Effys Book of Days-Mosaic Spread

The cover of my Art Journal
is still almost blank.
I'm really surprised 

that the muse has not shown up

yet to tell me whats what.
She is a fickle one...
All in good time...

The next spread in 

Effy's Book of Days

Art Journal project is 

Mosaics!

At the start of this journal,

I spent a lot of time 

gessoing out artwork

I didn't think I would 

use as collage elements.

 I covered most of the

images in white gesso

but used transparent gesso 

for the images I was 

pretty sure I was gonna keep.

Below you can see

the next pages in the calendar.

Ironically, we've got a 

mosiac theme going!!

Coincidence? 

I think not.

This proves this calendar 

is meant to be the vehicle

for the project.

So I was going through the book

gessoing in advance

of the assignment and prompts.

When I saw this page I thought

ohhhhh, what a perfect

page for my 

1970's porn star inchies!!

Pic below.

Handy tip:

I got 2 boxes of this deli paper

for $20 bucks two years ago.

And I just opened the second box! 

I highly recommend leaving 

the paper in between your pages.

Even if you think they are dry.

They will still stick together.

Prevention is better than

um, fixing it???

   Below you can see 

I've added some drips

and some acrylic paint I've run

a texture rake through.

The green is my fav

green of all time

Goldens Green Gold.

By the time I lay down the color

I've seen Effy's video.

She journals about 

feelings of rejection

and about not taking 

it personally.

How people come and go 

in our lives and the 

importance of learning

to let them come and go

graciously, with love.

Oh, I'm not supposed 

to grab his leg

and let him drag me across

the room as he's leaving?

 stupid flashbacks.

teehee.

I only did that in my mind.

Thank God I'm on the path

to enlightenment

and I don't own 

a hand gun.

Back to Art.....

 I was so lucky

to attend 

Misty Mawns

two day Portrait workshop

at Art and Soul retreat

in Virginia.

I had never drawn a face let alone

a portrait before,

but A and S

is a growing experience for me.

Hell, driving 7 hours in one day

alone is a lot of growth for me..

And pushing myself to grow

artistically in such 

a safe and positive

atmosphere is heaven on earth.

It is unfortunate that the retreats

are no longer in my budget.

Even dogs know that I can't

afford it, thats how

obvious it is that 

I can't afford it.

Feel me?

I knew that you could.

ok back on track....

I was so lucky that besides

sharing musical tastes

and getting the thrill of 

turning Misty onto 

The Wood Brothers,

she is an extremely 

generous and patient teacher.

And oh so freakin talented.

As I was pondering on what to journal,

I remembered this piece I did.

I love the poetry

of R.D. Laing,

so I incorporated his words into 

my self portrait at the retreat.

I am frightened

not frightened

Powerful words, no?

I printed a copy of the original

and journaled on the back.

I wrote about my fear of death.

My fear of aging, getting sick,

and dying.

Of losing my "beauty". 

Of becoming invisible.

Of walking next to my teenage

daughter in the mall and

the 50 year old guy

looks at her and not me.

Again, I am grateful I do not have 

a hand gun.

teehee.

So I purged it all out,

and cut the print into strips,

then 1 inch blocks to cover

the exsisting inches

in the spread.

 

 

I said good by to all that 

 bad habit energy, and

  glued the blocks down with

Goldens Heavy gel medium.

On the facing page

I glued down a flower 

I've used billions of times

as a mask and stencil

ala Traci Bautista.

This one is actually

the one I used in her class.

Altho stamped with Fear,

its a symbol of the growth

I experienced at Art and Soul,

and the growth I am experiencing

on my path to Buddhism.

I put a little pic of the 

original photo used to 

represent wholeness.

and because I look hot.

teehee.

I did some journalling on the page,

and left room to add thoughts

about experiences that occur

that frighten me.

So that's the whole shebang so far.

I have a feeling that I will not feel 

the "decoration" for the cover 

of this journal until it is complete.

But thats ok.

Effy taught me that! 

My next spread will be for a 

week of days, 

and then Mondays spread!

Which is about

Excepting Where You Are 

In Your Artistic Journey!!

Amen, I'll take Acceptance

for 500 Alex!

Until next time!

xoS

Work in Progress

I am very excited by this new piece!

I went on a transfer binge! This time I used Golden's Soft Gel Gloss medium and Apollo ink-jet transparencies NOT QUICK DRY printed with ink jet images.

OMG what a blast. 

I was a bit manic and ripped thru my stash and stuck to my "mannish" theme and transferred like a crazy wine fueled lonely cat owning spinster. 

Holy Shit! 

I AM a wine fueled cat owning crazy lonely spinster!! 

teehee. I'm cool with it. 

I had to take a break from Mom and Dad's huge canvas. I just haven't been feeling it. I thought I would try and have it done by Mother's day but Father's day is coming up too. So is Labor Day for that matter. teehee.

So, this canvas is 16x20. 

When I was in Misty Mawn's class at Art and Soul, she demonstrated a transfer with paper and Golden's soft gel medium. Hereafter known as GSGM, ok? She brushed the gel onto the corner of the canvas, laid down an image of a tree with branches and leaves, burnished it for like 30 seconds. Lifted it off, and damn if the image didn't stay on the canvas. Regular cheap copy paper and an ink jet image. 

