Art class - Not Oils

Sicily

For this class we were asked to bring in a photograph of a landscape that we liked. I chose to base my painting on a photograph that I took on a holiday in Sicily a few years ago.  We are supposed to be experimenting using oil paints for the next couple of weeks but it is difficult to transport a wet oil painting and I have to travel twenty miles to the class. Added to the fact that I don't own any oils, I have decided I will continue to use my acrylic paints but try to use them like oils. For this painting I have been trying out some more Acrylic mediums. In some areas I used fluid retarder to lengthen the time the paint takes  to dry. To add the shadows on the path in the foreground I made a glaze with gloss medium.  This allowed the underpainting to still show through. However, the painting looked patchy when finished with some parts matt and some glossy so I ended up going over the whole painting with a glaze to even it out.  My tutor suggested that it might look better less glossy and that you can mix matt and gloss medium together to get an eggshell like effect.  That will have to wait until my next trip to an art store. 

Lesley x

Art Class - Acrylic Paint

Still Life - Vegetables

Still trying to catch up. This is a still life that I did with Acrylic paint. After I got home from the class I thought the composition wasn't quite right so I scoured my gardening books for ideas and then added the flower pot and tools at the back.  Then I changed the fruit, which were originally oranges to apples to make it look more like a gardener had just picked some produce. Luckily the grandsons hadn't eaten all our apples at the weekend. The background changed colours several times and I decided not to add the edge of the table but just merge the yellow and blue. Friendly critique, good or bad would be very welcome.

Lesley x

Art Class - A Night Scene

Hare

I have been getting behind on finishing my paintings and putting them on the blog so now it is catch up time.  This one I started at home several weeks ago after I missed one of the classes where the topic was painting a night scene.  I have two cold-cast bronze hare sculptures by Paul Jenkins and thought it would be fun to try to create a night scene around a painting of one of them.  I have used gold and brown acrylic paint for the hare, to capture the look of the ornament rather than a real hare. For the sky I used an iridescent medium added to the blue to give the impression of twinkling stars.  The flash from the camera has bounced off this so the photograph isn't a true representation.  I had intended to add some trees in the background but once I had got to this stage I quite liked the simplicity of the painting and didn't want to risk spoiling it. My tutor does keep saying "Sometimes less is more".  Not sure what the others did in the class I missed but I enjoyed trying out the iridescent medium and using the gold paint.  

Lesley x

Claritystamp Challenge - Anything but a card

Papier-mache bowl

I got the inspiration for this project from the Gelliarts blog. Well worth a visit if you haven't done so already. The instructions for making the papier-mache bowl are explained very clearly there so I wont repeat them, look for yourself here.

Stamps :  NDC Round Tree, NDC Blocks of Fun, Hare from Woodland stamp set 

Inks:        Ranger Archival Jet Black

Stencils:   Claritystamp Leafy Swirl

Other:      White PVA glue, Tissue paper, Acrylic paints

The making of the papier-mache bowl took several days.  I used a balloon, left behind from my grandsons' visit, for the mould and an old phone directory and copier paper torn into strips for the layers.  I watered down white PVA glue to stick the paper strips on.  The base I made by taping on a lid from a Camembert cheese box. The bowl took longer than I had anticipated but a lot of that time was waiting for layers to dry.  When it was thoroughly dry I gave it a base coat of emulsion paint. Now the fun bit, decorating it.

For the outside I chose several Gelliprints in blues and greens, which I cut into rectangles of various sizes and stuck on randomly with PVA glue.  If you look closely you can see I have used the Leafy Swirl stencil on some of them. The inside I wanted to be gold so I gave it a coat of bright red acrylic first and then when dry a couple of coats of gold acrylic.  Obviously it would be very difficult if not impossible to stamp directly onto the bowl so I stamped onto tissue paper, cut around them and then stuck them on with PVA glue.  I did practise this first on a scrap Gelliprint and the method I found the best was to put the glue on the Gelliprint , carefully lay down the stamped tissue and smooth out with a paintbrush with more glue on top.  If the tissue paper creases or tears , which it did for me several times, just take it off and try again with a new piece. 

