Category Archives: Mixed Media

September 30-Day Creative Gathering

Ranunculus. Day 1, 8 x 8 on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

A load of laundry.
A load of pillows.
Dusted.
Vacuumed.
Did dishes.
Finished organizing art supplies.
Sampled paint colors. Eliminated some choices and grouped by value.
Painted a palette grouping the values.
Did a mani/pedi.

You know what this was. Procrastination. Haha.
Late last night I finally started painting. DUH. If I had done the first part in the afternoon, I might have finished in time.

The first layer is a napkin from Ikea. I thought I had separated the layers, but after I Placed it, I noticed there was one more layer. So instead of dark outlines, I had soft ones. I used matte medium top and bottom, so that took a long time to dry.

This morning, I cut the vase out of scrapbook paper, glued that on, and sat staring with no clue what to do next. Haha.

I didn’t have a vision or a plan. I was inspired by some playful florals I found on Pinterest, and Instagram. And I feel like I missed the mark. That is exactly what this needs. A few bold marks. So. A work in progress.

I think I need to add some bright marks, and I need to brighten the leaves. I used stamps, ink, acrylics, posco pen and watercolor.

The background was originally a pale turquoise. It seemed too light, the vase was not standing out. So I laid a wash of Inktense over it, and dabbed it off. I left it slightly darker around the edge of the vase. The splatters turned out much large than I wanted. The blooms are so dark, adding the light might not be such a bad thing.

Early evening. Time to start number two.

Like The Deserts Miss The Rain

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A few blessed minutes. Rain. Needed to help fight the fire that is north of us. We are not in any danger, but the plume of smoke is ominous just the same. The areas around us received more rain, as usual. I read that there were 99 fires in Arizona. Such a high number, and we are not the only state with active fires.

I am finally finished with this trio I started in the Creative Gathering. I switched the colors, wasn’t quite happy with my first choice. As luck would have it, I painted the blooms and sky about three times. Haha.

After my first color layer on the blooms, I used a non permanent pen to add the details back to the purple and pink. I had already painted the sky, having noticed how pale the color was. And that some of the white gesso was showing through in small areas. For some reason, I did not notice the ink had smeared, until I had finished the last panel. ??? Maybe the shine was distracting? Haha. I really have no idea how I did not notice it. The black ink over the sky areas was very light, it just looked slightly dirty.

I began again. Another layer of blue here and there. Two more layers to cover the inky blooms. More sealer. I painted the centers with liquitex acrylic paint pen, two layers of semi-transparent yellow. For a closer look, click the image below.

Trio #1 Mixed Media on 6 x 6 Cradled Board. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

Trio #2 Mixed Media on 6 x 6 Cradled Board. © 2021 Sheila Delgado. — Trio #1 Mixed Media on 6 x 6 Cradled Board. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

Oops, I did it again. Thought it would be a quick fix. Ha! I painted these for three little under-age-five sisters. Recycled cradled board equals lots of texture. Here is a look at the original palette. Better, yes?

Day 12, Mixed Media on 6 x 6 Cradled Board. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

Happy week to you!

Mingus Has A Ball

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Gotta love the desert light. I’ll try to remember that as we soar over 100 degrees. Today we hit 105. But the “real feel” was 112. Yikes! Phoenix’s high was 111. We are usually 10 to fifteen degrees cooler than the city. The warm light on the hills forced me to jump up, and grab my camera to catch the scene.

Another postcard exchange. Yay! I still miss the annual LYA exchange and was so excited to get an invite from Nelvia McGrath. I painted my postcard offering, naturally.

Ball Cactus, 4 x 6, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

After I scanned the image, I noticed I completely forgot to add distant hills. So, I added them digitally with Photoshop. That “straight” line was buggin’ me.