished off with Shiva Paintstiks. Who knew you could use all three together? Misty has some awesome results in her class. I am loving it more and more as I just dive in and play!

All of the different pieces I have on today's post came from this original graphite sketch:

After I finished that sketch, I loved it. I'll admit it. There was just something about this girl that I had to explore further. I wanted to put her in different colors and backgrounds and moods. I'm still not finished with her.

So, I started by painting her (top photo). Then I scanned her into Photoshop and decided to put her in some digital pieces. Here I scanned the painting and placed it onto a CitraSolv background. I call this one, "Sad Eyes". The CitraSolv background had a little area on it that looked like a tear when I placed the image onto it:

On this next piece I scanned the graphite sketch and placed it onto another CitraSolv background. This time, there was a faint face that remained on the paper after the CitraSolv treatment. I thought it looked like a spirit; maybe an angel. Then I started to think about the song, "She Talks To Angels" by The Black Crowes. It's a sad song but that's how I've been feeling lately while dealing with Isabella's sickness. So I muted the colors in the background, colored her eyes and lips very faintly and came up with my version of, "She Talks To Angels".

And for a completely different mood I used the same scan of the sketch and just placed it onto another CitraSolv background. This time with a more upbeat message. I call this one, "Dreamer of Dreams".

So out of one sketch, there came many different pieces. I love that! And I love all of the techniques I'm learning from Misty in her class.

And I want to thank all of you who have offered your well wishes for Isabella! She is improving every day. We are hopeful that she'll make a full recovery. She's home now and I think that my little talk with a few angels may have helped. ;)

Trying My Hand at Oil Paints

It's been a very stressful week filled with some drama. My little fur baby and faithful companion, Isabella, is very sick and fighting to get better. She's day to day...so I've been a little low key. As a way to occupy my mind I thought I would at least try the oil painting lesson from Misty Mawn's class this past week. We used Shiva Paintstiks to paint one of our sketches.

I had many bad attempts that I immediately tossed in the trash. It took me quite a while to understand how to blend with the stiks. I finally ended up with a painting that I was somewhat satisfied with. The top photo shows the painting that I used in a digital piece. I scanned another of my CitraSolv backgrounds, added her to it and then added some more layers in Photoshop. I wish I had the ability to do on paper what I can do in Photoshop!

Here is the original painting on watercolor paper:

I definitely want to work more with the Shiva's. After a while I began to understand where to put the dark colors before blending them; I still have a long way to go. I love the buttery softness of these paints. Most of the blending is done with your fingers and this really does help to achieve the color you want. This has been one of my favorite lessons so far. And for a little while it took my mind to a happier place.

Hopefully, Isabella will come through this sickness. Send her your good wishes!

Mixing It Up

I mentioned in a previous post that I am taking Misty Mawn's portrait drawing class. This is week two and I have already learned so much. She is an awesome teacher. I can't say enough about how impressed I am with her class. This is a sketch I did from week one. I'm still learning to do the shadows and shading. That's a challenge for me. I used a model from a fashion magazine as my guide, especially for the lighting and shadow work. Of course this sketch looks nothing like the model but that just makes her uniquely mine! ;)

One of the reasons I'm so interested in these drawing classes is that I want to incorporate more of my own drawings into my art. I'm obsessed with faces so I want to learn all I can about different ways to draw and paint them. Ahh, painting them. This week in Misty's class we start painting our sketches. I haven't drawn one yet that I want to paint but I'm working on one. Watching her paintings take shape is so inspiring (and scarey)! Oh, to be able to do that. Hopefully, someday...

In the meantime, another reason I love using my own drawings is I can paint them any way I want digitally and do something like this:

This was my entry for this week's challenge at Digital Whisper. I love all the special effects I can add to my drawings. Just for fun I did a little graffiti girl:

This one incorporated one of my CitraSolv backgrounds:

And speaking of CitraSolv backgrounds, today I am the guest artist at Toni Brown's very cool blog. Thank you, Toni, for inviting me! I wrote up a little tutorial explaining how I made my CitraSolv pages. Check out her blog. It's full of great tips, techniques and inspiration.

So I'm mixing it all up: original sketches, digital art, some homemade backgrounds...just to see where it all takes me. Stay tuned! More from Misty's class will be posted soon.

Blueprint: More CitraSolv Backgrounds

I have been busy making more backgrounds from the CitraSolv technique that I mentioned in my last post. I think I love this latest batch even more than the first one! I want to use some of these in my art journals as backgrounds and also experiment with painting and adding to them on canvas, fabric, etc.

