I was invited to join the Famous Works of Art ATCs flickr group (thanks for the invite artsy fartsy queen) and the challenge this week was to make an ATC using Leonardo da Vinci - Lady with an Ermine in Cracow as inspiration. This is what I came up with:
Take a look at the other entries by clicking Famous Works of Art ATCs. Great stuff.
In my last post I wrote about working on altering a magazine image. The project was inspired by an article in the book “Exhibition 36” by Susan Tuttle. The article, Portraits Reinvented also written by Susan Tuttle, describes the process and immediately piqued my interest. (By the way, there are 36 artists who contribute to this book.)
I’ve altered magazine faces before for an ATC swap at ATCsforall.com but this project was a bit bigger. This time instead of working atc size I used a 9” X 12” canvas board as my substrate. I used an image from W fashion magazine, glued it to the canvas board and used a brayer on it so the glue would grab evenly. Then I cut off the excess portion of the image.
After the glue was dry, I applied gesso heavily to the image background and lightly to the main focus of the image and let it dry. I painted the background green and then added a few more paint layers and muted it with brown and black pastels.
I altered the shape and color of the woman’s dress and hair. Added black pastels and charcoal to create shadows. The sprayed it with fixative and finally finished with two layers of clear acrylic gloss spray.
I really enjoyed this project but if I had it to do over again, I would sand the image lightly to remove the magazine glossy finish. Why because as I added charcoal and pastels, the paint would scrape off if I rubbed too hard. I had to fix it in a few spots. The spray finish will protect it so I don’t have to worry about it now.
I highly recommend “Exhibition 36” by Susan Tuttle, if you get a chance pick it up. It’s a real gem!
I haven’t been blogging much because I have been spending a lot of time visiting the various blogs participating in the One World One Heart event. There are an an impressive number of blogs participating—over 850 blogs to date and possibly even more. I have to say that I am very impressed by the quality of art being offered as a giveaways. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I win one of those lovely prizes.
In between visiting blogs and working, I have managed to create a couple of new journal pages.
This page was my inspiration for the image I used on the cover of the journal I created for the OWOH giveaway. Although I wasn’t too thrilled with how the face came out, I loved how the heart looked.
The page below came about because I found a magazine image of a stark gray brick room. I knew as soon as I saw it what I wanted to do with it. Then it was just a matter of finding the right images and words to go along with it.
I am also working on another altered magazine image that was inspired by an article in the book Exhibition 36. Wonderful book. The article Portraits Reinvented was written by Susan Tuttle as was the book. I hope to finish the project tomorrow and get it posted day after. If you get the opportunity to get this book, do it. I highly recommend it.
Got to go, time to visit blog number 620. Yes, I’ve already been to 619 blogs and I’m a little bleary eyed but I’m having fun.
What are you doing when you’re not visiting OWOH blogs?
I want to thank Lisa Swifka from A Whimsical Bohemian and ONE WORLD-ONE HEART for putting together this fun event. Lisa says “The original idea behind this giveaway event was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way.”
I think it’s a wonderful idea and even though I’m a little late getting started I want to participate.
The first giveaway is: It a 6” X 9” handmade journal with 8 pages of watercolor paper for you to paint or draw in.
The second item for this giveaway is a bookmark that was hand painted, then rubberstamped and images outlines with black ink.
To enter the giveaway you must leave a message in the comment section of this post.
You must have an active blog or you must leave your email address in your message. Comments without a blog address/link or an email address will be removed before the drawing.
Last time to comment and be considered for the drawing will be 3:00pm, Pacific time, February 12th.
All winners will be announced on sometime after Thursday 3:00pm, Pacific time, February 12th, 2009.
Thank you for visiting and good luck.
Linda
Anne from Gaal Creative has presented me with this award. Thank you Anne.
The Marie Antoinette,
Real Person, A Real Award
Here are the rules for the award:
Here are 7 bloggers whom I haven't nominated before for other blog awards, whose blogs I love because they are so real and down to earth, in no particular order:
Brenda at http://thecraftychook.blogspot.com/
Teri at http://quinceberry.blogspot.com/
Lee at http://leekre.blogspot.com/
Maryellen at http://cattycatsmusic.blogspot.com/
Connie at http://alteredroute.blogspot.com/
Susan at http://srhosken.blogspot.com/
Tracy at http://tracykaufman.blogspot.com/
I hope you'll take a moment or two to stop by these blogs (including Anne's!) and leave a nice comment. It takes just a moment and I know they will appreciate it!
Thanks for reading!
And why do I want to try them all? I feel compelled to try every one and then get so overwhelmed with choices I don't get much done at all. My real art goal for January was to finish the portrait I started months ago. And yet it still sits on the easel looking back at me expectantly while I surf all the wonderful blog sites that are offering these wonderful journaling prompts or art classes. Too many temptations for a girl with art ADD.
