Showing posts with label Paint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paint. Show all posts

Friday 26 June 2015

Art It Friday - Show Your Face

Hey Amazing Facers, it is Friday and time to #ShowYourFace!

For anyone new here this is a regular place to come and inspire, be inspired, but above all to share our portrait progress week by week. Every Friday at 10 am (BST) a new Show Your Face blog post goes live with the linky to add your blog post or online gallery picture to with any portrait work you have been doing. 

Your face can be drawn, doodled, painted, stitched, be made using any materials and can be any style, all I ask is that it is your artwork. If you use templates, stencils or stamps to build the face anatomy, then they should be ones you have made yourself and not someone else's. 

Finished pieces, works in progress or retro posts (i.e. older works, not from this week) are all welcome, so come join in and spread the word on your blog/social media outlets. Use hashtag #ShowYourFace if you like! 


Did any of you guys take up the 50% offer with Craftsy last week? If you did I hope you are enjoying the course.

This week I'm back to doodling again. I'm having a major clear up of my workspace and I just grabbed what I had to hand, an old monoprint and a white ink dropper.

Doodling faces with an ink dropper

'Ok,' I thought, 'let's see if I can make some faces with that. Yeah pretty doodly! But hey still fun.

So what have you been up to with your face this week?

I'm loving the addition of some animal faces in the share. If you missed them then check out Arnoldo L. Romero from A.L. Romero Art and Design with his link from last week and Jeanet from Creating A Fairly Fabulous Life from a couple of weeks ago.


Over To You... 

Link your faces artwork and spread the word on your blog and/or social media, hashtag #ShowYourFace for those of you that use them.

Catch you later Face-Artinators

Kim

PS. Some other places you might want to link your work to: Art journal pages link up with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Art Journal Everyday post. Paint work link it up at Paint Party Friday.

Kim Dellow Blog post signature

 

Friday 12 June 2015

Art It Friday - Show Your Face

Ahh Friday, you are here again. Which means so is #ShowYourFace. Wahoo! Hope you facers have been busy!

For anyone new here this is a regular place to come and inspire, be inspired, but above all to share our portrait progress week by week. Every Friday at 10 am (BST) a new Show Your Face blog post goes live with the linky to add your blog post or online gallery picture to with any portrait work you have been doing.   

Your face can be drawn, doodled, painted, stitched, be made using any materials and can be any style, all I ask is that it is your artwork. If you use templates, stencils or stamps to build the face anatomy then they should be ones you have made yourself and not someone else's.   

Finished pieces, works in progress or retro posts (i.e. older works, not from this week) are all welcome, so come join in and spread the word on your blog/ social media outlets. Use hashtag #ShowYourFace if you like! 


As is now tradition I will kick off this week's face sharing with something I tried this week. It's a quick and fun exercise that you might like to try too. I gave myself the challenge to doodle a selection of faces, the only rule was to make each one different from the ones before.

Doodled faces in my art journal

I took a page in my art journal and used small watercolour washes to section off the page. Then I grabbed some ballpoint pens of all colours and doodled away.

Close up of the doodled faces

It is amazing how it doesn't take many lines to form a recognisable face does it?

If you fancy having a go at this little challenge to yourself then go ahead and let me know how it goes! I would love to see.

This would make a great warm up exercise don't you think? I shall definitely being do more of these, I can already see a couple of faces that I might work up into bigger studies for fun.

Right, so...

Over To You...

Link your faces artwork and spread the word on your blog and/or social media, hashtag #ShowYourFace for those of you that use them.

Catch you later Face-Artinators!

Kim

ps. Some other places you might want to link your work to: Art journal pages link up with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Art Journal Everyday post. Paint work link it up at Paint Party Friday. For items using something Old, New and Digital then go link it up on the Old, New and Digital Too challenge.




Friday 5 June 2015

Art It Friday - Show Your Face

Hey Facers, how has your week been? I hope you have managed to snuck some creativity into your days this week? Are you ready with your face?


For anyone new here this is a regular place to come and inspire, be inspired, but above all to share our portrait progress week by week. Every Friday at 10 am (BST) a new Show Your Face blog post goes live with the linky to add your blog post or online gallery picture to with any portrait work you have been doing.  

Your face can be drawn, doodled, painted, stitched, be made using any materials and can be any style, all I ask is that it is your artwork. If you use templates, stencils or stamps to build the face anatomy then they should be ones you have made yourself and not someone else's.  

Finished pieces, works in progress or retro posts (i.e. older works, not from this week) are all welcome, so come join in and spread the word on your blog/ social media outlets. Use hashtag #ShowYourFace if you like!


I'm going to kick off this week's face share with a painted art journal page. I have several art journals on the go. I use old event flyers, which I've mentioned before here on my blog, as my junk art journals and places to experiment in and I often have a load on the go at once so that I can chop and change whilst I wait for a layer to dry.

