For Melissa's interior designer branding session, we rented Mission Loft, one of my favorite rental studios in the San Francisco Bay Area!
Hi there! It's Andrea with you to share a fun card featuring the new Be My Boo? stamp set and October 31st Word Dies. These ghosts from the Be My Boo? stamp set are so cute! I colored them with Copics, fussy-cut them, and added white highlights with a gel pen. To create my background, I blended a white panel with the following colors of distress oxides: Salvaged Patina, Unchartered Mariner, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot. I flicked Opaque White Paper Splatter over the panel to represent stars. For my moon, I diecut a white circle with the 2.0
For Melissa's interior designer branding session, we rented Mission Loft, one of my favorite rental studios in the San Francisco Bay Area!
Welcome to Art-Work Studios…
Artificial architecture has developed considerably in recent years, giving studios, professionals, students, and passionate enthusiasts the tools to create striking interior and exterior scenes. "Living in a Dream" is a breathtaking compilation of architectural and interior wonders. This curated collection invites readers to wander through the corridors of limitless creativity, where every page unveils a new realm of aesthetic innovation. The book transcends conventional boundaries, offering a glimpse into the minds of visionary artists who have dared to dream beyond the ordinary.
For Melissa's interior designer branding session, we rented Mission Loft, one of my favorite rental studios in the San Francisco Bay Area!
Pepita designed by Stephanie Brandenburg of Frond Design Studios for Northcott Fabrics. Running yardage, scene runs from selvage to selvage.
Cobalt The Day to Day The Summer Scene Painting program at Cobalt is an intensive, three week, hands on experience. It had been years since I had held a paintbrush for eight hours a day. I loved every minute of the experience. For me that is Zen. We started out with basics, as one would expect. Much of what I learned at Cobalt was material I was already familiar with, but somehow each concept was taught in a different way than I had heard it before. This time, it wasn't just about how to do things but also why we do them that way. There was a healthy dose of geometry and physics and a few other surprising sciences taught. Every minute of the work day at Cobalt was scripted. Rachel and Kimb know how long everything should take and plan accordingly. There was time for each project to be completed with no real down time. There was no real wasted time. For each thing, they would let us know at the beginning how long it should take and gave us that much time. Each day began in the waiting room where we had a joke of the day, then we would talk about that day's project. At that point, we would go into the studio and sit around a table for instruction. The time was balanced, in the first and second week between instructional experiences and practical experiences. This was really important during times when we were waiting for paint to dry. Instead of sitting around doing nothing, Rachel and/or Kimb would gather us at a table and lecture. Each session was planned and there were great handouts for each of them. No real wasted time at Cobalt. The First Thing The basics are important in anything we do. Scene painting is no different. We started out with layout and cartooning. Every good painting, whether you are painting on an easel or on a grand scale for the theatre, begins as a good drawing. The first couple of days, we worked on how to scale and layout drawings using charcoal grids. Scenic artists traditionally stand up to paint or draw but their work is on the ground. Vine charcoal and paintbrushes are inserted into the end of three to four foot bamboo poles and we work at arms length plus that. People tell me all the time they can't imagine painting that way. I tell them it's just a matter of brush choice, brush placement and trust. If you can get past the mental part, anyone can paint in this fashion. Years ago, I made a conscious decision when learning scene painting, to trust the teacher. People who know what I want to know. I decided they were teaching things for a reason and it must be important. Being teachable is the most important part of being a student. Period. The first mini-project we were given was a line drawing cartoon. Each of us received a different cartoon and we were expected to scale it and make a grid and then transfer it to a large piece of craft paper. I got a turtle, whose name escapes me. Drawing with a charcoal in the end of a bamboo stick. Holding the reference drawing is essential The finished drawing. Notice the faint charcoal grid The Second Thing After we finished our drawings, the next project was to create a much larger drawing as a team. My team chose a Hirschfield drawing. Each of us took a different third of the drawing. We created a grid with charcoal and snaplines. Then we each cartooned our section of the drawing and hoped it matched up. Once we were done with that, we teamed up again and had to lay out a perspective drawing. Drawing the Hirshfield The finished piece The perspective drawing Cobalt Teachings During the first week, when we were waiting for paint to dry on a project, we sat around a chalk board and learned about light, shadow, highlight, bouncelight and etc... Each thing we learned prepared us for something in the next project. Everything built on the last thing. It was very much a line upon line, precept upon precept experience. We learned about how to draw cylinders, cones, cubes and spheres. We learned about the different types of shadows and highlights. Everything that was taught had a purpose. There was no wasted time. Great experience. One I hope to repeat. Pissaro shapes With teachings