Crazy Newspaper Antics Part 2

Continuing with yesterday's post, here are more newspapers colored with India ink and fluid acrylics. Start with a layer of ink- just drop it randomly on the paper and fold and press. When that layer is dry, do the same with fluid acrylics. On these pieces, gold metallic webbing spray was added as a final step. Find it in the spray paint section at your craft store. If you've never used it, it's a blast! The effects are totally random but beautiful. My art buddy Lynn and I discovered the magic of webbing after a day of making ink dyed papers. Some of them were incredibly ugly so we just went wild with webbing and voila- they were magically transformed. As I scanned these papers in today, it occurred to me to use the Hue/Saturation function in Photoshop to play with the colors. I love the new colorways and will print them on nice paper to use in collages.

A note on the archival quality of the newspaper. Before I use any of these papers, I will coat both sides with acrylic medium. That will keep the acidity of the newspaper from affecting other papers in the final art and help with the yellowing process newspaper is infamous for. The acrylic will not prevent all problems, so if you are a stickler for archival this may not be the technique for you.

Crazy Newspaper Antics Part 1

Our local newspaper company did a 2 week free paper promotional to try and increase sales and suddenly I found myself under a mountain of newspaper! I glanced through a few and then just started stacking them up to bundle for recycling. Then, it hit me. It was PAPER- lots of free paper to experiment with. So on a sunny afternoon I took, newspaper, inks, paint and webbing spray out to the driveway and had a free-for-all. I just had fun dumping paint and folding the paper to get patterns. I started with colored India inks for the really saturated color then added white and interference acrylics. I wanted to see the underlying text and colored photos as pattern only so I tried to obscure areas that would distract the eye. There were colored papers all over the driveway and colors all over me as a breeze kicked up right in the middle of everything and I chased wet papers all over the yard. Now I have a big stack of gorgeous paper to further embellish. Here you see one piece after the initial step and 2 I've started doodling on. I want to create really complex and interesting background papers so I will doodle, use webbing spray, gold leaf and crayons to add more pattern and texture. More to follow in future posts.

Fuchsia Lilies

Don't be afraid of strong colors!! Even if you generally shy away from intense, saturated colors like this fuchsia, they are fun to experiment with. Both of these cards are based on a scan of a lily drawing rendered in Prismacolor pencils. I intensified the color a little in Adobe to really pump them up. The card on the left uses the yellow in the flower center for its color scheme. I hit my paper stash and starting stacking textures and color for high impact. Notice the marble paper? That is another lily drawing that was "liquidfied" in Adobe. It's a quick way to make marbled papers in exactly the color scheme you need. The second card plays off the purple/fuchsia tones and adds black accents. Its darker feel accents the lily in a much different way from the lighter, brighter orange version. Both of these cards were quick and fun little color studies and think of the smiles they will bring when the recipient pulls them out of the envelope.

Realistic Kaleidoscopes

In a previous post you saw some great kaleidoscopes made with Kaleidoscope Kreator ( www.vvprints.com ). This quick and easy software allows you to take photos and artwork and create amazing kaleidoscopes. In many of the earlier examples, the colors and fractured images made it hard to tell what the original art looked like. Above are examples taken from drawings and clipart that are easily recognized but still so cool! The spider is my favorite but the mouths, women and skull are neat too. These black and whites can be colored with markers or pencils to use in your art or manupulated in Adobe to create a new color- like the blue mouths. Use this software to really extend your personal images and photos for more material to use in your art.

Warm Colors on a Gray Day

It's a cold gray day and I long for the warm sun and hot colors. This is the corner of a mood board based on the color wheel. It was so much fun collecting papers, ephemera and doodads to express the character of each color. I love having the board in my studio for inspiration and to spark ideas when I'm in a creative funk.

Using Photos in Collage

If you are a scrapbooker, the photos are the main focus of your compositions. If you want to use your photos in artwork and still have them as the focal point, you need to do more than just paste them on the page. On the top example, a photo was color enhanced in Adobe and then torn and pasted to printed paper. Then, a heart shape was cut. The photo is integrated into the piece and adds interest without looking like a snapshot. The moonflower at the bottom was cut out to eliminate a distracting background, edged with blue pigment ink and a clipart image added to the center. The purple flowers were cropped to concentrate on the flowers and then a large stamp was used over the edge. This stamped element integrates the photo into the work.

In the bottom example, the red poppies were changed in Hue/Saturation to better fit the color scheme. Close cropping and torn edges focus on the flowers and soften the rectangular shape. Black rub-ons and stamping used across the boundaries of the image bring it into the composition instead of allowing it to float on top. Additional paper and inchies (1"x1" pieces of art) continue the color scheme and exotic feel of the technicolor poppies.

Use your photos like art by changing the color in a computer program or handcoloring over the image with markers or paint. Then, use them in innovative ways as your own personal imagery. Your work becomes more meaningful and much more original.

Doodle Mania

We all do it- stuck on the phone with a pen in your hand you start doodling. I'm a spiral and square in square doodler and I bet you have a certain motif you repeat too. Harness that accidental creativity for your artwork. I like to do something art related everyday but sometimes I'm just too tired to care. That's when I get a stack of paper and my Sharpie and doodle while I watch TV. I try to fill a whole page with a pattern but creating a more realistic composition is fine too. Stop thinking so consiously and just start putting marks down. Once I have a good collection, I scan them into Adobe. There I can change the scale, color, etc. and print the patterns many times. They make great backgrounds when painted with transparent acrylics. Cut them in strips and glue to a base for a great patterned paper. The top illustration here shows doodles that were cut into pattern pieces for the turkey wing then painted with acrylics. Additional painted tissue and gold leaf were added to create texture. In some places, the doodles barely show, but they give the whole piece continuity and interest. You don't have to be an artist to make doodles and they can become a great personal vocabulary of images for your artwork.

