Blog Archives
Betye Saar in Mixed Media
Hello Friends!
This is my last piece for my class Redrawing Black History. I have enjoyed this class so much! I am bummed that it is over already!
This week we learned about the assemblage artist, Betye Saar. In the 1970’s she was a part of the Black Arts Movement. This movement dealt with stereotypes and myths regarding femininity and race.
Her most famous piece was called “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima. She said, “I had this Aunt Jemima, and I wanted to put a rifle and a grenade under her skirts. I wanted to empower her. I wanted to make her a warrior. I wanted people to know that Black people wouldn’t be enslaved by that,” meaning the stereotypical mammy.
Betye Saar is a very interesting woman and artist. She is 94 now! You can find interviews of her on YouTube. I enjoyed learning about her.
Have a wonderful day! 😀
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The Tortoise and the Hare in Mixed Media
Hello Friends!
I decided that in addition to fairy tales, I want to also create mixed media works of Aesop’s fables! And my favorite has always been “The Tortoise and the Hare.”
I drew my design on paper in pencil first. Then I used a type of carbon paper to transfer the image to my canvas.
Next I used acrylic inks to paint the sky, road, and animals. Then I decided to use my painted tracing papers to cut the pieces for the grasses, tree tops, plants and the sun.
To make the rocks I used three colors of my handmade papers. Then I used acrylics for the yellow flowers and acrylic inks for adding the dirt below the rocks and on the road.
Lastly, for the clouds I put some molding paste on them to add texture, then painted them white with heavy body acrylics and added the other accents of clouds in the sky.
This painting took me about eight hours or so to complete. The thing that takes me the most time is cutting and gluing all of the pieces of tracing and handmade papers. But I enjoy this process very much!
I haven’t decided which story I want to do next. Until next time…
Have a wonderful day! 😀
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“The Goose Girl” in Mixed Media
Hello Friends!
Yesterday I painted this on canvas with acrylics. However, I used my pieces of my previously painted tracing paper for the tree tops and the sun.
I think Grimm’s version of “The Goose Girl” fairy tale is well, rather grim, ha ha! So I didn’t include the horse’s head hanging on the wall like many other illustrations. I think she was happier before her horse was tragically killed! I know I would be. But I also decided not to include the horse while it was alive, because this canvas is tall and narrow, and I didn’t want to spend time figuring out how to draw and paint it. I wanted her and the geese front and center.
I had a lot of fun creating this. It was a relaxing project for a Sunday!
Have a wonderful day! 😀
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Pete’s Dragon in Mixed Media
Hello Friends!
Yesterday I had a lot of fun painting this version of Pete’s Dragon. I used acrylics and acrylic inks on canvas. I also used black and white Posca pens.
Tamara Laporte offered this class on her website. I began drawing it a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t get to transfer it to my canvas until earlier this week. Then I decided to finish it yesterday.
I used various greens for the dragon, Paynes Grey and white for the lighthouse, purples for the house and Naples yellow for the sand. I may still add more detail to the sand, but I like it this way all right.
I am not sure what my next project is going to be yet. But I have been reading a lot and exercising, so I haven’t been doing as much art lately. However, I do have a drawing that will be posted tomorrow.
Have a wonderful day! 🙂
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“Both Sides Now” in Mixed Media
Hello Friends!
Yesterday I finally had a good day to create this fun painting! This is my rendition of Joni Mitchell and her cat singing her song “Both Sides Now.” Ha ha.
This was the first lesson in the four month long class I signed up for called Kaleidoscope 2021 hosted by Tamara Laporte. The course is focusing on color schemes. This first color scheme is an ANALOGOUS color scheme which is when colors that are next to each other on the color wheel are used, such as yellow, orange and red as in this. Tam went a little further including purple for the rocks and greenish blue for her eyes which I thought was cool. Also, she did this first lesson in her “lollipop girl” style which was great fun. This is a different version of the cover of Joni’s album “Clouds.” Apparently, she was a visual artist, too, and used her own paintings for her album covers.
You can see elements of her song in my painting which includes clouds, an ice cream castle, and rain clouds, but no snow, ha ha!
I really enjoyed creating this painting. I used 300 lb. watercolor paper, watercolors, acrylics, and Caran D’Ache Neocolor II water-soluble wax pastel crayons.
The crayons are new to me. You can either use a wet paint brush to rub on the crayon as you paint, or you can color the paper and then paint it with water. I like the Salmon and the Apricot colors for skin tones.
Have a wonderful day! 😀
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Rapunzel (Modern-Day)
Hello Friends!
