Deborah Velásquez: block printing

Showing posts with label block printing. Show all posts

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Tropical Fusion Blog Hop….Have a visit

Hello and welcome to the Tropical Fusion BlogHop.

Over 40 designers are designing within a tropical theme and are incorporating Radiant Orchid, the 2014 Pantone color of the year in their mini collection.
The hop will run for 4 days.

You are probably stopping in from Jolene Heckman's lovely blog.

If you want to start at the beginning of the hop please visit Mary Tanana's blog called Groovity.

My name is Deborah Velásquez. I am an artist-designer with a passion for creating art.
I work both traditionally and digitally.
I have a love for painting, printmaking and silk screening.

The mix of design, words and crafts light me up. Some of my favorite things are, coffee, magazines, art books, a sharpie and a sketchbook.

I am a licensed artist with The World Art Group and I have Just been named the First place winner of The Carpet Vista 2013 Competition out of Malmö, Sweden, My rug designs will be available late January 2014

Here is the start of my design process after a bit of research.
Some sketching and some motif painting.

I then prepare my blocks by cutting out my design. I do a few test prints in order to check my line work.

I love the surprise of relief printing .

I like to mix printing and painting in the same piece of work.

Rainforest Word Portrait by Velásquez ©2014

I make Word Art and I thought it might be nice to include this

Word Portrait of the Rainforest in as a coordinate.

Thank you for stopping by.

You can now hop over to Jennifer Rogers blog and see how she was inspired by the Tropical theme and Radiant Orchid.

To make navigating the posts a bit easier……….

First Blog: Mary Tanana
Previous Blog: Jolene Heckman

Next Blog: Jennifer Rogers

This is "Where Art and Beauty Meet Lifestyle"©

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on your blog or website.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Virginia Lee Burton, a Favorite for Many Reasons!

I am reposting this from my archives. This is the Third time I have shared this! I have made many new artist friends online and want to share with new followers of this blog, the brilliant story of Virginia Lee Burton. I think of her often not because I am reading stories to my three year old every day but for her passion for creating. She had a love of art and she lived the life of an artist mom. She made art every day so I found it perfect for sharing as we cover Children's Books in Lilla Rogers class, Make Art That Sells. The class has been more than great with lots of creating, learning and reaching beyond comfort zones!

Enjoy!

Virginia Lee Burton, An Artist Mom

You might already know her without knowing you know her.

Virginia Lee Burton's beloved Tree Swing illustration.

Cape Ann Historical Association.

The family, Virginia with her husband, artist Geroge Demetrios and their boys Aris and Mike

photo from Costa Maletskos

Virginia Lee Burton(1909-1968), artist, writer, designer, teacher, gardener and mom. She produced some beloved classics such as, The Little House, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and Choo Choo. Her books were full of lovely illustrations and lessons in overcoming challenges, honoring the environment and teamwork. She lived a creative life full of song and art in Gloucester Massachusetts with her husband, artist, George Demetrios and their two sons, Aris and Mike.

Here she is at her desk with her typewriter, her art supplies, her books and her music (always playing from what I read).

Sound familiar? As we sit with at our desks with our computer, our books, our art supplies listening to music from our iPods in their docking stations?

Virginia Lee Burton A Sense of Place is a DVD I own and play often for inspiration and because it is such a great story. There are so many parts of it that stay with you. I love when her sons reminisce about the their fun and creative childhood. It is a wonderful portrait of a joyful creative soul.

Virginia Lee Burton: A Sense of Place trailer

This trailer gives you sense of the documentary.

This Documentary is also available on Netflix for rent. I also found it on iTunes to download for five dollars. Well worth it.

A classic, enjoyed by our children and by us as children. How great is that?

A peek inside The Little House

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel is available in many other languages.

I own this copy in Spanish.

She often used her own home in illustrations As you can see in the illustration on the left. This one is from the book Life Story. Here you see her garden and orchard. Inside Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, on right.

