52 Weeks of Art: Week 13

Week 13: Calligraphy

Welcome to week 13 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

Calligraphy: the art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering with a pen or brush. 

     Here's another medium I wasn't sure about. So, off to the internet again! I'm sure that, by now, everyone has seen all sorts of cute hand lettering things - they are ALL OVER Instagram. I did some research about calligraphy vs. hand lettering. I just assumed they were the same thing. Well, turns out that they are not the same thing. So, what's the difference? Well, that's where I got a little confused.

     I read several articles about the differences between the two, and the only thing I could find that really differentiates the two is WRITING vs. ILLUSTRATING. Calligraphy, I think, is just the WRITING. Hand lettering, I think, is ILLUSTRATING. So, if you are going to write some words and JUST the words, that is calligraphy. If you are writing the words and adding some fancy other doodads and whatnots to it, that's hand lettering. I think. I don't really know. 

     I apologize to every calligraphy and hand lettering artist out there if I just messed that all up! 

     Some more differences between the two are the tools you use. Calligraphy uses special pen nibs dipped into ink. Hand lettering uses anything from brush pens to paint brushes. Again, I'm not really sure I'm getting this 100% accurate. So, let's just look at some examples of each!

Calligraphy. Found it here. You can also sign up for a Calligraphy class!

Hand lettering. Found this here, where you can learn how to hand letter.

     So yeah, I still don't really see much of a difference. I don't know. All I know is that they both have words and letter. 

     Here's another medium that I forgot to take pictures of the whole process. Sorry. I am really bad at this whole "blogging the experience" thing. 

     I used a pen nib that I had and some sumi ink. And ta-da! The finished product!

Is it calligraphy or hand lettering? I don't know.

     I'm not sure if this falls under calligraphy or hand lettering, but I do know it has words and letters in it and that's good enough for me. I think that if you decide to try calligraphy/hand lettering, the most important thing to remember is that you create something you are happy with. 

          

On to rating calligraphy...

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for calligraphy, my rating is: 17

Ease of use: 4

    Using a pen nib and ink was really not that easy. Maybe I was doing it wrong? That's very possible. I didn't really know what I was doing.

Affordability: 4

     Nibs and ink are actually pretty affordable. You're looking at like $20 for nibs and ink. And the ink will last you a long time. A little bit goes a long way. Or you could use brush pens, paint brushes, sharpies, etc.

Accessibility: 5

     Nibs and ink are easy to come by. And again, if you go with brush pens or paint brushes, you can find those pretty much anywhere.

Fun to Use: 4

     This was a little frustrating for me. I don't think that I like using pen nibs. I much prefer to use anything else. But again, I was probably just using it wrong. Will I be doing some calligraphy in the future? Probably, but not with pen nibs.

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!

52 Weeks of Art: Week 12

Week 12: Acrylic Pouring

Welcome to week 12 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

          Well, we're on to week 12 of this art adventure. Wow! I can't believe it's been 12 weeks already! That's nearly 1/4th of the way over with! Our art adventure took us to acrylic pouring this week. I have never done anything like this before. And, I'm going to be totally honest here, I never really wanted to do acrylic pouring. I always kind of looked at it like it was more of a craft than an art. I know! I am so sorry to all you acrylic pouring artists out there! This is more than just a craft. There really is some art to it. It's not just pouring some paint onto a canvas and letting it do its thing. It is so much more complicated than that!

I found this beautiful piece here.

The colorful creation was found here.

     Since I knew pretty much nothing about acrylic pouring, I headed to the internet! Thank you, Google for finding all the answers I needed. I found several sites that talked about how to do pouring. I honestly had no idea there was so much! You need a pouring medium, some silicone, some water, some paint (obviously), canvas, cups (so MANY cups), etc.

     The pouring medium, at least from what I researched, can be as cheap as using some Elmer's glue to using some fancy made-for-acrylic-pouring medium. I went with somewhere in between. I got some Floertol. It's used for house paint. It was MUCH cheaper than the fancy stuff. And, since I have never done any acrylic pouring before, I have no idea of the quality of it. I read that some people swear by the Floertol, others only use the fancy stuff. Everyone seems to have a completely different recipe for their pours.

      Another thing to add to the paint mixture is some silicone oil. It appears that the most commonly used oil is treadmill oil. Weird? I thought so. But, what do I know? I don't know anything about fluid art. A good substitute for the treadmill oil just so happens to be some coconut hair treatment that I happened to already own. Yay! 

    Alright, so, you've gathered up all your supplies, what now?

My supplies. All ready to begin.

     Here we've got the paint all mixed up. I used approximately (because I am terrible at actually measuring anything) 1 part paint, 1 part water, 1 part Floetrol, and a few drops of the coconut hair oil. I also used some plastic spoons to mix it all up because they fell out of the cupboard when I opened the door.

