Kamis, 31 Desember 2009

As Night Falls...

As we leave 2009 and the first decade of the 21st century and enter into 2010, I want to take this special moment to thank everybody who has visited The Altered Page this past year. Thank you for stopping by. Thank you for leaving comments and sending emails. Thank you for participating in my online projects. And even thank you for lurking. I appreciate each and every one of you!

In deciding what to post tonight, I looked back on my New Year's post from one year ago. It still seems so applicable and is one of my most favorite posts. So...I am taking the liberty of posting it again this year.

As night falls on 2009...



I remember the positives...



and the negatives...



the highs...



and the lows...



the moments of contemplation...



and moments of pain...



feeling calm...



and feeling alive...



climbing to new heights...



and being heard...



taking a chance...



and realizing the sky is the limit...



and throughout it all...



Wishing you all a happy, healthy and creative 2010. May every dream come true!

Rabu, 30 Desember 2009

Dare 2 Reach



It isn't where you come from, it's where you're going that counts. Ella Fitzgerald



The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do. Sarah Ban Breathnach

Featured on The Creative Jar. Thank you Jodi!

Ingredients: watercolor paper, book board, altered paper, acrylic paint, metallic acrylic paint, silver leaf, calligraphy ink, gel pen, leafing pen, dry transfer, rubon letters. Reach approximately 4 5/8" x 3 1/2". Dare approximately 4 5/8" x 3 3/4". click to enlarge.

Available for purchase in The Altered Page on Etsy.

Both sold. Thank you!

Selasa, 29 Desember 2009

Chance



Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down. Ray Bradbury


Ingredients: watercolor paper, book board, altered paper, acrylic paint, metallic acrylic paint, silver leaf, calligraphy ink, gel pen, leafing pen, dry transfer, rubon letters. approximately 4 3/8" x 3 1/2". click to enlarge.

Available for purchase in The Altered Page on Etsy.

Sold. Thank you!

Senin, 28 Desember 2009

Imagine


Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

John Lennon


Ingredients: watercolor paper, book board, acrylic paint, metallic acrylic paint, calligraphy ink, gel pen, leafing pen, dry transfer, rubon letters. approximately 4 5/8" x 3 5/8". click to enlarge.

Available for purchase in The Altered Page on Etsy.

Sold. Thank you!

Sabtu, 26 Desember 2009

Secret Sunday 6

Do you want to know a secret?


Welcome to the fourth edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals.


Over 150 (!) artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented as a series of online and print projects. And the first continues right now!

Join the The Altered Page every Sunday for "Secret Sunday." Here the secrets of all your favorite artists will be revealed. It could be a technique, a product, a secret source, a little-known website, a hidden shop, an inspiration, just about anything! If you missed any, no worries. You can find links to all the secrets on the sidebar of my blog.

Today's secret.......Techniques Too!
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Vivian Bonder
Blog: Desert Bloom

A while ago I played with glue image transfers and they worked really well. There is a link to my blog post right here.


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Roxanne Stout
Blog: River Garden Studio

This is not really a secret... just something I love to do... When I am doing a landscape and I want to put some buildings in it, I like to draw and paint them on watercolor paper first... I tear the bottom off in the shape of the shrubbery or the hillside, and then cut out the structure. Then I glue it on with matt medium and add several layers of mediums and paint right out of the tubes. This building is part of a house in Issigeac, France... a view from my brothers house...


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Olivia King
Blog: 4 Rooms and the Moon

I love drawing on brown paper. When I was a kid I could hardly wait for lunch so I could tear open the brown paper bag lunch came in and start drawing. So I suppose it isn’t surprising that one of my favorite purchased journals is a recycled brown paper sketch book by “earthbound” Cachet Products. The covers are brown paper too, and great to work with paint and collage.



