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Sunday, January 31, 2016

"I've Fallen Behind and I Can't Catch Up!"

This week real life had to be attended to so I got behind in my Creative Jumpstart 2016.  The week of Picasso inspired projects was from January 19 through the 24th.  I am posting my last project first and then the final pictures from each project before it. This morning is the last day of Jumpstart 2016 and it has been wonderful.  What a great experience!  I had so much fun and learned so much. Thank you Nathalie Kalbach and all the participating artists who led the demos.  I still have the week of projects on Anselm Kiefer to do but the project videos are mine forever, so no problem catching up as I can.  I also started Jodi Ohl's class "Dirty Flirty Birds" on the 20th, but had to stop with those for this past week, too.  I will be able to more forward with both classes, now that gathering tax papers, getting car stickers, complaining in person to Comcast, and on the phone to Apple, moving furniture for deliveries,paying bills, etc. has passed! 
I am linking to Paint Party Friday, so take a look at that site which offers creative endeavors from many talented artists.
Picasso Peacock Led By Miriam Schulman
Stage one, background paint, then collaged papers with drawing of Peacocks.

Gessoed over Peacock, added green oil pastel in background

Stenciled "spines",added lines in headdress, blue ink on bodies

Added "eyes" to spines and eyes to Peacocks in white paint.
Added white "V's" on spines, red beaks, lines in background, yellow, red and white in all eyes

Picasso Fish Collage with Gwen Lafleur

Tulip Painting with Catherine Scanlon

Two-Layer Cardboard Picasso with Marsha Valk

Picasso Fragmented Objects with Nathalie Kalbach

Have a wonderful week and Thank You for stopping by.  Please leave a comment if you are so inclined.  Gloria









Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Picasso via Nathalie Kalbach on Defragmented Explorations

That is a long title!  Basically in Nathalie's demo she explained a very interesting concept. You pull out 4 or 5 small objects with nice shapes and draw them onto your surface with pencil. You draw their backs, their fronts, their bottoms, their tops, their sides!  You start with one object, drawing it from one viewpoint and then as you draw the others you fill up the entire surface. This is my version, using some objects I had lying around. A soft bodied paint bottle, a small pair of scissors, a 2" paint brush, a pencil sharpener and a scotch tape dispenser. Her final project looked more cubist because she shaded her objects. But I had fun and learned a lot while doing it. 
I used oil pastels and Neocolor watersoluble pastels and a Sharpie oil marker for outlining. Oh, I used some Derwent Inktense pencils and Liquitex paint markers, too.
Cubist Project

In the beginning

Have a nice night,
See you tomorrow I hope. :>)

Gloria




Monday, January 25, 2016

"Picasso, Marsha Valk and Double Trouble!"

My next Picasso project had me stumped for a couple of days.  The demo by Marsha Valk was absolutely fabulous, but quite complicated. I decided I wouldn't do all the steps she showed us, so instead of stripping the top layer of cardboard and exposing the inner structure, I opted for doing a stencil on the bottom layer instead.  Well, you will see below!
Here is the final Project picture.  Sorry the photo is warped!
Step one, coat one piece of cardboard with matte medium on one side and paint on the other. With the other piece of cardboard draw your outlines for your second layer.


I coated the cutout with gesso and white paint because of the tape on it.  The other side was coated with matt medium beforehand.

While that dried, I stenciled the background of the bottom layer. And being somewhat new to stenciling, I learned that you don't use soft body acrylics and ink to stencil!  I wiped the mess off and used two red shades of heavy bodied paint.

Starting to lay in colors.


Putting it all together with heavy Gel Medium

Have a great night!  Do some art!
Gloria








"Picasso, Scanlon and Tulips!"

Tonight I am posting my project from the demo by Catherine Scanlon, with Creative Jumpstart 2016. Catherine did a watercolor floral inspired by Picasso. I thought I would do watercolor, but ended up using my acrylics and inks again as well as some Silks on the flower petals.
The final painting below.

Steps 1 and 2

Starting to fill in

Hope to see you for my next Picasso creation!
Gloria



Thursday, January 21, 2016

Inspired By Picasso

This week our Creative Jumpstart 2016 master artist for inspiration is Pablo Picasso.  Our first project instructor is Gwen LaFleur, and what a really fun demo she did!  Her subject was mixed-media fish.  I love fish too, so I did my own version of a Picasso using fish as the theme.  The final journal spread with the steps below.



Paint border with black and red.


Get ready to go fishing!  Add Water.


Glue on strips of paper to fit fish body.  Then Outline, and add googly eyes....Done!