Ok, this is turning into a long story, but the upshot is I was messing about in my journals yesterday afternoon, knowing that I still needed to do this week's face but not really getting inspired, when this happened.

Art Journal page, stage one background

Can you see the face? Squint your eyes a bit...I already had the dark layers and the 3D-letters on this page from a previous day's work and I added some white with a bit of buff with an old credit card and suddenly I could see a face in the shadows.

Seeing the face in the background

You can see it too, right? I mean it isn't just me is it? *Oh dear she is seeing faces everywhere*.

So I sketched the face in with pencil, perhaps not exactly how I first saw it but it would do!


Then I went over the outline in Raw Umber.

By the way the paints I am using today are a mix of things from Liquitex basic and artist to Daler-Rowney System 3 and some Golden on the background. For the texture I used the DecoArt Media White Modelling Paste through a letter stencil from a stationery shop.


Ok so now you can see the face?

Blocking in the face with paint

As I started blocking in the outline I have to confess I bottled it a bit. I started with the dark tones, as I think might be customary, but I am sort of making this up as I go along. Then I lost my nerve and did light and dark at the same time.

Finished art journal page with a man's face

Which is why I think he might be a little overworked. But hey, he looks like a face, I learnt a lot painting him and I managed to get him done in time to post for today's #ShowYourFace, so that is a RESULT in my book!

You guys know what is comes next, don't you?

Over To You... 

Link your faces artwork and spread the word on your blog and/or social media, hashtag #ShowYourFace for those of you that use them.

Catch you later Face-Artinators!

Kim

ps. Some other places you might want to link your work to: Art journal pages link up with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Art Journal Everyday post. Paint work link it up at Paint Party Friday. For items using something Old, New and Digital then go link it up on the Old, New and Digital Too challenge.





Friday 29 May 2015

Art It Friday - Show Your Face

Would you believe it? It is Friday again and that means... it is Show Your Face Time! I know! I can't believe it either.

For anyone new here this is a regular place to come and inspire, be inspired, but above all to share our portrait progress week by week. Every Friday at 10 am (BST) a new Show Your Face blog post goes live with the linky to add your blog post or online gallery picture to with any portrait work you have been doing. 

Your face can be drawn, doodled, painted, stitched, be made using any materials and can be any style, all I ask is that it is your artwork. If you use templates, stencils or stamps to build the face anatomy then they should be ones you have made yourself and not someone else's. 

Finished pieces or works in progress are all welcome so come join in and spread the word on your blog/ social media outlets.


I shall kick off the share this week with a work in progress, it is an unfinished journaling page using acrylic and watercolours.

Work in progress art journal page

But the face was done as a sketch with pencil on Layout Paper.

Pencil sketch of a face on layout paper

Layout paper is great, it isn't quite tissue paper and it isn't quite copy paper but somewhere in between. It is an artist quality thin paper, 45 gsm (31 lb), mostly designed to use with layering up ideas and working out layouts, hence the name.

Sticking old book pages to layout paper

I love it as for its wonderful semi-transparent quality and if you layer it on strips of book page for example you get the book page just about showing through.

I've got as far as sticking her to the painted background but I just wasn't feeling it, do you know what I mean? So she has gone into the work in progress pile until more inspiration strikes.



Over To You...

You know what you need to do! Link your faces artwork and spread the word on your blog and/or social media.

Catch you later Face-Artinators!
Kim


ps. Some other places you might want to link your work to: Art journal pages link up with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Art Journal Everyday post. Paint work link it up at Paint Party Friday. For items using something Old, New and Digital then go link it up on the Old, New and Digital Too challenge.





Friday 15 May 2015

Art It Friday - Show Your Face

Yay Facers! It is good to see you for this week's portrait community share Art It Friday - Show Your Face.

If you haven't had a chance then go check out the amazing works from last week, some great inspiration if you haven't done your face for this week yet.

I was worried I wouldn't have a face to show this week, as I've been super busy with deadlines, but I made it by the skin of my teeth!

So I mentioned on Monday that I was trying to sort out my workspace, right? Get rid of all those bits of paper that I just can not throw out? Well this art journal page is another step in that direction.

Art Journal portrait with Stabilo and water

I've used up some leftover bits of digital papers that I had designed for some magazine work. After sticking the papers to my art journal I then added a layer of gesso. She was sketched out roughly with pencil then the details painted with a black Stabilo All surface pencil and a waterbrush.

So she has something old, she herself is new and she has digital too so I'm linking her to the Old, New and Digital Too challenge as well as the link up's mentioned in the ps. below.


So that is my share for this week,

Over To You...

You know what you need to do! Link your faces artwork and share the word on your blog and/or social media

Looking forward to seeing your portrait work.

