2012/365 - Day 187

choosing two pieces for my submission to the upcoming show

Today has been spent re-shooting Ruth's two pieces because I didn't like how the photos turned out and I wanted to do a good job for her.  I also needed to make a decision about my submission(s).

I am relatively happy with the collage that I added the shadows to...repurposed canvas #8 is now titled "Time for a Nap" because the llama lady looks kind of dazed and the little donkey boy is pretty sleepy...I like it for me, I like it for itself.  I seriously doubt it will make the cut but I still want to submit it.  Maybe it will look better (to me) once it is framed.  The decision I made was to not try to force any more of my non-painter painting "skills" on the foxish-creature at this time.  I am not feeling confident enough about it yet.  I really love the foxish-creature himself and I don't want to mess him up.  I want to practice more on shadows and shading...using William's suggestions.  I know this will be something that keeps coming up for me to have to do and I need to practice to learn how to do it.  It is just that simple. 

Since this is a show of collage, assemblage and "construction art",  I really wanted to submit a 3D piece, too.   Baby Beast really embodies the idea of construction art...he has so many different elements and materials inside of him...he has gone through so many different transformations...I think he really fits this show.  Baby Beast is my second submission.

This afternoon was a long process of choosing photographs for the cd.  I took about a million Baby Beast photos when I first completed him.  You have to include at least 2 images of a 3D piece for this show...I ended up with a few more than 2.

It probably wasn't necessary, but I blurred out my personal info on the entry form and cd for the blog picture.

This evening Peggy dropped off her cd/entry form and Joan will bring hers by tomorrow morning sometime.  Sue is coming over to help me pick up a new used chair from Ferndale in the morning and then I will mail all of our entries in one package.  Leann already sent hers in earlier in the week.  Fingers crossed we all get something in -- but no matter what, a bunch of us will make a day trip out to Lowell during the run of the show to visit that lovely little town and view the exhibit.  And (wishful thinking) wouldn't it be great if we all had to go back for the Closing Reception and awards?

2012/365 - Day 184

trying to add the shadow/stand out stuff

I don't know...I am sort of pleased but not totally...with the way this turned out.  I could still tweak it a bit but I am getting "done" with it.  I am too skurred to try to do the foxish-creature tonight.  

Nothing left to do but grit my teeth, hold my breath, and dive in!

Okay...I don't claim to be a painter...I just want the creature to stand out from the background.

And the little sleepy guy, too.

This time I tried doing the shadow first and then the darker outline.

I really don't think it is going to get much better unless someone who knows what they are doing comes in and fixes it.  I am okay with it...but there is definitely lots of room for improvement.

This is when it was still pretty wet.

Hanging on the wall and nearly dry.

It looks better in these photos than it does in person.  Maybe it will look better to me once I have a frame around it.

I am still going to try it for submission.

I will attempt the foxish-creature tomorrow...I'm too shaky tonight.  I can't believe how much that (painting) takes out of me...LOL.

2012/365 - Day 134

experimenting on a collage

This is probably Painting 101 for most artists, but I'm not a painter -- so for me it is experimenting.

I wanted to make the llama lady and sleepy burro boy stand out from the background.  

I got out some acrylics in browns and one green and I got brave and I darkened in the outline of the llama lady.

This is canvas #8 close up in the "before" stage.

I mixed the colors together and darkened the outline.  Then I tried to use a slightly lighter mixture and pull it away from the outline, hoping to feather the color into the collage.

For a first try, I am fairly happy with this...not when I'm right up on top of it...

   

...but when I step back it looks kinda cool.

I am not sure how to proceed from here, but I will figure it out. 

 

 And when I step even further away it looks even better. 

I bet it looks the very best when you aren't in the room with it at all...LOL

2012/365 - Day 123

ahhh...getting a routine (and rhythm) back

Joan, Leann, Scout and I had a Wednesday Morning at Joan's after what seemed like a really long l-o-n-g break.  It was SO good to get back together again this morning and catch up on everyone's news and get back into our rhythm.

Joan showed us the incredible quilt she is working on.

After that we mostly talked and got caught up. 

This is the waaaaay cool guy that Joan brought me from Montmarte in Paris. 

I added him to my car keys right away!

Awwww...good girl, Scout!

Later in the afternoon I tweaked canvas #8.

I had to fix the neck of the llama/giraffe girl...it was too wide on the area over the horse's nose and was really bothering me.

I added more blue paper to the left of her neck and re-did the edge of her neck with some tea bag edges that I saved from the night before -- good thing I saved them!

I am also noticing that the tea bag edges dry much darker than they are when they go on.

And tonight I HAD to work on the marsupial...I just had to. 

