Thursday, August 25, 2016

Distressed Art Post Cards - mail by October 17th

Have you ever gotten to a point with a piece of art where you know it needs more, but you're afraid of ruining it?  Here's a swap theme from Joanne that helps us tackle that fear!   You're going to start making a post card, then take away or cover up part of it (no matter how much you like it!), then continue working on it to make it a more interesting piece.  Joanne describes the concept as two steps forward, one step back.  

For example:
  •  someone could start with asemic writing, cover part of that up with White Out, then continue with more writing, and perhaps some collage items.
  • A person doing collage could use sandpaper on a dried layer to scuff back part of the papers, then add some other items on top.
  • Someone doing watercolor could use a craft knife to scrape back or score, to reveal the white paper.
  • An acrylic painter could paint a design, wipe part of it off with a rag, and then develop the design further, perhaps by adding some gesso to further obscure the design.
  • Or, the most basic: create a pencil design, then use an eraser like a drawing tool to make stripes or other designs.
In this case, saying distressed doesn't mean your piece has to look messy, or worn, or grungy.  The idea is to create something, then use careful "un-creating" to leave a hint of the original, but the entire thing distressed somehow, to make a more interesting piece.  The idea is to overcome your fear of undoing something out of fear of ruining your piece. The erasers, rag, craft knives, sandpaper, gesso, White-Out are the point of the swap.

 Please write a message on the back of your card describing your "distressing" process since it may not be obvious when you're done.  Plus it's always fun to learn about new techniques!

2 comments:

Jo Murray said...

Haven't done a postcard swap for a while, but I'll definitely be trying to find time for this one.

Unknown said...

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