Collaged Girl- An experimentation in extreme mixed media (well for me that is)

This is one of the experiments I tried while at Saturday afternoon art with Cindi and Leslie. I want to get better at mixed media work. Someday's my efforts are better than others. This one ended up turning out particularly well compared to how it started out.

First I started out with an interesting size/shape sheet of watercolor paper. I then put all kinds of scrap paper designs on the paper. My goal was at this point was experimenting with getting more texture so I have tons of different textured paper on this project. Then I used water color crayons on the exposed water color paper (simply because I couldn't resist trying those materials for the first time). I then used acrylic paint in shades of blue, purple, green, brown and white and smeared them around randomly. (I used a blow dryer in between coats because patience is a virtue I'm always trying to work on but never quite get there.) Oh, I also used a textured clear paint that is basically like adding sand to your picture. I wanted to put an image on the picture but I tend to stay away from actual images of people because I tend to stink at them. Leslie showed me how she goes about making a face and this art work shows my attempt following her instructions. Way better than I usually do. I added vintage music paper strips for the hair and circles for the dress.

Overall I am pretty pleased with this experiment with art materials. I pushed myself to try new things and the outcome is pretty darn good. Things I learned; make sure to use permanent ink for stamping which I thought I was but turned out not to be when I attempted to mod podge over the finished product. Also I'm not 100% sure if I adore the flowers on the hair but I did this part at home and my materials were more limited. Any thoughts?

Collage: Mail Art Continued

I finished my community art class about 1 week ago. Below are some updates on other techniques I learned in the class. And things I have continued to make using these techniques.

This was my favorite photogram. It's hard to see but it goes with my bird schema I've been creating lately. It was just a flat paper image of a bird cut out and the background on the paper looked a little veiny. It looks perfect in person and I'm planning on framing it or doing something to showcase it in the future.

Darkroom day! These are already made postcards with the appropriate marks on the back side. You just lay objects down for about 4 seconds in full exposed light, process and there you have it. This was very easy and fun but requires darkroom access. This is called a photogram.

We learned to make decorative envelopes from scratch and how to jazz up a plain store bought envelope. You can find patterns for envelopes on the internet or create your own. *A key is to use glue tape! Works wonders and completely sticks together without wrinkles, having to wait for anything to dry, and totally not messy!

This is using watercolor paints and a sponge, plus stamping, embossing and transferring.

I decided to hand make all of my Christmas cards this year.

Homemade Cards

I'm currently taking a 6 week community art class through Genesee Center for the Arts & Education. Check out their site: http://www.geneseearts.org/ The class I'm taking is

Collage: Mail Art. It's a blast! I'm learning new creative transfer techniques, get to explore with no grades or stress involved and I'm meeting new people. What could be better!

I received the tools I need to create transfers on my own for my birthday. This is all you need to do a pretty good transfer.

-tape

-scissors

-fresh black and white or colored images/words printed from a laser printer (not an

inkjet!) and (remember if you use anything with words you need to reverse the image before printing or your words will transfer backwards). **Best transfers are images printed within 1-2 days of when you will be using them.

-bone folder or something to burnish with (like a coin)

-"blender pen"- this brand works the best- Chartpak Blender Marker P-O. Not found at craft stores. Here we have The Art Store and Hyatt Art Materials or you can find it on amazon but the shipping is expensive. About 4.50 for the marker itself.

I found these great packages of blank cards with envelopes; all different shapes, colors and sizes for $1 for a pack of 8! I've decided for Christmas gifts I'm going to use these for gifts and bundle each set with a pretty ribbon. Right now they are just the transfer image. I'm still taking the class and I'm going to be learning some stamping and other neat techniques that I may later add to the cards. Also, I'm still working on some of the images and might do some over laying of words or other images on some. Check out the beginning of my collection sets. :)

The Vintage Collection

The Landscape Collection

The Inspiration Collection