Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Making The Supply List Simple

When I teach on a cruise, I'm very aware of cruisers likely desire to spend most of their well-earned dollars in port as opposed to spending volumes on board ship class supplies.  So for this experiment, I'm choosing to create the piece mostly with  reasonably priced markers readily available across the country in both craft and stationary stores. I'm using an 8 marker pack of "Stained" Fabric Markers by Sharpie, plus 1 bottle of a more neutral bottled ink and 2 fantastix applicators by Tsukineko ( the later 2 items I will have available in class).  Why a neutral?  These markers are colorful and bright, so an added neutral both calms the minds eye and will "show off" the folk art drawings.  This simple supply list will also be easier to transport to and from the cruise, and keep $moolah$ in cruiser's pockets.

First, the drawing is taped to a protected work surface.. after which the colored fabric is taped similarly atop the drawing.


So here we go... Already I am finding the 'Stained' markers easy to use. They have a very FINE tipped brush marker that seems to hold the sharp tip quite well. They are VERY saturated markers.  The yellow and orange lighter values and more transparent than other colors.  The hand on the fabric seems to stay pretty soft which makes me happy. ...and the markers seem to dry fairly quickly.  The one thing one need be aware of with these markers  is that because the markers are quite saturated, particularly when new and as is my norm working quickly...  it is easy to 'flick' pigment to create small spots a few inches away from where you are brushing on ink. So relax when using a new set, and enjoy the journey.

 To avoid one wet color bleeding into an adjacent wet color , rather than regularly heat setting, I instead am hopping around adding colors here and there and allowing them to dry naturally.  I always know I could dry with a dry iron, or with my handy hairdryer or embossing dryer, but this works fine.
You are starting to see some neutral background shading appear in the upper left  triangle.

 I'll keep tinkering...playing and post the rest within a day or so.

1 comment:

Robbie said...

I'm amazed at the detail! So very cool and interesting!! Ladies will love it. Can't wait to see more!!