May ATC Challenge - Tea Party

I'm running really behind in posting on my blog. Between my computer acting up, my granddaughter getting her first illness (which was scary with the heart defect - she is fine now!), going out of town, and just life in general, time has gotten away from me!

At any rate, May's ATC Challenge, hosted by Blue Twig Studio,  was Tea Party. I made two cards. The first was a collage.

Can You Lend Your Ear? ATC Card, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2". Collage on multimedia paper.

I layered the background with Dylusions Spray Inks through a couple of stencils. Then I added a photo of a tea cup with a fairy peeking around a column under the moonlight that I cut from a fantasy magazine, adding steam to the cup with a micron pen. Finally, I added a piece of Washi tape with a teapot that says, "I'm just very lucky. Can you lend your ear for a while?" 

The second ATC card was from a favorite nursery rhyme:

I'm a Little Teapot. ATC Card, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", Watercolor pencils on multimedia paper.

I found a free clip art with a picture of this vintage teapot. I drew and painted it using Derwent watercolor pencils.  I'm a Little Teapot was one of my favorite nursery rhymes as a child. I taped two 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" cards together with Washi tape featuring music. I painted the background blue with Derwent watercolor pencils and wrote out the I'm a Little Teapot nursery rhyme. The "I'm a Little Teapot" ATC card opens up like a tiny book, featuring the nursery rhyme inside.

Inside of "I'm a Little Teapot" ATC card.

The ATC Challenge is taking a break for a couple of months. I will let you know when it restarts! 

Keep creating!

Lynnita

Blue Twig Studio - March Product Review and Projects

Deco-Art Media - black gesso, transparent crackle
glaze, white crackle paste, and white modeling paste

I had fun with the products from Blue Twig Studio for March. As a design team member, I review various products and create a project(s) with them.  The products I'm reviewing this month are:

• Andy Skinner mixed media stencils - 
• 6"x6" "Have Your Say" alphabet stencil 



Andy Skinner Stencils - 6'x6" alphabet and 12"x3" tread

• 12" x 3" Tread Carefully 
•  Deco Art Media
• Black Gesso
• Transparent Crackle Glaze
• White Crackle Paste
• White Modeling Paste
• My own products added to create projects
• Matte medium
• Acrylic paint
• Dylusions Ink Sprays:
• Paper ephemera (magazines, music)
• Tim Holtz Distress Paints
• Luninarte Silks Acrylic Glazes
• Palette knife
• Stencil brush

Projects:  I created two pieces of art using these products. I started both on 8" x 10" canvas boards.

Collage Project:  

 I layered various pictures from magazines, music, and words in a
pleasing arrangement and glued them down using matte medium.  

 Next, I spritzed the board with yellows, pinks and purple Dylusion Ink sprays.

I spread the white modeling paste through the tread stencil 

with a palette knife to various areas of the collage.

I painted the dried white modeling paste with blue, maroon, and gold Luminarte Silk Acrylic Glazes.  I chose the Silk glazes, as they have a sparkle to them when dry. I added a light purple acrylic paint to the white crackle paste and spread that with the palette knife through the alphabet stencil.

Finally, after the paint and crackle paste had dried, I added the transparent crackle glaze over the eye, flowers in the vase, and cheetah heads. Unfortunately, in the photo, the crackle effect from both the purple crackle paste and the transparent crackle glaze do not show up. However, the transparent crackle glaze adds a wonderful sparkle to the collage.


Stenciled ZIA Project:

Initially, I covered the canvas board with the black gesso and let it dry. Next I spritzed copper, gold, blue, and lime green Dylusion Ink sprays using papers to mark off broad lines to spray.

Next, I painted various metallic acrylic paints and a few Tim Holtz distress stains in blue, copper, pink and purple through the Tread Carefully stencil with a stencil brush diagonally across the stripes. I painted a 2nd Tread Carefully diagonal in light blue, fern green, and pinks in the opposite direction.  

