Second Class

I had the second night of the class that my girls gave me at the Worcester Art Museum last night. We had to hang up the papers we made during the week, and then explain the techniques we used. It was interesting to see how individual all the work was, when we pretty much all started with the same supplies. This afternoon, I got started on my homework for next week. Since it is finally a reasonable temperature around here, I was able to work outside. 

  

Here's a closer view of some of the papers I created. I actually painted this one in class last week, with leftover paint. It ended up very gray. I masked off some of those areas, and then painted over the whole thing. It's better now, but I think it may still need something.



This one was done this afternoon, again using leftover paint. It was really dark. First I drew into it with a paintbrush handle, then blotted it with a paper towel to lighten some areas. When I decided it needed stars, I went looking for metallic paint. All I had was fabric paint, so I used that. Then I put drips of white on, and dragged the paintbrush handle through them to make asterisks, and finished up by stippling on some white with a toothbrush. I also stippled my neck and shoulder at the same time!

This next one started with an all over pink glaze, and then I added some of everything. I really, really, really wish this were a piece of fabric! 

And here we have this week's main course. Last night in class, we covered boards in molding paste, which is sort of like spackle. Then we used all sorts of tools to create texture, including putty knives, brush handles, stamps, cardboard, etc. You can see the texture in the photo. Then we had to wait for them to dry. Even as hot as it was yesterday, they didn't dry in class, so we are painting them at home.  

I still want to give this one another wash, but I'm pretty pleased with it. And, it was a lot of fun to do. I'm definitely going to try this again.

Right about the time I started to get tired, help arrived.

Thankfully, the paint was mostly dry by the time the Neighborhood Lion jumped up on the table, although he may have gone home with a little bit of green on his tail. My hands were not so lucky!

One of these days, I may remember to wear gloves....Probably not, though.

So, I'm curious. Which piece of paper is your favorite, and why? 

Trying Something New

Seems like my birthday is going on forever. Not that I'm complaining. Here's the latest. The girls enrolled me in a class at the Worcester Art Museum, called Transforming Paper. I've done a lot of stuff to fabric, but I haven't really done much exploration of paper, so this is all (sort of) new to me. It looks like many of the things we will be doing are like fabric painting and dying techniques that I've tried before.
Last night we worked with acrylic paints and inks on a variety of papers. The idea was to see how different papers responded to similar treatment.  Some light papers did not hold their shape well, but the resulting textures were pretty interesting. The watercolor paper was the most cooperative paper that we used. The papers below are both watercolor, and they were treated similarly, but the one on the left was painted wet, and the one on the right was done dry.

It was a fun evening, and I'm looking forward to learning more techniques for decorating paper.

Someone else tried something new today. The Curly One got her locks chopped even shorter.

I think it looks pretty cute. And she is enjoying how much cooler it is. There's nothing like a good haircut to lift your spirits, is there? Despite what Weasley says!

OK, I've been fighting with Google for over an hour now, so I think I'll stop here. Time for PJ's. 'Night everyone.