Yellow-Green: Plastic Fantastic

As we begin a new month I’m stepping round to the next color in the wheel in the year full of color project. Twelvty this month is exploring Yellow-Green.

“You can do anything you want to do. This is your world.“
— Bob Ross

Like a lot of folks these days, I avoid using plastic as much as possible, especially the single use kind, but still it finds ways to sneak into my home and my life. This stuff can’t be recycled so I make sure as much of it as possible gets involved in my art making process before it’s inevitably binned.

And it was with this in mind I came across a new way to make painted surfaces uniquely pattered, and super shiny too!

I’m sure to be revisiting this way to play again, there are so many degrees of shininess, texture and thicknesses which make different patterns.

The first thought I had when I saw the effect in the yellow-greens is how like glossy leaves it looks. So just right now I want to dash off and cut out leaf shapes and collage me a big ole shrubbery or something. … But I must finish this post first!

It’s a super simple process:

A thick-ish layer of acrylic paint on paper.
A plastic or polythene bag laid out on the wet paint surface.
Smoosh and squish about a bit to stir up the color and get it to stick to the plastic.
Squidge it up in places to make little ridges and bumps and stuff.
Wait to dry (I left it overnight)
Gently peel off the plastic to reveal deliciously rippled surface and shiny bits.
I’ve saved the plastic to reuse again – some paint got stuck so I figure there will be interesting effects using another color with it next time . Watch this space!

This is how my first experiment panned out:

Every month this year I am making a series of pieces in just one color, so at the end of the year I can combine them into one big multicolored work.

I’ll be sharing my process throughout this adventure here in this blog.

I’d love for you to join me. TWELVTY is open to everyone, and better yet, it’s free! Sign up for my newsletter to find out more and get your free TWELVTY guide ebook.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

You’ll get an email to confirm you’ve signed up and are human. Sorry, only humans (and their cats) can join. Check your spam folder cos sometimes the good stuff gets swept in there by mistake.

Weaving & Wiggles.

Sometimes I find my painting experiments take me to unexpected places. And the results aren’t always what I’d like them to be.

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way–things I had no words for.”
— Georgia O’Keeffe

Sometimes I find my painting experiments take me to unexpected places. And the results aren’t always what I’d like them to be.

It’s no secret I mostly create this stuff in a haphazard, directionless fashion. I like throwing color around. I don’t much like planning my art. There’s plenty enough opportunity outside the studio to be responsible and ‘adult’. When I’m making art it is – for the most part – spontaneous messy fun.

Generally I keep going until I have a result that I like, and stop there. Of course there are small regretful moments of taking something too far, but it’s only paint on paper and the remorse soon fizzles away.

sometimes moving paint and color about makes for something like this, and I’m happy to leave it be. But not always.

When a piece gets stuck or stale or I just don’t know what direction to take it in next, I set it aside to rest.

And then there are other times, when more layers of color just don’t feel like the right next step and impatience won’t let me leave it to rest. I’m compelled to make it into something else.

At times like this I’ll often take the scissors to it. Cutting it up and rearranging the pieces takes the adventure in a whole new direction.

There are all kinds of cutting up – with scissors or a craft knife, tearing up, die-cutting and punching out possibilities to make collage bits for remixing and reassembling, but today I’ve got something else for you:

Paper Weaving

This works best with lightweight cardstock, watercolor paper or heavy cartridge paper. Lighter weight floppier paper might be possible, but I suspect could become infuriatingly fiddly.

Use straight lines or wiggly ones, vary the spacing, overlap the pieces.

In my usual manner, I made this up as I went – adding more strips to already woven bits and then filling in some spaces in between later. I don’t know how instructional this video will be – but you might like to use it to spark some ideas.

When all else fails cut it up and make something new with the bits.

Every month this year I am making a series of pieces in just one color, so at the end of the year I can combine them into one big multicolored work.

I’ll be sharing my process throughout this adventure here in this blog.

I’d love for you to join me. TWELVTY is open to everyone, and better yet, it’s free! Sign up for my newsletter to find out more and get your free TWELVTY guide ebook.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Yellow-Green: Surfaces & Texture

As we begin a new month I’m stepping round to the next color in the wheel in the year full of color project. Twelvty this month is exploring Yellow-Green.

“Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.”
— Claude Monet

Yellow-Green

As we begin a new month I’m stepping round to the next color in the wheel in the year full of color project. In Twelvty this month I’m exploring Yellow-Green.

This is the first of the tertiary colors we encounter in our journey around the colour wheel: these are the intermediates, the not-really-one-nor-the-other.

