It started with a sticker

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I get inspiration from all sorts of places; beautiful scenery, songs on the radio, inspiring art, magazines, catalogs, etc, etc…and today it was a sticker.

One of my stickers ended up on this painting.

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But when I moved the painting aside to let it dry – I noticed the blotter sheet had some interesting marks and paint strokes on it.

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Unfortunately the interesting compositions were in the middle of some not-so-great compositions. I wanted to explore it further but was distracted by all the surrounding marks. But I had an idea…

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I made a frame with an opening the size of a 4×4 cradled panel.
It became a viewfinder and made it much easier to find the compositions I wanted amid all the distractions.

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Mounting these small “paintings” onto cradled panels will elevate them to star status instantly!

Just remember to use light pencil marks when framing your compositions and add about an eighth of an inch extra around the perimeter of your painting when cutting them out – to allow for trimming and positioning ease when mounting them onto the panels. Of course you’re not limited to 4×4 size – you may have a much larger sheet that you’re finding interesting arrangements on – this is just a starting suggestion.

The point is to keep our eyes open for the unexpected – sometimes it’s right there in front of us!

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Finger Painting (on the iPad)

I am currently obsessed over a new app I’ve recently acquired, “iColorama”, and have been trying to figure it out now for quite some time. As you may remember me saying a while back, I’m heavily right-brained and these sorts of things never come that easy for me. And of course there is no user’s manual either (not that I’d read it anyway).

I learned about this app while reading an article (or two) about the technique that artist Sarah Jarrett uses to create her unique and imaginative iPhone portraits.

There is so much to this app -it’s amazing what a couple of dollars will buy these days…and I am discovering more and more as I play with it.

Today I decided to see if I could replicate painting with acrylics – I wanted to try and get that layered, glazed look and I like the results so far.

After finishing up in iColorama, I opened the image in Glaze and then in DistressedFX to see what other effects I could come up with.

I can’t emphasize enough how freeing it is to have so many art tools at your disposal whenever you have a free moment to ‘play’.

There is no longer any excuse for not taking a minute or two out of our busy days to make art.

And what a difference that can make.20140707-221247-79967491.jpg

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