Gothic Arch - Painting photo copies

This little girl I painted over with inks - but the picture looked too bright and new so I experimented with making it look aged and more like a oil painting so I embossed over it to give it a cracked look. But it still looked too new so....


I rubbed in some brown ink - but she still looked too pale in places.


I started rubbing in some more brown ink.



That's better but I still think she needs a bit more work done on her.



This is the result after 'ageing' the work. It is brighter in real life but by the time I had finished the light had dulled and it had started to rain outside. By brighter - I don't mean lighter - just clearer.

She looks more like a painting now than a photo.

I might well do a bit more when I look at her again.

A word of warning about painting with inks - if you don't have a steady hand the ink can 'leak' onto another place.

In this work I very carefully painted the blue fabric, going over it layer by layer until I got it dark and shaded in some places to give a bit of depth.

BUT

I had inadvertently painted some blue ink onto her hand - well it has spread over it - the paper must have been too wet. One thing you can't do with inks - which you can do with paints - is to ink over a lighter colour to cover up your mistakes.

BUT

I did come up with an ingenious way to rescue the blue stained hand and arm - without turning it into a tattoo.

Gothic Arch 1

I made this arch a few weeks ago - but felt it was lacking in something so did not use this one for a swap I was in.

I was going to 'bin' it as I usually do with things I am not happy with, but someone persuaded me to hang on to it.

So there it sat - on my display board on the wall - until today.



The backing paper was a piece of a Japanese shop's paper bag - which my daughter in law saved for me after a trip back to Japan.

It had a few bits of calligraphy stamped on it which I left.


After yesterday's playing with inks, I decided to see if I could 'save' this arch so had a go painting with inks again.

This photo was taken under a light - so not very good.


The above was taken by a window - its been raining all day so there was no way I could take a photo outside in natural light.

In 'real life' the colours are brighter and it looks quite dainty and pretty. The Japanese calligraphy I re-inked with the same colour as the flowers - but in a weaker shade.

Gothic Arch

I made this Gothic arch this afternoon - photographed it under a light.

I am considering entering it for a swap - but need to do a few more yet before I decide.

The backing paper is one that I made myself - then scanned it - as it was too thick - and I am pleased with the result of the whole sheet.

I made it layering paper on top of paper and painting it with thick paint - more layers and Japanese news paper and rough strips. I forgot all about it - it was in a book 'flattening'.

The image is a vintage Japanese black and white print - but I am 'into' colours at the moment - so I painted it with inks. It is quite intricate - so took a long while - but I am happy with it now that it is finished - I think.

This was taken in late afternoon daylight indoors.



I managed to achieve depth and shading painting on layers of ink - pretty tricky doing the garland of flowers - especially the stem - and painting the face white with the cupid lips!

You can't see on here - but in natural light you can see the shading, the strands of hair, and all the little details of the flowers.

Newsprint Japanese Arch

I decided to have a go at the Wednesday Stamper Challenge this week.

The challenge is to use newspaper in your art work, but also include some stamping.

The page I used came from a 2003 Japanese newspaper that was used for packing - which Haruko my daughter in law saved for me.

I covered the whole arch with a sheet of newspaper - then painted Guesso over it then painted it with distressed green ink.

Next I pasted on torn sheets of newspaper and stamped the bottom left hand corner and added another coat of distressed green ink, adding shades to emphasise the torn scraps.

I stamped a bit of calligraphy to tie it all in, and embossed the left hand side strip.

Next I added an image, and painted it with inks, watercolours and acrylics. I painted long hair, and her face white, with the pink flannel with white make up on it. I wanted her to look like a worn out Geisha, cleaning her white Geisha make up off.

The white is slightly textured with Gesso as is the white makeup on her face.

Across the bottom and the right hand side I used several layers of texture paste.

On the first layer I used Pine Needles - alcohol ink to make a dark base colour. The next layer of texture paste was bubbled up on top and I added some embossing gold and bronze.

When that was dry I added a little bit more paste here and there, and rubbed some metallic pink acrylic paint on it - then bubbled it all up again with a heat gun, including the clear embossed edge.

I finished it off with an Oriental colour co-ordinated bead threaded with gold wire to make a loop to hang it up by.

I hope they like it!

Circus

There is a new site called One Powerful Hour which challenges you to make a piece of art in an hour.

