Brought to you by adonnathing
T WO CH A O S ISSUE magazine
IT IS FR EE Y I P P EE!
Welcome
T Y
his e-zine is all about me doing things and trying to convince you that you can do it too. If you wish to share your art through this ezine you are welcome to submit your
article.
our work will be published according to my creative commons licence (check it out on my website). If you wish to place an advert I will consider publishing it if it is relevant to my audience. If you want to mail art me join Sarah’s gang at:
http://collabor-art.blogspot.co.uk/
Thank You,
Donna.
mail art me
G R O U N D R U L ES .. .
LINKS AND C O PY RIG H T
E A S Y
very single URL ((Link) (Web address)) is going to be highlighted, and depending on if you have internet access, it may be clickable too. ll you have to do is read, enjoy, and have a go yourself.
o it’s worth downloading this e-zine and being internet connected in order to get all the features; clickable URLs, high resolution photos and best of all, a printable document.
ou may use my work in your personal art, but not for any commercial gain. Oh, and I must be attributed. And that’s it put plain and simple. Legally, the content is the work of Donna Louise Rodgers and all work in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
www. adonnathing. com Designer: Donna Louise Rodgers, Luke Rodgers, Adam Rodgers Photography: Donna Louise Rodgers, Luke Rodgers Thanks to: My Boys and the Main Man
S I M P L E FA C TS
GRAVE CLOTHES
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M
any years ago, I made a wood burnt image of a face in a Suzi Blu class. It made it for Sarah for as her birthday gift. Sarah had black hair, she was married to my brother. So she was my sister. Simple facts. Four months after I gave her the painting as a birthday gift, she died.
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ard facts are so harsh eh?
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he was in her very early forties. It was sudden and traumatic. Even now, years later, it still ripples through the lives of those of us still living. The wood painting took on a renewed value after her death. I was glad that I always take many high resolution images of all my art work. The Sarah face has been reused many times. I have kept a cropped supersized version of this face on my wall. I’m sure you have a favorite too. So I’m goign to show you how to reuse artwork in journalling.
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ne of the lessons that Suzi Blu teaches is to get a ‘good’ face down on paper. It is then easy to put a face onto any body or composition. Provided the paper is not too thick, it will integrate seamlessly into a mixed media piece of art. fter taking the paper face down off of the wall, I chopped off the hair and re-purposed it into a journal entry. I decided to share the step by step making of the journal entry with you to encourage you to have a go at a journal entry.
I like the idea of Sarah living in our journals.
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I will take you through how I created my journal pages and, if you wish, you can copy it. Or apply the same principles to create a two page spread of your own. Email me your version:
chaos@adonnathing.com
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T S U J S ’ IT
JOURNALING
y l l a e r s ’ it , o d o t y s ea . t i o d t s so ju 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
O
pen your journal at a two page spread. The paper needs to be heavy weight. Stare at the blank double page, and win the staring competition by choosing your main colour, any colour - but only have your blank page and your one colour out, make sure the rest of your desk is empty. Go work on your dining table if your studio desk is a mess. Be disciplined. Use a water soluble paint. Do not use acrylic. Do aim for patchy paintwork at this stage.
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mpty your head. Think about this one colour and nothing else. Focus on simple strokes of paint across the blank space and don’t be distracted by thoughts. Relax.
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pply the colour to the page quite rapidly and without too much care. Please don’t worry about the edges. You can see I didn’t go up to the edges at all. If you pay too much attention at this point you will probably put on too much paint.
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alk away whilst the paint dries. Do not use heat on this or any of the other layers. We are in no rush. We haven’t even thought about what will happen next. At this point it is just a wash. A paint base layer of colour.
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e will need a second complimentary colour. I will need to use orange as my complimentary. Use this link if you have no colour theory knowledge: www.colormatters.com /color-and-design/basic-color-theory
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P S Y
ick out a mask, I chose flowers, and pick a second water soluble paint, in a contrasting hue of blue. My two blues will clash. pray liberally. Pick up the mask and flip it over and press down - using up the paint on the mask to create a negative image.
ou can make your own spray paint and use a mister, just be sure it is a water soluble, not acrylic, paint.
D I
on’t use any paints with mica or glitter in. The ‘glimmer mist’ bramd chalk board matte paints will work.
am using a dylusion spray over a tim holtz distress stain, knowing that they dry but are NOT permanent (they will reactivate when wet and the colour will move).
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Leave it to dry. DO NOT HEAT.
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Make sure you leave some space that is uncluttered, don’t do everything everywhere. A secondary focal point will be put here to ‘ balance the face on the opposite page.
