This gives you an idea of the top and centre portion of the canvas.
I am going to let the compound dry thoroughly before giving it a white base coat of acrylic paint.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
New Acrylic Abstract Texture Painting
Today I began work on another Acrylic Abstract painting. This one is going to be heavily textured and I used DAP Dry Dex Spackling Compound to provide the texture on my canvas.
The interesting thing about this product is that it goes on pink, and I mean hot pink when it's wet and then dries white. This way you are in no doubt about when the spackle is ready to paint. It was less than half price when I picked it up which was the reason I decided to try it. I used about 200 mL quite generously over a 40 cm x 60 cm canvas.
This gives you an idea of the top and centre portion of the canvas.
The lower third of the canvas had a more stippled texture.
This is a closeup of the top portion of the canvas.
You can see the faint pink in the centre section that indicates that the spackle is still damp.
I am going to let the compound dry thoroughly before giving it a white base coat of acrylic paint.
This gives you an idea of the top and centre portion of the canvas.
I am going to let the compound dry thoroughly before giving it a white base coat of acrylic paint.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Internet Research and Organization
I seem to have spent my time in January tidying up my workroom (which sadly needed and still needs sprucing up) and researching topics of interest on the Internet.
The problem with the research aspect is that you can so easily get sidetracked. You start with a specific topic in mind and all it takes is one interesting blog or website and before you know it, you're off on a tangent -- a very interesting, absorbing tangent, but off topic none the less. Unfortunately for me, it can take hours before I am away of that fact. Luckily, in most cases, my searching simply opens new windows and I can backtrack fairly easily and resume my original search.
My notebook, however is now filled with a new list of ideas and websites to be explored at a later date. Sometimes my original idea or technique will be completely dropped because I've become more intrigued by something I've just discovered. I can never tell just what I will turn up on one of these forays onto the information highway.
I think the most frustrating thing, though, is to see something interesting and not take note of it right away assuming that you will be able to backtrack to that page only to find that the usually reliable back arrow doesn't take you back to that specific page and the next time you use your search parameters you don't find that blog or website again. You know it's out there somewhere in cyberspace but you don't know how you got to it the first time because it was a hop and skip from a link to a link to a link etc. and your chances of duplicating that chain of events is .... slim .... unlikely .... highly improbable.
But how do you know that something you see today, that you've never even contemplated trying, is going to be something that you might like to do seven months from now? I don't. But experience has taught me that if my reaction is, "gee, that's cool", or "wow", someday I might wonder how they did that and want to go back and look again. In that case, bookmark the site and try and give it a reasonable category name - not just ART. Then the worst that can happen is spending time hopping through my favourite links and deleted broken ones.
I also have websites recorded in my notebooks. They are kept in chronological order. They came about from my work days. At one point I was trying to squeeze a part time and full time job into one full time slot. I was a full time teacher and a part time consultant. The part time being one day a week. As anyone who has done this kind of thing knows, two jobs do not stay in neat time slots. When people want the school board consultant they aren't too concerned that the "teacher" might be on her lunch hour. I had my "consultant notebook" to keep track of calls and I kept them dated so I would know when they came in and when I'd taken action on them so they didn't slip through the cracks. I was soon in the habit of putting the date on everything that I recorded in the book and that habit stuck with me.
When I'm working at the computer, the first thing I do is get my little notebook (3.5 x5"), find my working page, put in the date and start what I'm doing. Whether it's paying bills, checking email, ordering supplies or researching if I can't print off a record, I make a note in my book, that includes important phone calls from tradespeople. If there is a problem, my documentation of what's been said is in the book with the time and date beside it, waiting to be written formally if necessary. When one notebook is filled it gets put away and another is started. I keep them for several years.
I know that I could organize all this material on the computer in a database. I love working with a database yet I don't do it --- strange isn't it? There is great software out there for logging phone calls and contact management. I taught students how to design applications for using database software and I have several myself but I still use my notebook. Why?
