IF: Enough

This is my entry for Illustration Friday.

The theme this week is Enough. Enough said.

IF: Foggy - July Nights in Tennesse

I've been vacationing in Clarksville Tennessee; visiting my son Chris and his family. I had a vision for last week's Illustration Friday Theme but I lacked tools to execute it. Finally went to a store called Hobby Lobby in downtown Clarksville where I picked up a small box of some hard pastels. Anyway the image I had in my mind was what I was seeing each night last week from my Son's back porch. It was a treat to watch the moon fill out and light up the mist hanging above a distant meadow. It was a perfect Illustration Friday for the theme Foggy. My original idea was to make this as a collage in various papers but since my supplies were limited I decided to get my vision down on paper and perhaps when I'm back home in my studio with my multitude of paper scraps I'll make a collage of this vision in torn mulberry papers and tissue.

IF: Make Lemonade

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This week's them for Illustration Friday is "Sour."

Original collage ACEO
2.5 x 3.5"
PhareCamp.etsy.com

This tiny collage was created for Illustration Friday, a website where each week on Friday artists are given a theme to illustrate. It's a really fun website; I can waste hours just looking.

I used decorative papers to create this. The backing is a dark blue art paper. the lemon is make with a paper that has an embossed texture. The orange skin is a mulberry paper printed with gold leaves, the pulp is a peachy mulberry printed with yellow leaves. The lime skin is a marbled paper and the lime pulp is a paper printed with green chrysanthemums.

Once I pasted the papers down with pva glue I embellished with a little magic marker.

Baren Print Exchange 37: Drop Some Breadcrumbs by Phare-Camp

Baren Print Exchange 37: Drop Some Breadcrumbs:
While you travel in your grand adventure please leave a trail of breadcrumbs so we may follow and catch up to you when it's our turn to travel...

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I finished my print for a Baren Forum print exchange. I'm getting it done early as I'm going to Tennessee for a month to visit my son and his family.

The picture here is my printing set-up. I like to print at the kitchen counter as I'm right by the sink and also I prefer to work standing up and the kitchen counter is the perfect working height for me.

This image is of my test strip for the inks I'm using. I can't just do pretty lines all in a row---no I have to make it fun. Anyway I had to also test the transparencies of the inks as well since I planned on overprinting many of the colors. I'm using Speedball water based inks. I mixed up a dark brown with brown, violet and a touch of gold; a moss green with green, a little yellow and more gold; a misty blue with blue a lot of silver and the last color a tan with brown, yellow and gold.

this is the block. its a 9x12" rubber block that is very easy to carve and it holds details rather nicely as you can see by the 1st stage proof I pulled









this is the second color. Instead of carving a block I cut the not-green areas away from a 9x12" sheet of "Skratchfoam" a brand of print medium that is very thin sheets of Styrofoam.








Here you can see 2nd state proof.









and here the print in it's 2nd state.




This is the third color plate,










the third state proof








and the print in its third stage.




for this last little bit I used one of the Scratchfoam pieces that I'd cut away from the green plate and used it like a stamp, taking care to position it just right around the little wren.









And here is the completed print.....

What the Heck is This?

Does anybody know what this bundle on the right is? It was given to me at Gion festival in Kyoto Japan back in the mid 1990's. No one at the time could tell me exactly what it was...


Now another question...here is some sake that was given to my father, I believe in the early 1980's. Haven't opened it as I don't know if this sake should be consumed warmed or cold. It is packed in a nice cloth lined box and came with a set of sake cups.


The next what is this question will be about a wonderful tea I got at a theme park in Japan. I loved the stuff and I'm almost out of it and don't know how to get more...I'll post a scan of the pamphlet that came with it when I find it again...