COLLABORATIVE ART WITH GINNY MARKLEY

Hi All;

A few months ago I posted about how my dear art pal, Ginny Markley, took a half-finished piece of my art and made a stunning finished masterpiece with it.  We had traded each other a partially done piece of art for the other to finish and return.  Here's the link to that post:

Ginny Markley & Joanna Grant Collaborative Art - Part I

Anyway, it's taken me this long to get time to do a blog post on Ginny's piece she sent for me to work on.

Here is what it looked like when I got it.  It's about 8" X 10".  Ginny used gelli prints and assorted collage elements to get the piece to this point.

I sat for quite a while trying to figure out what to do with this piece.  There's more pressure on you than you'd think when it's somebody else's work and you don't want to mess it up with a wrong step.  I finally just decided to dive in and not worry about that. 

I started with a bit of doodling and then used a scrap of corrugated cardboard and white acrylic paint to  make the marks you see on the left side of the piece.

Next, I added some of my gelli print flower cutouts to her dress to jazz it up a bit and legs to the little character on the right.

Then, I continued to work on the little character on the right, building up its outfit.  I also added some black outlining to her dress to make it stand out a bit more and some highlighting of the gelli print flowers.

After that, I added some doodling and a funky little collage element for her hair.  Some gold metallic acrylic paint went into the background near her right hand.  Her bracelet got a facelift too.

Then, I stenciled some hearts in purple and red Silks (shimmery acrylics).  They  "hang" from some recycled scrapbooking sticker doodads. 

Next, I added some funky flowers to the lower left, using reclaimed scrapbooking doodads and some checkerboard paper for the stems.  She also got a groovy necklace (more reclaimed scrapbooking supplies).  

Lastly, I added a funky border to the top of the piece, along with some collage elements on the left (blue and white squares).  The quote was the very last thing to be added.

This was a very fun project to do with Ginny, even though it took me a few months to actually complete it.  I'm glad she was so patient with me.  If you'd like to see more of Ginny's wonderful work, you can find her blog here.

Playing With Paint - Ginny Markley

I hope you enjoyed seeing the process this collaborative piece went through from start to finish.

Cheers, my friends!
Joanna

LIMITED EDITION ART PRINTS now in stock!

"Honor"  (Namaste - I honor the light in you)

Etsy Listing - "Honor"

Hello friends;

I thought I'd share with you some of my recent listings in my Etsy store of a new line of limited edition art magnets I have had made.

These are all reproductions of my original mixed media work.  Each magnet is about 4" X 5.5" and has a semi-glossy professional finish to it.

They make great gift ideas (easily mail one in a standard No. 10 envelope).  You can jazz up your kitchen appliances or those boring office filing cabinets too!

More designs to come so stay tuned.

Thanks for looking!

"Enjoy The Journey"

Etsy Listing = "Enjoy The Journey" 

"Sing Your Song"

Etsy Listing - "Sing Your Song"

GELLI PRINT PACKING TAPE ART MAGNETS - HOW TO

Art Magnets Made With Gelli Tape Transfer Technique

Hi friends;

Here's a long overdue post for you on how I make those art magnets, using my gelli prints on packing tape.

If you haven't see the Gelli Arts video on how to make cool, arty packing tape with gelli prints, then go here first to see what I am talking about:

Gelli Arts Packing Tape Video

So, here are some photos of two of my Gelli plates with acrylic and dimensional paints.
 

12 X 14 Gelli Plate With Acrylic & Dimensional Paints

6 X 6 Gelli Plate With Acrylic Paints

And here is the tape I made from those two plates:

Gelli Tape - No Glitter Or Pearl Ex Powder Used Yet

Gelli Tape With Teal And Purple Glitter Added To Fill In The Sticky Areas

The tape was just about the perfect width for me to make backgrounds for my art magnets I create so often.  I use those sticky-backed business card-sized magnets you can buy at the office supply store.  They are 2" X 3.5" and are great for making small-scale art magnets.

