Layer Love Lesson 3

I'm up to Lesson 3 of Julie Prichard's online workshop, Layer Love. I believe this workshop is closed, but Julie has many others to offer. Check em out! I'm going to show the steps by photo. If you want more detail, see Julie!!!

Collage images taken from a Well's Fargo catalogue reproduction and postage stamps mounted on paper:

Lots and Lots of Layers of paint, even some crayons, texture tools and all kinds of mediums added, yum.

Background Finished. Can't wait to add some collage and transfers. oh yeah, it's ON.

Now go paint. Thanks for lookin. xoSusan

GPP Crusade #42 Strip Ease

Okay, for this Crusade I'ma gonna be ona time-a!!! I am on a roll with this and the last Crusade. I really love both assignments. And I ADORE visiting all the Artist's sites and seeing how each player "translates" the Crusade. If you are a Crusader and come to visit here, please leave a comment, I would love to meet you!! As Michelle says "How Cool Is That???"

So, I turn the page in my new journal and start stripping, eeeek, God Forbid, I mean ripping.

Playing with Color:

Dag, that Yes glue is WAY STICKY. I don't usually create at my coffee table, but I was in the mood to watch some TV. Ripping is sooooo fun and low stress that I could multi-task. Most of the time I'm in my studio with the tunes cranked and couldn't follow a TV show if my life depended on it. I'm addicted to TrueBlood on HBO. Anyone else??? It's my guilty little secret. Oh, well, it was anyway!
I read ALL the books before it came out on TV. They are excellent but very different from the show. Jusy sayin.


Here is the spread, without journalling, scanned:
I let the pictures do the talking in my last journal spread, this time I need to purge some thoughts in writing. In order to not cover up the spread, which I love, especially the paint palette pieces I ripped with dried clumps of paint on them, I fashioned 2 pages with transparencies. I certainly have enough mistakes laying around, and transparencies are too expensive to waste. These are goofs from BroknHearted Venus, which I haven't completed yet. I'm bouncing around project wise these days. I used Sharpie for the journalling. I left one side blank to fill in after the results of my tests. I have to swallow a camera and the camera will take pics of my small intestine. It's a lot cleaner test than the colonoscopy. teehee. I left a transparency tab on the page for labeling at a later date. If I labelled it now it would be highly terrified and negative, like I'm Fucked, or something to that effect. teehee. I like the faint shell images with this spread, adds to the earthy, basic, natury feel to the colors and subject. Which I guess, is fear about our natural bodies, or states of being. I didn't start out with this subject in mind, it just came out. Which is the whole point of Art Journalling, no? Okay, I'm starting to sound like an ass, I'm shutting up now:




Thanks, Michelle for the inspiration and learnin. And I'm searching for a Venue so you can teach in NJ. I guess my little townhouse won't cut it!!! teehee. xoSusan

GPP Crusade #41 Grid Lock

What better way to launch a new journal than with one of Michelle Ward's Crusades?? I went shopping in my studio and found this journal again. teehee. I love the size, smaller than my other journal, I will flip back and forth depending on what I'm feeling each Crusade needs creatively.

I love paper. Paper is my crack. I was in fits of joy when I refound this journal. The feel, smell and taste of the page. HA! caught you. You weren't paying attention. teehee. No, I don't eat or smoke paper.

When I read Michelle's guidelines, my mind immediately went to Inchies. I can't work a ruler well and I am a solid D student in geometry so I just went with the inchies as a grid. I try and cut inchies from left over homemade paste paper as I go along, so I had a sandwich bag full ready to create with. Love that. So here I am playing with the inchie layout:

Designing the Inchies:

And the finished spread, scanned:
And the truth is that this Crusade was due last month, so I am very, very tardy. But it's summer and I think Michelle will forgive me. There were vacations and colonoscopies involved. (1 polyp, precancerous, removed and damned to hell, and Sea Isle City. In case you were wondering, I had more fun at the beach, teehee.) Hope all is well with you. xoSusan

BroknHearted Venus

That last background was pretty but kinda bored me. I've put it aside until Broknhearted inspiration hits.
So instead I embarked on 3 collages at once! I pulled out my stash of favorite commercial and self made paper and ripped and glued my way to happiness! The collage that most captured my interest started out like this:
Here the canvas is completely covered with paper and in the process of being drybrushed with gesso:
Used Caran D'Ache crayons to add some hair and have taped images around to figure out the composition I like most. The images are Apollo 7039 transparencies printed with an inkjet Epson C88 printer which uses Durabrite inks:

Wouldn't this be an awesome Blog Header? The collage sheet with Venus' image and the words is courtesy/property of Misty Mawn. You'll have to ask her for permission to use it as a header!! I did my part!! I used crayons and made it my own!! Thanks Misty!

Here are the tools for a caulk transfer ready to go:

The first transfer. You can see I used yellow crayon to outline the cut out image. This was done so I could see where to lay down the caulk with the least waste. I am still VERY new to this technique. In this photo, I am holding the now devoid of ink transparency.

Here is the wet transfer: I blended the edges into the canvas with the palette knife. You can see there are some areas where the ink did not transfer. Its ok. Distressed, I believe is the au currant term. I f'd up is what I would say. teehee.

Here is what Buddy Guy was doing while I was creating. He thinks he is a dog. He loves to chew. My paper towel rolls are fair game.

I had some extra caulk on my palette, so I used it up in my practice book pages. The manuscript and chess piece are good, the arches not so good, I used too much caulk in that spot. The girl and corner post thingy were both soft get medium transfer. Caulk beats that for clarity, IMHO.