This is my secret for building up surfaces, I coat the pages with Liquitex Gesso surface prep. (I find Golden Gesso has a more plastic surface film and I like the “tooth” I get from Liquitex.) The gesso coated brown paper holds up very well to all water media, and can take many layers of paint or collage without wrinkling or warping (be sure and coat both sides or the page will curl). The soft velvety texture the gesso gives the surface is a pleasure to sketch on with graphite. I have recently found you can buy these brown paper journals at Wal-Mart! And about half the price I’ve been paying!
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Linda Germain
Blog: Printmaking without a Press
Blog: Art by Linda Germain
You Tube: Linda Germain
Website: Linda Germain

Well I guess it would be a surprise to see the wonderful textured results that you can get by printing with moldy gelatin. As the gelatin ages it cracks, and gets holey and creates unpredictable textures. You can use newsprint to absorb the excess water and then print with water based inks and a thin strong paper. I have a slidshow video showing examples of prints made with old gelatin here.


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Martha Marshall
Blog: An Artist's Journal
Website: Martha Marshall Fine Art

My recently-developed intuitive collage process, whereby I create one huge seemingly-chaotic collage and then use a view finder to create compositions within the matrix of the image. It's been an endless source of fun for me lately.



I wrote about it in my blog here.
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Lisa Wright
Blog: The Wright Stuff
Etsy: The Wright Stuff

I’m still learning – aren’t we all! However, one of the best lessons I’ve taught myself is a little secret I would be willing to share. Painting faces has always been something of a trial. There’s so much to contend with – from getting the shape to the shading right… and let’s not talk about hair. So, I discovered an excellent way to practice which reignites all that childhood pleasure gleaned from colouring in books. Yes, that’s it. You colour in! Just select a striking pose from a magazine, paint over lightly with gesso so you can still just about see the original picture beneath. Then, grab your paints, pastels and crayons and get colouring. It’s more fun to use un-natural shades of blue, green, orange to resculpt the face and hair.



The other method is to transfer the image using gel medium. This is a bit more hit and miss as you never quite know how well the print will stick to your surface but it creates some unexpected surprises too. As long as most of the image comes over you can paint back in the rest. You don’t get so much paper wrinkling with this method and it seems to work best on canvas. I like to paint the canvas a bold colour beforehand so it reflects back through your image.
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Steph Brouwers
Blog: vLaDtHeBaT’s aTTiC

I am crazy about beads and I want to share a technique. If you want to make faux dark amber beads (like Tibetan amber), use translucent polymer clay with a hint of orange and leave it longer in the oven (same t° even a bit lower ).
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Lisa Sarsfield
Blog: Lucky Dip

Now and then I find myself stumped with a collage. I often only have 1 main piece plus 3 or 4 smaller elements but that still equals many possible combinations! Sometimes I also have extra pieces that I'd like to use but I am not sure if they 'belong' there. I usually get stuck when I can least afford to- either when pushing time or when using the last of something I really like! It can be very frustrating and I am sure I am not alone in that!

One technique I've found to really help is to assemble the collage (or altered book spread) in all of it's possible combinations (without actually gluing or stitching it in place) and to then photograph each one individually. That way I can take it apart to try another idea with out actually loosing the first one and I can use the photos as a reference for re-assembling the collage once I have decided which one I like the most. I'm sure most of us have tried a layout and then decided the 'other one' was better but can't quite replicate it the exact way it had been done earlier!

There's two more advantages I feel you get when you photograph your work like this. One being the ability to flick through the images as often as you like and in your own time (with a coffee, on a walk, when waiting in the car...). The second being the ability to compare them directly. Sometimes you just know when you've got a winner and other times it takes a little more searching and it helps to have something to compare your designs with.



One collage I needed to employ this technique for is this one I made for the International Collage Exchange and the process can be found in this blog post. The photographing process really helped with the decision making and the final piece above was my end choice, and one I am very happy with! At the end of the day being happy in your creating and with your art is what matters the most!
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Mary Layman
Blog: Joyful Ploys

I discovered this quite by accident---I was using acrylic paints plus Caran d'ache crayons in a floral composition. I used black India ink to accent some of the lines in the piece and decided they were too bold so I then used Caran d'ache crayons to go over the lines to soften the ink. Here is one of my pieces using this technique:


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Theresa Martin
Website: theresa mARTin
Blog: theresa mARTin
Etsy: Eve Crowe Studios
Cafe Press: Theresa Martin

Here's a Photoshop tip:

If you want to turn an image into a sepia tone, or any monochromatic color here's a good way to do it while preserving the color of your original image. With your image open in PS select Layer, New Fill Layer, Solid Color. Select the color you want. You can change your choice later. After, go to the layers menu and select the Solid Color Layer and choose Color from the blending mode menu. It provides a nice color overlay giving your piece any monochromatic color you wish. You can select the color in the layers menu and change it to any other color or level of transparency. This way you have preserved the color of the original image and given yourself many options for a color overlay.

