Florence Turnour's Blog

I took Julie Balzer's Make Your Own Junque Journal on-line class and made two journals. I loved this project.  It's so great to use up a bit of my huge stack of printed papers, and to find a home for some fairly finished artwork that I did as part of various on-line classes. For sure this is just the beginning of a new adventure in book binding for me. In the class, they encourage us to video a "Flip-through" of our journals to other participants. I made this little video showing off both books. Here are the on-line classes and teachers I mentioned in my video, in case you are interested in checking them out. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Make Your Own Junque Journal on-line class Carla Sonheim's Gelli Plate Plus Carla Sonheim's Cats Creative Jumpstart 2016  workshops from Birgit Koopsen Michelle Ward Julie Fei-Fan Balzer Dawn Woleslagle's Watercolor for Card Makers, Intermediate Techniques Thanks for looking!

Today I donned the face mask and took to the garage to spray paint some papers for collage. I used the same stencils I've been using on the Gelli Plate, which I cut on my electronic Silhouette cutter. I still need to learn how to strategize to get patterns where I want them with the spray paint, but I managed to get some prints that I like. I also did some experiments with one of my face stencils. I didn't have a goal when I designed the face stencils. I'm hoping to come up with a collage idea in which it makes sense to use them. Thanks for looking!

Last week, in my continuing effort to squeeze as much art as possible in before school starts, I attended a two-day workshop with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer  at Studio CRESCENDOh  in Santa Ana.  In it I started two large collage paintings, one of which I finished today. Look how big it is! Goat! by Florence Turnour For this canvas, Julie directed us to draw a large half-face, but I decided I'd rather have a half goat face.  She reassured us that almost anything with a mouth and eyes will be recognizable as a face, but it occurred to me about a quarter of the way in that this was not necessarily true for goats.  I used a snapshot from my phone, and worried over the minimal drawing on my canvas for a while before diving in.  (I was finally spurred forward when Julie's mother, Eileen, passed by my table and said, "Oh, a goat." Sometimes even goats need validation.) I was super excited to learn how to glue.  Collage has always been one of my favorite med...

I made some new stencils to Gelli Print though. On this one, I drew on the print with black and white pen. I like the tree stencil, but I'm enjoying using the cut-out portion of it as a mask more. And last, here are some birds. I know many people use their Gelli Plate prints for collage, so this isn't revolutionary, but after printing with my stencils for a while, I notice that the masks look like they'd make great collage elements. Does anyone cut and then print on the little bits? Or does everyone print and then cut? I make my stencils from overhead projector slides. These are the masks Thanks for looking!

Inspired by a little trading rack at Studio 626 , in Corvallis, Oregon, I made some ATC's to trade. I didn't take a photo of the ones I traded there, but I was on a roll so I made some more. The background is a Gelli Plate print on multimedia paper, and drawings are done in ink, and colored with Prismacolor colored pencil. Thanks for looking! Mean Fish and Barn Mean Fish and Barn (front) Mean Fish and Barn (back) Lip Fish and Orchid Lip Fish and Orchid (front) Lip Fish and Orchid (back)

I am experimenting with color using this sketch, which I compiled from drawings I did at the beach. Thanks for looking!

I have coined a new word: illustriteration. Pronounce it "ill-lust-ritter-ation." In my infinite wisdom, I have engaged in another art form, the art of illustration.  I am finding that much of illustration is iteration, hence the new word. I like creating with some constraint, making pottery that's functional or jewelry that's wearable.  Now, I am learning to make 2-dimensional artwork that illustrates. The internet is a fabulous resource to learn about illustration. Children's book illustrators use their blogs and websites to post their portfolios, advice, and wonderful trailers for their new books. An ad for this Craftsy class crossed my newsfeed just as I was considering this, and on a whim, I signed on. The class is great; the instructor Shadra Srtickland gets right to the point, inviting her students to create character, spreads and story and then illustriterate to make the whole project one piece. (See how useful my new word is?) For my class project,...

I am now the proud owner of another craft tool, the Gelli Plate .  They have a very active facebook page, and after watching interesting image after image go by, I finally gave in and ordered it. I love stencils and am excited to have another incentive to make them. I have made stencils before, using old overhead transparencies in my Silhouette electronic cutter, for use on paper, with stamps and for use on fabric, sun dying .  Now I am making stencils to use on my Gelli Plate. I'm at the "copy every tutorial you can find" stage in my printing. If you do Gelli printing, you'll recognize these easy techniques. Here are some of the images I drew for my stencils. I'm enamored with folk art designs, at the moment. Folk Art Flowers and Birds by Florence Turnour Floral Wreath by Florence Turnour Here are some prints from my first effort with the Gelli Plate. I am looking for ways to embellish these prints, to add interest and help the designs pop o...

OK, so it is already Day 5, but I had so much work to do. I'm taking a break from it to try some more of the techniques in Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 102 class. Day 2 focussed on stencils, one of my favorite tools. I like cutting my own stencils from transparency paper, which is slick and easy to sponge through, and thin enough to stamp through. This time, however, I used a stencil from Crafter'sWorkshop. I made two samplers, and pasted them to the two sides of this middle sized butterfly. I was inspired by Tim's choice of blue and brown, but decided that I was in a green mood, and chose Distress Ink in Evergreen Bough and Vintage Photo instead. I like the speckled appearance made from little specks of clear embossing powder. Here's a close-up. Here's the start of my butterfly mobile project , including a butterfly made using Distress Paint as a resist, and here is a butterfly made using Distress Paint to create a faux patina look. Maybe there...

For some reason, the media (magazine articles, books and so on) about mixed media art seems to be half techniques, tools and materials, and half self help (egging the reader to have, for example, "the courage to create"). I am interested in the former, being already brave in the face of art supplies. I welcome recommendations for books, tutorials, blogs (yours?) or whatnot related to mixed media. My own next mixed media undertaking is underway. I began by drawing butterflies and cutting them out on my Silhouette cutter. I cut black butterflies a tiny bit larger, to matte these. I glued four black ones together to make a thicker more sturdy element. They are exactly the same shape, thanks to the cutter, and layered easily. My plan is to hang these from their holes. Next I decorated four white ones, and glued them to the front and back of two of my thick black butterflies. Here's one side: I stamped the flowers using Distress Paint, and then used Distress Stain ...

I went to a 2 hour Mixed Media Workshop with Kari Foteff from Strathmore today. Dancing Lady - by Florence Turnour Steve said, "Are you sure she's dancing? She looks like she's waving off a bee." She gave us a multimedia journal and guided us to use wet and dry media with the thick paper. She had us use gel medium as a glue, which was enlightening to me. Gooey stuff. I applied a wet wash on the paper, which didn't wrinkle, as advertised. Then I cut out and glued this gal on top. I used a stencil and dry brushed the background with paint Inktense block. When I got home, I outlined her with the Glaze gel pen that I discovered when I made Frog III . Letter Man - by Florence Turnour This is a Letter Man that I also made at the workshop. The point of this activity was to attach heavier elements to the paper, which, as advertised, didn't bend. I also used gel medium through an alphabet stencil, which worked nicely. The Inktense pencils and blocks mi...