Blog Archives
Character in Acrylic Inks
Hello Friends!
This is my second assignment for my Bootcamp Character Play class. We had to come up with an idea for making our character, Coco Moloko, into a plushie toy.
So! Since I love ballerinas, I decided to create a unisex Coco Moloko Ballerina toy. They come with poseable arms and legs, a skirt, leotards, wrist scarves, a wooden ballet bar, and four different shapes that can be attached and detached for their hands and feet. Plus, a bag for storing their accessories!
I never realized how hard it can be to come up with a new toy idea! I was thinking that more ballet outfits could be created in different colors and patterns and sold separately!
I feel a little discouraged about how I am creating these assignments. I am feeling like I really want to get an iPad at some point and learn how to use Procreate to do digital art. I just don’t seem to be able to get the depth and colors that I want for my illustrations.
On another note I have been having trouble with my left shoulder lately, so I have to begin going to physical therapy on Tuesday. Hopefully I won’t have to go for very long, though.
Have a wonderful day! 😀
Share this:
Alice & Friends in Mixed Media
Hello Friends!
A couple of days ago I created my version of Alice in Wonderland from the book “Ever After” by Tamara Laporte.Â
I used Bristol paper, acrylic inks, acrylics, and black and white Posca pens. For the clouds and sun I used some of the painted tracing papers I made.Â
I enjoyed creating this one. I mostly stuck to the colors of the original cartoon Disney movie version. But I think my Alice looks older, ha ha! And my paper curled a little from the matte medium I used to glue down the clouds and sun. I still like it, though!
Have a wonderful day! 😀
Â
Â
Share this:
Bambi in Mixed Media
Hello Friends!
On Sunday I decided to do this piece as my version of project two from Tamara Laporte’s book “Ever After”. It was done by one of her guest teachers, Micki Wilde.Â
First I drew the deer on the canvas with pencil. Then I cut some background papers from a big stash of papers I made awhile back. (I used acrylic paints to paint large sheets of tracing papers different colors and patterns.) So I used some of the green design and some of a magenta one with green fan brush patterns on it for this piece. I cut those pieces to fit around the deer. Then I painted the rest of the background by mixing some blue and red acrylic inks to get the purple. I used white acrylic ink to stamp the purple with a sponge.
Then I painted Bambi with combinations of Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and white acrylic inks. I used white acrylic paint for his spots. Then I added the washi tape flowers. Lastly, I added the 3-D butterflies and the bow on his head, because I believe boys and men can wear bows in their hair, jewelry and make-up. I don’t think of that stuff as only “feminine” anymore.
This is the first mixed media piece I’ve made in quite a while. I just had eye surgery on my left eye this past Thursday, so I haven’t been doing as much in the last couple of weeks. I can see so much better already! I had a cataract removed and an intraocular lens put in. I will have to have my other eye done, too, eventually, because there’s a cataract forming on it also, but it isn’t as large right now. Anyway, I hope you are all doing well!Â
Have a wonderful day, and give someone you love a big hug! 🙂
Â
Â
Share this:
“Summer” in Mixed Media
Hello Friends!
Yesterday I decided to paint a happy summer scene. I painted the large flowers, the bee, and the grasshopper with acrylics and acrylic inks.
Then to make the yellow and blue flowers, I applied some yellow smiley stickers and painted the petals with acrylics and the stems/leaves with acrylic inks.
I painted the butterfly on the right with orange acrylic paint and the details with carbon black acrylic ink. Then I applied 3-D butterfly stickers for the other two. Lastly, I added the sun!
Have a wonderful day! 😀
Share this:
“Cosmic Girl” in Mixed Media
Hello Friends!
I have been feeling a little blue since finishing my Van Gogh journal awhile back. And I haven’t gotten a video of the whole book yet.
So in the meantime I just wanted to do something different. I have been reading a lot of children’s novels lately and checking out Tamara Laporte’s book called Ever After.
It is a book with lessons for creating mixed media art projects based on fairy tales. I started drawing a different take on Little Red Riding Hood, but I haven’t finished working out the composition yet. So i just used a template for this girl from Tamara Laporte’s website to create this mixed media piece.
In the close-up you can see the little cat sticker I used so her kitty could be with her.
I don’t think I am going to start another art journal yet. I just want to do some fairy tale art for now.
Have a wonderful day! 😀
Share this:
Van Gogh Journal – FINISHED!
Hello Friends!
Well, my Van Gogh Journal project is finished! When I completed it, I played the song “Vincent” by Don McLean and cried a little. Vincent van Gogh was such a beautiful soul. I wrote the most moving part of the song, to me, on the last page. Along with that on the bottom is a copy of a paragraph from one of my books, Van Gogh, by Rene Huyghe, page 91. He is pondering how Vincent may have felt.
“Isn’t it the picture of a completely wasted life? He must have felt it such to go to the end of what was his destiny: that is a total gift of himself, the redemption of his ego, exalted by the total sacrifice of everything which he had a right to expect. Van Gogh will have lived this admirable and perhaps unique passion; he will have greedily educated and developed his ego and will not have gotten anything out of it for himself but disappointment and finally the excruciating feeling of having achieved nothing in his life – a useless life.
