Willowing ATC May 2010

This month the featured theme was 'Little Houses of Love'.

For this piece, I wanted to use a subject that most people dont think of with any love nor even affection. Snails seemed to be an ideal subject, the majority of people are not overly fond of these little creatures with their spherical exoskeletal home, although the abundance of them in my garden probably encourages the hedgehogs so I should be grateful they choose visit me. 

 

'Little Houses of Love'  

(Size 2.5"x 3.5 ") 

worked in mixed media and included acrylic, ink, newspaper.

For my second card I chose the theme 'Goblin' .

I have been having somewhat of a running battle with these little people for some time now - perhaps I could appease them by dedicating a piece of art to them?

'Goblin'  

 (Size 2.5"x 3.5 ") 

worked in ink with a watercolour wash

- perhaps my favourite medium.

Horoscope & Squirrel - ATC latest

I have received word that Roxanne @ Willowing & friends has recieved the ATCs that I send her for the April swap so I can post the details of the cards I made for her.
The theme for April was Horoscope and AN Other. As Roxanne's starsign is cancer I worked my design around this, looking through archived images of the earliest images of the representation of 'the crab'.
My design was worked in mixed media - pen & ink, watercolour, gouche and acrylic. It was finished by coating in acrylic pearlescent ink and then finally in acrylic varnish. This gave the card a shimmer effect and blended in sharp edges.

ATC 1 - Horoscope

For the second card I decided to create a painting of a squirrel - I have no idea why (I guess I just enjoy painting animals). This was initially going to be an inked sketch - however I started working with some vivid gouache colours and decided that I liked the effect of a heavy application of a combination of gouache and acrylics. The work was completed by some more delicate brush work which took the place of ink (as ink can sometimes be particularly difficult to apply effectively over acrylic paint). To complete the card a couple of coats of satin varnish were applied to add a sheen and protect the paint.

 ATC 2 - Squirrel

Feline gorgeousness

Mary has now received the cards I sent to her - we decided to do 2 pieces with a feline theme. The cards are 2.5" x 3.5" as usual. 

The cards were once again mixed media - but primarily acrylic . I also moved out from my usual 'style' & comfort zone for these. I have not had so much experience with acrylics but was pleased with the vivid colours I was able to achieve - and the fact that I could paint light on dark.
The sunset on the cat and mouse card is a watercolour wash. The cat & mouse are black acrylic and the cats collar is a silver acrylic. There is also an element of ink for the details in the whiskers.

The morroccan sleeping cat was worked in acrylic and ink. Here the increased use of colour is more obvious and is something I will probably play as I hope to have an  increased use of bright colours in my paintings.







In return I received two beautiful cards from Mary.

These have been worked using a variety of techniques - including collage, ink, pan pastel, old prints & glimmer mist. They are gorgeous. x

March ATC - on Willowing

It's April, its sunny and relatively warm and tomorrow is the beginning of Easter - and if that wasn't enough today I received two sets of ATC swaps. I am only posting the cards that I have swapped with Tam (@ Willowing) as Mary hasn't received the ones I have sent out - the other ATCs I will post in the next day or so when I have confirmation that Mary has seen the cards I have sent her :) )


March's swapping theme was Picasso & AN other.

Here are the cards that I created  for Tam -

This is a watercolour and ink card of based on a larger piece I am working on. I chose this theme as we are in the spring leading up to Easter and I enjoy working around various seasonal pieces.








My Picasso themed card was based on an earlier painting of my own ('Making an Entrance' - this can be seen earlier in the blog) which I reworked in a style remeniscent to Picasso's later work.








In return Tam sent me two lovely trading cards which I have sceanned and inserted here so that you can get an idea of them -

 Both of the cards have a lovely texture and the scanned images do not do the colours justice. Some of the overall details have also been lost in the final scan  - this image has beautiful vivid pink text overlayed around the top and edges - this unfortunately cannot be seen on the scan.

ATC February for Willowing and Friends

Mindy @ Willowing has now received the trading cards I sent her so I can post pictures of them :) The theme for February was Africa and proved quite a challange. In the end I settled upon a pen and ink wash of a pair of carved fertility dolls that I have and also a watercolour sunset landscape. Although the landscape took less time I think that this one is my favourite of the pair as I love the way the colours have blended.