Gypsy Queen Postcard

Playing with some collage again yesterday, but this time I wanted to do a postcard. This is 4.25" X 6" postcard.

The woman is a Teesha Moore stamp I purchased recently, that I colored with Prisma colored pencils. Background is a Hodge-podge of text pages, stamping, cigar labels, ticket, etc. The border on the left is made by me. Just playing around.

Wordy Butterfly

This evening I was playing around with the idea of drawing or painting a butterfly. But then I was in a collage mood too. So this little guy is a bit of both.

I hand drew the butterfly and colored the body with sharpies and did the black and white around the outside edges. Then I colored the background with watercolor crayons. I cut out the center panels of the butterfly and adhered various text behind them. the text wing on the left is from the poem book I found. The text wing on the right is a stamped page from an old french book I tear at now and then. For a final little touch I added one black and one pink jewel for the eyes. Those didn't scan very well though, but I like the different colored eyes!

Wild Cock & High Seas ATC's

Every now and then I swing my by Flickr account and post something new, or go see what some of my other favorite artists are creating. Tonight, I was a bit surprised to see that my Wild Cock and High Seas ATC's had been added to someones gallery! It's a nice compliment when someone likes your work well enough to add it to their personal gallery. As long as my artwork isn't being copied, or claimed by someone else - I'm flattered.

So here is the Wild Cock ATC. He is done entirely with torn handmade papers, text papers, and a few card stock pieces. The ONLY pen work, is the wee bit of white on the eye and beak. I can't tear paper that small. :) The background is done using acrylic paint on canvas.

High Seas came about rather simply. It's one of those surprise yourself kind of cards. I had made a bunch of watercolor backgrounds with the kids one day and got my pastels out to fiddle with a bit. I was going to just practice making clouds, and then I got the whim to make some waves. Soon I just started playing with the whites, and greys, and next thing I know - I've got rough seas on an ocean blue!!

Both of these cards were ones that I wish I kept for myself. I'm still relatively new to ATC's and I'm learning that it is okay to hold on to the ones you really like. After all, I am the artist!! I should be able to keep what I want right!?! :)

Rhonda The Ram Head Baby

So I am participating in a swap called "Step Right Up! Sideshow Freaks, Geeks, and Punks!" and this is one of my ATC's being offered up in the swap. I decided to make all of the backgrounds for the cards red and white striped like the circus tents of the good ol' days. For this card, I wired a line across the top and strung some red velvet fabric for a curtain. I thought it would be kind of cool since many of the old sideshow acts were hidden behind curtains, and voyeurs would have to pay their 5 cents worth to peak behind the curtain.


You can either flip the curtain up and over the top of the card, or slide it from one side to the other.

To really heighten the affect of the concept of the ram headed baby, I thought it would be good to simply state that little miss ram head Rhonda baby was indeed, BORN NATURALLY!!! muaawwaa hhaahhaa!!

When I posted this in the group thread, the reaction was as I suspected - kegel like clenching of the hoo-hoos and cringing!! LOL

A couple of recent collages

Morning Buzz - This ATC has a couple of image transfers done with acrylic gel medium, hand drawn coffee cup using Prisma Colored Pencils, some vintage text from a french book, and other text were used in the background. I inked around the edges with distressed inks.

The inspiration for this ATC came from the cigar label at the bottom of the card that was gifted to me in a trade from a lady who found a bunch of cigar labels at a flee market. Oh how I wish we had flee markets up here in Alaska - The treasures you can find. It has the word Java on it and I liked the chocolatey color of the label.

Jersey Girl- had a piece of dictionary text that was gifted to me in a swap, and I noticed it had this cow on it. Before I knew it, I've got the elements for a Country Fair Prize winning Dairy Cow!!

I like the little stamped fairy dancer lady reaching for the jug of milk! I used an image transfer of the hand pointing to the blue ribbon. And painted a little chipboard frame that was also gifted to me in a trade.

Red Head

So here is a quick sketch I did goofing the other morning while waiting for the family to wake up. Done in Prisma colored pencils, pen & ink, and graphite pencils.

There is really way more contrast in her facial tones, lots of greens and purples, but for some reason, both the scanner and the camera seemed to wash out the color. Oh well, she was still fun to draw. This took about 15 minutes.

The Happy Warrior

Not long ago, I was stopping by some local thrift stores in search of books I could use in my collages. I found this one old book, titled, "Best Loved Poems" I got for 50 cents! And I'll be honest, I have never been big into poetry, not my thing for the most part. BUT, there are some awesome poems in this book and I am finding it difficult to tear the pages out and use them in my art.

