Saturday, August 11, 2012

Crafting Binge: Day Two. Experimenting with canvas and my beloved Daniel Torrente stamps.

Inspired by the beautiful Dina Wakley's OUT OF THE JOURNAL 2012, I did a couple of canvases.  Doesn't that sound classy?  "I did a couple of canvases."

It just doesn't as civilized if you phrase it as:  "I wandered through the aisles of the Dollar Tree, wondering if I could paint or emboss or otherwise de-cheapen their plastic chess pieces, then went home and got drunk and painted and glued stuff to a canvas I found in someone's trash can on the next street over..."  

So, yeah,  "I did a couple canvases, this evening."

Do you follow Miss Dina's blog?  It's as purty and classy as she is- so, you should.  She's doing this thing-  wow, I hate the sound of that, 'doing this thing.'  That sounds demeaning, to me.  "She's currently running this promotion," doesn't sound right-  how can I say this?  Oh well, you get what I mean.  It's "OUT OF THE JOURNAL 2012" time at Ms. Dina's blog of beauty!

But, Kory, what IS it?!

Her royal inkiness describes it as:

The idea is to stretch yourself out of your journal by working on canvas and exercise your creative muscle.

I don't have a journal.  Unless you count the insanely large stack of Post-It-Notes-To-Self that I write to myself every stinking day as a journal.  But it definitely isn't the art journal that I religiously keep in my daydreams.

But I love canvas.  It has a beautiful texture.  Like a brand new blank notebook- one of my number one all time addictions- a blank, brand new canvas feels like pure possibility.  Hell, I think they're beautiful just left white.

And did y'all know that, once, I wanted to be a 'real-life' artist?  I did.  I even had (and sold, believe it or not!) paintings in an art gallery.  The hit of that opening night was a gigantic mixed-media piece entitled, "Hard Copy Makes Me Hard."  It sold.

And:  Just like I mentioned above-  I recently found a brand-new, crisply white canvas in someone's trash- so why not give it a go?!

(Yes, it is true that I cannot drive past a pile of trash without pulling over to dig for buried treasure.)

Not only was I inspired by Ms. Dina's work, and even more so by her class, that I recently took- I used stamps.  Ink, stamps, paint, paper, collage- I had a great time!  Thank you, Dina!


This was done on a nicely sized 16X24 canvas.  Acrylic paints, mostly applied with my fingers and a corner of t-shirt.  Part of an old dictionary page.  A Picket Fence Distress Marker.  Anything within reach seemed to make its way to the canvas.  I worked fast and furious and felt great.  I loved making this...

The stamp is one of my favorites by Daniel Torrente.  I love these little critters.  I like the creepy factor, but what I love most is the sweet innocence the little creatures have-  remember how I said I'm still inspired by Dina's Encaustic Tag Book class?  No, there's not encausticality going on here- but I did stamp the little critter on tissue paper- one of the techniques I learned.  I ModPodge'd him on and the tissue paper just faded away.

This wasn't my first canvas, today, though-

Early in the morning, I spotted a little stack of tiny 4X4 canvases that I picked up at Micheals, on clearance for 25 cents each.  They weren't primed or anything- so I did coat it with some gesso, first.


While I waited for the gesso to dry, I stamped and cut out another of my favorite Torrente critters.  I colored him with Distress Inks.  I touched up his teeth with my Picket Fence Distress Marker and did his shoes with the Tea Dye marker- but the rest of him was colored with regular Distress Inks.

I sprayed the tiny canvas with my other favorite 'discovery' from Ms. Dina's class-  DYLUSIONS Ink Spray.  Really?  How great is this ink spray?!  I used the colors of, 'London Blue' and 'Postbox Red.'  This is also when I learned something:  let the first color of spray dry before spraying the next color, otherwise, it just doesn't look as pretty.  That's why it's so dark up there in a few spots.  Luckily, I liked it- so, nothing to cry about.  I did touch up/blend a few spots with Barn Door and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks.  I picked a word at random from Mr. Holtz's ChitChat stickers, glued on the Torrente critter, and stamped some random letters with a white pigment ink.  The word seemed to kinda float there of its own accord.  It didn't look right.  So I drew a 'cord' to it with a silver metallic marker and drew a circle around it with the Picket Fence Distress Marker.  Not happy with how that turned out- but I do like it more than a random floating word.

