Spring Flowers Bouquet in a Vase.

Just in time from spring to summer, between working hours and organising the free time, here is a painting with a vase with spring flowers bouquet. I have taken some photos from the starting to this point of the painting, which I find very likely to be set aside for a future rework. Let' s go through some steps of this painting together.

A basic idea was aligned among the canvas, using simple brushstrokes and intuitively spreading colour around.

Leaves were sketched out to create a 'diagramm' for the flowers.

Next day, I quickly started to add flowers here and there, using basic colours before I had to leave for work.

Same day's afternoon it was that there were added some more details.

Blending and adding, highlighting and shadowing getting happy or not comfortable with the result, was the next step.

Layers later, I could feel that there was no need at present to keep adding. Flowers gave out a vivid result, although there can be alterations at the painting.

I am happy with the result.

Thank you for being here.

Enjoy!

With love,

Green Dot Creations

Art studio adventures: Oil pastels, a quick experiment, a new canvas pad and a surprise!

I needed a canvas pad, and yesterday it was the day that I made my way to the art store. I chose a canvas pad that was affordable and would give me the chance to experiment with a different surface material. For the time being, I seldom use canvases in frames, though one canvas, the details of which I have been working the last week, is almost ready, in a next post. At the art store there was  also a packet of water soluble oil pastels in an offer, so I decided to buy this as well.

Actually, what I was intenting to buy was a pad for mixed media and acrylics, and I chose to try this one, which was in a very good price and seemed to be also of a very good quality.

I returned home and unpackaged the canvas pad and there there was, a big surprise, as, rather than a blank canvas, there were classical  paintings printed in a thicker than a magazine paper, bound next to a canvas  surface of a very good quality, that was guidingly shadowed to the basic scketch of the classical artwork.

I have never experienced such an art excersise before, so I guess I wasn't that much of disappointed. Actually, at this one, which is the first page of this art book, I started a layer with the oil pastels to be complemented and enhanced with acrylic colours. 

I also sketched out a quick scenery for the water soluble paints, to experiment with their potentials and their combining with acrylics. I find them to be a wonderful  material to use for mixed media, and a great way to have fun while practicing art.

I am happy with what was bought at this art store exploration. 

Enjoy!

With love,

Green Dot Creations

May flowers Facebook group's challenge: Poppies

A post for a facebook group's weekly challenge, May flowers, acrylic painting, Poppies.

Have a nice weekend!

With love,

Green Dot Creations

Altered, recycled bottle

As we said in the previous post, air dry clay offers inumerous possibilities. In our every day lives, we always have things that there is no need to discard and can be upcycled into decorative or usable items. I have had a glass bottle thoroughly cleaned and labels removed. I decided to alter it using air dry clay. 

It was a project that took me not that much of a time. I wanted to give the impression of rust to the bottle, and I used blue, brown, copper and black acrylic colours. Of course, layers of varnish to seal the colours and the clay.

I used silicon molds, and molds I have created my self, by using household items pressed into clay, then clay dried and was varnished. It is not as easy to remove clay from a clay mold as it is when you use a silicon mold, though it works. And there I had even more options to decorate my bottłe.

I had also dried flowers from my flower garden, and I had created some ribbon flowers, out of spare ribbon and thread attached to dried branches. A really storytelling bottle was the result. Enjoy!

With lots of love,

Green Dot Creations

Handmade, 100% waterproof vase out of carton and air dry clay, with constructing advice and a waterproofing formula.

Air dry clay is a wonderful material. You can use it to create or embellish whatever crafts you are using your creativity into. Air dry clay gets no bake. That means that there is a challenge to make your objects waterproof at the final result. Of course varnish and acrylics do add to this, however, it could be a disaster to create an air dry clay vase only with acrylics and varnish. So I came up with a formula, using a mixture of pva glue and and a waterproofing material for stones and ceramics I bought from a store with building materials, which i thoroughly incorporated into the clay, being careful to keep the suggested proportions as for the water used to dilute. I made two different clay mixtures with two different consistencies: A more watery and a stiffer one, adding accordingly more of the liquid mixture for a clay mixture that could spread on the armatures of the vase. Next I created the armature out of recycled carton and recycled paper as well as pva glue.

I let it thoroughly dry out. 

At this point, it was a sturdy construction out of carton, I could start to apply my clay mixture at. I picked out some clay molds and started creating embellishments that would have to dry as well. Applied the watery mixtured in layers, letting it to set before each new layer. When I was happy with the layering, I added the embellishments at the vase, and once more I let it dry out and set.

Before I started colouring and shadowing, I applied some more coats of the waterproofing material itself. And then it was time to colour. I wanted to keep the finished result neutral as for the colours, because the flowers are beautifully colourful and a neutral vase would just add to the beauty of flower bouquets. I used acrylic colours, simple and metallic, and aging patinas for an antiquing result. 

A result that is 100% waterproof and truly embellishing. It was a delight when I finally added the flowers. 

Enjoy!

With lots of love,

Green Dot Creations 

Red rose acrylic painting exercise

Green Dot Creations loves flowers. Here is an exercise at the art journal. Warm reds, lively greens and testing brushes for an illustrious acrylic colours painted rose. Enjoy!

