Love, Lydia - Notes from a geeky, plus sized artist.: painting
Showing posts with label painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label painting. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Beginning to Decorate

Hello everyone,

I've spent some of my weekend working on my studio.  It's finally starting to feel like my own space as I put things in their place and nail up various shelves and planning tools.  At the new house Bryan and I will have a shared workspace in our second story "rec room".  The space is a great size for an extra large office that will accommodate our three desks, all my art storage needs and incorporate a little lounge area.  Our end goal is using the upstairs space more for our down time needs, so we can keep our downstairs spaces cleaner since they're more public.  For now there are still a enough boxes left to be unpacked that it's hard to get a good picture of the room.

So now I'm feeling good about how our space is coming along.  Here are a couple shots of my corner.  I still have more to put on the walls and supplies to sort out, but it's coming along nicely.


This picture is from Friday and over the weekend I completed a couple of small projects, which are going to enhance my work corner even more.

Splatter Painted Paper Honeycomb Balls


First off I got a pack of these tissue paper honeycomb balls◊ and decided to DIY a splatter paint job on one with watercolor.  I think the first try looks ok, and I'm going to do another with acrylic paints to see if it works better or just ends up sticking the paper together too much.


Here are really easy instructions for how to do it.  First off you'll want newspaper to protect all surfaces near your project.  You probably need two sheets, I only used one in the image above because I'm lazy.  It makes for messes later though, and that's never worth it!


Next off pick your color scheme,  I decided to go with mostly cooler tones.  Here are my colors:
Winsor and Newton - Potter's Pink◊ (very delicate old rose color)
Winsor and Newton - Winsor Red◊ (probably the best true red watercolor I own!)
Winsor and Newton - Cobalt Turquoise Light◊ (this is one of my favorite shades!)
Cotman - Phtalo Blue [Green Shade]◊ (high staining color that's brilliant and good for the budget)
Holbein - Lavender◊ (this color is lovely though it contains some white, making it more opaque than true watercolor)
Holbein - Cobalt Violet Light◊ (a fantastic purple that's quite lightfast too)
Lukas - Gold◊ (a good color that looks a little funny in the palette, but dries down nicer)


Here's what they look like with water.


For this project most any brush will do, though it might get ruined if you're too vigorous.  For real brushes I loaded the brush with paint and flicked my wrist to move the paint.  The picture above gives you an idea of how much water was used VS paint.  It really only takes a little!  However I only mixed enough of each color to create the one honeycomb ball, so I wouldn't be wasteful.  Also for opening some of the tougher paint tubes I use a silicone jar opener!  It works wonders, and I've been given several over the years as freebies.


And here my first version is done.  It's more pastel, which I love, but you can use less water to get brighter results too.  I found that because the paper is easily saturated you can only use two colors at a time before letting everything you've done dry (about an hour and a half) before going on the the next colors.  This honeycomb has a string you can hang it from so you could paint it while it's hanging to be more neat, especially if you have a porch where you can set things up.  Sunshine would definitely speed up the drying process, my work was done on a rainy day, so it took longer to dry.  Then you just have to decide how you want to display them!

Refinished Shelf Cubes

A while back we got a set of shelf cubes for our bedroom, but we don't need them at the new house because I now have enough space for a bedside table rather than having the bed too close to a wall as I did at our old rental.  So I decided I could put the cubes up in my studio as extra storage for little inspirational items.  The cubes came in a set of three different sizes and though it looks like they might not carry the plain ones at Target anymore here are some similar ones from Amazon◊.

The ones I had were more matte in finish so I didn't even need to sand them, I just used two coats of custom mixed paint colors.  If you have shelves with a shinier finish rough them up a bit all over with a fine grit sandpaper before painting them so the paint will stick and not peel off.  I used Winsor and Newton Acrylics because I had a lot left over from college (Freshman year kits were required gear!), but you could use most any brand you want.  If you wanted to buy online you might want to give Utrecht Acrylics a try, they're a good deal for good quality paints. Some brands and colors may need more coats than others.  I added a good bit of white paint to all three of my chosen shades, which helps make them more opaque.

Here are my finished shelves!  I set them down to dry on newspaper after each coat, and held them on my hand to paint them.  If you want to paint them easier without having to hold them I recommend using a cork trivet or putting them on top of a cardboard box.  If you have drips it will stick to newspaper and might mean you have to touch up a little later, cardboard is less likely to run into this problem, and cork is free of it unless you have a bad enough drip that it just peels the paint off.


