Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy New Year EVERYONE!!!


This year I decided to make my own holiday cards and, not having tried my hand at crafts for some long, long, lo-o-ong time, came to two eye-opening revelations:
glue is MESSY and... glue is FUN!!!
Definitely doing this again next year.
The idea for these surprisingly came from medieval illuminations of the St. Albans Psalter (and Russian folk craft of matryoshkas, of course).

An illumination from the psalter
I saw the stunningly and painstakingly decorated pages on display at the Getty museum, fell in love with gorgeous drawings, and, ever since, have been looking for an excuse to draw miniatures. And what better excuse than hand-made holiday cards? Not that anyone really needs an excuse to draw or paint or sketch or etch or sculpt, just some inspiration, some paints, some pencils, some brushes and a bit of paper (or canvas or clay or marble, depending on your ambition and available space).
On the dollies dresses I originally wanted to use real gold leaf, but the time was running out, so I went with the gold designer's gouache and loved the results. Its so dressy, shiny and pretty! The paint dries to a nice deep gold without brassiness or flatness.
 
Some other cool art done with a bit of gold gouache and lots of imagination...
Erte Gouache Costume Design Cinderella
 
Gemma Black Calligrapher, walnut ink, designers gouache, 23ct gold leaf, pen-white
 
Leon Bakst, gouache, gold paint and pencil on paper
Salman Rushdie’s Luka and the Fire of Life illustrated by Niroot Puttapipat
images via Pinterest
A holiday drawing for my hubby who comes from Virginia, the land of the cardinals!
Love these festive red birds, they are such bright and cheerful little guys!
 
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
 

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