“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” – Edmund Burke
For this page I was working with one of those nice little collage pages from the Artist Almanac calendar (2023 version is in the works!). I still have a few giclee prints left of that original painting here in my shop. Then I added Liquitex heavy gesso onto stripes of canvas and pressed them onto the ledger page for texture.
After it dried I painted over it with some watered down Liquitex Blue Gray paint. For the skyline I stamped with Moonlight Duo ink and the Midtown and Midtown Mini foam stamp sets. To tie things together I used a Neocolor II in a rich magenta color.
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a post (and video!!!) from new member Robin Seiz – sharing her mixed media panel painting using my Midtown Minis and Central Ave foam stamps and this month’s theme: A New Day – Let’s try something new today :) Although these are tumultuous times and we never know what each new day will bring, it also seems like the perfect time to throw caution to the wind and just jump into something new with both feet. Try a new material or technique or approach. Why not? Today is a new day… and tomorrow is too!
I am very excited to be one the newest members of Nat’s Creative Squad. When I thought about the theme for the month, A New Day, I immediately thought about the morning. (even the song in my video is called “Morning Mood”), but as often happens in my artwork, as I worked on this little scene, I felt more of an evening mood. But really, don’t we each have the “promise of a new day” every evening as the sun sets? Whether out day was wonderful and we look forward to a repeat for the next day or our day wasn’t so good and we look forward to tomorrow —— that is promise of A New Day.
In this project, I worked with new paints (as my New Day theme) and I have to say that I absolutely love them. They are paints by Art Alchemy and they come in both a variety of finishes and a variety of yummy rich colors. I also hadn’t worked with Nat’s Central Ave Artfoamies and I see so many uses for them for the future.
I started this project with my gel plate, the Art Alchemy Spark paints, (colors Butterfly Spells and Magical Pond) and a 3” x 4” Art Bite Panel. I often use my gel plate to put paint on a substrate whether it’s a piece of paper, canvas or something like what I used here, an Art Bite. I do this because I like the organic look which always includes lots of texture.
Once I was happy with the finish on the Art Bite, I used VersaFine Clair permanent Nocturne ink to stamp the Midtown Minis Artfoamies on the substrate.
The next step was to stamp and cut out a mask of the Midtown Mini Artfoamie buildings so I could apply it to the buildings. This allows for the buildings to be in the foreground and the Central Avenue Artfoamie to be in the background.
To apply the Central Ave Artfoamie, I used Art Alchemy’s Metallique Paint in Deep Waters blue.
Since I was seeing more of a evening, sunset sky, I applied the Butterfly Spells paint I used in the background with a #2 rounded brush for the detail and a #6 flat brush for the larger windows and spaces giving the piece and evening glow.
The finishing touch was to apply a Posca White Paint Pen .7mm to outline the piece.
This piece could be framed or used as is to sit on a shelf.
It’s an easy project and, all told, it probably took me about 60 minutes to complete from start to finish.
Thank you Robin for this gorgeous panel – love the color palette and your making technique!
Give it a try: you can find all my Foam Stamps in my Online Shop and here are some of the other supplies Robin used:
Feel inspired? Working on something yourself that you’d like to share? I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.
Love the demo. Must see if I can get the building stamps in Australia. I do miss going to the craft shows this year, but with COVID, no shows to go to. However, I may have missed out on an online show!
“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” ― James Baldwin
I think we are seeing some of this terrible combination at work these days so I had to use this quote in my art journal.
Pretty simple to bring this page together with acrylic paint and my foam stamps. I used both of my Midtown sets for this page to show the size difference between Midtown and Midtown Minis.
And the quote in uni posca black with white signo overtop.
Here you can see the two stamp sets and how they compare.
It’s Tuesday and time for a post from my Creative Squad. Today we have a beautiful art journal page from Josefine Fouarge that shows how sometimes you just gotta go with your gut and create! Josefine is using my Midtown Foam Stamp Set, Toledo 9×12 stencil, Art Deco Wallpaper stencil, and a few of my cling rubber stamps along with this month’s theme: My Fire Burns Bright – Creativity is a passion that can come from deep within the heart and soul of the maker. Sometimes this fire gets ignited by an event or an influential person in our lives, and other times it can be ignited by a love for a material or just simply the enjoyment that comes from making. What makes your creative fire burn bright?
Welcome to the December Creative Squad topic “My fire burns bright”.
I don’t know why, but my first thought when I read this theme was sunrise. Instead of trying to analyze it, I decided to just go with it and create a scene using the Midtown foam stamps. I stamped three of them onto my art journal page. One of them is actually supposed to be standing up, but I think it works out pretty well laying down.
Next up I created some simple masks for the houses to cover them while I was working on the background. I used a yellow paint for the first layer. Then I added some texture using the Art Deco Wallpaper stencil. In order to blend the orange colors in, I used my brush in a dapping motion. I mixed the paint with water, so it was a little easier to blend them as well.
For the night sky I decided to use the Toledo stencil and a few darker shades of red and blue. After I was done, I felt that the background was too bright, so I sprayed gesso over it. That helped blend the two areas together a little more and made the skyline pop again.
Now on to the finishing touches. I started by stamping Nat’s Star Tag stamp and Cross Circle stamp all over the page. I added more dimension by “hiding” them behind the skyline. For that effect, I covered the house with my mask and stamped over it. When I removed the mask only the partially stamped image stayed on the page.
To make the sun even brighter, I outlined the skyline with two different shades of yellow using my Liquitex ink pens and blended the ink out with my finger. My scene was all set, it just missed a little extra – the U.S flag stamp on top of one of the skyscrapers.
At the end the page needed a frame and a sentiment. I started with adhering the “hello sunshine” acetate piece to the middle of the page. Then I drew in a scribbled border and some random text.
The fires are now burning bright on this page, introducing a new day for whomever lives in that city J
Thank you Josefine! In addition to her art journal, Josefine used the following (some are affiliate links):
Play along with us too: I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.
Don’t we all? Loved playing with blue and gold – I am on a weird gold- high – not sure why, as it is not my favorite color, but I guess trends have gotten me too ;)
I stamped with my new Van Vorst Positive and Negative ArtFoamies in blue and gold for the tile background effect. For the city scape I used my new Midtown ArtFoamies set and applied rubbed lightly some Artgraf Chalks on top of the foamstamps. The Artgraf Chalks are water-soluble and make a gorgeous watercolor like effect when stamping. To activate the pigments and have them come off the foam stamp, I slightly sprayed a layer of water on top and then just stamped ahead.
Love how the colors blend. I added some marks with Neopastels and a charcoal pen and wrote the journaling with a blue and white acrylic marker.
Here are some of the supplies that I used for this spread
Love the demo. Must see if I can get the building stamps in Australia. I do miss going to the craft shows this year, but with COVID, no shows to go to. However, I may have missed out on an online show!
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