Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I will see you all again in 2018!  Hope your holiday season is wonderful :-)

Nate, Lizzie, Cyndi, Mike (back)

Katherine, Dani, Julianna (front)

Jennifer, My Love - a mixed media collage painting tutorial

Jennifer, My Love
Cyndi Lavin, 2017

The western juniper is actually considered an invasive species in Oregon, which seems terribly sad to me since they are so interesting looking.  I spent some time taking pictures of them, along with other Northern California and Oregon trees.  I decided upon a juniper for this piece, not just because I love the gnarly way they look, but also because the song Jennifer Juniper kept running through my mind!

This is a pretty simple piece when you get down to it.  Draw a tree or something else that you love.  Chose the colors that remind you of the place.  Assemble!

1. I used a lightbox to trace my drawing onto dressmaker's pattern paper with medium and extra small Pitt pens.  Spray the tracing with an acrylic fixative.  

2. On a wet piece of heavy watercolor paper, use foam brushes to paint around the outer edges with Phthalo blue acrylic paint. All of the paints that I used were diluted with quite a bit of water in order to get some binder separation.  Texture the blue before it dries with a paper towel. Let it dry before proceeding.

 

 

3. I used the following colors, mostly mixed to get the subdued saturations:
Green gold, Sap green, Dioxazine purple, Titan buff, Yellow ochre, Red oxide, Quinacridone burnt orange, Burnt sienna.  Mix and dilute until you get what you want, and use a spray bottle to moisten the surface.  I used foam brushes to spread and blend them.  Let the colors dry and top them with Polymer medium.  Let it dry.  

4. Rip out the pattern paper tree.  Iron it in place, using parchment paper to protect your iron and board.  Do any final color adjustments.  Spray again with acrylic spray, and top the entire piece with Matte medium. 



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Copyright 2017 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. The tutorial only may be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

Aspen Afternoon - a mixed media painting tutorial

Aspen Afternoon
Cyndi Lavin, 2017

For this piece, I started with a very limited palette that I wanted to experiment with.  For the sky, I used a Phthalo blue gradient, and for the trees, I used Hansa yellow medium, Pyrrole orange, Green gold, and waterproof white ink. 

1. Using a large foam brush, paint a blue gradient onto a wet piece of watercolor paper for the sky.  Use a paper towel to wipe off an area for the mountain background. 

 

2. Working from the bottom of the piece, alternate blobs of your yellow, orange, and green paints.  Use White gesso on a foam brush to pull the colors upward. 

 

3. Use white ink to drip trees from the bottom with a pipette.  Use a skewer to add some skinny branches.  Also use the skewer to add bark markings with diluted Phthalo blue. 

4. Cover the tree area with Polymer medium and the sky area with Matte medium.  Let it dry.

 

5. Use a ratty brush to stipple in "leaves", making sure the tops are uneven across the horizon.  I used 2 parts of the Hansa yellow medium to 1 part of the Green gold.  I topped all of it with a bit of Iridescent gold, and once everything was dry, I gave it all a final coat of Matte medium and a few coats of Krylon spray.     

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Copyright 2017 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. The tutorial only may be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

A new series coming soon!

  

Paintings for Sale

One of the best parts about abstract painting and mixed media work is that you just never know what's going to pop up next! I'll be starting to post a series of work like this in the new year, based on particle physics, geometry, electricity, and anything else sciencey that happens to catch my fancy. You can blame it on my being married to a particle physicist if you'd like...

Copyright 2017 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved.

Beading Arts tutorials - part three

 

 Tribal Stripes bead embroidery pendant

Here is the last installment (for now!) of tutorials that have been posted on Beading Arts, covering beaded arts, jewelry, and other wearables.

Part one
Part two 

Crocheted bracelet

St Petersburg Chain bead embroidered pendant

Bead embroidery pendant with blue pearls (2 parts)

Stitched freshwater pearl bracelet

Tribal Stripes bead embroidery pendant

Fierce bead embroidery pendant 

Cherry donut beaded necklace 

Hanging the Moon necklace

Flapper necklace

Golden harvest necklace

Mixed metals and beads necklace

Red jasper bead embroidered pendant

A bead embroidery clock motif

African trade beads necklace 

Leopard skin jasper bead embroidered pendant

Bluebird singing in the Dead of Night necklace 

Sandcast beads Boho necklace 

Red bead embroidered pendant with drops 

Blossoms of the Moonlit Waves 

Deep in the Evening of the Smiley Moon - a mixed media painting tutorial

Deep in the Evening of the Smiley Moon
Cyndi Lavin, 2017
Prints for sale

Each month, the smiley moon is my favorite part of the moon phase.  I'm not sure why, but maybe because it reminds me of the Cheshire Cat?

1. Wet a heavy piece of watercolor paper and use a foam roller to paint it solid with Hansa yellow opaque.


2. Alternate small blobs of Pearl violet, Metallic olive, and Red oxide along the top edge, and use White gesso  to pull them down the page in long strokes, using a foam brush.

3. Scratch into the damp paint to reveal some of the yellow underpainting.  Add more pure colors to adjust.

 

4. Use the bottom rim of a small paper cup to stamp in a moon arch with Hansa yellow opaque.

5. Use waterproof black India ink in pipettes to drip in the trees. Take a raggy, craggy old brush and use it to stipple in the "leaves" with a mixture of Yellow ochre and White gesso.   




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Copyright 2017 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. The tutorial only may be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.