Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Biffybeans: Third and Fourth in My Own Book

Mandala: Moleskine Exchange

99.99% of the time I create art without thinking. This means that something started can end up as something else - which is what happened on both of these pieces. When I tried to add some Zinc White acrylic over a Neocolor II mandala, they all smeared.... (Which is how the background tint evolved.) But I didn't care. I grabbed a brush & some black gesso & painted over it and then added white gel pen doodles. 1st layer black gesso, then I pasted in some pretty wrapping paper, tried to do Neocolor mandala in similar colors, white paint, black gesso, then white gel pen. The End.

No Art WIthout Risk: Moleskine Exchange

This girl started out in colored pencil. (You can still see some of it.) I felt like I was "pushing" when I created her. (To me, "pushing" means creating art when I'm not fully present and I usually make a mess.) I filled the background with craft paint, then eventually obscured what I'd started with. The message seemed appropriate. Kind of like the old, "You gotta break some eggs if you want to make an omlette."

1 more piece before I'm ready to ship and it's a collaborative piece for Ellen. When I bought this Folio, I didn't realize there was an actual "Sketchbook" version with 160g paper. I bought a blank journal... which means plenty of pages for people to always work on the right hand side of the page if they choose.

10 comments:

roma said...

I'm so glad you wrote about the process! I enjoy so much hearing about that and going in and seeing the results. Which are fabulous! I can see the paper background in that first one, adds depth. Really love the boldness and detail.

henniemavis said...

Pretty mandala. I LOVE the white gel pen over the gesso on that first image! I have seen some great use of white gel pen by Ballookey, too. I always admire that, as I have white gel pens here & they either clot & blob all over the place, or they have lousy opacity. I must have bought the wrong kind? Frustrating, when I see how good yours seem to work...

ballookey said...

I love that mandala- the way the colors smeared together really adds a level of texture that's gorgeous.

mollypeck said...

These are gorgeous-- almost hypnotic in their rhythm.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

These are truly lovely! I wish my mistakes evolved into such masterpieces!!!! That would be wonderful!

I love the color and movement, and harmony in these.

Stephanie "Biffybeans" Smith said...

Roma, I'm glad you like hearing about process - I also like reading about it. I love playing around, discovering things and sharing them.

Hennie - Uniball Signo Broad - get them from JetPens and buy 10 - they run out ridiculously fast. Half a pen on that one piece.

ballookey - thank you! I liked the way the colors smeared. I might try to do something like that on purpose next time. All happy accidents.

Thank you Molly! :o)

Mary, the secret of mistake evolution is to never imagine that it will turn out anything less than fabulous. I have a saying, "I never let a piece of art stay ruined." Which means is that I never let a piece beat me - I just turn it into something else and say, "Ha! I meant to do that." hehe

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

thanks!

I like hearing about process, too!!

I sure do!

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I too have not had the best success with white gel pens.

Gretchen said...

Love the mandala! Also really loving those colors in the second piece!

Stephanie "Biffybeans" Smith said...

Thanks Gretchen!