Reminders Cobalt Life The most important part of the Cobalt experience is the work in the studio. When we weren't in the studio, we had a little time to ourselves. Prior to attending Cobalt, we all received a questionnaire about food. What we'd like to be stocked for breakfast, what food allergies we had, etc... Since I have a great deal of food allergies, I thought I'd have to sneak out and find stuff to eat. I never had to do so. Each of us took turns over the three weeks where we'd either be the head chef or an assistant in the kitchen. Every night there were gluten free, soy free, dairy free options for me to eat. There were a few other students with some food allergies and everyone who cooked made certain everyone could eat. That was a kindness. We ate well at Cobalt. Everyone was on their best behavior and everyone made sure they made their best dish. I made my son in law's famous asparagus wrapped in black forest ham with asiago cheese. Big hit with the other students. Our day began with breakfast. Everyone was on their own for breakfast. The fridge and pantry were well stocked with the items we had asked for on the questionnaire so no one went hungry. After breakfast we headed to the studio and worked. At lunchtime, we went back to the farmhouse and ate lunch. Typically it was leftovers from the night before. Then back to the studio for the next round. When it was time for dinner, the chef and the assistants left and began cooking. When we weren't in the kitchen, we could explore the property, take walks, graze on blueberries, meditate or enjoy one another's company. It was important to share an evening meal together. After supper we had time to ourselves. In the group I was in there were no smokers or vegetarians. Rachel said that was very rare. My time at Cobalt was idyllic. Every moment of every day was exciting. I had waited so long to come and I had been worried it wouldn't live up to my expectations. All of that was put to rest the first day. I was so thankful to be at Cobalt. Mind blowing, life changing. On the weekends we were able to go exploring. We didn't go to the studio on Saturdays or Sundays. Cobalt is in a small town in the Catskills called White Lake, New York. The studio is eleven miles away from the site of the epic concert Woodstock. They have a museum there and one weekend some of us went there. Images of that trip can be seen here. Some of the students opted to go into the city for the weekend. I chose to hike. We were in the Catskills. I have already been to New York City and I am sure I will go back. It's not often I get to hike the Catskills. The National Park Service manages long sections of the Delaware River near there and there were a series of six short hikes you could do and then receive a patch for them. A few of us decided to get the patch. We had a great time and accomplished our goal. Those hikes can be viewed here, here, here, here, here, and here. The Studio Cat Rachel says every studio needs a cat. We had Winifred. There were times when I had to work in the studio alone. A few times I wanted to go in and finish something and ended up in the studio after hours. Winnie was a welcome companion during those times. She kept watch over the studio. She knew who was in charge. Apparently she gets the most hits on the Cobalt Studios Facebook page. Winnie Knows who is really in charge Cobalt Studios is a great training ground for scenic artists. I loved my time there and hope to go back for some of the other training that goes on there. I would recommend Cobalt Studios to anyone who was serious about learning the craft of scene painting. Great times.
When we speak of contemporary Mexican architecture, there are a handful of firms that take up most of the global spotlight. Architects such as Frida Escobedo and Alberto Kalach have created much buzz within the profession in recent years, for example, the former for snagging...
Welcome to Art-Work Studios…
For Melissa's interior designer branding session, we rented Mission Loft, one of my favorite rental studios in the San Francisco Bay Area!
For Melissa's interior designer branding session, we rented Mission Loft, one of my favorite rental studios in the San Francisco Bay Area!
People, Parties, and Art: Shooting the Scene at Miami's Art Basel
In january we had some lovely visitors from Sweden in our studio and we've been shooting a little video for AEG together. We've been asked to share thoughts about our view and about daylight and what makes it so inspiring.
For Melissa's interior designer branding session, we rented Mission Loft, one of my favorite rental studios in the San Francisco Bay Area!
For Melissa's interior designer branding session, we rented Mission Loft, one of my favorite rental studios in the San Francisco Bay Area!
Welcome to Art-Work Studios…
A guide for crafters and fiber artists on using your sewing machine to turn bits of nature into exquisite art! Renowned textile artist Meredith Woolnough creates replicas of nature using a delicate system of tiny stitches. Her artwork is breathtaking, and now for the first time Woolnough offers crafters and fiber artists a lesson in how to use the "organic embroidery" technique. Look behind the scenes of her art process, from the initial fieldwork sketching and research that inspires her designs, to the production of her ethereal embroidered sculptures. Guides you through 12 creativity-prompting activities to help you begin your own mastery of this method. Learn to find your desired shape or pattern in nature, from sources like leaves, shells, or coral. Use your sewing machine to turn it into openwork art. You'll also enjoy dozens of inspirational photos of Woolnough's own art pieces. Woolnough's instructions offer simple but highly versatile techniques and allow you space for your own creative approach.