Sticky-backed business card magnet blanks

All I had to do was peel off the white paper from the magnet, put the gelli tape on the magnet (remember, it's VERY sticky) and then trim the edges.

So now I have the backgrounds of the art magnets ready, what am I going to put on top of the Gelli tape?

I started by adding some of my doodly flower collage elements.  And then I added even more doodling on them with my Sakura Moonlight Gelly Roll pens (this step not shown).

Next, from my ever-increasing stash of stuff, I pulled some cute vintage-style graphics that measure about 1" X 2" and which I had already put under those sticky-backed resin pieces you can buy for such purposes.  They are great to use for making pendants and domino art.  I believe these images came from Lisa's Altered Art.

Resin Blanks (left) and Vintage Images Under Resin (right)

I used some E-6000 (similar to GOOP) to adhere the vintage images that were now under resin to the magnet backgrounds.  Clothes pins held them in place until they dried.

And here are the finished pieces.  The scans really don't do them justice as they are very bright and shiny because of the packing tape and the resin.

If you go back to the top of this post, you'll see a couple of examples of another style of magnet I made using some sweet vintage images of ladies and their dogs, and with this same technique.

I hope you've enjoyed this little tutorial and I'd love to see what you create with your gelli packing tape.

Until next time ...

Joanna

Collaborative Art With Ginny Markley

Hello!

A while ago, the light bulb went on for me about what I could do with several of my half-finished pieces of art.  I have so many art projects on the go at any given time and sometimes they can sit around for months before I get back to them.  And while I have every confidence that at some point my muse will know exactly how I should finish off those pieces, it also feels good to get them done.

So, what was my inspiration?  I decided I would approach some of my favourite arty friends to see if they wanted to take one of my half-finished pieces and complete it with their own "take" on it.  I just knew whatever they did would be fabulous and it was very exciting to think of all the possibilities of how the pieces would end up.

One of the first to step on the bandwagon was my friend Ginny Markley and you can find her blog here.

Ginny is wonderfully talented and she and I have the same funky, quirky style in many respects.  I was very excited to work with her on this project.

Here's what I sent to her.

This started with a substrate of salvaged mat board about 7" X 9".  I covered it in recycled wallpaper for the background.  The central image is a color laser print from my collection of vintage images.  I also added several layers of different types of paint, along with some swirly bits I had cut with my Silhouette machine as practice.  Some vintage text from an old book also appears in the bottom right (behind the leaf).

And then that's as far as I got with her and where she was when Ginny received her.

Here is the finished piece after Ginny got her hands on it.

And here is what Ginny had to say about her work on the piece:

"I first used paint pens to lighten, deepen and add color.  I added lots of dots with gel pens (I love making dots ... my favorite thing to draw).  Next came the yellow line (I changed it three times before I settled on orange) to add interest because at that point everything looked pretty much the same.  Then it hit me ... I decided I had to get rid of the "Princess Leia" buns.  I first thought that I would just add flowers to surround her head but while looking for the flowers, I found a magazine clipping of a Mardi Gras mask which was the perfect size.  Now what are the chances of finding a mask that was the perfect size, perfect color and perfect style?  I think that your muse was talking to my muse.  LOL!  Anyway, I decided that I had to go for it and use the mask!  Also, at the same time I found the magazine clipping of the "dream" sign.  The colors were perfect and did not overpower the rest of the painting."

I am absolutely thrilled with how this piece turned out and can't thank Ginny enough for taking it above and beyond where I would ever go with it.

Oh, and Ginny sent me her own half-done piece for me to work on, so I will be blogging about that in the future too.  Stay tuned!

Thanks, Ginny, what a fun project this was!

Cheers!
Joanna

Art Journal - Video Flip Through 1

Happy New Year, my dear friends!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that you are rarin' to go again in 2014 with lots of arty projects.

I have been lax in posting to my blog the last couple of months because of other commitments but I am back now and will do my best to share what I'm up to on a regular basis.  I so appreciate you checking in from time to time to see what I'm doing.

