More stamps – a pansy, a tree and a heart

Last week I claimed I hadn’t done much. Well, this week I’m going to claim that illness took out half of this week (I am so not happy about that). In fact, this is the first time I have sat down in the studio since Tuesday (and that was a pretty lame stare at the screen kinda sit down anyway). And apparently, I’m all about excuses.

Anyway, none of that matters as I had declared the weekend the art zone and so got a little bit done then and avoided the massacre later in the week that took out my planned posting and work attendance in one fell swoop.

First up I created a pansy stamp. This is one that has been bugging me for a while. I seem to have fallen in love with the concept of stamping and then painting over the stamp, and a pansy would be perfect for that. Those of you who follow me on Instagram would have already seen this photo.

What you might not have seen is what I did the to stamped card at the bottom of the photo as I didn’t share it – mostly because I hadn’t finished it and wasn’t 100% happy with it.

 

It still has possibilities, but I think it needs some serious work. So I basically dropped it and went off to pursue another one of the designs I had in mind.

I drew two little trees. I seem to be obsessed with trees. They were based on an idea I had ages ago and still want to pursue in some form. here is the original idea from January 2013. I called them tree caricatures.

 

But since then I have started my Fantastical Worlds series, so I think there is some influence from them as well. Anyway, here be the two trees I drew last weekend.

 

 

I am so missing my camera (which stopped working last week and now I have to buy a new one…something that I can’t really afford…anyone like to buy some jewellery to help me buy a new camera?), my phone really just isn’t up to the job.

I then developed the second tree into a stamp. To do this, I had to scan the original into the computer and trace it by hand. the reason for doing this is so I can resize it at will. I printed it at the size I needed for the blank cards I have on hand, and then traced it down. I did refine it while tracing it down as you can see my tracing wasn’t fantastic and it needed some smoothing out.

 

And then I carved the stamp.

The beauty of stamps is that once I have the design and stamp I can recreate artworks multiple times, but each with its own little idiosyncrasies.

One thing I did manage to do before I got hit by the lurgy on Tuesday was make it to the art shop and order some of the supplies I need for the stamping workshop I’m presenting at Unley Civic Library on 29 October. If you are interesting in attending, it is only $10 per person (a total bargain). Details can be found on the Libraries’ website or by ringing 8372 5100.

And this is my contribution for Paint Party Friday this week. I wish it was more, but despite being off work, I found myself bored – can you believe it? Me, bored? No energy. Didn’t even read and found TV boring – it was extremely frustrating. Ended up sleeping most of yesterday. On the mend today, so fortunately I have the energy to post. don’t forget to go visit those other fabulous artists, who may not have been as much of a waste of space as I have been this week and have created some fabulous artworks 😀

Art always!

Best wishes.
Liz