#459

Today we have another original piece by me. I had drawn this in pencil in my sketchbook a while ago, and forgot all about it until I was looking through it for ideas and something to draw. I recreated the picture on my new watercolour paper and worked on her today. There are still some things that need finishing, like the rim where her hair line would be. 

Trying to get some shadows and contrast is difficult when only using watercolours, as they are transparent and building up dark colours are tricky. No matter how tempting it has been to use coloured pencils or pens to define edges, I have resisted, knowing that this is a challenge I should overcome. I believe this is a great way to grow as an artist and a person.

Hopefully if everything goes to plan, I will be able to travel into the city and visit my favourite art shop tomorrow. I’ll let you know if I do.

Challenge yourself, my loverlies.

#382

I was trying out some things that I saw in videos. Now that I’ve finished cleaning, I can create things again.
I’m still keeping to a fair bit of drawing, though the muses in that area aren’t flowing greatly.
Firstly, the CD stained glass sun catcher. I was sent a video on Facebook about making old CDs into suncatchers by removing the laser layer to make a clear disc, use a stained glass liner, which I had, then fill in the sections with I’m assuming was alcohol ink, as it was transparent and adhered to the plastic. The first problem I had was I tried using DVDs. Apparently the backing layer on these are completely different and hard to remove, so I searched deeper, finally finding some really old CDs (you can tell the difference between them, as the CDs are greenish, whereas DVDs are more blue purple on the bottom.) I finally got a few discs clear, and marked on a design with a Sharpie. I knew I didn’t have alcohol inks in bottles, so I tried with my Copics, which is why it’s all streaky. This also caused the Sharpie to lift onto my Copics, erasing the lines I made. I haven’t even gotten to the lining stage yet, so I’ll have to have another go. I might have to search for more old CDs.
The other craft that I tried is these paper stones. The video that I watched used bigger circles and put them on rings, but I just wanted to try making the gems for now. You make these by punching out a bunch of circles or shapes in different colours of construction paper. You then glue them into a pile until you get a nice size to work with. Leave these to dry, and then use sand paper to shape and reveal the coloured layers of the paper. After this you seal them with sealant or nail polish, and then use strong glue to make them into jewellery. Since I only used a glue stick to adhere the layers together, I need to seal it really well, so they don’t split. By the end of these few I did, I was bored of sanding and had paper dust everywhere. They look cool and are super easy. I already have a few more ideas that I’d like to try for this.
So, lately I’ve been thinking of making videos for my raspberrysheep YouTube, which hasnt been touched yet. I know I’m not a master at anything, but I’m sure there’s plenty I could teach you guys, and it has to be easier explaining in a video than written here. I have a couple of ideas, but please, ask questions and let me know what you’d like to see in the comments.
Hope to see you soon 🙂

#308

Trying all the things.
Today I had the thought that I needed to use something in the back of my nail polish gems to use as filler to keep them lightweight, but also something to use to fill the space and make it easier to stick to surfaces. I could have used a glue gun, but it wouldn’t be great for larger pieces and the heat might not mix well with the nail polish. I was thinking that in special effects videos, they often use cotton wool and latex to bulk out and texture areas. Instead of latex, I’d use glue and see how we go. I wont be able to tell if it worked until they dry, but I used it on a few different projects. I filled some gem backs, then covered this bowl. Finally, I put a layer in  a paper mache project that is hollow, but needed some filling. A bit like the gem situation, but larger. I can’t talk about it on here much. *wink*
When experimenting with objects or art, I often think of a quote found by the artist Austin Kleon, who has a lot of interesting writings about creativity, but this in particular sticks in my head.

“The idea maker is a collage artist. You put two ideas together, and you get a third new one.”

Read more here. Also, look up his book,
Steal like an Artist. It has plenty about the difference between copying and referencing. I haven’t read it yet, but there’s a couple of pages online.
When you think about the quote, it becomes a realisation that almost all new ideas are produced by mixing two or more others. Mermaids are women and fish, dragons are large lizards with wings and fire. Try drawing something you’ve never seen before – it’ll most likely be made up of little parts of things you have seen. This is probably how people in opposing nations come up with the same ideas without conference. Ideas seem to be a matching game in your head, switching between pairs until something clicks.
It’s all in your head.

#301

Reminder: invent odourless nail polish that is asthma friendly.
Next batch of overwhelmingly smelly yet very pretty objects popped out. They’re still soft, so probably should have waited a little longer, but I was impatient, and they’ll dry better not surrounded in the mould. I was looking at the other Mod Podge moulds that are in the set, and they have an actual gem shapes one. So, looking to be buying that asap. They’ll look lovely on boxes, I think and light enough for cards. Detailed for small projects. The bronze frames would work well as frames in a miniature room. The green and yellow ring fits inside a bottle cap, but I’m unsure what to do with that information.
If it wasn’t so cold, I’d do these things outside, maybe I should put it off until it warms up. Not like I have nothing else to create till then.
But they’re so pretty.

#300

Yay! 300 daily posts!
You may be wondering where I bought these cool looking gems and bee from, but I made them. Cool, huh? Using old nail polish (I love buying it but can’t apply it if my life depended on it, so I use them from craft,) I filled some small moulds full of nail polish, and waited for it to dry. When it dries, it kind of depletes, leaving a shell, so I refilled it once more with the polish, and when that dried, I filled the rest with glue, all before taking it out of the mould. The bee was a lot trickier to get out of the mould, but that was a sculpey mould, and wasn’t as dense as the other, Mod Podge brand mould that I used, which works so well. It takes quite a while for each layer to dry, and our house now smells like a nail salon, but I think they look awesome. The glitter polish seems to look best on the smooth cabochons, and more detailed ones are better with plain or superfine glitter. I have another bunch of experiments drying at the moment using the Mod Podge mould, including two colours and all the different shapes. Now that I think about it, I have a Wilton mould that might act similar to the Mod Podge one. There’s a whole bunch of moulds that I’d like to buy.
I’m working slowly on the website. Really slowly. Getting back into the swing of coding is fun, but there’s a lot that has changed. It’s less HTML and more CSS, and when did DIV replace tables? Eh, even getting the layout and colours right is tricky. Don’t even talk to me about the logo. I printed out a test and the raspberry colour was pixelated orange with unreadable words.
I brought out my tablet today after watching a video on Photoshop colouring techniques that I hadn’t seen before. Unfortunately, one of my cats decided it was a good time for cuddles, and kept stepping on my keyboard, changing my settings all the time. At least they don’t get messy stepping on my digital painting.

Tip #2

Buy clear or silver gems and colour with sharpies or copics (alcohol based inks) and you’ll get an intense coloured gem to match your project 🙂