Art...

Friday, March 20, 2020

A Post for Fellow Lovers of Cats

In loving memory of a gentle and loving spirit ...

You can tell I didn't use my T-square to create this journal page, but even if there are a couple of images with unwelcome tilt, I prize it for its sentimental value.

Of the 5 silhouette-poses of felines in my 6"X 6" Cats Stencil , 4 are based on photos I had taken, years ago, of my late and dear companion, Kitty...

My daughter and our Kitty 1991

It's been several years now since Kitty made that crossing over that "Rainbow Bridge." I still get teary when I see images of her. But I see this pang of sorrow as a tribute to the love that my daughter and I shared with her. It was deep and lasting.

Below is a collage made from my Cats Stencil (6"x 6") .... First, I enlarged some of the shapes on my PC. Then I cut out and used those enlargements to trace their shapes on assorted papers (some of which were translucent so as to show whatever lies beneath them.)

Cats Stencil (6"x 6") itself looks like this:

Much more recently, I designed an ATC sheet of stencils that measures 9" x 12" before being cut into ATC sizes. This is it--

ATC Mixup Swatton # 1

As you can see, this sheet gives you three cat shapes both as stencils and as masks. The cats are very similar to the ones in Cats Stencil (6"x 6") -- but they are not identical, nor is any of them the same size as what's included in Cats Stencil.

Two final art samples for today:

Thank you for stopping by! To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Sun Sprints Re-Visited -- and Improved Upon by Artist Jennifer Armstrong!

Artist Jennifer Armstrong has blown me away with her cyanotype (sun print) technique -- she not only uses stencils to make cyanotypes, as I've posted about in the past, but she tops the usual technique by taking two steps beyond the norm: She adds (1) drops of water and (2) sprinkles of turmeric spice to the light-sensitive photo paper before adding the stencil and exposing it to light.

Here is a fantastic result she achieved using my 6" x 6" stencil Pressed Leaves --

To see more of Jennifer's way-beyond gorgeous artwork, check her out on Instagram -- @jennitoga Thank you, Jennifer, for allowing me to show your artwork here today!

Want to know more? To check out the start-to-finish traditional way of creating sun prints, please check here.

To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.

Saturday, March 14, 2020

ATC MIXUP GINKGO and Its Inspiration, My GINKGO 6" x 6" Stencil

ATC Mixup Swatton # 1 (9" x 12")

ATC Mixup Swatton # 2 (9" x 12")

My recently-released ATC Mixup Swatton# 1 and ATC Mixup Swatton #2 (each 9" x 12" and each containing 9 stencils, some with bonus masks) included a design titled Ginkgo. You can see it above, in the middle row, far right. Inspired by my original 6"X 6" Ginkgo stencil --

6"X 6" Ginkgo stencil

-- yet, different in its size and in its composition, the ATC version has found its way into many of my recent art adventures....

Printed with brown acrylic paint on Chinese Joss Paper

Printed with red heavy-body acrylic paint on glossy black cardstock

Printed with acrylic paint on multi-color metallic giftwrap

Printed with red and gold metallic acrylic paints on black cardstock that I'd first brayered with metallic silver acrylic paint

Printed with gold metallic acrylic paint on black cardstock that I'd first brayered with metallic silver acrylic paint

Printed with red heavy-body acrylic paint on glossy black cardstock; then I outlined the shapes with glitter glue from Ranger Industries.

Printed with red heavy-body acrylic paint on glossy black cardstock; then, working thru the stencil, I added glass gel medium.

Soon I'll be using my original 6"X 6" Ginkgo stencil with the ATC Ginkgo stencil. It'll be fun to see their prints mingling in an art project!

Meanwhile, today's post finishes with my sharing a creative, clever way the 6" x 6" original was used by encaustic artist Linda Robertson.

Click on Linda's name above to see this artwork ... and notice that she also used another two StencilGirl stencils -- Lizzie Mayne's Tribal Hand and Terri Stegmiller's Waves 6.

Thanks for visiting here today! To follow this blog by email, please use that option in the upper right sidebar.

To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

3D Effects -- Both Real and Implied

Texture is one of several ways of achieving depth in artwork. It can be actual texture; or texture can be simply implied by coaxing the viewer's eye to "see" a raised surface when in fact there is none.

In a very similar way, there is visual flatness and its contrast of visual depth. In the example below, a basic kind of visual depth emerged when I used one of my new ATC-sized masks, Ski Lift Works (from ATC Mixup Swatton #1), to make three prints, one atop the other. The first print is barely visible, having been covered in two acrylic paints, red and silver. That silver print initially appeared as "foreground" because the first, mostly obscured, print was under it. But it lost foreground status, and became middle ground, when the final black print was made over it. This, in a very simple way, illustrates how layering creates an illusion of visual depth.

