Author Archives: Sheila

Mingus Light

Spoonflower Stash

Thirty new designs available for sale in my Spoonflower shop. Slowly but surely, it is filling up. In this batch, only two designs needed alterations. They printed lighter than the original image.

Along with my swatches, I ordered new fabric samples. These help the designer know how the same color will look on different fabrics. Also how the weave might affect a design. When I started with Spoonflower, they offered about ten types of fabric. Their offerings have nearly tripled. Organics, denim, spandex, fleece and cottons.

Printed swatches, and new fabric samples.

Close-up.

Still busy with maintenance of both my Spoonflower and Society6 shops. No fun at all. Redundant, and it has literally put me to sleep a few times. And no time for painting. Needs to be done though, and I will feel better when I have completed the tasks.

Thank goodness for my artist friends, and gorgeous new art in my inbox!

This And That

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Glassford Hill Prescott Valley, AZ. SMD 2018

I love this view of the hill. The city is nearly invisible. But it is right there, all around Glassford. The history of this hill is interesting. It is an extinct volcano. There is a cave, a lava vent, at the top. In the video. when he zooms in, Mingus is on the right.

The hill is named for Col. William Glassford. In the 1880’s he helped form an advanced system of heliograph stations to monitor the movements of Apache Indians, U.S. military and civilians. Seven men including one cook were stationed on Glassford Hill.

Where Women Create, reading material.

I ordered these back issues over a month ago. The information did state that it would take up to four weeks for delivery. Stampington and Company is selling back issues at clearance prices. I was anxiously awaiting their arrival. I have already started reading three others, conveniently located next to my reading chair.

I’ve gone and done it again. I signed up. Christiane Drieling invited me to take part in her Art On 45 event. It will be my first juried event. Selected works will be auctioned to raise money for NCLAC (North Central Louisiana Art Council). To aid in their commitment to establish a valuable art program at the local Boys And Girls Club.

THe deadline is January 4th. Plenty of time. Ha ha ha. Anything goes. I have a few ideas already.

This weekend for me is about tech chores. Updating my shops and dealing with some website issues as well. Checking things off of my to-do list. I finally finished organizing my Pinterest boards. I started it last September. Yup, during the 30 day challenge. The boards I use as inspiration were a wreck. Now I can easily find what I am looking for. I know, I know. I am organizationally obsessive. Ha ha.

Color, texture and line. Mingus sunset . SMD 2018

One last view for you. This from a few nights ago. Gotta paint this sometime.

Enjoy your weekend!

Bee Paper Bouquet

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Bouquet In Blue. 6 x 9 in. watercolor & pen on Bee Paper. 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

I learned first hand, one of the qualities of this paper. Then found a YouTube video that demonstrated the same trait. Bee paper grabs the paint.

I’m not sure if I have used this paper before. I have a pack that I could swear was marked clearance. I thought because they were going to stop carrying it. But I found it is still for sale on the Michaels website. This paper is an odd size, 6 x 9 inches. It is:

140lb/300gsm
25 sheets
100% cotton
Acid free and archival
Cold press surface
Internally and externally sized

So it grabs the paint. What does that mean? Once you lay the color down, you can’t move it. On a high quality paper, you can go back into an area with water to soften edges, or move the pigment. I did this intentionally, but for example, the bottom right and top left of the table have hard edges. As opposed to smooth blends.

Having said that, I found this paper allowed me to blend smoothly. More so than I would usually want. You can see this throughout the piece. The background is two colors, and it is very hard to see where one begins and the other ends. I was working very quickly, and I am sure that helped.

The area where I discovered the difficulty was in the flowers. The front facing blooms. I added Burnt Sienna over the Cad. Yellow to mimic a two-toned petal. I wanted the second color to soften and spread along the entire length of the petal. Instead I ended up with a petal that was half yellow and half sienna. Chunky Monkey.

I was so intent on smoothing the petals, I forgot to scan the “before”. It took several attempts. And though I did manage to get a few smooth transitions, it is clearly visible that those blooms are darker. The side view buds are clean Cad. Yellow.

There is a texture to this paper. This video shows you better than I can explain. The grain did not show up in my painting or the scan. Very surprising that the paint did not settle and highlight it. I opened the scan up at 300 ppi in Photoshop, and still could not see it.

I was in a hurry to paint and I did not tape down the paper. I worked very wet and the paper only curled a bit on the top and bottom edges. Not bad at all. Terrific actually!

I found that I really enjoyed this size. It’s not too big, and not too small. It’s juuusst right. Ha ha. I was very comfortable with it. Blah, blah,blah. That is my long-winded way of saying I am surprising pleased with this paper! I am very happy with this piece.

Bee Paper sells a variety of products including journals. mixed media and pastel paper. I’d really like to try one of their journals.

Enjoy!