Adventures in Oil Painting

I think it is always important to be willing to try new things.  If you are of  "a certain age" you may remember a TV commercial with the tag line "Try it, you'll like it!"  While we were in Germany at the CreativeWorld show we saw lots of stands for fine arts - paints, canvases, easels, etc.  While Mandy and Enfys were left unsupervised they went off and signed the three of us up to do an oil painting class.

I have never tried oil painting.  My brother is a talented artist and I leave that sort of thing to him!  I didn't want to be a spoilsport so I went along with the plan to take the class.  It turned out to be a lot of fun and I actually produced the "masterpiece" at the top of this post in less than an hour!

The class was at the stand of the Martin/F.Weber Co. which is located in the Philadelphia area, very close to where I grew up.  This is a very old company (started in 1853) and they produce all sorts of art materials.  We were using the Permelba oil colors with Liquiglaze medium.  We started with a blank canvas that had been prepared with a coat of black gesso.

Our teacher was Alexander Cruz, from Puerto Rico.  He was happy to have some English speaking students who were willing to get a little noisy and enthusiastic as he coached us on making our first paintings.  Alexander was a student of Bob Ross, who is well known for his TV series.  Bob Ross has a signature line of products at the Martin/F. Weber Co.

These little dabs of paint and larger blob of Liquiglaze were all we needed to complete our paintings.

We used four brushes - difference brushes for different techniques.  We learned that a very important part of creating the painting was the choice of brush and the method of loading the paint on the brush.

After painting all over the cavas with a mixture of dark green and dark blue blended with the medium, we took the fan brush, loaded it with green, yellow and a bit of white and rolled it between our hands to create these swirls on the canvas.

Here you can see Mandy and Enfys working on this step - it felt very odd to hold the brush like this but the result was quite effective in creating a moody sky.

This is the canvas of the fourth member of our group - who also happened to be an American living in Germany.  His sky ended up looking like a face in the clouds - maybe a cat?

Here I am nervously holding my fan brush.  I was amazed that I didn't get any paint on my clothes - I usually have glitter and ink all over myself when I do a project at home!

Next, Alex came around with a large dry blending brush and smoothed out the sky on each painting.

The swirls of paint quickly turned into an interesting sky.

This is my painting after the sky was completed.

There was a sample painting we could look at and Alex also painted a new copy along with us.  One of the funniest things was the sound effects that went along with the strokes we were supposed to make.  It actually did help you to remember how to move the brush but we must have sounded crazy to the crowd that had gathered to watch.

We next added the trees by just pouncing the large brush across the canvas, varying the heights of the tress along the way.  The waterfall was tricky - he had us listen to him and watch the steps along with the sound effects and then we each created our own version of the fall.  I had a bit of "water" shooting off to the right side but decided to leave it as it was.  Sometimes going back to "fix" something only makes it worse.

After the trees and waterfall, we added the grassy meadow along the sides.  Once again this was done by loading up the large brush with green and yellow and "pouncing" it along the sides to meet the water.

We were almost finished.  The two large trees were next and they were made by loading the brush with the darker color on one side and the light on the other to create a bit of a dimensional shadow.

Once the main tree trunks and large branches were in place, we added some smaller branches.  At this point we were finished and just needed to sign our art (I had trouble signing with the thin brush and ended up painting over my messy signature - I'll try again sometime).

It was interesting to see that even though we were all following a pretty strict formula and set of instructions the paintings had a lot of variation.  Look at the mess we made of those neat little dabs of paint!

Apparently we were enthusiastic and noisy enough that they sent off for the video crew to come make a short video of the "master painters" in action.  It may even end up on the company website!

We posed for a group shot with our paintings and our teacher and then they boxed up our wet paintings in a protective carrier.  It was very funny that night back at the hotel as we kept sneaking peeks at our paintings - they actually looked so much better than we imagined they would.

Here is what the painting looked like once I got it home and it was thoroughly dry.

We even went out to find a frame to suit it - I am "auditioning" this one and I think I'll keep it and hang my first (and possibly only) oil painting somewhere in my craft area.

Have you ever tried oil painting?  Do you do other types of "fine art" in addition to your crafty projects?

I'll be picking up my new glasses today.  They have rhinestone flowers on the sides - what was I thinking... I hope they look good with my new haircut - about eight inches shorter than it was in the photo above!

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Kusudama Balls - Thanks Everyone!

Thanks to everyone who left a comment or emailed me about the folded flower balls.  I know now that these are called Kusudama.  I thought I'd share the links and comments in case you want to try making one (or more!) of these.  I've also added a few more photos of some of the variations of these balls that I saw at CreativeWorld.  I hadn't had a chance to search for directions and I appreciate that you all were very helpful.  I will definitely try to make some of these soon.

Stephanie said...
That flower ball you were wishing you had a tutorial for...I made one a year or so ago. It's called kusudama ball. Here is the link to my post. In the post is a link for the tutorial. Fun to make, takes a bit of time.   
Here is the LINK to her post - she used polka dot papers and they look so fresh and pretty together!

open backed

Yelowflower said...here is an excellent tutorial on that flower ball, hope it helps

The site with these tutorials is called Folding Trees.  The authors stopped posting at the end of 2009 but it is a great resource for lots of paper projects.

