Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Today's Productivity Post and Refocusing My Purpose: Consistency and Meaning in Effort

drypoint pull shellToday I pulled some drypoint prints from an acrylic sheet. drypoint pull shell
I made four pulls from each of my three shell plates.

drypoint pull shell
 




I also recorded more on a painting I am doing, but my camera battery ran out and I couldn't find the charger I thought I had at my art corner.








I am also working on refining the purpose and meaning to pull my art from.
An artist could work to have a consistent body of work many ways, by design of the individual pieces, their display, style, media, etc. I would like to take it one step higher up, however.

I would rather work for and from a purpose. I crave meaning in my career and efforts, and I figure  that if the origins of the art stem from a shared purpose, or theme, that the consistency will grow out of that instead, and create a stronger unity to my body of work overall, with themes that run through the projects individually.

This re-vamping of purpose will mean re-writing my artist's statement, a lot of journaling, and changing around my portfolio. I'm ok with that. It's about the long term body of work, not the skill building simple paintings I have been doing so far.


Monday, November 23, 2015

Cyber Monday Deals On Etsy Store--Handmade Gifts and Fine Art!



I've been planning on releasing lots of new things on my 
Etsy store for 

Cyber Monday!!!! 

Limited Edition Prints

 

 

 

Items to look forward to:

  • Original Paintings in Digital Transfer, Acrylic and Oils
  • Subscription Art
  • Limited Edition Drypoint Print Originals
  • Custom Fine Art
  • Sets of Notecards with Fine Art Prints
Fine Art Originals









Want to save a bunch on these 

awesome handmade items?

Subscribe to my newsletter for a special Christmas Newsletter Bundle! 

Subscribe for this coupon!
In this bundle, you will receive:
  • A printable sheet of hand-painted gift tags
  • An article with unique gift ideas and where to find them! 
  • A coupon for my Etsy store for 20% off your ENTIRE purchase in my store.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

The Process of a Hand-pulled Drypoint Print from a Plexiglass Plate

This is the story of an experiment of hand-pulling a dry-point print with oil paint and a acrylic sheet as a plate.  


I had this charcoal sketch that  I liked, but the fixative I sprayed on it  came out in globs and ruined the canvas. So I took pictures of it and am experimenting with many techniques of transferring and printing. 

This time, it's drypoint.

I taped an acrylic sheet to the top of a print out of the charcoal sketch so it wouldn't move while I was scratching the lines I wanted. The image itself is designed to be 8"x10."

This is part of the mark-making in progress.
Here is the finished plate on a black paper background to check the linework.
handpulled drypoint inked plate


This is the inked plate and the oil paint I used to ink it. I learned from a few failed pulls to mix it with a bit of paint thinner first. 

I also used a dollar store squeegee to wipe off most of the paint at first, and paper napkins to clean up the edges--but not rub over the lines, if possible. 









Here are a few failed pulls. I also used a paper with too much texture, and it didn't get in the crevices.
I tried acrylic paint too, but it was my technique that wasn't working.

handpulled drypoint prints


Here are my successful pulls!  For the scope of this project, I used no cloth under my brayer rolling pin, and instead also rubbed it with a smooth glass lid as well, and it it really worked.


handpulled drypoint prints

handpulled drypoint print 





This is my favorite print right now. I think I will try to make 5-7 altogether, and mat them to put on Etsy as editions!!!






Monday, November 16, 2015

5 Ways to Support Your Artist Friends When You Have Little Money

textured fish painting So, you have little to no money, but you have a struggling artist friend and you want to help? 

No worries! 

There are plenty of things you can do! 

Here's 5. 

 

 

1. Share!

Whether you can afford your friend's art or not, letting people know about their work is one of the most important things you can do. Facebook, Twitter, any social media, and especially word of mouth. Maybe you know somebody that knows somebody. We love that.


2. Prints

Is there an original you absolutely love, but just can't afford your friend's price point? The price point is there for a reason, and you want your artist friend to get their fair price. Why not ask for a print? Maybe it can be smaller than the original too, but you can support them and get in on the action yourself!!

3. Subscribe

Maybe you're not completely into art yourself, but our subscriber numbers can get us really excited, and is a simple way to know what's going on in our artsy brains. Don't forget to share it if you do find it fascinating!


4. Attend and Bring a Friend

If you really want to support your artistic friend, put your miles where your mouth is and attend gallery and show openings- and bring people with you! We want to pay attention to you, but may be closing a sale. And your friend might like to share our art too.

 

 5. Commissions and Trades

Maybe you can arrange to do their dishes or trade something like car maintenance to give them more time to do the arting. Or, if they are willing to negotiate, commission smaller pieces from them.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Update of a Work in Progress.


I painted this first one when I felt guilty and rather discordant inside. There is a distinct style that was emerging from it.


And this is the painting as of tonight. More rendered and dimensional. I want to put back some of the colors into it.

paint tubes acrylic