Altered art

Hi
  Here's an altered art project i've done :) am using more embellishments for the first time & am absolutely loving the creation process :)

Preps:
Well wanna know how it all started?!

It's from this bottle which always attracted my attention for the interesting shape ;) am happy about recycling plastic this way :)

I coated the bottle with gesso. I've applied pearl green, sap green acrylic colors for the bg with brush followed by some misting with sap green+bronzer mixture..

I also added some vintage photo distress inks on the edges to give that antique look..
I've used black & metallic gold acylic colors for the cap..
I've filled the bottle with pebbles to add weight so that it doesn't fall off. (Original bottle is ultra light)

Embellishments:

I've used PP from time traveller collection & distressed it. Sentiment is from heidi swapp collection.

I've cut the clock image from the same PP collection, stuck it to a round glass cabochon & placed it on the metal frame setting.

Butterflies are stamped using Kaisercraft bg stamp with memento tuxedo black ink on some random scrap PPs from my stash & then fussy cut.

Mulberry roses, bird house & fan metal embellishments are covered with metallic copper, gold & silver acrylics. Same goes for the butterfly resin embellishment in the centre (pearl black too for the shading)

Lace is from Prima i guess. I got it from a kit.

The golden twine is present forever in my stash lol :) Dat kinda completed my project & brought everything together :)

Done. Hope you liked it.
Do lemme know ur comments. They mean a lot to me.
Thanks for your time.
Create. Have fun.

Linking this to,

http://beyondgrey.blogspot.in/2015/04/bgc67-spring-green-with-spring-elements.html?m=1
I've used green as my main color.. Flowers,butterflies, birdhouse, "smile".. I hope they shout spring enough ;)

http://blog.kraftzone.in/2015/04/challenge-14-altered-art.html?m=1

http://catchychallenges.blogspot.in/2015/04/cscc-13-anything-goes.html?m=1

http://mixedmediamojo.blogspot.ca/2015/04/april-challenge-and-new-dt.html?m=1




http://rheddscreativespirit.blogspot.in/2015/04/aprils-challenge.html?m=1

Charcoal portait

Hi,
This is a super delayed post of how I continued with the portrait here . I actually planned to upload it soon after that but somehow missed it.
Kindly use the above link to know how it all started :)

Materials used:
I've used
●Mont marte charcoal pencils for this work. First time am using charcoal pencils & that too straightaway in colors :D
●For blending/smudging:
      ◆Tissue paper
      ◆Synthetic brush
      ◆ paper stumps (I don't have the readymade ones yet, but handmade ones worked just fine for me)
●For toning down/erasing:
     ◆Kneadable eraser
     ◆Normal pencil Eraser





This is mostly a step by step pictorial. I'll include some tips which maybe useful & any lessons learned from my mistakes.

it's better to start & progress sketching in one direction so as to avoid smudging of other parts. Here I've started from the top left corner & moved towards the bottom right.

Drawing the hair:
There are soft, medium & hard pencils for black colour.  The soft one is darker & can be easily smudged/blended.
I started off with medium black covering the whole area for neutral tone & added soft black for darker areas & hard black for fine lines for hair strands. Highlights achieved by erasing and also white charcoal pencil (I simply luvvv that)

The appropriate darker & lighter areas give the sense of volume to the hair.





The Face:

I've used Sanguine as the neutral tone,  sepia & black for darker shades, white for highlights.





The eyes are the most challenging according to me as they form the centre of focus but occupying a very small area. A little detail gone wrong might affect the pic drastically. (personally, in this pic I feel the eyeball looks a little popped up coz I wasn't able to leave a very narrow blank space below it)




I guess it's crucial to make the lower lip border least prominent. it kinda merges with the skin & stand out only coz of the shadow below.
I really find it difficult to work with the teeth so I usually prefer pics having closed lips :D






I just followed the guidelines from my reference pic here for the other details.






Finally I used soft black lead pencils (5B,6B) to shade around the portrait & blend well to give some depth.
Done.



Here's the pic alongside the reference.


it's obvious that this is my first attempt isn't it? :D

By the way, This is Mr.Kishore Sheik Ahamed,  the wonderful designer of my website.  I sincerely hope he'll forgive all the mistakes I've committed in his portrait sketch & like it too :)

Hope you liked this. I'll be very glad if it was in any way useful. I love to hear from you so please do lemme know ur comments :) Thanks for your time. Create. Have fun.

How to draw portrait from photograph

Hello,

Firstly, Few words regarding portrait drawing from photograph reference. When you want to draw a person from a photograph,  you need to have all the features in exactly the same place and a lot of attention is required for finer details to achieve an acceptable level of realism. I find the grid method best suits this.
If you have the reference digitally, find out how to make grid here:
http://rhizwana.com/craft/2014/08/how-to-digitally-make-grid-over-photo-reference/

This is my reference photo with grid





If you have a printed reference and u don't want to mess it up with lines, construct the grid on a OHP sheet & attach it over the photo taping it on all
sides. You can photocopy a graph sheet on to the OHP sheet if u find it tedious to draw lines.
Well with that little piece of info, we'll go straight into the process.

Step 1:
Constructing the grid.

I Took an A4 size butter/trace paper. u can use any size u want but make sure your original drawing sheet and the paper are of the same size. Also any paper can be used for the grid and rough sketch.i used this because it is thinner, so i don't  have to apply too much pressure when transferring to the original sheet.
As I have already mentioned, you can directly use a graph sheet here to eliminate this step.
Use a hard lead pencil (2H) to construct the grid.
Here, I have constructed 20×14 squares for the A4 size . First draw the outermost rectangle 20×14 cm. Then make marks at one centimetre interval on all four sides. Join the opposite points & the grid is ready.









