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

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 FLIP THROUGH - PART 2

I'm still working out the kinks with this video production thing, so I appreciate you bearing with me.  I promise to get better!

Anyway, for those who are interested and all those who always ask for this, here is the link to my second art journal flip through video.

Thank you for looking!

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

NEW ART "Garden Of Eden" Mixed Media Collage

Here's one more piece in my "Gelli Kids" series that features my own Gelli plate printed papers used to create both the backgrounds and focal images.

This original piece is 6" X 8" on canvasboard and also incorporates recycled office supplies, dimensional paint and a bit of doodling.  I dithered for days about whether to add a quote to the piece but nothing spoke to me so I decided to leave it as it is.  

$74.95US for this one-of-a-kind piece, including free shipping to the U.S. and Canada.  Watermarks/copyrights do not appear on the original.

Suitable for framing or may be displayed as is on a small easel-type stand (the back is finished).

Thanks for looking and I hope you are having an awesome day!

Cheers!
Joanna

"Garden Of Eden" original mixed media art

"Tropical Garden" Art Magnets

"Strength Of Purpose" Simple Art Journal Page - Part 6

Today's post is another in my series of simple art journal pages that can be done quickly and with minimal fuss or supplies.  Again, I am using one of my Gelli Plate printed papers that I didn't like very much and didn't really know what to do with for the base of the collage.  I am working in my Strathmore Bristol/Vellum Art Journal (5.5" X 8")

The base piece of Gelli plate printed paper was pinky-coppery-gold with a bit of black from a stencil ghost print.  Pretty bland, so I glued it into the journal and once the page was dry, I dragged a palette knife loaded with lime green acrylic paint vertically down the page.  When the green paint had dried, I did some stacked journaling on top of it in white Gelly Roll pen.  Then I used my 1.5" diameter sponge spouncer to blob on some purple circles, which were overlaid with rings of neon orange (which barely show up in the photos), and then scribbly white outlines .  Now the page is looking a little more interesting!  But, I am still not that happy with it.

So, my next step was to take some India Ink in an eye dropper and drip it down the page from the top edge, allowing the drips to end at different lengths and then set it aside to dry once again.

Now what??  As with other journal pages, here is where the page sat for a couple of months.  I had NO idea where to go from here.  I'd see the page every now and then when I came to work in this journal.  I'd sit and look at it for a few minutes and inspiration would NOT come so I'd go do something else.  Until, that is, a few nights ago when I was rummaging around in my hoarder's pile of images and stuff and found this awesome vintage image of a woman warrior.  I love it when I discover treasures like this among all the crap I refuse to part with!  Isn't she awesome?  She looks kinda pissed at someone and I sure wouldn't mess with that big-ass sword of hers!

I ripped the edges of the image to give it a battered, vintage-y look and then ran a black ink pad around it so no white edges showed.  I find that really helps when you are going for a vintage or grungy look.  Then I fiddled with placement of the image on the page and when I liked where she would live, glued her down.  Once she was in place, I realized that I didn't like how the black drips were cut off by the image.  They no longer looked as random as I wanted.

So the final step was to take my India Ink marker (Faber Castell Pitt Pen) and embellish those drips a bit so they looked better.  First, I tried India Ink in the eye dropper again, but it would not adhere to the smooth paper the image was printed on, so the marker was the next best option.

And there you have it!  I opted to leave this page simple because it has lots of power in it as it is.  It did not strike me as the kind of page that needed to be too fussy.  And the title of it, "Strength Of Purpose," came to me in a flash as soon as it was done.  When the names come to me that fast, I know I am tuned in what the piece is saying to me.

Hope you enjoyed this lesson.  See you again soon, my friends!

Joanna