Painting and gluing things together are my stronger artistic skills. Drawing is not my forte. The real truth is that I don't practice drawing enough. My students always get the "practice, practice, practice" lecture from me but I'm laughing at myself because its more "do as I say, not as I do." Hey, anything goes in art nowadays but you can always improve your skills 5 minutes everyday.
624 Tiny Things to Draw by Chronicle Books is a fun way to practice your drawing skills. Grab a pencil, pen, colored pencils and/or markers and let the fun begin. Colored pencils are my choice because I draw and night, before bed, and the colors make me happy. If you do one drawing a day, you'd have two years of drawings! Now, draw two a day and you still have an entire year of practice. I recommend this book for everyone young through young in spirit. Click the book picture below to see it on Amazon and read more information. Here is a Halloween zine I made in 2005. It was about little fun Halloween craft projects to spark your imagination. Thanks for looking! Since I'm working after 9pm, i can't run down to the copy store. I will use my scanner and Photoshop CC to get my childhood art into my computer. Believe me, its much easier to just blow up the painting on a copy machine! My artwork is longer than my scanner bed, so I scanned it in two sections.
Next post will be the fabrics chosen for this piece inspired by a child's artwork. Thank you for stopping by!
While going through old photos and things in my parents house, I came across a Halloween watercolor and crayon painting I created when I was small. The second I saw it I was inspired to make a table runner for the spooky season. The child's painted art piece measures 7" x 17.75". I will use these numbers to figure out a larger size for my fabric. I want the finished piece, with a binding, to measure 40" long. Time to do math. You probably figure sizes out differently than I do. This works best for my way of thinking.
Figuring out the finished size:
For my birthday last week, one of my dear friends sent a gift wrapped in pink flamingo paper. Seeing this reminded me of Pink Floyd, Utah's Chilean pink flamingo. Floyd escaped from Tracy Aviary in 1988 and found a new home at one of our bird refuges out at the Great Salt Lake. The lake is teeming with brine shrimp and Floyd had it all to himself. Although I never saw him in person, I would get so excited at every sighting of him on the local news or newspaper. We haven't heard about him in a long time but his memories stir up ideas of freedom and living life on your own terms. I miss you Floyd, you make me very happy. In honor of Floyd, I designed these artist trading cards. This all happened simply because of the wrapping paper. To find the most intact and least damaged images, I smoothed out the wrapping paper the best I could. I love the imperfections in the paper. I feel they add character to the ATC. The wrinkles add a story and interest to the piece. I used my artist trade card template from Salt Lake Laser Etch to fussy cut out the flamingos. Here are the four good ones I could get. I adhered the paper to the bristol board with double-sided tape. I know, I know but it was the only adhesive I had at the time. Strathmore 105901 Bristol Smooth Artist Trading Cards, 2.5 by 3.5-Inch, 20-Pack Pigment rubber stamp ink and cotton swabs were used to apply color to the card edges. Here are the colored cards. For finishing touches I used rub-ons, sparkly stickers and rubber stamps for added embellishments. I'm very happy with the results and I'm going to look at wrapping paper again for creative ideas.
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AuthorHello and welcome to SYNAPOP! I am a mixed media artist and maker. That means I use whatever is needed to create my art. My focus is determined by what is going on in life...so one day it will be glass shards sculpted with wire, weaving with shoelaces and silk scraps, or manipulating digital photographs. I love being creative and talking about it! It was so very nice to meet you, please visit here again. Archives
May 2020
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