Step 2:
Drawing the face
Use the grid guidelines from your reference photograph and try to recreate the same on the sheet of paper, one square at a time. If you concentrate carefully on each square, then the final picture will turn out perfectly.








Step 3:
Shading the template

Use a soft lead pencil (I have used 5B)  to shade the back of the template sheet. It glides smoothly and the shading is uniform. The higher number, the better. Make sure you cover all the areas where the lines are present. This is especially tricky when you use a opaque paper. It's better to cover the whole sheet in such cases.





Step 4:
Transferring the image

Stick the template over the drawing sheet using tape on all four sides.  Since  both papers are of same size, it is easy to position one on top of the other & can be replaced exactly again if needed. Also, the adhesive in the tape is not touching the original sheet so any tape can be used.
Draw over the lines with the tip of an empty ballpoint pen. Make sure you go over all the lines. Fixing a starting point and proceeding in a single direction will help to avoid missing any lines. For example from top left to bottom right.
Peel off the tape after completion. U'll have a mild outline of all the required areas in your drawing sheet. Now you can proceed with sketching and adding the details with the medium of your choice. U can store the template and use it for future projects if you want to recreate the same or try out with a different medium.





I proceeded with coloured charcoal for this portrait. Click the link below if you want to take a look at the step by step process and final outcome.
http://rhizwana.com/craft/2014/11/charcoal-portait/

Create.Have fun

List of materials used:

A4 size trace paper (I used the one which comes along with OHP sheets)
A4 size drawing sheet (tulip artist drawing pad)
2H,2B,5B apsara drawing pencils
Mechanical pencil 0.5 mm for fine lines
Eraser, scale
Empty ballpoint pen
Adhesive tape



-பூங்குழலி

How to digitally make grid over photo reference

Am using the Picsart application for this purpose.
Technical details
Mobile model: Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300
Android version: 4.3
Picsart version:  4.5.5

Step 1
In the homescreen of picsart app, select Draw option & then "Draw on background" in the sub menu





Step 2
Choose the background. As I want finer precision, I use the graph sheet background.





Step 3
Set measurements.  There are standard templates available.  U can use that or set measurements according to need. I wanted a 20×14 square cm area for drawing in a A4 size sheet. I did some rough calculations and then fine tuned it to 980×1435





Step 4
Select the layers option, then "photo layer" in the submenu. Add the required photo. U can also use the "add photo" menu if the grid doesn't permit u to add the wanted field area. But I always prefer photo layer as the placement will be perfect.





Step 5
Now in the layers menu, Reduce the opacity of your photo. U will be able to see the grid over the photograph.





Step 6
Use the "save image" option to save your work and you are done and all set to portrait drawing. Not just for portraits, any reference can be made this way. It is only a basic idea & there are many more methods to experiment yourselves.
Create. Have fun.





Tips n tricks: if you want to make this easier, to get a better idea about the lighting and shading, first edit your photos with sketcher/drawing effects using any application. There are many in the market. (picsart provides it too in the Effect section, but I would also recommend sketchguru) When you are satisfied with Fx, save & use that image for applying the grid.

HERE is how I continued with this if you are curious :)

-பூங்குழலி

All about Monsoon

Hello,
Am totally new to papercrafting & blogging in general. I happened to see the craft challenge with monsoon theme..
http://blog.imaginationsonline.com/2014/08/anything-goes-with-monsoons.html?m=1
so I decided to give it a go & start from there :)
I plan to update more posts soon :)
Here's the card I have made for this theme with the little supplies I had..





If u r interested in the Steps, here they are:
I cut a 9"×5" orange cardstock & folded in half for the landscape layout. .
I stamped the borders with red pigment ink..
I cut a black craft paper leaving 1/4" margin on all sides (It dint turn out perfect though) & pasted it on the orange sheet with glue.
I drew and cut the cup and saucer out of patterned paper, added the green strips from an old wedding card.
Since I didn't have any chalk/distress inks, I used acrylic colour (burnt sienna) mixed with camlin gloss medium (thinner) to do the shading.
I cut out a vintage tag washi tape & trimmed it to a smaller size. Cut & Added that little heart from a red paper. Outlined with uniball signo silver pen. I pierced at the top With a pin, inserted a thin twine, made a loop knot & tag is ready.
For the clouds, I made a stencil with OHP sheet. Drew the clouds, cut out with a craft knife. I applied homemade modelling paste (talc+white glue+ camlin texture white) with palette knife.
I stuck the saucer flat with glue & the cup & tag with foam squares to give dimension.
I mixed some burnt sienna with the modelling paste  & applied with the stencil I cut to get the coffee/tea effect.. (not sure if it is showing up in the picture;) )






Finally, with uniball signo milky white gel pen, I drew lighting, rain splatters,  tea foam & the faux stitches.. and included "Bliss"
(No stencil, so had to go by handwriting again )
Card is done.

Thunderstorms,  heavy showers,  hot tea , coffee aroma.. they cross my mind whenever I think of monsoons.. am never an indoor person when it rains..
I would never miss a chance to get drenched in rain & feel the blissful drops wash away every ounce of sorrow & melancholy from my mind :)

So dats my Version of the monsoons :)  I hope you enjoyed it. I found lots & lotsa imperfections there (it is full of them actually) but am happy how it has turned out, this being my first serious project with all those strange tools ;)
Hoping to improve more.. Cheers.!
Create. Have fun.



-பூங்குழலி