Sunday, September 8, 2013

Learning Lesson: Senior Photos for Kid #2


Fooling around with Kid #2, trying my best to get a senior portrait for him.
I now think another session will be in order.  Need him to relax his face and keep him out of direct sun and then fill in with flash.  We CAN do this.  At least he is a very patient model!

Too much sun.

Pensive

Hoping this session doesn't take too long

Leaning on a fence in the stadium

This one reminds me of an ad of some sort...hopefully not underwear!

My personal favorite although he has that "bad ass" look going for him in this one.

Posing on a rock in front of the high school

Standard issue facing front, with smile

He doesn't look TOO mean in this one!

Too much sun in the eyes?



Saturday, June 1, 2013

Can't. Stop.

Carla Sondheim, this is all your fault.  I kept thinking of how to tweak color combos....and since I had a few more sheets of paper left....well,  I pulled some quick prints.
 Needs more work...that white spot really stands out.
 Almost done.....this one is fun--maybe my favorite from this grouping.
 Like this one...it's almost there....
 The flame effect was from rubbing the brayer up and down in a strip of paint on the plate.

 Another too big white blob right in the middle...but there is hope.  I think.


 Very "blocky"
Not sure where this one is going....a wash, perhaps?  Will need to move to the next level soon....can't keep making more of these (on the other hand...maybe I can....... they are so much fun!
This particular print was a "clean the plate" pull after layers of paint had built up.  Love love love this!

Almost out of hot press paper, so this will come to a stop.  Next stop: embellishment.  Stay tuned....

"Less is More" is hard to do

 Got my "Work work" done so I gave myself permission to play.  It is REALLY HARD to just keep it simple.  That and it is really hard to stop with just a few prints.  Then, the more ink one adds to the plate, the more prints and more layers and then more and more.  (This sure makes me sound like an addict.)

These were from Lesson 1 (of three) of Carla Sondheim's online class.
 Kind of like the color combo here....not loving it, but it still has potential.

 Dark but workable.
 Yuck.  Just yuck.

 Very simple one.  Like it.  "Less is More".  Now, to not ruin it!

 Ghost print...really love this one!  Just one pull, nothing extra added.
 Not sure that the colors show up on this but it was a "wipe off" print that is loaded with lots of subtle color variation.....now....what to DO with it??
 Not at all thrilled with this one--overworked?  Can this print be saved??
 This one has some overworked areas but I think the clear zone in the center kind of keeps it from being overdone....
 Too many strong horizontals....what to do?  What to do?



 What I learned:

**I learned that to do SIMPLE is hard.  I spent some time looking at the design elements on the Marimekko website this morning for ideas on color, contrast and simplicity.

** I learned that I really really like when there is color variation within a pull.  I may be one of those people who really doesn't want to mix colors thoroughly.

** I learned that shadows in photos make me crazy.  I HAVE to learn to take better photos if I'm going to be putting pictures up on a blog....oy.

**I learned that I love online classes.  I can go to school at my leisure, in comfy clothes, at any hour, all from home.  Thank you to Carolyn Dube and Carla Sondheim.

**I learned that adding water to leftover paint on the plate makes cool watercolor effects.  Who knew?! I need to play with this some more.  I got some cool effects but not what I was going for.

**I learned that hot press watercolor paper is an AWESOME substrate.  Can't wait to do some washes and wash-offs.  Can't do that with a less substantial paper.

....NOW....to find some found objects around the house to work on these some more.  But only just a bit.....not too much....how to know when to stop?!






Friday, May 31, 2013

Less is More....

Oh my.

I discovered a new and exciting format for using the gelliplate.  I'm watching the class videos for a short class by artist Carla Sondheim and am trying to get all the stuff that I HAVE to get done this weekend DONE ASAP so that I might have time to play with my Gelli Plate.  Carla is of the "less is more" school and I'm excited to try to adapt.  I tend to be of the "more is more" school.  But overall, I tend to love learning new things, so I can't wait to try to keep my instincts in check.