Flip the mask over and press down to crete the negative image onthe oppoiste page and side to balance the work
Spray second blue over the mask to create two tone flowers
Heavy Inked area where the face will be placed, use a dry glue or the blue will leak through your paper and into the face
ta g
Find a tag that is a tertiary colour match http://www.color-wheel-artist.com/primary-colors.html
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O
nce you’ve found your tag, fold it lengthways in half and approx one third along the width, align the fold with the spine of your pages, don’t centralise the tag, you want to take the eye away from that middle line in the centre of your journal, that is creating somethig of a distraction to a single spread
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dhere the tag with a strong bond dry glue (I use 3M scotch permanent glue sticks).
Don’t USE A WET GLUE: you will Activate the blue paint and lose your green colour you will be making mud colours
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he tag integrates the two pages breaking the vertical line created by the journal page fold. You have broken a visual vertical division and created greater balance on the two page spread. Off setting your middle line fools hte eye into seeing one instead of two pages
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espray using anti slip mat as a mask(IKEA). Aim your spray so that the effect is NOT even. You can see I am keeping one area heavily sprayed and the rest fairly lightly sprayed. Let it dry, you do not have to sit and watch the paint dry. You can go do something useful instead. The last two pages represents ten minutes craft over two days.
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Grab your journal fodder (stuff you have collected for this very purpose but never quite got around to using and only just realised is perfect for this artwork). Drop it onto the page, make sure they are in your complimentary colour and that the ‘theme’ suits your background. I am going to use the balloon to float in the blue sky, and butterflies to give movement across the sky. The large foregound item s and the small background items create depth in the pages. Largest and lowest on the page appears nearest: Smaller and higher appears to be further away. I want to use the crown on my Girl’s head and I will cover the big blob of blue with the paper printed Sarah face. I introduce text in the bottom border and within the butterfly wings. I cut the white space out of the crown. I make an origami hat (see back pages), place it upside down, out of which the small butterflies emerge. Adhered to the book centre fold the ‘hat’ opens and closes as a pop in in the book. It folds flat when the book is closed provided you place it in the centre. Move your fodder around until it is well balanced and leave lots of open space for the main features . your base border should not come too high, your fodder for this layer should not even total one third of your page space. Put everything in one corner without anything overlapping, but touching edges - if all the stuff side by side fills a quarter of the total two page space you have too much stuff.
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less is more So take a few things off!
Tear up pieces of mulberry paper and create a top border.
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Once you have the right amount of fodder: Spread out the bits you have left, trust me, you probably need less than you think...
Stick down your fodder layer with a glue stick. Place some very paper text. Adhere a wet glue (liquid medium) overlapping of your previous
thin using matte some layer.
The wet glue will reactivate the water based paint and the colour will rise up though your text paper. If you are light handed and careful, you can create a beautiful ‘edge’ around your previous layer - accentuated by the colour change which naturally shades the two pieces.
I used mulberry paper that had gold squares embedded in the paper.
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Let the fibres of the torn edges guide you along the edge. I used white the impression Put
on
and
daydream
work to
Chill
to create of clouds. Music,
and
you
‘ feel ’
the
relax
whilst will
you start
painting.
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h t t p : // w w w. w o r q x . c o m /c o l x q o r /c o l o r _ w h e e l . h t m Use a neutral colour that works with your chosen colour pallette.
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So,
to
recap, I picked a colour, (which dictated the complimentary colour). I then calculated the
right amount of journal fodder to use and arranged it on the pages. Next I picked out a
piece
of
text
with a highlighted set of words referring to the oblivious sky, and picked out text that twice refers to grave clothes. I have a ‘heavy’ inked area that I want to cover with
a Sarah face. It was from the apparent randomness that I consciously decided a journal theme I wanted to explore. So on the left page I applied a text page that is coloured blue with the pertintnet text highlighted. The two phrases had emerged:
‘the and
oblivious sky’ ‘grave clothes’ .
From this pont onwards my work becomes more focused and planned.
