Ain't Nothing But Blue Skies...

I am really getting into this knife painting in ArtRage, it has gotten me into a better mood today. I figure two posts in one day is enough. :) Enjoy!

Happy Fall!

Gosh, have I been gone this long? Life has a habit of getting away from all of us. Here is my newest waterfall creation. Used with a photo reference that came on a disk with the Corel Painter Magazine (I just love that magazine ... it has so many great tutorials for digital art and great stock photos that are royalty free! Gotta love it!) I played around with a palette knife and some color and this is rather abstract, but I like it! Hope you do too! I pray the Fall is going well for everyone and Thanksgiving is just around the corner... I don't EVEN want to say the Christmas word! (shhhh) :) Have a great week!

Creating an Acrylic "Tile" using Golden Mediums

Happy Fall Everyone!

I just started experimenting for a project I am doing on Wet Canvas and trying to come up with some ideas... so I dug around in my archives and found a book by Chris Cozen called "Altered Surfaces" that I bought on Amazon.com a while ago. It has TONS of great ideas even though many people complained about the price, it's chock full of color and ways I'd never think of using acrylics, mediums and textures. Chris Cozen is an advocate of Golden materials, and since I already had many fluid acrylics and gels/texture pastes, etc. I decided to give one of the projects a go... and not very happy with the results, but for a first time, it was rather fun and will be doing more in the future. I will tell you it is quite messy, but it's worth the time. ;)

Materials:
Fluid acrylics or regular acrylics plus interference or silver/gold/bronze colors
Soft Molding Paste (Golden)
Small plastic spatula to apply the paste
Stamps for stamping into the wet molding paste for a design
Paintbrush
Clear Tar Gel or Self Leveling Clear Gel
Brush to apply the gel
3x3 or larger square board or sturdy paper

You start by getting some materials together... some small square hardboard or a sturdy ATC cut into a square.
Apply some soft molding paste over the surface of the board, covering everything. Make sure it's not too thick or thin, less than 1/4 inch.
Stamp your design into the paste (tricky, I had to reapply about 4 times to get it to look like anything), or use any kind of implement to give you a design. Wash the stamps well as the paste dries quickly.
Allow to dry THOROUGHLY (about an hour).
Wet the white board with dried paste with a little water and drop some colors that complement each other into the water, use the brush to move color around. When the color looks right, let it be to dry again, thoroughly.
Wet the dried color for a third time with a bit of water and drop in some interference or metallic color. Allow to dry again.
Last step is to use Clear Tar Gel or Self Leveling Clear Gel to seal the 'tile' and have it look glossy. Use a good amount of gel (not too gloopy) over the entire surface of the 'tile' (it will be milky white when wet, but dries crystal clear). It will take a few hours for this to dry completely, but it's worth the wait.

I did not like how my sample came out, but am going to keep trying. I think I need to use more paste next time and also learn how to stamp better for a design, also choose colors that are more complementary. In this sample I used a phthalo green and bronze on top. The stamps didn't work right, and the paste may have been put on too thin, but I'm learning. If anyone tries this out, would love to see what your 'tiles' look like.

Thanks for stopping by!!! :) Happy painting and Happy Fall!!!

P.S. Try the Pumpkin Latte coffee at Starbucks for an added kick to your 'tiles'... you'll be glad you did. :) The muffins are good too!

More fun with Kaleidocolors

Really enjoying this... just more fun! Enjoy! Rose

Kaleidocolor - A John Derry Invention

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while... but I have been doing some iTouch art, regular art, and also learning Painter 11. Totally worthwhile. John Derry who really was one of the first to start the programming of this product, has some excellent videos out and I watched one of his very first Webinars on watercolor. He has new brushes as well and they are well worth it if you have Painter. :) This is a doodle with a Kaleidoscope template he had made for the Webinar. I am just having fun. Have a great weekend everyone!

iTouch Blending and Photo Retouching

Was playing with a photo I found that I blended in an app on iTouch, and then added a burnt background to it, was really a lot of fun, and I think this turned out best of all the different photos I used. Finally, I'm getting used to it. :) Enjoy!

Clouds

Made this for a friend of mine... if we continue to look up to God, we do find answers, or some lovely clouds :) Done on an iTouch with painting application.