Mint, lavender, and dark blue are some of my favorite colors.  And finally here's a shot of my studio with the shelves and my watercolor reference chart set up.  It's still pretty crazy, but getting better every day.  I almost know where all my supplies are!


That's all for today.  Let me know what are some of your favorite colors to decorate with in the comments!  Thanks.

Love,
Lydia

Friday, April 17, 2015

Making, Growing, and Moving Things

Hello again dear readers,

I've been incredibly busy these past weeks cleaning and organizing things, getting ready for our upcoming move, selling my art at the CCAD art sale, plus some fun things like going out the see art during the First Friday art walk in downtown Raleigh.  I've got some newly completed pieces, and am working on more, plus putting many of my photographs up on Etsy for the first time.  I didn't realize how many I'd simply neglected to put up.  I should have more new photographs soon too, because at the new house I'll be setting up a darkroom!



I've been planning my garden, and even bought a pair of apple trees for it, a couple blueberry bushes, a grape vine, plus seeds for veggies and some flowers that will attract hummingbirds.  I also happened upon a sad little gardenia plant at Lowes, which I'm nursing back to health.  I've been prepping for the new yard by doing soil tests and planning where things will be placed according to the light conditions at the new place.



Between all that I've been neglecting my blog and my pins project, as ambitious as it was, it's been pushed to the back burner.  But I have several new ones to share with you, and will still be doing more as the year goes on, just less often since I'm being more realistic about my goals in an attempt to combat the some of the effects of depression.  Otherwise things with the new house as well as prepping the rental for moving are keeping me busy.  Here are a few shots of how the house is coming along.  I can't wait to share more with you all about the journey!  I'll write a more about it in a post later.



9. Coin Magnets, this was a quick easy one that I thought would be perfect for the coins from Mexico I've had tucked in my backpack pocket for the past 2+ years.  I decided to try a modification and used adhesive backed strips of magnet.  I got it to work on coins, plus I also tried it on pressed pennies!  I have a ton of them because they're such fantastically fun souvenirs from my travels.  I grabbed the ones I still had floating around in my wallet.  Anyway, I think I'll be replacing the strips on the coins with the resin and thicker magnets as in the tutorial, but for the pressed pennies the strips worked really well!  It helps that the magnets can be cut larger for them, making them stronger, plus their backs are smoother that the coins.  This is a fun one guys, try it out!



11. Homemade Stromboli, a great easy recipe, which while it takes a little time it's completely worth it!  It was my first time making my own bread product with yeast, but this recipe totally raised my confidence levels.  I can't wait to try out more bread recipes, though the kneading process isn't my favorite.  Maybe one day I'll get a breadmaker!  We opted for canned sauce to go along with the stromboli, but went with a more adventurous option, which proved to be delicious.  We also changed the filling inside the stromboli to sausage, which was great.  We decided we'd put the herbs inside the stromboli next time we make it, but otherwise the recipe was fantastic.


I've got lots on my plate as I get through processing photos for Etsy, packing like a madwoman, and working my way past a sinus infection (oh allergies!), but I'm excited to have lots to write about and share with you all this spring.  So until next time...

Love,
Lydia


Saturday, November 1, 2014

Painting Time

Hey everyone,

So the commission I had earlier this month is all done.  I'm happy to share it with you all now.  It all started when I got a message from a man on Etsy, asking if I could paint a Celtic knotwork design on his Irish Bodhran drum.  I've never worked on a project like this before, but was excited by the prospect.  I did some quick research and found I would easily be able to do it, using high quality acrylic paints.  (If it was to be used regularly I'd also need to varnish it with a protective coating, but this drum was for display.)  So, I showed him some possible designs, he chose one, and then sent me his 18 inch, goat skin head, Bodhran drum.  Here's a few shots showing how the piece came together.  The sketchbook is the Fabriano EcoQua one that I got in September's Pigment + Palette box.  I've found I really like working with the dotted paper and that it holds up surprisingly well to acrylics when I tested them in the book to prepare for this painting.