What I love to do first is scan my favorite ones into Photoshop to have a "clean" version always available. Then I can have fun digitally painting a canvas. The digital piece above started out with this CitraSolv background:

The photo doesn't do it justice. The colors are gorgeous and it just looks full of texture. I think this is my favorite one so far. I added a lot of layers, images, brushes, etc. to get to the finished digital piece but I like the idea of always having this one in my archive.

Here are a few of my other favorites from this latest batch:

And there's usually a surprise or two that surfaces as I'm working through the process. While I was "painting" the pages with the CitraSolv every once in a while I'd come across a page of pure text. I usually would leave that page alone since there was no color to blend and I would just saturate the opposite page in the spread. In this instance shown below, I thought the colors around the man would blend really well and make a pretty background. I was working pretty quickly and didn't saturate the page very much. Much to my delight when I went to remove the pages, this happened:

The photo of the man transferred to the text page! How cool is that?! Evidently I left enough of an air pocket when I closed the magazine for the image to mirror itself onto the opposing page. And the fact that one eye was left with a blank circle...this all happened by chance! What are the odds of having that inkblot cover just his one eye so perfectly? I couldn't have planned it better if I'd thought of it myself.

That's what is so fun about this technique. There are so many little things you discover as you go along. I will definitely be using this guy (embellished) in more of my art.

And speaking of surprises, after I posted my last entry I heard from the folks at CitraSolv. What a wonderful group of people they are! They were so kind in commenting on my post and I was excited to learn about their website where they post the artist's results using their product.

Check out all of the info they have posted about different ways to use CitraSolv in your art. But the biggest surprise of all was this that arrived in the mail a few days later. Notice that they included a few National Geographic magazines, as well:

Thanks again to Melissa and the gang at CitraSolv. I will definitely put these products to good use! Now I don't even mind doing a little cleaning here and there... ;)

Total Immersion

This is a digital piece I made that shows how I'm feeling lately: head swimming with so many ideas! I'm drowning in ideas! They're trapped in my head...I've been scribbling them all down furiously so I won't forget any but I find myself wanting to dive in head-first and do them all at once.

Then I remember my word for this year: finish! Finish the current project. I love that piece and I've got to reign myself in and focus. Maybe that should be my other word: focus! So I take a deep breath and return to the project at hand. The fabric feels good to work with, the sewing machine hums along and my mind keeps swimming.

I'm practicing my sketching again in the evenings. When hubby and I sit together and visit about our day I have my sketchbook open and I either doodle or attempt to sketch a face. Thanks to my good friend Jackie, I've signed up for Misty Mawn's awesome portrait workshop. This is the first week and I'm very excited about it. Last night I sketched this lady (I haven't finished all of the shading yet). She definitely has an attitude. I don't know where she came from but she just burst onto the page:

What I would like to learn to do is paint these sketches. That is one thing that Misty's class will cover and I am so looking forward to that lesson! I can "paint" my lady digitally, though:

I seem to be in a purple phase right now. It could have something to do with the Citrasolv backgrounds I created (see previous post). This piece has one of those backgrounds. I love the "bubbles" that the CitraSolv produces when it does it's magic! Of course then I have to add tons of layers to the piece, but you can see at the very bottom how the base page looks. Scanning those pages into Photoshop has really given my digital art a boost! They have an effect I don't think I could ever produce with paint. Yummy. I love, love, love, them.

Since all of those ideas for future projects are safely written down in my project notebook, I'm content knowing I'll get to them as soon as I finish this current project. I promise!

Credits for the top digital image: model by Latte Queen at Deviantart.com and the birdcage by cfstock at Deviantart.com.

Dropping In

A funny thing happened on the way to working on my latest project: I got sidetracked. I have to watch that...I'm still sticking to my word of the year (remember finish?). But then I saw this art technique in the latest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine and it wouldn't leave my head. I had to try it. Today.

You've probably seen and heard about the CitraSolv technique and how it works on pages of National Geographic magazine. I'd heard of it before and seen the awesome results that people have come up with. Something about seeing it again really made me want to try it. So after much running around hunting for a National Geographic (I finally just went and bought one), here are my results:

Do you recognize the first one? It's the background for the digital image at the top of the page. I've scanned in all of these backgrounds so I'll be able to use them over and over digitally as well as painting/collaging on the real things. I love the colors in this next one:

A very dreamy looking night scene could be made of this next one:

I put a random selection from the magazine onto the floor and just took a photo of them. Look at the variety of colors you can get. I just love this technique!