When it comes to playing with yellow-green as a single color, it becomes like a dance between it’s color wheel neighbours.

watercolor & ink on gesso on watercolor paper

Painting on Texture

There are so many different combinations and ways to add color to texture. Here are some I like playing with a lot.

Gesso (clear or white), matte gel medium or white acrylic paint all make for a good base layer, and all give slightly different effects. Try covering the whole piece, or leave places bare for contrast

When this layer is dry you can add even more texture by crumpling and folding the paper, breaking the surface of the gesso

Do experiment – tell me which you like best!

I like to agitate the surface with a plastic card before the gesso sets to get those lovely tree bark patterns with peaks and ridges and organic wiggly, wavy lines.

I’ve had equally good results dabbing at the wet surface with a plastic bag. I shared a demo of this in a previous episode, but for this post we’re jumping in at the point where this is done, and the paper has dried.

Adding Color

The color I used was a very watery watercolor paint in yellow + green drawing inks (‘chartreuse’, ‘olive green’, ‘grass green’). Any water based color will work – I always advocate the use what you have principle – any yellows and greens that aren’t too blue-ish will work for this.

Version One: I gave the whole piece a wash of light, thin, watery color then added drips and drops of stronger color.

Version Two: Ink drips first onto dry gesso then watercolor dropped on top.

Lifting and tipping the paper side to side encourages the color to run around in the textured surface, so pigment settles in the valleys and shows up the patterns.

Where the wet color puddles I dragged it about with a paint brush, linking the pools together for the color to flow between.

Explore all the ways to hold and move the paint brush – left handed, right handed, by the very tip of the handle – let it hop and skip across the surface – try with eyes closed – twisting and flicking color about – dance the brush in time to music or a rhythm in your head.

Here’s how my first layers of color over gesso began…

Yellow-Green, ink and watercolor on gesso on paper. Layers on layers on layers!

Next post I’ll show you a way I like to use painted papers – especially the ones that haven’t gone the way I would have liked!

Every month this year I am making a series of pieces in just one color, so at the end of the year I can combine them into one big multicolored work.

I’ll be sharing my process throughout this adventure here in this blog.

I’d love for you to join me. TWELVTY is open to everyone, and better yet, it’s free! Sign up for my newsletter to find out more and get your free TWELVTY guide ebook.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

The end of the yellow (brick) road

As we reach the close of this month, it will be time to step round to the next color in the wheel. Before we move along, I want to show you what where these adventures with yellow have taken me and what I do when art is misbehaving, uncooperative & tricksy.

“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. ”
― Oscar Wilde.

As we reach the close of this month, it will be time to step round to the next color in the wheel.

Before we move along, I want to show you what where these adventures with yellow have taken me.

And I’m going to share with you what I do when art is misbehaving, uncooperative & tricksy.

Because, sometimes art needs to rest.

(just like we do).

Creative work sometimes gets weary and sluggish, uncooperative or just plain troublesome (just like we do).

Knowing when to persevere through the resistance, and when to send the art away to quiet shelf or drawer is not always an easy call to make.

Something I really like about TWELVTY’s one color a month discipline, is that at the end of the month I put away everything I’ve made. It rests until I reach the end of the twelve color cycle and then I’ll see it again with fresh eyes.

And y’know – it always looks better after a rest.

Now I want to let you into a secret….

In all the TWELVTY projects I’ve made – especially that very first 12 color art journal in 2012 – although I really enjoyed the making process, I couldn’t see the finished result as art I liked for a long while. That first book sat unlooked at on a shelf for more than a year, and only when I revisited it did I properly ‘see it’.

I’m writing this for everyone who’s making something and feeling a little underwhelmed by the results.

It might just need to rest.

As I type this to you now, my first episode of one-color-fun is closed.

I’ve a few pieces I could call ‘finished’. And then there’s a big ole heap of bits that are just beginnings – sketchy, experimental, or little scraps that may or may not find a place to belong later.

In isolation they don’t look all that, but when I see them together as a collection, experience tells me there’s potential that could emerge, only after they’ve had a rest.

Not so bad & Not so good

It was fellow artist and online friend, Tammi Salas, who introduced the idea to file away part made and unfinished art in this way:

In my studio I have two big file boxes:
One labelled “Not so Bad”.
One Labelled “Not so Good”.

It doesn’t take a whole lot of discernment to choose which box, and it makes for an elegant solution to so many studio dilemmas and judgement calls.

This is a resting place for art that needs to recuperate from being harried and hustled, berated and bewildered.

(I’ll write more about these boxes and their contents another time).

These are the boxes I’m using now. I recently upgraded from shoeboxes and floor-heaps. Any container or flat space will work just as well.