I used the ‘Sarah’ face on this journal spread to represent her as a sky dwelling angel. I
attached the out origami
pop ‘ hat’
upside down for the butterflies to emerge out of the page. The crown I put in her forehead in the ‘thrid eye’ position. I created her hair from
torn pieces of mulberry paper, symbolic Allowing
of clouds. the edges to
be lifted and rough to give texture. My basics are in place, and as I add more detail, I’m also thinking about the meaning and symbolism of this piece. Through imagery I was able to think without sadness of a couple of memories I shared with family soon after we let Sarah go that last day in ICU. My emotions were of peace and acceptance as well as grief
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glorious glitter
Ooh look at that glitter modge podge (all the glory none of the terror of loose glitter). If it is applied sparingly it will both bind, glaze and integrate paper l ayers. Respray layers using the flower mask over again to give the repetition the work needs for a cohesive appearance. After Sarah died, me, her sister, and my sister-in-law went for a cup of tea (as you do),
the cafe is three floors up from ICU. 1 It has floor to ceiling windows and a quite 2 nice view out over fields 3 (so long as you ignore 4 the ruddy great A road 5 between where you sit 6 and the scenery). 7 As we sat supping our 8 brew, Sarah’s sister cried 9 out, 10
She swears to this day11 12 she saw Sarah walk 13 out of the cafe onto the 14 terrace and off into the 15 sky. 16 17 18 19 20
dry dry +me me ...... ....... ....... 1
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3
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6 7
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9
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13
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T I stepAaway from the journal and W
HRS, let the layers dry for a good 24 hours else your top layers will beRruined. ELSE UINED.
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O T T E G R O F R E V E N
refine
A
t this point you may consider your work to be finished, it is okay to leave the pages open and forget about the journal for a short or long time becuase it needs to dry throughly. But you really are not yet finished. It is this tipping point where people stop for fear of ruining something they like, you must deal with this fear and do it anyway or your art will NEVER improve, use there will be times when the next stages might not work, but you will learn how to determine a better ‘stop point’ by trying.
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efining and getting detail into your pages is important, you are looking to enhance your theme. It is these final details that will make a good piece great. I used a flower mask at hte start, so I chose a flower stamp to compliment theme - repetition of themes integrates the page. If you choose an unrelated stamp you will create chaos. (Which is okay too).
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utterflies work with flowers, so when you stamp into your journal try choosing a relevant stamp. My opinion? - for goodness sake, be brave enough to break free of the curls and swirls from time to time. But be aware curls and swirls work with ANY THING so it is a good starter stamp whilst you are learning to be braver...
Choose an ink that will be permanent
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: g n i p m a A f te r S t
DRAW
C
heck your work is totally totally dry, Press blotting paper or kitchen tissue onto your work. If any of it sticks at all, or lifts colour or moisture - your work is not dry, I just leave it for a couple of days at least. NEVER heat your work - the papers will buckle and the different layers will seperate because you have stuck together paper of different weights.Once dry, the beauty of the face can be enhanced by going over the features using pens, crayons, pencils, inks and so on. You can really have a wonderful hour or two detailing the face. I use all kinds of pens and ink types, Experiment on projects so you understand which ones to use to smudge, and which ones to use when you want waterproofing properties. You will want both types for different purposes.
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e gentle when you detail the face. Mine is printed on epson heavy matte photo paper. It can take the abrasive action of pencil, if you used thin paper you might tear your image.
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f you do not know how to shade then copy my shadows and highlights. Learn to look for the highlights and shadows whenever you look at people and objects. This mouth has ten shades of colour from light to dark giving her the best fish pout ever...
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C
an you see the difference in the unaltered face?
How will anyone know my stories if I never tell them?
This is my story, this is my song.
This face is copyright Donna Louise Rodgers You have my permission to print this page and use the image for your personal journalling. You must not make copies for anyone else (but you can direct them to my eZine for a copy of their own). You MUST NOT use this image, or the eZine, for your own commercial gain. To do so would be a shameful act of stealing, and illegal. You must credit my work when you use it to develop your own work. If you want to learn to paint and draw stylized pretty faces for fun, or if you want to go on to make money out of it: I recommend the Suzi Blu on line classes.
http: //suzibl u. ning. com / Be original, Sell Original/ Copies are boring. and copy cats are too.
I OVER WRITE MY ‘STORY’ S E G A P E S E H T N O Y R T MY LAST EN
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s we were planning we all stopped, and realised the importance of her GRAVE CLOTHES, these were the clothes she would wear forever, she would need to be happy to wear them forever, as she moved house from this earth to the OBLIVIOUS SK Y. So we put a crown of clouds on her head and covered her nakedness with the stories of her life... and she stepped away from us and towards her eternity.
