Pink Bird Studio

Journal pages & mail art

I took advantage of a couple of Daily Paper Prompts from Daisy Yellow this weekend to inspire some work in my journal. 

The first was DPP 50 - Negative space.  I used an image from a magazine as a mask to make this page, scraping paint over the image after I had scribbled and gessoed the page.  I painted the orange in afterwards.  In the image, the man was standing in a window, so I kept the frame to add a bit of interest.

The second page was inspired by DPP 52 - white pages.  The challenge was to create a page in shades of white (with some contrast of course!).  I started out by adhering some stuff onto the page - like my receipt from Target - do you see it up there?  Dictionary page, washi tape - I think that was it.  Gesso was added, then some white paint mixed with a bit of Nickel Azo Yellow (because I seem to be out of Titan Buff?!  - I know - really?! - can you say emergency supply run!?). Eggs from bird book - more stencilling, doodling, pasting - you get the idea.  I was reminded of how much I loved the white book in the True Colours book from years ago. 

Last but not least - a little postcard that I was randomly covering with excess paint and finally decided to finish.

Time to go and try to finish up a few more projects!  Happy Sunday to you. 

 

Sketchbook Project, ATCs & other challenges

I have been wanting to get back to my Sketchbook Project journal - I am determined it won't be last minute like it usually is (I think I mention that each time I post about it).  At any rate, I managed to get two more spreads done.  I have three spreads left and something for the cover.  Should be a snap before January...right?  And if you have been thinking about signing up you still have time - sign ups close in October and books are due in January.  Go here for all the details!

This first one was inspired by one of the Daisy Yellow Daily Paper Prompts.  I'm so far behind now I'm doing them all out of order, which is perfectly fine.  Anyway, this was all about stamping circles - using objects to stamp circles that aren't necessarily meant to be stamps. 

I used the top of a pill bottle, the ends of several pens and the bottom of some paints and inks to make these circles except for the ones with the black lines (flowers?).  They were painted on a dictionary page with acrylics, doodled "petals" and then cut out and glued to the page.  Then there was more doodling and smudging - fun times! 

The next page was NOT inspired by Dr. Seuss as you might be guessing, but by an ad for a local (not restaurant, no.. not fish place) hair salon that I saw as I was riding the bus the other day after my car broke down (all is fixed now and under warranty too - a happy ending if ever there was one).

In case you cannot read my faint (and also messy) handwriting at the bottom, it says "I need the sea close by so I can breathe".  As a person born and raised in a coastal town I miss the sea almost as much as a person when I'm away.

These pages are together in my book and they share that "window" between them.  I made it using a window envelope and a swirly transparency.

I made a couple of ATCs this week as well as part of Daisy Yellow's Fun Colour Challenge.  I have mentioned the concept before - pick a colour from one list and a theme from the other.  I botched the first one - I picked "bubblegum" as my colour and "the sun" as the theme - well the sun wasn't on the list!  It was on the Daily Paper Prompt list though, so I have a pink sun that still fulfilled a challenge.  I had a good laugh at that but at the end of the day I do like the card.

I threw everything pink at it - sharpies, ink and Neocolour IIs - and wondered when DID I get all these pink supplies?  It is not something I usually reach for, but I will say I like this.  finished with red pen & blue Neocolour II.

So then I turned my attention to the real list of prompts - I chose bubblegum again and "happiness".  I think as a kid I'd have been pretty please with myself had I blown a bubble this size!

Bascially the same supplies as the sun card + a piece of dictionary. 

The other paring I chose was "black" and "magic".  Lest I get a bunch of voodoo practitioners or enthusiasts railing against this as a stereotype, remember the colour (background) is black - I'm not saying this cute little doll would be used in "black magic" - in fact I imagine hime to be quite benevolent.  He looks about as threatening as a gingerbread man.

 

I did complete one more Daily Paper prompt earlier in the week - it was simply "paint lines".  I kind of dismissed it when I read it but thought I would still give it a go.  It was relaxing and fun, and it also helped me learn a lot about loading up my brush with watercolours, how far they will go, how they blend or not, etc. as this is a relatively new medium for me - I think it looks like a tartan.

One more ATC I made for my mother since I liked my Leo one I made last week so well - my mother's BD was in July so instead of making her wait almost a year I just gave it to her yesterday.

 

Those are the bits and bobs of my week.