Dried botanical flowers, mixed media painting

It was while I was taking care of a flower garden,  that I had a break to observe some wild plants that were removed among the flowers. Others in bouquets, and others pressed between heavy piles of books, for home decoration and for crafting. I have also had this canvas available, that it had been used for another painting and wasn't to be compiled among the finished projects. I used this canvas for mixed media, layering materials I have gathered from the garden, acrylic colours and flowers. I really enjoyed layering the abstract backround, kept a hint from that botanical research, and protected the mixed media canvas with thick layers of varnish. 

With lots of love,

Green Dot Creations

Adventures at the art studio

Art studios are every time different by every different art project. It really doesn' t matter what an art studio you have managed to create. It can be a place in a room, a room or a place. Each art studio adventure experienced, absolutely worths the memory. 

Art journals' creativity

I always have an art journal on my desk, while I am crafting or painting. It is a good exercise either to quickly decide how to use your extra paint on your brushes, wait for the layers to dry out, to leave the painting aside to start over with new ideas, or just to have your mind relaxed and refreshed, though still in a mode of discovering art. Apart from the extra points of creativity, you will have created your own art journals, that describe your art journey, and remind you of your thoughts, feelings, art stories, keepsakes, that can be altered books or notebooks or even handmade books, at which you will have bound paintings at whatever painting surface you will have used. A knowledge treasure of your abilities or difficulties, of creative imagination, and stories that you want to retell to yourself in the future. You can always change your previous artworks after you will have learned something new, and recreate the pages from scratch or just keep adding until you have gained a result that makes you happy. 

Sometimes it is more relaxing when it has to do with the aftermaths of the art procedure, to find yourself evaluating the interaction through the pages created in your art journal rather than to contemplate over your completed painting.

I am always happy when there are new things to learn!

And happy to be able to share the digitalised version of Green Dot Creations!

A Forest Walk

Spring still hasn't begun although it is the month of May, and the weather is still rainy and cold for the season. The parks are thriving with life and I have spent some afternoons depicting a 'forest walk' of mine. Let's see the results and in the next steps pictures of the process of this painting. Feel free to be advised and while each one that paints have unique skills that will bring unique results, it would be lovely to see the artwork you will have created to this forest painting. Let us start. 

This will be surely reworked in the future by me. I would add some more shadows and highlights, however I wouldn' t add extra sunrays through the forest or dispersed rocks around. I will keep this overal forest picture as it is.

Now let's see how we have got here in regard with this painting.

Picture one. Siennas, brown, white, black and light blue as a baseline, basic forming of the idea and lots of contemplating.

Picture two: Have mixed several different greens and stored them in small recycled vases with a lid. I don't know about you, but by experience, for me it is sure that there is always extra painting, after creating colours to be used in a painting. I store all the suitable vases with a lid or a proper closure that happen to be at my home just for this use: To extend the use of created colours, for next art or craft activities.

Picture three: First layer of greens, yellows, tree trunks and the forest walk begins.

Picture four: Second layer of greens and slight detailing with black.

Picture five: Lots and lots of shadowing, working in layers and adding here and there. There is more light needed at this point for the painting not to be that dreary. Though I wanted to keep this painting shadowy, as it was matching the weather and thus the overall mood.

Not much interventions were made in total. I used white for details, yellow to light up the greens and darkened existing colours for contrast. I have let the painting thoroughly dry, applied a thick coat of varnish, and stored the painting. 

Maybe I will continue this another day, when the weather will be sunnier. It have been wonderful afternoons scrolling around my imaginary forest.

Take care and enjoy!

Love to see you around!

Green Dot Creations 

Upcycling with acrylics and clay

In our every day lives we constantly have items around the house, that are too useful to be thrown away, in need of decorative value however. Recycling and upcycling plays a significant role in arts and crafts. It is a chance for every crafter to reduce costs and effort, and what is more important, to be in thought and in a caring deed for the enviroment of our planet and the own person's ecological footprint. The results can be amazing. Each artist can use the art materials of preferrence to result in either usable or decorative items practicing the creative imagination. In this post, I am sharing a hint to what we are going to be seeing in the next posts of this blog, apart from paintings and step by step tutorials. In the photo shared there are containers of every day items transformed with the help of air dry clay and acrylics, an altered bottle covered with air dry clay, and a waterproof vase made out of carton and the same art materials again, air dry clay and acrylics, made with a homade formula enhanced with building materials, easy to find, cheap and absolutely effective. I am going to be sharing this art recipe with you, among with pictures from scratch to finish. 

Stay tuned!

Love to see you around! 

Green Dot Creations

Altered painting book

The extraordinary world of art is not only about masterpieces derived from experiences by the huge number of talented artists. It is also about the exploration and learning, constructing abilities, gathering and creating memories, telling your story to yourself and others.

Here is an art journal cover, that took me more than a year to complete. 

Acrylics, homade pastes, metallic parts, handmade decorative items made out of clay, glass elements, and lots of layers. It has been a delight creating this!

Love to see you around!

Green Dot Creations

Ocean discovery

A new acrylic painting, exploring the ocean and making friends with a whale. 

If it is logic, then it must be true.

I will love to see you around at my new Facebook page. 

Have a wonderful day!

Green Dot Creations