May the Angels be with You
December 25, 2015
Inspirational Art
The one thing most of us have in common on a holiday like this is family. Hopefully, we are surrounded by them or will be talking to them today. Some of us will also be missing loved ones but thinking of them fondly. I will be missing all my girls, my step-daughters and granddaughters, but they will all be together out in Kansas with lots of extended family. I will be missing my four siblings and nieces and nephews that live in Colorado and my adopted family of close friends out there. Because this year I am having a sunny Christmas in California and will be taking off shortly with my handsome better half to go spend the rest of the day with my parents, my older sister, and her family. So, I will have some family while missing others, but I am terribly grateful to have so many loved ones and more grateful still that we all get along so well!
I thought a little Eve Thissen would be a perfect accent to the day with her beautifully expressive images, portraying love and tenderness with simple lines and shapes that create tiny but unmistakable gestures. Today will be all about family for so many of us, and this is the feeling I hope you all have as you greet and hold and hug and talk and laugh with them.
Happy holidays and a very warm and merry Christmas to you, my generous and kind polymer and craft art family.
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Like this blog? Support this with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and a visit to our partners:
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The Advantages of a Limited Palette
February 17, 2014
Inspirational Art
So last week, we looked at work that used every color in the rainbow, or close to it and looked at how to use a lot of color without looking chaotic. This week, we are going to look at minimizing color using limited palettes where color is an accent. I know … I hear that collective sigh, knowing that brilliantly colored pieces will not be showing up here this week, but I promise, you can be stunned by pieces that use very little. Wait and see.
Yes, many of us are polymer fans in large part because of all the color we can play with but the versatility in form, texture and application is really unmatched by any other medium, far more so than the color aspect. So if you limit or take away color as a primary design element, what do you work with? Well, you are forced to pay close attention to everything else. It is pretty easy to let color support the design and impact of a piece, so if color is your design ‘crutch’ (and I don’t mean that in a negative way … color is important and is quite valid as a focus) try moving away from it and explore form, texture, line, composition, repetition, negative space, etc. It’s a great exercise that, when you return to wider ranging color palettes, will take your pieces from rather pretty to simply amazing!
Eva Thissen‘s brooch here has an incredible impact, not only with little color but with brown–of all single colors to choose–as the dominant hue. And yet, it’s absolutely stunning. The texture and detail make the piece visually rich so that the small dots of subdued color are seen as accents rather than color supporting the design.
Enjoy perusing Eva’s Flickr pages and her enchanting pieces for to get further ideas about putting color in the background while using texture and composition to carry a piece.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
The one thing most of us have in common on a holiday like this is family. Hopefully, we are surrounded by them or will be talking to them today. Some of us will also be missing loved ones but thinking of them fondly. I will be missing all my girls, my step-daughters and granddaughters, but they will all be together out in Kansas with lots of extended family. I will be missing my four siblings and nieces and nephews that live in Colorado and my adopted family of close friends out there. Because this year I am having a sunny Christmas in California and will be taking off shortly with my handsome better half to go spend the rest of the day with my parents, my older sister, and her family. So, I will have some family while missing others, but I am terribly grateful to have so many loved ones and more grateful still that we all get along so well!
I thought a little Eve Thissen would be a perfect accent to the day with her beautifully expressive images, portraying love and tenderness with simple lines and shapes that create tiny but unmistakable gestures. Today will be all about family for so many of us, and this is the feeling I hope you all have as you greet and hold and hug and talk and laugh with them.
Happy holidays and a very warm and merry Christmas to you, my generous and kind polymer and craft art family.
___________________________________________
Like this blog? Support this with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and a visit to our partners:
___________________________________________
Read MoreSo last week, we looked at work that used every color in the rainbow, or close to it and looked at how to use a lot of color without looking chaotic. This week, we are going to look at minimizing color using limited palettes where color is an accent. I know … I hear that collective sigh, knowing that brilliantly colored pieces will not be showing up here this week, but I promise, you can be stunned by pieces that use very little. Wait and see.
Yes, many of us are polymer fans in large part because of all the color we can play with but the versatility in form, texture and application is really unmatched by any other medium, far more so than the color aspect. So if you limit or take away color as a primary design element, what do you work with? Well, you are forced to pay close attention to everything else. It is pretty easy to let color support the design and impact of a piece, so if color is your design ‘crutch’ (and I don’t mean that in a negative way … color is important and is quite valid as a focus) try moving away from it and explore form, texture, line, composition, repetition, negative space, etc. It’s a great exercise that, when you return to wider ranging color palettes, will take your pieces from rather pretty to simply amazing!
Eva Thissen‘s brooch here has an incredible impact, not only with little color but with brown–of all single colors to choose–as the dominant hue. And yet, it’s absolutely stunning. The texture and detail make the piece visually rich so that the small dots of subdued color are seen as accents rather than color supporting the design.
Enjoy perusing Eva’s Flickr pages and her enchanting pieces for to get further ideas about putting color in the background while using texture and composition to carry a piece.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