So, all that said, here are the results of what has happened on my messy desk through this first month of TWELVTY 2020. Everything that’s yellow is here, the not so bad and the not so good (and the little bits in between).

The next color in this journey is yellow-green.
Think gold-green, avocado & olive, turtles & toads, luscious limes, chartreuse. Mmmm!

Leap with Mr Toad & me, into our next color adventure, beginning Feb 1st 🙂

Every month this year I am making a series of pieces in just one color, so at the end of the year I can combine them into one big multicolored work.

I’m sharing my process throughout this adventure in this blog.

I’d love for you to join me. TWELVTY is open to everyone, and better yet, it’s free! Sign up for my newsletter to find out more and get your free TWELVTY guide ebook.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Happy New Blog!

Swept up in all that new year – new decade – new beginnings energy I suddenly got it in my head to begin a new blog.

My colorful adventures are moving to Mixy.Art.Blog

Do come on over, we’ve got another TWELVTY going on 😉

Swept up in all that new year – new decade – new beginnings energy (and even a new moon today) I suddenly got it in my head to begin a new blog.

As you good folks who’ve been with me since the early days know, Ephemeral Gecko began as a place I documented my early mixed media experiments. I never expected anyone to read it, let alone follow along with me over these last eight (crikey!) years.

For a start, would I have chosen such a peculiar name?

(maybe I would)

Anyhoozles.

Having meandered to where I am now, I’m ready to be more purposeful in my online voice. I’m in no rush to remove or delete anything over here, but will be retiring this site.

So join me, will you —

My colorful adventures are moving to Mixy.Art.Blog

This is where I’ll be sharing all my makings and doings in my colorful world.

Beginning with a new year full of color.

YES! TWELVTY is back!!

This year I’m not running it as a formal course, but as an open invitation to anyone who would like to play along. No cost, no commitment – the more the merrier – so do spread the word!

If you get my newsletter you’ll have already seen the TWELVTY Guide (and if you join up here you can get it delivered straight to your inbox now!)

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

I look forward to seeing you over at Mixy.Art.Blog where our colorful adventures continue!

Next layers: more mark making

“I simply do not distinguish between work and play.”
― Mary Oliver.

Yester-post we looked at first layers. Now I’m building on those foundations with some variations of these themes.

These are the techniques I use in my art journals and mixed media pieces. Whatever I’m making I like to work quickly and without any planning. It’s even easier without the distraction of choosing colors to use:

The first piece I pick up + the first paint or ink that comes to hand + the first tool I grab. It always surprises me how serendipity brings new combinations of patterns together.

While color is restricted, mark making tools are not. I don’t limit myself to paint brushes and *proper* art tools (although I like using these too).

Like a lot of folk these days, I’m trying to opt out of plastic use as much as possible, but it still turns up uninvited through packaging and whatnot. We know that re-use is more efficient than recycling.

For all that is bad about plastic, the up side to its indestructible nature is it makes very durable art making tools that are easy to keep clean and seldom need replacing. I’ve had some of the stuff I use for years and you’d never know.

These are a few of my favourite mark making things:

A hair comb.
Plastic cards – old bank cards etc.
Bits of bubble wrap, plastic bag and packaging.
Plastic netting – the type you get oranges and lemons in.
Plastic forks, knives, spoons etc. (especially forks)
Old pens that have run out of ink (ball points, felt pens, markers) – and their lids for perfect little circles!
Knitting needles.
String, feathers, elastic bands.

You’ll likely see all these things (and more) come up in my process videos over the coming weeks and months, they all make their own characteristic marks, some more predictably than others.

Next layers made in Yellow for TWELVTY 2020

I’m beginning to combine these pieces now with collage, fabric and stitching, They’re evolving from scrappy bits of paper with smears of paint and scribbles into curious little pieces of art.

This heap of part done bits and pieces is on my desk right now.

My adventures with yellow finishes at the end of the month, when I skip round to the next color in the wheel. Next post I’ll show you the *finished* {for now} stage, and explain what I mean by this too 😉

Every month this year I am making a series of pieces in just one color, so at the end of the year I can combine them into one big multicolored work.

I’m sharing my process throughout this adventure in this blog.

I’d love for you to join me. TWELVTY is open to everyone, and better yet, it’s free! Sign up for my newsletter to find out more and get your free TWELVTY guide ebook.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

First Layers

“Start where you are, use what your have, do what you can.”
— Arthur Ashe

The magic of mixed media art making comes from the layers.

First layers can be marks made in paint or pen, they can be collage or textural. Sometimes the whole surface is covered, sometimes it’s just a few marks to break up that beginning expanse of nothing.

scribbles and doodles break up the space on the blank paper.