Next on my plate was testing out some items from the October Pigment + Palette box.  I've tried Aquabord before (a hard panel perfect for watercolors that can be framed without glass), and enjoy working with it, but the other products are new to me.  Today I focused on the Qor watercolor samples.  The Qor line is made by Golden, whose fluid acrylics I have come to love as I worked with them more (and bought a few more bottles of) while working on the drum.  I was a little unsure of the Qor line at first, but here's a quick rundown of the colors I was able to test.
The colors are as follows, on the left the Qor line and on the right the most comparable color I had on hand.  Overall I think the Qor colors performed well and from what I can tell the quality is somewhere close to that of Winsor & Newton, but not quite M. Graham or Daniel Smith.

Qor Cobalt Teal VS Winsor & Newton Cobalt Turquoise Light.  These colors are virtually the same and come from the same single pigment PG50.  The both have about the same amount of pigment in the paint as far as I can tell.  In this case just buy whichever is on the best sale.  They're both quite lightfast, though according to Qor's website most of their line doesn't seem to have been tested yet.  Winner: Tie

Qor Dioxazine Purple VS Grumbacher Violet (Thalo Purple).  Dioxazine Purple is known to use a somewhat lightfast pigment PG23, but it isn't perfect.  Personally I wouldn't buy this pigment though it's lovely looking.  The Grumbacher Violet is slightly more lightfast, but only by a little bit using PV19 & PB15, though it can get a similar look when the ratio of paint to water is increased.  In terms of pigment for your dollar Qor is better, but Grumbacher wins for lightfastness despite being a more watered down student quality paint.  Winner: Grumbacher

Qor Quinicridone Magenta VS Grumbacher Carmine Hue.  Quinicridone (PR122) will be joining my palette soon because it reminds me a lot of the Cotman Mauve I used to love, but sadly found out was less lightfast than my standards would allow.  The Magenta is a solid shade that's slightly more cool in tone than the Carmine hue (PV19 & PV19, unsure why it's listed this way on the tube, different sources perhaps?) I compared it to.  The Magenta is also slightly more lightfast, so if mixed with Cotman's Raw Sienna it will likely be used in the future as my go-to combination for lighter skintones. Winner: Qor

Qor Transparent Pyrrole Orange VS Grumbacher Alizarin Orange.  In looks the Pyrrole is stunning, the color pops off the page, and while the Alizarin (PY65, PY150 & PR209) comes close it's not quite as intense.  Both are less lightfast colors, the Qor (PO71) slightly more so, which means I probably won't use either one often if I can help it.  However, for a project that will be used from photographs or a short term use the Pyrrole would be a great choice.  Winner: Tie

Qor Quinacridone Gold VS Cotman Raw Sienna.  Both of these colors are fantastic to work with, really it comes down to which effect you prefer from what I can tell.  Qor seems to be less lightfast (PO48 & PY150, this in the only color that's been tested so far of those I sampled), but when I checked the pigment information it seemed a very stable color.  Raw Sienna (PR101 & PY42) would give the same overall color, but with stronger effects at the edges and paler center sections in each stroke.  Winner: Tie

Qor Green Gold VS Grumbacher Thalo Yellow Green.  These colors are visually the most different pairing I had during my tests, so apologies there.  I found the Green Gold a great new choice, with few easily available colors locally that could compare.  It's lightfast using PY129 whereas the Thalo shade is slightly less lightfast using PG36 & PY3.  The Green Gold is a rich shade, but the Thalo is much more neon, which would be suitable for some temporary projects.  Winner: Qor

Please note I tried not to go too far into the details of how lightfastness is rated because many brands use different scales.  I prefer not to confuse anyone, so I have simply used comparatives to illustrate my meaning in this article.  I find lightfastness to be of considerable importance when selecting materials to work with, and at this point try to stick to only the highest rated colors if at all possible.  A couple of years ago I bought the book "The Artist's Guide to Selecting Colors" by Michael Wilcox, which is how I began to change my colors, and more recently this fantastic website as well.  The website has some more recent additions, though I occasionally come across colors that neither has a record of, in which case I check the manufacturer's site, Google search, or avoid using the color if I can't find out the rating.  It sounds strict and occasionally I do wish there were more shades of purple to use, but I know it will pay off years down the road when my grandchildren are able to see my art with colors as intense as they were when I painted each piece.

Thanks for reading, next time I'll be writing more about some of my travel adventures.

