Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Owls



Playing with and sketching owls today. I have a love of owls. 
The guardian, beautiful and wise.
They have such a mystique about them.
Symbolically they represent: 
wisdom 
mystery
 transition 
messages 
intelligence 
mysticism 
protection
and 
secrets
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I have made owl ornaments which you can find on my textile and handmade page but I have never put them on paper or canvas. 
I keep plenty of doodles in my sketchbook and have been meaning to explore other mediums. 
For fun I made a rubber stamp of an owl using an artist carving block. 
You can also use a linoleum block or a potato for this relief process of printing. 
This brings me back to my college printmaking class. What comes to mind is that the tools were scary and dangerous, but what they produced was pure beauty. 
For printing inks I like textile block printing ink. 
I did some test printing to see how it will look printed. 
I do love the beauty of imperfection so I am not going for totally clean edges, just a cleaner background.
First test needs a bit of clean up.
Final stamp after clean up.

I love how this turned out. I want to make more art with this stamp. I am not done yet but wanted to share. Illustration Friday has a the theme of hibernation this week. I guess it makes sense that I am thinking about the woodlands, the forest, animals and birds. Come to find out that owls do not hibernate. I would love to work the owl into my illustration somehow. 
More exploration and art to make. 
If you have a love of owls stop by the My Owl Barn website, it is truly delightful. Enjoy.

Three Owls                                                                                                      Deborah Velásquez©2011

18 comments:

  1. So cute, Deborah! Just what I need is another thing that looks like fun to do! Heeheehee!

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  2. Deborah, those are great. I am definitely not going to go out and buy stamping stuff..no..absolutely not! ...but wondering, are they hard to carve out? I am going to check out IF later today...will look for your hibernation illustration there. Enjoy your day. Julie

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  3. Oh Deborah...
    I love owls! I just adore them :) So, I'll be stalking your owl website from now on, lol.

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  4. i love how that stamp came out too! i also love owls. my favorite handprint project of my entire collection are owls.

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  5. OK, this is weird. I was just at Hobby Lobby and almost, almost bought blocks to carve my own stamps. I've never tried it before. I too love owls. Great job on this stamp.

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  6. So cute! If you ever want to do a tutorial on stamp carving I will check it out for sure.

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  7. Love your owl. And you're so clever to make your own stamp. How impressive.

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  8. Love this cute little owl! I'm so interested in stamps. Have all the equipment but haven't tried yet. I wanted to do a bunny stamp for Rare Rabbits Designs. Your work is awesome!

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  9. I love you owl! Great job carving it..
    Sooo funny as I'm doing a post for my Let's get Crafty on carving stamps..mine is a shark..check it out if you want..I think it's weird that we both did this and that That Girl Designs was thinking of making a stamp too..Are the Fliers on the same wave length of what..lol
    Love your OWL!

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  10. So fun, and so timely! My almost-due expectant daughter has decided her theme is Owls! Glad to find your work!

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  11. Love this! I am going to try this, it can't be much different than carving wax when I make jewelry, right? Giggle, seriously though I really do want to give it a try. Love the owls!

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  12. Hi Deborah - wanted to share this link with you. I love this artist's work and she recently started doing limited edition prints of her linoleum carved blocks. http://karenappleton.blogspot.com/2011/07/july-linoleum-print.html

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  13. Lovely blog, Owls are usually thought of as so wise and yet in the ’70’s were still so much fun! Good times, good times!
    If you’d like, come see my blog at http://KanchanMahon.com.

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  14. Loved reading all these comments so glad you all enjoyed this lovely owl. I loved sharing her with you as well as the making your own stamp information. I hope you go out pick up an artist carving block and some cutting tools and create!

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  15. That Girl Designs
    Ann Marie,
    Loved the link you shared. Beautiful work and very inspiring. It really has me thinking of taking this idea further. You are awesome Thanks. I do hope you go back to Hobby Lobby and pick up some supplies to make stamps!

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  16. Deborah,
    You are so gifted! Love the owls and what a great job transfering them to the stamp. So cool! :-) Thanks for sharing! Kris

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