A lot of what I note down has no specific category. It is random facts, thoughts, queries to be followed up later, book titles, authors names, urls, technique names for research, supplier possibilities. Most of the notes are starting points only. The end result will be a website that I'll bookmark.
A second reason for keeping it in the notebook is that rereading the notebook or idea book is a spark to creativity itself. I find that simply going through it, looking at the ideas and queries that I've written down over time, reawakens interest in some of these ideas. You can't do that with a database. You can't ask, "what's in there that I don't remember and have the database pull up an answer."
The problem with the research aspect is that you can so easily get sidetracked. You start with a specific topic in mind and all it takes is one interesting blog or website and before you know it, you're off on a tangent -- a very interesting, absorbing tangent, but off topic none the less. Unfortunately for me, it can take hours before I am away of that fact. Luckily, in most cases, my searching simply opens new windows and I can backtrack fairly easily and resume my original search.
My notebook, however is now filled with a new list of ideas and websites to be explored at a later date. Sometimes my original idea or technique will be completely dropped because I've become more intrigued by something I've just discovered. I can never tell just what I will turn up on one of these forays onto the information highway.
I think the most frustrating thing, though, is to see something interesting and not take note of it right away assuming that you will be able to backtrack to that page only to find that the usually reliable back arrow doesn't take you back to that specific page and the next time you use your search parameters you don't find that blog or website again. You know it's out there somewhere in cyberspace but you don't know how you got to it the first time because it was a hop and skip from a link to a link to a link etc. and your chances of duplicating that chain of events is .... slim .... unlikely .... highly improbable.
But how do you know that something you see today, that you've never even contemplated trying, is going to be something that you might like to do seven months from now? I don't. But experience has taught me that if my reaction is, "gee, that's cool", or "wow", someday I might wonder how they did that and want to go back and look again. In that case, bookmark the site and try and give it a reasonable category name - not just ART. Then the worst that can happen is spending time hopping through my favourite links and deleted broken ones.
I also have websites recorded in my notebooks. They are kept in chronological order. They came about from my work days. At one point I was trying to squeeze a part time and full time job into one full time slot. I was a full time teacher and a part time consultant. The part time being one day a week. As anyone who has done this kind of thing knows, two jobs do not stay in neat time slots. When people want the school board consultant they aren't too concerned that the "teacher" might be on her lunch hour. I had my "consultant notebook" to keep track of calls and I kept them dated so I would know when they came in and when I'd taken action on them so they didn't slip through the cracks. I was soon in the habit of putting the date on everything that I recorded in the book and that habit stuck with me.
When I'm working at the computer, the first thing I do is get my little notebook (3.5 x5"), find my working page, put in the date and start what I'm doing. Whether it's paying bills, checking email, ordering supplies or researching if I can't print off a record, I make a note in my book, that includes important phone calls from tradespeople. If there is a problem, my documentation of what's been said is in the book with the time and date beside it, waiting to be written formally if necessary. When one notebook is filled it gets put away and another is started. I keep them for several years.
I know that I could organize all this material on the computer in a database. I love working with a database yet I don't do it --- strange isn't it? There is great software out there for logging phone calls and contact management. I taught students how to design applications for using database software and I have several myself but I still use my notebook. Why?
A lot of what I note down has no specific category. It is random facts, thoughts, queries to be followed up later, book titles, authors names, urls, technique names for research, supplier possibilities. Most of the notes are starting points only. The end result will be a website that I'll bookmark.
A second reason for keeping it in the notebook is that rereading the notebook or idea book is a spark to creativity itself. I find that simply going through it, looking at the ideas and queries that I've written down over time, reawakens interest in some of these ideas. You can't do that with a database. You can't ask, "what's in there that I don't remember and have the database pull up an answer."
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Happy Holidays
I hope everyone had a happy holiday season. At the last moment we decided to pick names out of a hat and I was lucky enough to get my sister's name for the gift giving. She had admired my sketchbook that I submitted for the project so I came up with the idea of creating a planner or journal for her based on the ideas that I used for the sketchbook. This came to me when I was taking a card class at a local art store. They were offering a planner workshop that was designed to use photographs to create a scrapbook like planner as a Christmas gift.
