Monday, November 21, 2011

Fuzzy Headed

I was texting a friend of mine in the morning after dropping off the kids at school. She misunderstood something I had said and apologized for "being silly". I assured her that I share her same "early morning child induced intoxication" and am usually quite fuzzy headed myself until about 10am!

That being said, here is another of my recently finished Zentangles. I usually work on these in the morning when I just need to zone out till my body pumps enough blood to my head to be able to think cogently. :)


This Zentangle includes KurlyQ, Dropletts, Sprouts, Bricks, In N Out, River, ChainGang, Spinners, Portholes, Yimkin and a few others I don't remember the names of off the top of my head!

I will be hosting a Zentangle Artist Trading Card (ATC) demonstration at the Utrecht Art Supplies shop on North Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale (next to the Whole Foods) on December 17 (Sat) from 1-3pm. Bring your blank ATC's (Smooth Bristol are best for this project) and Micron pens or purchase them at Utrecht just before the demonstration. Completed ATC's will be put on display in the shop for other customer's viewing pleasure. Should be a very fun and relaxing primer to the holidays!

To learn more about Zentangles, go to Zentangle.com or TanglePatterns.com. I will be going to class to get my "Certified Zentangle Trainer (CZT)" in Rhode Island in February... I'm a Florida girl, what am I thinking???

Cheers to your relaxing this Holiday Season. Happy Turkey - Thanksgiving - Day!  Tristina

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Latest Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine

It's always so nice to come home to the mixed media/collage magazine, Cloth Paper Scissors, in my mail box! After receiving the latest Nov/Dec issue, I devoured its pages like a hungry beast on the prowel for my next tasty morsel...

While reading through the magazine, I keep a sketch book handy to draw some of the images I see to lock them in my mind and play around with the ideas that inevitably arise from this exercise. Here is the sketching I did for this magazine:

Some of the pictures/words are drawn with my right hand (darker and more precise because I'm right handed) and some drawn with my left hand (lighter and more loose, child-like). I like to indicate somewhere on the page the magazine and issue that inspired the drawings. Also, in the top left hand corner you'll see where I started out, before drawing from the magazine, doing some loosening up exercises with blind contour drawing (looking at an object with your hand/pen on the paper, draw the object in one continuous movement - never lifting the pen from the paper - and not looking at the paper till done).

This issue of CPS contains an article on how to stretch a canvas yourself onto wooden stretcher bars. This is a great little article. Wish I had read it before attempting to stretch a finished mixed media piece of mine last year.

As I am very into working with encaustic wax, an article by Crystal Neubauer about using encuastic wax painting with plexiglass was particularly interesting to me. Crystal states, " Using plexiglass as a foundation for encaustic wax offers options that cannot be achieved with a traditional canvas." Encaustic wax can be applied to the front, back or both sides of the plexi, all giving different effects described in the article. One of the major advantages to working encaustic wax on plexi is the ability to achieve luminosity through the surface to/from the back of the painting that can not be achieved any other way. Fascinating! I have already applied a piece of hand-painted and waxed rice paper to the surface of plexiglass sheet, but had not thought to try working wax techniques directly ON the plexiglass. There are some spare strips of plexiglass sitting around in my studio that I couldn't bear to throw away...and now I know just how to use them!


Another excellent article by Wyanne Thompson that caught my attention is about pouring and painting resin in layers. Describes a way to paint acrylic directly onto cured resin and pour additional resin layers over top to get interesting floating effects. Super cool!

The paper mache'd, painted and embossed Bottle-Cap beads this issue shows you how to make with reclaimed metal beer bottle caps is da bomb! Also loved the story on quick and easy watercolor mountain range mixed media painting treats...looks like you can't make just one!!!

And last, but certainly not least, the Reader Challenge presented asks us to create a 4"x6" fabric postcard to mail in to their offices before January 20, 2012, some of which will be featured in upcoming issues of the CPS magazine and on their website. I'll be firing up my sewing machine and hot iron for this project soon. Check out clothpaperscissors.com for details if you would like to join in.

Happy Painting/Waxing/Sewing/Crafting! :D  Tristina