Cobalt Studios Drapery Project At Cobalt, as I have said a few times before, there was no wasted time. Each time we finished a project, we'd set up a new project. We would stretch muslin over our flats and have to size them with starch. While we were waiting for the starch to dry, Rachel or Kimb would teach us something else. On one of those occasions we learned about painting drapery. Of all the things I painted at Cobalt, I think my drapery assignment was my least successful. If I had to choose one project that I liked the least (not because of the teachings or anything the teachers did) I would choose the drapery project. I performed the least well on that one. I had one unteachable moment at the beginning of the project and it served to sabotage me all the way through. I try to be teachable all the time. Once in awhile I mess up, though and the drapery project was one of those times. Consequently I had to learn the hard way on this project. But since I learned things on this project and I am not afraid to admit when I've made a mistake I have decided to blog about it anyway. Step One: Base Coat and Cartooning This was one of those quick projects in between other projects, and we were told to take a flat that was 2' x 3' and choose two colors from the paint corral and scumble them together. I chose purple and yellow. The paint corral was a collection of all the extra paint we had mixed up until that time. When we would finish a project, instead of throwing away all that paint, we capped it and put it in the paint corral. Then it was fair game for anyone to use from that time on. It saved a great deal of time in paint mixing. No sense mixing a new color when the color we wanted was already mixed. I chose purple and yellow, complementary colors. Other people were choosing blue and light blue, or blue and green, colors that were analogous or related to each other in some way. Kimb questioned me about my color choice and I think was giving me the opportunity to make a switch, but I went ahead and did it anyway. This was my one unteachable moment while at Cobalt Studios. At this point, we didn't know what we were painting, we had just been told to scumble two colors together. Then we found out. We were painting drapery, but not just any drapery, embroidered drapery. Even though I made a poor decision at the beginning of this project, I still learned the principles and when I have to paint drapery like this again, I will have a much better outcome. Rachel showed us a photo of drapery that she had put through photoshop and had abstracted it into color blocks that represented local color, shade, shadow and highlight. With charcoal on a bamboo, she then cartooned out the big shapes on her demo piece. She suggested that with drapery, she usually cartooned it upside down because she was more successful on drapery when she approached it in the abstract shapes upside down than she did when she painted it right side up. I followed suit. Ugly scumble of purple and yellow and charcoal cartooning Step #2: Stenciling Next we were shown the collection of stencils and asked to find a stencil with an all over pattern but one with recognizable shapes within that pattern. Rachel then taught us how to stencil specific to this project. With wallpaper, it's important to meet edges and to be careful where the repeats go. On embroidered drapery, however, it's important for the stencil to follow the curves. We worked on one fold at a time with the stencil, making sure the recognizable shape was visible here and there. I was not having a good color day and I chose brown for my stencil color. Another poor choice. That's the thing about choices. A poor choice is still a choice. Ugly brown stencil on an ugly purple and yellow scumble Step #3: Shade Rachel then demonstrated how to paint the shade. Once again, shade is the shadow on a surface caused by the absence of light on that surface while cast shadow is the shadow that is projected off of one surface and onto another. The shade on this project as on all the other projects was made of burnt umber and ultramarine blue, thinned to transparency with water. It's important to note that scenic artists keep the paint elevation or other reference material close by when they paint in order to compare and refer to it during the process. The shade is painted by finding the deepest part of a fold and painting darkest there and bringing it out into a fuzzy line as the shade transitions to the light. Fuzzy lines are made by painting a brush stroke of clear water on the fuzzy edge before painting with the paint color. The paint then mixes with the water which dilutes and thins it. We help a fuzzy line out with a brush just a little. Rachel painting the shade upside down. Note the source material next to her work My project with the shade painted on it Step #4: Cast Shadow Looking at the source material, we were to identify the difference between the shade and the cast shadow. Whereas shade has a fuzzy edge, cast shadow has a hard edge. Our cast shadow on this project (on every project) was a mixture of ultramarine blue and velour black, thinned to transparency with water. In other words, Payne's Grey. The shadow painting was pretty straightforward. Where the shadow was on the reference, transfer it to the painting. Pretty quick. Shadow added Step #5: Hightlight In the high points of the drapery, where the light would strike it normally, we added highlights. Highlights are made by taking the predominant local color, and adding the "color of the light". I had always made my highlights by adding white paint to the local color prior to studying at Cobalt. Adding the color of light for my highlight was revelatory for me. Since my predominant color on my piece was an unattractive yellow, I added the amber color of light to my base coat. Still another example of where my poor choice at the beginning served to make this project less successful than it should have been. As I looked at everyone else's work on this project, I have to say on this one mine was the weakest, and that was due to my one unteachable moment at the beginning of the project. Highlight added I really want to paint this project again, but this time make a better choice at the beginning of it. I wish I had taken the opportunity Kimb had given me at the beginning to choose better colors. I'm glad I didn't end my Cobalt experience on this project.