I love combining found images and finding ways to tie them together. In this case, I used a rubber stamp of the sun, an old cigar label that someone sent me, various pages of text from the peotry book, some vellum, and got the naked dude walking up and down the ramp from one of my old art text books. Add a little gesso, and acrylic paint, some inking around the edges, and little gem on one of the suns eyes. and Wal-la You have today's ATC!!

Waiting For One Perfect Kiss

Well it took fiddling with about four ATCs before I came up with one tonight that I truly liked. I think with collages, I need to get a few under my belt to get warmed up and in the zone before I start to turn out anything noteworthy. But this one I like the end results.

I actually had something else over this collaged and painted background, but it just wasn't working for me. So, being the artist that I am, I ripped it all off unti I got back down to the basic layer of collage and paint. one thing I liked upon doing this, is the outline of the heart and the light blue area midway down that was revealed under the silloette of the form that was there prior to my ripping things apart. You probably wouldn't notice, but there is a faint outline around the blue area of a womans hat and shoulder to the left.

Then, I was scanning through some magazines [Thank you Amber] and found this eyeball and woman and thought I would attempt, ONE MORE TIME, doing an image transfer using packaging tape. Normally, when I do an image transfer, I apply a gloss gel medium to the image, let it dry, then soak it in water and rub the paper off the back to reveal the image. But everytime I try to do the packaging tape image transfers, even after burnishing the dickens out of it, I never seem to get the image transfered. But alas!!! I have mastered it - at least this time. lol I think the trick is to make sure the surface for which I burnish the image is REALLY hard. In this case, I did it on the cement floor in the garage [my new art cave]. and it worked like a charm!!! I should note, that this was also the first time I did an image transfer directly from a magazine.

So once I got the image, the rest came together in minutes. I added the text, coated the whole piece with gel medium to seal it, then wrapped red string around it for a new dimention. I kinda like it!!! I might play with string more often. Lots of possibilities!!!
So there you have it - today's master piece!

Longing To Be Free

Today I was playing with layers - lots and lots of them! I started out trying to do a Monoprint over collage, but I got impatient [for those who know me, that is nothing new] and ended up tearing one of the heart sections. Which you can't see now because it got covered with the large butterfly wing. Though I do like the effect the pealing away of masking tape created over the woman's face. Torn, and tattered and yet trapped in her heart frame no way to escape.

So I added more layers of Gesso, gel medium, cut a moth in two, and fiddled a wee bit more. I thought I was done, until I realized that I didn't have any stamped images on the card and my whole reason for starting it was to use it for another swap I'm in titled "Layered Collage with Stamping". SO at the last minute I found one of the smallest stamps I had and inked it in red on white sketch paper, and snuck it in the corner. Can you see it?

What I like about this piece, is the fact that some of the collage layers underneath are still visible through all the acrylic paint, Gesso, etc. Can you find the heart and the 70's smiley face???

For those who may be interested in what a Monoprint is.... You mask off an area of your paper, card, or whatever, using masking tape. Cut out the tape however you want. I did hearts for this ATC. Then find an acetate sheet to paint on. I used one that came with my sheet of inkadinkadoo stamps. The acrylic paint washes off with water when you're done. Paint your colors/design directly onto the acetate then lay your piece of paper on top. using a roller, press along the back of the paper [or inthis case, collage] until you think you have it coated enough. Then peal the two pieces apart. Let it dry, then peal away the masking tape and you can see the images underneath.

I will do another one soon to show how to correctly do it. I will try my best not to get impatient.

My Funny Valentine

I'm using this for a 'Collage Layers with Rubber Stamping Swap' I'm in. It's kind of hard to see, but next to the cute little red haired girl is a stamped image of a clown.
Materials used: assorted text pieces, gesso, Lyre aquacolor crayons, gel medium, acrylic paint, fine tip markers, mini frame, gel pens, heart stamp and I think that might be all. Basically - there are a ton of layers!

Three Little Birds

So I think I was tapping into Bob Marley's spirit tonight. LOL Let me explain....

I was listening to his song "Three Little Birds" when I was playing around with how to layer the parts of this ATC. As I was arranging the composition, I realised that the text in the background is a dictionary page with the definition for the word yolk - the yellow part of the egg! That cracked me up [no pun intended] that here are these three little birds waking up in the morning, and while they are thinking of their precious little birdie eggs, so are we humans - only as breakfast!! LOL

Part of the lyrics go:

Don't worry about a thing,

cause every little thing, gonna be all right."

OMG - That is soooo perfect. And the fact that the background tones are primarily yellow and one of the verses are:

Rise up this mornin',

smiled with the risin' sun,

three little birds, pitch by my door step.

