Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #98 - Faux Stained Glass

Ahhhhh.  There's nothing like spending a beautiful Sunday at the Gold Coast Art Fair.  In it's 53rd year, it's the oldest and largest art festival in Chicago.  Set in Grant Park  right across from the Art Institute, it's a beautiful setting to stroll and admire the wares of about 500 fabulous artists.

 A speed painting performance artist plies his trade

Being immersed in so many incredible works of art kicked Right Brain into high gear.  Friends of mine are going to be starting a stained glass class soon, and that planted a little kernel of an idea.

I mixed some heavy body acrylic paint with some Micaceous Iron Oxide.  I put the mixture in a squeeze bottle with a tapered tip, and used it to create the stained glass 'lead lines'.

Then Clear Tar gel was poured into an outlined area.  The heavy body paint lines acted as 'dams' to corral the gel.  A toothpick was dipped in fluid acrylics mixed with more tar gel, and swirled through the uncolored gel in the outlined areas.

Each little section was completed one at a time, until the whole piece was finished.
 

Faux Stained Glass Bear

I didn't know that tar gel could be so much darned fun.  This is one of my favorites.

We're down to the last two bears!

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways in 100 Days. #92 - Metallics

Shimmery things generally don't thrill me.  I have never put glitter anywhere on my person, have never owned any gold lamé clothing, I'm not into 'bling' or anything that 'sparkles' (vampires included).  But I have seen artists who incorporate glimmer and metals into their work with interesting and effective results. 

I found myself particularly enthralled by the possibilities that something like an iron oxide could produce, so off to the art supply store I went in hopes of mining some metals.

I picked up small bottles of Golden's Micacious Iron Oxide, Iridescent Bronze and Iridescent Copper.  To keep the glitz from overwhelming the bear, the metallic paints were brushed on thinly with lots of water added.

Metallic Bear

The bronze was quite the pleasant surprise, as when it was watered down, it separated into the bronze mica flakes, and an unexpected greenish-blue binder.  That allowed me to float the greenish color around without overdoing the bronze.  The copper and iron oxide didn't contain any surprise undertones, but were still fun to swirl around on the paper.