Day 11 Shadow Exercise

Shadow Exercise

Watercolor

This is the first painting we did yesterday for the Jack Nolan Workshop that I'm taking at the Cape Coral Art League this weekend. It was an exercise in light and shadow. We chose the direction of our light source and placement of shadows. Each painting was different, even though we all painted the same subject, depending on what time of day we were depicting. I like the long shadows of early morning and late afternoon. I'm enjoying the switch back to watercolor for the time being. It's been awhile, and I needed this simple exercise to get back to familiarizing myself with the paint to water ratio that is needed for this medium. Things improved as the day went on, thankfully!

Day 10 Life Is Better When It's Fun

Life Is Better When It's Fun

Mixed Media Collage 4 X 6

I love this photo of the laughing girls; I knew I had to incorporate it in one of my collages. I used various blue shades of papers with one orange pop behind the photo. I added some fun stamping and the "Life is better" stamp. I think this one is just fun to look at and it will make a wonderful note card some day.

The first 10 days has gone really quickly and now I'm in a watercolor workshop so I will have some workshop paintings to share for the next few days.

Day 9, Funky Bird

Funky Bird

Collage on paper, 4 X 6

I took all my scraps of collage paper and arranged them on my substrate. I fused them together with the iron and let them cool. Then I came in with acrylic and painted around a bird shape free hand. When that dried I added the  stamping and a little ink. The legs are a little off, that's why I named it Funky Bird. It's fun to do something off beat now and then. 

Day 8, Sun Rising

Sun Rising

Collage on paper, 3.5 X 4.75

I'm scrambling but still on top of the 30 day challenge. I'm having fun doing these little collages, it's such good practice. It's harder to put in the time getting them on the blog and the website but good for me to learn not to procrastinate over coffee in the morning.

This collage was done with altered magazine pages, painted tissue paper and acrylic paint. The gold dot is made from hot glue which has been painted with gold acrylic. 

Day 7, Floral

Floral, Not an Abstract

Collage, 4 X 6

This is day seven's collage piece. I have to work in advance because they have to be dry to scan and upload. I thought to myself, "It doesn't have to be an abstract", and decided to try to try some simple flowers. The blue, green and flower papers are all tissue that has been painted and coated with gloss, the center strip is a digital copy of a manufactured paper that has been coated.  They were all heat sealed together.  

Day 6 Lace

Lace

Collage, 6 X 6

I found the word Lace in my packet of small pieces so I decided to try to incorporate that plus some of the lacy papers that I had prepared. I also wanted to try an substrate that was not white but painted a tan color. It wasn't until I got the photo on my computer that realized that I had a big Z. Oh well, not every attempt is going to be a winner! It's a learning experience. I was going for a cruciform with the red lace but the black just takes over. I may have to play with some acrylics to modify that. If I come up with something I like, I'll re-post it. 

P.S. After fooling around with it I decided the best solution was to crop off the offending black on the top and bottom. I like the image below better.

Lace

Collage, 3 X 4

Day 5 Checkered Past

Checkered Past 

Collage 4.5 X 4.5

This is the collage for Day 5 of the 30 day challenge, which was yesterday. I wasn't happy with this collage yesterday so I delayed posting it until I could decide what to do with it. Today I thought that I would add the circles (when in doubt add circles?)and I do like the way the circles sort of bring it together. Most of the papers I have made myself except for the upper left corner, the checkers and the text which are printed. The rest are painted tissue paper or papers that have been altered in some way. They are fused together by being heat set.