Mail Art + My First Paper Trade

My First Art Paper Trade!

My Partner-in-Trade is Win Dinn, who (much to my delight) has, at the same time she has been trading with me, also been in the midst of a studio purge. I am the grateful recipient of her generosity with that purge! It really made my day!
:)

The photo above has been altered by me for privacy's sake.

The fun stripey arrow is Win's.

What a clever way to upcylce that pattern's pouch!

I spent my younger years learning how to sew.

I actually like the red version of the outfit on the pattern's package photo, above.

Wow!!!

Look at that way cool tag!

Is the fuchsia bit paste paper? 

Pretty textures!

The choices seem endless!

A Smörgåsbord for the eyes!

(or, as is currently the case for me, one eye)

Very pretty papers!

So stinkin' cute!

Thanks, Paper Trade Partner Win!

Hope my mail art envelope of stuff 

arrives safely at your door very soon!

:)

P.S. Thank you again for the lovely postage 

on your cool envelope!

WOYWW #439~ One Eyed Art: Learning

Ever since my left eye began to malfunction 2 months ago, I've been too scared to try anything too challenging. That would include learning how to improve my work on faces.

I was afraid of failure. I tend to be, anyway. It can really reduce morale to have something not work out when life's a bit rougher than normal for a while, can't it?  Why try anything difficult that I know I don't have the proper skills to handle during such a difficult time?

For more WOYWW fun, please follow this link HERE to today's blogpost at host Julia Dunnit's blog.

Well, Meri made me do it! I mean, of course, Meri of The Meri Atelier. She didn't know that's what she was doing at the time, though. She has a real talent for doing both people and landscapes as well as mixed media, collage, journaling - you name it! I find it very inspiring to watch her make her art. I always learn when I watch her videos.

But where she really got to me was with her Inktober 2017 Art Journal. I'll include her video at the bottom of this post. In that lovely journal are hand drawn and inked/painted portraits of unknown children from vintage photos. Simply stunning work! I was hooked on portraits again.

I chose something almost at random. It was in a book on my windowsill. The original painting that I attempted to copy is by Dutch artist, van Dyck. The man's name was Cornelis van der Geest.

Despite the many wrinkles, I found that untreated plain brown paper can take gouache paint fairly well as long as it's layered on slowly and without too damp a brush. I began first by using white gouache in the 2 bottom layers, then  tinted more white gouache using watercolors for more layers to keep the paint opaque over the brown paper. I needed to smear and smoosh the gouache so that it would thin in places and not be too heavy at first. I wanted the brown of the wrinkly page to peep through, a bit like underpainting. (I have never tried to do underpainting) The page's wrinkles drove me a bit batty, but really, it's the current problems with my eyesight that challenged me more, especially as to perspective. For the background, I used a wash of Inktense Indian Ink.

Critiquing the Results

I'm not pleased with the skin tones. I'm too inexperienced to get those right yet. I left my comfort zone on this project. I did not get my copy real enough to suit me, even when I do kinda like parts of how the man's ruff turned out. Fabric's one thing, but faces are much more difficult for me to attempt. All the same, I've decided to try a new face every once in a while, just as a way to keep my hand in. 

My technique needs lots of help along with lots of practice if 

I'm to improve at all. Too late to improve the set of the eyes on this attempt!

Next up? Maybe somebody famous such as Shakespeare. No guts, no glory new messes! 

Please forgive me for not responding to you promptly. This post took a lot longer for me to type than is normal for me. It takes days for me to prepare ahead for each WOYWW these days. I am still too slow to keep up or to have enough time to leave comments at every desker's blog. The eye problem hasn't made things any easier. I do hope to be allowed to at least peep at people's pictures so that I might get an idea as to what they've been up to lately.

Happy WOYWW to all my fellow deskers!

As promised, here is Meri's lovely Inktober 2017 video. 

WOYWW #437: Leaf Prints + Happy Mail !

This week, I am still having trouble keeping up with everything, so I won't be able to comment very much. Thanks for your patience.
I'm leaving the Happy Mail for  visual "dessert," in the 2nd half of this post. There's no relevant news today about my optic nerve problem. That's just as well - let's stick with ART and friends for now.

For more WOYWW fun, please visit our Queen of the Wednesday Deskers, Ms Julia Dunnit, located HERE.

For health reasons, I will leave the pictures + their captions to tell most of the story. 
Happy WOYWW and thanks for stopping by today!

And now for the HAPPY MAIL!!!

:)

:)

WOYWW #435: More Messy One-eyed Art

Welcome, fellow deskers! Not many words this time around. It's still difficult for me to read for very long, and this includes most typing too. My apologies in advance for not being able to either read or comment very much today. I'll try and visit as many places as I am able to, yet probably won't do much beyond viewing some photos there. Thank you for understanding about comments here as well, where only short answers will be offered.

For more WOYWW fun, please visit our reigning and creative Queen of the Deskers, Ms Julia Dunnit, by going HERE.

