T Stands for Self Portraits

Teague and I visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts last weekend. We saw Rockwell's iconic self-portrait. Notice the glass on the wicker chair which holds the mirror. Paint water or a beverage? You decide.

Besides Rockwell's art there was also a special exhibit going. What Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine. Alfred E. Newman Triple Self-Portrait, 2002, Richard Williams. From the museum description of the painting: An admirer of Norman Rockwell and the chief appropriator of his work for MAD, Richard Williams put a twist on Triple Self-Portrait, the artist's 1960 cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post and My Adventures As An Illustrator, his autobiography, Alfred E. Newman takes Rockwell's seat at the easel..."

Can you spot the things that are the same and the things that are different?

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Colorful Trees By The Moon

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Gelli Arts ® - 3 ways of printing with leaves by Birgit Koopsen

Whatcha Doin?

 

Last week, I signed up for an online watercolor class through Willow Wolfe. (at a ridiculous low price of $14) While I wait for some supplies I bought from Jerry's Artarama, I'll look over the introductory lessons.

Whatcha doin?

The Fleur-de-lis Project

The second Enders Island Sacred Art project, Fleur-de-lis, Fun with Acanthus Leaves was another challenging project. We began by tracing the fleur-de-lis designed by Dan Mooney. The lily was gilded with flat and raised gilding which was also tooled. The center of the crossbar was supposed to have a Swarovski crystal, but I didn't realize that and gilded a raised dot.

Painting the intricate leaves trying to get lights, darks, twisting, and movement was going to cause me agita. I mixed colors right out of the tube. Winsor Red and Winsor Prussian Blue. I really liked the Prussian Blue color. The project took us two days to complete.

All our Fleur-de-lis.

Enders Journal - Tuesday 9/19

 

Tuesday started with a glorious sunrise after Monday's drenching rains. Gunther, the seagull, was on his perch at the top of the steeple as I went down to my little beach. There was a herd of egrets and a blue heron. I've never seen them on the island before.

Enders is known for their dahlias. I was surprised they were in bloom as I though they were an August flower and would have passed. At breakfast one of the deacons told us, they had a rare and very expensive black dahlia. After lunch, we went on a quest to look for it, but couldn't find it.

I chose a light blue and teal color combination to paint the acanthus leaves around the hummingbird. The color scheme was very beachy, and I received a lot of compliments on it. A two cowboy hat day.

Whatcha Doin?

I am re-doing the last project we did in class with Dan.  I didn't finish it. We didn't have a lot of time to complete this project on the last day.  I work slowly, and I had a hard time floating the Instacoll in the center of the "O" designed by Dan. The letter was 2 1/2 in. square and larger than anything I've gilded. I found the edges were drying before I had the center filled. 

Instacoll is to be applied in a thick-ish layer, but in my haste I had added too much. The paper buckled and the goop pooled at the bottom of the letter. Instacoll takes 45 minutes to dry before you can apply whatever metal is being used. 

The surface of the Instacoll had dried, but underneath was still wet. When I went to tool the gold with the thin, cross-hatched lines, the gold tore revealing the Instacoll. 

Though I called this an epic fail, it really wasn't. I mixed the delicious blue-black background using red, yellow, and blue watercolor.  I learned how the materials reacted. How much time is needed for things to dry. How much time I need to work. All valuable lessons.

Dan told me I could try to salvage the piece by thinning some Instacoll with water, applying it again to the center, let it thoroughly dry, and lay another layer of gold. 

I think I'll add some lettering and re-do the project.

Whatcha doin?

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week. 

1. I'm back on Enders Island for another Sacred Art workshop, Fun with Acanthus Leaves

2. I've spent each morning at my little beach doing QiGong exercises. (I hope)

3. I'll be taking class from Dan Mooney, a member of the guild I belong to, Masscribes. I've never had the opportunity to take a class with Dan, but he's a lovely person and so talented. Class should be lots of fun.

4. Did I mention the fabulous food? I hope Fruits of the Forest Pie is served for dessert.

5. Since I'm writing this blog post a few weeks ahead of time, I wonder if the Holy Gully (Gunther as he's called) is still sitting on top of the steeple?

How was your week? 

