New Artwork

New Artwork in acrylic ink on canvas, 12" by 12"

Drawings on Canvas

I've always preferred drawing to painting, but I have always been cranky about the fragile nature of works on paper. I've never been a big fan of matting and framing. I would rather just finish a piece and hang it up on the wall. I tried using watercolor canvas and watercolor gesso, but I wasn't really happy with the results. Then I discovered these acrylic inks. They have the same consistency as regular inks but they can be used on regular acrylic gesso and combined with acrylic paints. I've been using them diluted like liquid watercolors, and applying them straight out of the bottle with a metal nib pen. They make beautiful watercolor washes. So far I have been very happy with the results. The lighting in my new studio isn't great yet, so these photos are a little washed out, but you can see the texture. I still love my regular inks and watercolors (especially my delicious shellac-based drawing inks) but it's nice to try something a little different.

Odd's Fish!

I felt like drawing something a little different the other day, so I decided to revisit a little series of drawings I started a couple years ago. I started making these silly fish drawings as a sort of visual joke. My fiance and I have a plan to make a children's book of them someday, with accompanying text describing the habits of each fish- like a field guide.

More adventures in Photography

Drawing 2
Originally uploaded by copperheart

Today I spent some time working on photographing a few of my drawings- I always have trouble photographing drawings, but I got some tips from the Etsy forums, and did some trial and error and finally came up with what I think are some pretty good photos.
My other news is that I finished all the projects I had to make for Christmas presents! (well ok, I still have a few things to string, but all the metalwork is done) Now I have a few special projects to work on that should keep me busy after Christmas untill school starts again.

More Adventures in Serigraphy

Screenprinted Box- Front
Originally uploaded by copperheart

When I make my projects for school, I often think of a really great Idea only after I have completely finished the piece. In serigraphy class we were given an assignment to make a print that would fold up into a box. Since I'm not really into commercial design, I decided to steer away from packaging and make sort of a decorative storage box- for "curiosities"
After I finished the project, it occurred to me that it would have been a great idea to use the assignment as an opportunity to create a custom gift box for my jewelry. I suppose I can always do that some other time. I am fairly pleased with what I came up with anyway- I especially like the curly lettering.

Tiny art at Copperheart

Specimen 1
Originally uploaded by copperheart

I havn't been doing much drawing lately, because I've been having trouble getting started. I just havn't been able to think of what to draw. The other night I was trying to draw, and I remembered that my boyfriend, who is a writer, had often told me that he works best when he has a certain set of limitations. I decided to try out his theory, so I decided to limit my drawing to circles, and to work small. I expanded on my basic structure of circles with pattern and color, and this little drawing is what I came up with. This one is already up in my shop, and hopefully I'll have more coming soon. I like to work with variations on themes, allowing them to develop through repetition, so I'll probably stick with this structure for a little while.

Adventures in Serigraphy

Today was the first critique in my screenprinting class. I was pretty nervous about it, because screenprinting is totally new to me (as is printmaking in general) and I had some technical problems with registration, etc. We were supposed to turn in an edition of six prints, so I started with twelve and messed up so many that I only got four really good ones in the end. The good news is that I figured out what I was doing wrong, so hopefully I'll nail it on the next project. Now that I have a better understanding of the technique, I'm hoping to be able to make some cool work which I will be able to share. You can't see my first project though, it's not so great!