I've finished adding to the page behind last week's 2 pager.

The pain was at its post-operative worst when I began this newest 2 pager, below. It is improving now, thank goodness. Sorry for the gore. The DIY texture paste which frames the gory image transfer (onto Deli paper) is a mixture of unused coffee + Liquitex Heavy Matte Gel Medium + a dab of Mod Podge and a  small amount of water. Everything else is self explanatory.

Here is this week's.

Apologies on going so anatomical.

More medical appointments soon, with a test or two. Will try and join weekly here, regardless. It gives me something nice to think about, knowing I'll be able to visit a few of my fellow deskers, even when I cannot visit all of you each week or write to much in comments.

~Rose

WOYWW #434

As tomorrow will be a big day for me, and with family dropping by later on today, I'm afraid I won't be able to comment much at all today.

But I was able to add 2 new entries to the junque journal I made last month. The first entry may be seen in my previous post by following this link HERE. For more WOYWW fun, you may visit our WOYWW Queen of the Deskers, Julia Dunnit, HERE.

I am scheduled to have a biopsy tomorrow on the side of my face. This will allow a few tissue samples to be tested. They are trying to save the sight in my left eye that became impaired right before Labor Day weekend. If you pray, I would ask that you would please add the whole situation to your prayers. Nobody knows quite what's causing the optic nerve to become inflamed, thus leading to serious visual impairment. The grey veil is still with me this morning.

Meanwhile, there is still art, isn't there? 

The grey veil truly frightened me at first, but now I am a bit used to it. I did cry a good deal that first week. Terror and tears. A terrible week. Steroid treatment seems to keep the veiled look less heavy, sort of like a semi sheer drape with a thin wash of acrylic paint overtop, so that's better than before. The blood draw 2 weeks ago was intense. I'd never had so many vials drawn in one sitting before. My phlebotomist/"vampire" was a nice guy with a trim beard and a smile who made me feel more at ease. He had a kind sense of humor as well. That always helps, doesn't it?

As challenges continue, I won't give up on art entirely.

Art Therapy for one, given by one, from self to self.....

A First Attempt at Making Art One-Eyed

Despite my eyesight issue, I find that I cannot abandon any ideas for creative play. My aim is terrible today. Making little dots go where I wished them to be turned out to be a trying time, yet I refuse to stop altogether. In fact, during this dreadful time of wondering what's causing the problem with the sight in my left orbit, I know that I will have to make art in order to help my mind relax, even if it most certainly is bound to be sloppy and messy.

It's kind of handy the way in which I gave myself permission at the turn of the year to be as messy as I want to be for 2017. I say kind of. Once messiness was imposed upon me by this new and serious health problem, however, I began to worry that I might never be allowed to make art in a refined way again. This new worry comes after having been told that nobody's yet certain as to how come the left optic nerve is problematic. In fact, I'd always had pretty darned good eyesight up till now, a thing I long to have restored. I will never, ever be able to take eyesight for granted again. Even typing is more difficult than before - and I am all thumbs at the keyboard usually anyway.

So here is my first entry that is the title page for the new Junque Journal. From now on, it will have to be a no holds barred, wild and messy little book. The blue tape is from the length that a nurse cut for me at the place where they had to give me IV steroid therapy for 3 days in a row (she sent it home with me along with a spare glove so that I could still safely shower even with the IV still in my wrist). At first, that stuff would not glue down so easily. Seems it only likes to stick to skin and itself. I had to apply Gel Matte Medium thickly. I am pleased with the effect, tho', so that's nice to reflect back on. I plan on utilizing every bit of ephemera/junk I find during all of the various clinic and hospital trips I'll be taking. I already have a small stash to get started on.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. The alphabet letters are mainly from a small mixed bag set of typeface letters. Some are made of wood, while the rest are metal and quite heavy. They were a 2nd hand store find from a fun day out shopping long ago. These I stamped using a Colorbox Dragonfly Black Pigment ink pad. I added a thin layer of matte gel with ultramarine blue watercolor for a glaze to pull the blue bits together on the monotype clean-up pull page I chose from my junk stash for the book. The card is from a mixed incomplete deck of playing cards I keep around for collage purposes.

Anyway, that's it for the first try. Expect more in future as I feel my way through this new limited ability, self-made art therapy course I'm set on giving myself. As the famed British Prime Minister, Churchill once said, Never, never, never give up.
Words to live by.

On Hiatus for Health Reasons

I won't be able to do much of anything for a while. How long, I cannot say. Last night: ER for an MRI. Next Monday, an appointment to see a specialist. The entire thing revolves around my eyesight that became strangely impaired late last month.
I hope to eventually be allowed once more to create and to blog about it. I won't be able to do my favorite WOYWW weekly blog hops for a while.
I am having the best of care. Perhaps something really good will come out of all of this.
Meanwhile, please know that I'm thinking of you all very fondly.
Sincerely,
Rose