Mixed Media Artist

Over a year ago, the black and white challenge was sweeping Facebook.  It's since gone the way of dinosaurs and celery, but I recently came across the pieces I shared and thought I'd share them here too. Originals and prints of Cyndi's work for sale Copyright 2019 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Wen Redmond's book, Digital Fiber Art , published by C&T Publishing , is packed full of more information than you can possibly believe.  And throughout, each technique, tip, and idea is decorated by Wen's photos and digital pieces.  It's a complete visual feast. The book begins with inspirational chapters that help you get your images and backgrounds ready for printing and combining.  Using digital filters, digital and physical collage, painting papers and fabrics, Wen shows you how to combine these for truly unique results in your art quilts.  Though she focuses throughout on quilts, so many of these techniques can also be used for paper-based collages. The technical information covers using your printer in some unique ways, pre-coats for your fabrics and papers, making carrier sheets for printing, underpainting and overpainting the substrate, using sheers, recycled fabrics and papers, and various specialty products (like Lutradur).  Wen shows...

I used a couple of gesso resist painted papers that I made a long time ago, scanning them to create some of the layers in this digital piece.  I love mixing physical painting and collage with digital. California Coast Cyndi Lavin, 2016 Copyright 2016 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. 

I took this shot of sunflowers slightly past their prime in Oregon a couple of years ago.  I don't know about you, but sunflowers always make me happy! Sunflower Cyndi Lavin, 2016    I added several layers in Photoshop, including a grayscale posterized layer and a thick edges layer. Copyright 2016 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. 

The pedigree of honey Does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him Is aristocracy. Emily Dickinson, 1924  Materials & Tools Painted background paper Various collage papers already painted, like " Lavender " from last week Vintage bee image from The Graphics Fairy Photoshop 1. Choose and scan all images and the background that you wish to use.  Scan at least at 300dpi if you are going to want to be able to print out your piece in the future. 2. Size and arrange digital collage pieces, and fade the edges.  Adjust colors as needed and play with the opacity of each. 3. Another way to integrate pieces that don't fade in nicely is to cover them with another transparent layer of the background, and erase as needed to allow the image to show. Copyright 2016 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided tha...

Cyndi Lavin, 2016 Galatians 6:14   But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Watercolor papers, collage, acrylics, digital. Copyright 2016 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Psalm 63:1 Using the technique that I showed you last week, I've put together five new posters for our church.  Each one features a verse or two from a Psalm which forms the lyrics of songs that we sing.  Even though all of the songs are older ones, we still use them in our music rotation from time to time.  "Older" doesn't mean they've lost their power! Psalm 51:10, 12 It's a bit hard to read these in the small sizes I've posted here (each one is actually 36 x 24 inches).  Not all of the posters are easy to read from across the room either, even at full size.  The backgrounds are a bit "busier" than I usually use with text, but the idea was to draw people in and allow them to examine the texture and text close up. Psalm 9:1-2 Psalm 73:25-26 Psalm 84:1-2 Copyright 2016 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electr...

Once you've got a pile of background papers that you are in love with, it's easy to forget how difficult it might have been to get there.  I had a lot of mis-steps before I started to achieve pieces that I really liked using this technique, but I luckily ended up with enough for a series of posters to replace the worn out ones at our church. These backgrounds were painted the old fashioned way, with lots of mess.  I then scanned the ones I wanted to use and formatted them and the text in Photoshop.  Here's how I painted the backgrounds. 1. Paint entire sheet of watercolor paper (I used 140 lb cold press) with a light color and let it mostly dry. 2. Using dilute matte medium, add a layer of tissue paper which is wrinkled.  Drop India ink onto surface and move it around by tilting and with a heat gun.  Allow to dry. 3. Plan out a grid and cut tissue paper shapes a bit smaller than the grid shapes will be. 4. Paint the grid shapes quickly,...

