Working on Homework

Posted on by under Level 3 Art and Design

I am busily working on homework almost every day in hopes that I might get everything I need to get done by December when we go back to class.

Today I made some faux leather out of brown paper. I used a variety of inks and then covered with two colors mixed with gloss medium. I think the result may be a bit too shiny. I still have to iron it again and see what it looks like completely flat. It is drying now. This is to add to a book that I am creating. There are a bunch of tutorials on how to do this if you’re interested. Basically, it is crumple up the brown paper, rub with brown inks, iron flat. Then coat with a medium such as gloss, matte or gel medium. I added a bit of brown ink to my medium to give it a deeper color.

This is actually what I have been spending the most time on this week. This is for my final project for class. So these are just a few sneak peeks of the beginnings. I hope you had a good week and thanks for stopping by.

Staying Busy

Posted on by under Level 3 Art and Design

I added a bit more to my Rose Hips sketch. I decided it needed more yellow green in the background. So I added it in with a permanent marker pen. The one I showed you last week is on the left and the revised sketch is on the right. I think the yellow green in the background made the sketch more cohesive.

I worked hard today on my big project and this is one of the color studies that I completed for the project. Looks a little too checker board like but I think the colors are going to work.

Here are a couple of notebooks that I covered today. I need to have all my notebooks for Level 3 Art and Design covered before our exhibition in March. I have a couple of more to cover yet. But I’m glad to mark these off my list.

Here’s a collage I finished a while ago but didn’t show you. It was inspired by one of the photos I took while walking in the woods this spring. I can’t believe it’s mid September already, all the leaves are turning yellow and red. I miss the flowers but the changing leaves have their own beauty too.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Couple of Sketches

Posted on by under sketch book, Sketching

Since my last post, I have been really busy. We had our annual art retreat and then I was off to Washington state for my Art and Design class. Then back to Montana and trying to catch up with work and get all my art stuff back into the right places. I have a big project to work on for my class and I started some sampling for that but you’ll have to wait to see it until it’s finished. But I do have a couple of sketches that I completed.

This is one of the plants that I saw while we were in Lake Tahoe. It is called Woodland Pine Drops. According to the US Forest Service, it is a root parasite that grows near pine trees. They produce minimal chlorophyll and are not green in color and do not conduct photosynthesis. The ones I saw were in the “pod” stage where the flowering is complete and the plants become woody and hard. They look like little pumpkins on a stem.

And here is a sketch of rose hips. I did some cross hatching on this one to hopefully give it some depth. I think I need to add a little more yellow green into the background though.

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Vacation Inspiration

Posted on by under Inspiration

We went to Lake Tahoe a couple of weeks ago. It’s a beautiful area. We did a lot of hiking, bird watching and taking photos. We also had a fun outing of paddle boarding. Here are a couple of photos (I have tons more) of the area.

This is a photo of Lake Tahoe from the California side. We were in Sugar Pines State Park.

This is Eagle Lake. It’s a gorgeous lake but the climb is a bit steep to get there. I am off to our annual art retreat for the weekend. We’ll be screen printing and gelli printing. So hopefully, I will remember to take some photos and I’ll post about it later. Have a great weekend!

Screen Preparations

Posted on by under printing, surface design

I mixed up some print paste today to prepare some screens for screen printing next week. Our group is having our annual art retreat and we’re planning to do some deconstructed screen printing. So I completed the first step so it could dry and be ready.

This screen was placed over a gridded packing material. I used a variety of blue and blue green dye.

Then I used red and yellow dye over a textured shelf liner.

The last screen was created over plastic wrap with blue and red to create a variety of colors.

I had leftover dye on the shelf liner, packing material and plastic wrap. So I printed some papers. These will make good papers for collage or for layering further paint or dye on top. I am looking forward to seeing the screen printing results next weekend.