Swan, another of my just-released ATC-sized stencils (from ATC Mixup Swatton #2), was used to make the below print on the photo-page of an old calendar. The photographer perfectly captured the foggy background; and, in contrast, my stenciled print has crisp edges. This contrast clues the viewer's eye to see the majority of the scene as background, while the silhouetted swan is visual foreground. So the overall image below has visual depth.

Something in the same vein happens when interference acrylic paints are used with a stencil or mask on a background that's black or dark in color. Below is a print made with my ATC-sized stencil Unfurling Leaves, (from ATC Mixup Swatton #1). My photo can't fully capture the light-play quality of interference paint, but, regardless, an illusion of depth remains visible; the eye doesn't perceive the leaves and their background as both being on the same plane. Instead, there is an illusion of the leaves being lighted from behind.

It may be helpful to click on the image below, to enlarge it, to better see the subtle way shadows and highlights create the illusion of depth as well as raised areas. The background paper is completely flat, and the Swan-printed blue foil paper is nearly flat, yet has a slightly embossed surface. Both sets of shadows and highlights work together to keep the surface from appearing flat.

Moving forward to actual (as opposed to implied) 3-dimensional depth:

The ATC above, created with Sprigs from ATC Mixup Swatton #2, was developed as I spread light modeling paste thru this mask; then, after it dried, I tinted the surface with with pale green watercolor and rubbed darker green paint across its raised areas.

The greeting card cover below offers an example of simple layering to create actual 3-dimensional depth. The base is a pre-crumpled sheet of red plastic (a gift from my thoughtful daughter who found it among novelty papers in an art supply store.) Over that I've glued a print made with Fern Fronds Silhouette, an ATC-sized mask (ATC Mixup Swatton #2); and I added a final embellishment of an embossed Dresden foil decoration. (These are available at AmazonSmile and from several Etsy vendors. They aren't self-adhesive but gluesticks work fine with them.)

Today's final image is similar in that its depth was created thru the
layering of physical objects:

I used Sprigs from ATC Mixup Swatton #2 to make the blue-red-yellow print on a readymade tag. Two papers, one silver and one gold, form layers under the tag. Dimension is added thru the addition of another Dresden foil embellishment, as well as the ribbons that I tied thru the hole at the top of the tag.

Below is an especially deep 3-dimensional card, created with Ski Lift Works from ATC Mixup Swatton #1. My first step in creating it w as to paint an ATC-sized thick cardboard with a coat of orange acrylic paint. After that had dried, I painted on a layer of green acrylic paint -- and scratched in a design while that layer was still wet. This scratching revealed some of the orange underneath. After giving the green coat time to dry, I spread crackle paste thru Ski Lift Works. I waited for the crackle paste to dry, then went over the entire surface with a mixture of soft gloss gel and phalto green Golden High Flow acrylic. You can click on the photo below to get a better view of the crackles and the orange-green-streaked green background --

The newly released 9" x 12" ATCs--

ATC Mixup Swatton # 1 (9" x 12")

ATC Mixup Swatton #2 (9" x 12")

Each 9" x 12" sheet contains 9 stencils (some with bonus masks); many of these ATC-sized art tools are derived from larger stencils and masks I've designed. These include Ski Lift Works, Cats, Fantasia, Hot Air Balloons, Penguin Family, Sprigs, Ornamental Iron Curls, Thistles, Mikki's Flowers, Ginkgo, Fern Fronds Silhouette and Osprey Wings. Altho derived from my larger stencils, they differ not only in size but also in additional ways. However, there's enough similarity so that the ATC-sized stencils and masks work beautifully in combination with the original larger sized stencils and masks.

To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.

Thanks for coming to see my blog today! To follow it by email, please use that option in the upper right sidebar.

Sunday, March 8, 2020

9" x 12" Sturdy Mylar Sheets of ATC-Sized Stencils -- with Bonus Masks -- Shown with their Inspirations & More Art Samples

Today's post starts with art samples created using ATC Mixup Swatton #1 and ATC Mixup Swatton # 2 stencil-and-mask sets, each 9" x 12" in size (before you cut them into ATC-sizes.) Most of these ATC-sized masks and stencils were inspired by earlier stencils sized 6" x 6" or 9" x 12" -- so, after the art samples, I'll show both ATC stencils as well as each "inspirational" stencil or mask.