Work in progress

This is what I've been working on today. I am constantly inspired by people in the art groups that I belong to, it is amazing what you learn, and how you are inspired when you are in a community of drastically differently creative people. Even if something doesn't directly translate into your style, or your want of doing things, it can often spark an idea that you would not have had normally. Anyway. I took on a few projects today, things haven't been totally working for me, I did a few random magazine transfers last night without anything really in mind for them. I used some paper from Grey's newsprint pad, he uses it sometimes, I use it sometimes, this particular page was tore in half, had been used for a table protector, had been colored on with markers, crayons, pastels, pen, color pencils, it had spray inks and paints on it, it was a mess. I took an image for each page and put them down, then I fell asleep. So I thought it might be a ruined because of the thin, brittle paper, but they came off pretty easily. I've taken pictures of the projects progress all day and I will probably do so until it is finished, it is not now. I used some happy mail items for this one too, so that is really special and fun. I don't know why I like floating heads so much but.. anyway, where it is! (I was going for "college" here)

The one I used is on the right

I added another image, collaged on the "ghost" of the transfer, so essentially what you are seeing is one side of her face, mirrored

I will update again when I am finished! I hope you like watching the transformation as much as I look showing it.

"Night" Postcard

I made this postcard for a swap in my group, the theme was "partners choice" and my partner chose night as the theme for the postcard I made her. I did a search on pinterest and I found the art that inspired this, I couldn't tell you who it was, I didn't even open the pin I just looked at the whole board. It was in an interesting style and I made it pretty similar, luckily it's just for a swap so no big deal. I used some Tim Holtz distress ink, from a pad, I stamped the pad itself all over the paper, and since it is water soluble I just used my water brush and added water to spread the color, I love this color! A really sweet girl in my group sent me a bunch of new supplies to play with and these ink pads were part of that package, After painting with the ink, I used a Posca pen to draw the moon outline, and from there on out I used only pen, black, white and blue. I love the neon blue from the gelly roll "moonlight" pack, I've used it almost completely its got like half an inch of ink left! Oh and a little pink for the cheeks....

Anyway, here is the end product! Hope you like it.

Image transfer projects

These are a few image transfer pieces I've done! Some of them will show you the process

this was my first ever image transfer

I painted her hair and I hated it. If you know me you know.. I hate throwing things out sooo

I painted over her face, and I did another image transfer on top, inked in the lines

this was the end result. Not bad right?

Two Transfers

I thought this one was boring, she spent a long time on my desk awaiting her fate.

And this is how she ended up

this one didn't come out well at all.

this was a transfer, the left is the image that I used to do the transfer, it remained intact mostly, which was seriously weird, so I glued it on to a new piece of paper

Blue Cat

I did this for a tag swap. The theme was the blue dog, you know, george rodrigue, the blue dog? Anyway, my partner didn't have any dogs, but she had a cat. I wanted to personalize it for her, I used an actual blue dog painting as inspiration, but I kept it simple, mostly because I don't know how else ot do it with my posca paint markers yet. I added glasses because.. I like glasses. This is a very small tag so considering that I think I did pretty good :D

More ATCs, Better Off Dead.

I don't know how many other people on this earth love John Cusack (from the 80s, strictly) as much as I do. I would hope more than a handful of people have seen Better Off Dead hundreds of times, like I have.  If I had to pick one movie of all the movies I've ever seen, ever, as my favorite, it would be Better Off Dead, without a second thought.
Anyway, I forgot that I wasn't going to do this swap, but I ended up doing it anyway, and I had more fun than I've ever had, mostly because I felt like the whole thing was just a really funny inside joke with only myself. I laughed and giggled and drew and painted and I even got to use washi tape, which is my favorite. And now I have like.. a legit reason to own washi tape.. see I used it on something, see! See!!! So as time goes on I am going to probably make a larger version of this, the tiny size of ATCs made it really hard for me, but I managed. Here they are!

I did several of Lane with the sunglasses (this is a movie poster or something) the bikes are supposed to be a sort of reflection in his sunglasses, but it was really just relative to the quote "I want my two dollars" which is repeated over and over by the paper boy as he chases him down on the bike, so it brought it all together. Then I ran out of the tape so I did Ricky. Just because it made me laugh (it is supposed to look like the picture Ricki gave to the french girl for christmas, with the weird twin or hemp frame or whatever, I couldn't figure out how to do the frame so I just stuck with the picture.) I am not great at adding quotes so ..I did the best I could. Here is a close up of each type.

What I am working on now.

It's a buuuuuug.

:D

I am doing an art swap with the theme "Bugs" This is what I came up with. Pen and watercolor. I need to make a second one, and then I may make one for my son also because he likes ladybugs.

This is a common color scheme for me, my favorite!

Artist Trading Cards

In my art exchange group, I have learned so much, but one of my favorite things has been making ATCs, artist trading cards. They are wonderful little 2.5 by 3.5 inch pieces of art! I really love receiving them, and I feel a little inadequate because everyone makes them with lots of collaging and embellishments which makes them so fun and special, but I mostly just draw or paint. It is really amazing how many I have made and traded since I started, I have some on my wall on a little twine, they are held by tiny clothes pins, I interchange them all the time to keep it interesting and have different inspirations. I will show you a few of the ones I have made.

I just made these today for a "villain" themed swap! I found the inspiration for them on pinterest. I did these with Uni-posca paint pens and black and white pen.

These were for a swap that's theme was "no theme" ..I liked how they all turned out individually, I liked that they all had the tiniest bit of similarity with the background. I hope the girls I sent them to will enjoy them. I made these with distress stain and pen, the girl also has some colored pencil. 

This was for a theme called "favorite artist" I used Tom Thomson's Northern Lights as my inspiration for this, it was my partner's favorite artist. I did this with watercolor and pen.

I love poppies, this was just me learning how to use my new art supplies, I got some distress paint and stain on clearance, I also used pen

These were made for a theme "watercolor flowers" ..so I made them with watercolor only. It was sooo hard for me to not do any pen on them but I stuck to it! 

Whoever is reading this, if you haven't made an ATC before you should try! It's fun! :D