Three Different Ways to Print With Bubbles

Bubble printing is messing fun. You can use colored inks, tempera paints, acrylic paints, or food coloring. If you are doing this activity with children, I suggest you use food coloring. Just in case they inhale instead of exhale, the solution will taste nasty, but won't kill them.

For all three methods you will need: shallow containers (I used yogurt containers. One for each color), water, dish soap, and your colorant (paint, ink, food coloring) and plastic drinking straws. One for each color. If more than one person is playing, each person gets their own set of straws. Watercolor or Mixed Media paper. You may also want to cover your work surface with newspaper or plastic trash bag.

If you are doing this activity with children, use a pin to punch a hole or two halfway up the straw. Hopefully, this will prevent any liquid getting to the mouth end of the straw if inhaled instead of exhaled. Again, food coloring would work best for the kidlets.

In each cup mix a tablespoon of soap with a couple of tablespoons of color. I didn't measure anything just eyeballed.

Add a half cup of water to each cup. You may need more water, soap, and colors depending how big your containers are.

Method 1: Printing with the Foam

Gently blow bubbles into the cup. Try not to blow the bubbles too far over the rim. Gently press your paper onto the bubbles. The bubbles will leave an imprint.

Your mileage may vary, but I used acrylic paint and found the color didn't really come up into the foam.

 I had to add a lot more color. I suspect the paint was too heavy for the solution.

Many years ago, I had better luck using colored ink or food coloring.

Method 2: Printing with a Single Bubble

If you hold the straw upright in the bubble/paint solution and then put your finger over the top of the straw, capillary action will draw a bit of the solution into the straw. Move your straw over the paper and release you finger. A drop of liquid will fall on the paper. You can also use a cleaned out eye or medicine dropper or pipette. You just need a little drop.

Insert the straw into the drop and blow gently. You should get a bubble.

When the bubble pops, it will leave an impression behind.

Method 3: Star Burst Effect

If you hold the straw upright in the bubble/paint solution and then put your finger over the top of the straw, capillary action will draw a bit of the solution into the straw. Move your straw over the paper and release you finger. A drop of liquid will fall on the paper. You can also use a cleaned out eye or medicine dropper or pipette. You just need a little drop.

This time instead of blowing across the drop, place your straw over the drop. You may need to stand up. Then give a quick puff. The color should scatter in a star burst or fireworks effect.

You can use your creations as collage fodder or as a background.

Happy, Little, Time Wasters

 

Blending Trees with Their Background Using a Paint Brush

Whatcha Doin?

Some practical practice making tags using techniques learned in the Holiday Flourishes class. Tags cut from Canson watercolor paper using the Scan n Cut machine. Dr. Ph Martin Black Star Waterproof India ink, Nikko G Nib, Prang watercolor, Bleed Proof White, Stickles Crystal, Micron Pigma pen

Whatcha doin?

Get Well Card

A simple greeting card. Layered cardstock in shades of purple the recipients favorite color. Dandelion puffs painted with Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors.

Informal cursive script written with a Nikko G nib and Moon Palace Sumi ink

Whatcha Doin?

 

Vincent and I are making a get well card.

Whatcha doin?

Rainbow Burst with 5 to 7 Year Olds

 

After I returned home from teaching Flying High, the fish kites I taught to 5-7 year olds at the Worcester Art Museum, I received this plea in the afternoon:

Any chance you want to come back tomorrow morning, 10am to 12noon, and teach “Rainbow Burst”?

Painting with a focus on color – you know 5 year olds and paint – like anything goes😊

So I replied: Sure. Why not? What could possibly go wrong? 😀

The lesson plan I was sent involved having the students mix acrylic paints and using glazing medium. 5 year olds? I don't think so. 

A few hours after pulling a lesson out of my as hat, I gathered my supplies. Since I didn't know what was in the supply closet, I brought some paper plates. The kids could trace a circle and with watercolors and using primary colors, we would paint a color wheel.

I had a tear drop prism necklace and Himself gave me a flashlight so the kids could take turns and make rainbows on the wall.

All my materials were packed into the rainbow pencil tote bag Tiggy had made for me.

A trip to the supply closet before class for the watercolor paints, brushes, pencils, paper and paper to cut down for the kids to paint and then would be made into a tube hat, like a chef's toque.

