Author Archives: leslie

Review: Golden Coarse Pumice Gel

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Golden Coarse Pumice Gel

I purchased a 6 pack of Golden Mediums about a year ago and other than using the gloss gels I haven’t used them. The list price for 8 ounces is $13.49 and it comes in a tub. In the tub it is gray in color and looks much like cement.

I used an old discount card to spread it on my binder’s board. It lays down a very thick and heavy layer. I found it pretty difficult to lay it down thin. As I was laying it down on the board I had moments where I didn’t think it would stick. It’s a very dry gritty material. It does stick. It helps to work slowly. Because it is so gritty I would recommend using an old brush or a metal palette knife to spread it.

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When dry it still retains that cement like look which could make a very cool texture in a journal. It retains its flexibility so it could be used on a journal page with no issue. It can be used as a base much like gesso but keep in mind it’s very gritty and its surface is much like 60 grit sandpaper. It’s very rough. When coloring my pages it wore holes in the rags I was using to apply glaze and color.

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(On the left is the Golden and the Right Liquitex.)

This is a very intense texture gel that can definitely make a statement when used on canvas or page. It took a full ounce to cover an 8.5×11 inch page completely. The deep crevasses and graininess of it is very neat. With color added it’s even more interesting.

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 A quick comparison of the Golden Coarse and the Liquitex shows that the golden is muchmore coarse, the liquitex is more like 100 grit sandpaper where the golden is like 60 grit. The difference is noticable and visible.

Wordy Wednesday: I Need Another Day

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I'm having one of those mornings where I think I shoudl have a whole lot more to say about stuff but I don't. Yesterday was hot and humid and I spent the day at the Peabody Essex Museum with Christie looking at art and crafts from around the world. We ate good food at one of our favorite places. I bought boots with arch support so that when I go walking my feet won't feel like someone smashed them with a hammer also so that if I go into some lesser explored places and step on glass it won't slice through the sole of my shoes.

I planted a white currant bush my father gave me. It looks good. My yard is a field of dandelions. To make my neighbors happy I'm going to spray but I'mnot happy about it. I wisht he grubs would eat dandelions instead of the grass but they only seem to like the grass that grows in the yard. Go figure. Everyone else around here chemlawns and thus our yard is a haven for bugs. If everyone quit chemlawning it would help. Or at least cut back on how often they chemlawn…

Have I mentioned I'm not quite ready to go back to work after my four day weekend? Yeah.

More Moleskine Stuff

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Someone just posted the video below to their FB profile. I watched it as I’ve been watching all the developments of the new moleskine items. A line of pens and pencils was, to me, a natural development and compliment to their line of notebooks. It made sense to me that they would offer something for you to use to write in your notebook. At first I thought that a series of bags didn’t make sense, but let’s face it, how many of us carry our tiny little notebooks in our back pants pocket?

I went so far as to design and make my own bag out of recycled tyvek mailers. (Which is still going strong after almost 6 months of continuous use!) So perhaps making notebooks leads to making bags? I’ve had this feeling while I’ve been watching the launch of the new moleskine products that they’ve “jumped the shark.” I really like the moleskine and the ideas of the moleskine- stiff black cover, elastic closure, sturdy stitching etc… But to me I really wish they’d focus on some quality control of their paper. Sometimes I get a notebook that handles my fountain pens wonderfully and other times I get one that cannot handle the ink without feathering and bleeding all over the place. Occasionally the spine falls apart or something happens that is not satisfactory. Get product #1 right before moving onto product #2.

I should probably try out the moleskine watercolor notebook and see if I like it.

Anyway, here is the moleskine video:

 

Ahhhhh, done

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Yesterday was my partner's graduation from Suffolk Law. This was one of the better graduations I've been to, as the speakers were pretty darn good, they shoudl be considering that one is an anchor for CourtTV. I sat among people I didn't know and sketched people from the crowd.

Three years is a long time. I'm glad it's almost over.

Sunday Pictures, none of which were drawn on a Sunday

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I drew these this past week, so instead of "Sunday Pictures" I should have called this "weekly Round up" but I thought that was kinda lame. I like Sunday pictures instead.

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I'm sitting through a graduation. I'm very happy that my lovely partner is graduating but I'm really wishing I didn't have to sit through graduation. (yawn) Perhaps that's why I've drawn the screaming faces?

Wordy Weekender: the power to blow my mind

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Yesterday I was listening to a piece by the Vitamin String Quartet, a remake of one of my favorite songs from my youth, and it brought me to tears. I’m happy to say that I grew up with Nirvana and Alice in Chains and a variety of other great bands emerging. I was a closet music fan, not telling my friends about my Ass Ponys tapes or Pixies CDs, afraid that if I went too far out from their mainstream box they might judge. I had one friend in HS with whom I talked about music, Melissa, she was a metalhead and when I found Facelift I immediately made her a copy.