This is a piece I have been working on the last several days. I drew the design onto canvas. Then I used some mulberry paper in different colors to lay down to create the stones on the tower.Â
Next I painted Rapunzel with acrylics, making her have “goth-type” make-up which has been popular for years. I smudged her eye liner which gives her black tears and gave her eyelid a little blue shadow. Her lipstick is a very dark purple, almost black. And she’s very pale since she NEVER gets to go outside! I wanted her to look depressed as she gazes down at the witch climbing up on her hair. I know that’s how I would feel if I was trapped like that! Can you imagine? Â
After I finished her face and hair, I painted the inside of the tower dark purple as the window she’s gazing out of is the only one in my version. Then I used a silver acrylic pen to smudge some of the stones. Lastly, I painted the background around the tower and cut some dark green leaves from some of my painted tracing paper.
I really enjoyed working on this project. I wanted to convey that not ALL fairytale characters are happy. In fact most of them aren’t! So there you have it.Â
The next character mixed media piece I am going to do is not from a fairytale. It is a lesson from Tamara Laporte’s Kaleidoscope 2021 classes for August. She did a really cute, what she calls “Lollipop” character, of Joni Mitchell and elements of her song, “Both Sides Now”, in the background. I have the drawing done on watercolor paper, but I haven’t started painting it yet. I hope to start it today.
Our power is off due to high winds and fires all around us. We are safe for now, thank God! But we are prepared to evacuate if it ever comes to that. We have a generator from my husband’s work that we can use for most things, mainly the refrigerator. But we are planning to buy a much quieter one of our own soon. Anyway, at least we have some power!Â
Have a wonderful day! 🙂
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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! 😀
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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! 🙂
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Elephant in Mixed Media
Hello Friends!
Here is my “Happy Birthday Elephant”! He is patiently posing so his mom can take his picture. But the only thing on his mind is opening his presents! 😉
I had fun drawing and designing this piece. I drew the elephant in pencil in a sketchbook until I got him the way I wanted him to look. Then I transferred him onto a piece of hot press watercolor paper. It is almost like poster board, but a little thinner. Again, I debated about using watercolors, but I decided on acrylics. I didn’t use tissue paper like I did with the giraffe, though.
Once I had him transferred, I stuck the banner on at the top and placed the balloon where I wanted it. (These are from some sheets of big stickers for poster board that I found at the dollar store!)
Next I sketched out on tissue paper how I wanted the presents to look by placing it on top of my original elephant sketch to get it positioned where I wanted it before transferring it to my drawing. Then I added the rug and used a Crayola crayon to color it. Originally, I was going to color all of it in crayon but decided against it.
After everything was transferred I decided on my teal color for him. Then since the ballon is red, I made his bows and one of his presents red, too. This is to balance out the use of red. Red is a color many artists don’t like to use, because the eye of the viewer is usually attracted to it first. But since I made his bows red, my eye goes to his face first.
I almost used a thicker pen to outline everything except the banner and ballon but decided against it. Sometimes I think outlining it too thickly destracts the eye from my main subject.
Also, I purposely left the background white so it would have a more illustrative look. I tend to love illustrations with lots of white space. This was lots of fun!!
Have a wonderful day! 😀
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Giraffe in Mixed Media
Hello Friends!
A few days ago I sat and did a rough sketch of a giraffe my way! This was so fun. Once I got the sketch the way I wanted it to look, I redrew it onto some hot pressed watercolor paper. I was going to do it in watercolors, but then decided to have more fun.
I drew it in pencil. Then I used some tracing paper to trace it. I cut out the pieces and then laid them onto sheer yellow tissue paper to trace around them. After that I used matte medium to glue the tissue paper onto the drawing. Then I used a piece of polka dotted card stock to cut out the bow tie and glued it down. I cut out the tongue and cheek pieces from red card stock. Then I used acrylic paint to paint the background. After that I cut the grasses and leaves out of green cardstock and glued them down. I drew the leaf lines in with a marker. Brown and blue calligraphy markers were used to draw in the fur and eyes. And a black Sharpie marker is what I used to draw in the black line work. Lastly, I added some white Bleed Proof ink to put the highlights in the eyes.
This project was so much fun, but the best part was that I produced it from my own imagination. I didn’t follow a tutorial or anyone else’s ideas. So this is what I plan on trying to do from now on. I have learned so much in the last several years of classes that I have taken, but right now I really have a desire to get back to making my own original art.
Listening to the video of Eric Carle the other day and reading his autobiography inspired me to follow my heart.
Have a wonderful day! 🙂
Patsy's Creative Corner 