Next, I spread the white modeling paste with a palette knife through various 6" x 6" stencils that reminded me of Zentangle tangle patterns. Note: the lime green Dylusions ink bled through the white modeling paste even though it had cured for 24 hours.

Finally, I painted the modeling paste with white acrylic paint where the lime green Dylusion ink had bled through.  Unfortunately, in the photo, the Dylusion ink stripes do not show up very well through the modeling paste like they actually appear. I decided this project was complete, as it reminded me of a Zentangle, but done with stencils, paint, and modeling paste!

Product Review:  

       I enjoyed working with this month's products. The stencils are fun and will be used frequently. I can see the Tread Carefully, not only as a tread, but as animal skin, dragon skin, stones, landscape, and so on. The Alphabet stencil will come in handy for many mixed-media projects.

       Black gesso will be wonderful for making colors pop or to just do something different than using white gesso for a base. 

       The modeling paste spreads very easily with a palette knife through the stencils - even in small openings. It dries semi-transparent, as I could read some of the letters and music after it had dried in the collage project. However, I did find that the lime green Dylusions ink bled completely through the modeling paste in the ZIA project. A bit of the yellow Dylusion ink bled through the modeling paste in the collage paste, but not as dramatically as the lime green bled. None of the other Dylusions ink colors bled at all.

       The white crackle paste worked wonderfully. It mixed easily with paint, so color can be added to the paste. It spread easily with the palette knife through the stencil. Although, once I added paint, it bled a bit under some of the thinner lines in the stencil. I was able to remove the paste with a small paintbrush or toothpick where it had bled under the stencil in many cases.

       The transparent crackle glaze adds a nice sparkle. It is self-leveling, so it does not work under stencils. I tried it with the Tread Carefully stencil and it spread terribly, so I scraped it off with the palette knife before it dried. Therefore, only use the transparent crackle glaze on open areas. Also, I used a toothpick to pop any bubbles. One comment: it was hard to see if I had the areas I wanted covered coated evenly. I wasn't able to tell until it had dried. I did not try to add another layer in thinner areas. 

Thank you for joining me this month. The projects can be seen at Blue Twig Studio in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I hope you will consider trying some of these products. 

Keep creating.

Lynnita

 

March ATC Challenge - Fairy Tales

It's been a couple hectic weeks. I'm running behind in posting again! Someday, I'm going to figure out how to help my daughter and son-in-law with their special needs daughter, taking her to several doctor's appointments, babysitting my other grandchildren, posting photos of all the grandchildren for our Ohio family on facebook, continue creating artwork and quilts, while finding time to post on my blog!! I'm not sure how young mothers do it all!!  I was doing fine until our special granddaughter was born prematurely. Since then, I've been struggling to post at all, let alone in a timely manner! Lol!!

Today, my goal is to get a few posts completed that I should have posted in the last couple of weeks. First is Blue Twig Studio's ATC Challenge for March, which was Fairy Tales.  I have loved fairy tales since I was a child. Two of my favorite books as a child were Grimm's Fairy Tales and a book of tall tales and fables that my parents gave me for Christmas when I was 8 years old. I still treasure those books. I've been a science fiction and fantasy reader ever since!

The first card I created was "Elfin Maiden". I used Dylusions Ink Spray through a flower stencil on watercolor paper. After it dried, I blocked in a face with white paint. I used Derwent watercolor pencils to create the face and outlined details with a 0.1 black Sakura Micron Pen. The face was created with inspiration from Jane Davenport's book: Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces.

Elfin Maiden, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", watercolor and inks on 140lb watercolor paper 

I love dragons and collect dragon figurines. The past year (if you've followed my blog), I worked through the exercises from a book on drawing dragons by J. "Neon Dragon" Peffer. This ATC card, The Reading Dragon, was inspired from one of her books. I painted the background with acrylics. After sketching in the dragon, I painted him with Derwent watercolor pencils and acrylics. I outlined with a 0.2 black Sakura micron pen.

The Reading Dragon, 3 1/2" x 2 1/2", acrylics and watercolor on Bristol paper.

