Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Playing with my image editor



Well, this is kind of interesting. I used the fish eye lens special effect on my image editor to get the second image. I think it looks cool -- what do you think? I've never tried that before.

This is a 5x7 inch piece I made yesterday. The base is frozen pizza cardboard (FPC). I had some dyed paper towels, so I decided to use one on this. I wanted something colorful, and purple is one of my favorite colors. I also used a purple watercolor crayon, on the left side and bottom, from my Lyra Aquacolor set. I used water and a brush, and painted parallel lines, and they looked nice and even. But later I sealed the piece with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF), not realizing that the watercolor crayon marks would run. Like duh....I should've known that, but I didn't think about it. So my nice, even lines all ran. Ahh, but not to worry, the way they ran looks fine to me.

The hearts were punched out of a distressed (sanded) paint chip. Usually I then rub it with brown shoe polish, but I didn't want brown on this piece, so I rubbed it with a violet glaze and then wiped it off. The pony is stamped onto the same distressed paint chip. That is a new stamp I just got off ebay. The company is 2nd Nature Arts, and I think it has some neat stamps. You might want to check them out. Here is a link to the ebay store http://tinyurl.com/7hwxzu  I ended up buying five. These are unmounted stamps. I shouldn't be buying new stamps, because I have so many I haven't used yet, but I thought some of these stamps were unlike any I'd seen, so I just had to have them. At least I'm proud of myself for using one on this piece.

I also used a harlequin stamp and stamped with yellow and then violet acrylic paint, but it barely shows up, due to how textural the paper towel is. That's dyed cheese cloth under the hearts, and the piece under the key is some yellow fabric rubbed with gold waxy stuff (kind of similar to Rub n Buff). I outlined the hearts and pony with purple glitter glue (GG), and the yellow fabric with gold glitter glue.  I really like outlining with GG, but I get very nervous when I do, afraid I'll screw up. Which isn't hard to do -the screwing up part - and I've screwed up with it before. But on this piece, all went well with the GG. The key is from a lot of old keys off ebay.



10 comments:

Barb Smith said...

How cool. I've never used fisheye on my PSP either...very neat effect.
Peace & Love,
~Barb~

Karen said...

very cool...especially the fish eye image. Love the pony stamp and I have to agree that the way the watercolor pen ran was perfect.

Unknown said...

This is beautiful!

Pat said...

Val, all of a sudden I love purple! You are so good to give an account of all that you do to get the "look". I think it gives people (at least, me)confidence in just getting in there and playing until it says "I'm done!".... It is gorgeous!
Pat

Unknown said...

Ah, yes! Purple! Love the color and the piece is another fabulous one! That ebay store was dangerous! I love horse images, but I didn't get the one you used on this piece.

Heather Robinson said...

I'm so taken with your use of rusty keys on your artwork...so symbolic! Love the look of the lens...very interesting effect indeed and the colour in these pieces is spectacular.

Michi Michaelson, Orange County, CA said...

Hi Val!
I LOVE this purple you used on this piece!!! I think it's STUNNING!!!!!!

morningDove said...

i always love reading your how-to's for your art pieces. fish eye is a fun thing to try. i've not done that in quite a while.

Max said...

Your work is absolutely marvelous. I can't wait to see what you come up with next. If you are selling your chipboard, think of me. I would take anything that would fit into a regular letter full sized envelope for the least expense to Canada.
Max

Dobell Family-Reaching Out said...

These colours are so me...Love them Val and the whole sharing thing you do here on your blog you never leave anything out..A generous and lovely heart. I love the globe effect it looks like another world or planet ..Id love to see a planet thats purpley like yours. Beautiful!