Little Red Studio

Finally, The Artwork I Promised to Post!

In my last post, oh so many weeks ago, I said that I would post a picture of what I created digitally from the background that I made from CitraSolv and a National Geographic page.  Here it is, finally...

Remember, the collage started with this background.....

The collage was created using several layers, different blending modes, a Photoshop brush, different opacities, a photo of my ceramic tree frog, and more Photoshop tools than you want to know about!  The fish on the original background were a product of the ink dissolving with the addition of CitraSolv....there were no fish on the original National Geographic photo!  I love using this method for backgrounds, then seeing what it suggests to me.

 

Playing with CitraSolv and Digital Art

 

 

It all starts with a copy of National Geographic and a bottle of Citrasolv!  If you are not familiar with Citrasolv, it is a citrus-based cleaner concentrate.  There are a number of videos on Youtube showing how to use this product with National Geographic pages, as well as info on the citrasolv site.

The idea is to dissolve the inks on the page until the picture is abstract and unrecognizable.  This process only seems to work on National Geographic pages!  After making a number of these abstract pages, I scanned the (dried) pages and used them to create digital collages.  I usually make some changes to the scanned backgrounds and even combine more than one of them with Photoshop layers.  For instance, the photo below combines two different Citrasolv pages...

 

Then it is just a matter of adding layer after layer of images and text.  In the first photo above, I scanned some drawings that were in my own sketchbook and added them.  In the beach picture, I used a photo I had taken of my granddaughter, Angel, at the beach.  In some of the collages, I use Dover clipart, or, as in the angel photo above, a face from historic artwork. The photo below is an untouched, scanned Citrasolv background....I have already started a collage using this page.  You will notice that on the left some of the original National Geographic photo shows through.  The rest is all dissolved and textural. 

I will share the collage I created from this in a future post!

 

Paint and Paper and Ink....Oh, My!

I have been taking a few online courses in the past year, and watched some free videos on Youtube by Teesha Moore.  I love trying out new ways to journal and using as many media as I can!  Right now I am taking a journaling class from Milliande and from Carla Sonheim.  I also enjoyed taking workshops from Suzi Blu. There are so many great teachers and tutors online.  It is fun and a bonus is seeing what others are doing.  Most of the classes allow sharing photos of student work.  

The two photos above are journal pages I just did yesterday for the Milliande Journal Class.  There are a lot of different paints, pens, pencils and paper in this one!

This is one I just finished in the style of Teesha Moore.  Lots of magazine and catalog illustrations and a painted background, with the addition of black marker, white pen, and Pan Pastels.

I drew this face in a Moleskine sketchbook with graphite and prismacolor pens.  Then I scanned it, printed it on drawing paper and painted with Golden Fluid acrylic paint, Lumiere paint, and Byzantia paint by Stewart Gill, rub-on flowers, rubber stamped birds and some torn images from a paper napkin.

All of these are very different, and all of them were a lot of fun.  That is the best part of mixed media art...the chance to play and have fun with my art supplies and found objects!

I am thinking about teaching workshops in Lexington.  I just need to decide what to teach.  I have taken so many art classes and workshops for years and have a zillion books, as well as lots of art supplies.  Any suggestions?

Great Opportunity to Save 55% on Artella Membership!

Here's a great gift for all the creative people on your list, including yourself!  Through December 31, you can save 55% off your choice of any of Artella's unique Luxury Memberships, PLUS you'll also get a bonus eGift Card up to $50.  An Artella Membership is a unique gift of endless inspiration that just keeps continuing, month after month...a great way to show the creative people in your life how much your support their creative dreams, again and again! Just Click on Artella and check it out.

 I have been a member of Artella for about 5 years now and there is a wealth of information there, as well as free gifts and free classes for members.  This is an excellent time to try it out.

 

Free Artella Book!

Download a FREE copy of the Artella eBook, Artella Mae's NEW Altered Ancestors!, a 58-page eBook overflowing with ideas and techniques for using vintage photos in your artwork. Download your copy here!

Poor Little Lonely Blog!

I can't believe I have ignored my blog for so long!  Where have I been?  What have I been doing?  Certainly not cleaning the house.  This is a busy little town to live in and I have had lots of great things to do lately.  Eat your heart out, big city dwellers.  This weekend we are invited to a Halloween Mystery Party.  I am going to play the part of Rebecca Ravioli.  I just wish I had a 1920's flapper dress to wear.  This is going to be fun!

Fall is here in full force today.  The trees have turned color and it is so windy today that there are thousands of leaves swirling past the windows.  I a upstairs in my favorite room in the house and I can watch clouds floating by and hear the rattle of leaves on the yellow poplar behind my studio.  Love it here.  

