Testing, testing, one, two FAIL

I decided to test the next planned step of Dressed to Design before committing to it because everything I read about Crackle Medium convinced me it is difficult to work with and can take a lot of practice to get it right. Not being one who likes to practice alot, I gave it two shots before giving up for the day.

Mixing colours and getting ready to "Crackle"

While waiting for the crackle medium to dry I painted the chicken wire white to see how it might work as a "stamp" on the black background. Didn't give the effect I imagined but it did give a nice "cracked paint" effect, infact it worked better than the crackle medium did. 

Crackle Fail

Oh well, I'll see how I feel next time I break out the craft box and take it from there. In the meantime, I've started on a "patchwork" cat which will feature here when I get around to taking pics and maybe even finishing it.

Preview

Dressed to design

Things never go where you expect them to. Today while I was trying to decide which papers to use to make little party dresses for Paper Quilt cards,  I came across the little booklet I picked up from the National Portrait Gallery's "Heads and Tales, Portraits tell stories" exhibition. Decided to nick some of the *images from it,  cutting out detail from the cloth areas the subjects are wearing, far more interesting than scrapebooking paper. The next step may include crackle medium and chicken wire - watch this space.

*Just for future reference - Self portrait with gladioli 1922 George Lambert, Kay Cottee 1993 Pamela Thalben-Ball, Dr John Yu 2003-4 Ah Xian)

Details

I want this blog to be a vehicle to expand my creativity, to motivate me into creative action.  As far as "art practice" goes I want to ...hold my own, know my name and go my own way...(Details in the Fabric - Jason Mraz).


Todays offering is a test run for a larger peice for my grand daughter's (jnr E) bedroom. I think it will work better with stronger colours for the birds, particularly the flying bird, to improve the balance. Excuse the art wank.

Past the (first) Post

Finally, I am posting to my new blog - my first blog. Why? I am a graphic designer who due to circumstances out of my control (long story) seem to have lost touch with my creativity. So in an effort to get back into the swing of things and thanks to encouragement from The Shopping Sherpa I'm committing to post at least once a week. Which means I have to create "something" or do something interesting at least once a week so I have something to post. Make sense? I hope so.


I want to focus on hands on art and intend going by the philosophy of "it's all in the doing", Bad luck if I (or you) don't like the end product (highly likely as I have very little experience), it's all a learning curve. If you decide to join me on this journey then I hope you will give me plenty of feedback and enjoy your time with me.

Step one of the first page in my art journal - still needs lots of work but it's a start