Creating Texture

Hi, it's Deena on the blog with you today. I love playing with stencils, in fact I think they have become an addiction, but I wanted to create texture on a canvas background with out them. So I assembled the following products on my desk to see what I could create.

Finnabair Art Basics 3D Gloss Gel - Transparent

Golden Fluid Acrylic - Titanium White

Derivan Matisse Flow - Bleached Titanium

Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - L.E.D. Red

Limor Webber Designs Lindy's Stamp Gang Flat Fabio Spray - Pop Rock Purple

Faber-Castell PITT artist pen big brush - Pink Madder Lake

Faber-Castell PITT artist pen big brush - Magenta

Faber-Castell PITT artist pen big brush - Manganese Violet

Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Cool Peri

3 10cm x 10cm x 3.3cm canvases

Using my plastic paint scraper I quickly scrapped some of the 3D Gloss Gel on all three canvas. I did it quickly as I did not want them to be the same or perfect. I wanted the bumps, the missed bits and the thin bits.

I picked up two of the canvases and pressed them together. I held them in one hand while I pushed the canvas from the back with my fingers . I then slowly pulled them apart and this amazing texture began to appear. Wondering how I was going to get that texture on the third canvas I again quickly used my paint scrapper to smooth out some of the gel so I could press the 2 canvases together.

Once I had texture on the canvases used my heat gun to dry the gel. At this stage I still had no idea what I was going to create on the canvases as I really was just playing. As I was drying them on two of the surfaces I could see a flower, the third was still a mystery.

Now that the gel was completely dry it was time to use my white paint and a very fine angled paint brush to create the edge of my flower. You can use a grey lead pencil to draw your shape but I found it easy enough using my paint brush. To create the flower I just followed the textural lines made by the gel.

Using the white paint i could clearly see my flower shape, leaving the inside of the flower alone, using my fingers i spread white paint around the rest of the canvas. Taking the top of my Pop Rock purple and L.E.D. Red I used the end of the tube to paint with. I coloured in my flowers, making some parts darker than others. Drying the sprays to speed up the process, and then adding more colour on top. Happy with the coloured sprays I used I them started adding different colours with my PITT pens.

The middle of my purple flower was coloured with the glimmer mist and the middle of my red flower was coloured using my alcohol ink.

The final step was using my fingers to add some unbleached titanium to the canvas.

Don't be afraid to play with your products, use them different ways because you never know what you could end up creating.

Art Journalling with Catie

I'm sharing an art journal page that I've just completed, for inspiration this week.  This page actually started out in my mind as a spacey-night-starry type scene... but that didn't eventuate, and as I added more layers, this is what evolved.

I've used some really fun products on this, such as Faber Castell Whipped Spackle, Shimmerz texture paste, stencils, masks, mists, inks and more.

I found working on this so therapeutic, as there was no real outcome in mind... I was just creating for the sake of creating, and I think that that is one of the beauties of art journaling... you can just let yourself go and go wherever your art takes you.

I chose this quote from Sylvia Plath: "The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt", as when I start at a blank art journal page and try to picture what I'm going to put down on it, it can actually be a bit daunting.  I've found that if I just shut off the thinking part of my brain, and let the creative part play with different techniques, and materials, and textures, I actually end up with something I rather like.

I hope you enjoy this page and the close ups of the page below :)

Thanks for looking.  Catie x

Mixed Media Inspiration with Catie

Hi Everybody!

Catie here, with some mixed media inspiration in the form of a canvas I recently created.

First up (after priming my canvas with gesso) I used some Design Memory Craft Faber Castell Whipped Spackle.  This stuff is AMAZING!  It's a kind of texture paste, but is a smoother, lighter consistency, that is a little more flexible when it's dry. I used it with this burlap stencil, and loved the effect it gave.

Next I used some bubble wrap to imprint the whipped spackle while it was still damp.

I dried it off, then used some watered down glimmermist to start adding some colour.

And of course, I couldn't go without gelatos!

Then I started adding more colour with Dylusions spray inks.  I think I lost the yellow from the gelatos in the end, because I got carried away with making peacock type colours with the inks, but that's the beauty of mixed media - there is no wrong!

Next, I stamped some peacock feathers, and coloured them with Dylusions inks.  I love the shimmer that these mists have in them.  I fussy cut the feathers to layer up on the canvas.  The other thing I love about the Dylusions inks is how far they 'go'.  I'd spray on the canvas, add some water, and blend, add a little more water, and suddenly it would pick up surrounding colour from stray droplets around the area, and create even more rich colour to play with!

To create more texture in the background, I've used tissue paper, punchinella, plasterer's tape, sequins, gauze, a fabric doily (which I coloured with glimmermist and Dylusions), some feathers I found in my stash, in peacock-type colours and some metallic thread.  I used Mod Podge to stick all this down - I think my hands were covered in more materials than the canvas at one point!!

So, you can see how I've continued to layer up colours and textures til I was happy with what I had in front of me.  I also used some Liquitex gel medium over the inks, which gave a glossy sheen and really brought out the colours, as you can see in the bottom right image of the collage below. 

  

The whole point to this canvas was to work around a stamped image of a postcard that I wanted to use as the centre piece. I built up my background around the postcard, and then looked up some creative-type quotes, as this canvas was to be a gift to a lovely scrappy-friend.  The quote I used is by Robert Henri "The object isn't to make art; it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable".

Here are a couple more close ups for you....

and the finished product!

 

I hope this has given you some inspiration.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!

Thanks for looking :)

Catie xo