I decided to share my first ever video that I made a few months ago.  It's pretty rough but I decided I would share it anyway.  Part of being an artist is learning new things and working through the learning curve to improve your craft.  My video recording certainly needs some work but because I am asked so often to share more of what I do and how I do it, I figured even in this amateurish state, you might enjoy the video.

In this video I do a quick flip through of one of my art journals and talk a bit about the pages and how they came to be.  I can't tell you how many people have said, "Wow, I'd love to take a walk through your art journals one day."  Well, be careful what you wish for.  Ha, ha!

See you again soon, my dear friends!

Joanna

Newest Gelli Print Art

Hello all;

This is just a quick post to show you some of my recent work.  I've been playing with prints of my Gelli plate prints and enhancing them with doodles, flowers, etc.  I really like how these enhancements really make each print a whole new piece of art.

I've been using assorted markers and pens and some colored paper here and there.  Love how colorful and whimsical these have turned out and I hope you enjoy them too.

I liked how "Enjoy The Journey" turned out so much, that I have ordered a very small limited edition run of notebooks featuring this print on the cover.  I'll be listing a couple of them in my Etsy shop in due course.

Until next time, happy arting!

Joanna

New Grid-Based Art Journal Experiment

I was cruising around cyberspace several months ago and was reminded of my interest being piqued months before that by a blurb from mixed media artist Cathy Bluteau.  I had briefly seen an image of a unique approach she took to doing some grid-based art journaling.  When I came across it for the second time, I decided to investigate and ended up taking her online class.  

You can find out more about her class here:

Cathy Bluteau Sneak Peek Video

Here is the finished page.  It is in a 9" X 12" Strathmore journal.

Finished Journal Page - 9" X 12"

I just marveled at how easy this unique process was once Cathy showed me the way.  You just draw out squares and rectangles to fill your page, then you fill those shapes with all kinds of things, using all kinds of techniques.

I colored in all of the squares and rectangles first with markers (Spectrum Noir and Faber Castell Pitt Pens).  I tried to stick to a limited palette of colors - purple, pink, red, orange, gold and yellow.  After that was all done, then the real fun began!  I did some zentangle-inspired doodling, some funky lettering and then went to town on the collage/mixed media end of things.  I used all kinds of recycled materials and things that had been sitting around my studio just waiting to find a home.  Assorted graphics cutouts, old stickers and office supplies, dimensional paint, salvaged scrapbooking embellishments, vintage dictionary text, quilling paper and much more.  It was hard to know when to stop and honestly, I could still keep on going with it.

I will certainly be using Cathy's fabulous technique again for future journal pages.

Here are a couple more photos with close-ups of various areas of the page.

Cheers!
Joanna

Upper Left Of Journal Page

Upper Right Of Journal Page

Bottom Left Of Journal Page

Bottom Right Of Journal Page

Mixed Media Greeting Cards - Part 1

I've been making handmade greeting cards for about 20 years, the last 15 of which mostly focusing on mixed media.  I love making them and hope that the giving of a real card that you can hold in your hand has not become a lost art.  You wonder sometimes, with e-cards becoming so popular, as well as how easy it is to send a sentiment by Facebook, Twitter, or phone.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a few of my handmade cards.  I use all sorts of things to make them including:

• prints of my own work;
• vintage images;
• reclaimed scrapbooking materials
• old wallpaper, dictionary and book pages;
• paint, markers, dyes and inks;
• recycled office supplies;
• dimensional paint and glitter;
• maps, sheet music, etc;
• stamped images

and almost anything else I lay my hands on.

Here are a few samples.  I'll post more next week.

Cheers, my friends!
Joanna

FREE Grungy Backgrounds To Download

Here are some interesting grungy, rusty images I've had in my collection for a long time.  I thought I would share them with you in case you'd like to use them for  your own artsy projects.

Just right click on each image and save them to your own computer.  If you feel like sharing what you create with these backgrounds, I'd love to see them.

Have fun!!

Joanna