GIRLY ATCs

I am addicted to ATCs- Artist Trading Cards. They are cool little pieces of art that must fit in a 2.5" by 3.5" format. I don't trade them - just make big batches to use on cards and in collages. These 5 share a really girly, frou-frou look with their pink and blue colors and dressmaker details. The pink parrots are a closeup of a kaleidocope (KaleidoscopeKreator) printed on fabric. Using the shape created by the kaleidoscope, it was easy to add beaded embellishments. The next three are fabric scraps from a crazy quilt experiment. I have no problem cutting up projects that weren't successful! I isolate small parts that work and incorporate them into another piece. A little artistic recycling! These scraps include embroidery (one of my designs for my company Embroidery Studio), several fabrics and a lingerie scrap. More recycling- when you "outgrow" pretty lingerie, see if you can reclaim lace or trims to use elsewhere. These crazy quilt scraps were sewn to a paper ATC card then embellished with pretty rhinestones and ribbon flowers. The final ATC includes a scrap of yet another recycled collage and 3 pretty trims. Don't toss those tiny little snippets of trim and lace. They make great embellishments for these little art cards.

Today in the Garden

It's late Spring in the garden. Daffodils and tulips are gone here in NC. The summer perennials are up and growing- especially with this little heat wave we've had. Right now, the garden belongs to the columbines, irises and this gorgeous white viburnum. Saw the first hummingbird of the season last week.

Postage Stamps- Tiny Masterpieces

I love using postage stamps in my collages. Each one is a tiny masterpiece with beautiful colors and elegant design. Use a special one, like the elephant stamp to suggest a theme for your design. The mushroom stamp suggested a great color scheme. Whistler's Mother with her austere demeanor was lightened up with the tongue-in-cheek pink pig. The elegant outfit on the angel stamp suggested the red and gold colors and theme for the ATC. On the blue and green ATC, postage created a beautiful background.

Many stamps are sold in batches by theme or country. Use the best ones for focal points in a piece. Since they are so small, layering to several different pieces of paper is an easy way to increase the size and importance of the stamp. The quirky ones, like the pink pig, can add a little humor and irreverance to your work. Finally, all of the basic nondescript ones make great backgrounds. Glue them down randomly or in rows. Most stamps here in the US are self stick now so they are like great little stickers- fun and easy to use.

Integrating Clipart

Even though I can draw my own images, I love using clipart! Many clipart collections are old book illustrations or advertisements. Before the camera, artists created detailed and often exquisite drawings to inform readers or attract potential buyers. Dover has a vast collection of copyright free clipart and it's easy to find images on nearly every subject. You can use these images in black and white or color them with pencils or watercolor. Two of these pieces are colored with pencils. Only the faces and special details were highlighted but they can be completely colored too. It's like a coloring book for adults. You can also alter images in your computer to create colored images from the b&w art. Sepia looks antique but consider blue, red and purple too. Color changes the mood of the image and allows you to integrate it into your art. I like to work with an image and create several colorways and sizes then print them to add to my collage stash. Printing on colored or patterned paper give new options too.

On these four pieces several methods were used to bring the clipart into the composition. The top two are both colored to work with the background colors. The face on the left has a dramatic placement in the composition and her sultry gaze draws the viewer right in. The bottom examples were used in black and white to pop off the intensely colored backgrounds. Detailed black rub-ons were added to repeat the feeling of the fine lines in the clipart.

CRAZY colors!

Ever stuck for a new and innovative color scheme? Let Adobe Photoshop do the work for you! The original photo and natural colors are in the top left corner. By adjusting Hue/Saturation you get a whole array of new colors. These experiments can be tweaked by adjusting the Saturation slider bar for subtle colors or a blast of neon. Take an image with these color changes and put it thru filters like Solarize for even more possibilities. You can take one image and create a whole portfolio of possiblities to inspire a new piece of art.

New Art from Old

Sometimes I will finish a piece and no matter
what I do, I'm just not happy with it. Even
when I put it aside and revisit it 6 months later, it doesn't work. Many of my collages are very complicated with lots of different techniques in the background or time consuming hand sewing and beading. It's hard to throw them away. So, I just cut them up! I'll isolate areas that will make good ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) or cut strips for new backgrounds or rip off the focal parts. The actual "whacking up" part is very freeing. The old, unsuccessful art is gone and fun possibilities exist with all the new pieces. These 4 collages all include parts from a much larger piece. I did it for a specific project and when it wasn't accepted, I didn't care to be reminded of that. On these 4 new pieces you can see the background fragments in the turquoise and
blue parts. The original piece was on deckle edged watercolor paper and I used those edges in the fragments. The little sampler in the bottom right example is also recycled. I used every piece of the original "reject" and had fun making a lot of new art. So, if you have some bad art hanging around in your studio, just put it on your papercutter and make something new and beautiful!

http://www.vvprints.com Great site and they sell Kaleidoscope Kreator software.
http://www.joggles.com Cool mixed media supplies and a wide range of online classes
http://www.stampington.com Publishers of Somerset Magazine and it's many sister publications. They are real leader sin the field of mixed media and paper arts.

Photoshop FUN!

I have lots of garden photos that I use in my garden journals. Most are very generic since I'm recording the plants for my records, not doing an "art" photo. This photo of black grass is a good example. Even with this so-so image look at the cool stuff you can do in Adobe Photoshop! I really love Hue/Saturation and Solarize. I have over 20 versions of this photo- all totally different! As you can see, you don't have to be able to draw to create killer designs for your artwork.