Tuesday 30 June 2015

New Stash, and Gold Seahorse Masterboard

Today I did some art in my studio for the first time for ages! I have several occasions coming up which require cards, and I need to make some fairly quick ones without too much work involved, because energy is in short supply, and I shall be having my third chemo treatment on Friday and who knows how I’m going to feel after that!!

So I thought I would make a masterboard and cut it up and make several cards from it.

I got some very exciting new stash today! First of all, I’d ordered some thin metal angels’ wings from Etsy, along with some vintage mini-bouquets, and they arrived this morning.

Metal Angels' Wings and Mini-Bouquets from Etsy June 15

Metal Angels' Wings from Etsy Detail June 15

I am intending to make moulds from some of these wings, so that I can replicate them in different materials (polymer clay, Friendly Plastic, etc.) depending on how well the moulds go – the metal is very thin and it might be hard to press it down evenly into the moulding putty. Notice the attached haloes on the larger wings! You can bend the halo forwards so that it hovers above the angel’s head! The mini-bouquets are very pretty and I thought I could split these apart and use them for angel embellishments.

Later in the day, the most exciting parcel arrived. I decided not long ago to get the complete set of Dylusions paints. I am so fed up with ruining decent pens by writing with them over acrylic paint – there’s something that reacts and causes the ink in the pen to stop working, and once that happens there’s nothing to be done – the pen is ruined and just has to be thrown away. I read a review of these new paints and was pleased to learn that they are designed specifically for art journaling and of course writing is an essential part of that discipline, and the paints do not cause the pens to clog. I have watched a number of Youtube videos over the past few days and can see how versatile these paints are, and how you can blend them, and create great backgrounds with them. The colours are identical to the Dylusions sprays but their usage is different, and you an get quite a bit more control with them.

Dylusions Paints June 15

I began my masterboard by creating a background from several of these paints. These are some of the materials I used for this masterboard.

01 Materials

I applied the paints using a baby wipe, picking up the smallest amount of paint each time, from inside the lid of the jar. The card I have used for the masterboard isn’t very good quality – it’s A3 office grade card, so I would probably have got better results with the blending if I’d used better quality card. Layer 1 was done with London Blue.

02 Layer 1 - London Blue

Layer 2 was created with Vibrant Turquoise. With the blending not going quite as well as I’d hoped, I decided to go for a swirling pattern.

03 Layer 2 - Vibrant Turquoise

Layer 3: Cut Grass.

04 Layer 3 - Cut Grass

Layer 4: Squeezed Orange – just a little, between the swirls where there wasn’t so much colour.

05 Layer 4 - Squeezed Orange

Layer 5: Lemon Zest – a very small amount, just to highlight the Squeezed Orange.

06 Layer 5 - Lemon Zest

For layer 6, I mixed together some Vibrant Turquoise and some White Linen to produce a paler shade.

07 Mixing Vibrant Turquoise and White Linen

Creating Layer 6:

08 Layer 6 - Vibrant Turquoise and White Linen Mix

Time for some stamping. I used the water droplets stamp from Designs by Ryn, with Ranger Cobalt Archival Ink.

09 Equipment for Water Droplets Stamping

10 Water Droplets Stamping Completed

At this point I felt that the whole thing was much too bright and the water droplets were too dark, so I decided to apply a wash with some White Linen paint mixed with some water.

11 Mixing White Linen Wash

I applied this with a foam brush over the entire surface of the masterboard, but it left quite a lot of streaks, so I took a fan brush and made swirling brush strokes through the wash, which gave a better effect.

12 Applying the White Linen Wash

The wash completed. I am much happier with this result. The colour is much more subtle and the water droplets not so obvious.

13 White Linen Wash Completed

Time to stamp the shells. I used Distress Inks for this, but they didn’t go down onto the acrylic surface very well, and took quite a bit of drying with my heat gun, but in the end I was quite pleased with the result.

I began with the little starfish from the Seven Gypsies set, using Tea Dye Distress Ink, but this came out quite pale with a slightly greenish cast over the turquoise background.

14 Equipment for Stamping Shells

For the scallop shell I used Gathered Twigs Distress Ink:

15 Stamping the Shells

and for the other shell, Rusty Hinge.

16 Stamping the Shells

The shell stamping completed.

17 Shell Stamping Complete

Time to add the heat-embossed seahorses. The seahorse stamp came from the same Seven Gypsies set as the shells.

18 Equipment for Heat-Embossing the Seahorses

The gold embossed seahorses complete. I completed four at a time.

19 Gold Heat-Embossed Seahorses

I think you can see how nice and shiny they are in the photograph. I wanted to add a bit more sparkle, so I applied some variegated copper gilding flakes in small patches, using a glue pen, and stippling them on with a brush, and then brushing off the excess.

20 Equipment for Applying the Gilding Flakes

Here is the completed masterboard, showing the shiny seahorses and gilding flakes.

21 The Completed Masterboard

I am very pleased with the new paints. If the quality of the card had been better I think the blending might have gone better, but I like the way the colours go together, and how you can control them, and lighten or darken the effect with the addition of white or black, and other colour mixing, giving you the full range of colours. In their raw state the colours are very vibrant and not a bit subtle, and I think for most of the time I shall be mixing them for a gentler, more subtle effect. The addition of a white colour wash certainly improved this piece, I think.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, your masterboard is fabulous - I love the colours and the sea theme - the seahorses are gorgeous in embossed gold. I haven't seen those paints before , I like the size and shape of the pots, they look easier to store than all the awkward shaped tubes I have! I shall be looking forward to seeing how your angel wings turn out - I have never made my own moulds but I've had the stuff ready and waiting for about a year and also a little plastic beetle that I want to replicate - one day I'll get round to it I'm sure!
    I am glad you have been feeling a bit better, it's great to see you being so creative.
    Diana x

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