Art to do is the carrot that dangles at the end of my stick.  The stick that whips me into getting my "real work" done....

Stay tuned....

Sunday, May 12, 2013

My Sympathies....

Too many recent deaths....bits and scraps of Gelli prints from selvages and punched pieces.

A bit of glue.

Some cardstock.

A rubber stamp or two.


Scraps punched and glued












Woven scraps



Groupings of pieces

These are actually really fun cards to make.  What is so great about these Gelli Prints is that there is so much color and flow in the layers of paints and stencils.  Some of the punched pieces were tiny works of art all on their own!


Look at all the pattern/color in these selvage strips (sorry for the shadowed photo).

I keep noticing this purple strip.  It's really a small piece but there is so much pattern in the paint.  
These pieces are all like my kids!

Stay tuned!

Mother's Day Weekend Cardmaking

Our Kid #2, Matt, has had a very frustrating and disappointing track season.  He started off great--set several personal records in his first two meets, in the cold. snow, rain.  They were brutal meets.  I knew that he had a really good season coming up, especially given that he had worked so hard all winter with a local track club.  He was in the best physical shape of his life and poised in his junior year spring to have the track season of his life.  Then something happened.  In his third meet, he ran in the distance medley relay and after running the 800m leg, he was walking around the next day like he was a crippled old man.  We ruled out an inguinal hernia.  After X-Rays, and two rounds of MRIs, we found out last week that he has a stress fracture of his right femur.  It's no wonder he was in pain.  Now he's on crutches and is to put no weight on that leg for 6-8 weeks.

Since Matt has not been running, I have been able to take the time when I would normally be at his meets and use that time to stay caught up at the office.  I also used the time yesterday to work on some cards.  I have been wanting to make some sympathy cards for patients who have recently passed away at the office. You will have to wait til my next post to see those.  (TEASER!!)  I still need to put some wording on the fronts of those cards.

After I completed the greeting cards, I decided to work on the stack of leftover pages that I had mis-cut for my Gelli Print book, and work with those to make note cards.


The top photo is of the cards, closed.  I put in a white sheet of light weight card stock in the inside for writing and the bottom sheet shows the cards, opened.  The bottom center card was printed on an old dictionary page that I had used as a "roll-off" page to clean my brayer!


The middle left card is another dictionary brayer clean-off page. 

The dictionary page cards are really fragile (bottom left).  It is an old science dictionary made of sections that were bought weekly at Krogers when I was in primary school.  Who would ever have thought that it would be torn up and printed on 45 years later?!  

See that card on the bottom right?  That card was printed on a Crate and Barrel bag!

 Bottom left card was printed on brown paper used from a bag from the store!

Look at how different these cards are on the inside compared to what they look like on the outside.  Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but I like the element of surprise.  
I was debating putting a block with a greeting on the front but these have so many layers of pattern and color so I think it would detract from the card design to put something else on the top.  So these will have to be for short notes only.



While the stamp on my cards has changed over the years, I'm now using a little devil by Daniel Torrente/Stampotique.  Then I add my signature with the month/year.

So, my boy who is most like me in his personality is working through his injury.  Taking the time to heal well now will get him running again in time for cross country in the fall.  In the meantime, while I love watching the kids at the meets, I used this unexpected free time to do my very favorite thing in the world.  Happy Mother's Day to me.

Late last night, around 1 am, I went downstairs to show the boys what I had been doing at my art table. Andrew was there, home from Ohio State after his first week of summer work, and chilling with Netflix.  He's learned to pause and look at my cards for my "show and tell".  And he looked with interest and "hmmm"'d where appropriate.  Turning to go back upstairs for bed, I saw the most gorgeous Mother's Day bouquet of cream roses and alstroemeria that he thought to get for me, all on his own.  Life is good.