fish and birds

This page took a lot of time because I just couldn't find the right images to use. I was thinking about using Sophie Nicholson's peacock image, on transfer art paper, but my printer ran out of ink in the middle of the job, spoiling the paper. So I found some wrapping paper with stylized fish and drew some birds freehand to mimic the style of the wrapping paper. I used Tsukineko fabric markers to color the birds and my favorite drawing pen, the Pitt artist fine point pen. The background was painted with Jacquard Lumiere citrine paint and a textured tissue paper was applied. After it was dry, I used white glue to attach the pictures. I added the text with the Pitt artist pen, then covered the whole project in gel medium and while it was still wet used rubber stamp sheets to give it texture.

Sun and moon

I purchased a metal tooling kit from Walnut Hill at the quilt show in Chicago and was looking for a way to try it.

I drew the sun and moon freehand with the tools included in the kit. To color it I used alcohol inks, but when I teach the class, I think I will use colored Sharpies. They are much easier to control. I used white glue to adhere them to the canvas which had been painted with Lumiere pearl blue. I added the text with a white signo pen.

Next time I'll experiment with a different method of adhering the foil to the fabric. For now it is holding, but I'd like more definition on the edges.

humans and animals

This is still a work in progress. I knew I wanted to use a freezer paper mask to create the paper dolls, so I painted the background in nickel azo gold (Golden fluid acrylic) and then ironed the freezer paper on the canvas after it dried. Then I sponged green paint on, did some rubber stamping with a darker green and added red dots. What else?

let there be plants and trees

I think this was my favorite part of the book. Since I was using Liquitex modeling paste, I did a sample on a separate piece of canvas. I painted the canvas with Golden nickel azo gold fluid acrylic (my favorite acrylics). After that was dry, I mixed the same color fluid acrylic with the modeling paste and spread it on the canvas. Using a stylus (actually I used a porcupine quill) I drew the tree shape. While it was still wet, I added burnt sienna fluid acrylic to give the drawn lines color. It took about 15 hours to dry. After it dried, I sponged various shades of green on for the leaves. I liked the sample so much, I decided to use it. Since it was not attached to the book, I sewed it in using embroidery floss. You can faintly see the back of the stitching on the seas and skies page. I added a tag with a scripture from Isaiah "and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands".

Dividing the sea and sky

For this one, I mixed Lumiere pearl blue with gloss heavy gel meduim and painted the seas. While it was still wet, I crumpled up a piece of plastic wrap and dabbed it on the wet paint to give dimension to the waters. To the leftover dark blue paint, I added pearl white and painted the skies. After this was dry, I used gesso to further define the separation between the two elements and give a spot for writing the text. I dry brushed the water with pearl white. When the sky was dry, I applied xpandaprint paint and puffed it up with a heat gun. The xpandaprint was expensive, and I had to order it. I tested it against Tulip puffy paint, and found no difference when they were applied wet and immediately heated with a heat gun.

Let there be light

When I painted the front cover black, it bled through to the next page, so I used white gesso to block it. Then I used some Thesaurus text about light, and torn tissue paper, adhering it with white glue. After it dried, I covered in gel medium and then I used a chunky Sharpie to write the bold text. I added a tag with a scripture from the first chapter of John about the nature of the light.

Creation Book

In July I'll be teaching a mixed media adult art camp at my church on three Wednesdays. I've had so much fun putting together a canvas book for the class sample.

The first image is the cover page. I used a freezer paper mask in a spiral shape and sponged on paint then dotted on colors with the end of a paintbrush. After it was dry, I removed the freezer paper and used a white signo pen from uniball to add the text in the area that had been masked. love that pen!

The string on the left side of the image is a tag from the next page.