The Pulse 2016: Week 3

 

Welcome to the 6th edition of The Pulse - a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, further your own artistic expression, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. Stay tuned for a new post every Wednesday and see all previous posts in the series here.

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What is the one technique or tool that you cannot live without?

Jacki Long

Paper and junk mail. I can almost salivate over papers. Whether using glue sticks in journals or gel medium... I can't live without papers.

Jade Herriman

Water soluble crayons from Caran d'Ache. Sometimes I use them to create a wash of colour, sometimes to add bold opaque colour over another background. I love the way I can use them over rough surfaces to create great texture.

Shelby Pizzarro

Paper weaving within my collage work is the technique I can't live without. The physical weaving process is meditative. Using this technique, I can relax into the piece and allow the found objects to truly speak and guide my work.

Barbara Bytwerk

I have an endless supply of cheap paperer painting, experimenting, cutting, ripping... anything that I want to try. My painted pages often get cut into shapes that I use when I make cards. I flip the paper over, draw shapes on the back and cut them out. This "cutting blind" prevents me from just using the best parts of my decorated paper.

Jo Myhill

The technique has to be distress, the build-up of layers to show age and decay, either with subtle soft colours that remind you of faded wallpaper or heavy rust colours and textures. All of which have to be touched!

Annette Bouchey 

Old books, covers from these books and pages for altering books, making journals and assemblages on boxes.

The Pulse 2016: Week 3

 

Welcome to the 6th edition of The Pulse - a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, further your own artistic expression, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. Stay tuned for a new post every Wednesday and see all previous posts in the series here.

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What is the one technique or tool that you cannot live without?

Debi Adams

The best tool for me ever is just a plain pencil...with an eraser. I can take it anywhere, the cost is small, rewards are huge and unlike life, I can erase anything I don't like ;-) It takes me to a happy, creative place at any moment, from my home to a world far away. It is silent, causes no confusion (except for the artist), has no political agenda and its results can bring a smile to recipient as well as the creator.

Raylee Syrch

The tool I like to use to create texture in some of my paintings is the palette knife.

Jacqueline Quinn

This took some consideration, wondered if it would be my beloved printing press...but it's not...it's Brusho and pastry brushes, which make interesting marks. All that money I've spent on fancy products and the humble pastry brush and powdered watercolour win the day.

Marjie Kemper

My favorite technique and tool go hand-and-hand, as I love blending colors using an ink blending tool. I like saturating the foam on the blending tool and building up layers of colors on my projects, and I've not found a better way to do it than this tool from Tim Holtz/Ranger.

Candi Harris

My metallic paint/mica flakes which I mix with soft gloss gel to use as paint. I love the soft sheen and glitter it imparts and the depth it adds to whatever I am working on. I especially love using the gold or the bronze around the edges and into the corner of a painting to give the piece a dreamy quality. 

Claudia Neubacher

Stencils. To me stencils are so much more than just a means to add random shapes, decorative texture or patterns to projects - I love to layer with them to create sceneries, add words or numerals, or simply use them as a kick off means if inspiration fails to strike. Scraping paints or pastes with a palette knife through a stencil onto a substrate is a technique I turn to when in need of some creative me-time but without a precise project in mind. I also love to use the negative left over shapes from die cutting as stencils. I love that moment when I lift a stencil to find out if I succeeded in creating the wished for effect.

The Pulse 2016: Week 2

 

Welcome to the 6th edition of The Pulse - a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, further your own artistic expression, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. Stay tuned for a new post every Wednesday.

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What is the one technique or tool that you cannot live without?

Annie Coe

Venetian plaster. I discovered it about 9 years ago and never looked back. There are a few other tools that I love but this tops the list.

Sue Marrazzo

Palette knives. I use them to mix and blend paints, mediums and more. I build up texture in layers and use them as mark makers in my mixed media work.

Janice Paine Dawes

Stitch. Stitch can be a mark making device, it can hold layers together to be an embellishment. Stitch can be real by the use of thread or implied by painting/drawing.

Kathy Fritz

My awl. As a compulsive bookbinder, I get the shakes if I do not have it by my side and at the ready. You can make a book with just about any materials but when it comes to binding, if you don't have the useful awl, forget it. It is not the prettiest of crafting tools, but it is tops in my book.

Darlene Campbell

Watercolors. I must use watercolors everyday in a wash, glazing or wet on wet techniques. This process also includes line quality with black ink.

Nancy Lefko

Clearsnaps ColorBox Fluid Chalk Inks - specifically their Cat's Eyes. Seriously I dread the day they decide to stop making them. I use them on virtually every piece on the outside edge, as a frame; to distress or add a touch of color to cut out text; and always with stencils. It is my go-to ink.

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If you would like to be a participant in The Pulse, please email me (shap97@gmail.com) the following:

1. Your response (which I might need to edit to keep all answers relatively consistent in length)

2. ONE photo that somehow relates to your answer

3. A link to ONE of your online sites

If you would like more Pulse, check out my books from North Light Media: The Pulse of Mixed Media and The Mixed Media Artist.

The Pulse 2016: Week 1

 

Welcome to the 6th edition of The Pulse - a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, further your own artistic expression, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. Stay tuned for a new post every Wednesday.

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What is the one technique or tool that you cannot live without?

Amy Duncan

My diluted Elmers glue solution applied with my simple chip brush. I like using Elmers diluted with just a little bit of water when I am working on my collage pieces. It stays wet for awhile so you have a little flexibility in moving bits around. You don't get any bubbles/creases/burps. And I love the fact that it is so affordable.

Deborah Guthrie

My wooden honey dipper. I love line work in my art and I also love a loose approach to the desired line work and my work in general. When dipped in paint and used as a drawing tool, the honey dipper will give me uncontrolled results which are so often exactly what I am looking for.

Rachel Stewart 

My dental tool set I bought from Harbor Freight for less than a dollar! I use them in every line of work I do. I pull bubbles out of resin with them. I ream beads with them. I use them to create textures in polymer clay. They are great for positioning and moving around tiny collage parts. And I use them for making marks in wet paint as well. 

Gwen Lafleur

Stencils. For years they have been my go-to-tool for adding pattern, texture, depth, dimension, and more to my work. I've used them for everything from creating simple patterned paper to to making the base for an armature for a sculpture. They can hide in the background and layers of my work so you don't even know they're there, or create a fantastic foreground or focal point. I love that you can stencil with all or part of them, use them with nearly any medium, or completely change the look by m,modifying the application method.

Kim Henkel

My stamp carving tool. I carve  - usually from erasers - quite rustic, simplistic designs that I often use in combination with other bits and pieces in my creative work. I love being able to use my hand carved stamps rather than always using stamps I have purchased as it puts more of "me" into the final piece. A package of erasers, a carving tool, and a bit of time is all that is needed to get started.

Cindy Chinn

My X-acto knife. I have about 20 of them, one in every studio, room, car, a couple on my counter where I set the things from the day that I forgot to put away, right next to my collections of small tape measures that were left in my pocket. I use an X-acto knife in every medium I work in. To carve pencil, to weed vinyl, to trim a paper pattern, to open that box of art supplies that just arrived, it is endless! I have many different blade styles but I prefer the #16 for most things. 

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If you would like to be a participant in The Pulse, please email me (shap97@gmail.com) the following:

1. Your response (which I might need to edit to keep all answers relatively consistent in length)

2. ONE photo that somehow relates to your answer

3. A link to ONE of your online sites

If you would like more Pulse, check out my books from North Light Media: The Pulse of Mixed Media and The Mixed Media Artist.