Busy week

How time flies! I look at the last date here, and i see that it was a full week ago! This week seems to have gone by so quickly. I have been keeping very busy with work, and my art as well.

Have created two new ATC's this week. I am a little behind in my trades, owe a couple people atc's so these will go directly to them. I am pleased with how they both turned out.


This one was started a couple months ago. I saw this really cool art project where the artist nailed a bunch of hearts to a board. It looked so cool that i had to try the nailing myself. I went out and bought some cool blue nails, and i 'nailed' a paper heart to the paper bg (essentially, i poked the nail through both of them). I like the way the heart sort of spins on the nail. I then left it for a couple months, knowing that i needed to do something more with the bg before it could be done. After trying pastels at the ATC swap meeting, i figured that would be a cool medium to use.

So, yesterday i finally went to the only professional artist store in town. 'Colours' is wonderful, as it has great customer service, good selection and top quality suplies. They do tend more towards the 'fine arts' perspective, but that is to be expected. I can't imagine there are much for 'mixed media art' stores in existance, especially because you can usually find everything you need at the fine art type combined with a hardware or antique store (for me that is). Still haven't been able to find walnut ink anywhere.... hmmm. I'll have to look deeper into that one.

But i did find a variety of other fun things at the store. Bought myself a set of oil pastels i'd had my eye on, a new brush, some watercolour paper and some foam board (cheap for 50 cents!). I came home and played with my new pastels, and this atc is what came of it :)



This is another one that started from an inspiration of a work by Bridgette Guerzon Mills. I love her work, with all the colours blended yet present and distinct, and the awesome texture she uses. I'd love to try using wax like she does for her encaustic art. Just another project perculating that i will one day spend a bunch of money on suplies :). Can't wait hahah.

In this one, i created the texture with a really clumpy, bumpy coat of gesso mixed in with the first layer of paints. I really like the texture that this gives... even poor quality gesso is good for something hahaha. I had created this earlier with muted pastel tones, and then i took it to be critiqued with the artist guild i have joined. The main thing that she said was that the pastels were too light, especially if i wanted to add a bold red with the cape (in the end the cape wasn't as bold as i'd hoped but i still like it). I added more layers of bolder greens and blues, and i much prefer the final product there.

As for future projects, i am still working on making an altered domino. They have asked for it to follow a Marilyn Monroe theme. I think i will go with a warhol style. His exhibit is in town right now. I am looking forward to seeing it tommorow. Will blog about it most likely :).