New Mixed Media Part 2

If you scroll down to the New Mixed Media post on October 17, you will see the beginning of a new mixed media piece.  I am going to go back to that process and show the next couple of steps and you will see it beginning to change and transform from the initial fabric and paper collage.

First stage: Gesso on the top part, then paint and some gesso on the bottom part

More paint on the bottom part, then oil pastels on the top part...a shape has been sketched in place

I love using oil pastels…I guess it’s the whole blending with my fingers attribute that I like.  I seem to be able to do it better that way than with paint and a brush.  It’s definitely more up close and personal.  With my finger I can make the pastel go where I want it.  I have even been known to apply liquid paint with my finger and rub it in.  Anything that gives me a bit more control and blending.

Now more elements are added and some ink lines...

And then it will sit while I decide what bothers me about it.  It is not finished.  More to come…stay tuned.

The Haul

I went to Evansville yesterday to play with a friend and do some much needed errands, i.e. shopping.  I call it The Haul.  It was time to stock up on some much needed items as well as a few new things to experiment with.  There are times I only buy what I need and there are times I buy products that I have been reading about and seeing on the internet and I am curious about.

Here is part of what I came home with:

There is yarn.  I sold a potato chip scarf, so now I feel the need to make 3 more!  2 black Pitt artist pens to replace my failing other ones…love these pens for writing on just about every surface and medium.  Oil pastels…I am adding a few new colors to my small collection because I do enjoy smudging these rich colors on some of my work.  Matte medium and black acrylic paint…everyone needs those.  Lumiere in my favorite color…Halo Pink Gold (yes, Scarlet, Blick had bottles of this…you just missed it).  I was alerted that the Daler-Rowney acrylic inks were on sale 50% off at Blick…I found them at 40% off, which was still good, so I purchased 3 bottles to try.  Don’t really have a clue yet about them, but I will look up some info online to help me get started.  And the last new thing I decided to try was the water soluble oil pastels, which certainly seems like a conundrum to me because everyone knows that oil and water don’t mix!  But the article I read showed these in such rich colors on a project that I was immediately smitten.  Not shown here are the yards of batting (I do have an exhibit coming up) and yards of cotton flannel (I use this for batting for small pieces) and photo mats.  Those are the mundane and uninteresting necessities.

I also purchased some beeswax (probably impulsive) and some tins to melt it in because……Scarlet and I played with wax….

Here is my first attempt at collage with wax….I tried all sorts of things on here…marks with transfer papers and carbon paper…sequin waste stencil.  It’s not a perfect specimen, and I may even do more to it, but I like the colors and the black lines and I got a bit acquainted with how wax works…all fun!  I also learned some things I would do differently.

Art Journaling

I have signed up for two journaling projects starting the first of the year. What was I thinking? And will I even be able to do either one? Oh well.
One of them is called the Sketchbook Challenge and there is an icon in my sidebar that will take you right to where you need to sign up. The other one is free classes offered by Strathmore. They have new visual journals this year with all different kinds of papers in them, including watercolor. It sounded interesting, so I signed up back in November sometime. I bought some new art supplies on Saturday when I was shopping in Evansville, but couldn’t get the watercolor visual journal. So I ordered it online. Dick Blick is totally out of them and Jerry’s Artarama have them on backorder! There are over 1000 people signed up for the Strathmore journaling classes, so I guess everyone has pretty well beat me to the 9″ x 12″ watercolor 140 lb. paper visual journal. Evansville Dick Blick did not stock them.
I bought some oil pastels after reading reviews about Sennelier being about the best the reviewers had ever tried. A couple of triple liner markers (these are very cool and come in very cool colors) to add to my current collection, and some Pentel artist markers as well as a graphite pencil. We’ll see what happens! I think it will be great fun if I just give myself permission to do it.