Skirmish On Insecurity Hill

We’ve all had times when the original plan didn’t work. How did you proceed after facing the unexpected? Many artists happily embrace those moments, looking…

I hope to duplicate the look of a spray-painted mural with air-brushing. My experience with air-brushing is limited, more because of time limitations than lack…

Amusement carnival art may have a certain naivety but also a definitive “look” to it. Bright color, outlining, bold imagery often with condensed space in…

A carved wooden dragon traveled home with me from Thailand. It will be the model for the dragons I want to air-brush. I sketched out…

Even when I am not concerned about copyright infringement as I know that the final form will be a far cry from any original source,…

Finally, I found my stand-in…Why, yes, of course this is me! I have often battled demons trying to crush my artistic soul: “That’s not good…

My composition is decided, airbrush equipment is in working order, paints and mediums are at the ready. What about the fabric? Cotton readily absorbs paint,…

Dabbling with different supplies is part of the fun of being an artist, but I really have to restrain myself in an art supply store.…

An airbrush is slightly larger than a pen, having an attached cup or bottle to contain paint and connected to a compressed air source. Air…

Traditionally, the painting process requires masking – exposing areas to be painted while protecting other areas from un-wanted spray. Frisket (a thin, sticky plastic film)…

At this point, I’m totally into what I’m doing, even though I know I’ve strayed from my original concept. This is not the minimally detailed,…

To work on the dragons, I’ll need to protect what I’ve already done. I need to make some small areas of color, and tracing vellum…

I protect my work area from overspray. Lots of newsprint pinned up around the general area as it is surprising how much spray can go…

Just love that chartreuse color!  I had wanted to use some metallic color on the dragon, but the pigment particles are coarser and clog up…

As the name implies, super opaque white has pretty good coverage. I used some on the palette to make a brighter base for the color…

Taking the masking off the edges is fun because a clean edge is revealed and so much messiness is instantly cleared away. However, in this…

Making it up as I go, I’ve decided to layer the air-brushing and batting onto the right side of the backing fabric. My thought is…

I’ve been free motion stitching on my Handi-Quilter Sweet 16 machine. It’s a “sit down mid-arm” sewing machine. There is some confusion about nomenclature –…

The stitching is about complete. Since I’ve done this on my mid-arm (a Handi-Quilter Sweet 16) I can easily take it away from the machine…

 I like the painted flames. Textile paint applies nicely to Evolon, a non-woven (and thus, non-fraying) material. I can cut all kinds of detailed, curving…

The sharp edge between painted and not painted will be hard to cover up. I extend the painted area, attempting to match the colors and…

While pondering what would give my dragon quilt more life, I asked for help. SAQA MA/RI is an unwieldy name for the local chapter of…

I decided to cut away the green background and then I prepared my long-arm for the next step. I still had a lot of green…

I had to paint some more cheesecloth but that went quickly. It was a novel experience to use this flimsy material and I was a…