Completed! Catterfly Artist Trading Card

Catterfly Artist Trading Card

I've got a lot of works in progress right now, so it was really nice to come home from a very busy weekend (Bear and I got married last weekend - just a little busy, eh?) and complete a project.

For this art card, I stamped the background with a hand-carved lino block given to me by a friend, which I hand-colored with Copic YG93. The flowers are punched out of art paper from my collection, and the little moth is a found object colored with Copic B21.

I love the way the low-contrast colors on the flowers allow the little cat to gradually emerge from the background! This is my first collaged ATC, and I am happy with it.

Monday's Inspiration: Emily Hughes

Emily Hughes - "A knight's gotta make a living"

As a long time fan of good illustration, it is SO exciting to watch the next generation of illustrators coming up. One such is Emily Hughes, who blogs over at Emily's Rather Large Adventure and who recently completed her illustration degree.

Emily's work reminds me of a bit of the children's books I loved growing up in the 70's, but at the same time, it's fresh and original. She uses soft, natural color palettes. Her lively lines really bring her work to life. Even in illustrations where the characters are standing still, like in Norwegian Wood, they are vividly alive, caught in an instant between movements.

I need to learn to capture that sense of motion in my own drawings and illustrations.

Work in Progress: Catterfly ATC

Work in progress: Catterfly ATC

I found out that our local art supply recycling place, MECCA (Materials Exchange Center for Community Arts), has a monthly ATC Swap. ATCs are artist trading cards: miniature works of art on 2.5" by 3.5"backgrounds. I thought it would be great to put some mixed media ATCs together and go meet other local artists. That, and making a dozen or so miniature collages sounds really fun.

This is the first one, with nothing glued down yet. It's interesting to go back to a smaller scale, with collage. I found a picture of a little orange kitten who reminds me of Toby Fat Butt, and some appropriate wings for him. What I haven't figured out yet is what the little guy is looking at. I'm planning on coming up with something amusing for him to be stalking, and embellishing the background with color and pattern.

Monday's Inspiration: The Windmill Farmer

Joaquin Baldwin made this wonderful piece of animation. This is so beautiful, I cried tears of joy. The colors are so soft, the textures so rich, and the visual composition of each shot so perfect. Much to learn from it, I think, for collage.

Work in Progress: Dream

Work in progress: Dream

It's funny, but when I draw, I tend to work small, usually on a background no larger than 8" by 10", and often smaller. Collaging, I'm finding, makes it feel natural to scale up.

I found this painted canvas at BRING, a local recycling/building material outlet. It immediately became something of a logical background for this collage idea inspired by a found print of a painting of a young girl by Pierre Auguste Cott, c. 1870. The canvas is about 18" by 24".  When it's done, this will be one of the largest pieces I've ever attempted.

I'm planning to rework this canvas pretty extensively - probably very little of the original paint will show when I'm done. Nothing is glued down yet, and I expect that the composition will end up being pretty different too. But that's one of the things I love about collage: watching the first glimmerings of an idea start to play themselves out, changing and evolving as they go.