NATALIE'S GOLDFINCH

NATALIE'S GOLDFINCH
14 X 17"  On Bristol Vellum
Colored Pencil , Ink , Graphite & Gold Leaf

This piece was a request from my daughter for my grand-daughter's birthday in May.  It was also my first experiment on Bristol vellum with colored pencils.  I love working with the Faber Castell Polychromos, layer upon layer of shading and texture.  It's a workout on the hands though!  Micron pens .05 and .01 were used on the ribbon.  The ribbon was a challenge, I actually had about eight hours into this piece before I put it aside and started over from scratch.  The ribbon was just not working and there are a few things I learned in the process that I will put into practice when I include a tangled ribbon in future projects. Helen Williams' e-book available on her blog A Little Lime, was a tremendous help.

All shading outside of the ribbon, "N" and goldfinch was done with 2B, 6B and 8B graphite pencils and a paper stub. One thing I'd like to pass on and which was new to me; when using a blending stub it's good to sand the end frequently so the colored pencil doesn't build up on the end of the stub making blending of the graphite far more difficult.  I couldn't help touching the edge of the colored pencil area as I was adding my shadows and noticed problems as I tried to blend the graphite.

Lastly, I just had to add some gold leaf in a few spots and was very happy with the outcome.  Another word of caution about the gold leaf sizing on paper.  Give it plenty of time to dry!  If you smear it outside of the desired area you get to spend some really anxious moments gently removing it from the paper with an Xacto knife!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ikea Kitchen Carts for Your Studio

Ikea Kitchen Carts for Your Studio

The Raskog Kitchen Carts available at Ikea are fantastic movable storage for your work area or studio.  I've been asked about these so many times, most recently on Facebook, that I thought I would show everyone how I use them and how fantastic they are.

The photos below are close to a year old and since then I've added a wooden table (and lots of other stuff) to my studio, replacing the Costco folding table I worked on for years.  The carts work great alongside both setups.

This is a photo of the "dry" work area of the studio and the floor is carpeted.  The carts roll around with no problem, even fully loaded.

The hanging containers really serve to expand the storage of these carts and can actually be hung on all four sides and all three levels.  Here's a link to one of the styles I also found at Ikea in the kitchen gadget area. They are so inexpensive you can really go wild!

I live in a small coastal town on the Oregon coast and its a two hour drive to Portland and the nearest Ikea.  So a friend of mine and I took orders from our friends and did a road trip to Ikea one Saturday last winter. We came back with a car full of carts!

Thankfully all of this is available online but we figured our fuel and lunch would cost less than the shipping!

Since establishing a "wet" area in my studio, I've moved one of the carts beside the easel so it now holds only paints, brushes and mediums.  I'm thinking I need a third cart to fill the space I moved this one from.  Yes?

Thanks for stopping by, if you have any questions, leave a comment below.

Hugs!

Tangled With Color

I've been caught up in Zentangle (a registered trademark) and tangling for the last two months or so and am absolutely enjoying every minute I spend on it.  The world goes away and I love getting lost in the art.

If you're unfamiliar with Zentangle, Google it and you'll be amazed at the sites and blogs devoted to this unique art form.  There's some really beautiful work being made out there.

I decided to start experimenting with color and have started a couple of larger Zentangle inspired pieces which are still works in progress.  I've been using watercolor pencils and Copic markers up 'till now and applying the color and shading to the completed line art.  However, I was inspired by Rosemary Hill, a Certified Zentangle Teacher, to use a different method and the three test pieces are shown below.



 

This first and the following two pieces are 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch square tiles on Tiepolo  paper.

 

I added splotches of Tim Holtz Distress Stain, misted with water and tilted the tile to let the color run where it would until I was satisfied.  A light selective blotting with a paper towel and then drying with a heat tool provided a good start.

I didn't draw a string but let the segments of color determine where I would place the individual patterns and even what choice of patterns I made.

 

 

This turned out to be a lot of fun, I'm definitely going to be playing with this more!

 

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If you live on the north coast or plan on being in the area Saturday, August 3rd, our local art store, Dots N Doodles Art Supply will be hosting Rosemary Hill with two, two hour Zentangle classes, Zetangle1 and Zentangle 2.  It's going to be a full afternoon well worth the time.  The response to the classes had been exceptional and there aren't many spots left so if you're interested, give the site and their blog a look-see and then give them a call or a fast email.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Trisha