I used the Round Tree stamp in the centre of my bowl and one of the hares from the Woodland set around the inside.  For the edging around the top and base of the bowl I stamped the Blocks of Fun several times and cut into strips of five squares. Finally a coat of acrylic varnish. This project was messy but lots of fun. Hope you like it.

Lesley x

Art Class - week 5

Sgraffito - Japanese Print

This technique reminds me of my childhood when we used to make pictures by covering a page in coloured wax crayons, going over with a black crayon and then scratching a picture into it.  Not sure what we called it then but I'm sure it wasn't anything as technical as Sgraffito.  We were given a selection of pictures to choose from and my choice was this Japanese lady.  I tried to find the picture on-line  so I could show you the original but was unsuccessful.  It is called Seibonomiyuki by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864). "Although well-prepared in a scarf and winter coat, this woman struggles against the icy wind with her umbrella only half open".

I drew in the basic shapes and colour with oil pastels. You have to press hard to get a good coverage of pastel. This was then brushed over with Indian ink.  The ink did not cover completely and as we chatted over coffee while waiting for the ink to dry several of us voiced doubts over whether it was going to work.  Back in the studio we all started scratching the ink with various instruments. I used an old vegetable knife which I wrapped masking tape around just leaving a bit of the blade showing.  My picture is much darker than the original print but I quite liked the effect of the diagonal scratches looking like rain so I left it with quite a lot of the black ink still on the paper.  At the end of the session we all agreed that this is a technique we would like to try again.

Lesley x

Art Class homework

Still life - More tulips

I couldn't attend the Art class last week as I had a prior engagement. My brother-in-law Robert brought me a bunch of tulips when he visited so I thought I would have another go at a pen and wash still life.  I opted for dip pens rather than the twig from last time for a more delicate drawing. The ink I used was not waterproof so that when I added the watercolours some of the ink ran and blended into the colours, an effect I quite like.

In the class that I missed they painted night scenes so I have started having a go at this at home to catch up. I have some hare ornaments so I have painted one of them with a moonlit background. Not finished yet so will post later on if it is successful.

Lesley x

Clarity Stamp Challenge - Floral

The 'Pretty Petals' stamps are so versatile I immediately thought of them when I saw that this month's challenge was Floral.  I enjoy painting the sunflowers that we grow on the allotment for the birds and bees so I thought I would have a go at interpreting them with stamps.

This is the first time that I have had a go at step-by step instructions with photos so I apologise if they are not very clear.  I worked on two cards at the same time so the photos might be of different versions.

Stamps: Clarity Pretty Petals, Fossil
Inks: Archival Jet Black, Adirondack Butterscotch, Lettuce and Denim, Big and Juicy Meadow
Other: Black pen, White pen, Spectrum Noir colouring pencils, Clarity stencil brushes.

The 'Fossil' stamp makes a perfect centre for the sunflowers.  Stamp twice on copy paper and cut out the centres, one small and one large, with a craft knife to make a mask.  You will need both bits. For each flower, position the mask where you want the centres and stamp through the hole with Black ink. 

Using the cut out bits cover up the centres and stamp the petals.  I used an old Big and Juicy ink pad that the colours have merged on to get the slight variations in colour.  Use the stamp at a slight angle to get the partial stamp effect. (Yes, I did do this on purpose) Don't worry if your petals slightly overlap.  

Now colour in your petals with the solid Petal stamp and Butterscotch ink. Then add some more petals behind, again adding some partial petals. I have used 2nd generation ink on some of the petals and the only masking is the flower centres.

Remove the masks from the centres and outline the petals with a black pen giving them a more realistic petal shape. Go round again slightly offsetting the lines.

Lightly pencil in the stalks and then add the leaves using the solid Petal stamp and 2nd generation green from the rainbow pad.  Mask the flower petals where you want the leaves to appear behind the flowers.

Draw in the stalks and veins on the leaves with the black pen.

Add some shading to the flowers with the colouring pencils.  Using the stencil brushes and ink pads lightly add some Butterscotch behind the flowers, Denim for the sky at the top and Lettuce at the bottom of the card. Outline with a black sharpie pen and mount on a coloured background. As a final touch, I added a few dots on the centre of the flowers with a white pen to represent the pollen. This is the other card that I made at the same time, with slightly more subdued colouring. Easier to do than to explain!

Hope you like them.

Lesley x