Amphibians

A quilt square pieced on a muslin foundation was mounted on a stretched canvas with matte
medium. A transparency printed from my sketch of frogs was attached using my old Camp Fire Girls honor beads. I nailed through the beads and into the stretcher frame. The beads do not appear in this picture because the computer scan was done before this last step so that the picture would lie flat on the scanner. The final product looks just a bit different.

Art and images copyright 2009 by Judi Stack

She Who Carries the World on Her Back

I loved working with the turtle and felt inspired with this challenge.

To start I found an image of a wise looking turtle, mounted it on very thin paper clay and embossed the shape into it. Then I painted a piece of bristol paper with watered down acrylic. Wish I had used hot press water color paper but live and learn. When that dried, I glued down the embossed turtle image then gilded over the top of everything. Once that dried I used pumice powder to remove much of the gilding then glazed with stamp pad ink and a little more acrylic wash. Then I scratched and sanded to give more texture. Last step was to lay down an image transfer of her head and touch up with very fine point black pen. The light catches her in many differnt moods that don't show up on a scan.

I like her!

Art and images copyright 2009 by Suzie Wolfer

Hidden

I call this creation, "Hidden". It is a chameleon hiding among the grasses and leaves. After pondering several other ideas to create for the December Reptile and Amphibians Challenge I decided to create a chameleon. The ability for a chameleon to change colors was my inspiration.

Since I love creating works using snippets and bits of items rescued from the trash can in my art room that became the medium of choice. The background consists of snippets fused on an 8"x8" paper, then the chameleon was created separately on a fabric scrap. Once I had the chameleon completed I pinned it to the background, stuffed a small amount of polyfill for dimension, stitched the chameleon to the background and finished the detail by trimming it with multi yarn on the top of the head. Grass and follage was created using feathers and a two-toned scrap of ribbon. Once all was complete the eye was added.

As you can see the chameleon's main color is a combo of blue and green but it is beginning to take on the colors - pink,orange,yellow,lavender,etc. - found in the background.

This was my first attempt to create a fused piece since my surgery. Thanks to my husband's assist with cutting large fabric pieces for me I was able to use my left hand to complete the chameleon. Boy, it feels good to be able to create again!

Art and images copyright 2009 by Marylin Huskamp

Amphibians and Reptiles

I could not decide which reptile or amphibian I wanted to use, so I used them all - snake, gecko, turtle and frog. Freehand sketch with watercolor on hot press D'Arches paper. Enjoy!

Art and images copyright 2009 by Jan Harris

Amphibian

I have to admit, that December's challenge was just that... A CHALLENGE. I struggled quite a bit with the subject matter, and how to best represent either amphibian or reptile.

I am pleased with the results of my labor, as this piece took me much longer to complete. I also wanted to continue with the exploration of pattern, which is represented in this piece by the marsh foliage, shown in the upper portion of the work, trailing off into what is the watery depths surrounding the lily pad.

Art and images copyright 2009 by Tracie Lyn Huskamp

Zentangle Ssssssnakes

I had fun with this project. I started it before all the snowfall and then got a nasty abscessed tooth. That put me about two weeks behind, but I was able to think about how I wanted to display my snakes. If you don't know about Zentangle check out their site and see what cool things you can do with a pen and piece of paper.

I Zentangled my snakes, used color pencils to color the background, glued it down to the painted canvasboard, cut up duct tape to use as a frame for the snakes, added a glow in the dark plastic snake and the sssss and called it done. It's a funky piece and different than what I probably would have done it I wasn't on drugs. For my tooth, drugs for my tooth. ;)

Art and images copyright 2009 by Z'anne Bakke

Reptiles and Amphibians

Art and images copyright 2009 by Cynthia Mooney

3-D Fabric Mixed Media Snake

Happy New Year everyone! I've been working on this piece for a couple of weeks on and off. I took the quilted pet portrait idea and made the image 3-D. The head is polymer clay with wire fangs and a sequin eye- very mixed media. For the next challenge, I'll be creating with a different medium- not sure what yet. I have enjoyed working with fabric. Hope you are warm and cozy.

Art and images copyright by Paula McNamee 2009

This Lizard Was Placed...

As I was walking through a farmer's market in Seattle last April, the bright green lizard caught my attention. At first, I thought it was alive, but a few minutes later, I discovered that it was not. But I found it to be a neat gimmick for grabbing most visitor's attention because of the color contrast between dark green and bright orange colors.


Art and images copyright 2009 by Andrew Borloz

Reptile

Art and images copyright by Traci Donahue 2008