Beeswax Collage Workshop – five stars!

Posted on May 18, 2015 by lynbelisle

If you’ve kept up with my new work, you know how excited I am about my beeswax collage series using early 20th-centure photographs.

Along the way, I’ve developed some techniques for using beeswax and pigment on paper that have worked well for me, but I hadn’t taught the process until yesterday afternoon at the Studio.

I wasn’t sure if other people would be able to get the same results, but it was fantastic! Everyone was so happy with their finished pieces, and had a million ideas about taking this process to new levels with their own personal photos. Take a look!

Easy color-to-sepia photos for beeswax collage using iPiccy

Posted on May 15, 2015 by lynbelisle

Sunday’s workshop at the Studio is Beeswax Collage (it’s sold out, yay!), and I’m going to ask the participants to bring a sepia-toned photo to work with. I’m sending them the link to this post to show them how to do a sepia effect with iPiccy, and you can find out, too, by following these instructions!

First, you need to choose a photo that you want to transform to sepia, and remember what file it’s in so you can find it to upload it. Then go to iPiccy and choose Start Editing!

You’ll see a window that asks you to upload a photo.

Browse to the file on your own computer that has the photo you want to change from color to sepia and select it

Your photo uploads into the editing window.

Look on the left side and find the bar that says Colors.

Click on it and scroll down that list until you come to the bar that says Sepia – choose the sepia tone that you like.

Once you’ve transformed the image to sepia, you can click on the Save icon at the top right and save it back to your computer

Give it a different name so it doesn’t overwrite our original color photo. Now you are ready to print it out and use it for your beeswax collage – or whatever creative purpose you desire!

Happy weekend, everyone!

A HUGE wake-up call – thanks to my fellow art educators!

Posted on April 4, 2015 by lynbelisle

If you read my recent post, you know how excited I am about working with beeswax and digital photos (thanks again, Clare O’Neill). Friday evening I got a wake-up call – literally – validating my artistic intuition. Thanks to two super friends, Gloria Hill and Melissa Wittman, I made a last-minute entry in the Artists Who Teach show at Blue Star which opened Friday. I chose a wax and tissue photocollage titled – guess what – “Wake-Up Call.” And it won Best of Show!! I was stunned and incredibly grateful, both for the astonishing award and the validation of a new direction.

It is an especially meaningful honor because it came from one of the most talented group of friends and peers that I know – art educators. Take time to thank an art teacher today – what gifts they give. And support the San Antonio Art Education Association. They rock!

Special thanks also to juror Jim LaVilla-Havelin, artist and poet and mentor, for the conversation we shared after the awards. He is so wise! I’ll share his piece of wonderful advice with everyone – Jim said, “Never paint for a specific juror – it will backfire. Paint your heart, paint you best without compromise.” . . . . Wow. Life is good.