The title of this weeks challenge is Circus - and here is my entry




Zuzu and Ginger from Zuzu's forum I belong to - paid me an afternoon visit last week and showed my how to do textured work. (I haven't quite finished the Mermaid I did on that day - just need to get some beads to finish it off)

In the meantime I was raring to go to made the above circus arch.

I used a vintage circus poster from a CD collection of images I had, then with a pallet knife I spread on No Nails (an alternative to Texture Paste until I can get to the city to buy the real stuff)

I used alcohol inks and on top of the blender for the colouring and heat dried it until it bubbled. I then added lot so bright colours and glitter and sequins to get the feel of the circus.

I coloured the white clown and the lady acrobat with watercolour pencils, added clear embossing powder to highlight for example her legs and shoes (it looks white in the photo but isn't in natural light) more sequins, gold embossing, red liquid pearls to make the clown juggling balls, - and everything else I can think of!

It is hard to see in the photo - but with the naked eye it really glitters and shines which ever way you look at it.

Thank you my 'Mentors' giving me a wonderful afternoon - and kick starting me to try new techniques

Vintage bathing beauty gothic arch

I am struggling to make craft work - but I really wanted to join in some swaps this month.

This is my effort for Mandy's swap on Zuzu's forum

I painted some white card with wishy washy inks and gave it several coats - adding layers and shading as each coat dried.

I cut out the bathing beauties, and added more shading for the lady under the parasol

I stamped the seals, masking the ladies first - the seals make me laugh they look like they are smiling.

I stamped the life-saving ring for the lady to hold - that see looks a bit choppy so she might need it - and stamped the others last. Then to finish it off, I threaded a seashell onto some golden cord, to finish it all off

Asian Gothic Arch - Japanese

This backing paper came from a bit of Japanese shopping wrapping paper which my daughter in law saved from me.

Asian Arch

At last I am back crafting again.

There is an Asian Arch swap on Zuzu's forum which I am going to join in.

The backing for the above arch is genuine Indian material - I bought a very old skirt from a Charity Shop with a view to using the material - sometime!

I am fascinated with the different patterns you can get for henna hands. You can now buy patterns in 'prints' to go on your hand - not that I would of course.

The edging of the material had a faded gold pattern which I painted over with gold paint to bring it back to life.

I then painted the flowers on the backing material to mirror the flowers featured on the hands - and I painted the pattern at the point on the backing material to mirror the one on the arm, and the pattern of squiggles underneath

The little hanging glass squares came from a broken ballroom glitter ball, these I painted with alcohol ink and added the gold patterns - little mirrors are used a lot in Asian art.


It looks much brighter in real life and the gold glistens which is quite nice.

Tribal Theme

There was a challenge by Lazy Kay to make a tag with the theme Tribal.

Well I made them yesterday - took me a while as I am a bit out of practice - can't show them yet though until they are swapped.

But I also made the arch too.

I stamped the flowery image onto white card and then painted the whole card around it matt black. I added the image of the lady, and with liquid pearls did the dots - I was thinking at the time of the wonderful dotted hand patterns the ladies have when they get married.

As usual it looks better in real life as the pearl drops are all raised and I added a pearl to her forehead

Altered CD door hanger for young teenager grandaughter

I painted this printed image in oranges and reds, and greens for the front and added the orange ribbon for this door hanger and added golden hightlights here and there which really enrich it - but do not show up on the scan



She loves her tabby cat - is mad about him - so I had to put a cat on the reverse. Gorgeous metallic bronze paint doesn't show up - but it really compliments the orange - which is her favourite colour at the moment.

Stamped swirls - and the heavily embossed, stamped and gilded cardboard initial of her name.

I did the same thing for the initial on the one below too.

Gothic Arch for Mandy's Swap

My very first altered arch

Another all time first - an Arch - bigger than the ATC’s that I have been making so a different challenge. ‘All things pink’ is the theme for the swap.

I stamped pink swirls on mottled pink card then embossed them so to give a raised finish - and painted around them with several layers of gold paint to make them show up. Photos and scans of gold do not really show up well!

There is crinkled gold paper along the left hand side edge. The roses, dotted paper, gypsy image, and labels were all collaged on - and have been highlighted with sublte gold paint, then embossed. Again the embossing doesn’t look ‘right’ in the photo but does look nice and smooth with the naked eye.

I rather enjoyed making the arch so I think I will have another go at one in the week