some new atc's collaged with images from crowabout

As you will know if you have been reading this blog, I have recently started to take part in the Collage Play With Crowabout group on Flickr. At a loose end this weekend, I have been looking thru some of the older collage sheets and have used some of the images together with some of my pre-made backgrounds to create a few atc's. It has been a little like a factory assembly line here, backgrounds and images to hand; no need to think about anything except composition and telling a joke ( gotta have a little humour!)

So this weeks post ( one a week - got to be able to do more than that!!!!!) is some of these atc's. Actually, it has ben a very busy week for me/us because we have been looking at some new kitchen units. Just a spur of the moment thing but all the big suppliers seem to have massive discounts finishing in a weeks time. So of course we had to make some very rapid decisions. If you are interested we have chosen to go with a range from Focus-DIY called Rockingham. Unlike some stores they did not try to push us into selecting expensive products under the guise of "PLANNING THE KITCHEN" but helped us to understand what we said we wanted. And the discounts really helped.

Any way I digress, the atc's I want to show you are:-

Title: Excuse me Modom, I believe it is time for your morning pick-me-up". Entered (too late unfortunately) into the Crowabout challenge for week #67

One done just for fun, " Fortunes told". I thought this was a super image and wanted to use it.

Title: "Unhappy". made for the Artful Ideas group swap on Flickr, theme: Bar Code.

See you all soon

free to use vintage images

Following on from my last post, I thought that I ought to actually show a couple of images, typical of the ones that I have been posting on my Flickr photostream. I have been buying some vintage ( pre 1922 so in the public domain) books from one or two second hand sources and felt that the images should be made available for art work, etc. Check out Flickr for those I have posted so far and the collage images group for more, of all sorts and sizes! A great resource for artists!

Anyway here are a few examples, enjoy :-

The sizes here are determined by the constraints of Blogger's layout, full size images available on Flickr

collages: atc and post card sizes

It has been a busy week, can't seem to get into crafting as much I would like these days but I do what I can. Real life obviously has to come first. However I have managed to complete two collage pieces, the first an atc for the Artful Ideas group swap on Flickr. The theme this week was "a bar code". Can you believe we had to use an image of the ubiquitous bar code device in a work of art. OOHHH Nancy you were being cruel on this one. Most people so far seem to have used it for its pattern/textural effect, there have been some very clever means adapted - why not pop over and take a look. However I decided to use it literally; but with a twist. here is the atc :-

I called it, " Mmmm, I see Lady Barr! This magical cypher will be appearing in all the smartest retail establishments. But tell me again, what does it do?" I love using humour in my atc's. I am a great fan of all forms of this format but my own work, as I hope you have noticed, depends on humour in many ways.

The second work I bring you this week is a post card sized collage made for the "Collage Play with Crowabout" group, also on Flickr. In this group a collage sheet is provided to use and create an art work either digitally or by cutting and glueing. Yoou must use a minimum of three elements from the sheet in the art work. Here is my effort:-

I actually found this a very difficult sheet to work from this week, don't know why but I had some real headaches - a real challenge. In desperation I used a technique that has worked for me in the past. MINIMISE either the time or the material. Just start cutting and sticking and see where it takes me, a process using lots of serendipity. I am actually pleased with the way this one has worked out, I think?

This particular challenge I am finding very enjoyable because the elements on the given sheet are so different to the sort of thing that I would (collect and) use if I was left to my own devices. I would go for large, simple images and often have a use in mind as I am collecting them or at least some idea of how I might put them to use. I guess this is how I made my altered book, which I blogged here; taking lots of left-overs and putting them to use.

BTW I have started posting photos on Flickr from some old, pre-1922 books putting them into the public domain; why not take a peek?

Off to do a little crafting now, see you in a few days with the results hopefully.

Free collage sheets, ATC backgrounds

After I had finished the "mermaids garden" assemblage, I had a little acrylic paint left over on my palette ( well the paper I had used, LOL). I decided to take a few pre-cut ATC cards and do some backgrounds. I have used this method in the past and found them very useful. The technique is simply to drop a little of the paint ( two or three colours) at the top of the card/paper and drag the paint down with a palette knife / credit card ( expired of course) to make an interesting pattern. I used blue / green / white here. I made several cards before the paint was all used up. I decided to scan these and create a collage sheet for future use. But not before I had already used two of the cards for ATC's. Still here is the sheet:-

It is not the same using the printed photo as using the original but that's what collage is all about, n'est pa? You can see the original, full size sheet on my Flickr photostream, They are absolutely free to use for any personal art but please do not use the sheet as it is.

