NOT your Everyday Birds! :-) A ColourArte Tutorial

It annoys me that people carelessly discard their garbage across our country.  I often reclaim abandoned car hoods, children's rusty bed headboards, old pieces of tires, broken glass, and anything I can remove from the environment that clutters our land to tote home. In my studio I bend, twist, glue, melt,  paint and manipulate the found objects into art pieces.  Studio A B See is always full of objects awaiting their transformation.  

The point is that it is a rare ocassion when  I buy something to alter.  This was an exception.  This book flew off the shelf, grabbed me, and begged me for a  new beginning!  I spent a whole $.25, a quarter of a dollar!, to free it from its dusty home in an antique shop.

Inside the book I found a familiar scene from my childhood . . . an abundance of blank space around text and a seriouos lack of color!

BEFORE

I have altered many pages from the book using ColourArte paints, including Twinkling H20's, Radiant Gels, Radiant Rains, and Silk Acrylic Glazes.  The unending shimmer of these paints is almost impossible to capture on camera, but in real life the pages below almost glow!

AFTER

There are many more BEFORE and AFTER pages of the book in the video below.  I hope you will view it and give it a thumbs up.  I would also like to invite you to subscribe to my youtube channel while  you are there!

BIRDS OF A FEATHER YOUTUBE VIDEO

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I post a projects at ColourArte.com/blog twice monthly, on the first and third Mondays of the Month.  See you there!!!

Visit ColourArte.com each day for new tutorials by other Design Team Members!

Also please note that ColourArte conducts a Scavenger Hunt twice monthly.  It's easy!  It's fun!  And you can win beautiful art products like the ones I used in this project.

Stretch Paint!; Minimize Inner Critic!

Not sure that I would call this a finished canvas but I enjoyed the journey and will return to it later to decide.  My main focus was to show how to stretch your paint dollar, but as an added reward I found myself quieting my inner critic!

See the video and details on the ColourArte link at the end of this post.

Above:  Real Feathers on Canvas Background

Below:  Canvas after Feathers were Misted with Radiant Gels and Removed.

If you watched my video about Fancy Paper Feathers on Youtube, you know that I misted real feathers with Radiant Gels on top of a canvas.  I rarely rinse a brush without brushing it across a canvas or paper to rid it of most of the paint. It just makes sense! I don't waste the paint.  I simultaneously create new backgrounds that I plan to use at a later date, and that is the case with this canvas that was created when I misted those feathers.   I also save the paper towels where I clean brushes or lift paint.  They make awesome additions for collage work.

See how I created this canvas at ColourArte.com/blog on a project that I titled Stretch Paint!; Minimize Inner Critic

Feather Flames Watercolor for ColourArte

Here is my next project for  ColourArte.com/blog that will post on Monday, May 4, 2015.  It is called FEATHER FLAMES.  You will find a tutorial video there explaining how I drew and painted this watercolor.  I try to keep my tutorials short and to the point, so click on it and watch.  If you have any questions email me at studioabsee@yahoo.com

I had so much fun with Twinkling H2O's  from ColourArte.com that I immediately placed another order so I can have more of these lovely shimmering watercolors.  One thing I like about them is that they are activated with water about 5 minutes before you use them, thus they are travel friendly!  No spills in the car!  That is an incredible PLUS for me.  I like to have easy access to my materials whether I am going across country or to a sporting event. Twinkling H2O's (sometimes referred to as "Twinks") are easy to carry, and I can choose my color scheme before I leave home eliminating extra bulk of unnecessary supplies.  LOVE 'EM!

Updating Vintage Children's Books Tutorial

 Here is a vintage book that I used to test Twinkling H2O's 

The page below is printed with only two colors, green plus a black outline.  Typical of the times, there are only three colors (green and turquoise, with black outlines) in the entire book.

 I'm going to jazz it up with a makeover!

Painted the photo and margins with Twinkling H2O's with crisp edges on the bird, but using a wet into wet technique on background

Experiment with Tulle

Title: Spring Dances.

 Media: ink, watercolor, pastels, graphite, and nylon mesh.

 This is an experiment to see what nylon mesh,  properly called tulle, looks like when added as a layer over other media. 

Contact Linda at studioabsee@yahoo.com for price and details.

I learned that to make it lie flat on the surface that I need to let the Mod Podge dry a little to become more adhesive and then smooth the net back down onto the page. I like the results and will most likely use more of this media, particularly in my abstract works.  It adds a very soft layer of color and a nice texture.