The Week of Frida Kahlo in Review

"Hello" Paint Party Friday Members.  This past week with my Creative Jumpstart 2016 was inspired by Frida Kahlo.  I did a post for each painting, but here they are for you in one post.  They are all my individual mixed-media pieces following the technique examples done by the artist instructor of the day.  I list the instructor's name by the project they were in charge of.  
I also did a Zentangle this week with the group at "I Am the Diva".  It was suggested that we use the Moebius Syndrome Icon as our starting point for our tangles.  Their color is purple, so I used red and purple.  I did it on a 7 x 5 card.  Have a good week.





Zentangle Moebius

I hope you enjoyed my week!




Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Gloria J Zucaro's "A Floral Bouquet for Frida"

I had fallen behind in posting so this is my second post today and the last project inspired by Friday Kahlo.  This project was led by Jane Lafazio. Jane did a wonderful drawing of flowers and then painted them with watercolor. Below is my version. I drew the flowers in ink, then used Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils to put the colors in my flowers. I then wet the pencil to make the effect of watercolor.  I did the background in yellows oranges and blues.  But when I wet it, it wasn't intense enough to make the flowers pop.  So I started added layers of inks in the same colors.  I also tried a stencil in a deep rose that was eventually mostly covered.  I added more pink to the blossoms and made the branch darker.  Then I splattered with white.  I like the final result.  I am really loving the ink because of the vibrant colors you can achieve.



And the final



Gloria J Zucaro's, "Frida Herself".

Tonight I have my portrait of Frida herself, not of me playing Frida.
This project was led by Mystele Kirkeeng for the Creative Jumpstart 2016.
Mystele started with a stucco applied surface.  I didn't have stucco so used modeling paste by Golden that I applied then rolled with a brayer. It made a very interesting tree-bark-like surface.  I let it dry overnight. The next step was to collage on some papers.  I had two with leaves and two with text from an old dictionary.  We were then to draw our outlines with pencil for Frida's head and face.  I also found some paper I wanted to use for her shirt/top, which I glued in place after drawing her head and shoulders.  The rest of the painting was done in layers of paint with ink and gesso in layers.  I used pearlized paint for part of her headdress.



And the final

Have a great day tomorrow, and leave a comment if you are so inclined.
Gloria




Tuesday, January 19, 2016

"Frida and Zentangle Moebius"

Today I am finally posting my painting from January 16 with Frida Kahlo inspiration and project led by Andrea Gomoll.  I kept trying to get it to look like I wanted it but it took a couple days of just thinking about it to decide what to do.  So then I got behind on the next two projects since we have one a day for 4 or 5 days in a row.  Catch-up time!

In Andrea's example she painted different types of leaves in her background, then took a black and white photo of herself and adhered it to the page.  Next she painted more leaves and flowers on separate paper, then cut them out and glued them on with foam dots that raised them off the page in the area to mimic Frida's floral headdress.
I decided to do the painted on leaves in the background, then add cut-outs from Dover books of flowers and butterflies that my daughter Lucy had given to me.  Well, my leaf paintings were terrible! I had painted them over some collage I had added first and I had tried also to stamp on some leaves but the foam stamps wouldn't imprint on the rough collage surface.  I also stamped on some birds. What a mess! But I proceeded to add the floral headdress anyway.
I outlined the flowers with black ink, then white ink.  I added the butterflies and did the same.  Then I added white ink, then changed the background color, then added Silks paint + gel over the butterflies. Everything was too dark.  Finally, today I added gesso mixed with an underlying blue watercolor pencil and added two larger pink flowers to the hair piece.  Now I am pretty happy with it.






The Final! Posted to Creative Jumpstart 2016

I am also posting to "I am the Diva"-Laura Harms site.  This week is highlighting the children with Moebius Syndrome.  Her youngest son is one of only 5000 people in the whole world that has this condition. Every year at this time, we use the symbol for the organization and their color purple in our Zentangle.  I used a 7" x 5" box piece covered with gesso as my substrate.  Please visit The Diva's site to see all the imaginative ways to tangle this image.








Friday, January 15, 2016

Gloria J Zucaro's " Imitating Frida with Mario Robinson"

I will keep it short.  This week we have as our Creative Jumpstart 2016 inspiration the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.  Our first demo was with Mario Robinson who had done a wonderful self-portrait in watercolor. Mario showed us 3 or 4 watercolor techniques using both wet into dry, smooth washes, and wet into wet.  He also showed both wet into wet and wet into dry glazing layers for richer color.Below is my final project piece with Mario.  I did another self-portrait, but gave myself black hair like Frida.  I was amazed to see how much I look like my mother.  My mother is a brunette, where as I take after my father and was always a blonde(now with some help from the salon)!

"Imitation Frida"

My reference photo

One of Frida's Paintings used as reference

My second reference from Frida's paintings.

Oops!  I forgot to photograph right from the beginning, but you get the idea.

Almost done, but needs something?!

I decided to add some white ink as highlights.  The rest of the painting was done in Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils.
Enjoy the day!
Gloria