Sweet Square #29

Day 29....I'm already beginning to miss this exercise which is scheduled to end tomorrow. Thinking I may continue for awhile. It gives me incentive to get to the studio and post on my blog. The influence has already begun to leak into my work.
      Public thanks to Diandra Mae from Houston, Tx. for coming up with this challenge!
      I love the spontaneous look of these ink-on-wet-paper monsters. The sticker eyes added just the right touch of personality.

Sweet Squares 22 - 28

Dad loved his new carrot tie.

As we left, Harry waved good-bye.

 The next few squares are the result of cutting more than one shape at a time, by accident not design. It was fun to use the same shape to convey different characters or settings for the same character. All are cut paper and a variety of markers. The whole experiment reminded me of Andy Warhol, repeating an image but making it new each time.

"Watch Out!" the dragon snarled.

"I'll be back soon," Mom said.

"Rain" Penny sighed. Rain meant mud.

"Ah, the sweet smell of poppies!"

Penny began to sing.

Sweet Squares 18 - 21

Black Glue/Watercolor and Salt

White Glue on Black Paper/Pastels

Tissue paper w  Ink & Paint details

 My next four squares in the "Sweet Squares"September Challendge  include:
A chameleon outlined in black glue with watercolor and a sprinkling of salt for texture, a snail outlined with black glue with chalk pastel blended for the background, a tissue paper collage of a girl reaching for a butterfly, with ink and paint details and a fish outlined in green fabric paint, then painted with watercolor. Off to the studio to experiment some more. Fun, fun....

Green fabric paint and watercolor

Sweet Square # 17

Brown Ink wash and pen details

Today's "Sweet Square" is a brown ink wash with pen and ink detailing. I found several bottles of colored ink in the cupboard. May have to use them up before they go bad. It's surprising how "stuck" in media ruts we all get when one material becomes our first pick. I'm discovering that I need to do this more often to maintain fluency in more than one media.

Sweet Square #16

Oil Pastel Etching on Colored Paper

Color Digitally Removed

I'm trying to focus on process and media. In this sample, I applied one color of thick oil pastel on top of a colored piece of tagboard, then etched the image through the top layer. I scanned the image and manipulated it in iphoto to remove the color. Very interesting. Not sure which version I prefer.

SWEET SQUARE #15

Original image oil pastels/watercolors

 In this 3"x3" sample I used oil pastels to draw the chameleon, then used watercolor inside the main shape. In the background I applied a thick layer of oil pastel and etched through with a sharpened wood stick to create a patterns. I like the scale of the larger image, but would prefer even more detail with a larger image.

Image digitally intensified

Sweet Square #14

Sweet Squares 14a and 14b: Oil Pastel Scratchboard 

In this example, I applied a thick layer of oil pastel to tag board and scratched through with a pointed wooden tool to create texture. After I scanned the colored version (the original), I played with my iphoto tweaking tools to eliminate the color and emphasize the texture. I liked the colorless version best. What do you think?

Sweet Square #13

Paste Paper Collage with Stamped detail

Lucky for me, my granddaughters and I had created a stack of paste papers in the studio last month. (With the help of Jackie, the studio cat.) 

Cut paper isn't the best choice for a 3" x 3" square but I gave it a whirl. It's hard for me to work in this media without feeling I'm stealing from the paste paper king, Eric Carle. Paste papers are beautiful.

SWEET SQUARES 9 - 12

Cut Paper and Dimensional paint

Print from yesterday w. paste paper leaves

Craft felt and Foam w. marker details

Ink Wash C

Sweet Squares 9 - 12:
An attempt to step outside my comfort zone, try new media and have fun experimenting.





 Guess what? I'm not uncomfortable doing images in diverse media. It's fun and has jolted me into planning to update some of my  portfolio images.

Sweet Squares 5 - 8

Ink Wash & Watercolor Witch

Fun Foam Rooster Print

Ink Wash and Watercolor 3" x 3"

Craft Foam Print/Colored Markers

I've decided that my first four attempts (below) were mainly style variations, not media, so I went back to the studio and pulled out a few different supplies from the cupboard: ink, pens, brushes and water, sticky back fun foam & watercolor markers. These are the squares I came up with for my next four experiments. I'd forgotten how much fun printmaking is...even on this most basic level. And ink washes, WOW...so spontaneous. (This challenge has already been good for me!) I may try to keep it up beyond 30 days.

My Sweet Squares 1-4

Thin point sharpie and Watercolor #1

Thin point sharpie and blended watercolor marker #2.

Sharpie/watercolor pencil: folk art inspired #3

Thin point sharpie markers a la Zentangle. #4

OK, I'm a few days short of hopping on the bandwagon, but here are my first attempts doing a month of 3" x 3" media experiments inspired by the "Month of Experiments" sponsored by Diandra Mae's blog. Check it out here: http://diandramae.blogspot.com  Diandra attend Melissa Sweet's amazing session for Illustrators at the SCBWI Conference in LA. (Aug 2012). I was there too!

In case you don't know Melissa's work, her latest book, Balloons Over Broadway (http://www.amazon.com/Balloons-over-Broadway-Puppeteer-Education/dp/0547199457) 

won the Golden Kite Award this year for Illustration. It is an amazing book, full of media surprises.  Melissa encouraged us to EXPERIMENT and be more playful with media.  So that's what we're doing. BTW: Do you know how small 3" x 3" is?