The final card is a prancing unicorn. My daughter told me I needed to make a unicorn, when I had been thinking about Red Riding Hood. The unicorn won out! With help from a book on fantasy creatures by J. "Neon Dragon" Peffer, Dragonart: How to Draw Fantastic Dragons and Fantasy Creatures, I created this proud unicorn.  I sketched in the unicorn and painted him with acrylics and Derwent watercolor pencils. I outlined him with a 0.2 black Sakura micron pen. I used watercolors to fill in the background.

Prancing Unicorn, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", watercolor and Sakura pen on Bristol paper.

I enjoyed this month's ATC challenge! I hope you join the group next month! You only need to make one ATC card. They are only 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" in size, so it doesn't take a huge commitment to create this size artwork. It's fun, challenging, a great time to experiment. And you might win!!

Whatever you decide, have fun with your artwork and experiment!


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Blue Twig Studio - Feb Product Review

I'm running a bit late with February's product review for Blue Twig Studio as my granddaughter was born a month premature and spent 3 weeks in the neonatal ICU, I had hand surgery on my dominant hand to remove a ganglion cyst, and then I needed IV fluids for severe dehydration due the worst case of flu I have ever had. It was a long month. Our granddaughter is now home from the hospital and doing well. She will require open heart surgery when she is 4-6 months old to repair a congenital heart defect. I am feeling much better and my hand has healed for the most part - at least I can use it again!

I finally finished my review and project for five different black pens and a sketchbook.

The pens include:

Various black pens on mixed-media paper.

•  a black Sakura 02 micron pen (0.30mm nib) - an archival writing and design pen; acid-free; fine-line for papercrafts, journals, illustration, manga art and crafts; comes in 6 nib sizes and 15 colors.
• a black Faber Castell Pitt artist pen (0.60mm nib) - black India ink; waterproof; permanent; acid-free; archival; for sketching, journals, cartooning, fine-ink drawings; perfect for mixed-media; ideal for traveling. 
• a black Sakura 05 Microperm pen (0.45mm nib) - permanent on most surfaces; water and fade resistant; alcohol based cleaners may remove ink; do not launder; test prior to final application; low odor. 
• a black Uni-ball Signo 207 Impact gel pen (1.0mm nib) - contoured rubber grip; uni-super InkTM to help prevent against check and document fraud; thick, vibrant lines to make a bold statement; refillable, quick-drying, fade- and water-resistant gel pen. 
• a black fine point Sharpie pen.(1.00mm nib) - a permanent marker that marks on most surfaces; is quick-drying, fade-and water-resistant; no bleed and smear resistant.

Bleed-thru of pens on mixed-media paper.

The photo above shows the five pens written on mixed-media paper with a tangle pattern that used a heavy black fill. All the pens wrote well. The Sakura micron and the Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen both have a nice, fine black mark. This is nice for writing, illustrating and fine lines for Zentangles or ZIAs (Zentangle-Inspired Art). The Sakura Microperm pen is actually darker than the Uni-ball Signo Impact gel pen, although it has a smaller nib size. The Sharpie fine-point pen having the boldest, blackest line of all the pens. It has the same nib size as the Uni-ball Signo Impact 207 gel pen.

The Sakura Microperm pen and the Sharpie
fine-point pen both show significant bleed-thru on mixed-media paper.  The tangle patterns for both the Faber Castell Pitt artist pen and Uni-ball Signo Impact 207 gel pen can be seen in the photo on the reverse side of the paper, but the actual paper does not show bleed-thru.

Crescent RENDЯ 
3.5" x 5.5" sketchbook.   

The sketchbook:
I reviewed a Crescent RENDЯ 3.5" x 5.5" sketchbook. It has acid- and lignin-free, white heavy-weight, 110 lb paper consisting of 32 sheets or 64 pages, with a regular binding. The sketchbook claims media won't bleed though pages, that the pages will lay flat, and it can be used with all media, including spray paint, markers, pastels, pencil (or charcoal), watercolors, and ink. Note: Limited show-through may occur over time with heavy application of Xylene markers. This sketchbook is made in the USA.