Love,
Lydia

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Chalkboard Paint & Lettering Tutorial

Hey folks,

I've been quite busy between work, life and a bunch of little things.  For now I've got my blog set up to match my Twitter and Etsy feel.  I've been writing down all the ideas I've had for posts and organizing them for future reference and I'm excited to see things come together as I work on some new projects and revamping things.

Here's the long promised chalkboard paint/paint lettering tutorial.  Plus at the end there's a review of a great Pinterest recipe!  Ready?  Here goes!

Chalkboard Paint & Hand Lettering Tutorial




So we started out with all the items in this picture:
-Elmer's chalkboard paint, (the small tub paints up to an 8sq ft section in one coat if I remember right.  This is the same tub I used mixed with a touch of white acrylic paint to make the chalkboard tray/announcement board for my wedding, so it lasts quite well.)
-a paper plate for use as a paint palette
-painters tape to help with edging
-scissors to trim down the printed page of letting you want to put on your piece
-a cup of water for rinsing your brush in between coats of paint so it won't get ruined, I recommend a plastic cup you don't mind having a bit of paint left on after you work, so that it becomes a dedicated painting/rinsing cup.
-a ruler in case you want to measure your object to know where you will place the lettering (I do a lot of eyeballing for placement, but only because I've had a lot of experience with making something like lettering look centered properly. I still use rulers plenty too!)
-a simple paintbrush that's larger for the chalkboard paint 1/2 inch-2 inch size as you prefer
-a good paintbrush that's smaller for the detailed lettering, size 2-6 in flat or round as you prefer
-any color of acrylic paint you would like to use for your lettering, I have two bottles shown in the picture, one is inexpensive craft paint and the other is a great textured paint by Golden.  I ended up using the Golden paint for my lettering.
-an object you want to paint, with a finish that will take the paint - something somewhat porous, not too slick that paint will slide or wipe off.  If the finish isn't properly absorbent you may need to buy a different kind of paint, surfaces like glass or metal would be a problem this way, additionally I don't recommend them for the lettering transfer technique because the graphite won't stick.
-and not shown, you will also probably want a piece of sandpaper or an emery board to finish the edges  of the paint next to where the tape was to smooth them perfectly.


Step 1.

Tape the sides of the board since you want to keep the chalkboard surface on just the one face of the object.  If you don't want to try to put the tape perfectly even along the sides leave just a bit sticking up.  You can see where I've done this, especially at the handle where the light shines through the tape a bit.  As you put on the tape try to rub it down onto the surface thoroughly to keep the paint from seeping under the tape as much as possible.  I tend to rub it enough to make it warm as a rule of thumb.  Some people refer to this as burnishing it to hold it down properly.  Be sure you know how long your painters tape is graded for.  If you leave it on past the amount of time it's graded for you will be much more likely to pull the paint off your finished work.  I usually get the 2 week tape for projects like this, though they make longer and shorter holding tape too.


Step 2.

Put some paint on your plate, use less than I did here....I wasted more than I meant to since I wasn't sure how much to use for the first coat.  You can always put more on the plate if you need to, but you really shouldn't try to put partially used paint back into the container if you have leftovers.  It will leave horrible clumpy bits and keep your paint from looking smooth as you apply it later.  Then use the big paintbrush to apply the paint.  This picture shows a very uneven coat and a half.  The chalkboard paint can be applied with a bit of a heavy hand, but of course will take longer to dry.  It's water based and easy to clean up.  I tried to go with the grain of the wood on the paddle, though in the cup divots I went in circles, and those areas didn't take paint as easily and I ended up doing a total of 4 coats of chalkboard paint, applying two the first day I worked and another two a different day.
 You can see the difference here after two coats!  Much nicer already.


Step 3.

Between coats you can begin prepping the lettering for transfer.  First make sure you know the size you'll need to print the lettering at.  Then select a good typeface, figure out what size and style font you want (bold, italics, etc), and then print it off in solid black ink.  Hold it up to your object and make sure it's the right size.  If so you're ready to apply some graphite to the back of your printed letters.  If you have it available use a nice soft pencil, I chose a 6B, but most regular pencils will do.  The harder the type of lead the lighter the grey color will be for you to paint over/within the lines of.  Use the side of the pencil only, no point, and give a good coating as I was working on in the picture.  Then set it aside for later.


Step 4.

