Another Project.

 Usually I hate to have more than one thing on the go at once, preferring to finish one project before starting another. However I did want to try another acetate etching, so here is a starting photo of a very small guitarist with her quarter size instrument.

I needed to have texture for the engraving, so I have converted the photo in Photoshop to more of a sketch with lots of texture. Now comes the hard part, to engrave the picture onto a sheet of acetate. I will use an electric engraving tool for most of it, but since I'm new to this technique, it might be a bit of a disaster!

The Next Stage.

 Here I've stamped the stone blocks, but standing back from it I think that I've spaced them too far apart. Oh well, I'm sure I can fix that down the track.

 I've used a heat tool on the stamped blocks to give them some texture, I've cut out the doorway and started to paint some of the vegetation.

 I've added some foam strips to the back of the doorway to strengthen it and to lift the artwork inside the doorway further back from it.

                            Background painting of the walls and vegetation in front of them.

New Project.

    Working on a canvas box board I sketched out a wall and gateway looking into the area beyond.

 Here I've chosen sponge pieces with which to stamp a mixture of paint and Xpandaprint to give the wall texture.

                                       First a layer of paint before I stamp the stone blocks.

Squeeze!

 


        I managed to squeeze in a few more flowers and to add some leaves to this test piece, and to have my usual fiddle with Photoshop. I can't say that I have ever seen purple leaves, but I like the colour of the flowers on the black background.
 

Still in Brisbane.

 This beautifully serene face belongs to the extraordinary chair in the photo below. Located in the Fern House at the Mt Coot-tha Botanic gardens, it seems to fascinate all the visitors, young and old. Fern House

Unfortunately I didn't photograph the notice to the left listing the artist and the date. It was made in the 1980s I think.

                               No, not the skin of some reptile, but a close up of a fern leaf.

More from Brisbane.

 What every well dressed sheep should be wearing! Gloria the sheep is an amazing sculpture of welded metal. See the accompanying signage below for more details.

Gloria in close up.

 

                                          I saw the sign below at a market and had a smile!

Brisbane Break.

 Taking a break of a few days in Brisbane at this time of the year was a very good idea, with temperatures there of 28°C every day.  Melbourne has been experiencing above average temperatures for this time of the year too, but winter can't be far away. I spotted this sign on a walk along the river.

 Visiting the Queensland Art Gallery I was amazed at this full sized elephant, unfortunately I forgot to note the artist's name. She, and it was a female artist, used a fibre glass model of an elephant and covered the whole thing in patterns of 'bindies', the adhesive stickers used by Indian women to mark their foreheads. What a time consuming thing to do, but the effect was very pleasing.

                                                       A close up of some of the stickers.

                   A very nice collection of Pelican sculptures outside a window of the gallery.

 I noted this lovely leadlight window on an old block of flats as I was walking back to our accommodation. I loved the subtle colours and the very interesting geometric pattern.

Grass Igloo!

   From a distance these formations in the grass look just like igloos, I wonder who made them.

 Closer up they could just be natural shapes formed when the clumps of grass bent over in the rain.

                 But I prefer to think of them being made by some little animals, Bandicoots perhaps.