Love Hate

I realized last week that I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed with stuff lately and that this has been draining my energy to create art. I decided I needed to change that, so now I try to have positive thoughts and just focus on having fun with my art.

I worked on these CDs during the weekend, they are old CDs where I added canvas paper on top and used my acrylics there...

Acrylics and I have a love/hate relationship, whenever I start painting with acrylics I start doubting myself and feeling like throwing everything away because I don't like how things are looking; it's always difficult to switch from media to media and change the techniques I need to use to apply with each project...that's the hate part. The love part comes when I finally remember how to work and things start shaping the way I want them to :)

To finish these ones I added a couple of magnets in the back and they'll be around my fridge until I'm ready to send them.

Boxes

One of my best friends has this obsession with boxes; she owns a lot of them in different colors, styles, and materials and has a very hard time saying no to a box when she sees one. I worked on 2 boxes last weekend with different techniques and materials and they will be hard to let go when I post them on their way.

This one is a wooden box measuring 8"x6" and done with acrylics and inks. There is a very nice blue metallic shine in the sky, but of course the camera couldn't pick that up. The inside has 3 compartments and the bottom of them were covered with some oriental fabric I got in a trade.
This box is metal and I worked on pastel paper and soft pastels to create this scene of the entrance of Antigua Guatemala. I sealed it with spray, but since I know the lid will be constantly manipulated I added 2 layers of clear varnish on top...I was SCARED to death while doing this, because I thought the colors would smudge, but luckily they held up and the lid has a lovely shine to it.

I spent all day yesterday working with old CDs to create fridge magnets. I managed to finish 3, I'll have to complete the last one later today and then I'll post the pics.

Graphite Kick

It seems I got stuck in a graphite loop the last couple of days. Here are 4 ATCs I made for a Pick-a-Theme swap over at iATCs. I absolutely love PAT swaps because I get to do different cards and I get my choice of cards in return; this time I ended up with a group that had requested animal theme cards and I'm getting butterflies in return. It was a nice change to go back to graphite for a while, but at the end I was pretty tired of the grayscale... I did work in 3 different projects yesterday afternoon, but they are part of a trade and I cannot post them until my partners get them so the surprise isn't spoiled :)

Strong Women, Strong Ideas

I got hit by a ton of stuff the last couple of days which drained my energy a big way...

It all started a week ago when I COULD NOT get any sleep because of the toothache from hell...really, I took 3 different pills and they did not do a darn thing, I managed to fall asleep at 4 am and I had to get up and go to work just 2 hours later.

The next night I was obviously dead tired and went to sleep pretty early just to be awaken by my bed shaking at 2 am; at first I thought it was my dog jumping into my bed, but then I realized that this wasn't that simple...it turned out to be the effects of the Honduras earthquake which made the earth shake for more than 40 seconds. Try to get some sleep after that...

I got a return visit from the toothache on Friday morning and as much as I dislike visiting the dentist I finally accepted that this was not going away and spent my Friday afternoon, Saturday afternoon, and Tuesday afternoon going through a root canal procedure...on top of that, there's the added bonust that I had no extra cash lying around for this...

Ok, I'll stop the complaints now... Here are 2 cards I made when I felt the need of some relaxing. They have some text in the background, different acrylics textures and a magazine transparency done with some clear tape, and ink.

The Color of Flowers

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to post any art...mostly because I haven't had time to create new art. On top of all I had a weird stomach bug that made me feel wretched all day Monday, luckily it is now behind and I'm finally playing catch up with all the trades and swaps I have pending.


As you know by now I'm a huge fan of nature, particularly flowers; and I'm blessed to live in a country where it's always Spring, we do get our winter -we are actually going through winter now, lots of daily rain...-but it doesn't affect us in a major way, there's always something blooming wherever you look. I've been actually waiting for a sunny afternoon to take pics of my Mom's flowers so you could see for yourself.


In the meantime I'll leave you with some flowers I made for a swap over at iATCs, these are all done with graphite, I'll let you imagine the colors on these on your own :)

Saturday Classes

I have been taking figure drawing classes on Saturdays... this is the first time I have tried figure drawing and it's been challenging because the group I joined has been working on this for 2 years while I just have had a couple of sessions and to top it all off there are a couple of REALLY fantastic artists in the group which can be enough to intimidate anyone!

