Zentangles

Started doing these little (3.5" by 3.5") pieces a couple of weeks ago after picking up the book Totally Tangled by Sandy Steen Bartholomew. They are fun--relaxing, even, and easy to do while watching TV or sitting around in the evening.

I've cut 4" square pieces of smooth cardstock and keep them in an empty CD case. Beyond that, all I need is a pencil and a fine black marker!

How To Make a Unique Stencil

Of course, the first thing you need to do is find something you want to turn into a stencil. In this case, I used part of an old French invoice. I blew it up on my scanner/printer, printed it, and then checked to make sure that all the closed shapes were marked so that I could make them still be attached to the stencil, like so.

This part is tedious but necessary. If you aren't careful you might just cut a complete and unwanted hole out of your stencil. (This is the voice of experience talking here!)

The first picture shows my stencil burner. You can pick one of these up at WalMart for around ten dollars--for a little bit more you can get a wood burner with lots of tips, including this tip, which isn't the one meant for stencils but which I prefer. Take a piece of glass and put your master underneath the glass and your stencil plastic on top. I attach each to the glass with a piece of tape so they don't shift while I'm burning the stencil.

In the third picture you can see the finished stencil. I use very thin plastic, a very hot burner, and move the burner around the outsides of each stroke. It took me a little bit of practice to get the right touch, so don't get frustrated.

The fourth picture shows the printed stencil. You can use spray paint, ink dabbers and ink pads, or stencil brushes--and don't you quilters forget that you can use these stencils on fabric, too, with fabric paint spray, acrylic paints, or stencil brushes with Shiva Oil Sticks...

A Giveaway!

There's going to be an art giveaway at Art in the Garage!

While I've been neglecting my blogging duties over the past few months, the blog went over 40,000 unique visitors! That calls for a celebration, and a celebration calls for a giveaway! I'll be giving away an original painting--details coming soon, so be sure to check back...

Creating Texture: Part One

Plaster vs. Spackle vs. Molding Paste

The comparison was interesting.

Patching Plaster: I liked the way the plaster went on the best of these three. It felt creamy, like a slightly runny frosting. It took awhile to dry; you can check the status by touching the surface--if it's cool to the touch, it's still drying. The most interesting thing about the plaster was when I painted over it--it dissolved/disappeared, revealing part of the painting underneath that I was covering up! I loved the serendipity of it--what was revealed was an eye--ooooh! Other than that, it was completely opaque. This was the easiest of the three to carve back into after it was dry.


Spackle: Much stiffer to spread than the plaster, the spackle nevertheless spread well. It starts to dry fairly quickly so there's not much time for reworking the surface. Due to the stiffer texture, the spackle works exceptionally well with stencils. Spackle holds paint well after drying and is less absorbent than the molding paste or plaster.

Golden's Light Molding Paste: This stuff is great. It spreads nicely with a softness somewhere between the plaster and the spackle. It works well with stencils, is not water soluble after drying, and is the only one of these that is translucent after drying. It also actually absorbs paint that is later applied on top of it, but with an interesting twist: the paint can be removed with a damp cloth--absorbed right back out of it. The light molding paste dries as quickly or more quickly than the spackle, but does not 'carve' as well as the plaster or even the spackle, due to its flexibility or rubberiness. this flexibility makes light molding paste the best choice for surfaces that are very bendable, such as large stretched canvases or large pieces of paper.