Airship -- Up and Away

Up and away. Looking more like an airship.

scan of the block in progress

faux print -- what the block will look like

Airship -- Just Getting Off the Ground ;-j

Pretty hard to see yet, but it's started. I stained the block again, but this time I sealed it with a mixture of acrylic and white gesso, which gives it a kind of white-washed look. Lightly sanded, and it's nice and smooth.

Some carving, some sketching.

Seasons -- color test print

Color test print on newsprint. I ordered new inks and mixed thalo green and hansa yellow for the greens, perm. red and hansa yellow for the orange. I want to add a little more red.

Seasons Block -- Recarve

Recarving some of the lines. Block powdered to show them better.

~*~

Experimenting with Akua. Too wet to roll, so I tried brushing it on with a sponge brush. Left brush marks on the print. Next may try a bristle brush, or try adding rice paste (or go back to Daniel Smith, which I know how to use). ;-j

One interesting effect of using the sponge brush is getting ink in the grooves. Makes an interesting look against the wood.

Seasons Test Prints

black on kozo


black on kozo w/ tapped in color


medium brown (yellow ochre/burnt siena) on newsprint w/ tapped in color

I like the medium brown, maybe a little lighter. Greens have to be clearer. Ok to tap over the lines and into the background. Better than blobby color (technical term). ;-]

I can't help it -- I really like crisp, black prints best. Next I do like natural colors tho, so I'll see what I can do with the browns.

Seasons -- Carving

Seasons -- WIP


6"x8", all shina plywood, golden oak woodstain, acrylic finish

Shina plywood cuts like butter. Much easier to follow a curved line than on Baltic birch plywood. I'm sold.


more carving

I like these on-edge shots -- helps with the glare.



All in a day's work. ;-]


faux print

Ninja Science

3"sq., kozo paper, Ninja Science

For Julie's birthday. Since she's both a ninja and a scientist. ;-j

Seasons Block

A sketch for the seasons exchange block for Printsy. This is the mirror image, and how it should look on the block. Unless I change it. ;-j

Printsy Interview 8-]

My interview is up on Printsy. 8-]

http://printsy.blogspot.com/

W00t!!1!

In the Printlab

a blast from the past

Nothing really new here. I just needed a place to plunk a picture. ;-j

Website is UP!!

W00t!!1! =8- D

My website is up!! http://ellenshipley.com/ ! =8-]

It's version 1.0 -- or even a beta version. Has some glitches, and except for the navigation buttons, doesn't go anywhere. But it will eventually.

Ok, I've calmed down. I can take it -- give me your best critique (or even a cursory one). ;-j I know it's got bugs, but can you see them?

Oh this is just too kewl!

Oh -- here's a question: Does it take a long time to load? It takes forever on my machine, but that may just be me. If it isn't tho, I'll have to fix it!

Tick-tock Add a Clock

What's Steampunk without some clockwork? I added a bit of tick-tockery to the image.













Now I need to add some info to my info pages.












And once I move pages over to ImageReady to make the buttons work, how do I make new pages or update the old ones? Mark hasn't been very clear on that. He's only focused on us getting our assignments done -- I'm more interested in getting an on-going webpage.

Busy Day in Computer Lab

home page -- steampunk style


artwork page -- steampunk style


fiberart page -- steampunk style

Reworking the Webpage in Class

This is what I was able to make in class today. I made all the pipes and turn knobs out of the hammered brass. I need to standardize some pipe images and turn knobs. Also figure out how to have curved pipe pieces.

Need to find out how to change the page size once I'm working on it (this is the size it currently is). Also how to put images on transparent backgrounds.

And now for something completely different

home page


hand prints -- artwork -- page




Loominations -- weaving -- page


bio-blurb page

Paleo-Steampunk ;-j I've really gone off the deep end.

Another Prisma-Umi

Another Paleo-Umi augmented with Prismacolor pencils.

I have a number of unsatisfying prints while trying to get a good multi-color print. So I have plenty to play with with my colored pencils. Soon I'll be brave enough to pull out the watercolor and see what I can do with that.

Paleo-Umi

I finally finished Paleo-Umi, a block my son inspired me to make for his roll-playing character. He challenged me to make it in the style of my Paleo-Mythos series of improbable cave art creatures. So my mythical ancestral cave artist must have seen a primordial umi in the sky and painted it on her cave wall.


I was never completely satisfied with any of the prints tho. Umi is blue with silver fringe, but I didn't want a monochrome print, and none of the multi-colored ones quite did it. So Umi lanquished unfinished to my mind.


In the meantime I discovered an interesting coloring technique that uses secondary colors -- orange, green and purple. You can get some of the most interesting color mixes that way, like pinks and blues and yellows. The eye creates them. In weaving this is called color & weave.


So I picked a print that was mostly orangey, with a greenish dragon, and started from there. I used prismacolor pencils and some pastel and slowly began adding color over color. I shifted Umi into a blue, with silver tips to his fringe, horns and claws, and the background became multicolored, giving it depth. The block I had chosen had a distinct oval in the woodgrain and I had incorporated it into the design as a rippling pool. I distinguished it from the rest of the "rock wall" with darker passes of greens and blues and purples to make it stand out.


When I was done, the only part that remained untouched with new color was my ancestral artist's hand print with which she signed her work.


I gave it to Will for his 25th birthday. I hope he finds it a suitable representation of his Umi.

Dragon-fly on NFAC

This month's Nibblefest topic is reptiles and my entry is Dragon-fly, an improbable reptile. It's a zinc etching with watercolor.
http://cgi.ebay.com/nfac-reptiles-dragon-etching-wc-original-eshipley_W0QQitemZ230244977665QQihZ013QQcategoryZ20158QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

More Webpages in Progress

artwork main page


printmaking -- or hand prints -- page; I'll upload the hand prints icon.


woodcuts page


fiberart page

Man this stuff is complicated. I'm drowning in layers. I don't know how I'm going to get all this stuff to work. ;-/ Oh well, one page at a time.

I need to upload more images to the flash drive.

Home Page on Photo Shop

This is what I got done today in class on Photo Shop. The buttons don't work yet but it's a start. 8-]

It's a screenshot so it's truncated.

This Is Such a Compulsion!

Stop me before I do this anymore! I've got to do some real art!

I prefer the label/buttons on the bottom.

Web Page Design

I've been working on my web page design. I don't have the Print Shop program at home, but I've been able to create static pages on PageMaker. I've been putting the screenshots on this blog:
http://crusaderkathy.blogspot.com/

I'll have pages for Artwork, which will take the viewer to Painting and Printmaking pages, and Fiberart, which will take you to Weaving, Spinning, Tapestry and Sprang. There may be others as it develops.

Then an About page will have my bio and resume(s), and Contact will take the viewer to e-mail, blogs, and other contact info.

Links will go to favorite sites, and other interests, etc.

What a lot of work. And I haven't even begun to impliment any of it yet!

Latest Mouse-arr

That be no vermin on me ship. Arrr.

Mouse-Arrr

Test print. Nose area needs a little work yet. 8-]

Cat -- Arr

block-in-progress

Decided to do a lolcat next. This is cobbled together from two lolcats, a pirate cat and one that's holding a "mouse."