Antoinette Karsten Art
  • Sculpture & Installation
  • Foundry and mouldmaking
  • Painting, Drawing & Printmaking
  • Art life
  • Contact

Easy pour painting tutorial

18/7/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
You're not the only one to wish you could make art but too scared to try! Many people are just as scared, but if you think about it...what's the worst that can happen? It could be a little messy...it could even be...fun! Here is an exhilaratingly easy project that will help restore your faith in your artistic abilities.
Be openminded! If something unexpected happens, go with it, you may discover your own unique approach. Please let me know if you take the plunge and how your attempt goes. 

Materials needed:

Read More
0 Comments

Whimsical wings

7/2/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
I have been wanting to make more wings for use on cards and 3D mixed media creations, so out of the shelf came the lovely book Taking Flight that first taught me this technique, and after an hour or two of bending, cutting, glueing and painting, I had 8 brand new sets, wired and distressed and ready to use. I'll show a few pics of the easy and fun process, and some of the cards and gifts I decorated with them. I hope it will inspire you to make some of these versatile wings , and if you do please let me know about it!

The process...

You'll need wire and pliers...
...twist a length of wire together to form a figure-of-eight...
...shape the wire to resemble the kind of wings you like...
...then cover with pretty paper of your choice. Decoupage glue dries quickly and is waterproof, so you can do other techniques over it...
...use a brown or black stamp pad to lightly and randomly distress the raised areas until you get the effect you like...
...and you'll have a new stash of goodies to add glamour and whimsy to almost anything!

Some of the things that 'just happened ' with the wings...

0 Comments

Embossing Experiments

31/3/2015

0 Comments

 
I hand embossed the envelopes that came with little elephant cards that I bought in India on my first trip there in 2010. They still strongly smell of printing ink. Couldn't resist doing a white envelope too. Gotta love the frail lacyness of it!
0 Comments

A-drawing-a-day

5/2/2015

0 Comments

 
In response to a challenge I saw on Instagram, I decided to give my own creative routine a boost by disciplining myself to a small daily creative effort. Although art is my bread and butter, one easily get very tied up with planning, admin, prep for classes and larger, more 'serious' work. It is true that every bit of creative work builds us up and boosts our day, and on a basic level, I need to get back to the simple joys of short, instinctive, free little sessions.  The artist is a child and mine needs more play!

I also do this in the hope that I will get to do more of the things I love, like graphic pattern making (I hear it called 'doodling', but the word does not sit comfortably with me...yet) and printmaking, and plan to have a stamp-a-day week after this!

The first drawing-a-day was early morning while sitting on the front porch, still in my night gown, and with my first cup of rooibos tea. The Australian trees are so fascinating! Branches twist and turn and leaves form cauliflower clumps at their ends, while strips of rough bark peels off finely-textured 'skin' below. Cockatoos and magpie larks and doves were grooming, eating, flying...so off I went! Day 1 was tree and bird studies. 
On day 2 I felt like giving my drawing hand more freedom, so I selected a mini measuring tape and small sewing scissors from my miniatures display and plunged into some blind contour drawings. Colour also made its entrance in the form of some line design-and-texta typography.
Day 3 saw some drawings of natural finds, in the form of a kangaroo vertebrae, such an exquisitely sculpted object!
Days 4-6 were a mix of pencil and pen drawings of an imaginary tree, some bell-like eucalyptus pods and a whimsical girl holding a heart in her hands. 
Day 7 was an exercise from the inspirational book Drawing Lab, so I drew silly cats for about half hour non-stop. Not the most realistic cats ever, but it helps develop a bit of personal cat-drawing-style, and will make me look much closer to the details of a cat when I see one again!

You may notice that I don't post every drawing. Doing that will make me draw differently, less freely, if I knew I had to post it here! That would be contradicting the freedom that is core of this exercise. I have done many detailed drawings (see photographs elsewhere on this site), but this is not the time for 3-hour drawings of Paris streets, it is meant to be instinctive and flowing, five-minute sessions of play and discovery. So please adjust your expectations accordingly!

Maybe if you see how simple it can be, you'll join me and try your own creative-play-a-day challenge...it may be writing, sewing, crafting of anything that makes your creative heart beat faster. Be free and be sure to let me know about it!
0 Comments

Mushroom pincushion

30/1/2015

0 Comments

 
0 Comments

Watermelon milkshakes

1/12/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Our teenage son Juan just loves watermelon and started experimenting with ways of making the most of this fabulous summer fruit. This is the delicious result, a light and refreshing watermelon and mint smoothie
0 Comments

First of the giraffe sculptures done!

28/11/2013

1 Comment

 
1 Comment

Cardboard fun

3/9/2013

0 Comments

 
When my daughter's new digital piano was unpacket a week ago, the lovely boxes just begged to become something new. So a few ideas came up as they tend to do, and for a week my art table and most of the living room was posessed by pieces of cardboard in different stages of being cut, folded,  glued and painted.

 I just love the way you learn about a material by manipulating it, the different ways the box folds when it is single or double layers thick, the little surprises that just 'happens' like the shingles on the roof of the one fairy tower or the grass in the alcove. I just love the feeling when a corrugated piece of cardboard folds after being scored, and how well wood glue works on paper! Small joys...

The globe was made from cereal boxes and reflects a bit of my yearning for a real, grown-up old style globe on a swivel stand.  The world is such a vast place and the idea of reducing it to a cardboard miniature is rediculous I suppose, but making it became a study of the shapes and contours of faraway countries, islands and inland water bodies- an abstract form of travelling and discovery without spending a dollar!

A red London telephone booth was also born. What a pleasure to layer strips of cardboard to reconstruct the mouldings on the original, and I'm still thinking about what I will use to make the little windows. It was my hubbies's suggestion to model a little telephone handpiece for the enterior as well...great idea! Wow, this creative stuff is even rubbing off on my seriously right-brained math and IT boffin!



0 Comments

Gotta love Aussie!

8/8/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
The mailman just delivered a huge box filled with art goodies right on my doorstep!
0 Comments

Creative Fun Stuff

6/8/2013

0 Comments

 
some linocutting in preparation for a three-week project with my art kids
0 Comments

    Journal 

    Journal home
    All entries

    Archives

    February 2020
    July 2018
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    August 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013

    Categories

    All
    Agony And Ecstasy
    All In A Day`s Work
    Artist Visits
    Art Musings
    Creative Fun Stuff
    Experimentation
    Hello World This Is Lulu
    Life
    Love And Everything Else
    My Heart Song
    New Lease On Life
    Stress Busters
    Studio
    There's Magic Everywhere!
    Travel

    RSS Feed

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Author

    Antoinette Karsten
    Canberra, ACT, Australia

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.