But there were some hitches...

 As you might know from all of my whining, I have a major problem with allergies lately.  Today one of the manifestations of the allergic reaction(s) is that my hands are very swollen.

This was the third glove I tried to put on...you can see that I couldn't pull it down onto my hand all the way and that the bottom ripped while I was pulling it.  This is a small size glove and usually fits like...well, like a glove.

Luckily I also have a box of medium size gloves. The problem here is that the glove is a bit too big.  The fingers are way too long.  That means that the glove bunches at the top of my fingers and I can't smooth the plaster cloth very easily because I can't feel what I am doing and the excess glove material is in the way.

So -- 

This means that I only worked on one of the hand/arm parts.

 

When I sat down to work on this tonight I thought 

I would be putting the plaster cloth on the fingers and hand and wrist areas of both sides...but no.  I soon found that I had to do the entire arm and put it in place so that the fingers would "hold" the pouch.

So I had to cover the whole section very quickly and attach it to the rest of the body...and I really wasn't prepared for that.

This is not what I had in mind, but I think I can work around it.

I couldn't see what I was doing when I was adding the plaster cloth wads to the side and back of the arm.  I had to try to hold it in place and dip/apply/smooth the plaster cloth triangles at the same time.

Considering the balancing act and that I was working blind, I am not too unhappy with this.  I will take tonight and part of tomorrow to think about how to proceed.

But the sugar glider-creature is holding its pouch open, dammit!

2012/365 - Day 122

back to work

I have been slacking off the last few days since the road trip.  I have allowed myself to give in to the allergies and give myself excuses for not getting back to work.  Today I wanted to do two activities to start to make up for some of the time.

These are the tea bags that Karen gave me a while back.  

This is how canvas #8 looked before I started working on it tonight.

This is a close up of the neck of the llama/giraffe girl.  You can see where I previously added the tea bags on the left side of her neck.

This is a close up of a tea bag being applied to the surface.

When I started adding the tea bags today I noticed I must have used the darker ones before.  See the difference in the color of the outline?

I decided to go back over the darker outlines with the lighter tea bags...more work but it looks a lot better.  Also, it gives just a teensy bit of height to the edge.

It is much easier to see her neck now.  The tea bags were just the perfect thing I needed to make her neck different from the horse but still not too prominent when compared to the horse.

I used up all of the lighter tea bags.  I am anxious to see how this looks once it is dry!

Here is the second activity for today.

I made the hand/arm for the left side of the marsupial.

I'm fairly happy (so far) with the way the hands/arms are turning out...they look pretty even.  I took off the upper arm part, though.

The real test will be when I plaster cloth the hands/arms.  I don't want them to become much larger and those are small areas between the fingers.

2012/365 - Day 86

it makes a difference in person


I know you can't see very much in these photos from today, but in person there is a big difference.


I painted the outlines in Neutral Gray so I can tell where I am on the canvas.








I am happy with these two characters. I am sure I will begin to understand their story as I work on them more...but they are locked in now. Yay.

2012/365 - Day 85

canvas #8 is coming along nicely

I have been defining the lines more on the two characters in this canvas. I am quite happy with how they are starting to look.



This is a llama lady in a puffy sleeves dress with a turquoise colored collar.
















This is a sleepy little burro boy in a crew neck shirt.
















Here they are together.












I will darken the outline marks later on tonight. I am not sure I will finish this canvas (and canvas #7) in time for that deadline on Friday. If I don't, I am fine with it because I only found out about this juried show last week and I really like these two collages. My sister likes them a lot, too.

2012/365 - Day 83 - part 2

back at it on canvas #8

It is funny how the light in the room changes the shading on the canvases and it reads differently.


This afternoon larger creatures are emerging and they will be easier for me to work with.





The yellow lines are not exact, but will remind me what I saw later on.





And here is the companion...a donkey or horse.










overall view...

2012/365 - Day 82 - part two

coming through on canvas #8 (and #7)

I am still having some trouble reading the two canvases today...but this is what is trying to come through the layers on canvas #8. It is not very "me" but it is what I am seeing. I may or may not continue with these canvases right now. It could be I am pushing too hard or that I just finished up those other two and I need a break from this particular project.

The yellow lines are drawn with the painting tool in my photo program. Some days I am better at maneuvering the tool...this is not a better day...LOL.





It looks to me to be some sort of baby creature/guy. I don't know what it is or where the final placement of facial features would go.







The thing is, the baby creature/guy's mom is the dominant character on the canvas...so far.







The face is really sweet on this one, but I am not so sure about this whole theme...for me.

I will keep looking at this canvas for a few days.


But here is the even stranger part...





THIS came through on canvas #7...very clearly.