As part of the workshop kit, you got an 8"x8" binder and enough 2 page per week spreads for the entire year plus extra pages for pictures and memorabilia. There were also some embellishments and scrapbook papers included in the kit. The spaces for photos were 4"x6" which I thought would be suitable for smaller reproductions of some of the sketchbook pages I had created using quotes from Rumi and Lao Tzu.
I signed up for the workshop but then Mother Nature intervened and Sarnia was hit by major snowstorms and we were under a state of emergency for almost a week. That set back my plans a bit. While I was house bound without the kit I did gather supplies and create watercolour background, as well as scour magazines for text expressions and dig out my favourite rubber stamps.
When the snow lifted enough to travel, I collected my kit and spent several hours at the store, stamping in the 2011 calendar onto the planner pages. With that task accomplished I was ready to create my gift in the remaining week before Christmas. Santa's elves had competition I can tell you. I was burning the midnight oil or should I say electricity. I had so many boxes of supplies open around the floor that it was like the day I unpacked my workshop. The cat was having a field day with the scraps of thread and paper.
Bit by bit the planner came together. I tried to make sure that the end result would be functional as well as interesting and thought provoking. Some page just seem to build themselves. Text excerpts from four or five different magazine ads would come together to express a completely new thought which would fit in perfectly with a quote or a picture or a painted background. You know those moments that seem somehow meant to be... The planner seemed to be filled with those. As if I'd been saving some of these bits and pieces for just this project, for just this time and for just this person. As they used to say on the A Team, "I love it when a plan(ner) comes together."
In my zeal to get everything completed and wrapped ---- I forgot to take any pictures of the construction or of the competed project for that matter. But I was pleased with it and I'm glad to say, so was my sister. She paid me that supreme honour of silence when she first saw it and then she put it to one side and said she needed to be alone to savour it when she first looked at it. You can't get much better than that, now can you.
As part of the workshop kit, you got an 8"x8" binder and enough 2 page per week spreads for the entire year plus extra pages for pictures and memorabilia. There were also some embellishments and scrapbook papers included in the kit. The spaces for photos were 4"x6" which I thought would be suitable for smaller reproductions of some of the sketchbook pages I had created using quotes from Rumi and Lao Tzu.
I signed up for the workshop but then Mother Nature intervened and Sarnia was hit by major snowstorms and we were under a state of emergency for almost a week. That set back my plans a bit. While I was house bound without the kit I did gather supplies and create watercolour background, as well as scour magazines for text expressions and dig out my favourite rubber stamps.
When the snow lifted enough to travel, I collected my kit and spent several hours at the store, stamping in the 2011 calendar onto the planner pages. With that task accomplished I was ready to create my gift in the remaining week before Christmas. Santa's elves had competition I can tell you. I was burning the midnight oil or should I say electricity. I had so many boxes of supplies open around the floor that it was like the day I unpacked my workshop. The cat was having a field day with the scraps of thread and paper.
Bit by bit the planner came together. I tried to make sure that the end result would be functional as well as interesting and thought provoking. Some page just seem to build themselves. Text excerpts from four or five different magazine ads would come together to express a completely new thought which would fit in perfectly with a quote or a picture or a painted background. You know those moments that seem somehow meant to be... The planner seemed to be filled with those. As if I'd been saving some of these bits and pieces for just this project, for just this time and for just this person. As they used to say on the A Team, "I love it when a plan(ner) comes together."
In my zeal to get everything completed and wrapped ---- I forgot to take any pictures of the construction or of the competed project for that matter. But I was pleased with it and I'm glad to say, so was my sister. She paid me that supreme honour of silence when she first saw it and then she put it to one side and said she needed to be alone to savour it when she first looked at it. You can't get much better than that, now can you.
New Painting
I've been working on a new acrylic mixed media project. This time it's been a picture of silver birch in the moonlight.
This is a 9"x12" canvas.