Another instructor was in the closet gathering her materials. She was like you don't normally teach kid classes, what's up. So I told her about subbing. She asked what I was doing and then suggested after the kids traced their circle and divided it into pie slices for painting, to have them go over the pencil lines with crayon. The crayon would act as a resist and the watercolor wouldn't run together. Brilliant!

A trip into the gallery to see Art in the 20th Century. One little boy was nervous and shy about leaving his mother. She was going to wait with him in the lobby until the class returned. I asked him if he wouldn't like to go into the museum to see the paintings. He nodded that he would so I asked everyone to line up behind T.

"and Lizard", he said, holding up a green, stuffed lizard.

"Everyone! Please line up behind T and Lizard!" and we marched into the museum.

We looked at Andy Warhol's soup can, works by Ellsworth Kelly, and Jackson Pollack before going back to the studio.

The aid and I were so busy in class, I didn't get any pictures of the kidlets artwork.

They knew their colors, knew what primary colors were, and knew primary colors made secondary colors. We had to keep reminding them to swish their brush in water before dipping into another color.

In the middle of mixing orange using red and yellow, one tiny, adorable girl wailed: This is not a lovely shade of orange! Sometimes it's so hard to keep a straight face at what comes out of their tiny mouths.

 She had forgotten to swish her brush and the colors in her palette were muddied. A paper towel to the rescue to wipe the muddy yellow paint and to blot the not lovely shade of orange on her paper. She mixed the colors again and joy and rapture! Whew!

While they were busy painting their hats, I had them take turns shining the light through the prism to make rainbows on the wall. That activity was a big hit. 

Some of the kids were thrilled with wearing their hats. The older ones didn't want to. No worries. So another successful class. I make a helluva Kindergartener.

How To Remove Paint from Skin Without Harsh Chemicals

 

Photo by Rahul Pandit from Pexels

Recently, I was working on a project using spray paint. Of course, I didn't wear gloves while I was painting and ended up with paint on my hands. Mineral spirits would remove the paint from skin, but two things. 1. It's stored in the bowels of the garage where the spiders live and 2. it's harsh on the skin. What other household items could be used? Searching online brought me to fractionated coconut oil and lemon essential oils both of which I had.

Essential oils can not be rubbed directly on the skin as some of the essential oils can burn the skin. They need to be used with some sort of carrier oil. Any oil such as olive oil, almond oil, etc. would work, and any citrus essential oil (orange, lime, grapefruit) would work, too, as the solvent to break down the paint.

First, rub the oil all over your hands. Add 3 drops of lemon or other citrus oil onto your hands and scrub. Use a nailbrush or toothbrush to scrub around the fingernails.  No need to open windows or use in a well ventilated area as there is no stinky, chemical smell, but a pleasant smell of lemons. Voila the paint is gone. Wash your hands with soap and warm water, dry thoroughly, and apply a hand lotion if desired.

Dandelion Puffs

 

I watched a bunch of how to draw and paint dandelion puffs with acrylics. I used Kuretaki Gansai Tambi watercolors and added some calligraphy. On blue cardstock.

Cherry Blossom

 

For a future project, a watercolor cherry blossom tutorial from Sea Lemon. Fun, easy, and very Zen to complete. 

Whatcha Doin?

A couple of weeks ago, Himself and I were working on a joint project going from this

to

these

To this lighthouse to cover the well cap.

Look who's waiting in the window!

The lighthouse at night with the solar light lit. We need a foghorn.

Whatcha doin?

Whatcha Doin?

 Another page in my workshop journal. This workshop was sponsored by Strathmore as part of their workshop series. This workshop, Creative Watercoloring with Leslie Tieu was from 2020. I had downloaded all the instructions, but never got around to playing.

Leslie provided two templates of the word Home to print out and trace. One font was a serifed font the other sans serif. I chose the serifed font.

She had painted some stylized leaves in shades of pinks, browns, yellows. Not really my colors. I decided to paint each letter according to the seasons Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Whatcha doin?

Society of Scribes Workshop - Tulips with a Wedge Brush

 

Using a wedge-shaped or triangle brush, former head White House calligrapher, Pat Blair, demonstrated how to make tulips and leaves. The technique is similar to one stroke floral watercolors. By manipulating the brush, you can create stylized leaves and flowers. I got better results when I didn't try so hard to control the brush, but let the brush just do its thing.

Have you used a wedge brush?