More Fun With Fungus!

After my exploration of collage and drawing a pair of Rosy Bonnet mushrooms on Monday, I decided to try an ink doodle with Micron pens:

Next, I made a stencil of the mushroom from my pencil drawing. I wanted to use it in my Gelli-plate printing.

I decided to make a stencil of each shape with card stock and a plastic material (it is made for creating quilt patterns but I thought it might work):

Both worked for these fungus prints but I liked the results with the card stock the best. It was less slippery on the Gelli-plate and left less lines around the stencil on the prints:

It was fun trying both positive and negative shapes on deli paper and vellum paper:

I can even use the leftover card stock stencil in my art journal…

But that is fun with fungus for another day!

I hope I inspired you to explore mixed media in a subject you enjoy.

Cheers! 🙂

Pattern and Color Play

Sometimes I make art for classes that are just for practice but I dislike wasting good art paper.

Yesterday, I decided to add pattern and color to two of such papers.

My first experiment were repetitive triangle shapes on 90 lb hot press paper.  I added more pattern and color with water soluble crayons and then softened them with water:

Next, I mixed a tiny bit of transparent orange acrylic paint with matte medium and brushed it onto my paper.  I added more pattern on top with a plastic tool by Plaid.

My second experiment was adding to shapes I had done with sumi ink and water soluble crayons to create a feeling of rhythm.  I added additional pattern and color similar to my first experiment.

I mixed a tiny bit of transparent red with matte medium but got a little too much red so I softened it with more matte medium for the second half on the left.

I used the end of my acrylic brush to make marks into the wet paint on this one.

Orignally, I was going to use both papers for collage material but I’m not sure I will cut up the first one!  I like it too much.  It reminds me of sailboats and summer.

I encourage you to experiment with pattern and color play over some artwork you’d like to repurpose.  You may surprise yourself!

Cheers! 🙂

Textures In Nature

I’m a little behind… well, actually A LOT behind with Carla Sonheim’s 365 daily art class but rather than stress about it, I just do an assignment when I can.

Yesterday, I did this one when I was at the lake with ink pen.  Our assignment was to draw textures around us so I chose nature.

I added a little watercolor to spice things up a bit:

Did you notice the dead mosquito?  There seemed to be PLENTY of them this weekend…

Cheers! 🙂

Abstract Landscapes In Watercolor

Do you remember the loose landscapes I recently did in acrylics?  Well, I decided to try them in watercolor.

However, I wanted to give myself some new criteria to challenge my brain!  🙂

I decided to first create imaginary abstract landscapes with torn magazines and then paint them in watercolor.  I thought it would also be good practice in mixing similar colors with paint.  And to add another challenge, I decided to try adding texture to my watercolors with some of these items:

Here are my results, can you find the bubble wrap in the one below?

I like the simplicity of this one:

I realized afterwards that I needed less water and more paint to get closer to my color values.  Sometimes it is hard to remember that watercolor dries lighter!

I used several different textures in the above piece.  An egg carton to dip into the greenish-blue paint which made a great stamp!  An old dish rag for the purple mountain shape and the textured paper to create the bumps in the light green shape.

I think I like my last one best:

I used toilet paper to blot the green mountain shape.  Table salt on the black.  And the end of my paint brush to create lines in the purple shape.

I really enjoyed this exercise I created for myself!  Starting with collage first helped me to create shapes, colors and patterns that I would not have done on my own.

Here is a photo of a landscape at the lake.  I encourage you to give it a try!

Wishing you a sunny Sunday!  🙂

Colors and Textures, Oh My!

I was really attracted to the colors on the buildings in Oaxaca, Mexico.  I discovered interesting color combinations and found the colors did not have to match.

I did a loose interpretation of the buildings in collage, watercolor, color pencils and ink pen that I thought you might enjoy seeing:

And I loved the texture of this old door:

This one I did today with Neocolors, watercolor, color pencil and ink pen:

I hope you enjoyed my experiments.  I’d love to know what you think!

Have a color filled Friday!  🙂

Very Viridian

I was needing a little “Spring” in my step yesterday so I purchased a new color of watercolor that I didn’t have – Viridian from Winsor and Newton.

According to Wikipedia, the name “viridian” comes from the Latin word viridis which means “green!”  It is a deep blue-green color with a hue toward green.

I enjoyed playing with my new watercolor by splashing some paint around on 140 lb hot press paper:

I layered crumbled deli paper on top to give it this texture.

After this layer dried, I added some Opera Rose pink and Prussian blue on top:

I’m really loving the texture of the deli paper.  It gives a little different texture than plastic wrap.

So I had to try it again – this time with several colors:

I love the earthy organic texture on this one.

I also tried one with salt on top of the wet watercolor:

I’m hoping to use these watercolor experiments as papers in my collages.

Happy Creating!  🙂