So much paint! 

     I took a tiny little cup - Solo makes some pretty great tiny cups, I'm pretty sure they are shot glasses, but I think they work pretty great for so many other things - I poured small amounts of different colors of paint into the cup and here we go! Paint poured all over the place.

My first pour! 

     I highly recommend that you make sure you are doing your pouring over SOMETHING that will catch all the paint that drips off. I just used some foil pans that I happened to have laying around the house. I keep saying I have these things laying around the house. They're actually put away. Most of the time. I love these foil pans. They can be used for just about anything and you can get sets of them at the dollar store. I love the dollar store.

Here is a "set" of paintings I did. I poured the paint over two canvases. 

     The Little one did some acrylic pouring as well. She had so much fun with this. Here's some paintings that she did. There are more, but these were my favorites.

The Little One did some acrylic pouring of her own.

     Here are the finished pieces all dried. It took HOURS for them to dry. I had to try to find some safe place in my house where no one would bump into them and get wet paint all over themselves - or the house. Not an easy task. One thing I noticed about these pours is that they were constantly changing. As the paint dripped off the edges the whole thing changed and created new patterns.

   

     

On to rating acrylic pouring...

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for acrylic pouring, my rating is: 19

Ease of use: 5

    I don't think this could have possibly been any easier. The most difficult part was just stirring up the paint mixtures.

Affordability: 4

     Acrylic paint can be expensive, and if you plan on using a large canvas, you're gonna need a lot of paint. But you don't have to use the most expensive paints, you can go with the cheaper brands. The medium can be from just a few dollars to $40+. So, depending on what you're planning to do it could add up. 

Accessibility: 5

     Acrylic paints can be found just about anywhere. If you use glue as your medium, that can also be found anywhere. If you go with the Floetrol, that can be found at a hardware store. If you don't want to GO shopping, you can just buy everything online. In case you haven't noticed by now, I am a HUGE fan of buying online.

Fun to Use: 5

     This is much more fun to do than I thought it would be. I thought it would be just kind of meh. But it wasn't, it was exciting to see how the paints would mix and make different patterns. It was fun to watch as the painting would change slightly as if continued to move and flow around the canvas before it dried.

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!

52 Weeks of Art: Week 11

Week 11: Mosaic

Welcome to week 11 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

     

     Mosaics. What's a mosaic? Well, the dictionary definition of a mosaic is: a picture or pattern produced by arranging together small colored pieces of hard material, such as stone, tile, or glass. That seems like a simple enough project to do, right?

     I wasn't really sure how to go about making a mosaic. So, off to the internet. I looked up the best way to adhere my hard material to whatever it was I was going to use. So many things to choose from here. It really came down to what I was going to do with my mosaic when I was finished with it. For example, if I was going to use it as a stepping stone out in the garden (I don't have one of those, but I can imagine what it'd be like), I would want to make sure that the base for my mosaic was something that could handle being out in the elements. If I was planning on just displaying my mosaic in the house, it doesn't really matter what I use. So, since I have no plans on putting my mosaic outside, I went with some masonite for the base of my mosaic. It's fairly inexpensive, and I just so happened to have some laying about the house.

     Now, what am I going to use for my "hard material"? That was the easy part. I had lots of glass leftover from last weeks stained glass project.

     I have to apologize to anyone who is following along with my art adventure, I am apparently getting worse at documenting my work. I keep forgetting to take pictures while I'm working! Ugh. So yeah, again this week you won't have many pictures of the whole process. Sorry about that. 

     Here's some photos of actual mosaic artists' work:

Found this beautiful artwork here.

Found this, and many other beautiful pieces, here.

Found this Happy Pear here.

     Alright, I gathered up my supplies:

• masonite board
• pieces of glass
• hammer - for making smaller pieces of glass
• E6000 - best glue for gluing things together
• pencil
• grout

     I sketched out my design onto the masonite. Now, I'm going to tell you that it is SUPPOSED to be some cherry blossoms on branches. Is that what it ended up looking like? Hahaha. No. You can't really tell what it looks like. Alright, here's the pictures. Don't judge.

Here we have the glass pieces glued down to the masonite.

And here we have the grout added. The picture is turned. So yeah, tilt your head to the left.

And done. All cleaned up. Polished and looking shiny.

Do you see the cherry blossoms? I sure don't. Not any more.

     

On to rating mosaic ...

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for mosaic, my rating is: 17

Ease of use: 5

    This was pretty easy. Find some pieces of glass, or whatever, make them fit onto your surface. If they don't fit, just smash them with the hammer until they fit. Add some glue. Slap on some grout. Ta-da! Done.