It's also a challenge because the class is pretty fast-paced, yesterday's class included 3 10-minute portrait sketches, 4 10-minute full body sketches, the rest of the class -about 40 minutes were used to complete the watercolor piece. This one actually took me 2 classes to complete and I finished the background at home later in the evening.


The graphite one was done during the first 2 classes I attended.

Some things I still have to work on:

*A LOT on faces...I'm having quite a difficult time getting the features and the proportions just right.

*The overall size of the art, I have this tendency to draw everything a tad too large and very frequently I find that the image doesn't fit in the paper, I finally improved that a bit in my quick sketches yesterday by drawing an inside frame very lightly with pencil and trying to work in that area alone.

I'll try to find some decent looking quick sketches to post here (most of them are NEVER going to see the light of day!)

Candle Screen Project

I had to come up with a project for my students to do as a Mother's Day present, it needed to be something relatively simple for the 3 year old bunch, and at the same time something that the kids in 3rd grade could show more creativity with. I used a sponging and a dry brush technique for this model...obviously the 3 year old kids will use a more simple technique.

Here's what I used for this project:
*A medium size clay candle screen, this one measures 8 1/2" by 6"(there are tons of clay objects for sale in the crafts market here)
*White acrylic paint (leftover from the last time we painted the house)
*Student grade acrylic paint (is what the students will have available in school)
*A couple of brushes (they need to have stiff bristles for the dry-brush technique)
*A piece of sponge
*Metallic acrylic paint ( I used some copper)
*Clear adhesive
*Small dry flowers (These are very common here, and come in a variety of colors)
*A styrofoam tray or a plastic plate (To use as a palette)

Ok, I began this project painting all the surfaces with a coat of white acrylic paint, the reason for this is that the clay can be pretty absorbent and if it's left unsealed it can take too many layers of color to get good coverage, the color of the clay also affects the final colors in the project.
I added black paint to the areas where I will use the dry brush technique; the black will affect the colors I add on top as it will show a bit through the streaks in the top layers, the areas that are left white will be worked with a sponge in different colors to give texture.
I added a layer of yellow on top of the white and started working in red with some more yellow on top. I don't mind too much if I get paint on top of the black, this will all be covered up later with more paint.
Here's my sponge and palette so you get a better idea of how I use them; I take a bit of the three colors in the sponge and pat the sponge a bit on the side of the palette so the colors fuse together a bit, when I'm happy with the mix of colors I have I start working on my piece. It's always better to work on light layers to avoid getting splotches of strong color.
Here are the walls all done after several layers of red/yellow/white paint. This particular house is done in a colonial style which is very common in Antigua Guatemala; some of the main characteristics of these houses are the bold colors of the walls and the Spanish tile roof.
Here's the first layer of red being applied with the dry brush technique, I picked up some color with the brush and used a sponge to take off as much paint as possible. You can use some paper napkins instead of the sponge, but I prefer the sponge because it absorbs more paint and when I'm finished I just need to rinse it off and leave it to dry.
Here's the roof after several layers of red and some yellow added, the important thing about using the dry brush technique is to add very light layers of color to give an interesting texture and to use a contrasting color in the background to give it more depth. I added yellow around the top where the flowers will be added.
Green was added on top of the yellow and white was added to the bottom of the house -not really happy with how the white looks...
I added some darker green to the area around the top and some white to the roof...which you'll soon discover will disappear... the green was just added in patches while the white was added with the dry brush technique.
These are dried up natural flowers (don't know really what plant they come from) which are very common in Guatemala, they are covered with different color acrylic paint and sold by the bundles in the crafts market; I cut them up individually and added them to the top part with some clear adhesive (If you look closely you'll see my cherished Coke vintage glass on the left and the tv playing in the background-my two addictions).
I had my nephew print his hand on the bottom of the dish with red paint, added his name and the date 10-Mayo-2009. Mother's Day in Guatemala is celebrated on May 10th, and all Mother's get the day off. What's nice about this project is that it doesn't matter too much if my boss approves it or not, I made a neat keepsake involving my nephew and I'll always cherish it. By the way, if you look closely the white in the bottom was toned out with some yellow, and a metallic copper tone was added to the roof and the bricks (the camera didn't really picked this up)using the same dry brush technique.
Here's the final product...I'm still debating whether to paint the inside with white paint since the windows are pretty large and you can see right through it.

