Art Class - Rose Painting

Having completed our sessions on learning the basics of lino-printing we were given a week to choose what we would like to do.  I scaled up the design of my lino-print rose and chose to do a painting in the style of the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe.  This was painted in Acrylic paint, starting with pale thin washes, gradually building up the colour with glazes. We also have to make craft items for our course and I have chosen to create greetings cards from my art.  I took a photograph of my rose painting and then printed to fit blank cards.  

The second card was re-coloured using an Art package on the computer before printing.

Lesley x

Art Class - Amaryllis linocut

Week two of doing lino-cuts. For this one I was trying out the method of creating more than one block, one for each colour.  To keep it simple for my first attempt I just did two blocks. The design is taken from photos I took of Amaryllis flowers. 

Separate prints of the two blocks

An example card made from a print of the second block coloured in with pencils.

Playing around changing the colours using an Art package

Lesley x

Claritystamp Challenge - Anything Goes

Seren is a Welsh name meaning 'star'

Why is it when you have wider brief it becomes more difficult to come up with an idea.  This month's Claritystamp challenge is Anything Goes. A lot has been going on here this month and suddenly the deadline for getting my design in was looming.  After a weekend visit by my daughter and her family, inspiration finally came.  I became a grandmother again on Christmas Eve, my first granddaughter, Seren.  She is beautiful, of course.  I have designed this name plaque for her but you could use any name of your choice.

Stamps: Nursery Rhyme Alphabet, Field Mice,  Toadstool from Wee Folk Elves 
Stencil:  Tree Box Frame
Ink:       Adirondack, Lettuce and Stonewashed, Archival Coffee
Other:    Claritystamp Stencil card and stencil brushes, Colouring pencils, fine nib felt pens, sepia pen

• Stamp your name using Coffee Archival ink.  I used this colour because I wanted to colour in the blackbirds on the letter S and thought they wouldn't show up if I stamped in the usual black.

• Cover up the name with post-it notes.
• Tape the stencil to the left-hand side of the card and brush blue ink across from the left taking care not to get a hard edge at the right-hand side  
• Make a hill mask with copier paper and then brush Lettuce across the bottom. The green will mix with the blue to give a darker green.  

• Remove the stencil and clean it before turning it over and repeating these steps on the right-hand side.
• Remove the stencil and then use masking tape to get an edge in the central section.
• Lightly brush on the inks to complete the frame.

• I'm afraid this is where I forgot to keep taking photos.
• Colour in the letters.  I used mainly pencils but also fine nib felt pens for those fiddly bits. 
• Add a wiggly outline with a sepia pen.
• Some shading around the frame and tree branches.
• At this stage I thought it was looking a bit plain and decided to add the mice.
• Make some masks for the field mice using post-its.
• Stamp mice and cover with masks.
• Stamp the Toadstool behind the mice then remove the masks.
• Gently wet inside the mice and blot to remove the green then when dry colour in.
• Add some colour to the toadstool and a couple of Barbara's heart birds in the trees to finish it off.

I have temporarily mounted the card on some brown card but not quite sure yet whether to frame it or make it into a door plaque. I will make that decision another day when I am not in so much of a rush.  I love these Nursery Rhyme Alphabet letters and noticed that you can buy individual letters now.

Looking forward to all your entries this month.

Lesley x

Art Class - Abstract Lino Cut

I have got a bit behind in blogging my Art Class so will keep this brief.  We spent two weeks on lino-printing.  These are prints from the first week. The prints were made using the reduction process.  ie. Successive cuts are made in the same block and a new colour is printed at various stages. Using this method means that the block is gradually destroyed and you can't go back and print an earlier stage again. There were three stages in my cutting but I didn't print each stage on every print.   The top-right print shows all three stages.  Others are experiments on different papers and some printing upside down.

Lesley x

Claritystamp - Technique Challenge - Masking

After all those fluorescent colours last month I thought I would go more subdued for this month's masking challenge. I bought these lacy swallow stamps a few weeks ago in the Design Club sale and have been dying to try them out.

Stamps: Lacy Swallows, NDC 106 Follow You Dreams

Ink:       Adirondack Peach Bellini and Stonewashed, Archival Black

Other:    6 x 6 Gelli Plate and mount, Clarity Stencil card, Spectrum Noir Pencils

• Make some masks for the swallows by stamping them on a post-it note and cutting out. I didn't worry too much about the little curves at the front of their wings as I knew I could fill any little gaps with the pencils afterwards.
• Maybe these stamps needs a proper Clarity stamp. Are you listening Barbara.  I did have a quick look and couldn't find them on the website.
• Move the masks around on the card until you are happy with your composition.
• Stamp the birds onto your card with Archival black ink and then cover with their masks.

• Put the Gelli-plate on it's mount. Ink up the Gelli plate with some Peach Bellini and lightly brayer. I wasn't aiming for smooth here.  Take off some colour with a scrunched up sheet of copier paper. Using the Gelli-plate mount, place down onto card and take a print.
• Without cleaning the plate add some Stonewashed at the top and bottom. and repeat the above step.  
• Remove the masks.

• Go around the edges of the birds with blue and peach pencils.  This makes the stamps stand out more.  Add a bit of shading to the birds.
• I also deepened some of the blue and peach  splodges in the background with some pencil work.
• I debated whether to colour in the birds but decided I liked them as they were.
• Stamp the sentiment

• Finally, trim, mount on blue card and then onto a card blank.

A fairly simple card that didn't take long to make. I don't think I have used stamp masks with the Gelli before as I usually have a Gelli background session with no cards in mind and then browse through them when I need a background for a card. Definitely worth doing though as you end up with a lovely smooth card.

Hope this has given you some inspiration for this month's Claritystamp challenge.  Looking forward to seeing all your entries.

Lesley x

Art Class - Amaryllis Christmas Star

Christmas Star

A free choice this week so I decided to take some photos of my beautiful Amaryllis and do a painting from these.  Another big thank-you to Sandra and Tony who bought us the bulb for Christmas.  I scaled up a section of one of the photos before the class and then painted it in Acrylics, finishing it at home.  Wasn't sure about my choice of the yellow background at first but I'm OK with it now.  I was aiming for a bright contrast with the red flowers. 

Lesley x

Claritystamp Challenge - It's all about the Girls 2

Can it be halfway through the month again already.  Here is another card I made for this month's Claritystamp Challenge. If you haven't entered yet there is still plenty of time as the challenge runs until the end of the month.

If you visited here at the beginning of the month, you might remember I mentioned making a card using scraps from my Gelli-print session. Sorry, no photos for this one but it is very simple so doesn't really need them.

Stencils:  Claritystamp Umbrella Girls
Ink:         Archival black
Other:      Spectrum Noir pencils, black pens, Computer printed sentiment

• The background paper is a sheet copier paper that I used to clean my brayer on during the Gelli-print session with my new fluorescent paints. It is even brighter in real life.
• Using a makeup sponge and black ink, first sponge through the mother stencil.  Then re-position the stencil and sponge through the daughter. (I see them as mother and daughter)
• Clean your stencil before the ink stains.  
• Using white and  black colouring pencils add shadow and light to the figures and umbrellas to give them depth. Then add some shadows on the pavement and the falling rain.
• With a black pen I drew some more substantial shoes on the mother as I thought her others were a bit flimsy for all that rain.
• Trim, edge in black then mount on card.
• As I didn't have an appropriate sentiment stamp I printed one out.   

Thanks for dropping in, and if you haven't entered yet, 

Get Crafting.

Lesley x