Art by Beth Wilts

Stone Angel Project: Art by Beth Wilts

I have been invited to participate in a Round Robin project for 2008. The theme is stone angels, hence the free pictures for you to download in the collage gallery.

	The front cover to my stone angel book. Stamps Used: 33001 I Bingo 42009 I Large Latin text 54006 F Baroque square All the colors and shades came from mixing hansa yellow medium, cerulean blue, cadmium red, burnt sienna, zinc white and bone black Golden Fluid Acrylics. I decided to use the angel piece just below for the cover of my Round Robin book, but now needed a back cover. My starting point began with a piece of art I made several years ago, but never felt was quite finished (shown on the right). The darker background was covered with the same hansa yellow medium, cerulean blue and zinc white from the first piece. A page from an old book was glued down to cover the wings. A glaze of burnt sienna was used to shade the face, text and design element. The darker greens were made with a bluer green and a bit of burnt sienna to make them more gray. These greens were stamped and painted. The same stone angel picture I used for the first piece (not a transfer this time) was printed and cut out this time. She was then outlined with the white pen. Small scraps of embossed paper added texture to the 2 covers. Bone black was brushed around the edges with my finger. The angel pictures are free for you to download in the collage gallery.
The back cover to my stone angel book. Stamps Used: 33001 I Bingo 39003 G Spiral design 40003 H Small rough alphabet All the colors and shades came from mixing hansa yellow medium, cerulean blue, cadmium red, burnt sienna, zinc white and bone black Golden Fluid Acrylics. The background was made with hansa yellow medium, cerulean blue and zinc white. Several lighter and darker shades were made for mottled effect. An Golden Soft Gel (Gloss) transfer (using the wash away transfer paper) was made with one of my stone angel pictures. There are 2 versions of the photo in the stone angel gallery. The original and a second where I added a film grain effect with Photoshop. A page from an old book was glued down first then the transfer. The alphabet stamp was stamped with white ink on a grey piece of paper. Butterflies were punched with the punch for sale on my specials' page and glued them to the collage. The darker greens were made with a bluer green and a bit of burnt sienna to make them more gray. These greens were stamped around the transfer. Bone black was brushed around the edges with my finger. The angel had completely melted the background, so I outlined her with the white pen. The angel pictures are free for you to download in the collage gallery.
	Stamps Used: 58003 A Small acanthus plant This is the first book sent to me. The owner's request was no pastel colors. I can't remember the last time I worked with such bold colors. But it was a wonderful challenge. My color decision sort of made itself. The week before one of my sons went to Japantown in San Francisco. He came home with a box of red bean cake desserts. The jelly bean cakes were kind of like gummy worms. But the paper covering the box was wonderful. The background wash (paint mixed with matte medium) and yellow shades came from mixing titan buff (my favorite color), hansa yellow light, and Iridescent gold deep Golden Fluid Acrylics. I glued down the cut out angels and the paper. I highlighted the angels with my Neocolor I (NOT the watercolor crayons but the oil crayons) yellow crayon. I stamped the small acanthus plant in straight paint. The outside edges were highlighted with an orange crayon. These are the wax based crayons not the watercolor Neocolor IIs. The wrapping paper was cut out and glued with gel medium. The angel pictures are free for you to download in the collage gallery.
Stamps Used: 58002D Small solid fleur This is the second book sent to me. The owner's color request was gold and sepia tones. This is a very metallic page although the scan does not show this. The paper was quite thin. Part way through I had to paint gesso on the back of the pages to counteract the curl created by the moisture of the paint. The fingers of the glove were added by the artist of the previous page. All paints are Golden Fluid Acrylics. The background is a wash (paint mixed with matte medium) of Iridescent Gold Deep. I painted over this with Burnt Umber Light and wiped most of it off to tone down the gold. The edges of each page were painted with stronger and stronger washes of Burnt Umber to create frames. I cropped and enlarged the angel image to just the face. An Golden Soft Gel (Gloss) transfer (using the wash away transfer paper) was made from the copy. I also printed out 2 smaller versions of the original image. These were glued down with soft gel medium. The fleur was stamped with a mixture of Iridescent Gold Deep and Metallic Bronze. The embossed paper leaves were cut out and pained first with Burnt Umber Light, then highlighted with Iridescent Gold Deep. These were glued down with soft gel medium. The outer edges of each page were painted with Iridescent Gold Deep. The angel images were also framed with gold.
	Stamps Used: 40003H Small rough alphabet 47003 I Audience This is the third stone angel book sent to me. The owner's requested no specific color. It all started with this a great angel picture I found on Flickr. At the Art and Soul conference last fall I took a great Photoshop class. Using Photoshop Elements, I used the Artistic colored pencil filter to alter the photograph. (You don't need the expensive program. The instructor told me this after I had bought it and paid for at least one upgrade.) Everything is shades of a great mixed gray except the angel picture. I used Cerulean Blue and Burnt Sienna (with a bit of Zinc white a few times) to mix all the variations. To color the embossed paper I used the gray straight. For the background I mixed it with matte medium. The name of the cemetery in Paris is stamped across the artwork. It was supposed to be straight, but it wouldn't fit. So the words were stamped askew. I used a black crayon to color around the outer edges and embossed paper. These are the wax based crayons not the watercolor Neocolor IIs.
Stamps Used: 42009 I Large Latin text This is the fourth stone angel book sent to me. The owner's requested no specific color but said she would love if the artwork included gargoyles and stained glass windows. I looked through pages and pages of stained glass pictures on Flickr. When I found this mausoleum window picture I knew this was something I could work with. The muted, soft, almost opaque glass panes worked perfectly as an Golden Soft Gel (Gloss) transfer (using the wash away transfer paper). I chose the transparent colors of quinacridone red, hansa yellow light and ultramarine blue to mix shades to brighten the panes of the mausoleum picture. I tinted matte medium with these colors. Because I couldn't work on the actual page of the book I stamped the large Latin text on a piece of watercolor paper. I painted bone black around the edges of the paper. When I laid the Golden Soft Gel (Gloss) transfer, there was still white around the edges. I decided to leave it but cover the white with a gold mixed from the 3 colors mentioned above. I glued the watercolor paper into the book The angel photo was one I had taken last summer when I visited the cemeteries in Colma. The original was so white it didn't look right on top of the window. Using Photoshop Elements I reduced the brightness and decreased the blue tone. This dulled the picture down enough to fit muted colors of the window. The angel pictures are free for you to download in the stone angel collage gallery.
	This is the facing page to the mausoleum window page. I wanted to use a Notre Dame gargoyle picture I found last year on the internet. The 3 bright gold glass panes gave me the color inspiration for the gargoyle page. Using the same paint colors of quinacridone red, hansa yellow light and ultramarine blue I mixed various shades of yellow to gold for the background. I also tinted matte medium with a shade of gold to shift the colors of the house. To color the embossed paper I first painted with a more red shade of my mixes. The I dry brushed a more yellow shade over the top. I used a yellow crayon to color around the outer edges and embossed paper. These are the wax based crayons not the watercolor Neocolor IIs. The gargoyle photo was found on the Internet. The images have been included in the free vintage gallery #3 for you to download.

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