Stomping Stamps

Stamps... You might have bought many different stamps before in the stationary store. There are ones like "Happy Birthday" or "Great Job" and etc. How about we make one ourselves with the text and design that we want?

For this project, you will need: medium thickened styrofoam, acrylic paint, watercolor brushes, a sharp pointed pen, a knife, and white colored paper.

There are a few tips that you should think about. I will tell you that handwritings in small font is harder to stamp it onto paper, because all the words clump to each other, and it looks blobs of something. Therefore, it would be a wise choice to design something that has more drawings, and has fewer details. But if you are considering to put words, make sure that your words are big enough to show each and every letter.

First of all, cut the styrofoam into a shape and size that you want to cut out. Remember, the styrofoam you cut out will be the shape of your stamp. Then with a pen, draw the design slightly on the stamp. Consider the things that I have mentioned at the beginning while designing. After you are satisfied with it, trace the design harder. There should be lines that aren't in the same elevation as the rest of the styrofoam. Be really careful about doing this. You might need to trace it deeper than you think.

Whenever you are done with the stamp designing and the carving, paint colored acrylic paint with a watercolor brush onto the styrofoam. It is indeed true that you shouldn't use a watercolor brush with acrylic paint, but using an acrylic brush on this project is not helpful. Paint it carefully with the color that you chose; try not to get paint on the deepened parts of the stamp. Also, avoid painting it for a long time, or else it will dry up quickly. After you have applied paint, stamp it onto white paper. Press it hard onto it, and release it several seconds later. If you did it like the instructions, it is most likely to come out the way you wanted. If it isn't clear enough like mine did, wash the paint off without remaining any of it at all. Wipe off droplets of water especially in the carved parts with dry tissue. Then, trace the lines again deeper. Do the same process again and again whenever it didn't come out well, or apply other colors onto it.

And here it is, your final stamp of your own!

Quote of the Day: "The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance." -Aristotle

I made a stamp that has the yellow
ribbon and the messages in Korean
from the Sewol accident.

Logged Back On With Picasso?

This blog is going to be updated with more posts again from now on for a few weeks!

Picasso is an artist who usually makes artwork based on people's faces that are not realistic. If you look at some of his artwork, it might be hard to tell if they are people. Picasso uses bright and diverse colors in his art. He also uses many different shapes. The face and the upper body might not look realistic with the correct ratios. It could be combined with other elements of the face, position of the face, and more. I modernized my artwork with less bright colors, and made it look a little bit realistic. Let's discover how to create artwork that are inspired by his style!

For this project, prepare: hard paper, gray hard paper, colored papers, and other materials that you want to include for this. Gray hard paper is used for the background. It is better to use gray colored paper than just ordinary white paper, because gray seems to fill the background without even having to color it in. When you have a white background, it seems a little bit empty so that you have to color it in. Other hard papers are mainly used for the face and hair. It would be better to have colored origami papers for the elements of the face. You are ready to start as soon as you have all the materials that are needed.

First of all, think of characteristics of a person. Is he or she quiet, loud, hot headed, or humiliated easily? Think of one posture that the person might have for a split second. It would be more interesting if you choose two of them so that you could show it on your artwork. For this, it is going to have both front and left/right sided, because Picasso's work were something like that! After you have chosen two expressions, make sure that you create the face first. It is better to make the face with hard paper, because it gives more volume to it. After you have made the face, make the front view of the person. It would have two eyes, one nose, and a mouth. For elements of the face, you may use thinner colored paper. After you have attached them, work on the side view. I only attached a nose and a mouth; I don't need to put another eye onto it, because it already has an eye on the other side for the front view. Stick them onto the face. And here is one thing that comes at the last of the face: hair. For mine, the person has hair that partially covers one eye, and it is better to stick it by adjusting the hair a little bit. Stick the face onto the gray hard paper that you have prepared earlier. You might have all the face done by now.

Work on the little parts now since the "necessary" parts have been covered. The neck and the upper body are left. The neck should also be in hard paper. As well as the face, stick the neck onto the gray hard paper. For clothing that the person is wearing, you could continue using hard paper, but you could paint it, color it with colored pencils, or do whatever you are thinking of doing. I made a choice to color it with acrylic paint for the upper body.

If the person seems a little bit missing, try adding small things to him or her. For the person that I was working on, I added earphones. She has one side of the earphone when the other one dropped. There might be other things like adding necklaces, shirt collars, glasses, hair accessories, and more. Be creative! Sign your name at the bottom when you are finished.

You are done. Be proud of yourself!

Quote of the Day: "I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them." - Pablo Picasso

This is my artwork using
Picasso's style. This
particular girl is both smiling
and being calm at the same time.
Look at it from the front and
the side!