Yesterday, at the River Reader Bookstore, I met a few of the candidates for office in Missouri, including Robin Carnahan.  Ike Skelton, our congressman, lives here in Lexington and is also running for another term.  I am not very political, but I do know who I will be voting for!

I have been in the mood for some good soups lately and last week I made on of my favorites....potato soup.  I used my memory of the Stephenson's Apple Farm recipe and wasn't disappointed.  Here is good site for seasonal recipes at Martha Stewart's Everyday Food.  This is the time of year for pumpkins, squash, brussels sprouts and much more.  

We drove to a wildlife refuge in north Missouri -Swan Lake - a week or so ago to view the migrating birds.  It was an hour and a half drive and it was a beautiful fall day.  We took a picnic lunch and had a nice walk on the nature trail.  The only problem was that there were very few birds!  We did see a few ducks but that was it.  We actually saw more birds when we came back home.  There were a number of pelicans on the north side of the Missouri River here at Lexington.  I did take some photos at Swan Lake, but I was a bit disappointed.  Can you see the little ducks in the lower part of the photo?

It may be hard to tell, but these are the pelicans on the mighty Missouri River near Lexington.....

I have been doing some doodles that are known as Zentangles!   Here is one example..

This is a scan of my journal, sized about 5 x 8 inches.  I use fineline black ink markers.  This is not meant to be a great work of art at this point, but a doodle!  It is fun and relaxing.

Now I am going to view a video for an online class, Art, Heart and Healing by Tam at Willowing and Artist Friends.  Check her out.  On to class.......

 

Food and Fun at Fiesta Mart

Earlier this month I drove to Richmond, Texas, to visit my lovely daughter, Kim, and her family.  We spent one afternoon visiting a nearby town, Rosenberg.  We went to an antique store, had lunch at Another Time Soda Fountain, and visited a great shop that makes beautiful furniture, Hawkins Furniture Co.   

The last place we stopped was the Fiesta Mart Grocery.  I took my camera in with me and was loving all of the color all around me....but then I was pleasantly surprised by the sounds of a mariachi band.  This is not something I see or hear in our local Dave's grocery!  I also photographed a cute clown, "Rainbow."  She was there to fill balloons with helium, on her way to entertain at a children's party.  Her name is Gloria Brown, and I bet that she would do a great job of entertaining kids. 

I was only in Fiesta Mart for 10 minutes, but I was impressed!  

 

  

 

  
 

Smile! 

Enter a Great Contest

One of my favorite sites, The Vintage Workshop, is sponsoring a contest on their blog...Here!  Just click on the link and read all about it.  The Vintage Workshop has some great downloadable images and I have used a number of them for cards and gifts.  All of them have a vintage look, of course, and there are many to choose from.  Some of my favorites are floral, but I also love the Christmas and Easter designs.  Here is a design from their White and Black Christmas ll (IE334) collection that I digitally colored and used as a Christmas card.

 

I added the stars, the music and the text, as well as the color.  Check out their site for more information on the contest and their images. 

Gypsy Doll for the Gypsy in Me....

I finally finished my Gypsy art doll.  She has an Asian look, and I love the colors.  I used painting techniques I learned from a class at Moss Hill Studio Workshops.  The body of the doll is an old red oil can!  I used a lot of fabric and lace from my large stash, and hand-dyed some of it.  The little "hat" is a hand-dyed lace leaf and the tiny rose is real.  It is dried and glossed.  I found the perfect wooden base when I visited my son and his family in March.  He had a lot of old carved wooden pieces from Indonesia, and I found a square one with the original paint.  That inspired me to finish her.  Here she is....

Be sure to check out Moss Hill Studio.  She has wonderful online classes!  Joanna Pierotti is also a very prolific doll artist and a real inspiration to me.  I have seen her work featured in several books and magazines.  Her blog is Moss Hill Blog.  Thank you, Joanna!

Sweet Digital Fun

I love Photoshop!  I could spend hours (and often do) just playing with photos that I have taken, some of them as long as 20 years ago.  I discovered this website, Pugly Pixel, yesterday, and had some fun with one of their free downloads.  The subject is my granddaughter, a photo taken about 4 years ago.  She is intently drawing in her sketch book.  She and her older sister are both very artistic, and we had a great time in early April taking a Chinese Watercolor class together in Maryland.  We also spent one whole day creating Easter cards with rubber stamps, watercolor pencils, embossing powder, stickers and more.  I love doing artwork with my grandchildren....I just wish they all lived closer to me so we could do that more often.

The background of this photo was created in Photoshop using one of my pictures of a hibiscus to begin with.  the flourish is a brush from Cottage Arts.  They have great digital scrapbooking papers, brushes, blends and more.