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Saturday, November 23, 2013

Experiment with Black

One of my favorite online artists is Donna Downey.  She does a video called Inspiration Wednesday each week.  Donna is not only a talented artist, she is only very, very funny.  This piece was inspired by one of her Inspiration Videos.  I laughed and laughed while I watched her create.  Donna is one of those people that as I watch I want to yell at the monitor and say, "Stop, it's perfect now, don't do anything else."  Usually I'm wrong.  Not so much this time. One of the things I love about Donna is her willingness to experiment. She is not afraid to try something new and she's not afraid to make a Hot Mess. Hot Mess is one of her phrased and it is a great one.

I really liked the idea that she started with so I decide to give it a try.  I started with a 8x10 piece of cereal box cardboard.  It's my go to substrate for experiments.  I put two coats of gesso and then I use blue, yellow and purple metallic paint (Micheal's brand)  In person the colors are shiny.  I photographed inside at night so I lost most of glass. The yellow and blue made a really pretty green that looks kind of weak in the photo.  I hand lettered the words with my white Pitt Pen.  It's a permanent ink when dry.  I see more Pitt pens in my future.  Next I painted around all the words with black craft paint. When all the black was dry, I went over the white a couple of more times so that it would pop. I used a piece of sand paper to rough up the background so that a bit of the colors would peak through.  I also put a coat of Liquitex Gloss Varnish as a final coat to give the background just a bit of shine.  This was a little out of my comfort zone.  I had a good time doing it and I'm happy with how it turned out.

Creative Everyday Month,  Paint Party Friday

6 comments:

  1. Love it!!! I also love the effect of color peeking through the background after sanding.

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  2. Wonderful Boo! I love the colours and patterns you achieved and the effect of the sanding back on some of the black. It is a 'happy making' piece. It makes me smile :o) x

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  3. I love it too! I love Donna Downey too (I've also yelled STOP!!!! at her before, but you're right, the end result is usually perfection!)...there's something about her voice and the way she goes about things that I just find very soothing artistically...sometimes I turn off my radio while I am arting and listen to her videos instead... She's like a modern Bob Ross for me. When I'm sick, I love to watch Bob Ross videos...he makes me feel better. That's what she's like for me too!

    I agree with you about the Pitt pens, although I don't have a white...do you like the White Pitt pens? Everybody seems to have good luck with white sharpies, but I feel like I don't have that much luck with them (although I'm still on the look out for a white poster paint sharpie...the poster paint ones in other colors have been awesome for me...) I like my black Pitt pens very much (they have about reached their end because I use them so much) and Microns are also pretty sweet in my eyes!

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  4. I LOVE it....it`s a favorite message of mine!! Good job!

    Hugs giggles

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  5. You and Donna have a lot in common. I think I told you at one time that one of the things I love about you is your willingness to experiment and let the art take you where it wants to go. If you can't laugh out loud at least you can smile real big!!
    Sandy

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