I had one of those moments while listening to the VSQ where I realized that I create art in the hopes it moves someone in the same way. Every now and then I get an email from someone telling me they found my stuff on youtube, flickr or art journaling ning and that it moved them.

Here are some videos from my youth. The Ass Ponys still rock.

 

There is something to be said for remakes of music done with strinq quartets.
This blows my mind.

Wordy Friday: Riding This Bus

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I don't read a lot of blogs as religiously as I read Connie, Paul, and Lisa's. Why? Well, they post a lot of eye candy photos and words that I find relevant to my life, you know stuff that makes me think.

Thinking is good.

Connie recently posted this little ditty.

It made me think.

In some spots I disagree and others I agree.

I look at my time as the most precious thing, well, ever. I don't have a lot of it. I've only got this one life. I've only got the time that has been allotted to me. When people come at me with hate and anger I choose to ignore them and shut them out.

I have learned to make liberal use of gmail's block function and the IP address blocking ability of typepad.

People who send me hate filled rants via email want to waste my time. I've learned the hard way that giving them attention simply feeds the beast and distracts from things that add meaning to my life.

Another person's rage does not add meaning to my life.

Another person's anger does not add meaning to my life.

Responding to another person's rage and anger detracts from my life.

I refuse to give someone who thinks only with hate, power over my time and allow them to detract from my life.

While it's not up to me to determine who I bump into on this journey, I do determine how I respond and ultimately I decide who I allow on my bus.

Review: Liquitex Basics Coarse Texture Gel

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The last time I was in AC Moore I noticed that Liquitex had released the Basics line of mediums again. This time in 200ml squeeze tubes. I’ve gone on record by saying that the Liquitex Basic Gel Medium is my favorite, and I can’t wait to take my 50% off coupon in and get another tube. This time around the tubes, all of them retail for $7.99, where the old versions retailed for $5.99. Higher gas prices= higher paint prices.

All of these mediums come in tubes. Which I like. I can squeeze a very tiny amount of paint out onto my palette and not waste a drop. They have  modeling paste, gloss gel medium, iridescent medium,coarse texture gel and one other I can't remember. I've purchased gloss gel, coarse texture gel and the modeling paste.

I’ve been obsessed with texture lately so I picked up a tube of coarse texture gel. (Next week I’ll review the Golden version.) Out of the tube it had a heavy body and held its shape well. I used an old credit card to scrape it around on my board. It was wet enough that it stuck down easily and I felt like once it was down it was staying down. The grittiness of it was about like 100 grit sandpaper. It looks like fine beach sand embedded on the page. It held every shape I introduced to the page with my old credit card. I’d shy away from putting this on with a good brush, I did mention that it looks like sandpaper right? This will wear the tips down on just about any brush, especially a good natural hair brush. Stick to your gesso brush or an older synthetic while using any coarse sand filled texture gel.

Clean up was easy, warm soap and water took the still damp gel off my hands with ease.

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It’s been about 8 hours since I scraped a relatively heavy layer of the stuff onto my binder’s board and it’s still not completely dry. Granted we (the North East) are sitting in the midst of a incredibly high humidity cloud right now, but it has taken an incredibly long time for this to dry. It was dry to the touch with some hair drier action and I was able to gesso over the top of the gel in about an hour. If I wanted to sand or carve into the gel I’ll need to wait for it to be completely dry. Gessoing over the top of the gel is not necessary it’s ready to go as a base as is, but I wanted to add another layer of texture to the board. Like most gels this one should dry flexible, but I’ve not tested that yet.

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This is a fun additive and I can see it having many applications both for an art journal but also for paintings on canvas and board. It’s got a coarse but not overly coarse texture, like fine beach sand. If you want additional texture you could add more sand. If you are looking for something that looks like cement right out of the tube you might want to look at Golden’s Coarse Pumice Gel, which I’ll be reviewing next week.

 

FYI: I purchased this product for review and was not compensated by any of the companies mentioned in this review.

gray

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It's been gray and dismal here for almost a week and it's predicted that we'll get more rain next week. Yawn. The weather makes me want to crawl back into bed and snooze. So far we've had less sun this spring than we did in February.

I've been working though. I'm doing a review, tomorrow, on Liquitex Coarse Texture Gel and in a week I'm doing one on Golden Coarse Pumice Gel. Good stuff, adds a whole new layer of texture to a page or in this case a cover.

I'm also working on a technique tuesday where I alter a cover with modeling paste and build up layers of glaze to create an antique beat up looking cover. I've done one cover already and I'm pretty pleased with it. It's one way to take a boring composition book and make it super cool. The great thing about it is how cool it feels, smooth but rough. The other texture  pastes and gels are the same way they feel really cool.

I can't wait to show some of the stuff I'm working on.

Also I'd like to ask who I pay off to get a little sun. I could really use some.