As far as I know you can only use this on National Geographic pages AND they have to be from within the last ten years. I tried a few of my fashion magazine pages but nothing happened. I'll keep experimenting but I haven't seen anybody else mention any other magazines where this works. There must be something special in the ink on these pages.

A bonus: the whole house smells like oranges now! ;) But now that the experiment is over and I have a little supply of cool backgrounds, I can get back to finishing my current project. I have to watch these interruptions. Now I'm beginning to understand why it has been so hard for me to complete some projects...

By the way, credit for all of the cute little character images goes to Granny Art.

Dream: Journal Page

I've been working in my art journal today. This beautiful image is from a note card by Sabrina Ward Harrison. I transferred it onto muslin. I like the ethereal effect that image transfers have; especially when transferred to a thin material like muslin. My favorite technique for achieving this effect is the Purell hand sanitizer technique. It gives the image the dreamy look I want and it doesn't stiffen the material too much. Plus it's clean! ;)

I have a lot of layers on these pages. Lots of paint, stencils, some French text, napkins, and pens. This is something I'm challenging myself to do: layer, layer, layer! I haven't added any journaling yet. I may do this on a separate sheet of paper and then insert that into an envelope that I'll adhere to the page. Still thinking about it.

I'm not sure the page is finished yet. I may come back to it at a later time and add something else. For right now, I like it and will let it sit for awhile.

Here is a closeup of the image transfer:

Other things I'm working on: a new art quilt. This one is about the size of the fabric paper quilt but made with fabric. I'm trying some new techniques for this one: silk screening and working with deconstructing the silk screened image. This technique involves making a convex rubbing of your image onto the silk screen and printing successive images from there. I first saw this technique in Quilting Arts magazine over the summer. It's stayed on my mind and I've finally worked up the nerve to try it.

I've done a couple of runs of the silk screened image. I love the deconstructed effect. There is another technique in the follow-up issue that discussed deconstructing an image using an engraved rubbing of your image. That one will be my next try. But it will be a separate art quilt.

I'm also making more journals because I'm enrolled in a couple of very fun journaling classes right now. One is from Cristina at Roses on My Table (Journal Journey) and the other one is from Monica at Hands and Heart (Zodiac Journaling).

Lots of stuff in the works right now. And, in between all of these, I'm getting more acquainted with Photoshop CS4. I'm slowly learning my way around. If I really get stumped, I just go to my old computer where CS2 is still loaded and work on something there. But don't tell hubby. He says I should work through it. :)

FINISHED: Fabric Paper Wallhanging

I finished the fabric paper wallhanging! Yay! Here it is hanging on a wall in my living room. You can click on the photo for a larger view. The lighting isn't perfect but I wanted to get a photo of it tonight. I'll take more photos of it tomorrow in it's surroundings. I love looking at it as I sit in my favorite room!

I'm very pleased with the colors I chose as I was dying the sheets. I think they all go together beautifully. They also tie-in really well with the colors in my living room. Even hubby got excited as I was joining all of those little jump rings together. He said he couldn't visualize what I was doing as I was working on it but now he gets it! I ended up with 94 squares, all beaded, with 4 eyelets and jump rings in each square.

Here is a closeup of a few squares:

And another shot. This one is a little blurry:

It felt so good to complete this project. I knew when I started it that it would take a while. I just kept plugging along, beading the squares at night while I watched TV. That brings me to my next item.

My Word For This Year: Finished.

I've noticed the trend in a lot of my favorite blogs to select a "word for the year". I like that idea. You pick a word that you would like to focus your intentions on for the coming year. My word, as I said, is finish. That's a big one for me. And a close second would be the word believe. As in, believe you can finish what you set out to do!

It's no secret that I LOVE new projects and new challenges. I LOVE to start them. I LOVE to keep starting them... I fall a little short on the finishing part. ;) I really, really want to concentrate on that aspect this year. Involved in all of that will be my art journal. It will be my ally and my confidante through this journey. I set my intentions there... the follow-through, the finishing will be recorded there as well.

I think I'm off to a good start. I wanted to share this tonight. I'll have better photos of the entire room tomorrow and will post those soon. Right now I have to FINISH cleaning up. :)