Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Stencil Mania

After having such a cool experience participating in my first online art class with Kelly Kilmer, I thought I'd try another.
Last Friday Mary Ann Moss began her Pure Experimentation online stenciling class. She's shared some great examples of stenciled street art on her blog. I sure miss that about LA. Street art everywhere. I found these two murals as I was driving down the street in Mesa this weekend.
Here, kitty, kitty, kitty..... There's an alley in Central Phoenix that I read about in a local rag. The alley was constantly vandalized by taggers. The local merchants got together, pooled their resources and used graffiti art to decorate the alley themselves. I have to make an effort to find graffiti art. Mostly I see vandalism on my commute. Bah humbug!Our first assignment-use found materials to stencil on pieces of cardboard that will be made into a portfolio for our projects. I picked up a cool book over the weekend on paper cut outs. I spent Sunday afternoon in my kitchen with a pile of scrap paper, folding and cutting away.I used black and white spray paint. I thought I had the other colors at work. I actually remembered to look for the cans at work today and they weren't there. Turns out I brought them home and they're in the garage...duh!
The aqua and red are watered down acrylic sprayed with my new toys that arrived this week. I'm still in the learning stages of finding the right mix of paint to water. The hardest part was waiting for the paint to dry. This is Arizona but still used the heat gun on my back patio.Another new acquisition. When left to wander the aisles of the art supply store.... I found these. Yum! Perfect for mark making with acrylic paint.This wasn't part of the assignment but the surface didn't feel complete and I was itching to find something to do with my new toys.The front and back finished covers although my initials are calling for a bit of white. Now to hunt down red duct tape to put the portfolio together. Maybe I'll stamp on it or..... the stenciling is only the starting point.

The actual cardboard pieces were lager and then I trimmed them down. I was thinking of using a bookmaking technique I learned from Kelly to use the scraps for the covers of a handmade book. The hamsters are working over time in my head.
Marissa

8 comments:

  1. Looks like YOU have been having FUN!
    Are those Stampendous paints new? I've never seen them. Love the long tip. I usually buy the bottles and pour the paints in, but if it means less w o r k for me that is a good thing ;) LOL

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  2. The Stampendous bottles were empty. I filled them with my own acrylic paints in colors I thought I'd use often. I love the thin line they create!
    M

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  3. Your portfolio is great! I like the addition of the circles and lines made with the paint bottles. And what a great idea to cut "snowflake" like pieces to use as stencils!

    This class is fantastic!!!

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  4. Your portfolio came out really neat. I like how you added the dimensional paints.

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  5. Oh my goodness. I so admire all the different techniques, classes and projects that you embrace. Looks wonderful1

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  6. Oh these covers are soooo cool! I love them and your blog! I've added you to my list o' daily stops! Nice to "see you" in class!

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