I have many photos of fish skeletons that I took at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, and the stark contrast in them made me think that they might make a pretty good image transfer.  I wanted to try something just a little different, so I came up with a variation on one of my favorite methods, the Inkjet to Fabric Transfer .  The major difference was that I wanted to add paint and gesso to the fabric first, hoping to get a grainier result...and it worked! 1. Cut cloth to size and iron. 2. Spray with water and paint with yellow ochre.  Top with white gesso and spread around. 3. Sponge with quinacridone gold.  Let dry. 4. Size the image and print out on an inkjet tranparency sheet. 5. Stroke on a light coat of liquid polymer medium where the image transfer will go and quickly place the image down on the fabric, burnishing the back.  Pull off the transparency before it dries to the cloth. 6. Let the image dry thoroughly ...

Another topic we visit pretty frequently here is different digital effects tips and tutorials (including those that mix physical and digital work). So I thought that they should get compiled for future reference too!  Digital line art methods  Achieving sepia tones Poster edges in Photoshop   Expanded squares Old linen postcard look for your photos Using the pointillism filter in Photoshop Duotone prints with Photoshop Van Gogh style flowers Fractured photographs A spooky tree - playing with layers Hand-tinted prints with Photoshop Adding a shadow with Photoshop Photoshop border with a burned edge Combining cartoon and vintage imagery Creating a glowing blurred border Tesselation tool online Graphic style florals Messing around with curves Mixed media piece with watercolor background Combining texture shots into a new image Making a layered digital collage Mixing digital and physical art Digital manipulation with a torn landscape "M...

I can't believe that I set this quilt aside for sooooo long!  I started it back in August 2012, completed the layout, and then just stalled.  So here's a link to "Part one", if I'm even allowed to call it that!  That post shows you how to turn your photos into sepia prints using Photoshop .  And now, please allow me to pick up from there... I took these shots of Mike during our trip to Hawai'i, and the fabrics came from a wonderful shop on the Big Island, called Kimura Fabrics .  I wanted to make a very personal quilt that would be a scrapbookish reminder of our trip. 1. Cut out fabric pieces for the top and arrange them with slight overlaps.  I used 4 large rectangles as you see above. 2. Cut out "windows" in each rectangle for pictures to slip under. 3. Cut out batting.  I cut it larger than the pieced top would be so that I could do the "wrap and tuck" binding method . 4. Stitch the pieced top and the pictur...

Alaska Quilt, in process So, whenever you know you're not going to get a project done by your own self-imposed deadline, what do you do?  Start another project, right?  :-) It seems like that's what I often do, and this time is no different.  I took the photo that I've been working with on my latest quilt, and decided to fool around with it in Photoshop instead.  I altered the colors a bit, and changed the contrast and light levels. And then I messed around with the Poster Edges filter until I got exactly what I was looking for. Easy, but not quite as straightforward as merely pushing the "make art" button.  I haven't found that one yet! Copyright 2013 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact. Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art ...

I had to go and look very closely at a map of Alaska's inner passage and compare my photograph number with the captain's cruise summary, and I can still only tell you approximately where we were...within about 300 miles!  This shot was taken somewhere between Whittier and Yakutat Bay, I believe slightly closer to Yakutat.  But I can't be sure. Honestly, though, does it really matter that much?  I experienced such a sensory overload and just continued snapping pictures until my finger almost fell off.  It was hard to choose a single picture as the inspiration for my quilt, but there was just something about this one that grabbed me: the high contrast but limited color palette, the balance of shapes.  These were important qualities, because like I said last time, I don't really make a lot of representational quilts, and it's almost always about the shapes, color, and balance. I'm not exactly sure what you'd call this style that I chose...it seems to...

Downdraft So, it turns out that my fears about the stitching being visible when I tacked down the vultures was unfounded.  In fact, I had to desaturate the image and put a circle around the little stitch just to show it to you in the picture below!  First order of business was to finish the edges though. Using some beautiful hand-dyed yarn that I bought in Alaska, I cut three pieces for each side and blanket stitched them along the edges.  I had a brief flirtation with the idea of making the final quilt shape oval, but I settled on the rectangle to avoid it being too gimmicky. Once all the sides were stitched together (through front fabric, batting, and backing), I gathered them up at the corners and knotted them loosely in place. Here is a shot of one of the tiny little stitches that hold the vultures in place.  I used black Nymo beading thread, doubled, and stitched each vulture in three places.  Knot the thread, tiny stitch, knot the ...