Bet you can't...

...guess what I've been up to this week (well, apart from purging/cleaning/downsizing, that is):

I spent a great morning with Laura Leeder 

and Eileen Gidman

and we painted!  Given the upcoming Spook Day, we opted for pumpkins (thanks, Eileen for providing them),

 and spent an inaugural morning in Eileen's new studio.

Can you tell we had a blast?  The morning went so quickly that this is about all I got done.  I'm not sure whether it was the photo-taking or the blabber-mouthing that had me slowed down, but I was IMMENSELY impressed with how much Eileen and Laura accomplished!

As I took breaks from my work at home, I added to the piece until it resembled a manic picture of my current life, with labyrinthian pathways, stops and starts, mad dashes and wild colour.  What could be more appropriate for this time of the year? I've got five more days until the big day, and I suspect this will get additions, because why stop at psychedelic when outright gaudy is a possibility?

I'm wishing you a Happy Halloween - may you enjoy the costumes and colour, with no tricks at all!  

Shenanigans...

...in the studio happen often, and this week's been no exception.

A friend recently posted a melted crayon pumpkin link on my Facebook page and of course, with all that fabulous colour we had to have a go.

Two pale pumpkins (one each for Rochelle and I) and a traditional orange one for John started the fun.  We're not sure whether John was carving or tossing, but it was a riot to watch.

Rochelle went with purples, pinks and blues, white I used a quiet palette of red, blue, yellow, orange and green (subdued, right?).

We were so stoked to be able to stop picking the crayons off the table - they kept slipping in the too-thin glue - that we took a ton of photos. 

We let the glue dry overnight, and then tore after them with a heat gun.

Smashing colour right?  AND we managed to do it without damaging any pumpkins either.

I can't tell you how much fun it is to melt that wax and watch it drool all over the pumpkin.

 And the colour's drooly too.

We placed them on the newel posts outside the front door and they add a great deal to our Halloween decor - in fact, they're the ONLY decor right now.

John's pumpkin, carved completely around, will join them as soon as he finds an LED light for it.

 We think they look pretty splashy,

and we're considering having another go 'round.  

Of course, I blame it all on the girl - she started the whole thing with some pumpkin painting for her work, and now we're having trouble stopping!

Love those spiders...

or at least, their webs.  Without them, the cobweb technique would never have been created.

Laura Leeder was here on the weekend to learn this gorgeous technique, which I learned from Alice Saltiel-Marshall last fall.  You can see Alice's blog about this technique (and others) here.  I've since incorporated it into my Mixed Media II - More Playtime for Adults workshop.  It's fast becoming a favourite.

Here, I've taped a piece of 140 lb. cold-pressed watercolour paper to a sheet of butcher paper sitting over top of a thick piece of cardboard (plywood or gator board works better than cardboard, though!).

I've started pinning bits of cobwebbing (available from craft and dollar stores around Halloween) across the paper, taking care to keep it thinly spread in an interesting design.

Here, Laura tapes her paper to plywood in preparation for her sheet.  The key is ensuring that the webbing touches the paper completely in all areas.

Once the webbing is in place, water is sprayed and painted on to the paper, and thinned acrylics, watercolours and inks can be lightly painted or spritzed on to the support.  We used acrylic paints (already thinned and in 2 oz. bottles), Dylusions ink sprays from Ranger, and a metallic spritzer or two.

The wet sheet then needs to partially dry to the point where the webbing can be picked off, and then left to dry completely.  If one waits until the whole thing is completely dry, there will be a prolonged period of picking webbing from the painting, hands, pins and teeth!

The completed piece has a lovely sense of depth and texture - I can just imagine this as a background for a painting.

Unfortunately, due to a camera fail (likely due to a 1d10T error), I was unable to capture a photo of Laura's finished piece, a lovely one indeed.  You may want to keep your eye on her blog to see if she writes about her experience!

Just a note that if you're testing this out, and use watercolours rather than acrylics or inks, you'll want to finish off with a couple of good sprays with workable fixative before working over top of it.  However you do it, it's bound to be beautiful.  I KNOW there will be a run on cobwebbing wherever I am this Halloween!