Affordability: 3

     Glass is not cheap. But you can use just about anything to make a mosaic. Got a broken plate? Smash it into more little pieces and turn that broken plate into a work of art. Got some old buttons lying around? Mosaic them. All you need is a base for your mosaic, some glue, stuff to glue down, and grout. You can make this as cheap or as expensive as you'd like.

Accessibility: 5

     Since you can use pretty much anything for a mosaic, that means you can find your supplies anywhere. Lucky you.

Fun to Use: 4

     The best part of making this mosaic was when I got to smash the glass with a hammer to make smaller pieces. Good times. However, trying to turn tiny broken pieces of glass into something that resembled something... that wasn't so easy. I did have fun grouting the whole thing, though.

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!

52 Weeks of Art: Week 10

Week 10: Stained Glass

Welcome to week 10 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

     I really don't know what I was thinking with this one. Tiny stained glass? Ugh. I'm sure you've seen some beautiful stained glass works of art. If you haven't, here's some amazing examples of stained glass. Also, how have you not seen stained glass? It's beautiful and it's everywhere!

This beauty is in Church of Notre-Dame au Sablon, Brussels, Belgium. Found this photo here.

Tiffany lamps. Found these here.

     So, stained glass is just pieces of glass that are cut into shapes and soldered together. I know, that sounds so simple, right? Well, let me tell you, it. Is. NOT.

     I have dabbled in the art of stained glass a time or two. Made a few things. NOTHING quite like the examples above. Oh no, that takes some real talent.

     Stained glass isn't something you can just decide to do on a whim. You absolutely have to have all the right equipment. Luckily, I already had most of the things I needed. Phew. If I would have had to purchase everything, stained glass would not be a part of this art adventure - it's expensive! 

      There's a whole list of things you need just to get started:

• Glass (obviously)
• Soldering Iron
• Solder
• Flux
• Flux Brush
• Copper Foil
• Glass Cutter
• Pliers
• Glass Grinder/File
• Gloves (I did not use any. I should have.)
• Patience
• First Aid Kit

     I think I got everything that should be on the list. I may or may not have left something out. Who knows. I recommend using some gloves. I sliced my finger open pretty good. Then my thumb. And then my thumb again. And I still didn't wear gloves. After I asked The Oldest for the second band aide she just brought me the whole first aid kit. Kids are the best, right?

     Okay, first thing I needed to do was come up with a design. I wanted to do something simple. Something abstract. Lots of straight lines and not too difficult. The Oldest told me that I needed to push myself, make something a little more. Ugh. I listened to her. 

Here's what I came up with:

That's a tree, in case you can't tell.

     So, after I designed my tree, I traced it onto some tracing paper. That way I could cut out pieces of the tracing paper to use as a template for the glass. And here is the last photo I took of the glass cutting process. I got a little too involved in the whole thing. Also, you know, cutting myself, band aides, etc.

Cutting one piece at a time.

    And here we have all the pieces cut out and wrapped in copper foil. I don't know if you noticed here or not, but this looks nothing like what I had drawn originally. It wasn't turning out as square as I would have liked, so I improvised and had the tree branches extending out. I also added a piece of wire to the top so that I could hang it, or something. That was the plan. Until the wire came out and it did not work for me at all. 

Getting ready to solder the whole thing together.

Here we have the front side of the piece soldered together.

     And here is the finished piece! The wire came out. So, I stole  borrowed a tiny little easel from the Little One to display it.

Done! All cleaned up and looking good.

     I put it in my kitchen window so you could see the light shining through it. You can see my neighbors house and my car. Just ignore those things and look at the stained glass tree.

Light shining through the tree.

     

On to rating stained glass ..

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for stained glass, my rating is: 9

Ease of use: 2

    Stained glass is not an easy medium. It's also pretty dangerous if you're not careful. Remember, glass is sharp!

Affordability: 2

     Glass is not cheap. And you also need so many other things to make stained glass.

Accessibility: 2

     Thank you Amazon! You can get pretty much everything you need there. I would recommend going to a stained glass studio to buy glass, though. Unless you're going to be using tiny pieces, buying online probably isn't the best way to get your glass.

Fun to Use: 3

     Stained glass is fun. It's also frustrating and time consuming. Cutting out all my glass pieces took 5 hours. Soldering took me almost another hour. Trying to get your pieces to be the exact size you need can be frustrating. But, seeing the overall finished piece is exciting.

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!

52 Weeks of Art: Week 9

Week 9: Styrofoam Printing

Welcome to week 9 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

      Styrofoam printing? What's that? It's a form of block printing. It's like using a rubber stamp but with styrofoam instead. You draw your design on the styrofoam, put some ink on it, stamp it onto some paper. Done! Alright, it's not QUITE that simple, but you get the idea.