The trees are in relief. They are are made from rolled strips of paper towel that have been twisted and glued with a watered glue mixture onto a gessoed canvas. The thinner branches were made with thin cord. The entire canvas was then painted black and then with varying shades of blue/gray. The trees were then sponged white and the recesses shaded with brown. The moon was dry brushed with a luminous dove gray.
This is my first attempt at trees. I have a ways to go if I'm aiming at realism but for an impressionistic view I think I got the idea across at least. I enjoyed trying, at any rate.
The trees are in relief. They are are made from rolled strips of paper towel that have been twisted and glued with a watered glue mixture onto a gessoed canvas. The thinner branches were made with thin cord. The entire canvas was then painted black and then with varying shades of blue/gray. The trees were then sponged white and the recesses shaded with brown. The moon was dry brushed with a luminous dove gray.
This is my first attempt at trees. I have a ways to go if I'm aiming at realism but for an impressionistic view I think I got the idea across at least. I enjoyed trying, at any rate.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Sketchbook Project
I sent it off on December 1 and it arrived in Brooklyn at the Art Library at 11:55 on December 4, 2010. My sketchbook is now officially part of the project and out of my hands.
I have been busy for the past few months working on ideas for my theme, "It must be". This is the first time that I've worked on anything that I've known anyone other than myself was going to see and I found that it made a big difference.
Rather than being able to just dive in, I found that I was stuck at the beginning. I couldn't begin at all. Even though I chose my own theme I couldn't seem to find the right way to approach it and I was convinced there was a RIGHT way. I racked my brain thinking of ways to end the phrase "it must be..." and while they seemed promising my ideas always fizzled out.
Eventually, I decided that there wasn't ONE right way to go about it and I could use the phrase for anything and everything. Once I looked at things from that perspective the content of my book was easy. The next step was the medium.
Tackling a sketchbook was a bit optimistic if not arrogant on my part. I can't draw or sketch. I've read the part where everyone can draw, it's just practice. That may be true -- but I haven't practised and I didn't think I had the time to take lessons. What I wanted to do, and what I felt the purpose of the sketchbook was, was to express myself. That I could do in my own way, on paper. I chose to do it through pen and ink, paint, paper, scissors and glue.
So, in the final analysis, it's not so much a sketchbook (although, I did put in a sketch or two) as a mixed media book.
My theme: It must be ...
It must be what? Whatever I want it to be.
Light, dark Happy, sad Contemplative, interactive
Original, quotations Colourful, sombre
Hopefully there will be at least one page that strikes a chord with someone. This is the biggest risk I have ever taken and I'm glad it's out of my hands now.
Here are a few of the spreads.
If you browse the project, check out CAW230
Foil Technique
I belong to the ning site Lovin Mixed Media hosted by Gary Reef who is an incredible artist. He freely shares his techniques through video tutorials and one of the techniques he shared was how to use aluminum foil with acrylic paints.
The first step was to take some aluminum foil and crumple it up, then lightly smooth it out and attach it to your substrate. I was using a 5"x7" artist canvas and covered my canvas lightly in PVA to attach the foil, wrapping any extra around the sides and back. I took some additional foil and "made" a snake and attached it to the upper right of the canvas with PVA. I took a piece of an aluminum pie plate that had an interesting texture and placed it under the foil in the lower left of the piece and smoothed the foil over it to bring out the texture.
Then I added some acrylics to the mix.
The glare is distorting the colours and I can't seem to get around that. I have an overhead fluorescent light in my workroom and it play havoc when I take pictures of anything with a shimmer.
The next step in Gary's technique is to put down a layer of bitumen. For me, in Canada, that is acrylic driveway sealer and white spirits or varsol. When that dark, tarry mix is painted on it darkens everything and then is taken back or removed with varsol to reveal the areas of colour you want seen.
As you can see, I removed quite a bit. It left all my colours darker, which I liked. I then used a Krylon gold leafing pen to fill in some areas and to vein some of the creases. I used a found object, a gold filigree heart, to give balance on the lower left. The background is a second artist canvas, 8"x10", that was spray painted with hammered bronze paint before being attached to the smaller canvas. This piece will be framed with a custom frame that I am making in my woodworking course.