Singing sweet songs...

Well, you get the idea.... It may not be my best card ever, but I sure love how it came about and had fun making it!! Which for me, it's all about playing anyway!!

A couple more Hatcher Pass pictures from one of my favorite trails.

Only about 110 days until summer!!! Yippy!!

For whatever reason this morning, I woke up thinking about my favorite place to hang out in the neighborhood! Call it cabin fever, but I would give up an appendage if I could go for a hike or go berry picking up at Hatcher Pass today! This is one of my most favorite places in the world. It's so peaceful and serene there. Right now it is covered with many feet of snow. Maybe I'll try to go skiing there this weekend??? hum???? I think I'll have some of my spiced blueberry jam or crowberry jam I made from the berries I picked up there this past fall. Time for breakfast!

Garden Gate

So this one was done quickly, as I was trying to get it finished for today's Project 365 entry. I needed a break from the collages I've been doing lately, so I decided to play with the pastels tonight. This is ATC size. For those who don't know what that means. An ATC is 2.5" X 3.5" - the size of a baseball card. I have only been doing these ATC's since the end of Sept. 2009 but am immensely addicted to them. I do plan to start working a little bigger again too and start creating postcards and get busy with my art journal. Today I picked up some good art journal reference books that I think I will go peruse through now.

Davinci's Dream Girl

I made this card for a trade with Robbygirl at atcsforall.com. She made this really cool ATC called, "Voice Of The People" that has a mini chalk board on it. I can't wait to see it in person.

The true colors didn't come out right in the photo. The piece is actually not Brown as it appears, but rather, an antique bronze. I was too tired to fiddle with the camera settings anymore, and I couldn't scan it because there is too much depth with all the watch parts.

All in all, it was fun tweaking Miss Mona again and I like the final result. Hope Robbygirl does too.

Techniques used: Card stock inked and smeared with gel medium mixed with antique bronze pigment for the background. metal wire mesh layer under Mona. watch parts around her eye [I really like the effect], in her hands, and on the side. top border is fabric loop braid that I colored with the antique bronze pigment and gel medium. Mona and steam punk hat are collage images I had.

Two Heads Are Better Than One

In this case, I would have to agree that two heads are better than one! Here is another of my daughters compositions she put together with my on hand supplies. I had planned on using the frame and the faces in two completely different works of art, but when I saw what she was doing with them - I had to go along with it!!

What I love most about this piece is that the frame is thick, therefore, raising it up off the background. Then the faces are sort of just floating on the edges of the frame, which gives it a really cool 3D effect. The scan doesn't do this ATC [artist trading card] justice as far as illustrating the dimension to the piece.

The only parts I helped with was the glueing and the inking around the edges. The composition is all my daughter. Did I mention she is only 6 years old!?! That's my girl!!!!

Pretty Bird - A Collaboration Piece

My dearest daughter, who is only 6 years old mind you, was playing around with some of the cut out pieces from magazines and images I had left over from a recent Collage-A-Thon (CAT) at atcsforall.com when she made this woman and bird. I was in the process of cleaning up my art table when I looked over at what she created and was in AAWWWW!! I quickly said, "DON'T MOVE IT!!"

I grabbed a piece of cream colored cardstock and inked it with two different colors of distressed inks. She added a red inked 'swirly heart stamp' from inkadinkado to add to the upper left corner. I glued everything in place for her. She picked out the gellies circles [I'm sure there is a proper name for the circle things but I don't know what it is] Lastly, we inked the border and I drew the thin black line around the inner border and outlined in black the butterfly pendent body of the woman. I also used white and yellow gel pens to outline the bird sitting on her shoulder.
The best part is, this entire collaboration between my daughter and I took all of maybe 10 minutes - TOPS!!! Even her daddy was impressed.

BTW - while I was glueing this lady on the card for her, she already collaged 2 other pieces! That's my GIRL!!!

This is also my first card for 'Project 365' at Naked Heart Art.

Well apparently it is time for me to join the world of blogging. Be kind - as I am a blog virgin, but a quick learner. I've been in to artistic endevors for most of my life; from painting, mosaics, sculpture, drawing, pastels, and charcoal. My work varies from realistic to whimsical, to whatever floats my boat that day. Now it would seem I am going global with my artwork. I love all mediums and like to experiement with new techniques and styles and stretch my palette to the outer limits. Sometimes the results are note worthy and other times it is simply colorful chaos. Either way, I have fun. I do appreciate honest critisism about my artwork. I find it helps me grow and develop my techniques as an artist. That said, I can dish it out as well as I can take it. I'll try not to be too snarky!