365 Days of Art – Day 56

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….getting papers ready for my Inspired by Lives and Letters class

Lendon Noe has encouraged us to make some art papers using inks, watercolour paper and tissue to use in future projects. I mixed up my walnut crystals to make walnut coloured ink and I experimented with purple and red ink.

fullsizeoutput_6d07 fullsizeoutput_6d08

The next step is to cut up these papers into squares and rectangles.

On the white tissue paper I used three different techniques. One was crumpling up the paper and dipping it into ink. Using red ink gives it the appearance of blood (not sure if that was a wise choice). The second technique involved folding the paper multiple times until it couldn’t be folded anymore and then dipping the edges into ink. The last method involved folding the paper like a fan and then running a water soluble ink pen down over the folds. All these techniques involved spraying the paper with some water. Not too much or the paper falls apart.

365 Days of Art – Complicated Colour Fields Part 1

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..day 55

A week ago today Carla Sonheim asked us to create two colour fields of art using a variety of markers, pens, pencils, stickers, tape and stamps. This is the first part of a two part art lesson. Part 2 is already in my inbox so I thought I’d better get busy and do part 1. No idea where this going but it was fun doing it.

What Happened to My Art Challenge

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….the last time I posted 365 days of art was 10 days ago

I’m feeling very stressed about not posting art projects that I’ve been working on. The truth is I’ve been doing very little art but I’ve been busy using my hands to create other projects.

A couple of weeks ago I signed up for beginner’s crochet class. So I wouldn’t forget what I’d learned I proceeded to use up yarn to make coffee cup holders and dish rags. I think I’m ready now for the next level.

Before I tackle

a new crochet project I decided I needed to finish some knitting projects. I started a complicated lacy shawl and I’ve taken it apart now four times because each time I found a mistake that completely messed up the pattern. The problem with this project is that you have to cast on 361 stitches and if you don’t discover the mistake until you’ve gone on for two or more rows it means having to undo over 700 stitches. I tried doing that a couple of times but then I was dropping stitches and after hours of work I was ripping it all out anyway. Today I’ve started this project for the 5th time. Wish me luck.

My father also asked to borrow my sewing machine so that he could hem his jeans. By the time I pulled it out, found the thread he needed and lugged it down two flights of stairs I offered to sew them myself. It took me some time to clean off my art table but now I feel that when the machine comes down I’ll have a clean surface to start painting again. After I hemmed his pants I found a pair of my own that needed hemming and then I made curtains for my Dad’s apartment.

The last 10 days haven’t been an art free zone. Every day I go on-line and open Carla Sonheim’s daily posts and I signed up for a class given by Lendon Noe called Inspired by Lives and Letters. In this class Lendon has taught us how to create two kinds of envelopes that can hold messages written on art squares that we create with watercolour paper and ink or plaster. Here are some of the envelopes that I’ve made so far.

Day 54

One of the things that I purchased for this class was Walnut ink. Actually I purchased the walnut ink crystals to make my own ink. When I saw the price of a small bottle of walnut ink I just about fainted ($46.00) so the store owner showed me the crystals at 6.95 a bag. I only need 1 tsp. for every 1/2 cup of water. There’s probably enough crystals in the bag for 3 or 4 cups of ink. When all is said and done the cost of one bottle will probably be $1.00. Stay tuned for the next 365 Days of Art post when I’ll show you how I use the ink.

365 Days of Art – Squares and Rectangles

Posted on March 4, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….day 53 and week 9 of the collage challenge

I’m starting to get back into my art making groove. This is the squares and rectangles assignment from Randel Plowman’s book The Collage Workbook. Evelyn over at Evelyn Flint’s blog has challenged us to follow the weekly assignments as laid out in Plowman’s book.

My entry is titled Basquiat Meets the Ballet.

March Squares – Day 1

Posted on March 3, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…thanks to Becky for hosting March Squares

I’m combining today’s challenge with Evelyn’s Collage Challenge and my 365 days of art (day 52).

Week 8 of the Collage Challenge from the book The Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman is Reassemble. This week we were to take an image and cut it into squares of the same size. Then we were to reassemble the squares into a new collage. Unfortunately I didn’t take a photo of the original picture. It was an animated penguin.

fullsizeoutput_6cda

365 Days of Art – Unconventional

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….day 51 uses unconventional art tools

Tuesday’s prompt from Carla Sonheim was to create a piece of art using unconventional tools. I chose to use a toilet paper roll, a chop stick and a wooden skewer.

On a piece of heavy watercolour paper I placed the toilet paper roll upright and dropped a small amount of two or three acrylic paint colours and some white down the middle of the tube. I also surrounded the tube with some white paint as well. Then the fun begins. You start moving the tube around and the paints mix to create an almost marbled effect. If I try this again I’d use less paint and have three or four tubes on the paper in different locations.

When the paint dried I put a dollop of black ink on random areas on the painting and then using the chopstick and the skewer I moved the ink around to add some visual interest to the piece.

Here’s the final creation.

fullsizeoutput_6ca5

365 Days of Art – Caruso Sings

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….day 50

I’m a little behind but I’m sure I’ll make it up in the next couple of days. I’m enamoured with Collage Characters. My latest creation is another bird that I have named Chattering Caruso. Caruso lives in the trees and loves to sing all day long.

365 Days of Art – Ramblin Rosie

Posted on February 18, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..day 49

I was inspired to do another collage character today. My granddaughter seemed to really like my first one so I decided to try my hand at another one. This time a dog came forward when I started to lay out my random pieces of paper. Then I decided that the dog could be running so I made the ears fly back and the leash would also be sans owner and flying in the wind as well. Here is the process that I went through before committing to my final picture.

For my final draft I added a tongue and some line detail around the eyes.

P1050838

365 Days of Art – Collage Character

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..day 48

In Carla Sonheim’s class today we were instructed to take some of our art papers and with our eyes closed cut out random shapes. Then we were to create a character of our choice. We weren’t suppose to have a character in mind when doing the cutting. Instead the character would appear as we tried to arrange some to the shapes.

Gluing the pieces down was the last step in the process. As we created a character Carla recommended taking a photograph of each version and move the pieces around until you came up with a character you liked.

I found one piece of paper that looked like bird legs running so I build my character around that. Here is the process that I went through before gluing my final character in place.

On my final piece I grounded my little roadrunner with a strip of ground and put a cloud over her head. To me she looked like she was running off to a party.

365 Days of Art – Strips

Posted on February 16, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….day 47 and week 7

I’m a little behind with my collage art so I’ve posted two assignments back to back. This week’s assignment was to take two different images and cut them into thin strips of equal size and alternate them to create a new image.

For my first one I had two different images of snakes and for the second one I used an image of a tulip and one of my art papers that had similar colours.