So far so good. But since I have been playing with digital manipulation, I thought I would add a few different colours. Now this is something I can't do by simple collage without painting more cards. So here goes.... a couple more sheets with digitally altered colours / etc.

check out the full size version here

and secondly:-

the full size version can be found here

As I said above, you are free to use the collage sheets / backgrounds for your personal art projects wether foe sale or otherwise BUT not to use the images themselves for sale as-is or in any collection, wether for sale or not. I would be pleased to hear from you if you do use any of these images and of course it is only good manners to give credit to the source. Thanks and happy creating. The two examples I mentioned above are shown here:-

title:- D = Damsel in distress

title:- E = eyes and Each other

The Mermaids Garden - An Assemblage

And now for something completely different... (organ plays !!!) Are you old enough to remember Monty Python?

I have created my first real assemblage. Not that it is that out of the ordinary but it marks a schism with 2-D art for me. I have been contemplating this art form for some time and collecting bits of rubbish ( err!!! art materials) for some time including all manner of receptacles from the kitchen and around the house. I have recently been joining in with challenges on PDF and a recent challenge was on the theme of mermaids. Now all media are welcome ( says Kim, who runs the site) so being in a peculiar mood I decided that the time had come for a 3-D piece, an assemblage in other words. Here is my entry:

It is such a big step for me that I thought it was worth a few close-ups and some descriptive narrative. Now the thing about mermaids is that they live in the sea just like sardines.... a very tenuous comparison but it got me searching for an old sarding can I had in my "studio". A humerous gesture.... oh well, take it or leave it. It works for me!

Now it is difficult to see the bits and pieces properly, which is why the detail shots are called for ; unfortunately for me, whilst in creative mode, I did not spot the gap which had opened up at the top of the backing to the collage, inside the can. A little bit of restorative work required her - methinks!

Anyway, the details:

The sardine can was riveted to a piece of mountboard which was itself bonded to a rigid, black foam to give it a decent thickness. The top of the base was painted with acrylic paint and a number of bits and pieces were bonded to it. Sea bed detritus.... the skull mask was nearly lost as my son tried to purloin it, he has a thing about pirates (?) I did actually have some real shells but they didn't seem to fit so a metal charm shaped like a conch shell was fixed on the inside of the can .

At the top the crowning glory. A beer bottle top, a 2-D charm in the shape of a crown bonded to the inside front edge, and a fairly large glass bead made up quite a realistic assembly.

A detail of the panorama inside the can. The background is a digital collage, see my Flickr photo for photo credits with three mermaids layered on to the collage. Actually you can see a full screen sized image on Flickr - much better resolution, much better image. The seahorse is dangling from the top of the can, on a cotton thread.

Here again is the crown and the rear of the can which is also painted in acrylic.

Lastly a shot of the digital collage, the elements inclue a beached wreck, fish and sea-weeds:

This has definitely given me a taste for more of the same so look out world, here I come. And I already have a little fellow who will be the main element in my next assemblage project so watch this space. ( you will have to wait for any more info, LOL)

Another month and no posts.

Well here we are again, I have simply not been posting as I ought. Lots of things going on at home and keeping me busy. I have been creating - quite a creative time for me actually, I must thrive under the pressure. However I am hoping to be able to post regularly from now. I shall do a very quick catch-up of some projects since my last post.

What have I been up to....

First, there is my ongoing commitment to the ladies of the ARTFUL IDEAS Group on Flickr. A wonderfully talented group of artists taking a fornightly challenge to create mixed media ATC's. If this is your thing then give the group a once over. A couple of my recent entries have been:-

Both created for a challenge with a theme of pockets. Another challenge I have started is with the group on Flickr, Collage Play with Crowabout. A collage sheet is provided every week for members to use to produce a collage, digital or cut-n-glue, which is then can then be entered for a small prize ( which I won last week). Examples of the work for this group are:-

The above is a cut and paste collaged post card, simple background and using the supplied elemnts to complete the piece.-

A digital collage, I used virtually all of the elements in this weeks collage sheet, but also a texture from the hands ( and PC ) of Ange ( known as rubyblossom) on Flickr. Not very evidenet but helps to offset the sharpness of the background element here.

I have also been getting more tied up with a newish group/community website run by Kim Newberg on Ning. ( link to be included). This group runs atc swaps, row house and charm swaps
and a variety of challenges. Something for most everyone in fact.

some creations for this group lately have been:-

A collaged postcard, the owl & pussycat sketch were borrowed from jerseybarb85, I thought they looked real cute. And just the thing for my "B for Boat" piece
.

An ATC created for a "Lace and Finery" challenge,

And an ATC with the title "A for apples" - cheeky, what?

Just to round off this catch-up session, here is an example of another pastel painting which I have made at my weekly art group meeting:

It is a version of a photograph I came across of Glen Coe, Scotland. I think it was the beams of sunlight breaking thru the clouds which caught my eye.

Well I think that is enough for this post, maybe I should have broken it up into three but it is done now. You can catch up with all my art work over the past month or so on my Flickr photostream. I will try to make more regular ( and shorter posts from now on so do pop back often to see how I am progressing.