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Accreditation: suzi blu http://suziblu.ning.com
M M
y addiction to faces and journals began when my Man bought me the ‘Goddess and Poet’ Suzi Blu course as a Christmas present (still available on dvd). y personal experience of being part of a group of artists in a live active Suzi class was totally positive. I met on line artists that I am still in touch with. Bought their artwork, which now hangs on my walls, and gained the confidence to develop my own art. I am deeply flattered that Suzi told me a copy of my red face (left) hangs on her wall (I sent it over as a thank you for all she taught me). I highly recommend on line classes if you cannot get to an in the flesh version. I keep hoping Suzi will come over to the UK and do some in person classes, she is so inspiring and original.
http://suziblu.typepad.com/a_lovely_ dream/2013/01/paint-chronicle.html
A message direct from Suzi: If you know someone interested in signing up for Paint & Chronicle, please note: “We are in the process of working on opening up a new Paint & Chronicle room by March first. Unlike the current room, it will only contain three month’s of class material, and will *not* include access to any prior material. If you are already in Paint & Chronicle, there is no need for you to sign up for the new room, since it will include the same
course material that you will be getting already in the current room”. Visit Suzi Blu’s Gypsy Art School at: ht tp://suziblu.ning.com Now I know this image is fuzzy so get over to the web site to see Suzi Faces in their full glory.
E V E R LO S T ATNID ? Y Y T O H T ING? E V A H N TE
OF
CAUSE YOURSELF STRESS? OVERCOME STASH CHAOS SYNDROME
I
cannot always remember what my drawers contain, so I label the drawers, then I move things. The labels get messy.
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o to cover the messy labels I gesso’d the drawers and used an ink pad to add a bit of colour
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quick and simple make over that takes just thirty minutes. Only I still have no idea what is in the drawers!
masking tape is a simple and easy way to write your drawer content labels, the couloured ones are AWEsome it is easy to change the label if you are giving things a temporary space - until you finally put things in their place do it because you will then spend more time making and less time looking for your makings...
L A B E L I N G
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OR
type your drawer labels onto sticky back canvas using a typewriter....
sticky mess? NO Sticky Labels instead
use your labels to send yourself a happy m e s s ag e
a tidy space feels open, a mess closes you down
Use ‘window’ storage so you can see what is inside without the need for labels
c l e a t i d a n s h i n
n y d y
T
I
P
S
The new scotch coloured opaque tapes are fabulous to use as a means of securing packaging labels for ‘ready made’ logo’s on your drawer fronts Impacts Visual Fields
sometimes if I am not careful I forget to clean my brushes which as we all know produces a very expensive ‘stick’ repurpose them as
ribbon holders
This is not chaos; it is strategically placed items that provide a drying space for recently completed journal pages...
Lino Mono
33
hand h
car ved a
n
hands d
s
hand
car ved
hands
hand
car ved
hands
h hand
a
n car ved
d
s
hands
Chevrons I forgot to scan the prints before I mailed them out, so the naff photo is the best I can show you!
Love to stamp images? Need to ‘alter’ articles? Don’t have time to draw and paint? I know what you mean. I buy frames with naff images in them from charity shops. I then use the glass for lino print paint preparation and repurpose the frames to contain my artwork, I use my own design stamps to create super fast art works.
if you wish, you can purchase my stamp design: Mail Art Girl from this link http://www.adonnathing.com/stamps/
Stamp image onto music sheet paper, embellish and seal with matte medium, cover with ice resin and leave to dry for three days as least. http://iceresin.com/icequeen/
When light shines through resin paper it glows, you really can’t achieve the same effect with anything else
Paired with the Japanese portrait my latest ‘mail art girl’ signature design stamp has an oriental feel. So I chose lotus flower shapes and asian influences to embellish the frame. To create the possibility of movement I used wire to suspend the art pieces. This createsa floating feeling and the pieces can move within the frame and catch the light.
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this link (http://www.adonnathing.com/doings-of-doone-blog/2013/1/19/class-2-ice-resin-with-susan-lenart-kazmer) shows you how to make the ‘leaves’. I also understand there may be a number of courses in the UK this year run by the Ice Resin team and that indigo blu are going to distribute ice resin in the UK.
SUSAN LENART KAZMER INSPIRED ALTERED FRAME WORKINGS
Lighting is a part of your artist palette; colours change in different light
I sanded the wooden frame, applied gesso, let it dry, applied a watered down acrylic wash mixed to pale purple pink: When dry apply a crackle glaze: mix the complimentatry colour: rub colour over the dry crackle glaze, overstamp with black permenant ink, rubbed over with a pale grey. Drilled holes for the wire. Put it together; fiddled and finished with accented edges coloured with oil pastels.
YOU MUST DRAW EVERY DAY IF YOU WANT TO BE AN ARTIST
The discipline of graphite sketch is a good test of your observational skills, I did this one for Karen as my contribution to her circle journal (desert island discs) it is a homage to the back drop of that particular Pink Floyd ‘Final Cut’ track.
CaliforniaN ImAgery
For the CHA reviews checkout my blog http://www.adonnathing.com/doings-of-doone-blog/2013/1/24/customer-service and click ‘older posts’ to move back through all the reportage.
T H A N K YO U
and goodnight
www. adonnathing. com