The frame will be 3" wide and I plan on using a black gloss treatment on it. I'll post a picture when it's complete.
The first step was to take some aluminum foil and crumple it up, then lightly smooth it out and attach it to your substrate. I was using a 5"x7" artist canvas and covered my canvas lightly in PVA to attach the foil, wrapping any extra around the sides and back. I took some additional foil and "made" a snake and attached it to the upper right of the canvas with PVA. I took a piece of an aluminum pie plate that had an interesting texture and placed it under the foil in the lower left of the piece and smoothed the foil over it to bring out the texture.
Then I added some acrylics to the mix.
The next step in Gary's technique is to put down a layer of bitumen. For me, in Canada, that is acrylic driveway sealer and white spirits or varsol. When that dark, tarry mix is painted on it darkens everything and then is taken back or removed with varsol to reveal the areas of colour you want seen.
As you can see, I removed quite a bit. It left all my colours darker, which I liked. I then used a Krylon gold leafing pen to fill in some areas and to vein some of the creases. I used a found object, a gold filigree heart, to give balance on the lower left. The background is a second artist canvas, 8"x10", that was spray painted with hammered bronze paint before being attached to the smaller canvas. This piece will be framed with a custom frame that I am making in my woodworking course.
The frame will be 3" wide and I plan on using a black gloss treatment on it. I'll post a picture when it's complete.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Remember the Woodworking Post
Do you remember the wooden cover I posted a while back .... the one from my woodworking course? Well, I finally made something with it and the picture was downloaded when I downloaded the ones from BookBinding III. Do you remember what it looked like?
Well, here is what the finished book looks like.
After staining the oak ovals, I gave them a coat of varathane and lightly sanded them and them put another coat of varathane on them. Then I put eyelets into the predrilled holes. Because the wooden covers were thick, I was able to insert an eyelet into each side of the cover.
I drew a template to cut out my signatures for my text block and sewed them over leather thongs that were then laced through the centre four holes of the covers. The middle two thongs were tied together as you see in the picture above and used as the book closure. The upper and lower thongs were threaded through the remaining eyelets and glued down.
I had a single earring and used that as the decoration for the cover. I traced that onto the book and then carved a groove that would allow me to embed the medallion into the wood for gluing. I didn't like the bald look of the brass meeting the wood, so I used some silk cord and glued that around the circumference of the medallion. This seemed to give it the definition is was missing.
I can't say that this book was well designed because I drilled the holes in the wood without really thinking through the book design. That sort of came after and is not the way I would do it in retrospect. I definitely put the cart before the horse in this project and most of the time I was working out how to make things work. In the picture with the book open, you can see the problem I ran into with using an oval.
I still like the idea, though. I'm just going to think it through from the perspective of a book first, before I cut the wood. I'm not going to let the power tools go to my head.
Well, here is what the finished book looks like.
After staining the oak ovals, I gave them a coat of varathane and lightly sanded them and them put another coat of varathane on them. Then I put eyelets into the predrilled holes. Because the wooden covers were thick, I was able to insert an eyelet into each side of the cover.
I drew a template to cut out my signatures for my text block and sewed them over leather thongs that were then laced through the centre four holes of the covers. The middle two thongs were tied together as you see in the picture above and used as the book closure. The upper and lower thongs were threaded through the remaining eyelets and glued down.
I had a single earring and used that as the decoration for the cover. I traced that onto the book and then carved a groove that would allow me to embed the medallion into the wood for gluing. I didn't like the bald look of the brass meeting the wood, so I used some silk cord and glued that around the circumference of the medallion. This seemed to give it the definition is was missing.
I can't say that this book was well designed because I drilled the holes in the wood without really thinking through the book design. That sort of came after and is not the way I would do it in retrospect. I definitely put the cart before the horse in this project and most of the time I was working out how to make things work. In the picture with the book open, you can see the problem I ran into with using an oval.
I still like the idea, though. I'm just going to think it through from the perspective of a book first, before I cut the wood. I'm not going to let the power tools go to my head.
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