Kate Honey of textile print studio Din + Bloom answers questions about her company, the textile design industry, and best practices for designers applying to print studios.
Trotont inspired by the black letter and gothic scene, gives a masculine, dashing and scary impression, suitable for anything related to music, apparel, clothing lines, festival posters and others. **What you get:** - Trotont TTF - Trotont OTF - Trotont WOFF - Trotont WOFF2 **Features:** - Uppercase & Lowercase - Multilingual support - Number - Symbol - Punctuation - Support in Mac and Windows OS - Support in design application (photoshop, illustrator, and more) - Easy to install thanks so much for purchase
Bring the heartwarming charm of "My Whisker Friends" into your home, an enchanting artwork that captures the pure joy of childhood and the delightful companionship of kittens. Set in a sunlit meadow, the image showcases a young boy sharing a moment of innocent play and affection with his furry friends. The golden light bathes the scene in a warm, magical glow, highlighting the tender bond between the boy and the kittens. Perfect for any room, "My Whisker Friends" exudes a sense of warmth, happiness, and innocence, reminding us of the simple joys of life and the timeless beauty of friendship. Designed by Enchantika™ Studios, this piece is more than just wall art; it's a narrative woven in incredible detail to bring the piece to life. More Information: As an elegant gift, you can simply download the 8 1/2 x 11 image, print it on photo paper, and put your message on the back. To make it special, display it in a 2-sided, clear acrylic magnetic frame for gift giving. Or put the print on your desk to make you smile and remind you what it's all about. See our Quick Start Guide included in the downloads. Of course, we love large-size prints and complete wall murals. You can also consider uploading our images to Vistaprint.com or EasyCanvasPrints.com to get a large wall-size piece of art. Our images can even be turned into an entire wall mural using a source like Wallsauce.com. For example, Using our 3:2 ratio picture and PDF file, it would cost approximately $530 for them to produce a wall mural to cover a 15-foot x 10-foot wall (as of this posting date). See our FAQs in our shop. Imagine that as an entire wall in your home—an alternative to accent paint. Our digital wall art format allows you to tailor the size to any dimension, ensuring a perfect fit for your intended space. Each print has a 300 DPI JPEG file and a High-Quality Print PDF file in 15 variations of each image. If you loved a design in the landscape but would have preferred it in a portrait or square image - no problem. We've gone the extra mile to reproduce each image in multiple styles and sizes. These files are ready to print at home or upload to the links we've provided to two high-end online artwork printers. Decorating your walls on a budget? Complete canvas prints are available starting at $5.20 from EasyCanvasPrinting.com. These image files can even be used to create matching pillows and bedding. These digital files are super high-quality for any print project, from posters, t-shirts, coffee cups, or even bedding to a wall mural. Of course, you can simply print them out yourself on photo glossy paper on your inkjet or laser printer and mount them in numerous ways with frames, matting, and magnetic acrylic display frames. (Remember: sunlight is the enemy of artwork. Use UV-resistant coatings and fixatives to protect your piece.) Whether you keep this beautiful wall art print for yourself or present it as a thoughtful and mesmerizing art gift, this new Abstract Collection #2 piece promises to transform any environment with its stunning beauty. Embrace modern eclectic art's bold, abstract expression and let your walls narrate a story of artistic vision, imagination, and digital sophistication. Each wall art print is designed exclusively as a decoration and an investment in your aesthetic surroundings. Place your order today and enjoy art that converges with digital innovation to create timeless beauty for every wall.
French Revolution designed by Stephanie Brandenburg of Frond Design Studios for Northcott Fabrics. Running yardage, scene runs from selvage to selvage.