Here comes the Tricky Part: adding the caulk to the face for the shell transfer. I think I used a little too much. I can't wait until Trial and Error becomes Experience. Feel me?? If I mess up the face, I've wasted Time, Effort, Supplies and My Sanity. Sweatin It Big Time:

48 Hours later. Caulk still not set well enough for me to do a couple more glazes and some detail work with pencils/crayons. I may even add a few more small transfers. My wheels are still turning.

This collage has a title I will add to the canvas. I think it's perfect. You'll see it when it's all done. Thanks for joining me for this Work In Progress! Now, whatcha think???? Good or Bad Give It To Me Straight. xoSusan

A Good Start

So many possibilites brewing.......ideas??? xoSusan

PS. Thanks to the Artist's who left supportive comments about "Principle Architect". Yes, Jan, it was inspired by pain, but the pain worked as a muse, and I purged it into creativity! And, Janet, I used an 8 x 10 stretched canvas. And since you like my buildings here are the images I used:

Have fun and let me see what you create!! xoS

New Monthly Muse

Ok, since I'm off men for awhile, I'm no longer going to have handsome, powerful, sexually intense men be the subject of my monthly muse. Although Men are in My Top Five Reasons To Go On Living, for now they are in a Time-Out. Also in My Top Five you know the rest.....moving forward to be called MTFRTGOL (pronounced MetFurToGoal in case you were wondering), are Words. I worship The Blues and The Written Word. No, not that written word, The B word, I can't suspend disbelief enough for that, but Literature, and Graffiti and Catalogs and Poetry and Chic Lit and The Dummies Guides To and Grocery Lists and Post Cards and Junk Mail ok, you get my drift. So look over there, not there, over there on your left, in the sidebar, ok you got it. This first Muse is In Homage To Words when they are especially well written. Read it, take a minute to ponder it. Hopefully these Monthly Muses will have the power to enrich your life, make you laugh your ass off, or maybe, just maybe, make you think outside the box. Isn't that our ultimate goal as Artists?

xoSusan

PS. If you do have a Hot Guy Emergency, scroll down in the left sidebar, I left them there for old times sake.

Principle Architect

This collage is finally finished. I love it. What do you think? xoS

Change is a Scarey Subject

For me anyway. So that is how I represented it in these 2 collages, spooky and mysterious. The first utilizes the background I made in Julie Prichard's Layer Love online workshop. Here it is:

The second Change collage is even scarier. There is a spooky skull hidden in there. LOL. The canvas is wrapped with painted deli paper. I LOVE making paper.
Thank you again to Marianne for these fabulous images. The transfer of the large crow was done using Elmers Caulk and the transfer on the mulberry paper was spray alcohol. I'm not really in love with either of these pieces, but I learned a lot, both what to do and what not to do. Feel me??

Warning: What follows is a non-Art Related Rant:

Change is in the wind hereabouts.....I am taking a sabbatical from dating, who me??? Yes, I am addicted to attention. From Men, that is. I need a break because I've had one unsatisfying scenario after the next. Nothing has gelled. So I'm going in for a selfish phase for awhile. I'm going to do what I want, when I want. Checking out Who Checked Me Out on my dating sites became addictive. Unfortunately for the plus sized gal, it is often an invitation for rejection. I was inviting rejection, offering to make it something to drink, and making sure it was comfortable. Well, to hell with that. I peruse sites that talk about what to do to make Him Commit, how I have to change my behaviour, my looks, my attitude, my approach, my timing, my conversation, order to Catch Him and Keep Him. I'm tired. This is too much work. Gone is my youth where I could look up and catch a guy's eye and effortlessly have a date within minutes. I am invisible due to weight and age, so I have to work very hard to make myself seen. Good grief, 50 year old men out there dating are still immature, they are always looking, looking, looking over your shoulder for the next best thing. Their big guts and need for Viagra doesn't affect their self esteem in any way. They think they still got it, and they think they can get someone Better than You!! And the sad thing is, they probably will. Do you know that men don't call you anymore? They want you to call them. I don't want to call a guy. In my day, the man called you because, he was The Hunter and I was The Prey(in a good way). Now so many men want you to do all the chasing. I don't know how! What happened to The Man being Alpha? The Provider? So, change is scarey. But I'm embracing it. My life won't change very much to be honest with you. I'm not getting much action these days. Working, dabbling in Art, parenting, reading, being a friend, sister and daughter. I had a wonderful time at the beach last week. One of the best "physical" feelings for me in the whole wide world is sitting at the edge of the ocean in a sand chair, being baked by the sun and then relieved from the heat when the waves wash up over your legs. Oh my god, it's almost as good as sex. (moving forward, sex is always the best feeling, ok? ok) My plan is to add a lot more wonderful "physical sensations" to my life, that well, don't include men. Getting attention is a huge physical sensation for me, the happy butterfly feeling in my stomach, the accelerated heartbeat, the dreamy thoughts of kissing, BAM, in the zone. This is not so good for me. I make dumb ass decisions under the influence of Male Attention. Massage is another wonderful way to get that relaxing physical sensation, second to the sand chair. Expensive, but my joints and muscles really do benefit. And the third best sensation for me is swimming laps. I get in the zone, think of nothing, and become just another "bag of water" moving through the water. So peaceful, so serene. So my goal is to Change my addiction from male attention to positive physical sensations that are pleasant, healthy and positive. Wish me luck. xoS