But it is because of this that he is so great, because of this that his genius appears to us with the purity of a saint of painting. For, when he assumed his own nothingness, he started becoming for others, for ever increasing multitudes, a warming and illuminating fire. This lost fire, hardly noticeable by a barren smoke, has now changed into a sun, a sun whirling in our eyes and in our hearts and projecting its splendor – splendor made of flame, of love, of life.”
On the other page I included a copy of his paintings called “Portrait of a Young Peasant Girl” and “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” which were from Vincent’s Auvers Period. Then I copied a photo of his drawing called “Corridor of Saint-Paul Asylum in Saint-Remy.” I made three sizes of it and glued them together for a 3D effect. Next to it I cut a self-portrait of his in three pieces and glued it in separate pieces to show how broken his spirit must have felt before he died. Then I wrote what I would say to him if I could: The world reaped the beauty you sowed and included his painting of “The Sower” on the next page.Â
Lastly, I included some stickers I found that I think are appropriate of wine, bread, and the words “LeCafe” and “Bonjour.” And the very last thing in the bottom right hand corner is a copy of how he signed all of his letters to his beloved brother, Theo.Â
Ever yours,Â
Vincent.
Have a wonderful day! 🙂
Share this:
Van Gogh Journal Pages 63 & 64
Hello Friends!
I really enjoyed creating these two pages. I used a new color of acrylic ink, Iridescent Green, for the background of the left page. And I used orange for the background of the other page. Then I used some ephemera and washi tape pieces to accent spots. I cut out the yellow and black pieces from a piece of used palette paper I saved awhile back. I had flicked the yellow and black paints on it awhile when I was working on something else. So I swirled them into circles and made one into a bee! Then I used the others to make flowers on my journal page.
I embellished the pictures of Vincent’s self-portraits and the picture of him sitting with his friend Emile Bernard. Then in the middle of the pages I used matte medium to glue down pieces of orange and brown ribbons.Â
Have a wonderful day! 😀
Â
Â
Share this:
Van Gogh Journal Pages 61 & 62
Hello Friends!
These two pages were a lot of fun to do. I glued one of Vincent’s self-portraits to the left page along with snippets of his writing and drawings. The colored pieces are from some of my scrap pieces of used palette paper. I added small bits of blue to offset the red in Vincent’s beard. Then I wrote a quote of his which says,
“I prefer to have one hundred francs a month and the freedom to spend it just as I like than to have two hundred francs without this freedom.”
On the right page is a photo of his sister, Willemina. Vincent frequently used her as a model when he first began drawing portraits. They had a close relationship and wrote each other letters frequently. However, several years after Vincent’s unexpected death, she had a severe mental breakdown and was in an asylum in Holland until she died at the age of 79. I felt sad when I learned this. It seems the Van Gogh family had many mental health issues. But I am still so thankful that Vincent chose to channel his mind into something so positive as his art.
Have a wonderful day! 😀
Share this:
Van Gogh Journal Pages 59 & 60
Hello Friends!
Yesterday I spent the day creating these and the next two pages of this journal. I will have only four more pages left to do now, and it will be done! It seems like the past four months have gone by quickly since I began this fun project.
The person on the right hand page is Vincent Willem van Gogh, Vincent’s “Uncle Cent” as he was called. He was one of many of Vincent’s uncles and the wealthiest. After he secured employment for him in a bookshop in Dordrecht, however, Vincent only worked there for a few weeks. So instead of continuing to help him financially, Willem bestowed his benevolence on Vincent’s brother, Theo. Theo was left an inheritance by Uncle Cent, so perhaps this was how he was able to provide for Vincent’s art supplies. And perhaps Uncle Cent left the money to Theo knowing he would use it to provide for Vincent but do so as a good steward. I don’t know this for sure, but it makes sense.
Tomorrow I will post the next two pages. In the meantime stay well.
Have a wonderful day! 😀
Share this:
Van Gogh Journal Pages 57 & 58
Hello Friends!
For these pages I wanted to do polka dots but in a random way. I also wanted to keep the color scheme the complementary colors of purple and yellow.
So firsr, I used a big stencil for the yellow pattern in the background. It isn’t as prominent now, though. Next I used a lighter to melt some yellow and purple dots onto the paper from a couple of crayons. The close-ups are of the wax dots. I also used a sponge to make the flatter purple shapes.
I mixed the purple and yellow acrylics to get the brownish rust color to paint over the hair, moustache and beard in the black and white photograph of Theo. I am not sure if Vincent ever painted a portrait of his brother, but I couldn’t find one in any of my books.
Next I painted over his jacket with the purple and made the outline of it with black acrylic ink.
I decided to be whimsy with the page on the left by incorporating some faces in the pattern of dots. And the largest one reminds me of a fake nose and glasses or Groucho Marx, ha ha!
Lastly, I painted purple lines around the outer edges of each page to frame them.
I only have four more pages to go now, and this journal will be complete!
Have a wonderful day! 😀
Patsy's Creative Corner 