I first created several pages in black and white, using the five pens included in the review. I am happy to report that not one of the black pens show any sign of bleed-thru. I was able to work on both sides of the pages for my art journaling. After creating the artwork with the various pens, I went back and added color using various media to test the claims of the sketchbook. None of the media I used bled-thru the pages, although some of the watercolors, spray paints, and pastels managed to run over the edges of the sheets onto other sheets, as I was very enthusiastic in my application of the various media. Following is the artwork I created in the sketchbook to date.

Title page using Sakura micron pen.

Title page after adding watercolors. I also added gel 
pens in various colors over the letters in "Journal". 
The page curled initially after getting wet from the 
watercolors, but eventually dried flat.

Quote using the Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen. Zingers and feather done with Sakura micron pen.

Added Tim Holtz Distress Stain in spiced marmalade through a TCW Mini
Daisy Cluster 6" stencil. Added red ink with a Sakura Moonlight gel pen. 

Zentangle Garden using Sakura micron, Faber-Castell Pitt artist, and
Sakura Microperm pens and shaded with charcoal.

Derwent watercolor pencils were used to add color to the Zentangle Garden.

Zentangle stripes using Sakura micron, Sakura Micropern, and Uni-ball Signo Impact pens.

Prismacolor Nupastel color blocks used to add a rainbow of color between
 the Zentangle stripes. Sealed with Krylon Workable Fixatif 1306.

Dragon and quote created with Sharpie fine-point and Sakura Microperm pens.

Tim Holtz Distress Stain in aged mahogany applied to TCW Mini Navaho 6" stencil over the quote. Background, horns, beak, and eyes of dragon painted with Derwent watercolor pencils. Dragon wings and scales painted with blackberry Facetten-Lack Croco Crackling Colour. Unfortunately, only a few spots on the body were thick enough to show the crackling effect. The rest was painted too thin for the paint to crackle.  

Griffin Momma and babies. Momma griffin created with Uni-ball
Signo Impact gel pen and babies created with Sakura micron pen.

Griffins painted with Prismacolor Premiere markers and Tombow markers. 
Tombow marker blender used to help blend the various shades of markers. 
Background painted with Derwent watercolor pencils.

Sisters created with Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen.

Background spray-painted in layers with Dylusions Ink Spray in London blue, lemon zest, and pure sunshine, and Perfect Pearls Mists in perfect copper.  TCW Mini Swirly Garden and TCW Mini Wedding Ring stencils were used.  The faces were painted with titanium white acrylic paint and various shades of Derwent watercolor pencils. The hair was created from a clothing catalog and adhered using matte medium.

I enjoyed all the products this month. A variety of black pens is essential for artwork, as drawings, Zentangles, illustrations, quotes, mixed-media, and so forth, all require a mixture of line widths and a shades of black. The Crescent RENDЯ sketchbook was a joy to work with using a variety of media. I felt it met the claims it made - I had no bleed-thru using any of the black pens or the various media I added to my artwork. The pages laid flat, so I could easily work across two pages.  Note:  I did not use gesso on any of these pages prior to creating any of the above drawings, as I did not want it to add any strength to the paper in order to test the claims made by the company.

The only comment I have would be to watch the amount of water (or alcohol) added to the page, as too much can make the pages start to roughen. Although, I scrubbed a few spots and still had no bleed-thru and could still paint these spots. Also, the more liquid added to the pages, the more they curl. However, the pages became almost flat once dry. If they need to be completely flat, the sketchbook can be pressed between two heavy items to finish flattening any curled pages.

I would definitely use a Crescent RENDЯ sketchbook for any art journal needs. The 3.5" x 5.5" size is perfect for traveling. It fits in my purse nicely, along with the pens, to enable me to create anywhere. A larger size would be nice for working out of at home.

Keep creating!
Lynnita