I've been wanting to try my hand at these little landscapes taught by Karyn Gartel for some time. A friend took her class and was kind enough to show me how to do it too. They were a lot of fun and I love how they are so whimsical and folk artsy. I was most amazed that you could actually paint on canvas using the inexpensive sort of craft acrylic paint you buy at the hobby stores. I notice now that I'm seeing both the day and night versions side by side, that I made a few errors - the hills in the night one are brighter and lighter in color than the daytime one and it really should be the other way around, shouldn't it? Maybe I should go back in and paint a big cloud obscuring the sun! And don't tell, but I have my light source coming from the left on the day time piece, but my shadows for the trees and houses go the opposite direction! Duh! I don't care. I'm still happy with them as I've never painted on real canvases before and now, having done this, I'm not so intimidated so may try some other things later on. If you'd like to see Karyn Gartel's site and the classes she offers, check out her workshop blog.
These were a natural next step with the "doodling" I've been doing for
some time now. Saw the technique online at: PearlEsq
a blog by Robin Beam, who is the
education director for Ranger Industries. I guess I'm behind the times because she has been doing this for some time now it appears! Oh well, better late than never! I've been having fun with this technique making backgrounds for cards, etc. and even did an envelope on a momentary whim last week. I love sending a little bit of art in the mail to perk up someone's day. Just wish I had more time for that! The technique in a shortened version is:
1. rub Distress Ink pads (or any dye ink pads) on a teflon sheet - don't overlap colors or they will muddy
2. spritz inked sheet with water - pretty heavily
3. drag a piece of watercolor paper through the wet dye once, then dab here and there into remaining wet dye to cover entire piece (easier to work with 1/4 sheets or so) of w/c paper
4. I found you can go back direct to paper with the ink pads adding a dab of ink here and there, then spritz the area with some more water to make it run and blend with the existing colors.
5. set aside to dry and do some more backgrounds
6. when background is dry (can speed with heat gun), stamp flourishes or any stamps you want to fill in a random pattern. Robin recommends the black acrylic paint dabber by Ranger. I tried it and preferred the Stazon black pad for clear, crisper images.
7. high light here and there alongside the stamped black images using a good, opaque, white pen. Here again, I prefer the Signo pen, but my friend Dawn let me try her new Extra fine white waterproof Sharpie marker and it is pretty great too!
8. I added some random dots here and there, but that is just me and I never know when to stop doodling!
Thanks Robin for another great technique!
I've been wanting to try my hand at these little landscapes taught by Karyn Gartel for some time. A friend took her class and was kind enough to show me how to do it too. They were a lot of fun and I love how they are so whimsical and folk artsy. I was most amazed that you could actually paint on canvas using the inexpensive sort of craft acrylic paint you buy at the hobby stores. I notice now that I'm seeing both the day and night versions side by side, that I made a few errors - the hills in the night one are brighter and lighter in color than the daytime one and it really should be the other way around, shouldn't it? Maybe I should go back in and paint a big cloud obscuring the sun! And don't tell, but I have my light source coming from the left on the day time piece, but my shadows for the trees and houses go the opposite direction! Duh! I don't care. I'm still happy with them as I've never painted on real canvases before and now, having done this, I'm not so intimidated so may try some other things later on. If you'd like to see Karyn Gartel's site and the classes she offers, check out her workshop blog.
