a tina named lilly ~ graphite, oil pastels, watercolors, goauche & china ink - in milton book, 4" x 6"

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prismacolor pencils on bone fragment

XO

pink tina ~ china ink, graphite, watercolors, gouache & oil pastel in milton book - 4" x 6"

two more tinas ~ china ink, graphite, watercolors

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XO

tina #2, savvy tina ~ graphite, china ink, oil pastel & watercolors

i drew most of these with a lyra graphite crayon (9B). they are nice!!

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Film footage of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954).

The beautiful song is “Esa Noche” by Café Tacuba.

via tumblr

XO

tina #1, elegant tina ~ graphite, china ink & watercolors - 4" x 6"

back to 'the tinas'... : )

i painted most of them on the pages that i cut out of my book... it seemed a good way to use the pages that were piling up. once i got a little stack of them (and i really liked them!) i decided to try selling them for a very reasonable price. so, you can buy most of' the tinas' at a new blog that i've created, 'bird on a wire'.

some people have asked what china ink is, and there seems to be a difference of opinion about it on the internet. in my mind it's the same as sumi ink.
it is lovely, lovely stuff, and it goes a long ways.

XO

wax and tea bags

solstice butterfly ~ gouache, watercolors, wax & casein paint on tea bag, 4" x 6"

veering back to wax and tea bags briefly (not that i would ever bounce around from one thing to another) so that i can post a basic step-by-step of what i'm doing with them. several people have asked, so in case it's helpful to others, here it is...

i'm using purified beeswax from R&F encaustics - i melt in in my Ranger 'melting pot' (a very handy thing).

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make tea and let soak until you like the amount of staining on the bag

dry the bag and take the tea out (but leave the back seam of the bag closed - just open up the ends). leave all of the little flaps folded when you're done.

iron it

draw and/or paint on the front of the bag with the usual stuff - watercolors, oil pastels, colored pencils, and/or gouache

when the paint is dry, open up the back seam of the tea bag so it's now almost 4" x 6"

brush matte gel medium lightly on the book page and press the tea bag onto it - let dry

heat up the wax and brush it on (all over the page)

take a quilting iron and move the wax around 'til you like the distribution

with an awl draw designs in the wax and rub gouache or casein paint (or oil pastels) into the dug out areas (wipe off the excess, but maybe not all!)

paint with gouache, casein paint, or oil pastels on the wax

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one thing to remember about gouache, casein paint, and tubes of high quality watercolors, is that while they're water soluble, when you use them without adding water they stick beautifully to wax (or to oil pastels). it's only when you add water that they're not so compatible. so i use all of these mediums straight out of the tube a lot. amazingly they still go a long way when you use them like this.

XO

tina #1 ~ china ink, pencil, gouache and watercolors, 4" x 6"

going back to early june now, i got on a real jag painting 'the tinas'. i'd just gotten tina berning's book '100 girls on cheap paper', and i was swept away by the power and simplicity of her faces. she uses a lot of china ink, so i got mine out and painted a whole bunch of 'tinas'... i'd look at one of her faces and try to paint the eyes (or nose or mouth) the way that she painted it. i feel like i learned a lot, and i highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about painting/drawing faces.

XO

solstice love...

watercolors, gouache, oil pastel, colored pencil, tea bag & beeswax - 4" x 6"

i'm jumping forward to what i'm working on now in the book because it reflects the energy of these days for me...

watercolors, gouache, oil pastel, colored pencil, tea bag & beeswax - 4" x 6"

i painted on tea bags, glued them to the page, put beeswax on top of it all, and then dug into and painted on the wax...


the pages i did yesterday... thank you, kim, for inspiring me to work on tea bags!

i am sending you solstice love and wishes for an expansive day!!

XO