I have been a bit ‘off kilter’ lately. I don’t know what’s going on with my art! I just cannot seem to focus and I don’t seem able to create anything really cohesive. I don’t know who I am or what I want to be when I grow up! haha I say it in jest, but I really feel it is true. I am so hard on myself for not having ‘a look’ or ‘ a theme’. What does this mean? Is it okay? Um I don’t know. I just keep telling myself to embrace what I am doing and that it’s okay if I am still ‘finding my voice”. I am, after all, still a student…right? yeah.  

I have been really into experimenting with watercolors lately. Probably due to the fact that I have taken (and am taking) watercolor classes from an incredibly amazing watercolor artist! Anyway she has inspired me and encouraged me to explore and experiment with this wonderful medium. I have been playing with patterns and textures. I think I want to try to create a line of fabrics and scrapbook papers using watercolor. I made a couple of sketches. I like it. What about you?

any thoughts on these?

thanks for looking

xo kp

Well I have been remiss in my blogging duties and it’s crazy because I now have two blogs to miss posting on instead of just one! The sad thing is, I LOVE to blog, I just find it difficult to have the time to post because, as any blogger knows, there is more to it then just slapping up a quick paragraph (well at least most of the time)…haha

Anyway, I just wanted to post a few random things here today.

1) You know how I was saying that I would love to get an atc trade going? Well, instead of just hoping to do one, I actually emailed some of my artist friends and specifically asked them to participate. And guess what? They said “YES”! Well, at least most of them did!  I only got one “no” and 3 non responders, but 11 fantastic artists are going to contribute (plus myself)! I am really excited and, of course I will definitely share here when the time comes. The artwork is not due until August 5th. (more on this soon…)

2) One of my friends sent me this link and I think it is pretty cool, especially if you like to see other peoples creative work spaces!  It’s the Stamping Ground blog and the have a feature called What’s on Your Work Desk Wednesday check it out!

3) A new little illustration from my new collection, I am really happy with them and I love this sentiment:

so, yeah, I told you it was random.

xokp

none

I am loving making atc’s (they are the same as aceo’s …the acronyms stand for artist trading cards and/or art card editions & originals) they are small, about the size of a business card and so gratifying! If you go to Etsy and just search for atc or aceo you will come up with many of these treasures by wonderful artists! They are lovely and affordable and I just love ‘em!

I have been making these babies a lot lately because they really fit into my time schedule and they give me the opportunity to experiment with some of my sketches and also different mediums.

I would LOVE to get a swap going so if anyone is interested PLEASE send me a message!

water color atc by me, kristen

thanks for visiting. x’s & o’s kp

simple, sweet wall art!

if you would like to see how to make this please visit my “other blog”   click here:  Kristen Powers Ink

Thanks for visiting and looking at my art !

Well my ‘Junior’ year is just about wrapped up!! Tomorrow is my portfolio review and then I will be DONE for the summer WHOO HOO!! I am doing an internship and have lots and lots of projects that I want to take on, so I am really looking forward to it….Anyway, I digress. like I said, tomorrow is my portfolio review so I have quite a few projects that I am trying to finish up. Here is my life sized portrait that I completed yesterday. Now keep in mind, I started this over two weeks ago but when i sat down yesterday to work on it, I was not happy with it so I completely started over. This was all done in about 10 hours. It is close to being complete but there are a few things I am still going to work on.

I started with a large piece of plexi-glass placed in front of a mirror. I ‘traced’ my reflection with an alcohol based marker…

here is my outline

I painted with alcohol inks, clear blending fluid, paintbrushes and dry paper towels

I also referred to a few photos taken as I was working...

almost complete..I am still going to add some background and possibly work on the eyes a bit more...

It has been a lot of fun to experiment using the acrylic and alcohol ink on such a large scale. It was very challenging because of the how quickly the inks dry and also the way it reacts when you ‘paint’ wet on dry or wet on wet. But I really enjoy the effects and I find that it is a really expressive ‘canvas’ for a portrait. I like the way that light and texture plays a role in how one views the image. I hope you enjoy it  and that you will experiment with this fun medium too!

thanks for looking

xo

kp

I know I have been remiss in posting here and I feel guilt ridden! My ‘other’ blog and my new paper craft planet group has been taking any ‘extra’ time that I have. I still want to keep this blog to post my thoughts, art and tutorials that are not stamp related, but lately I am just so busy trying to finish up the semester. Just two more weeks!!

Well here is an elephant tea pot that I made in my ceramics class. I think it turned out cute but I have to be honest, I’m not too good at making lids! LOL So I will NOT be pouring tea from it!

ttys

kristen

I'm a little tea pot

short and stout...

If you have heard the rumors, yes it’s true, I have gone and started another blog. I know, I know another baby is not what I really needed right now. It wasn’t really planned. It just sort of happened. The whole deal with my new stamp shop just got the ball rolling and once it started I couldn’t really stop it! I wanted a blogger blog because it seemed simpler and most all of my bloggy friends have blogger blogs sooooo…..and I know, just because all of my friends are doing it doesn’t mean I have to and, No, I would not jump off of a bridge if all my friends were doing that either!  It just seemed like the best format for what I am doing with the whole paper arts thing. Anyway so now I have got this other blog which is strictly devoted to paper arts, stamping, scrapping, art journaling etc. I will keep this one going just for my paintings, robots and other musings! I hope you will enjoy both and as always I thank you, truly, for stopping by…kp

ps I will still have some tutorial here too but for paper related ideas and projects please visit kpink!

http://www.kristenpowersink.blogspot.com

In my last blog entry I posted the beginnings of my watercolor self portrait. I really liked what I was doing and had in mind what I was going to do with it. But, alas, my painting had a complete mind of it’s own, as I soon found out!  LOL! Instead of getting stressed out about it, I decided to relax and have fun and enjoy what I was doing. I wanted to let the painting take me where it wanted and not force it into something just because I had a part of it completed. That was sort of hard, to let go of that image. But I figure I, can still do something with that later…..Here is my self portrait. It’s pretty much finished, though I may do a couple of small tweaks before our critique tomorrow. I am pretty happy with it but who would ever thought that my self portrait would be in black and white? I find that sort of ironic. Well, please tell my what you think

self portrait watercolor, mixed media collage