Waxy Rainbows & A Giveaway to Come . . . .

“Don't seek to be happy; let everyone else chase after that rainbow. 

Seek to be kind, and you'll find the rainbow follows you.” 

― Richelle E. Goodrich

Hey Everyone! Happy Friday and happy PPF. . . .

I have a project here that's been in the works since - believe it or not - this year's Summer of Color! I've finally gotten around to finishing her, and took copious amounts of pictures along the way to show the progression from a quick sketch to a colorfully drippy & waxy finished piece. Wanna take a peek? Okay then, here we go. . . .

The initial sketch

Addition of collage pieces including decorative napkins, tissue paper & washi tape

Washes of blues and grays and the beginnings of her face

The rainbow is colored using 2-3 hues for each segment in a variety of mediums

Texture is added with acrylic white paint mixed with fiber paste pushed through a stencil

Using a quilting iron and crayons, I carefully melted 2 colors for each segment and let 'em drip

The final result! Additional touches include iridescent stars, Stickles glitter in her hair and tights, hash marks made with pencil, wax crayon scribbles (Caran D'ache 1), stamping and charcoal.

Thanks for looking! Now I'm headed over to PPF to see what everyone else is up to this week! 

But wait! Before you go, I'm really excited to offer you a chance to win a FREE SPOT on the next Life Book 2015! 

To do so, make sure you come back HERE this Sunday, 9/21 and enter. It's that simple. I'd love you to join us and am thrilled to offer you a chance to play along for an entire year of mixed media goodness for nothing, nada, zilch . . . . 

See you Sunday!

To Love & Art,

Kristin xo

KristinVanValkenburgh.com

SPA: Pierrot

"Tears of a Clown"

4 x 6 Postcard

I've been wanting to experiment with "paintovers"for a while now and this week's theme - Pierrot - over at Sunday Postcard Art gave me the perfect opportunity to do so. My goal was to come up with a way to "paint" over an existing image from a magazine or catalogue in order to create a stylized version of the original. I also wanted to challenge myself to work fast and free - and hopefully become a little less cautious with my art in the process . . . Since this was new to me, I took pictures as I went. Wanna see? 

Original image from the new Macy's Fall catalogue

For a distressed look, I removed some of the ink with nail polish remover before sealing 

the image with clear Gesso. I then backed it onto watercolor paper for strength.

Now here's the tricky part: To challenge myself even further, 

I used only wax crayons (Manley) and my finger to blend them.

Final details include the use of pencil, charcoal and Hallmark's B & W sticky ribbons to complete the background.

Thanks for looking! Be sure to check out Sunday Postcard Art for more Pierrot pieces this week. I for one can not wait . . .

Kristin xo

The Summer of Color - GREEN

"Pink with Envy"

8 x 10 Watercolor Journal Page

Wow . . .

What an incredible Blue week! I'm thrilled with the response we had with our first color prompt and am throughly enjoying the connection and community we're building here. Thank you for your time, enthusiasm and for sharing this colorful journey with me. . .

A little bit about Linking, Commenting & Giveaways:

Thank you for linking your color-specific artwork in the widget below. In order to qualify for the weekly giveaway, you must also leave a comment in the comment section directly below the current post. Starting this week, if you participate in the bonus challenge, you will be able to enter your name twice. The best way for me to get an accurate count for the Random Number Generator (and to save you from having to link more than once) is to take your names from the comment section. With that in mind (and although it goes against my very nature to do it ;), I have deleted any duplicate or additional comments from last week's blue pool in order to get an accurate count. As of this week, (A) please link your work in the widget below so that others can find you, (B) leave one comment if you created a Green piece and (C) leave two comments if you completed the bonus challenge. 

Anything else?

If you just found us, please feel free to join in the fun! Don't worry if you missed a week, you can pop in anytime. Also, there's an amazing community of artists gathering on the The Summer of Color Facebook page and in our Flickr pool. Check it out . . .

So who won the Blue Giveaway?

YOU!

Please email me your address and I'll get it right out to you . . .

Now, on to GREEN week . . .

This week's color challenge is Green. The Bonus! Challenge is to somehow incorporate the color Citron into your piece. Please remember to leave an additional comment should you complete both. I so look forward to seeing what you do! 

And what is this week's Giveaway?

An elegant floral picture frame with vintage sheet music, Liquitex acrylic paint in Brilliant Yellow Green, a set of two Moleskine ruled notebooks, Craft Smart polymer clay and a sprinkling of green, iridescent and clear Swarovski crystals and beads.

Okay. Please feel free to link your GREEN work here:

(Monday the 20th - Sunday the 26th)

And what is next week's color?

PINK!

"Pink is the navy blue of India"

-Diana Vreeland

Bonus!

Next week's Bonus! Challenge is to incorporate wax into your piece. Beeswax, candle wax, wax crayon . . . any kinda wax will do . . . Have Fun!

Kristin xo

SPA: Stork

"Dreams"

6 x 4 Postcard

I'm honored to play host this week over at Sunday Postcard Art! It may not come as a surprise that I choose a theme near and dear to my heart, Stork. . . .

This postcard was created using several collage elements including decorative paper for the background, vintage floral wallpaper for the cloud and vintage baby shower greeting cards for both the baby bundle and the stork. Both buff and titanium acrylics were used to keep the piece soft and several charcoals, wax pastels and wax crayons were added for depth. Final touches included a vintage poem by Harriet Dustin Buffum, Stickles glitter as a lining to the cloud, a few sprinkles of german glass glitter to represent stars and a single Swarovski stone on the Stork.

Thank you for allowing me to act as your host this week. I look forward to seeing all your beautiful Stork creations . . .

Kristin xo