Thursday, January 11, 2007

Ch 4 - poly ivy!

For challenge 4 I decided to focus on the ivy in my back yard. I've used a few techniques here. For the base (the brick wall) I printed off a photo of the wall and using gel medium I transferred the image to one of the polystyrene pizza bases that I had. With the 2nd tray, I cut out one ivy shape using a black & white print of a leaf which I then glued to the poly 'leaf'. The remaining ivy 'leaves' were cut out around real leaves that I took from my yard. After trial and error, I decided that one of the best ways to colour them was using brush, or artist, pens, although I also painted each 'leaf' with acrylic paints. Using a craft knife I worked veins and whiter patches onto the 'leaves' to more resemble the originals. Before assembling, I stenciled 3 or 4 leaf shapes from the cut out shapes onto the 'wall' with acrylic paints.

This is the first time that I've ever used polystyrene in art, and my first attempt at a 3D collage. Great fun, even though I cheated slightly and used 2 pizza trays ;> An interesting challenge that has whetted my appetite to try similar techniques. Also, focusing on the ivy itself has made me realise what wonderful shapes and textures these leaves have. I think that I'll be using ivy in future challenges, as I want to explore this plant further.

10 Comments:

Blogger Kim said...

Super Cool Linda. I love "poly-ivy". I wonder if heat would cause the edges to curl up?

2:49 am  
Blogger Linda D. said...

Thank you. And yes, I suspect heat would curl the pages but knowing my heavy handed attempts with heating anything they'd probably be more likely to burn to a crisp!!!

9:39 am  
Blogger Linda D. said...

Oops!!! 'curl the LEAVES' not pages!!!! LOL.

9:51 am  
Blogger Kari said...

This is wonderful, Linda - and I remember how worried you were about doing anything 3D connected with your garden. Seems like we are all benefitting from this Creative Journey.

Kari x
www.inkytinker.typepad.com

12:03 pm  
Blogger plumbum said...

Excellent! and very original.

I was wondering whether it was possible to transfer images to the polystyrene. It seems to have worked very well.

12:58 pm  
Blogger Linda D. said...

Thank you.

Yes, the transfer worked - much better than I expected too - like you, I wondered whether it would work. So pleased that it did.

And Kari, yes, I feel that I have made another step on my creative journey. Hugely beneficial sharing with other artists as well - this group is wonderful!!!

1:17 pm  
Blogger Artygal/Lalheg said...

Oh my word. I feel humbled to have sparked off such a wonderful creative use of polystyrene. Linda - another tour de force

4:13 pm  
Blogger Jill said...

How wonderful...great 3D effect...inspiring :)

xxx

6:46 pm  
Blogger Katrina said...

Wow ! what a great idea, I love the wall behin the leaves and the ivy itself looks so real !!

7:38 pm  
Blogger Linda D. said...

Ooh, wow... thank you all so much. *blushes*

2:58 pm  

Post a Comment

<< Home