After you're done painting and the paint has had a full day to dry you can gently pull the tape off.  You'll probably notice some bits of paint that dried sticking up because they attached to the tape or areas that the paint seeped down under the tape.  By the time you take the tape off you'll probably feel like it ended up being a messier job that you thought, but this is where the sandpaper of emery board comes in.  Sand the surface just enough to take off the excess paint.  If you want a antiqued look you can continue and it will soften the edges, which might be perfect for a shabby chic style piece.  Here's a bit of my messiness:


Step 5.

Next trim your lettering as close to the edge of the word or phrase as you can.  Measure its height and width if you want to line it up perfectly on your object.  Then measure your object and add any measurement lines you might need to keep the lettering straight on your object. Use a soft pencil along with the ruler and a the measurements to guide you.  Don't press down much with the pencil or you won't be able to erase it later, and may leave imprints in a wood surface.   Then use at least 2 pieces of painters tape to tape your letters in place.  If there's lettering underneath the tape be sure to trace the edges on top of the tape before starting the next step.


Step 6.

Go over all the printed parts with a pencil or wood/plastic stylus to rub the graphite from the back of the paper onto the surface of your object.  Be firm, but remember if you go too crazy you might leave indentations.  This picture shows part of the G and R.  I only traced the edges of the parts under the tape.  You'll have to be very careful with that part and may want to go over the line a couple of times to make it look straighter.  You can also see the measuring line I used to help line things up correctly.

Step 7.

When you've gone over all the lettering (Or any design you choose, this isn't limited to lettering if you want to get creative.) carefully peel up the tape at one end of the transfer and check to see how well it copied.  If you're happy with it take off the entire transfer paper and go ahead and paint over your graphite design.  If you feel unsure of how to do this correctly, do a small test design beforehand.

Step 8.

When painting your design using at least two coats is recommended.  You can see the difference here between what one and two coats looks like.  I did 2 coats plus a bit of touch up at the edges on my lettering.  Please note if you are using a light color your first layer will probably pick up a bit of the graphite.  If so don't worry too much, you may need to do an extra coat of paint to get good coverage, but the subsequent coats will not pick up the graphite because they will be trapped within the first layer.  Acrylic paints are water based, but use plastic as a component.  So when they are fully dried you shouldn't be able to dissolve coats of paint you applied earlier or any graphite that may be stuck in them.  If you do encounter this I suggest switching brands to see if it helps.

The Finished Project - Beer Tasting Paddle

Once your lettering or design dries overnight you should be ready to go!  The resulting surface will not be dishwasher safe, you'll want to carefully hand wash it or use a damp cloth to wipe it down as needed.  Here's my finished paddle, the chalk lettering is a bit harder to make out because I could only find a big hunk of sidewalk chalk.  Classroom chalk is much more legible, so I recommend that if possible, I just used what I could find easily around the house.

If you test this tutorial out please feel free to share your results in the comments!  I'm happy to help with any questions you might have too.

I think this would be a great way to customize bridal party presents, a special birthday surprise, or a family plaque, plus a host of other types of items.


So the Pinterest recipe I tried this time around is one for Hawaiian style BBQ chicken.  You can find instructions for it here.  I followed the instructions, substituting Sweet Baby Ray's Hawaiian BBQ sauce for the Archer Farms one and using 5 chicken breasts.  I also accidentally poured in a bit of pineapple juice when I almost forgot to drain the can, maybe a couple tablespoons worth.  I felt that my crock pot wasn't cooking quite as fast as hoped for after two hours on low because the chicken towards the top was still mostly frozen.  I then put it on high and 3 hours later (5 hours total cooking) it was done.  I served this to my husband and two of his brothers when they came for dinner earlier this week and it was a unanimous hit!  We served the chicken shredded like pulled pork on Hawaiian style buns with sides of corn and Caesar salad, and it was fantastic!  I think next time I might try adding a couple more chicken breasts and cooking longer, so I'll have leftovers.  There seemed to be enough sauce for 6-8 pieces of chicken, and plenty of pineapple, I think we still had 2/3 left afterwards, though most of us liked it with less pineapple overall.  With a little extra sauce I think this could work for 9-12 pieces of chicken, or more depending on your crock pot size, our model is a 5 quart one.  Here's a shot of the finished product, (one of the guys decided to add lettuce to his):


Hope you all are having a great weekend, and I'll see you again soon!

Love, Lydia

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Day 79

Hi everyone,

Today is the photo post I promised!  So, between all the ice and stormy weather we've had I've been working away.  First up a quick glance at the view of the latest ice storm from my studio window.