Catch you later Face-Artinators!
Kim

ps. If your art happens to be from an art journal page then go link up with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Art Journal Everyday post. Or if it involves paint then link it up at Paint Party Friday.





Saturday 11 April 2015

A Journey Through Art Journal Fear

If you follow my Twitter feed or Instagram account then you might have spotted the sneaky peek at an art journal page I started last weekend. This wasn't meant to be anything other than a quick play with some new materials in my art journal but it turned into so much more. This page represents a little journey of overcoming fear for me and I hope it will inspire you to push through what you fear.

PaperArtsy paint and stamps

So starting at the beginning and the new materials I wanted to test out. I got my inky, painty hands on some lovely bits and pieces from PaperArtsy and just had to have a play. I used the JOFY Collection 32 and the Lin Brown Limited Edition paint set.

I used a double page in a new A5 repurposed flier that I'm using as my current art journal. I started with a semi-transparent layer of Gesso and the PaperArtsy Caribbean Sea paint, stamped the images over the top and painted them with the PaperArtsy paint then went over the outlines with a black Derwent Graphik Line Painter pen.

Finished!

But as I looked at it I thought perhaps it needed something else. This is where the fear factor kicks in. I want to be better at drawing and I do practise when I have a moment. But faces, human form and the such are super difficult for me. So I decided to be brave and do something that I have never done before. Paint a face.

Underdrawing for a face

I know the trend is very much towards whimsical, stylised faces but I really wanted to see if I could draw something closer to a real face. I didn't work from a photo or use a mirror so it is an imaginary face but I wanted it to be as real as I could make it. I seriously have no idea how to paint a face so I was learning as I went along.

I sketched the proportions of the face in pencil and then set about putting a thin layer of paint on the underdrawing. I used Liquitex Basics as I have the colours I needed to make skin tones in this range.

putting in details on a face

At this stage, pictured above, I was tempted to leave it as it was turning out far better than I expected it to and I was afraid to mess it up! But I gritted my teeth and pushed through...

Art journal faces

and I'm glad that I did. She isn't perfect but seeing as she is the first human face that I have ever painted I'm really pleased with the result.

Close up on a face in the art journal


Things I have learnt and wanted to share with you guys:
  • Try something that you haven't done before - you might surprise yourself.
  • Push through the fear - if it turns out rubbish you still will have learnt a whole lot from the process.
  • Working in arts and crafts is full of transferable skills - you will be surprised how much you improve a certain skill set even when you are doing something else that isn't directly related to that specific skill set.
  • Don't paint your first face over a fold in your art journal!

Now I need to overcome a new fear - trying to paint another face, this one might have been a fluke!

What lessons have you learnt recently from your art and craft work? I look forward to hearing all about them in the comments below.

Catch you later artinators!

Kim

Kim Dellow Blog signature

Thursday 20 March 2014

Art Journal Sharing Thursday - Acrylic Gel Skins

This Art Journal Sharing Thursday is all about experimentation. One of my favourite mediums in Acrylics, I've loved them for many years now and I love experimenting and playing with them. So I've been doing a bit of reading and a bit of play and a great place to collect the results is my art journal.


[There are some affiliate links in this blog post, so if you buy through them I do get a small amount of money at no extra cost to yourself. Thanks for your support!]

I'm kind of obsessed with gel skins at the moment. Acrylic Gel Skins are all about spreading out a layer of acrylic gel or medium onto a non-porous surface. Once the layer is dry you can peel the gel off the surface and you have a gel skin. 

I've got a range of various different types of gels and mediums from acrylic grounds for pastels to iridescent gels for adding sparkle and dimension to paints. You can also use paints to make gel skins as well, either mixed with a medium/ gels, pastes or on their own and then there are all those texture embossing pastes that you can use as well.



Setting Up The Acrylic Gel Skin Experiments

My aim for this experiment was to see how all the different acrylic gels and mediums that I've been collecting over the last few years work as a gel skin on their own, mixed with colour and stamped on. 

For my non-porous surface I used a wooden board covered with a plastic bag (you can see it in the photo above, it is my working surface for messing things at the moment). I spread a thin layer of each gel or medium with a palette knife, added a bit of Golden fluid paint for colour to part of the layer and a paper label so I could remember which layer was which.

(Left to right Top three: Winsor and Newton Galeria Iridescent Medium; Golden Light Molding Paste; Golden Hard Molding Paste. Bottom Three: Golden Clear Tar; Golden Absorbent Grounds (white); Golden Regular Gel (gloss))

Once the layers were dry I stamped an image over the top, the red bee is stamped with Tsukineko StazOn and the black is stamped with Ranger Archival ink. I then peeled off the layer and glued it with a spot of regular gel into my art journal. Some of the gel skins are very sticky on contact with themselves or each other so keep them separate and protected with a sheet baking paper or thin paper.

