Happy New Year!

I hope 2023 will be a good year for us all!

I’d like to start your first Wednesday of the new year with a smile 😃

May this weird bird inspire YOU to be your BEST!

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers!

Mask It!

I tried a new technique on the Gelli-Plate last week that I learned from Carla Sonheim.  You can find out more about my mask series here, Making Masks!

I did this technique on a 5 x 7 inch Gelli-Plate using Golden Fluid Acrylic paint.

I created my pattern by folding a piece of copy paper in half and cutting the paper with scissors.  I laid it directly on the Gelli-Plate without applying paint first.  I have always put paint on the Gelli-Plate before my pattern so this was a new concept for me.

Next, I placed about a quarter-sized dab of paint directly on top of my pattern used a brayer to spread the paint evenly over my design.  Note:  The copy paper pattern ripped when I applied paint on the top of it so I learned to use thicker paper such as cardstock to mask it for future projects.

After I let the paint completely dry in about 10 minutes, I removed the paper pattern carefully from my Gelli-Plate.

Next, I added a contrasting color of acrylic paint directly on my printing plate with the brayer and and placed a 9 x 12 inch sheet of Fabriano hot press, 90 lb paper on top, pressing over the paper with a clean brayer on the back of my paper.

Important step:  Let paper rest until the paint dries for an additional 10 minutes.

After the paint dried, I pulled my print slowly from the Gelli-Plate:

I decorated my print with Posca paint pens, Uniball Signo white pen and a black Micron pen.

I’m not sure that I’m done decorating this one, but I thought you may enjoy seeing it.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my process.  I made other masks with this technique that I hope to share with you soon.

Cheers! 🙂

Fish Doodle – Done

Perhaps you remember this fish doodle that I started recently?  If not, you can find it here:   Paint Pen Fish Doodle

I have been working on it a little each evening and I am finally done!

I am really please how it turned out!  What do you think?

I reminds me of Koi fish swimming in a pond.  I love watching fish swim almost as much as I like drawing doodles! 😉

Cheers to a relaxing weekend! 🙂

Fishing – Part 2

I wanted to share my process and tools I used to “catch” my fish from yesterday!

I started by selecting a background and decided to use this hot-press watercolor paper that I had painted with acrylics.  I like the variegated colors:

I folded the paper into a simple journal and painted both sides so I have six different squares in a variety of background colors:

I cut simple shapes from my gelli-printed paper and glued them to the paper with Liquitex Matte Medium:

At this point, they look more like fall leaves than fish!  So I added details with an Uni-ball Signo white gel pen and black micron pen:

Next, I added more details with Uni Posca paint pens – I just LOVE these opaque water based markers!! ❤️  I recently purchase a set of 15 colors with a medium tip from Amazon.  They come in different sized tips and are sold in sets on Amazon or individually from Dick Blick (another item to add to that wish list!!)

I finished my page by adding some Prismacolor pencils – the Posca paint pens drew on top of color pencil too:

I predict I will be drawing more fish into my creative net with these Posca paint markers!  I love that they are odorless, fade proof and bleed proof and can be used on almost any surface!

Have you ever experimented with these markers?  I hope you share it with me!

Happy Fishing!  🙂

 

Fishing

I remember fishing with my family as a young child.  When we went in my dad’s boat on the lake, we would sit for hours (or so it seemed) without the fish taking a bite… talk about BORING!!  🙄

When I was a teenager, we started creek fishing which was much more EXCITING!  😃  We could actually SEE the fish swimming in the creek water.  And we caught fish!  Hooray!!  I recall how wonderful they tasted knowing I caught them! 👍

Two of my sweet friends from Germany and I are going on our own CREATIVE, fishing expedition starting September 1st and you are welcome to join us if you’d like!  🐡

My goal is to create 50 mixed media fish and post mainly on Instagram.  However, a fish or two may swim onto a blog post! 😮

I started experimenting with materials and here is a fish appetizer for you:

I will show you my fish finding tools on Friday.  I hope you join me!

Cheers!  🙂