Sketch to Stencil

For some unknowable reason, a couple weeks ago I pulled out an old sketchbook, tore out some dozen old pages of halfhearted sketches and notes to self and just painted for the hell of it. I have not kept any sort of sketchbook or art journal for ages, but I guess that's a thing I do now.

My first spring back into doing more art to art was this watercolor.

Portraiture, especially of women, has always been my pretty much favorite. I liked the composition of this a lot and wanted to do something more with it. I considered carving her into a stamp, but I wanted to keep the image fairly flat, she's too sleek for a lot of texture to slip in but not quite simple enough to pull off without some sort of shading. So I decided as a true return to form, I would make a stencil. 

I'm lazy, so the stencil process begins with three photocopies roughly mounted to some mixed media paper. 

Stencil carving in multiple parts is fiddly, but pretty easy. On one copy I cut out everything I wanted red (lips and background) copy two cut out all the grey and three the black. When I got to the black I wanted to punch myself for not thinking through how much of a pain in the ass the slits in the middle of the dress were going to be. I had to alter the design a bit due to the physics of paper having to be attached to stay together.                     

Layer one, just the reds. 

Plus layer two.

Plus layer three. At first I was going with watercolor, but the first water color black didn't look great so I did an ink pad on the other. I liked the ink pad a lot better for the black.

I did a set with ink pads for the pink and black (fun fact, I don't own a red ink pad...) The grey on the far left is watercolor, the other two are done with a kid's airbrush. I like both ways.                 

                 

This stencil is destined to be the mascot for a zine series I am working on (I have the writing done for a handful of them, just need to illustrate) and will likely find her way into a lot of mail boxes on postcards. 

that one picture

Do you ever have an idea that you just keep coming back to because it never quite comes out right?

That picture you go back to redraw time after time after time because it is never quite what you had in mind? 

I have one. 

My sister took this picture of me the summer after I graduated high school. It's a thing we used to do. I'm far too short to even dream of being a model and she likes to wear a dumb hat while making me stand in dumb positions and making fun of my eyebrows. So, we did photo shoots. 

I love portraiture and practicing on myself is convenient because I don't have to worry about hurting my own feelings if I make myself ugly. But this damn picture, no matter how much I try to lay it to rest, keeps knocking around in my brain that I want to do something with it. 

I don't have every sketch I did of this picture, but this is one of the early ones. Just a quick and sloppy scribble with water soluble oil pastels. Those were my obsession that entire summer. I actually like how the hair looks a lot. 

A couple years later I got myself a drawing tablet and wanted to do digital art. This was one of my early sketches? tracings? hybrid of both? Probably hybrid of both. I actually made this drawing into a full on paper doll set, it has sadly been lost to the ages.

Most recently, an acrylic and oil hybrid painting. Boy oh boy do I see now why they set up exhibits on artists in stages. 

Between the three of them, I am happy with the hair on the first, the arms and torso on the second and from the hips down on the third. I probably would have nailed it on the third if I had stuck with either oil or acrylic. I mix the two a lot in portraits to get really fun abstract background with the acrylic before playing with oil for the focal point. This ended up a really odd mix of soft and sharp details which is so close to working for me, but doesn't. Which means... I'll be back to this picture again...

Mindless Mail Art

As I mentioned last week, inspiration has been hitting hard. These stamp and watercolor pop art inspired postcards have been the perfect palate cleanser for me while I am sitting listening to music and just trying to noodle a bit.

    

Such delightful simplicity.

The process is easy. Cut postcards down (or buy precut ones, I'm not the mail police), use a ruler and pencil to divide your space, stamp lightly, paint, stamp again.

The great thing is that a little wonkiness makes these. I didn't photograph the ruler step, so let's get on to the stamped cards.

I used stamps I have carved for past projects including the one I made back in the head lumps post a couple weeks ago. The cat and goldfish were both made for ATC's once upon a time and the angler fish has long been a staple in my faux cancellations and faux postage making supplies.

I used watercolors to just paint in the yellow. Pens or colored pencils would work too, but coloring isn't really my thing.

The other colors were added in the same sort of pattern. 

Restamping the images is the hardest part. You could get around this by using a clear stamp, but since my carved ones obviously aren't clear, I had to guess and pray. I am guessing the order I stamped these in is pretty dang obvious.

The nice thing about this project though, is it actually looks better if you do miss slightly. So getting in the general vicinity is pretty good enough.

Same process more or less on the goldfish. I went for a more blended look with the oranges. Looking at this picture again, I wish I had left that lower left one exactly as it was...

...but I didn't. The blue looks nice too though. 

I did the angler fish the same as the cat, the headlumps the same as the goldfish. On the back of each postcard I lightly stamped the stamp I used on the front to add a little interest. 

And that's it. Mindless mail art that leaves your head noggin free for other noodling.