Here is the LINK to the tutorial - Part I

and here is the LINK to Part 2

around  a light

Linda D said...
You may already know this, but in case you don't... I've seen a tutorial for the folded paper flowers on the foldingtrees website. They're called Kusudama. I checked and it's still there. Hope this is what you're looking for.

not kusudama

Wendy said...Thank you for posting all of these pictures from when you were at Creative World. I love seeing all of the beautiful, imaginative items that people have made!Here are a couple of url's for how to make what you called "flower balls." I believe they're called Kusudama, and are a form of origami. I had bookmarked them awhile ago, with the intention of making them. Still haven't made any, though....

lots of variations

Carol said...
Great pictures!! There is a book about kusudama. It is called "Kusudama Ball Origami" by Makoto Yamaguchi. Very easy instructions (mostly diagrams). It has a lot of designs, too.

cornflowers

Eula (AKA Hettie)  said...
I am a paper nut (origami and cardmaking)who follows your blog religiously. The paper flower balls are called kusudama. They are Japanese in origin and the word kusudama translates to medicine ball. Originally (ages ago) they were not made from paper, but with herbs and grasses and plants thought to bring medicinal healing. For a really eye popping look at some with directions on how to make them click HERE.  
Be sure to check this out - there are lots of different designs to see on that site.

made from cupcake papers and doilys

Frann said...Creative World sure looks like it was a fun show. What a great variety of inspiration! I was going to give you the name of a book with directions for the folded flower but I see that you can get them from foldingtrees. com. I have made quite a few of these individual flowers but have not put them together into a kusudama ball. I put each one on a wire stem and make bouquets. I have a couple of suggestions for when you make them. Once each petal is folded, the papers are very springy. I found that I had to use a strong adhesive and clip them until the glue dried or they would pop open. When I assembled the petals into flowers, I did the same. They do take a bit of time to make. Each flower (the 5 petals and assembly) took about 1/2 hour for me but I don't work very fast.
Have fun with them!

More doilies used to make flower balls

Sarah also emailed me with the link to the Folding Trees site - thanks!

Just one more funny thing to show you today - this was part of a display for a paper company on the first day.

There are lots of samples and you can tear off strips (neatly) from the perforated tops of each color pad.

Here is the same wall at the end of the show - somewhere along the way, the neat tearing stopped!

A week from today, I'll be in Nashville.  I am very excited that my camera lens is back from repair - I just picked it up yesterday.  It will be much nicer to have it for my trip and also for taking project photos.


Have a wonderful day - we are still enjoying a virtually snowless winter.  If you have lots of snow please be careful!


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Some Eye Candy from CreativeWorld

 

Many of you have asked for more photos from the trade shows in Germany.  I was saving CreativeWorld for last since we spent nearly all of our time in this hall once it opened.  I have some of my photos edited to share today.   I hope you find them interesting and that they give you some inspiration for future projects.

The tiny flowers on this egg were made with a special tool and punch set that I think Mandy will be carrying at Scrappy-go-Lucky.  The glue that you use with this system is specially formulated and can be applied to styrofoam.

"Smash" type books and systems were popular and these tiny stickers (with adhesive on only part of the back) would be fun to add to your journal.

Valentine's Day has come and gone but this very large teacup full of hearts would be cute all through the year.

In one of the "trend" areas there were lots of lampshades made by simply winding ribbon around the frames.

You might be able to see the wrapping a bit more clearly in this photo.

There were also square and rectangular light shades covered with natural style printed papers.

Here is a closer view of the simple geometric patterns.

Lots of different styles of balls and stars were on display.

This style is made from foiled paper squares and uses origami techniques.

Strips of paper in alternating colors connected with string and beads for spacing.

These could be made for any holiday or just general decoration.

The layered paper flowers also use beads as separators.

Many of these shapes were cut with Spellbinders dies.

They look very sweet "growing" in a little garden in a wooden tray.

I am not generally fond of owls but I thought this one was rather cute.

We saw lots of decorated bags.

The giraffe and the striped bag were adorable.  These bags are so simple to put together and make any little gift seem extra special.

The more elaborate folded flower balls were also popular.  I have seen something similar done with fabric and I am looking for good directions for making these folds.

There was a lot of jewelry making included in the show.  I thought this array of beads was pretty - it goes on for several table tops in both directions.

Washi tape (Japanese tissue paper tape) was everywhere.  There are so many patterns and colors.  I have been using this tape for a while and the possibilities are endless.

These hearts were die cut from a piece of cardstock covered with strips of tape.

The same technique was used for these Christmas trees.  Washi tape is often used for clean and simple projects in bright colors but it is very versatile.

 

Can you see the tape on this card - it has a totally different look.

Pete, who came from the UK to demonstrate for Sizzix, made these flags with washi tape.  Do you recognize all of them?

There were many creative displays that were also practical for order taking.  I particularly liked this rainbow wall of ribbon, that was a treat for the eyes.

These sorts of displays are great to photograph and can be used for interesting page backgrounds in a digital project or printed and used as paper.

That's probably enough photos for one day.  I'll have another installment or two to show you some more of the things that I found interesting at the show.

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day.  I made dinner at home and we had a quiet evening.  I got some good news - my camera lens is ready to be picked up.  After all of that searching for the original receipt, Nikon didn't end up covering the damage under warranty - oh well!  I missed having my good camera on this trip to Germany and I am happy that I'll have it when I go away again next week.

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