Art Journal Tangents & Tactics # 6 - Quirky Girls

Let me begin this rather long story of Daisy Yellow's 6th installment of the Art Journal Tangents and Tactics series at the beginning.  The first part of this exercise was to draw a grid and fill it with faces.  Faces that are also drawn.  By hand.  What?  But I don't draw I protested (to myself).  I'm just not doing this.  But it looks like fun!  I have these angel/devil conversations with myself fairly frequently...  Ok I will try it, but I'm not going to post it if it looks really bad...oh what the hell I will post it anyway.

As you can see, I will NOT be quitting my day job to draw portraits, but it was pretty fun I had to admit, and you can see they are human cartoon-y type faces that your average four-year-old might draw right?

The next step was to make an acrylic background and "draw" a face onto said background with high-flow acrylics, and then spray it with watered down paint to make it more abstract.  I used gold "Smooch" spray ink instead of watered down paint.  I'm lazy like that because I would have had to mix it up in a spray bottle, etc. where I could just pull the ready-made spray off the shelf!  And I like the hint of mica.

 

I wanted to put these pieces together with my "girl power" block lettering page that I made for Daily Paper  Prompt 37, but I had three pages for a two-page spread, one of which was already committed to the page.  What to do?

Of course I needed to make a fold-out spread!

I planned how the three pages would work together but then I realized I had to do something with the back of the abstract girl page because it would be folded over when the book was closed.  I chose to emulate a neon sign advertising "girls, girls, girls" leaving the reader wondering about what provocative material might be inside (or if you're a reader of this blog, whether I'd taken leave of my senses).

However, I assure you I have not.  This symbol of exploitation opens up to my finished girl power spread.  I hope the contrast and message are self-explanatory.

Three more Daily Paper Prompts

Over the last two days I completed three more Daily Paper Prompts (DPPs) from Daisy Yellow:

The first was DPP #36 - Messing Around with Paint

In the sample, the artist took her art en plein air and basically threw paint on her substrate, reminiscent of Jackson Pollock.  I liked the look but didn't want to explain what I was doing to my neighbours as I don't have a private yard, so I put my thinking cap on to see how I could get the look without carting all my stuff outside. 

Using High Flow acrylics, I dropped some on my page and then blew them around with a straw (don't you remember doing that in grade school?).  The second part of this challenge was to incorporate found text.  I found these words in an old typing book I'm using for various things.

Next was DPP 37 - Block Letters

Groovy baby!  These letters are SO 70's!

This is an exercise in understanding negative space and is not as easy as it looks.  It was fun though - kind of like a puzzle...

Last but not least (for this post anyway), was DPP 38 - Colour Grid

I bought this black pen at my local art store yesterday and was told it was waterproof.  It is the opposite of same so I'm not sure if the staff person was guessing or didn't know what "waterproof" meant, or was intentionally messing with me (I think guessing is the most likely!).  At any rate, I drew my grid with this NON-waterproof pen and then filled it in with watercolours.  I tried to use the bleeing edges to my advantage but I think this is a big fail.  Oh well, I will know going forward not to trust this pen, that's for sure!

Three more Daily Paper Prompts

I've completed three more Daisy Yellow Daily Paper Prompts (say that 10 times fast!).  They weren't necessarily done in this order but they appear on the list in this order.

Daily Paper Prompt #29 - Swirly Writing

This definitely could be redone with better effect, but the idea is to write in s swirly pattern - I think I will try this again because I like the effect but it missed a bit on the execution.

Daily Paper Prompt 32 - Invent a Font

Self-explanatory!  I started with the large letters in the middle (CMc) as my initials and built the rest of the alphabet.  What would I do differently?  I would make my initials a different colour so they would stand out more - other than that I like the look of this.  I painted the letters with red acrylic, outlined with a black micron and "dotted" with a white gel pen.

Daily Paper Prompt #34 - Puzzled

The idea was to make something using a crossword puzzle or other type of puzzle like anagram, sudoku etc.  I doubled down on the puzzle theme by adding a crossword to a giant puzzle piece (about 7" square) from a kids' puzzle picked up at a garage sale.

This reminded me of my Dad, who always said he was not artistic but used to give me ideas from time to time - one of them was using a crossword puzzle as a background.  I did use it and I know he enjoyed seeing his ideas brought to life.  I think he would get a kick out of this piece, especially knowing someone else thought of "his" idea so many years later. He was ahead of the curve. :)

Daily Paper Prompt #27, a new challenge, some mail art and another crazy cat lady!

Yes, I am combining four things in one post - let me know, my long-suffering reader, if this is better or worse for you!  I kind of like keeping things fairly segmented, but I also did not want to do four separate posts, so here goes nothing.