Chunkies Minus the Chunk

When I first learned about ATCs, the whole concept of Mail Art was a bit overwhelming and it took me a while to learn about all the different kinds of trades that existed. One that caught my attention from the start were the chunky books, these are 4"x4" and they are called chunky because they are usually done with a very sturdy base and they have fibers and dangling bits on the edge. However...mailing these turned out to be way too expensive, so I have traded some of these for regular ATCs or I have found projects where the chunky part is not asked for, which makes the mailing cheaper. These chunkies in particular were created for Sarah's son (Tlouey @ iATCs) who makes chunky books to teach him about colors (green froggie) and numbers (one sweet giraffe). I think this is a one-of-a-kind project and I loved taking part in it. These two chunkies in particular were done with watercolors and some white drawing ink in the froggie.

...but....I don't like watercolors...

I've been sick since last Friday and I think the combination of a hacking cough, stuffy nose, back pain, and meds completely messed with my sleeping hours; so while laying awake at 2 am I got this idea for a post (WARNING: I'm still under the influence of a very strong antibiotic and cough syrup, so you'll have to forgive me if this makes little sense). One of the earliest memories of art I have is of a metal box of watercolor cakes that belonged to one of my brothers, it was about 120 different colors in this huge-or so I thought- box which I desperately wanted to get my hands on...and which my brother guarded with his life. Now, don't think I was going to be careless with his precious watercolor box -he didn't even use them-, it was that ever so present feeling of "You cannot have it because it's mine"...brothers.... I had to wait a while to use them and when I did I felt completely cheated of the whole experience...the pages of my coloring book warped under the water and since I had no one to show me how to use the cakes correctly there was more water than color in them, apart from the obvious color drops I managed to get in all the wrong places. So ended my fantasy of the huge metal box and watercolors. Years passed and I started working in larger formats, after a year and a half of painting with oils I was absolutely certain that this was the medium for me; whenever someone tried to lead me to watercolors I would start claiming all the "evils" of such medium, how difficult it was and how unforgiving of ones mistakes. It turns out I couldn't escape from watercolors forever and they finally caught up with me last year when I changed my art class schedule and I landed with a new teacher who just happened to love watercolors....oh, the difference a good teacher makes. Although we didn't spend much time working with watercolors I completely fell in love with the subtleties they possess and the wonderful effects you can achieve with them. He inspired me to continue experimenting outside of the class and to have to ask myself now who was that person not so long ago that used to say "I don't like watercolors". So have you tried something new recently??
These are all done for 2 different swaps over at iATCs.

Looking for a Little Time

I've been missing the last couple of weeks, but life REALLY got on the way...long story short, I changed jobs and I'm still trying to get used to the new schedule. This affects not having enough time to play around with any type of Art,
blogging, nor visiting my favorite blogs; I hope to get used to the new schedule soon enough and have time to start creating again.
These are the cards I created today for Annie's Design-a-Cat Swap over at ATCs for All, she made the fun outline of a cat and asked us to design our own cat based on her image; the cats that have been posted so far look absolutely fantastic and I cannot wait to see what kind of returns I get from this one :)

Acrylics

Yesterday, I was waiting for an appointment and I was suddenly inspired by the art in the reception area, there were 4 different paintings approx. 18"x18" done with acrylics and I loved the technique of wide, bold brushstrokes with the colors marking the overall design, so I decided to play with this a bit today. I ended up with 7 cards I owe from 2 trades over at ATCs for All and I had quite an interesting morning. I ended up adding some black outlines to some of the cards (hearts are a personal favorite of mine), but the ones I did following the original inspiration -the eye and the calla lily- are definitely my favorites.
I know by now you are just green with envy over my most luxurious and elegant palette, but to tell you the truth I find that's practically impossible for me to keep a palette for acrylics or oils in good condition. I just don't have enough patience to spend my time rubbing old painting away and have lost a couple of actually good palettes in the process, so I have resorted to keeping a stash of plastic plates ( I usually rescue a couple of cake plates from family reunions, wash them and stash them).
You can get a closer look to the ATCs in my Flickr, but beware...they did not scan well at all :(

