Art Resin Challenge!

Last month I was approached by one of the wonderful employees at Art Resin with an offer & a challenge. They would supply me with free resin if I would create something new to share with my (and their) audience. SO…(drumroll please!) here it is!

Well, okay…here is ONE of the pieces! 🙂 There are three in total. I’ve done several pieces using the quilling techniques to make the designs – some inspired by nature, others very abstract. These three take their cue from the great outdoors. This piece, in particular, has a specific representation. The flowing terrain below that rising sun was inspired by watching the sun rising over a desert landscape. It’s created in an 8×8″ wood panel, turned upside down. Title? Desert Sunrise, of course!

Since this was a challenge I tried to think of what I could do to make this pour different. I settled on LIGHTS…each piece has a round portion of the background cut out and a clear Petri dish glued down over it. The paper design is attached to the front side of the dish. Small, remote control twinkle lights fit into the Petri dish behind the art and glow & sparkle through that section of the design! I also painted the background of these pieces, which I had not done before. I’m still deciding if I like them that way or not!

Now I’m going to blitz you with a bunch of “progress” images captured during the creation of these pieces:

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Modifying the wood panels, various quilling tools and paper pieces, stages of creation, and all the pieces taped off, ready for the resin pour!

I did make a few videos of the process too, you can see them by following the links shown here:

Prep and Intro

Pre-Pour

Pouring the First Piece

In addition to the finished image of Desert Sunrise above, here are the other two pieces that were created:

Moonlight over the River, 8×10″

Summer Tree, 8×10″

Although the final images turned out just fine the pour had a moment of panic in it! When pouring the piece “Moonlight over the River” it took me several times pouring the resin before I figured out there was a leak around the Petri dish I had glued to the panel. I lifted it up to see a HUGE puddle of resin growing on the table. Ack! Ductape to the rescue! I can assure you before I started to pour the next piece it was inspected for leaks AND had tape added, just in case. 😉

I want to thank the great people at Art Resin, this was a fun challenge! You can find these pieces on my website if you’re interested in purchasing.

Your randomly creative artist friend,

Lynne

Lettering Short-Cut

I love to include words, quotes and text in my art but, despite some instruction and practice, I’m not always thrilled with the way my hand drawn letters turn out. This little hack is a favorite of mine and I thought you might find it useful as well! This was just an impromptu, messy fingers project that popped into my head one day. The first step was to add acrylic paint to the board I was painting. Somedays my favorite paint tools are my fingers, and this was no exception.

I have accumulated a large selection of fonts on my computer (there are many resources for free downloadable fonts available online) and have fun using different ones in digital creations, advertising and such. They are especially handy when lettering on artwork! Some of my batik work is done on Unryu paper which is transparent enough you can actually just trace the letters onto the paper as they are visible when placed underneath.

“Psalm 11:7”
Batik art, three steps – lettering, adding ink, after the batik process

If I’m working on wood or canvas I have a way of getting the letters on my art that works very well. First I measure the space where I want the words placed and create a blank file in Photoshop Elements that is the same size. Then, using the type function I type, resize and arrange the letters to suit my project. This is what the file looked like for the project I am showing you:

I printed it the exact size as the file (which meant it had to be printed in two sections) and then taped together the pieces. The next step was to turn it over and take either pencil or charcoal and cover the back of the paper where the letters were printed.

You want to cover it fully, the pencil or charcoal is going to be used like copy paper to make outlines of your letters onto your art. Turn it over and position it where you want the letters to be on your art and then take a ball point pen and trace the outlines of each letter. I get excited and always want to rush things so come to find out my paint wasn’t as dry as usual, I ended up lifting some of it from the wood when I applied the marks. It still worked!

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Now that I had the outline on the artwork I could use markers, paint pens or a really steady brush to add the colors and outline for the lettering and any details I decided to include. I decided to just handwrite the “hello” portion of the lettering and kind of wish I’d have traced that too. Oh well! Here is the final piece.

Let me know if you try this technique for adding letters, I hope it’s inspired you to get creative!

Your randomly creative friend,

Lynne

Sunshine (and some friends)

As I’ve been working from a table in the kitchen while waiting for the finish of the studio construction my art took a turn toward the small. 

Many pieces were created on scraps of wood collected from the building and some, like this sun, are on small 6×6″ wood panels. Painted backgrounds in various shades led me to create a variety of different images with torn book pages. Here are the beginning stages:

To see how this, and others progressed, here are additional images.

I like to add shading with charcoal or graphite before I do the outline & design work. It helps the pieces to seem more dimensional! The details are done with marker and ink. These are just a few of the pieces I made over the last few months. Some have found new homes during art shows and from galleries and a few are still keeping me company. I’ve even presented a couple of classes guiding others through the process, which was a lot of fun!

Keeping creative,

Lynne