That NEVER happens for me.

NEVER. 

But she is Misty

and the Universe will not allow her to have crappy transfers during a workshop.

Which is how it should be.

I love her and covet her talent. 

So I thought I would try her technique. I have a beautiful catalog of men's clothing with the type of men that I have never met in my life modeling clothes and accessories that I've never seen an actual man wear. 

You know what I mean. 

So I started with a shirt image, love the stripes and the green background. 

As you can see I also used the same technique on ink jet copies of my own art in the upper left corner. Have you done that? You should. Scan your work in progress, not just finished. You can use these scans to do a different piece with the same starting point but with a different end result. Scan the finished piece and cut it up for your own collage. Use your work more and someone else's images less. 

I finally got to this place and it is Good.

I had to learn a lot, to get here, and thankfully I still have a lot more to learn.

Gosh, I am digressing yet again. 

So the next steps were covering the canvas, using the ink jet image transfers. BTW, I use an Epson C88, now discontinued, with Durabright inks, Apollo 7039 transparencies, and GSGM. 

Here's the proof:

The above image has the transparency laid down in the GSGM.Therefore the reflection. Below you see how the ink has transferred to the canvas and the mostly clear transp. is in my hand.

Compared to Misty's, my paper/gel transfer of the shirt came out crappy. You can see how distressed it is. Now look how clear the transparency is. I just have the most success with this method. Also, you can use Elmer's or Ace Caulk instead of the GSGM. I just happen to be out of it.

The only images that are collaged on (full thickness paper glued on with gel medium) are the man with the atom bomb and the Jesus Row. Everything else is a transfer. Just FYI. 
I got rid of that red transparency in the lower corner for now. 

Time to add the color!!

Painting in some details here and there...

So then I added some details like the hearts and golden halos and pencil in the atom bombs....

And here I'm fooling around with some possible additional transfer layers....like the ribs and the anatomical guy in the corner

yeah, I think I'm digging this...

Another choice....

I think I like this one below better....
I'm considering using TAP paper for this head transfer. I just purchased 5 sheets from Amazon for an outrageous price.
I haven't used it before but artists in my ink-jet transfer yahoo group
appear to love it. 
I'm worried about the heat of the iron
melting my transfers. 
Also, I sealed the transfers with
PYM 2
in order to prevent the ink running before adding paint. We're talking inkjet here. The PYM is probable flammable, right? 
I'm worried I'll set my eyebrows on fire. Hey, if that could happen anywhere in The Universe, 
it would happen at my house. Just sayin'.

So this is what I have so far, and I'm loving it, if I do say so myself. I am kicking around an Edgar Allen Poe quote to add also. Remember when I said scan your work and use it again? I struggled gymnastically to get all the areas of this canvas in my scanner. It was quite humorous. Well, before further embellishments make it too "finished" and not usable for another project, I came up with some cool possible backgrounds. 
This one below needs a focal point and some words and it could go in any direction at all....

A little more paint to push the shirt into the background and a focal point....

This one below is an ATC waiting to happen...

 This one below I feel Medieval about....I feel some armor, and a damsel in distress....

I will keep you posted!! I ordered some silk gampi tissue that hasn't arrived, I may wait and do his head with that. I'm concerned about losing detail and transparency, cuz I want the words and test patterns to show thru his face. 
blah blah blah.
Thanks for looking!! 
And Welcome and Thank you to New Followers!!
xoS

The Horror

I love doing transfers in my artwork. I have taken to Purell Transfers like I took to boys when I was 14. Fast and Furious. To put it Mildly. teehee. Well, my beloved Apollo Transparencies 7031s for HP inkjet printers are NO MORE. I had a panic attack when I tried to reorder them last week. They are discontinued. I can't believe it. My entire style revolves around these transfers. My PhrenMen, my ShellSeekers, BoneHeads and ScareyClowns. WTF???? I put on my big girl panties and ordered the Apollo 7039. They'll work, right? WRONG. I spent 40 bucks and I am Bereft. The new packaging says for Canon, Epson, Lexmark. No mention of my humble HP. The purell lifted a very small amount of ink. The transfer is very light, almost all of the ink remained on the trans. I tried different amounts of Purell. Over and Over and Over. I swore, I made bargains with The Universe, all to NO AVAIL. I then tried Goldens Soft Gel Medium. I don't like transfers using this because, well , they are Glossy. They lay on top of the paper. With my old technique the paper sucked in the ink and BECAME ONE with the substrate. The image didn't lay on top like a foreign body. Ok, I'm getting dramatic now. teehee. Here are the BAD transfers, make sure the children are OUT of the room first:


Look at the time and materials I wasted. But I could not make myself give up. I even sanded some of the paper first, because some of it was scrapbook paper and may have some kind of evil plasticy coating on it. Here are the so-so transfers:
The transferred image ends up with brushstrokes from applying the gel with well, a brush. Sponge and fingers still left streaks. And gloss. Ok, I know I can spray a matte sealer on top and that should eliminate the gloss. But, well, WHY??? The 7031s's were PERFECT. Anyone else having this issue or know of a source for the 7031s's??? I am going to consult with my inkjet transfer Yahoo group and see if anyone has The Answer. xoSusan