So that's it for my inspired pieces for Dina Wakley's OUT OF THE JOURNAL.  Look at me, I sprang right out from a journal that I wasn't even in!  But, art journalling is the number two thing I want to do next.  What's number one?  I'm a gentleman.  I don't name names.

-kory

26 comments:

  1. BRILLIANT!!!! Your canvases are beautifully expressionistic. Love the stamps too! The textures & colours are gorgeous. Must go check out Dina's blog. You're such a lucky so & so to have attended her class. To see you create an art journal will be awesome. Maybe some of your mojo will seep through the web to me :) Pxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brilliant canvases, I particularly like the bigger one. ( Don't forget to link up on Dina's blog and then the other 'players' will drop by).

    I love those little creepy guy rubber stamps ;D

    ReplyDelete
  3. ps did you catch the Olympic closing ceremony? Only one lot of signing singing children so hopefully you weren't throwing too many hard objects at your tv screen?!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh.Emm.Gee! i love them! i especially like the smaller canvas one. if you were to have a give-away on your blog i think your followers would be soo lucky to win this! thanks for sharing your work and cant wait to see some more!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Would you mind if I quote a several of your articles or blog
    posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your
    site: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=98618048511015783&postID=5042280997238980872.
    I will aslo make certain to give you the appropriate anchor-text hyperlink using your blog title: Blogger:
    SCRAPiVERSE. Please make sure to let me know if this is okay with you.
    Many thanks

    Here is my page; Highly recommended Web-site

    ReplyDelete
  6. Greetings from Florida! I'm bored to tears at work so I decided to browse your blog on my iphone during lunch break. I really like the information you provide here and can't wait to take a look when
    I get home. I'm shocked at how fast your blog loaded on my cell phone .. I'm not even using WIFI, just
    3G .. Anyways, superb blog!

    My web site; visit the website

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey! It appears as though we both have a interest for the
    same thing. Your blog, "Blogger: SCRAPiVERSE" and mine are very similar.

    Have you ever considered authoring a guest post for a similar website?

    It is sure to help gain publicity to your blog (my website
    recieves a lot of targeted traffic). If you
    are interested, e-mail me at: gladys.whittington@arcor.
    de. Thanks for your time

    My homepage - back link building

    ReplyDelete
  8. Greetings! I know this is kind of off topic but I was
    wondering if you knew where I could find a captcha plugin
    for my comment form? I'm using the same blog platform as yours and I'm having trouble
    finding one? Thanks a lot!

    Feel free to visit my web site :: Suggested Browsing

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hello! It looks as though we both have a passion for the same thing.
    Your blog, "Blogger: SCRAPiVERSE" and mine are very similar.
    Have you ever thought of authoring a guest write-up for a related blog?
    It will definitely help gain publicity to your blog
    (my website recieves a lot of visitors). If you're interested, contact me at: robyncaban@googlemail.com. Thank you

    My site; auto insurance quotes oklahoma

    ReplyDelete
  10. Have you ever considered publishing an e-book or guest
    authoring on other blogs? I have a blog centered on the same topics you discuss and would really like to have you
    share some stories/information. I know my visitors would enjoy your work.
    If you're even remotely interested, feel free to send me an e mail.

    Here is my blog post - more informatio

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hello. I'm wondering if you might be interested in doing a link swap? I see your blog: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=98618048511015783&postID=5042280997238980872 and my website are centered around the same subject. I'd
    really like to switch links or possibly guest author
    a post for you. Here is my personal e-mail: gilberto_lundberg@t-online.
    de. Please be sure to contact me if you're even remotely interested. Thanks for your time.

    Feel free to visit my blog; buy backlinks

    ReplyDelete
  12. I do not know whether it's just me or if perhaps everybody else experiencing problems with your website. It seems like some of the text within your content are running off the screen. Can someone else please provide feedback and let me know if this is happening to them too? This could be a issue with my browser because I've had
    this happen before. Thank you

    Take a look at my web site - auto insurance quotes online

    ReplyDelete
  13. Good day! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering which blog
    platform are you using for this site? I'm getting fed up of Wordpress because I've had issues with hackers and I'm looking at alternatives for another platform. I would be awesome if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.

