pink – Page 2 – Mixy's Art Blog

A page of plenty

Looking back and photographing yesterday’s page I can see quite how involved it was!

A crucial ingredient in the making of this page is insomnia. Extra long evenings are the best time for fiddly cutting, hole punching and sticking!

Being made up of so many papery layers the surface was pretty cushiony in places. This lends itself perfectly for biro doodling on. Some of this doodling was done with a biro that ran out ages ago, but didn’t get thrown out. The little circular indentations are made by the end of the lid.

Everything has a use in art!

purple ponderings

Day 24. More slicing n dicing Here’s a thing I’ve come to notice, these oversized numbers. Featuring on most days, but not premeditated. Sometimes it’s a starting point, sometimes it’s a finishing touch, but they keep cropping up.
Day 25. Layers of acrylics and guache, and offcuts from another thing I’m juggling about with. Subtle in clear gesso, but still sizable numerals. In a more thinky moment I pondered their presence, accounting for it as a balance of order to the free fall chaos out there in the world.
Day 26. The 6 is cut from black gesso-ed thin copy paper and has a wrinkly plastic feeling. The numbers are both edged with scribbled mutterings.
Day 27. Some days consist of bits and bobs straying over the the recent past, culminating in something altogether ‘the same but different’, a familiar view from a new angle.
Day 28 In a mad fit of efficiency I recently sorted through all my colors – paints, inks, crayons, pens – into boxes of the same hue. Working in a small space means any space saved by putting stuffs away sometimes is revelatory. It also means that when the box of purples/pinks is out, then there’s a color theme decided until I’m ready for a change 😉

Frisket stencils, part 1

I do love stencils, and after watching this vid from Julie Pritchard and Chris Cozens I was inspired to follow their technique using my own stencils. (I especially like the way they recycle the colors from the stencils onto tissue paper to reuse later on in collages)

So, I got myself some Frisket Film (if you’re shopping in the UK I can recommend Artifolk.)

Frisket is a low tack film that can be be cut to shape with scissors or craft knife, made especially for airbrush masks. (although I’m not air brushing, I’m using a spray bottle with dye.)

Used on a flat paper it sticks just enough to withstand leaks and dislodging, but on the bumpy lumpy surface of my sketchbook page it doesn’t have enough ‘cling’ to make a completely water-tight seal, but I’m happy with this – where the color oozes under it makes for a deckled edge to the stenciled lines.

Building up the layers is a lot of fun!

Dabbing the puddles of color to soak up excess liquid keeps it (slightly) under control!)

After letting it dry I added a couple more Frisket shapes, re-sprayed and a sprinkling of Brusho powder.

Check back later and I’ll show you how it developed from here!

visual echos

Thursday’s page focused on utilising bits of the dyed paper through stacking n stitching, to exploring cut and torn shapes

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The echoing shapes from previous pages are now just indentations. To continue the theme of the swirling frond shape that has lasted all week I cut a stencil from acetate and used this with ink and then acrylic glaze for a subtle sheeny shape here n there.
The roughed up surface, sheen of the glaze and the warm earthy colors put me in mind of a leathery effect.

dot dot dot …

I’m so glad I posted the beginnings of Wednesday, cos all trace of that pink ricey start are now hidden beneath layers of acrylic dots!

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Using sequin waste (punchinella) as a stencil, I’m most taken by the white dots, raised from the surface with nice crisp edges, made with thick goopy printing ink.

pink rice beginnings

Wednesday’s page started out with the results of playing with dye and rice. I poured rice onto the puddles of dye that’d spilled onto the page

As the rice absorbed the water in the dye, the concentration of the pigment outlined the grains.