Andy Skinner: Artist Pigments

Saturday, 10 October 2020

Gears Turning in My Head

Hello lovelies, this is Natassa Blazaki and today I am sharing one of my projects for the Spooktober Challenge run by Creative Expressions UK. If there is one team that’s always inspired by Skulls, Apothecary elements, Spells, Witchcraft and all sort of Dead Man Themes, that’s definitely Andy Skinner’s Creative Team. All the members will be sharing amazing spooky projects here in the blog but also over at Creative Expressions Facebook page. So, stay tuned for the whole month October and head over to Creative Expressions’ page to play along at the Spooktober Challenge.

For the “Skull Week”, I chose to alter a plastic skull, that I had bought from a toy store.

I wanted to give a grunge, industrial look to the skull, so I chose to embellish it with gears from Andy Skinner’s Industrial Elements greyboard kit by Tando Creative.

I started by applying a first coat of black gesso. I glued the cutouts on the skull with Quick Grab Glue. The tricky part was to fit the gears onto the skull’s rounded surface, because the greyboard is thick and does not bend. So, I spritzed the pieces with water and let them relax for a few minutes. Then, I split them in half and glued them on the skull while still damp and flexible. I added some crackle paste to create more texture.

Next, I mixed Andy’s Chalk Paints with Artist Pigments, creating a dark reddish-brown color and applied a coat. I did not mix the paints completely, to achieve a variation in tones and left some of the black to peek through. I let dry and then I continued only with Quinacridone Gold in random areas, but mostly around the gears. I let that layer dry well and then with a piece of natural sponge I dabbed a very thinned layer of white acrylic paint. I let it dry naturally and then I with an old brush I applied a wash of Cobalt Teal and Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide.

I did some dry brushing with white acrylic paint and continued with one more layer of Cobalt Teal and Quinacridone Gold, this time concentrating on the gears. I also used some Cosmic Shimmer Mixed Media Embossing Powder Crystal Glaze to add to the gears’ texture.

As finishing touches, I added one of my favorite rub on designs, the one with the pile of skulls from Andy’s Mixed Media Transfers “Curiosities” and did some partial stamping with one of the new stamps, the “Circuitree”.

I really hope you enjoy this project and get some inspiration for your Halloween projects. Enter your projects to the Spooktober Challenge and use the #CEspooktober tag. You may be a lucky winner!

I will soon be back with another spooky project.

Hope you have fun!

Natassa

👻🎃💀

Andy Skinner Creative Expressions

Artist Pigments

Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, Cobalt Teal Hue, Quinacridone Gold, Raw Umber

Chalk paints

London Brick, Mustard Seed, Chestnut

Rubber Stamps - "Circuitree"

Quick Grab Glue

Cosmic Shimmer Mixed Media Embossing Powders - "Crystal Glaze"

Mixed Media Transfers - "Curiosities"

Tando Creative - Industrial Elements Kit

Monday, 14 September 2020

Trésors de la Méditerranée, by Natassa Blazaki

Hello my lovelies. Hope you are all doing well and keeping safe.

This is Natassa and today I’m on Andy’s blog to share with you a home décor project inspired by the Mediterranean Tile Art. Recently, I received Andy’s new products, which are all gorgeous as always, but what made my heart pound were that set of Tiles Rice Papers, released by Creative Expressions. It was love at first sight!

Haven’t been in Spain or Portugal, where these amazing pieces of art ornate the exteriors and interiors of whole buildings. However, some years ago I visited la Costiera Amalfitana in Italy, where they also have a wonderful ceramic culture that dates back many centuries. Although not exactly the same, there are many similarities between the ceramic artworks of those three countries. Living in a Mediterranean country myself and having the sea as a big part of my culture, it was only natural to draw my inspiration from it. I created this couple of decorative panels, having in mind that they can beautifully ornate the outdoor walls of a Mediterranean beach house.

So, lets dig into the process. As a base I used two pieces of OSB boards, leftovers from another project. They measure 16 ¼ x 7 ¼ inches and first thing I did, was to give them a good coat of white chalk paint.

Let the paint dry well and then used the Mandala stencil and dubbed some paint with a soft sponge. I used a mixture of Artist Pigments Paynes Grey, Cobalt Teal and a tiny drop of Primary Magenta. I used matte decoupage glue to apply the rice papers. No need to cut the papers with scissors. Instead,you get much smoother result if you take a damp detail brush and draw a line where you want to cut the paper. The water softens the rice paper and cuts beautifully.

While the rice paper was still wet, I slightly scratched it with my fingernails, just to make it a bit distressed. With the same mixture of paint as before, I painted my airdry moulds. Let them dry and then dry brushed them with gold paint, to make their details pop up.

I glued the moulds on the panels with Quick Grab Glue. Then, I created a dirty wash with Paynes Grey and Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide and applied it on the whole surface. I let it dry naturally.

To decorate the shells, I coated them with Versamark ink, sprinkled with Mixed Media Embossing Powder Satin Sunset and heat set.

Tip: turn on your heat gun and let it heat really well, about 20 seconds, before directing it on the embossing powder. Works much better.

I chose the Ammonite Rubber Stamp for the background, but the substrate was so uneven that I couldn’t get a nice impression. So, I took some tissue paper and stamped on it with blue archival ink. Then cut it to smaller pieces and glued it on the surface with decoupage glue. I also used E6000 glue for the shells.

I really hope you enjoy this project as much as I did and I'd love to read your comments. Find a full list of supplies at the end of the post.

Here are some close ups