Animal Wednesday - resorting to vids again

funny and cute and fishie

Instructional

There are no live animals here in the northeast that aren't hibernating. I swear. Occasionally I think I see a squirrel but it is usually a leaf. I'm resorting to animal videos and papermache animals....

But then again...Miss Em paperclay (soon to be unveiled) does need her doggie sidekick doesn't she???

Happy Animal Wednesday

The first figurine

Small strange little creature.



Dried, sanded, gesso'ed, painted. Not so easy.





The big one is in process.....

Paperclay and Inspiration...with an update

Lo - that clever gal - brought over some awesome paper clay work that she had done. I had some paper clay here that I had bought at Michaels, as I had a weird desire to make a little statue of miss em in a canoe. Don't ask me why...I just wanted to give it a try. But I didn't know where to start, so I had the unopened package. After I saw Lo's stuff, I tried my hand at a few plaque type items - eh..not so happy with them, lots to learn (of course). Not finished but thought I'd share anyway.

Then I tried my hand at a sort of Em-ish piece. As it turned out it is NOT miss em but is a funny little person-thing that I will keep working on. Sort of an owl face as I look at him more. Wonder if I can do a fish face?





Then I got smarter and went onto U Tube for a morning of instruction and hints. Now I am starting this guy. His head is a two sided bead that I bought somewhere, and his body is paperclay over a craft egg. Dowel neck. And no - the black behind him isn't hair and just to show that it isn't I tried to erase the background in photoshop as shown below. . (Note to self: take class in photoshop)



I like to try new things - find that doing so always gives me inspiration for drawings. These'll be fun little things but now I need more paperclay so we are heading out to Michaels with a 40% off coupon.

So this inspiration is all from being with a wonderful fellow artist for the day. For me, the morale of the story is that I need interaction! I need to get ideas from others, try new things, branch out. I'd love to be in a studio space with others, or back in school full time - just learning.

Thanks Lo - see besides giving me an awesome painting lesson you've got me started on a new fun little project.

Update: After buying more clay at Michaels, (and we tried to take a walk in the woods but the slippery slidy didn't work well for me) I came home and spent the afternoon working on the bigger paperclay guy. He lost his original head, I made a new one. His arms need some bulking up. His feet are big cause I put some washers in them to weigh him down (hope DH doesn't need that bolt anytime soon). I had SO much fun! Next he dries and I get to sandpaper him and paint.


Any suggestions?

Arty Lunch day and Friday Night Drawing

Arty Lunch
As you know, Lo, KJ and I planned an art day/lunch day this week. I set the table in advance of my guests arrival, prepared a sumptious meal and eagerly awaited their arrival. Before I go much further - here is a little history of our planned meetings over the past few years.



1) KJ and I conspired to meet at Lo's house two Christmas ago. I hadn't met Lo yet, she had just moved back to the northeast, and had also just moved into a new house. I got lost getting to her house, was about 2 hours late, and kept calling KJ so she could whisper (sometimes hissing) me directions. Well, I got there finally and we had a lovely time.

2) We were supposed to meet on the cape with DebraKay for a girls weekend. I reserved a lovely little cottage to stay in. The my MIL got sick with a heart problem and boom - I couldn't make it. They had a wonderful time and sent me all kinds of presents.

3) Again...we planned to meet on the cape this past summer with Marianne this time and again...boom MIL got sick and I couldn't make it. The three of them - of course - had a lovely time and sent me all kinds of presents.

4) YART did work out - just lovely. I thought the curse was over!

Back to this week.

Lo got to my house and skated over my iced over driveway to the door and we hugged and started chatting. We watched for KJ, as we knew she would be arriving soon. Ah yes...there's her car driving into my driveway - so we went out to meet her and make sure she didn't fall on the ice. She get's out of the car and says "I can't stay". I thought she was joking but no - she had just gotten a phone call that her mom had fallen, broken her arm, might be other issues. Ah yes...the curse is on again. KJ stayed for about 20 minutes, getting ready for the drive back, and then left to go back out to western mass. She had no time for my sumptuous lunch poor thing, but we did make her drink a cup of relaxing tea.

And you know what? Lo and I (while missing KJ) had a LOVELY day, and we will be sending KJ some presents.

We'll see what happens next time!

Friday night drawing
My Friday night drawing class this time is not portrait or life drawing, it's basic drawing. Last night we did perspective and I loved it - what a great tool this is! Big brown paper up on the wall, strings for rulers from the vanishing points and off we went.

This is a two point perspective drawing - of course, my favorite type of subject. Tom - the instructor - just laughed when he saw it and helped with certain aspects of the drawing.



Then I tried a three point perspective and while I didn't have a chance to finish it - I started getting the idea. What a great tool this is going to be for the comics! I plan on going back to some of them and redoing a few drawings from different perspectives - what FUN!!


I am learning so much in this class - wish it was longer, it ends in three sessions. But next session I can do comics again, and an in depth class on perspective. Should be interesting.

So...that was my week. Fun, a little disappointing, but good overall.

Animal Wednesday - visitors

I'm having two visitors today - can you guess who they are?

Happy Animal Wednesday!!!

Easily Distracted

My muse has abandoned me lately, and - on top of that - I have been unplugged. I got an iPAD and while it is easy to lug around, I am finding that I can't type and post as well as on the regular computer, hence - in my pleasure of a new toy - I've neglected my old faithful computer and have unplugged myself. I'm still here - and miss my regular blogging and reading and am going to revert to my older early morning computer blogging habit.

So what does that have to do with being easily distracted? Nothing really, just something I needed to get off my chest. Done now. Chest lighter.

But as for easily distracted - yes, that's me.


I went down to the basement to organize and clean up a bit for two special friends who are stopping over tomorrow, and in cleaning up I found one of those awful pressed wood tables, with three legs. Really a rough top, all nasty pressed wood and splinters. I think the point is to cover them with fabric and a glass top and make a pretty little table. I got inspired somehow and decided to make the table into something a bit more useful. I put two layers of a heavy packing tissue paper on the top and glued it down. Then I cut off the bits that hung down over the sides and evened it out. Then I took a pretty green paper and cut it into about 1 inch squares and used them as mosaics on the top of the table. The paper was not solid green, it was variegated greens and lighter greens and tans. When it was dried I added the fish cutouts and polyurythaned over the top...painted the legs green and put the whole thing together. I wish I had taken pictures during the process - but didn't.


So...that was what I was doing while I was supposed to be cleaning up. Getting distracted by projects. Thank goodness.


But I did get my fabric organized!

Before...

After!

More pictures tomorrow. Fresh batteries in the camera.

New art blog

A little girl has started her own art blog. Too adorable!,

I have no idea how to "paste" on this iPad so here is the address

Zoemakesart.blogspot.com

Way cute

Go over and encourage her in her new venture