First of all is the Daily Paper Prompt #27 from Daisy Yellow.  Note that #27 was August 27's prompt and we're in September.  But, there is no real timeline on these and they are just for fun so...  Anyway, this prompt was called "slow journaling" which I found apropos since I am behind!  The idea is to take your time forming the letters and making them fit into odd-shaped lines.  It was fun and definitely challenging but so not me, at least not usally me.  I have done such things but usually for special cards or something. 

Next I decided to join in on yet another Daisy Yellow challenge - a weekly Fun Colour Challenge that you can read about here if you're interested.  I chose the colour "lemon" and the prompt "doodle" and came up with this UNmellow yellow design.

That lemon was on my work table (I kid you not) on the back of something I had torn out of a magazine for another project.  Serendipity.

Next, a person in a group I just joined asked who wanted to swap altered envelopes.  Her work is beyond amazine and of course I said "pick me" and she did (and many others!), and this is what i made to trade with her using acrylics and gel pen.  I started by gluing on a page from an old typing textbook, and yes the words "The Personal Letter" just happened to show up in the address area.  More serndipity!

Last but not least, a new page in my Crazy Cat Ladies board book.  Honestly these are so much fun to do!  This is number four of eight.

Daily Paper Prompt # 26 and Another Crazy Cat Lady Page

The Daily Paper Prompt # 26 was ATCs - I decided to make some of these for a trade with a group of ladies I traded in person with while I was working in Toronto this past winter. 

Sponged gesso on a bingo card, then painted with fluid acrylics.  After that I drew the tree trunk and branches with a black pen and then "stamped" the leaves or blossoms with  heavy body acrylic using the ends of some pens that were there. 

I also did another page in my Crazy Cat Ladies book.  These are so much fun.  I tried to do a calico for this one.  :)

If you've visited me this week thank you for your lovely comments - I will be catching up over the weekend.  It's been a busy week but all fun stuff with friends and family which left little time for art or blog visits.  So glad it's a three-day weekend!

Daily Paper Prompt 24 - A simple Plastic Card

Today's Daily Paper Prompt involves applying paint with a plastic card.  Easy peasy right?  But wait!  The challenge is to apply paint with ONLY a plastic card.  No filling in with a paintbrush or smudging with your finger. 

First I made a set of 10 ATCs - here is one in close-up:

First applied the base colours with the edge of an old card and then added the red and white by "stamping" with the edge.

Here are the other nine:

I didn't cheat on those hearts (I know you wondered!).  I picked up paint on the corner of the card and used it like a paintbrush.  It took awhile!  Like painting with the wrong end of your paintbrush...  The triangles were made by loading up one edge of the card with paint, setting it down and then twisting one end - like the needle on a dial.  The rest I think is self explanatory?  These were all done on canvas paper with heavy bodied acrylic.

I wanted to try this on something  printed and layered with fluid acrylics, just to note the differences.  I found a prepared postcard on my table that I prepped weeks ago just waiting for paint.  One caveat - it was already prepped which means the think layer of gesso had been applied with a sponge, not the card. 

This started out as an old bingo card.  I cut a hole in it.  I glued a window envelope to the back and then added an abstract transparency to the window.  I taped around the front with some printed tape and then added a thin layer of gesso (all this prep was already done and dried before I started today).  I started to drag various colours of fluid acrylics over the card with my plastic card.  I liked the way it pooled up in some spots at the edges of the tape.  After that layer was dry I wanted to add some arc and circle shapes to mimic what was in the window.  The circles were done like the hearts - using the corner of the card to "paint" with - but the circles were a lot less fussy than the hearts!  The arcs were just done by applying paint to a small are of the card and swiping it in an arc mostion instead of a straight line.

Daily Paper Prompts #22 and 23

Yesterday's Daily Paper Prompt was "Map".  To draw a map of something imaginary.  Well mine might not quite be imaginary but I used my imagination to make a map of the mind. 

Todays prompt asked us to draw a mandala.  Well although I was way happier with these than my original attempt during the ICAD challenge (that I've linked to below), I still don't think these are ever going to be my "thing".  They are fun and meditative to work on though.

 

Related articles

ICAD Day 8

Daily Paper Prompt # 21 - Stamp a Mandala

Yesterday's Daily Paper Prompt was to stamp a mandala using rubber stamsp.  I used my alphabet stamps and then added some colour with Derwent Inktense blocks.  Another fun exercise.