"What's On My Art Table?" Wednesday

This page began as part of a workshop assignment to paint circles and then doodle over them. I am still working through Traci Bautista’s workshop called {31} daily inspirations. Yeah, that class I signed up for in early 2011. I’m really just now getting around to it.

I started with a white piece of 8.5” x 11” cardstock. Several thick layers of gesso were added to bring in a little texture to the paper and to seal it.

I acquired a new tube of paint I wanted to try called quinacridone magenta (Golden heavy body acrylic). When I opened the tube and saw how lovely it was I knew the perfect color combo would be phthalo blue, a hint of desert turquoise craft paint, and a little white.

The plan was to paint some loose circles and keep it simple. I was making a simple page to cut up to use for other collage work.

Uh. Yeah. Got a little off track there.

I saw the bigger circles had smaller circles in them. So I started working them individually thinking, “Ok, I’ll just cut this up in sections now for use on domino pendants and other smaller collages.” No problem. I have done that before.

So I began to think of the page as sections I was going to disassemble. They were not related to each other on the page. Just conserving paper by doing this prep work on one sheet.

But then it started to kind of take on a cohesive look. And got more detailed. And then my mom stopped by and she gasped loudly when I said I was chopping it up for other uses. Now I don’t know what to do with it.

I think it might be about six paintings living in one as I explored many techniques and media here… maybe too many. I suppose if any deconstruction occurs it will be mentally breaking down the parts for other new works.

Also I recently discovered on my own that I could continue my long, torrid love affair with oil pastels! They can be sealed over with matte medium without destroying them and then they do not smear. Joy of joys! You can even write over them with a gel pen! Unheard of! There really isn’t anything like a nice, bright, crayon-looking oil pastel mark on a page for some interest. I had hung my oil pastels up to (never) dry since the mess was always a problem when doing so much mixed media work. Now it’s solved and we are back in love! <3

This is a close up of a flower created with gel pens and circles punched from an old dictionary page. I really like the lettering in the background on the left. That was done with a Copic marker and a stencil. The colors compliment wonderfully.

This is a mix of a little bit of everything: paint, colored pencil, gel pen, book page, and pigment ink.

Circles stamped with found objects. The 1/4" hole punch dots fit in the circles perfectly! There's a little gel pen, too.

More book page and gel pen. The flower petals and the very small dashed lines are stamped with stamps I made. The tiny dots were done with a stencil I made with my 1/8" hole punch.

I aged these book pages more than the others with Distress Inks. I like how they are layered. The depth in the background was created with two colors of Copic markers. You can see oil pastel on the edges of this photo. Welcome back, oil pastel!

More tiny text dots. More found object stamp circles. This found object stamp came from a disassembled adhesive tape runner. (Nothing is safe from being taken apart and inked or painted in my house!)

Do you see what I mean that each of these close-ups could be their own painting? I must explore this further.

The details: acrylic paint (Golden heavy body and the craft kind), matte medium, oil pastel, vintage book pages, gel pen, Copic marker, Sharpie, colored pencil, pigment ink, stencils. On paper. 8.5” x 11”

So now I am back to the painting board to make some simpler pages for chopping up!

Happy Middle Of The Week!

- Vickie

What's On My Art Table? Wednesday

Let's just pretend it's Wednesday, just you and I, on the down low.

Honestly, as you will see, I had too much happening on my art table on Wednesday to find time to post! Then taking photos and editing them made it impossible to get this up on time.

Give me a break, please. I'm new to a weekly post schedule and am still working out the kinks. :)

Without further ado, my projects!

These are 1/4" paper circles I punched from a regular hole punch. This a really close up photo. I glued them down in a punchinella pattern and added gesso over them. This will make great texture for collage and art journal pieces after I paint it. It's quite fiddly and took forever to punch all these and glue them down! You can't see the whole page, but there are more than a hundred glued to that page. I am sure doing this kind of prep work will pay off soon!


I am still working on my art journal page for 2011 in my theme of "healing". Some of my selves need to be stitched back together. I took some rough hemp and very vintage gaffer tape and sewed them together. Then I glued it to my page. A heavy layer of gesso was added to blend it in.

Right now the page has a ton of layering simulating pieces and parts, layers of myself, layers of skin, all healing back together. Evey thing has been coated in gesso to mimic a layer holding everything together. Whole. Healed. All put back together. One.


Distress Crackle Paint in green ("peeling paint" color) looks really neat in a macro photo! Those cracks look deep. It was green on the "healing" art journal page so it needed gesso, too. But not too much. I didn't want to fill in the cracks.


