Sunday in the Art Room

My latest artistic obsession is collage.  I have been playing with shapes and designs for years.  I have worked in paints

and in fabrics

in clay - yes I even made jewelry with clay and stamps

and even carving stamps

What do they all have in common?  The use of shape is vital to success with each of them. 

I have even woven fabric with shapes woven into the design.

So why did it take me so long to get into collage? 
Actually doing applique on a quilt is really a form of collage.  I just didn't realize it until I broke through my mental block on collage. 

I had even done an abstract collage from fabric in 2024 - I even called it collage.

Nicole asked that I share the four collage pieces that I showed on Friday again, so here they are.

I have two newer ones, but I am not sure they are as successful as the above collages.

Nevertheless,  here they are.

I think the painted backgrounds didn't have enough contrast from the collage papers. 
I may still go in and change these.

Here is where you can find the Classes from CreativeBug that got me started collaging this month.  That  is my affiliate link. If you use it to sign up, you will get a free month of Classes - all you can watch in that month.  The collage classes that I watched are: 

4 x 4 Studies: A Daily Practice  and Collage Homage: 15 Women Artists to Know.  These are both taught by Erin McCluskey Wheeler.  

Failure is not something I worry about.  I am sure that if I DON'T TRY,  I will fail.  But if I do try, I may succeed.  And if I don't succeed - well, that is okay too.  Remember that I used those failed paintings to cut up and create collage. 

If you are wondering about materials,  For the base layer, (substrate) I used mat board cutouts (free from a local framer)  OR Mixed media paper - relatively inexpensive.  My adhesive is cheap glue sticks that I bought on sale when school was starting.  (Elmers purple disappearing school glue.)  For collage material, you can use almost any paper that you can find. One artist suggested painting acrylic paint on paper bags, brown paper that comes as packaging material or even copy paper - yes even those bills you have paid an are ready to toss - paint them with opaque paint and you have collage paper. Some famous collage artists have used candy wrappers, junk mailings, and other found papers.  I just got a package with a wad of brown paper in it.  I cut it into sheets and ironed it to get most of the wrinkles out.  I will be painting them.  Oh yes, you can even use the cheap cheap cheap hobby paints like Apple Barrell, Folk Art or Americana.  You could use leftover latex wall paint.  You can use crayons or....gee I could go on for hours.  Use what you have or can get easily.  Just be creative. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Face Off -Extra Portrait and some collage

There are many forms of art that I love to play with.  For example,  I enjoy painting - usually in abstract or non-representational form.  But, as today, sometimes I drift into more of a representational style.  

For the Friday Face Off,  I have an "extra" portrait from the portrait challenge.   I simply couldn't stop until I tried painting one of the faces on a canvas.   So here he is.  

I  used the same guy as the one in the portrait challenge.  But, I changed him a bit.

During the last week or so, I watched a couple of classes on collage.  

Then a few days later, I started playing with collage. 

The first piece started with a drawn line on the mat board drop out that I used as a background.  Then I started using pieces that I cut out of a couple of "failed" paintings. (hint, I never throw those away)

Then the next piece is using vintage magazine pieces on another piece of mat board.

And finally two more using cut up paintings. 

There are a couple of pieces of that vintage magazine in this one also.

Note, that piece in the background is one of the paintings I was cutting up. 

Yes, these are a bit "weird"  but I like them 

Have a great week.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Some of my older paintings

My friend, Nicole, hosts Sunday in the Art Room.  For this week, my decision is to show a couple of my older paintings.  When I started painting,  I wanted to paint in the impressionistic style.  But as I went on, I got into non-representational art and experimental art.  I still enjoy both.   

The two I am showing you today are both experimental art, but they are impressionistic and representational.  

First up - an experiment with charcoal powder.  The powder was sprinkled on the watercolor paper then some water was poured/dripped onto it to create patterns.  That was left to dry and then paint was added. 

 I named this Painted Lands. I honestly have no idea what happened to this painting. 
I may still have it stashed away somewhere. 

Next up is Enchanted Path.  For this, I took a "failed" painting and covered it with a clear  gel medium. 

After that dries, take a dark color, diluted with glazing medium and coat the entire painting. Then lift the dark paint in places with whatever, I used a bristle brush and paper towels. After I let that dry I added a few bits of light into some of the darker areas.

This certainly turned a "failed" painting into something interesting. 