Before:



After:


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Rabu, 23 Desember 2009

Contain Me

I continue to work on "Self Contained" - my collaboration with Viv and Step. Each of us have created our own art structure that all three of us work in three different times. It is all about what lies within. Things that may be unspoken and things that are often hidden. Raw, grungy, rough, messy, and all our selves. One very special and unique aspect to this project is that we all create on and over each other's artwork. A true collaborative effort!

A few glimpses of my most recent work in Viv's piece. Click to enlarge.























Minggu, 20 Desember 2009

Solstice Moments



silver stars shimmer
lighting the crowning glory
enveloped in peace



the ease of the trees
holding the weight of the world
balanced with beauty



a sense of wonder
blankets the surface of all
look toward the new day

Secret Sunday 5

Do you want to know a secret?


Welcome to the fourth edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals.


Over 150 (!) artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented as a series of online and print projects. And the first continues right now!

Join the The Altered Page every Sunday for "Secret Sunday." Here the secrets of all your favorite artists will be revealed. It could be a technique, a product, a secret source, a little-known website, a hidden shop, an inspiration, just about anything! If you missed any, no worries. You can find links to all the secrets on the sidebar of my blog.

Today's secret.......Book Ends!
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Gwen Buchanan
Blog: DESIDERATUM

Ornament...from the Industrial Revolution to Today by Stuart Durant, Overlook Press, pub. 1986 ISBN: 0879512199, hardcover

... sourcebook of decoration and design elements... beautifully produced with an exceptional amount of illustration, color and black and white... this is my most reached for book... I believe it is out of print... worthy of a search... I have seen it in second hand online book shops...


...isn't the cover beautiful!!
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Maj Hoenborg
Blog: Second Nature

Books are my addiction and here are two sources of inspiration:

F.S.Meyer, Handbook der Ornamentik

An out of print series of books with wonderful illustrations and wood prints of animals and beasts from 1670 by Conrad Gesner (mine are reprints from 1981)
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Joanne Archer
Blog: The Crow Road

I don't think I have a technique that is new to anyone reading this. I get a lot of inspiration from literature; I have a degree in Literature and Art History and that is my first love. My house is filled with books and my guilty pleasure is rummaging through charity shops for old ones to add to my collection. Sometimes it's the content that attracts me, sometimes the cover, or the foxed pages. One of the reasons I love Judy Wilkenfeld's work so much is that she creates the most beautiful, altered books that also tell a profound story. Sorry, it's not a secret, but it'll have to do!


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Mary S Hunt
Blog: Working Projects
Etsy: Mary Hunt Studio

1. If you can't get to his camp for one on one...get his 3 books for working with warm glass...Boyce Lundstrom...the glass master!

Kiln Firing Glass: Glass Fusing Book One

Advanced Fusing Techniques

Fusing, Fusing, Fusing

2. Might be out of print...The Art of Painting on Glass by Albinas Elskus...is the ONLY source to use when mastering staining and enameling with glass.

3. Arteffects is my favorite painting techniques source book.
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Sally Turlington
Blog: Imagine This

My best secret for motivation & idea generation is my collection of Graphic Design Annuals.


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Tracie Lyn Huskamp
Blog: The Red Door Studio

I LOVE the book Beautiful Gems of Thought and Sentiment by Northrop.
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Pam McKnight
Blog: Every Little Thing
Flickr: Pam McKnight

Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing: Meditation in Action by Fredrick Franck...this is a great book to read when you are feeling "uncreative" and stuck and need a boost. I have read it 3 times and I don't usually read a book more than once.
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Judith Stadler
Blog: ARTISTICANEUM

For resources to make art: You can find really great, interesting old used books for altering or collage papers in some local libraries in Manhattan. They often cost less than $1 each.



The book in Hebrew is A Little Town in Germany, by Le Carre. The Macbeth was published in 1889 and is also notable for the title on the spine being upside down. The Fearful Passage (the book to the left of Macbeth) was published the year of my birth.
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