Nesting

I love Claudine Hellmuth's work and enjoyed an online class with her last year. (I had less time than I thought to put into the work, but I still learned a lot!) So, when I saw her freebie tutorial for a paper bird's nest in my email box, I decided I had to give it a go.

If you click on Claudine's link, you see this nice full nest into which she put pretty eggs.Mine is a little different. Here are a few of the pitfalls I noticed. Nothing major, but worth keeping in mind if you try this!

First, Claudine says cut up brown paper bags and text for the paper bits. Then you glue them over the back of a protected bowl to make your nest. (I'm giving vague instructions because I want you to visit her!)

So I did. Note to self. It is best to use the paper bags. I had some cool brown shred which I thought would look all nest-like and it does. But it was a pain to work with.

Note 2. Use enough paper. My nest is pretty thin and I think it suffers for it. If you look at mine and then Claudine's, you'll see how hers is fuller and probably stronger. More layers.

Note 3. This takes a lot more matte medium than you think it will. Just be prepared.

Note 4. Make sure you use more brown than white. Otherwise it looks like the photo above, which isn't too "nesty."

Note 5. Other materials can help. I used a little green moss to darken things up and I also added a thin layer of medium to the inside of the nest and sprinkled oregano gently within. It helped.

Note 6. I still wasn't thrilled by the white look so I did a thin raw umber wash. You can see it a bit in the above photo. It helped. A lot.

Note 7. Fill can help all around. I added a few feathers, some inside moss and ...

Voila! I was very happy!

These are delicate and I suspect mine is more so because I didn't use enough layers of paper. But it's pretty darned cute and I'm sure I will make another! Thanks, Claudine!

Note: I have just updated my book blog, Chopsticks and String, so if you're looking for a good read (or one to ignore), stop by!

A Little More Art

I'm very much behind in my online "Composition for Collage" class with Claudine Hellmuth, but I am enjoying it tremendously. I wanted to share the two pieces I did for the "Horizon Line" assignment.

Claudine explains basically there are two horizon lines, high and low. She also said it was sometimes harder to find examples of high horizon, so I decided to do both of mine that way. (I still want to do low... someday. First I need to work on "vignette" and "grid.")

Above is a high-horizon snow scene. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the white paper is quite textured. I added a bit of gray watercolor for shadowing and to make the "hills" stand out. The paper for the sky is more navy than black, with flecks of gold and silver. The small moon doesn't show up so well -- it's gold foil. I'll probably rephotograph this in better light. I liked its stark simplicity.

This one needs work, I think. But not much. I basically like the uneven high horizon and the flow. The paper has lots of gray/aqua metallic elements and looks like a stormy sea. Overall, the eye seems to move well. But there is one spot where my eye, at least, seems to get stuck.

The little cat hanging outside the boat is bothering me -- enough that I think I'll cover him up with paper. My intent was that he was in the boat eyeing the "fish" stamp, but it looks more like he fell out! And the art style isn't the same, which in some cases is fine, but in this one might be jarring.

The class has two slide show lectures -- one about the various composition form, another called "From Cluttered to Clean" where she takes elements and moves them around or swaps them out to organize the piece. I will have missed both of the online chats due to work, unfortunately, but the transcripts are printed (though reading a chat transcript is disjointed at best.)

Best of all are the 20 pages of downloads she supplies every week. There is a nice variety -- color, black and white, vintage, photos. For $30 (indefinite use of class materials; feedback from Claudine is done at the end of this week), it has been well worth it!

Don't forget to check out what I've been reading on Chopsticks and String!

A Little Bit of This and That

What to do on a summer weekend? A lot!

Claudine Hellmuth's online collage composition class. Here's my first piece -- asymetrical composition. Enjoying the class but running in place to catch up!

Enjoying dinner with friends Mark and Jan and watching their big boy P.T. watch the birds!

We saw an interesting play that I didn't particularly like or understand at our Summer Circle theatre festival. (The set was nice.) It was called "Boom."

Rick said, "Didn't you do things like that when you were in college?" To which I replied, "Yes, but we picked interesting and not totally weird plays when we were going for a general audience." (Am I getting old?)

Afro-Cuban music at the East Lansing Jazz Fest. Love this stuff!

A Father's Day walk with Rick at Lake Lansing park, Rick and me -- This is what our walks look like -- Rick is way ahead.

I pick my way over the roots. A woman with lung problems, a week ankle and torn up knee shouldn't be dahsing through the woods.

But, it was a perfect day!

More Father's Day, with Greg's arrival.

It was good to see him again, just back from a trip out west. And of course, Rick was in seventh heaven.

Here's to dad's everywhere -- and missing mine.
If you haven't stopped by Chopsticks and String to check out "Home is Where the Wine Is" (which is less about wine and more about life), give it a look! The book is delightfully funny!