Here is my newest journal page prompted by the Art Journal January, Day 4, Spirals and Flowers by Milliande at:
http://www.milliande.com/Art-Journal-January-Day-4.html
Used water soluble oil pastels in the background, with a layer of white paint mixed with acrylic glaze over the top . Added rubber stamp images and black ink pen drawings. One comment, don't use your nice Pitt pens to draw with. It ruined my favorite pen. What ended up working really well was a Calligraphy ink pen nib that you dip into an inkwell. This type of pen works because it doesn’t get clogged with the oil pastels.
It’s still feels unfinished so I’ll probably come back to it.
Also having Art Journal prompts this January are
Misty Mawn at http://www.mistymawn.typepad.com/
and Kelly Kilmer: http://kellykilmer.blogspot.com/
Suzi Blu - http://www.youtube.com/user/suziblutube
Not specifically dealling with art journals but in being creative in many ways is:
Creative Every Day challenge at:
http://www.creativeeveryday.com/creativeeveryday/creative-every-day-challenge.html
I signed up for this challenge, not specifically for prompts but to remind myself to do something creative everyday. It doesn’t necessarily have to be art but something creative daily. So toward that effort I have worked on another journal page not shown here and have also worked on creating 10 double sided background pages for a new art journal book(let) I want to make for myself. (Why do I always feel the desire to start a new journal even when the last one still has empty pages in it? I suppose that question is best left for another post.)
More than once I’d read that having premade backgrounds ready for adding images and journaling makes it easier to create art pages on the fly. So before Christmas I painted a few pages very simply using some left over paint and found that it worked for me while I was away on vacation. These were pages that I would have otherwise put off until another time and then never would have gotten around to because the inspiration passed. Having the pages ready (and remembering to take along a glue stick) allowed me to let my inspiration bloom. I think I will do this much more often.
I’m also contemplating joining One World One Heart event to make some new blogging friends and I’m wondering what would make a nice giveaway. Would anyone want what I have to give? Hummmm I’ll think on that.
Oh and about that portrait I talked about earlier, even though it’s saying ‘finish me’, there is something comforting about it sitting there staring at me unblinkingly (is that a word?). Someday I‘ll tell you why.
So what challenges are you taking part in this year?
Rules:
* Pick up the nearest book. Right now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write that sentence in your Title.
* Copy these instructions as a comment on your Title.
* Don't get your favorite book or the best one, but the closest to you right now.
Sentence from Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
I want to thank my very, very sweet daughter for making some Biscochitos for me for Christmas. She read my Christmas Questions blog post and decided to make them for me Christmas morning. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven, they were sooo good. Thank you my precious girl. (By the way I hope you are feeling better.)
I haven’t posted in a while but not all was lost, art wise, while I was gone from blogland. I managed to get two journal pages done while traveling to New Mexico for Christmas and another was created last week. Those are below.
Today, I finally completed the Texture prompt that Kathryn posted weeks ago at the Soul Journal site. I actually started it a few weeks before Christmas but Christmas projects took precedence and this one was put aside for a while. However, I knew I’d be back to it sooner or later because I liked the idea of it. Instead of adding it to my journal I used a canvas board and created a freeform piece. I really like how it turned out. The size is 5 X 7. I used fabric flowers, foam leaves, lace, buttons, watch parts and beads. All were covered in gesso. The gesso was also used as the adhesive.
The following journal page was created due to the flight we took from home to New Mexico for Christmas. We are very discouraged with the airline industry.
This was a fun page created on Christmas Eve and Christmas day:
This last page was the most recent and based on our New Years Eve activities:
How was your holiday?
It’s here. It’s Christmas day and I hope you are all having a great day and have received many wonderful gifts, not all of the material kind. While I am writing this post a few days before the actual day I know that it will be wonderful as I have been looking forward to it since last Christmas. I so enjoy seeing the reactions of those who receive gifts I have purchased and especially those I have made.
I indicated in the last post that I wanted to post images of a gift I made for my daughter. It’s small book called 25 gifts and it’s made from the Advent twinchies post by Kathryn Antyr at Soul Journal. Kathryn posted 24 gifts and I added the 25th, The 25th being the “Gift of spirituality”.
Here are the twinchies (the inside pages), click on the image to see a larger view.
Here is the cover I made for it:
In the two images below you will see the circled numbers used from the advent numbers I posted a few days ago.
Since not all the images are easy to guess what is being said, i created an index at the end of the book.
Thanks to Anne, at Gaal Creative, for posting about the Zutter Bind-it-all machine. It really helped with this project. It would have taken a lot longer without it.
I've mentioned before that I like to make handmade Christmas wrapping paper and gift tags. This year I scanned some to show you what I do.
The wrapping paper is simply freezer paper painted with acrylic paint for the background. Then used more acrylic paint on a rubber stamp for the greenery. The tag is made from shipping tags, pigment ink, a rubber stamp and a Santa image.
The tags below are all made from shipping tags that have been altered with paint or pigment ink and images added. Not hard to do and yet they give your gifts a personal touch.
I am trying to get a post together for the evening of the 25th to show off a gift I made for my daughter but I may not get to it until I return from our trip to New Mexico to see her and the rest of the family. If I don't get the post together before I leave, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I'll see you when I return on the 29th or so.
Enjoy your families and savor the moments you're together.
Thanks for reading.
