Creating Constellations
May 18, 2015
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
I am neck deep in some last minute tweaks for the next issue, so I’m giving you an assignment while my brain is otherwise occupied. Well, not an assignment, but it looks like a fun little tutorial to try out in a spare moment.
If you tried out the pastels tutorial in the Spring issue, then you already have what you need to try pastels in a different way. This tutorial is about dusting the pastels onto pieces. It was created by Neena of Caprilicious Jewellery. I like the scattered texture and her bold colors. Although the tutorial starts out with just flat disks, I thought this simple bite into those disks that created a moon shape along with the bright green dangles was a nice touch; it has contrast and movement and is just fun. Nothing wrong with fun. I’m looking forward to having some time to do a little something fun later this week after the issue is safely and squarely in those printing machines.
See the tutorial on Neena’s website here and don’t forget to push the idea after you try it out. Try completely different forms like round or tube beads, work it into part of another piece, mix it with other surface treatments … just have fun exploring. You never know what will pop up.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Of Pencils & Pastels
March 10, 2015
Inspirational Art
One of the key aspects of the spring issue was in introducing readers to materials that currently are not commonly combined with polymer. In our “Color Diversity” section, we were lucky enough to get primers on using two other art materials that artists Margit Bohmer and Penni Jo Couch have been playing with—that being pastels and colored pencils, respectively. They both had so much information to share that we didn’t have room for a gallery of other examples by other artists. We do encourage all our readers who find themselves intrigued by the colors and possibilities of these mediums to investigate them further. I know we did, and there is some beautiful work being done with both materials.
What is even less common than each of these materials being used with polymer is using the two additional colorants together to punch up the color and texture of a polymer piece. In fact, I only found one such piece by an artist local to me, Maria Clark of Sweet Willow Designs in Lakewood, Colorado. This leaf was crafted in polymer and wire, and then colored with pan pastels (see the article for more on this artist-quality type of pastel.) Then it was cured and further enhanced with Prismacolor colored pencils. The colors are so juicy and intense; the subtle changes in texture just add to this richness. This is not a look or gradation in color you could get with colored clay alone.
Maria explains her process briefly in a post on her blog. She has other work to show on her Flickr pages and tutorials on her YouTube channel. Although, there does not seem to be any colored pencil or pastel work there … yet. But, if you want even more ideas about the broad possibilities of both colored pencil on polymer and/or pastel on polymer, I first highly suggest you read the very informative articles with technique steps that Margit and Penni generously wrote for us in the Spring 2015 issue of The Polymer Arts, and then hit up Pinterest, Flickr and Google for additional work using polymer + pastels +/or colored pencil for keywords. Then, be ready to get lost in the images you’ll find.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
;
I am neck deep in some last minute tweaks for the next issue, so I’m giving you an assignment while my brain is otherwise occupied. Well, not an assignment, but it looks like a fun little tutorial to try out in a spare moment.
If you tried out the pastels tutorial in the Spring issue, then you already have what you need to try pastels in a different way. This tutorial is about dusting the pastels onto pieces. It was created by Neena of Caprilicious Jewellery. I like the scattered texture and her bold colors. Although the tutorial starts out with just flat disks, I thought this simple bite into those disks that created a moon shape along with the bright green dangles was a nice touch; it has contrast and movement and is just fun. Nothing wrong with fun. I’m looking forward to having some time to do a little something fun later this week after the issue is safely and squarely in those printing machines.
See the tutorial on Neena’s website here and don’t forget to push the idea after you try it out. Try completely different forms like round or tube beads, work it into part of another piece, mix it with other surface treatments … just have fun exploring. You never know what will pop up.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
One of the key aspects of the spring issue was in introducing readers to materials that currently are not commonly combined with polymer. In our “Color Diversity” section, we were lucky enough to get primers on using two other art materials that artists Margit Bohmer and Penni Jo Couch have been playing with—that being pastels and colored pencils, respectively. They both had so much information to share that we didn’t have room for a gallery of other examples by other artists. We do encourage all our readers who find themselves intrigued by the colors and possibilities of these mediums to investigate them further. I know we did, and there is some beautiful work being done with both materials.
What is even less common than each of these materials being used with polymer is using the two additional colorants together to punch up the color and texture of a polymer piece. In fact, I only found one such piece by an artist local to me, Maria Clark of Sweet Willow Designs in Lakewood, Colorado. This leaf was crafted in polymer and wire, and then colored with pan pastels (see the article for more on this artist-quality type of pastel.) Then it was cured and further enhanced with Prismacolor colored pencils. The colors are so juicy and intense; the subtle changes in texture just add to this richness. This is not a look or gradation in color you could get with colored clay alone.
Maria explains her process briefly in a post on her blog. She has other work to show on her Flickr pages and tutorials on her YouTube channel. Although, there does not seem to be any colored pencil or pastel work there … yet. But, if you want even more ideas about the broad possibilities of both colored pencil on polymer and/or pastel on polymer, I first highly suggest you read the very informative articles with technique steps that Margit and Penni generously wrote for us in the Spring 2015 issue of The Polymer Arts, and then hit up Pinterest, Flickr and Google for additional work using polymer + pastels +/or colored pencil for keywords. Then, be ready to get lost in the images you’ll find.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
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