Little Yellow House Creations with Linda Aspenson Bergstrom

The RAPMAT Art Project

July 2014

So the RAPMAT (Really Awesome People Making Art Together) Art Project is about the get off he ground, or more honestly, about the get off my drawing table and into the mail .......

So what's this all about? The daring, the 'threatened' (just kidding, kind of) and the adventures and willing spirits know. Maybe, not sure, so here is a little bit on RAPMAT.

It's not new...I have done it...long long ago and far far way in a life time I care not to revisit but RAGMAT WAS amazingly fun!

I do a picture, in this case a drawing of Poppies on 140 pound cold press paper. (that's another word for THICK, stiff etc)

I then....cut up the drawing into 3x3'' squares.

I then color code each portion of the square as none is a complete piece on it's own, and many people are getting pieces.....I'm sending to 22 people for this project. I actually had to 'close' it and could not take any more people as they would not be enough to got around. (sad) BuT...another one is coming.......

Anyway, yes..I color code, as even if you get two or three, they will NOT go side by side...(yep, I'm mean) SO, if it says R, that means RED. R/O= red orange, B=black, G=green, Blue, you guessed it! W=white, Y= yellow. Now your are thinking, WHAT color RED (yes...there are like 4 bazillion 'reds', go check a crayon box....poor kids.....RED should be RED in crayons...until, like...college or sumthin right?

So, use YOUR fave red, might not be a 'perfect' match but just wait, you WILL be amazed at how this turns out. (HOPEFULLY)

A few tips:

Yes I am using crayons here. You can use anything you want other than pastels, chalk and PLEASE..no glitter...these things don't have staying power. Top pic is bad but it shows you I a blending blue into my green, as the lines that are the stems...the'll be obvious to you, are lighter (or should be..maybe) and the back ground needs to be a big darker....but this is your piece so do what ever you want.

Here I am doing a Red/Orange Poppies and am blending red marker into my yellow and red crayon coloring. (crayons are fun and they SMELL SO GOOD!!!!) I used to eat 'em. Ya, so did my daughter. Well, enough about that. OH..we were babies when we ate them) Okay, enough....about THAT. I used the crayon as it was more of an 'easy' example and one of those things the 'not so often' artist might just happen to have! (and I love em okay?) Cool thing? they blend well by using a lighter color, and they also blend and get shiny if you rub the with a tissue. I get all happy happy happy when that happens. (Yep, you guessed it, I am SO easily entertained.....that's good considerating...okay, that is NOT a word. BUT...I kinda like it...so guess what..it is now a word. True story. ha. Anyway, considerating I have to entertain myself. (IF I HAD A PUPPY....well let's not go there. So, yep I blend them. I might dab on paint, rub in some colored pencil, who knows. I might also use paint by itself, watercolor or acrylic. Oil takes to long to dry, not good for this...for me. Crawl outside the color box and get super creative here people!!! I am challenging you, you guessed right! So.....oh can I just stay ON TOPIC.......'Oh look, a Panda!" (some will get that some will not. OK......back to RAPMAT...... below:

If you take a look at the first Poppy painting I did, and what this is based on, you see the background is dark, and on the white paper you can see my stems. Best thing to do to make those stems stand out? Make those a lighter green, then go around the lines of the flowers and stems with a sharpie or some dark pen, so it POPS..... we need to have that 'back ground' darker. using black is kind of fun, I think you'll like the results. So......

We are basing it on the above painting. You can see that some of my 'stems' are completely dark while others are light. That is up to you. Don't worry about what the person is doing that has the piece that will go next to yours. YOURS, key word!!!

Below is the drawing before I cut it, and before I completely marked all my measurements. You can see, I couldn't stand it, I had to color. Yep....it was like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey....I just HAD to!!! Okay...back to business here: So, you see squiggly line..those are stems, and you can see, kind of, that your piece of a poppy may very well only be 1/3 or 1/4 of THAT poppy. Interesting yet? Wondering how this is going to work. Well...you will just Have.To.Wait.And.See. :) Love that!

So, I cut it up, all the pieces are being mailed off and.....you just go for it. Questions? PM me on FB. I rarely check me email. Or call me if you have my number.
Below, just the squares before I chop chopped. And you can see how the picture is cut up so....well, it got complicated making sure every portion was color coated, but...don't worry about being completely accurate, JUST have FUN. Then send them back as I need to put this together again!! The flowers and making them more realistic. Maybe. Hopefully. Here's a step by step guide IF you need it.

Above you can see the line from the peddle, toward the other peddle.
That gives you a 3D affect, as you see below. Fun to do....Oh just you wait....till the NEXT RAPMAT!!!!! Okay..................

Middle gets some dots and fun to rep a Poppy

Pencil now, to show you shading. Where there are two lines together, that would be a 'peddle wave' (help me here, with a word. geez....okay, the 'top (between to lines that are close together would have MORE light hitting it, there for a lighter color..