The biggest project that I've been working on in the past week is creating an art book.  The idea for it was sparked by a video series call The Art Assignment, which is put together by John Green (yes the author and YouTube guy) and PBS.  Episode 3 is what mine is based on (you can check it out Here on YouTube), and it's called Intimate, Indispensable GIF.  The premise, in short, is to focus on something that is at the core of who you are and indispensable to you.  For myself I decided that was essentially memories.  So I'm looking at my own experiences, connections, and relationships in a handmade book.  I took step by step photos of the process:
The folded piece is a simple cardstock sheet that makes the interior pages of the book.  Because it folds out rather than having turning pages the images expand beyond the space of their containment the more you open it.  From there I measured the folded up page size and cut thicker matte board slightly larger (1/8 in on each side) to create the framework of the cover.  The the outer covering is cut 3/4 in larger on each side with 1/8 in between the spine and front/back cover boards.  I got the instructions for creating this from Bookworks by Sue Doggett.
Next I made some wheat flour paste by mixing 1 cup water and 1 rounded tablespoon wheat flour, and heating it (you can make it in the microwave using 30 second increments, stirring inbetween each).  I then cut darts in the corners of the cover paper and pasted it down.  Then I measured the inside dimensions and cut an inner lining paper 1/8 in smaller than the cover as shown and used the paste to add it to the inside cover.  As I was working on each section of this I was also working on the various pages of the book.
Here are a couple on in progress shots.  Note the empty top corner of the lefthand set of pages, for reference of which page will be pasted to the book.
 Here are the completed components right before I assembled them with the paste.  Once I had them pasted together the entire book was placed closed under some heave books as shown below.  (One of the great uses for textbooks after college!)

Tomorrow I'll be taking photos of the finished book to create the GIF from.  The process of opening and showing each page of the book should make a great little animation.

Now for a couple other pieces I've mentioned being in process, but haven't shown:
This is the piece I've been working on for Healing Ceilings, a group that encourages making art on ceiling tiles so cancer patients here in Raleigh have something other than blank ceilings during treatments.  I have a second tile, but there's no paint on it yet so it doesn't photograph very well.  This piece still has a Celtic knotwork border to be added along with the roots and background sections.
This canvas is a household project I started to cover a particularly ugly fusebox adorning our hallway.  It's essentially an under painting that I'll be applying collage elements and other details to.

Beyond all that there's the Bianca piece, a half dozen tiny collages, the seashell still life, and some other solid colored under paintings I've prepped for collages.  All the ones that are worthwhile have been shown.  I anticipate having a couple finished pieces to share next week.

So, lots of things coming along and tons to look forward to over the next few weeks.  Thanks for reading!

Love, Lydia


Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Days 50-56

Well everyone,

The past week has passed by in a blur, job applications sent off, resume tweaks for each one, being more active on Twitter, searching every job site I can think of, spending time with family, planning for either a trip to Virginia or Pennsylvania soon depending on some family news, looking for artistic opportunities, and continuing work on art pieces here and there.  Some of it is ridiculously boring, and some of it slightly less so.

Twitter for instance has been making a big change in how I'm communicating with people.  I've heard about a lot more local art shows and events through it.  In a few weeks of using it regularly I feel much more connected to what's going on in Raleigh, as well as Roanoke and Columbus!  Feel free to add me - @Lydiasdesigns

Highlights of this week include:

Celebrating my husband's birthday with his family
Searching for a snowy owl (failing, but getting the consolation prize of Girl Scout cookies!)
Getting our taxes done other than a W2 that's missing
Seeing the film Chico & Rita and the NC Museum of Fine Arts
Updating my computer OS from Snow Leopard to Mavericks (not sure what I think of all the changes!)
Completing 3 weeks of a health awareness regimen (which I hope to continue in the long term)
Joining the Raleigh Tabletop Roleplay group on Meetup.com (I went to their GM Fair last year, where Bryan GMed a game of Hackmaster, and we tried playing Traveler - a space exploring ame)

Since things have been moving slow I'll be getting a little more action in posting a special "Ask me anything" on Facebook tomorrow and will give results here on my blog later this week. Waiting til things calm down in my personal life to do this - 2/26/14.

Additionally here's an update on how "Bianca" is going:


Thanks and until next time!