This is an ATC sized (2.5" x 3.5") piece of watercolor paper with texture from a "super sekrit" process I developed. It has two layers of gesso on top of the texture part.

I really cannot tell you how much I love gesso. I previously poo-pooed it in my head trying to be economical. I recant that opinion. It makes paint so much paint-ier (fun)!


This is the same piece as above... just with paint! I scribbled a little yellow and light green NeoColor 2 watercolor crayon on it and wet that with a baby wipe to spread it, which worked better than I expected. Then I made a very watery, slightly darker lime green acrylic paint wash and painted it over the whole thing. I wanted it to settle into the recesses of the texture so I let it sit to dry a little. I very carefully rubbed the darker green off the raised areas with a plain piece of copy paper. Newspaper works well for this, too, as it's absorbent. Paper towel would have picked up too much paint because it's too absorbent.

I did have to touch up the darker green as I rubbed a bit too much. It's easier to touch up the recesses with a tiny brush.


(Have I mentioned how much a love the macro zoooooooom on my digital camera?)

These pieces are not anywhere near done. But I have a pretty good start so I am happy. I certainly have no right to claim boredom with so many UFOs (UnFinished Objects)!

- Vickie

Check Your Math

$5.15 compared to $5.15 costs less, you say, US Post Office?

I will take your upgrade!

- Vickie

This Needs A Hug

While this little notecard is kind of cute on its own, being powerless to the call of mixed media, I had to do something about its lack of dimension.

I mean, really. How could I send out such a bland, unloved, little thing? Doesn't it look like it needs a hug?

This was a pack of 12 cards + envelopes I purchased at my local craft store from the cheap bins. I always stock up when they have them because they make nice thank you notes for my Etsy shop orders. They are either 50 cents or $1.00 per pack... I don't recall.

The cards measure 2.75" (7 cm) square. The corners are rounded. The print is a tie dye and a gingham design. Both sides are printed and are glossy.

I like that both sides are printed and the design can be turned. These blank cards could be rotated to open from the side or from the bottom. You could even make a "lefty" card with them!

I gave this one a mixed media, stampy hug.

I've been looking for a use for this yellowish ledger paper I got at a garage sale. It went nicely with the greenish yellow and white of the card. The blue and red lines accented the other colors and added a little punch. I used a glue stick to adhere this as I didn't want a wet glue warping the card.

Since the card is glossy I used Archival Ink by Ranger in jet black to stamp the tree branches and bird. I love this stamp. I don't use it enough.

I also love my vintage DYMO label maker! So simple for a quick sentiment! I got my DYMO for $3.00 at a garage sale and it came with three black tape refills. Best deal ever. I darted the end to look like a ribbon and glued it on even though it's self adhesive. I don't trust vintage adhesive to really stay put for the long haul.

I probably could have dressed it up a little more with some tiny staples or stitching on the sewing machine. At 2.75" square they are the perfect size to play around with and not be too upset if I mess one up.

My plans for more of these include making whole sets at one time (thank you, birthday, hello, get well, ...) so I have the perfect little card all ready to go to tuck in a package or gift when needed.

Yay to Future Me when grabbing up a ready one instead of running around like mad trying to make one in the two minutes I have before leaving the house!

- Vickie

What's On My Art Table Today?

A mess?

A Tiny Work of Awesome?

Both?!

Yes!*

* It's your lucky day!

The Mess:

This is the usual state of things on my work table. I make tiny things. I work in tiny spaces. I use a lot of tools.

The Tiny Work of Awesome (Domino Pendant):

That is an original, one-of-a-kind, paper and mixed media collage on the domino pendant in the middle of the photo. The artwork measures approximately 3/4 inch x 1 9/16 inch. Yes, it is very small as you can see from the scale of the items around it.

The different layers of the flower are made of various papers. I hand cut all those little pieces of paper. I only use a punch for 1/8 inch and 1/16 inch circles.

I paint and collage all of my paper by hand. The stamped designs are stamps I created myself from various found objects, craft foam, or cardboard. The word "bloom" is also hand stamped.

This domino pendant isn't sealed properly yet. I've just now finished the paper part. (Let me know if you are interested in it though.)

Plus there is a mess of other potential Tiny Works of Awesome on my table!

Look! More dominoes! More stamped and painted paper! Wheeee!

Over at flickr there are notes on the picture above! I've marked the image with words telling what stuff is! It's amazing!

- Vickie