Tag: acrylic

Fun with Acrylics

Dear Liza,

Ruthie Inman has done it again. On a chilly day after two very busy days, I was feeling tired and not terribly artistic. Not awful, but … blah. And sure enough, within ten minutes of our art group’s beginning, I was slapping paint down like an inspired ten year old.

Before we got together, I had started an alternate project, coating the photo side of old postcards with gesso so they would take paint better. My plan was to use the same paints from Ruthie’s project on my alternate postcard project. I pulled out a dark blue, lemon yellow, and white as my color scheme.

I started with my project, laying down colors in a pleasingly haphazard way. Wet but not runny, brushing to blend until I liked it.

Then, at an inspiration from Ruthie, I pulled out my impressions makers (an odd collection of Starbucks coffee cup holders, fruit packing sleeves, crumpled tissue and bubble wrap) to change the textures of my colors.

I made about eight postcards in all, and one even looked something like Ruthie’s idea, this lovely, opalescent landscape. Of course, following directions is always optional, but it’s good to try new things.

Anyway, with this pile of colorful backgrounds, I can think about what can go on for the next layer. Some more textures? Collage pictures or words? Maybe some handwritten sentiments or just pretty squiggles?

Who knows?

Love,

Grandma Judy

Building a Page

Dear Liza,

I am still playing in the journal Ruthie Inman got me started on a month ago. The cover is made of tissue paper built- up on fabric with thinned white glue, and has these pinks and greens.

I got quite a few of the pages done,

and then it was time to sew it all together. Using the awl and thread Ruthie sent me last year, I followed her directions and pierced and sewed the pages into the cover.

But I still had the center pages, the double page spread, completely blank. I wanted it to reflect the soft pinks and greens that are in the rest of the book, but couldn’t find collage materials I liked.

Finally, I painted them myself, using watered down acrylic paint. A sea green and a phthalo green gave me the look I wanted.

I kept building up layers of tissue paper, tissue leaves from napkins and such, trying for a sort of dreamy landscape look.

Then I made a mistake. I thought these pink worm-like bits of magazine paper would fit in, so I glued them down. The next morning, I realized that they were a bad choice. It took a few days for me to figure out how to fix it.

I got brave and used an exact-o knife to trim to awful pink bits away and repair the scratches with bits of deeper pink tissue. I like that every layer shows the layers underneath.

Now I have the dreamy landscape I wanted. I might find something else to add to it, someday. But for now, I love it.

Love,

Grandma Judy