(Left to right Top three: Golden Soft Gel (matte); Golden Molding Paste; Golden Grounds For Pastels. Bottom Three: Golden Polymer Medium (gloss); Golden Interference Blue; Cosmic Shimmer Glitter paste)


Which Acrylic Gel Skins Worked And Which Failed

It is well worth trying each of the gels, mediums, pastes, paints you might have as they all give different results. I loved the look of the transparent skins you get from using Golden Clear Tar, Golden Polymer Medium, Golden gloss gels. Then the semi-transparent skins you get from the Golden matte gels make interesting 'encaustic'-like looks. 

The Golden interference paint and Acrylic Grounds For Pastels were amongst my favourite as they resulted in translucent skins, and the pastels ground had a really interesting gritty texture. The Golden Molding pastes were fun too for making opaque skins and even paper-like skins.

(Left to right: Golden Soft Gel (matte); Golden Molding Paste; Golden Grounds For Pastels)

A couple of fails - well the Golden Absorbent Grounds skin was very brittle and flaked away when I lifted it off of the surface. Then the Winsor and Newton Galeria Iridescent Medium stuck very firmly to the surface, I'm not sure if I didn't let it dry long enough or if I needed to try a different surface for this one so another experiment for another day. 

Also the results of the stamping was a bit hit a miss, different skins responded differently to the two inks I tried (StazOn or Archival). There were skins that were very slippery and needed extra care to stamp on and the ink on some of the skins spread out or changed colour once dry, so again a good experiment to try on your skins for future project reference.


The final experiment to show is a little bit of fun making a skin using the Golden Clear Tar and a mask. I spread a slightly thicker layer of Golden Clear Tar than I used for my gel skin swatches on the non-porous surface and let it dry completely. I then mixed some Golden paint with some more Golden Clear Tar and added it to the dry Tar layer through a mask and let this dry.


A tip if you don't want air bubbles is to mix the paint with the Clear Tar and let it stand for a while, but I was too impatient and just wanted to know what it would look like!

Thanks for popping in and sharing my Art Journal experiments with Acrylic Gel Skins, have you been making gel skins? I would love to hear about your experiences and what you have been making with them.

Catch you later Artinators.

Kim

Update 2017: So after lots of playing my favourite gel for making translucent gel skins is actually the Liquitex Pouring Medium. It makes great skins that aren't as sticky when dry as some of the other gels and mediums I have tried!

If you want to see some of my gel skin projects using Liquitex pouring Medium then click on the photos below!

How To Make A Gel Skin Heart Tutorial by Kim Dellow

PaperArtsy Gel Skin Hanger By Kim Dellow





Thursday 6 March 2014

Art Journal Sharing Thursday

My Art Journal Sharing Thursday this week has two painty pages to show, so this post might be a bit picture heavy. I'm back in my A5 flier journal again, I think it keeps drawing me back because it is just a perfect size for a quick page and the printed pages make wonderful surfaces to build on.

These two pages sit next to each other in the book but apart from the fact that they both centre around paint and I made them at the same time, they are quite different.

First up is my 'Find Your Way' page.


I know, I know, I said I wasn't going to fall back on easy motifs but the heart was just screaming to be on this page.


I've started with a layer of gesso and gave it some texture by pressing the pages together when they were still wet and peeling apart to get those lovely 'rivers' of gesso.

If you remember back to the 'Full Bloom' frame from last week, I used some orange-tinted molding paste through a polka dot mask, well the orange here is the orange-tinted molding paste covered mask pressed into the page and left to dry. Waste not, want not!


I then added the heart by spreading this wonderfully vibrant Golden Permanent Violet Dark paint over a heart mask and adding the marks with a marker pen once the paint was dry. 

The second page I wanted to share with you today is far more abstract and a lot more 'journaly'.


The starting point for this page was already red and you will see a small touch of gesso and the same orange polka dot molding paste as you saw in the first page today.


I added some extra bits of paints which were all left over splodges from other pages I was doing at the time. You can spot some of that vivid Permanent Violet Dark from the first page and touches of Golden Phthalo Green (Blue Shade) mixed with a bit of white as well.

I then collaged a piece of paper torn from a magazine and did some continuous stream journal pouring over the top of the page and the collage piece. 


The finishing touches were that polka dot mask again covered in black paint this time and pressed into the page and some touches of the wonderfully sparkly Golden Interference Blue (Fine) which just adds a glorious shine that changes colour and the look of the piece as it catches the light.

The Interference shine is far more noticeable on the real project than I've managed to capture in the photographs, so you might have to just take my word for it.


So there you are, two Art Journal pages which share some similar elements but are very different pieces.


Thanks for popping in today and I would love to see any art journaling you have been up to this week so do leave a comment so that I can pop by to have a look.

Catch you later Artinators.

Kim