This is my newest Scratchbord; it's 8x10" and inspired by a photograph.

I put my new awesome palette knives to work in these two new paintings:

"Hope", 16"x20", acrylic on canvas:


"Feathers", 3'x4', acrylic, sheet music, heavy gloss gel, glass beads, and silver Sharpie on canvas:

My newest painting, Bermuda Blue.  It’s 5 ft x 4 ft, acrylic and newspaper, on a thrift-store canvas.  I used bubble wrap and super-heavy gel to give the sky some texture.

Here’s an attempt to show you some of the texture.  It stands out maybe a quarter of an inch…


Lastly, I turned off the flash to get a better representation of the true colors:

This is my newest (untitled) oil pastel. 



It's drawn on a reclaimed canvas/frame; the frame was repainted with high-gloss acrylic, and this is a picture of it unsealed.  The actual piece is much more vivid in person/natural light.  It's a bit different than I envisioned, but I love it anyhow 

In lieu of being academically productive, I’ve made two new oil pastel works:

One:



Two:


They’re both untitled as of now, and unsealed.  Both started as rescued thrift-store art.  The larger one in the gold frame is painted over an ugly “Texas Hold ‘Em” wall hanging that just happened to be in a beautiful frame; the smaller one is over a picture of some garden trowels.  I just gessoed over the old stuff and painted on my new images.  The one in the gold frame is painted in water-soluble oil pastels with a super-limited color palette (8 colors), while the other one was done using a set that contained 32 pastels.

This one is inspired by the Death Cab for Cutie song of the same name.  It’s done on a thrift-store canvas that had a little painting of a cowboy and a bear (?) thing on it…again, wasn’t my style but was definitely my price.  Plus, it was stretched SO tightly and is gallery-style, with the staples on the back; it would've been silly not to snap it up!  

I used up some booklets from my vintage sheet music stash (a yellowed concerto and a still-white clarinet piece, both from the 1950’s), two huge sheets of tracing paper, and acrylics/acrylic gels; I then set to work writing out the lyrics to the song.  

I don’t have before pictures, but here’s a closeup of the result:


Here’s the painting in its entirety.


Here it is, from the side.


And here’s a closeup of the sheet music through the tracing paper.


Here’s the process, if you’re interested:
1.  Cut sheet music into strips and adhere in desired pattern onto painting surface (canvas, board, etc.)  Use ModPodge or acrylic gel medium.
2.  Get enough sheets of tracing paper (I used two huge ones) and use Sharpie markers to write whatever you want on it.
3.  Stick the tracing paper onto the sheet music, again using lots of gel-type glue.
4.  Let this dry.  It’ll wrinkle a bit; that’s why you did the writing before you stuck it onto the surface!
5.  Paint whatever you want onto the tracing paper.  I used acrylics that were mixed with medium weight gel in order to increase their transparency, but you could use whatever you want.  Repeat layers as many times as you want.
6.  Paint over the entire thing with your clear gel, and seal it!  Done!

My guy was awesome enough to buy me a huge canvas (it’s about 4 by 3.75 feet, and about 2.5 inches deep; stapled at the back, gallery-style) at my favorite thrift shop on one of their 50% off days…only problem was that it was already painted.  Someone had painted a road on it.  It was sort of blocky and geometric, and it was monochromatic in the worst way.  It just wasn’t that aesthetically appealing (to me).  Fortunately, I was able to save the giant canvas and make it more my style! 


I covered up the old painting with plain white gesso, then painted this:


Please excuse the awful flash spot.  It’s too big to transport all the way downstairs just to take it outside to photograph.  Plus, it's cloudy today!  Another picture, with less flash:


I call it “Annabel Lee” (hooray for literary nerdiness!).  The waves have lots of depth that is not really captured in the photographs.  I painted them in subdued, moody colors:  violet, oranges, darker yellows, greens, browns, and blues; then, I applied a blue/medium gel mixture over the waves with palette knives.


Lastly, here’s the texture I painted on the cliff. 


Like almost all of my paintings, I edged the canvas in black acrylic.  It’s all in acrylics and medium gloss gel.  I love that I was able to rescue something that no one wanted and give it new life, as well as save a TON of money on a large canvas.  Let me know what you think…I like constructive criticism!

Here’s my newest addition to the “doodles turned paintings” series (see http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=297401.msg3388224#msg3388224 for the first one and an explanation of the process behind making one of these paintings). 



It’s painted with acrylics and acrylic mediums (specifically, medium gloss gel and super heavy gel for modeling) on foam board, over a base of papier mache.  I had friends collect plastic bottlecaps for me for a few days, and I attached them to the painting.  I used the clear ones “as is”, and covered any colored caps with aluminum foil.  I also made small foil balls and attached those to the “clouds” as well. 

Sharp image:


Blurry image, but you can see the clear bottlecaps better:


Some of the foil balls:


Some of the bottlecaps:


Super simple, I know, but I’m happy with it!  I have one more of these “doodle” paintings in the works.

Short story:  being the kinesthetic learner that I am, I tend to doodle a lot.  I picked out one of my favorites and (eventually) made this:


Longer story:  I wanted to make this one large, but didn't have a suitable canvas.  I wasn't exactly willing to shell out almost eighty bucks for a large, prestretched one, so I ended up at the damaged/discounted foam board section.  I bought a large piece for three dollars, took it home, and doctored it up with black duct tape and some sewing notions (antique-looking rings).  I taped up the sides as well (to hide the little dents).  Then, I roughly sketched out my doodle on the taped board:


I made up a gallon of art paste and proceeded to papier mache thin "ropes" and twists of newspaper onto the board.  They stand out about half an inch to an inch from the base surface of the board.  This took FOREVER, and I ended up with about five layers of paper.  All the paper kind of warped the board a bit as it was drying, so I helped it keep its shape with random dumbbells and weights on the edges and corners (just a sidenote in case someone is going to attempt to paint on foam board.)  I also made a little heart-shaped "apple" for my tree.  Then, the whole thing was painted over with white acrylic as a sort of primer. 


I painted the spirals in black, then painted the whole thing without a plan.  I used pieces from a Butterfly Watcher's Handbook that I had lying around to collage the background of the sky.  The leaves and root system are just layers upon layers of paint; some were mixed with different mediums to increase the transparency of the paint.  I poured some paint/liquid medium into the crevices in the "trunk" of the tree.  These puddles proceeded to crack a bit; even though this wasn't intentional, I like the effect.  Everything else is coated in gloss super heavy gel medium mixed with different shades of paint...it has some great 3D texture that pictures just didn't capture.  I then covered the spirals in this silver-leaf fluid, which dries super quickly.  Finally, I buffed the silver leaf until it had an antique-type luster (took forever, but I recommend it...it worked beautifully.)

This is a blurry picture, but it captures some of the colors really well:


The apple is covered in crimson paint mixed with acrylic medium gloss gel, which is further mixed with little glass beads for an interesting texture. 


This is a closeup of some of the pieces of the book:


Now it's done and just needs to be sealed!  Hooray! 

I did this scratchboard tonight.  I plan on cleaning up the edges a bit and perhaps coloring it with inks, but I'm finished with it for right now.  It's my second attempt at this, and I really like the preciseness needed to use this type of medium.  I definitely need more practice, but I'm not complaining about that!

Here it is:


I referenced an image in the little booklet that came with a CD (Keane, Hopes and Fears).  I picked this picture because I liked the stark black and whiteness of it.  I used a TON of artistic license, as I am not the greatest at drawing (I'm more of a painter/sculptor).  I realize that I messed up on the placement of the hand, but there's no way to erase that so I'm okay with it 

And, here's a shot without flash: