About Me

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I LOVE to design and to paint whimsical items that will put a smile on your face. Each day I share my simple life with you as I try to encourage, to inspire and sometimes JUST to make you smile as I recount my life growing up on a dairy farm! I've never had many material items in my life, BUT I have been blessed beyond words with love and encouragement from WONDERFUL Parents who instilled in me WHAT was important. I have had EVERYTHING that I needed and WAY too much of what I wanted. I am slowly learning to be a better person each day through my interactions with my friends on Facebook. Some day I hope to be as good as people seem to THINK I am! I am BLESSED! Welcome to my little corner of the world...Please stop by and visit often!
Showing posts with label background design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label background design. Show all posts

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Tutorial Thursday: Textured Pumpkin

Hey...Hope everyone is having a great week.  My thoughts are with my friends who are causing GREAT PAIN to their checking accounts as they shop at HOOT! 
You know, you can NEVER have enough patterns or surfaces!



I also think of all the screams of delights as people get to meet each other in person.
Hugs are being thrown around like glitter.
Laughter is filling the hall.
Inspiration is wafting through the air.
Friendships are being made and renewed.
Words of encouragement are being offered.
Beautiful COLORS are everywhere.

AWESOME SAUCE!

I pray traveling mercies...


BUT, most of us are HERE, well, not here, but THERE, because it is just me and Charcoal here, doing what we always do and living vicariously through the photos we get to see on this wonderful thing called SOCIAL MEDIA!

I thought I would share what I did with the background I created on Tuesday.

For those who missed it, it is the post before this one, so you can read it to catch up.


Once again, I pulled out my favorite DecoArt Americana Acrylics



I traced the outline of the tag and the Pumpkin 
that I decided to Put on this surface.

I based the Pumpkin with 2 coats of Canyon Orange.

Honestly, one coat would have been fine and more of the background would have shown through, but I decided to use 2 coats...

Let the paint dry completely before going to the next step.



When I got the pumpkin basecoated, I have to admit that I was sad to have covered so much of my background, and then....a BRIGHT LIGHT BULB appeared over my head!

I will add the same technique to the pumpkin that I used on the background.

Some days, I really think I am Albert Einstein...
 
Most days, I wonder where my glasses are that are on top of my head... 

This time, I decided to thin my paint instead of putting the water on the surface as I did for the background.  
One reason for this, was because I wanted the color to be stronger.
If you do this, you REALLY have to work quickly or the paint with dry.  Being Wet is what causes the Plastic Wrap to LIFT the paint.  Once the paint is dry, it won't lift off.

I used Tangerine and some Sunny Day placed where I thought
 natural highlights would occur.

Do not work your paint into a smooth basecoat.  
Leave the lines choppy to add some more texture.

Again, work quickly before your paint dries.

Place the plastic wrap over the surface and gently push it down 
to get contact with the paint and then carefully 
remove the plastic wrap while the paint is still wet.

When I removed the plastic wrap, I decided to put the plastic wrap on it again, because I wanted more texture...
The second time was the charm!



Isn't that the coolest thing?


The stem and tag were painted with Honey Brown.



I wanted the tag to look old, so I had the bright idea to do a modification of the same background technique.

I painted the tag with thinned Camel and bunched the plastic wrap into a wad and dabbed the paint to remove most of it...

Sorry, I didn't take a picture of that, 
but you can see it in the finished picture.



For those who paint, quickly this is what I did to complete the design.
Shade the Pumpkin, right stem and tag with Burnt Umber
Highlight the Left of the stem with Camel.
Paint the Circle of the tag with Camel.
The inside circle of the tag is Burnt Umber.
Shade around the outside of the circle with Burnt Umber and also the bottom INSIDE of the circle.
Highlight the top INSIDE of the circle with Sunny Day.
The lettering and lines inside the tag are Lamp Black.
Paint the string of the tag with Honey Brown.
Add a highlight to the string with Camel~~simply thin the paint and line.
Finish the string with an outline of thinned Lamp Black to help it show better.


I would have stopped here, but since I already put 
Happy Halloween on my tag, I went a step further...

I absolutely LOVE this just as it is!!

If I had simply put 
HAPPY FALL
on the tag, I would have called this DONE.
That texture is yummy!!

Now, for those who do not paint, it is never too late to begin to paint.  I have shared LOTS of free line drawings on my blog that are a great place to start.

If you want to paint this, but don't understand (yet) how to float paint, then paint it and outline the piece with a permanent black marker (like a Sharpie).  It will look adorable.

BUT just because you do not paint, does not mean that you cannot take advantage of this free line drawing.

If you stitch, this would be so cute made into little pillows to be used as bowl fillers, or add a piece of jute or ribbon to the pillows to hang on a door knob, a peg, or a drawer pull.  OR hang them on the chairs of a Fall gathering and give them to your guests as a reminder of a time well spent.

IF you like paper crafts, use scrapbook paper to make this!

OR, what I think would be adorable, is to make a set of these on 2x4s cut into different heights (I would say, 4, 5, 6 inches tall) and use them on your Thanksgiving table as Place markers!  You could either paint the pumpkins or use paper to Decou-Page them onto the wood...Just think how amazing it would be for a family of 3 to have one of each size to use for years to come as decorations and as a reminder of a fun meal with those you love!  You could add Names to the tags, or put a special message on them.


Be creative...Use this to fit YOUR style...

Right click on your computer to save this and by all means, resize it to fit YOUR needs...have fun with it!

This is how I decided to finish my design...What fun is this!!


I am not sure why this is blurred , but click it and it is fine...weird, huh!

I hope that I have nudged you a bit to create!  I cannot tell you how important it is to do something for YOU.  
When you feel fulfilled, then you are able to give even more of yourself...funny how life is like that!  


I am simply blessed to create~charlotte♡

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Choosing Colors for a Design...Friday, August 8, 2014



I recently joined the Puddles of Paint Club…Click  HERE to go to Susan's site.


Susan Kelly sent us a line drawing and asked us to put OUR TWIST to it…WELL, I didn’t twist TOO much, but I did decide to use Scrapbook Paper as my background since I had a piece with lily pads on it!





I really do like Frogs…I painted them long ago and stopped because THAT wasn’t what I had time to paint, BUT in the past few years, I started painting them again…SO this line drawing had me HOPPING to paint it…





After I chose my back ground, I had to choose the colors that I wanted to use…WELL, the frog was going to be GREEN, but I had to find a green that would stand out, so I chose Sour Apple.  WHEN I chose the MAIN color, I had to get a color that I could use to SHADE and to Highlight…I decided to go to the DecoArt’s website to find the colors that they suggested that I could use…Click  HERE  to visit this HELPFUL site…You will want to bookmark this link for future reference.





I went through this process several more times as I decided WHICH colors that I wanted to use…OFTEN we choose the colors we want to paint with BEFORE we decide on a background, but since I had my background chosen, I was working somewhat backwards...

 I have been working on painting backgrounds the past few months.  I painted SHAPES for so long that I never had to put any thought into a background  AND I also thought that IF I painted a design well, then the background would NOT matter…WRONG!!





Choosing a background is the same process as choosing a wall color or a piece of furniture…I think of the background as the PILLOWS on the couch…the Couch is often what we spend the most time with, BUT it is the PILLOWS that give it that POP when we add different textures, colors, shapes and designs…





I think it is important to carry the colors of your design ONTO the background so that your eye will be drawn into the painting.  Since I had my background, I decided that the mushrooms in my painting needed to coordinate with the flowers, SO I chose a Raspberry color for the BIG CENTRAL mushroom…The other colors were chosen in the same intensity, or hue, as the Raspberry…Once I had chosen my colors, then it was on to painting…

Charcoal says: REAL BOY DOGS chew PINK (French Mauve) Paint Bottles!!  LOL




I painted the edge of my wooden piece with Avocado, which was a main color in the paper.  I used Decou-Page to glue the paper to my wood…I didn’t worry about cutting the paper to fit exactly because once it was dry, I used a piece of sandpaper to trim the paper to fit~~just sand along the edge...you might need to reapply your paint on the wood, OR leave as is for a worn look...when this happens, I often antique it.


I coated the paper with  Satin Decou-Page again…NOW this is where I am not certain that I did the right thing…MAYBE I should have painted directly on the paper, but I didn’t…it MIGHT not have taken as many coats of paint to get a smooth coverage…I will be experimenting with this.





I added several coats of white paint to the design to cover the design from the paper…THEN I started building the colors…

I based everything…



Then I added the details…


AND more details…





I will be adding two coats of the Satin Decou-Page to seal the design and I THINK I will be sending this plaque down the road to a friend who ALSO loves frogs…It will need to HOP in the mail SOON…





I hope that you will take some designs and be unafraid to make the colors YOUR own…We as designers do what WE LIKE…we are just instruments to spark YOUR creativity…



Enjoy…Blessings to YOU…~charlotte♥ 

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