Tooling Foil Tutorial!

 I've been making samples for a workshop I'll be teaching at the upcoming NAEA convention in Seattle, in March.  The workshop is titled "Oh What a Relief - Fabulous Tooling Foil".  So I've been posting pics of my samples in Facebook art teacher groups, and have gotten a lot of questions about technique.  As a result, I'm diving into the world of videos, and have two (very low-tech but hopefully informative) videos to share with you!  But first, here are some of the samples I've been sharing:

I'm still trying to decide on an appropriate background for my silly robot above.  The piece below is a sample idea, designed to be perhaps a mat cover, or a book cover with a place to insert a photo or drawing, or even a frame for a mirror.  Funny how it matches my legs! 

Anyhow, to see how to take a piece of tooling foil (36 gauge aluminum) and create some nice relief in it, it's all in the video below!

The piece below is tooled foil that hasn't yet been treated with ink for 'antiquing'.  The black ink really brings out the details in the design.  I am  waiting to antique as demo in the workshop. 

To find out how to add all the detailed patterns and texture, and how to add the ink for antiquing, it's all in video #2!

So... the tooling is done, and the whole project has been inked.  Next step, as I explained in the video, is to remove some ink with steel wool.  Once that was done, I decided the whole piece would be enhanced with some added color.  Like I said in the video, I'm not a fan of of the look of Sharpies (or other permanent markers) on tooling foil.  So what I've done is mixed a small amount of acrylic paint and Mod Podge together, to make a semi-transparent paint.  I started with some blue.

Here's a closeup of texture that was made by tapping (from the back) with the point of my pointy wooden stick.  The ink surrounds it and looks really cool when you steel wool off the surface.  If I had done the same technique on the flat areas, from the front, the ink would have filled the little indentations making little black dots surrounded by silver color. In other words, the exact opposite!

Then I added some other colors the same way - pink on the eye and frame, a pale orange on the fins, and a mix of pink and orange on the lips. Here's the finished product!

The dragonfly below has been painted, inked, washed, re-inked, and I'm still not happy with it.  I'll be fiddling with it some more, and hopefully creating a background garden for it to be resting in, with possible some bright colored sheet foam or other collage materials.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

 

I am not a portrait artist: Throwback Thursday

I was cleaning up my studio today (it doubles as a guest bedroom and my adult son will be home visiting this weekend, and I've been painting a bunch so the studio was a MESS).  Anyhow, I started digging through some old portfolios, and I came across a batch of self-portraits from various stages of life...  The one above is from sometime in the late 1970's or early 1980's.  I was teaching high school, including a class in darkroom photography.  The drawing was done from a self-portrait photo that I took and processed/printed myself in the school darkroom, using a graph to draw.  Yes, when I was young my hair was dark!  Very dark!  And that's a granny square afghan my mom made for me, that I still have. I used to wear contact lenses, which is why I'm not wearing glasses in the photo and drawing.  I have never been confident about drawing myself, though I've done it many dozens of times.  I find my own face very difficult, with no clearly defined cheekbones.

My first self-portrait attempt (at least the first one that I still actually have) is this oil painting below that I did in high school, probably when I was  about 14 or 15, looking in a mirror to paint.  Such a happy child.....  Not..  (The photo on the right is from November, so kinda what I look like now.) 

Anyhow, it's very hard for me to imagine there was ever a time where I wore a pink blouse with ruffles down the front, but evidently I did.  I got contact lenses when I was 16 and then pierced my ears, so I'm wearing glasses in this painting but no earrings.  Ironically, the frames look a lot like the frames I'm wearing nowadays.  I guess I've come full circle...  (Though now I'm wearing earrings.  Back then, I thought you shouldn't wear earrings and glasses at the same time.  Too much stuff on your face.  That now seems totally ridiculous; I never leave the house without earrings these days!)

The drawing above, never finished, is from sometime during the same time period as the first drawing, also from a black and white photo self-portrait, using a grid to draw.  Not only was my hair dark, I had cut it short for the first time in my life.

 A couple years later, perms were the 'thing', and I jumped on the bandwagon.  This drawing below is from that time period, mid-80's, using a mirror.  I have no idea why I'm wearing my glasses and not contacts.  I look very young in this drawing, I think!

The photo collage piece below I think was made in the late 70's or early 80's, using a photo of me from my college days, when my hair was very long. 

The photo was solarized and altered in the darkroom repeatedly (by me), and mounted on mat board. The images on board were cut out with an Exact-o knife and fit together, so the piece is somewhat layered.  Below is a closeup.

I did these two drawings below much more recently, maybe 4 years ago, as part of a drawing--a-day challenge with specific 'assignments'.  I don't think the one of the right looks anything like me, but it appears to be my first self-portrait where I actually cracked a smile!

The last photo below is of few random paintings made while working along with students on various self-portrait assignments.  I stopped wearing my contact lenses around 1990, so these were all made after that.   I still have the question mark earring; the other earring is an exclamation point!  The painting on the left was done along with some high school freshman using mirrors for their self-portraits.  In the middle, a grid assignment done with 6th graders, and on the right, a 3rd grade assignment that I've previously blogged about here.  If you hop over to that post, which is about observational drawing, plan to scroll down a bit to see this particular project! 

I hope you've enjoyed my nostalgic stroll through some less-than-successful personal art!