Gerbera Daisy

After sunflowers gerbera daisies are my most favorite flowers ever. There's something so nice and cheerful when it comes to their colors. Unfortunately our daisies have been a bit under the weather with all the constant temperature changes and this one was the one that looked the most "cheerful" part when I went hunting into the garden this afternoon with my camera, but it will do just fine to wish you a fun Vanletine's day :)
Moving into the art part now... I worked today in these small watercolor paintings of gerberas, they are 2"x2" (twinchies!) and they took a loooonnnnngggg time to get ready, it's so difficult to get details into such a tiny canvas. I have one of this for sale on my Etsy, I'm thinking I want to hold on to the other one for a while; I used Ranger's memory glass and frames to make the pendants and I quite like how they turned out. I still have more frames and glass so I'm hoping to make others soon, any requests??
































PS. I cannot write this post without thanking Lisa at yourATCstore.com, I bought the frames over at her store and I received extraordinary service and a fair price-particularly considering I'm international and all other stores had really ridiculous shipping costs for these tiny frames, not to mention the great freebies she sent along.

OWOH WINNER

I'm just surprised at the incredible response from the One World One Heart event, over 900 bloggers from all around the world joined this year and the comments received were just extraordinary. So...coming to the winner now:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

168

Timestamp: 2009-02-12 06:21:41 UTC

And the comment matches Shelly Rae Wood:

ShellyRaeWood said... 168

Oh these poppies bring back memories. When I was growing up there was the sweetest older man, Lively. He always had a smile and a piece of candy in his pockets for the kids. He also grew the prettiest poppies. My Dad still has some of Lively's stock of poppies growing at his house!! :::smiles::: Thanks so much for the memory!! Your watercolor is gorgeous!! Shelly OWOH # 825
www.shellyraewood.blogspot.com

February 2, 2009 11:11 PM

I hope you also lucked out and got a little surprise coming your way!

PS. The pic has nothing to do with the post...but I don't want to have a post without some eye candy ;)

Classes, classes, classes!!!

I started giving lessons again today (I work as an English teacher) and it's the one thing I love as much as creating. I get such a thrill of helping someone learn English and the great satisfaction they have when they learn a new language. To top the day off I took my first art lesson of the year in the afternoon, this year is all about drawing the human figure and faces; and as you can see from my poor ATC above I need BIG help when it comes to this. The ATC above is supposed to be my rendition of Luna Lovegood- I used watercolors, acryllic metallic paints, black ink, and white ink. This one is for Melanie over at AFA, she is one AWESOME artist, you can visit her blog here.
Back to my art classes, I have them scheduled for Mondays 2-6 and it was a total surprise when I showed up today because it turns out we get to work with a live model. I have never tried human figure drawing before, not to mention with a live model! but it was a really nice experience. The first part of the class was spent by doing a series of exercises where she changed poses every 5 or 7 minutes...for the first ones I was freaking out a bit because of the time limit, but it turns out that when you are just trying to get the basic body shapes where they belong 5 minutes is a long time.
Here are the first poses, my personal favorite is the one where she is lying on her side -although she looks way chubby, I think I kind of over did the curves a bit.This one has a sketch of my teacher on the right - he was showing me the whole 8 heads of proportion rule.

This one is the last one of the session, she held the pose for 30 minutes, she was sort of slumped over a chair with her legs stretched out towards me -which was a whole load of trouble I might add- Oh, and let's not get into the whole hand/feet issue; it was my first class after all ; )
I'd love to hear some feedback from you, I'm WAY out of my comfort zone with this topic but I'm really interested in learning from this.

Now, for some awesome classes YOU can take on line! A group of extraordinary artists -Annie Melione, Dana Driscoll, Tracie Rozario and Sal Scheibe- are just getting ready to launch a Whimsy Art Workshop:
"The workshop is designed to help artists who are seeking to improve their artistic skills or working to develop a unique style. The workshop is designed for the novice, so it’s not necessary that you know anything about drawing, color, or composition. We will cover all of the basics and some advanced techniques and then help you to find your own, unique style of whimsical art. Our approach to learning about drawing is light-hearted and fun and filled with exercises and inspiration to help you grow as an artist." Read more about it here.