Some digital ATC's

Hi again,

I wanted to share some digital atc's I've made this afternoon. I love playing with Paint Shop Pro, I have been for years and it never gets boring! It's a nice break from getting my hands dirty with paint LOL. I used tons of grungy brushes and photo's of myself although they are not recognisable as so.






Have a great day and play!

Love Lydia

Rising Comet

Hi Peeps!

Another headache and a thousand pictures later I've given up to take a good picture of this new piece, it doesn't do it justice at all! The blending is much more subtle than I can capture on the camera...... I HATE THAT! I've tried everything I know, take it on different places with good light, different settings on my camera. The colours are much more fibrant! the only thing that is like on the picture is the comet itself...sigh The comet is made with plaster and acrylics, as is the rest of the painting.




Any tips on how to take a good picture are more than welcome!


Have a great day and play!

Love Lydia

Just an update

Hi everybody, I've got nothing to share with you today... but I am working on 3 different canvas boards and one of them is again with plaster... and I found a way to make it act with acrylics the way I want it to YAY. For example "the sun" is done with a background made with plaster and then I painted yellow over it, when that was dry I painted darker oranges and reds over it, and before that was dry I whiped it of with a wet cloth so the yellow comes back on the raised area's. My problem was that if I wiped a bit to hard the yellow came off too and you see the white of the plaster. Now I've just painted gesso over the plaster and then the "undercolour" thats adhering better to the gesso than the plaster which makes my whiping life a bit less frustrating! So stay tuned ^o^

Have a great day and play!

Love Lydia

Think outside the box

I have another canvasboard to share with you! This is something I had in my head ever since I have been playing with the chunky's and the creditcard. It did turn out oke but I have found I love texture of some sort in my works because I feel this piece is a bit boring without it. It still turned out the way I wanted, I'm just becoming a texture junky I guess LOL.





Have a great day and play!

Love Lydia

The Swamp

Hey all!

I've got some new stuff to share with you teehee ^o^ This piece has gone through sooo many, I started out with making some clay pebbles and put plaster in a syringe and pushed the plaster out of there as if my life depended on it, it's hard work LOL After that dried put about 10 (>.<) layers of acrylics in all colours of the rainbow before I decided to cover the whole thing up with tissue paper, it still didn't look right to me so I threw another 3 layers of green acrylics and .... hey.... I'm starting to like it, that's when I went with the swamp theme, I added yarns and inks to highlight and darken surtain area's.





It turned out nice I think! I'm beginning to like plaster more and more it is so versatile, and it does give an amazing texture! In combination with loads of acrylics it cracked up on me, how cool is that!






Have a great day and play!

Love Lydia

The sun

I got my camera working and I've tried so many ways and places to capture this work and I just couldn't do it right, arrrrg! The photo was a big challenge since it has a gloss finish, so in the garden I finally got a decent photo although it's nothing like it is in real life, such a shame when you can't make a photo that captures the work!

I made the background texture with plaster and palletknifes, the sun is with the eggshell technique with a golden finish. I do like it though but not gonna play with plaster on a whole canvas ever again, it gave me headaches! the acrylics just didn't act the way I wanted. and so did the eggshells, some absorbed the paint and some just rejected it. Oh well... now I know what doesn't work for me LOL.





Have a great day and play!

Love Lydia

Artist Play!

Hi All!

I finally got some representable pictures of one of my latest works. This one is so special to me, I had soooo much fun making it and it's the first time I did a piece with found poetry (for those who don't know what it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Found_poetry ) And all these words came from one single page, how fun is that! I did so much on the puzzlepieces, I have painted, gesso/tissue paper, wire, musquito net (it gives a great texture!)buttons, stamps, hotfix, markers and the rounds on the background are made from wallpaper samples and my round colluzle. I think it turned out oke, it's not a masterpiece but to me it IS what art is all about! What do you think?






Have a great day and play ^o^

Love Lydia

2 abstract chunky's

I'm still waiting untill my camera's batteries are charged so I can show off some of my latest canvasses. But I can show you 2 of the chunky's I've made. The first one is made with gesso and tissue paper and then painted over it with a creditcard then sprayed some colourwash over it.
The second is made with lots and lots of layers of acrylics and I painted them with a creditcard, I overheated some of the paint with the heatgun to get the little bubbles. I really like the texture you get when painting with a creditcard, I will definatly gonna use this technique a lot in the future!







Have a great day and PLAY!

Love Lydia

Play time!!!

I've been playing around with different types of techniques the last couple of days and it has been fun and a pain in the butt! But most of all it has been a great learning proces. I've been playing with plaster on canvas and the famous eggshell technique by the amazing Gary Reef from www.lovingmixedmedia.com The plaster is not something I will use again I'm afraid, it makes amazing textures but acrylics do not like it that much which can be interesting I guess, but a big pain for me. I also don't think I will use the eggshell technique although it did work for me, I guess I need to try and try again before it's a great addition to my artwork. I will take some pictures and upload them as soon as I have the time.

Have a great day!

Love Lydia

The basics

Like I said before I'm such a newbie when it comes to art, it's so complicated if you just started to dive into all the techniques of placement and shapes! Mostly I just play around with images and colours but I never knew about the basics, which is stupid really, you don't start driving without knowing how to do that. LOL oke that could be life threatening and art isn't that dangerous (I hope!) but you get my point. I found this video that helped me understand the basics, some of them I already knew but I've learned from this video so I wanted to share it with you! Thank you Mark Mehaffey!

My first real canvas!

I'm no canvas virgin anymore YAY I've had some online help with finishing this one and I know it's not a great piece but I like it! I've had some tips about the main image, it's getting snowed under by the paper doilie flower and the beads. That's the great thing about learning from more experienced artists. I'm so happy with people that take the time and efford to help us newbies out!

Another try

Yesss another try to make me a blog that I hopefully will update more often than the blogs I've had and died slowly over time. The reason that I wanted to create this blog is to share and document my journey through mixed media art. I've been walking around the art world and want to make my own artworks, and show how they are made.

Love Lydia