When you keep in mind that what goes down on the first layer will likely get covered up, it’s much easier to feel free to experiment.

I don’t strive to make something beautiful, I just play. Letting one idea feed the next and seeing where it leads.

Experiment by combining patterns of mark making on different surfaces – thin copier paper reacts very differently to paint and ink than watercolor paper, or tissue paper, or fabric. Investigate some of the infinite possibilities!

I like having a few pieces on the go at the same time. Ideas cross pollinate between them, and I can swap from one to another while the layers dry.

Crumple or fold paper so the color can seep into the creases.

Consider how many ways there are to apply color to surface. Paint brushes are just the beginning, some of my favourite tools are not conventional things you’ll find in the art supply store 😉

Watch how the first layers of the first color of Twelvty began.

First layers made in Yellow for TWELVTY 2020

Every month this year I am making a series of pieces in just one color, so at the end of the year I can combine them into one big multicolored work.

I’ll be sharing my process throughout this adventure here in this blog.

I’d love for you to join me. TWELVTY is open to everyone, and better yet, it’s free!
Sign up for my newsletter to find out more and get your free TWELVTY guide ebook.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Home from home

3 weeks is a long time (too long) to be away from my studio, so I bundled up some necessaries for the trip and took a bit of time every morning to move some color about.

The first time I visited Cyprus was almost 20 years ago, and as I stepped off the plane, it felt like I’d come home. Something feels really familiar in the smell of hot dusty air. There were sounds and senses that did not seem at all foreign despite being 2000 miles from the place I’ve lived all my life.

Over the years I’ve been back many times, and never lost this home from home feeling.This year I wangled a way to spend 3 weeks here, and had time to really soak myself into the surroundings: the rich vivid colours & heady scents of bougainvillea & jasmine – the sand between my toes – luxuriating like the the cats that roam and loll around every corner.

But 3 weeks is a long time away from my studio routines, so I bundled up some necessaries for the trip and took a bit of time every morning to move some color about.

These are colors I chose to take (mostly Daniel Smith’s watercolors – decanted into half pans in a little tin box).

I second guessed my choice after I swatched them out here – why so many colors so similar? but as it turned out they were just what I needed, vivid blues & magentas amid the warm stony earth tones..

I’m not much of a landscape painter – my camera is for catching actual views – leaving my sketchbook as the place for playing with ideas.

The ideas I found myself playing with was the similarities and echoing patterns, repeating undulations, the ripples in the water with the curve of the waves, the textures in rocks and stones, the shifting shapes of shadows in the early autumn breeze. Mixing and remixing, folding ideas together into an endless series of permutations.

Re-entry

I feel I’m like returning a bit at a time after a long trip away – this time it took almost a week to really gather myself together into one place. What eased the transition was the pages in this book that overlapped the geography. The patterns of the travels merged into the patterns of usual daily doings & the edges between the two worlds blurred.

Catch this month’s newsletter to see a flip through of these pages to find out where this little collection of images leads next!

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Metamorphosis & Metaphors

My 100 day project time lapse compilations are growing (you can check out the others over here)

The pages in this book got layered over again and again – some began many months earlier – and then were then re-imagined many times in the 100 days.

This page began where I’d written the manifesto for the previous year’s 100 day project. An Actual Manifesto! Lawks!!

Never before had I felt called to write myself such a formal plan, but one morning last year I woke up from a vivid dream with an irresistible compulsion. Then a little over a year later I painted over it.

Watch how morphed over the 100 days here –

If you’d like to be first to see what’s happening in my colorful world, sign up for my monthly-ish studio musings newsletter.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Outnumbered in my own story.

I’ve spent so many hours in the world between the pages of this book.

From the layers of drawings and doodles, to reliving the experience via editing the videos I made for the 100 days project, each page has developed a narrative.

Here is the next in the series of compiled time lapses (previous ones are here)

I work fast because one thought spawns a dozen new ideas and I have to run to catch as many as I can.

In this spread it was the stitches along the page edge that generated the triangular patterns, then the edges of the paint streaks which wanted more attention, emerging into solid shapes that demanded stripes, squiggles & spots.

Before I knew it, there were faces emerging.

I’ll be honest – right from the moment they began to appear – I wasn’t quite comfortable with this crowd.

As small and flat as their grinning faces were, I felt outnumbered, and until I redressed this balance I had an uneasy sense here.

Having looked thoroughly disgruntled throughout, the character who remained at the end took on a certain poise and dignity when the others left. Now she clearly owns this spread.

The rest of the characters in this art journal also have a destiny that’s yet to be fulfilled. Catch my August Studio Musings Newsletter to find out more. If you haven’t already done so – hop in here!

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.