    Also visit my web-site visit the up coming article

    ReplyDelete
  14. Browsing stumbleupon.com I noticed your site book-marked
    as: Blogger: SCRAPiVERSE. I'm assuming you book marked it yourself and wanted to ask if social book-marking gets you a lot of traffic? I've
    been thinking about doing some social bookmarking for a few of my websites but wasn't sure if it would produce any positive results. Thank you so much.

    Here is my web blog - check out the post right here ()

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hmm it looks like your website ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so
    I guess I'll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I'm thoroughly enjoying your
    blog. I as well am an aspiring blog writer but I'm still new to the whole thing. Do you have any points for newbie blog writers? I'd genuinely appreciate
    it.

    my website: Read Full Report - -

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hey would you mind letting me know which web host you're using? I've loaded your blog in
    3 different web browsers and I must say this
    blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you recommend a good internet hosting provider
    at a reasonable price? Thanks a lot, I appreciate it!

    Feel free to visit my web-site; get backlinks []

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hmm it looks like your site ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess
    I'll just sum it up what I wrote and say, I'm thoroughly enjoying your blog.

    I too am an aspiring blog writer but I'm still new to the whole thing. Do you have any points for inexperienced blog writers? I'd genuinely appreciate it.


    Take a look at my website :: This Web page **

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hmm it seems like your site ate my first comment (it was
    super long) so I guess I'll just sum it up what I had written and say, I'm thoroughly enjoying your blog.
    I too am an aspiring blog writer but I'm still new to the whole thing. Do you have any tips and hints for novice blog writers? I'd genuinely appreciate
    it.

    Check out my blog post - auto insurance quotes arizona
    ()

    ReplyDelete
  19. I've loaded your site in 3 completely different internet browsers and I must say your blog loads a lot quicker then most. Would you mind e-mailing me the name of your web hosting company? My personal email is: margherita-cornejo@gmx.net. I'll even sign up through your own affiliate link if you'd like. Kudos

    Here is my website: click the next site

    ReplyDelete
  20. I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme.

    Did you create this website yourself or did you hire someone to
    do it for you? Plz respond as I'm looking to design my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. many thanks

    Stop by my web site just click the up coming internet page

    ReplyDelete
  21. I'm not sure exactly why but this site is loading very slow for me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it a issue on my end? I'll check
    back later and see if the problem still exists.

    my web page ... auto insurance indianapolis [http://socialnetwork.stock-options-picks.com]

    ReplyDelete
  22. My developer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from
    PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs.
    But he's tryiong none the less. I've been using Movable-type on several websites for about
    a year and am worried about switching to another platform.
    I have heard very good things about blogengine.
    net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress posts into it?
    Any help would be really appreciated!

    Feel free to surf to my page ... click the next
    web page ()

    ReplyDelete
  23. I am curious which blogging platform you might be using?
    I'm new to operating a blog and have been thinking about using the Quizilla platform. Do you consider this is a good platform to start with? I would be really thankful if I could ask you some questions through e-mail so I can learn a bit more prior to getting started. When you have some free time, please contact me at: reynaldoboehm@hotmail.de. Thanks alot :)

    my web site: Highly recommended Web-site

    ReplyDelete
  24. I'm wondering which blogging platform you are running? I'm new to operating a blog and have been thinking
    about using the Tripod platform. Do you think this is a good platform
    to start with? I would be very thankful if I could ask you some questions through email so
    I can learn a bit more prior to getting started. When you have some free time, please
    contact me at: jose-sharkey@zoho.com. Many thanks

    Here is my blog click here... :: ::

    ReplyDelete
  25. Greetings! Very helpful advice in this particular post!
    It is the little changes that produce the largest changes.

    Thanks a lot for sharing!

    Feel free to surf to my website; Read This

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hi I am so glad I found your website, I really found you
    by accident, while I was browsing on Askjeeve for something
    else, Regardless I am here now and would just like to say kudos for a
    marvelous post and a all round exciting blog
    (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to browse it all at the moment but
    I have book-marked it and also included your RSS feeds, so when I have
    time I will be back to read a great deal more, Please do keep up the fantastic b.


    Feel free to visit my blog post visit this website
    link - -

    ReplyDelete