    I've done print making before, but I've never used styrofoam. This was a new adventure for me. But, that's what this whole 52 weeks of art is all about, trying new things, expanding my artistic creativity. So, styrofoam printing, here I come!

     In case you did not know, not all styrofoam is created equal. You can get some cheap foam plates and use those, but they are thin, flimsy, and overall just not great. You're gonna want to go with something a little sturdier. Foam trays that meat comes on work great. Now, you don't have to recycle your meat trays - although you could, that's a great way to help out the environment if you're in to that sort of thing. You can buy new trays. Just make sure you cut off the sides so you have a nice, flat surface to work with. If you don't have a flat surface your print won't turn out great.

      Alright, now that you've selected your styrofoam of choice, on to your design. Keep in mind that whatever design you choose will be printed in reverse. So, if you're doing text make sure you trace it in reverse onto your foam. Unless you want to read backwards. It's your art, I'm not gonna tell you how to make it.

     I went with two different designs. First thing, measure out your paper, your design obviously has to fit onto your piece of styrofoam.

Measured my paper to fit my foam.

     My first design is this fish I drew. His name is Flynnigan. We're pals now.

Clean up your design, clean lines only.

     My second design was this little foxy guy. He's kinda cute, I guess I'll keep him.

My foxy friend has thicker lines than Flynnigan.

     Next step, transfer your design onto your piece of foam. Here I have some transfer paper I was planning on using. FYI, transfer paper does NOT work on foam.

Getting ready to transfer Flynnigan onto foam. 

     I taped Flynnigan onto my foam, I didn't want him moving around while I was trying to trace him. For this part you can use a ballpoint pen, I recommend using a different color. That way you can see where you've already traced. I used a mechanical pencil. I was trying to get some very fine lines that I wouldn't have been able to get with a ballpoint pen.

Flynnigan getting ready to be traced.

When I found out that my transfer paper did NOT work on the foam I had to trace Flynnigan again. I used more pressure this time and hoped for the best - no mistakes this time around. I used some charcoal powder and rubbed it over Flynnigan so I could see him better. I wanted to make sure I got all my lines.

Flynnigan after his charcoal rubdown.

    Time to ink him up. Flynnigan's a goldfish, so I used gold ink. Obvs. Make sure you cover your work surface so you don't get ink all over the place. I used some flyers I got in the mail. Nothing better than free, right? Thank you, Rebecca Johnson, for the brayer and glass. What's a brayer? It's that roller thing you see in the picture below. It's like a fancy paint roller for print making.

Gold water based Speedball ink, speedball brayer, piece of glass.

     And here we have Flynnigan's transformation from drawing, to foam, to final print! Yeah, I know, this isn't the best photo. Sorry, Flynn, you're a little blurry here. I used paper that is made just for printing.

The many faces of Flynnigan G. Fish

     Did you forget about my foxy friend? Well, he got black ink.

Black water based speedball ink, speedball brayer, piece of glass.

     Here's my fox is all his glory. Going from simple line drawing, to foam, to final print.

The three steps of foam printing.

     Now, when you're doing print making, keep in mind that the first print is probably not going to turn out great. You have to try it again, make sure you get a good, even coverage of ink all over. Below, you'll see Flynnigan printed twice. The top print is a second run, the bottom print is the first printing. You can see much more detail in Flynnigan the Second.

Flynnigan the Second, Flynnigan the Original.

     Here's some close up photos of both prints.

Flynnigan the Original

Flynnigan the Second

     Here's Foxy. Here's his first run, second run, and then printed on some colored pastel paper.

Fox run one

Fox run two

Fox on pastel paper

     Well, what'd you think of Flynnigan and Fox? Are you a fan?

     

On to rating styrofoam printing...

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for styrofoam printing, my rating is: 17

Ease of use: 5

    If you can use a pen/pencil then you can do this. Easy peasy. Just keep in mind that ANY mark you make on the foam will end up a part of your print. And it's pretty easy to mark up styrofoam.

Affordability: 3

     The styrofoam is pretty cheap. It's the ink, brayer, and paper that'll cost you. Now, @RollingMeadowsArt used markers instead of printing ink. That will save you cost on actual print making ink. So, if you just want to dip your toe into the print making waters, using foam and markers is a good choice.

Accessibility: 4

     Foam plates are available just about anywhere. Markers are also available everywhere. If you want to use print making inks you'll have to go to an art store and turn to the internet. I LOVE the internet. Amazon is the best.

Fun to Use: 5

     This was fun. It was easy to do. Quick. Seeing Fynnigan in his final form was exciting.

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!