Both of these remind me that I need to pull out art supplies and just PLAY.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Friday Face Off - Portrait Challenge.

When Nicole announced the portrait challenge, I was thinking that I would be doing well to finish a portrait in time.  However, I decided that my portrait just needed to be a face that looked reasonably good. After I did the first one, I was hooked.  Working in different media allowed me to explore some possibilities.  I have a few to show you.  

First up is a series of three created from the same face.

Acrylic Paint on good watercolor paper

Mixed media (oil pastels, colored pencils and water media)

Inktense pencils and Inktense blocks

Next up,  an older lady 

Colored pencil on very cheap watercolor paper.

And finally a male face.

Done with very inexpensive crayon on the back side of that cheap watercolor paper

There is a reason that I mention the inexpensive materials that I used for a couple of these. It is to remind you that you don't have to have expensive materials to create fun art. 

However, I will say choose your substrate (paper in this case) with care as it determines how

well the materials will work for you. 

Linking with the Portrait Challenge 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Art? for Sunday

Just for fun,  I decided to take an inexpensive piece of carving block about 2 inches square and play.  I started by drawing a circle and used that for my design basis.  Then I just played. 

When I went to stamp it, I realized that my stamp pads need replaced.   I did try using some paint but it didn't work well with this brand of carving block.   I poured some tech ink on an old stamp pad and "made do" with it. 

It is kind of a weird little design but maybe I will use it at some time. 

Linking with Sunday in the Art Room

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

My Adventure

I had not been on a vacation in several years, so it was time for a break.  My Mom has dementia and I am one of her two caregivers.  My brother, the other caregiver,  had taken vacations. It was time for me to get away.

Back in August a friend and I started planning a cruise. It was a twelve day cruise from Jacksonville, Fl to several islands in the Caribbean.  While I have been on a Caribbean cruise three other times (long ago) this time all the places we went to were new to me.  I confess that I didn't take pictures on every island. 

I had a great time.  We visited: Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Tortola BVI, St Kitts,  St Martin, St Thomas USVI, and San Juan Puerto Rico (not necessarily in that order.) 
Here are a few pictures. 

Wax applied to make batik fabric in St Kitts

Bloody Point St Kitts

Old British phone booth, St Kitts

Sunrise over the islands (arriving at St Kitts and Nevis)

Playita del Condado - San Juan

Plaza de Maestro -honoring the Puerto Rican Teacher

Cannons at the Fortress St Kitts

The Wake behind the ship was mesmerizing.

Eisenhower and me at Paseo de los Presidentes

JFK and me at Paseo de los Presidentes

Linking to the Friday Face Off

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Carving a Rubber Stamp

One of the things I have used in my art quite successfully is using rubber stamps.  To keep my work original I have carved many of my own stamps.  This also avoids copyright infringement if the stamp or stamp brand is "for personal use only" and you are making items to sell.  

Here is a video that I did years ago.  My tools are a Speedball Carving set  that I bought locally at a craft store.

Sharpie Marker, black, available many places. 

Mastercarve black by Staedtler (discontinued)  You can use a Speedball SpeedyCarve block or another brand of block or a cheap rubber eraser.  

Carving a Rubber Stamp

I hope you enjoy the video and maybe try carving your own stamp.

FYI This video is listed on the Tutorial Page of my blog.  Pages are on the left hand menu. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Friday Face Off

For the first Friday Face Off of the year,  I am sharing a couple of AI creations and the start of what I hope will be my entry for the portrait challenge. 

First up is one that I like BUT it is a "failure" as an AI self portrait.  

I don't think it looks very much like me.  It is however a very interesting portrait. 

Next up is another portrait I created on Night Cafe.  I am not sure if I have ever shared this one.

I am sharing her today because she will be the basis for my entry into the Portrait Challenge. 

I have used a print out of this one to create a tracing onto watercolor paper.  

I did make some artistic changes in the tracing. 

I will likely make more changes once I start painting .

If you look closely,  you may notice that many of the angles have become curves. 

This tracing is a bit faint because I used the printout with the oil pastel tracing trick that 

Nicole shared on this post.  This happens to be the third use of the same print. In a few places 

I did have to add a bit more pastel to get a line.  For the most part it worked well. 

I am planning to paint this is acrylics, simply because it is easier to correct mistakes. Ha ha. 

Have a Happy and Creative New Year

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.