Houghton Mifflin Company Archives

This barn housed the Folly Cove Designers. The Folly Cove Designers were born from design classes taught by Virginia Lee Burton. These designers were a group of artisans known for their block printed textiles. The barn was a shop, a place for exhibition and a studio producing fabric by the yard, place mats, skirts, aprons and skirts. With Folly Cove you get that she valued a sense of community, so important for artist even now.

Calendar print is indicative of the work Produced by the Folly Cove Designers.

The Swing Tree II.

Cape Ann Historical Association

My Two Favorites, A Life in Art by Barbara Elleman, published by Houghton Mifflin Company and Life Story by Virginia Lee Burton also published by Houghton Mifflin Company. Life Story took eight years to produce and she finished it while in ill health.

Learn a bit more about her life and about her books in this video with Anita Silvey.

Here is a selection of block prints depicting times of the year from a 1965 Horn Book Calendar. They make such beautiful illustrations. I have included so many because I am a big fan of block printing in my own work.

My favorite illustration from the cover of A Life in Art by Barbara Elleman published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

I so love her tree illustrations.

Needless to say she truly inspires on so many levels. She championed and celebrated creativity, nature and its offerings, beauty in the handmade and the love for her boys.

Just Brilliant!

Christian Science Monitor

Virgina with her boys Aris and Mike.

Thank you for stopping by.

This is "Where Art and Beauty Meet Lifestyle"©

Please do not use anything without permission or without note of the origin on your blog or website.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Tests Prints From A Photograph, A Pen, A Print Post

Hand printed test prints from yesterday's post and carving. The bulb onion shape was inspired by an allium-like plant. I created two type of prints. I wanted to do a line print and a shape print. Sort of playing with the positive and negative spaces of my drawings.

Sketches and carved blocks used for printing.

I used this pink rubber block and learned that it is not my favorite to carve on. I found it tough to see my cuts and keep track of my carved lines. When I started to carve on the putty colored blocks it was much easier to see my cut lines. The putty colored block when cut away left a lighter color in removed areas, so this made it much easier to see what you carved. The pink block did not have a difference in color when cut away so it all appeared the same making it hard to see as you worked. I have always preferred the blocks in lighter colors. I find the pink ones distracting to work on.

I find it so interesting that these two hand printed pieces came from the same plant inspirations.

Another hand printed test print created with carved blocks keeping the simple lines of the plant in mind. Now off to work on that curvy stripe inspired by this bulb, onion shape.

This is "Where Art and Beauty Meet Lifestyle"©

Circle Studies and Sketches by Velásquez

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on your blog or website.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

A Photograph, A Pen and A Print

At my desk I have a work in progress, I am back to sketching and getting ready to carve. After a very busy few days finishing up some prints I am excited to create something new.

I found my inspiration in a photograph by my friend Lori Moon.

Lori, a fellow blogger, has a series called Shared Messages from the Universe on her blog. Lori is talented photographer and jewelry artisan. She photographs found phrases and words she comes across in her travels in the The City.

As a gardener I enjoy her plant and flower photography especially during these cold months as I wait for Spring. I had such fun sketching this allium-like flower with a beautiful flower pod in a lantern shape. I made loose and tight sketches looking for a direction to start carving in. I will explore the shape and line aspects of this plant, very much like the echinacea flower post, I will do two carvings and print one highlighting line and the other in shape.

To make things less confusing I put an X in spots I plan to cut

I call this my fun and discovery stage. I fell absolutely in love with this bulb, onion shape.

I cut the shape out and played with layout and layering ideas.

I kept seeing a curvy stripe happening, so I am going to explore this and cut a block in a stripe design. It's a must, I get goose bumps looking at the curved stripe possibility.

This is much like the stripe inspiration from my bird carving here, and I like how that turned out. I will work out the design in the next few posts. Stay tuned.

Plant Sketches by Velásquez

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on your blog or website.