Love, Lydia


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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Days 16-18 Special Weekend Edition

Hi folks,

The past few days have kept me busy as Bryan and I decided to move some furniture in our living room....which turned into moving nearly all the furniture and reorganizing our book collection, plus moving a larger chair out of storage into our living room, and taking down our Christmas decorations.  Once everything is looking nice I'll put up a few pictures.  However, Thursday night I fell into bed after moving more things than I'd intended and Friday continued the trend.

Today we've been running errands and getting things done.  But this morning I photographed my latest completed painting.
While working small is fun I think on Tuesday (tomorrow and the Monday holiday I'll be busy) I'll be focus on some larger scale pieces.  This smaller scale piece in particular was more challenging for texture of the canvas alone.  It's got the Shiva casein paints as the base colors, Neocolor II wax pastels for many of the more detailed areas, plus some touches of white acrylic.  I think once I get through all the mini canvases I'll be switching to some other small format backing.  I just wish there were more small sized art boards and out there with cradled backs.  The smallest I've found is 4"x4" from Dick Blick Art Supplies, but I'd try just about anything I could find at this point.  Also, I decided to go look on Blick's site and saw these lovely panels which I would love to work on.

I've tried unfinished wood, but with the first hint of watercolor there's warping and bleeding if you aren't very very cautious.  There are just so many interesting supplies I'd love to try!

In other news, I've had my first pledge on Kickstarter!  Only 3 weeks left to the campaign.  So if you readers are interested check it out.  I appreciate any traffic I can get even if it's simply word of mouth.  Check it out http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lydiadickson/art-for-all-year-2014

Well, I'll be back on Tuesday, but until then I hope you all are having a great weekend!

Love, Lydia



Friday, January 3, 2014

Day 2

Today I got to work with some of the fantastic art supplies I got for Christmas from my mother-in-law.  I'm so excited to try all the new things out!  Here's a overview of the things:

Mona Lisa brand gold, silver and copper leaf (perfect to give a bit of shine to collages)

All the Neocolor II pastels I needed to round out my collection (I've only been getting the most lightsafe of colors, it's a bit of an obsession I have.  But it made collecting all the shades a bit easier, not that it's too hard when they under $2 each.)  I really like the Neocolor II line of pastels because they're wax based and water soluble.  Which means they basically can be used like watercolors.  They've been one of my favorite tools to work with this past year.

I got a great little "color theory" set of Shiva Casein paints.  They work similarly to watercolor and acrylic paints, but give a bit of the look of gouache with a lovely more velvety matte finish.  They use a milk based emulsifier for the paints, which I had never heard of until I happened to read about it in a book.

Sennelier masking fluid, which I've heard great things about thanks to the Art of the Carolinas show back in November.  Masking fluid is used to cover areas of paper or canvas that you want to keep white while you paint a darker color over and around it.  When the color's dry the masking fluid can be peeled off to reveal all the areas of white you wanted to preserve.  It's perfect for making bright stars in a starry sky.

Additionally I got a couple of great books on art from my own mom as well as my mother-in-law.  But I'll save talked about them for another day.

Today I tried out the casein paints and the masking fluid (which you can find at Dick Blick Art Stores).  I actually tried them together, but am a little mixed on what I think of the results.  Here's what the products look like for reference:


So the casein dries fast and is definitely nice and matte like gouache.  I can see why it's called velvety, and I look forward to using it more.  Today I put down some backgrounds for collages.  They're pretty bright since the color theory set came only with red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and violet....no white of black to mellow them down with.  I tried mixing colors while wet and pretty much used them straight from the tube with a brushful of water here and there for blending or to re-wet the colors on my palette.  Here's a picture of the results:

I used a fan brush to apply the masking fluid, thinking the texture would give the piece an interesting feel.  The words ended up being a bit harder to make out, I think partially because I went over them more than I should have.  I'm going to test more in the future though.  The small details from the fan brush came out really nicely though, so I'm pleased with that.

If you couldn't tell my desk is rather messy and due for a cleaning, but I thought I'd share a picture of it too since I feel like spaces give some clues as to personality and so many other things.  I love seeing great artists studios to get a feeling for how they worked.
I don't tend to mind the clutter too much, but I've hit a point where I don't have the space to work!  haha 


So there are my first 4 new pieces of the year!  I can't wait to see how they end up developing.

More tomorrow.
Love, Lydia