Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Sooooo, whatcha doin?"







So my mantra for years has been "I can't do faces" This is why I love mixed media collage, because I never have to start with a blank face. Then I took a couple of classes, practiced alot, and found out with perseverance and a good eraser, I can draw faces. So after I found out I could DRAW faces, my mantra changed to "I can't paint faces". Again, a few classes, and a whole lot of practice, I found.... I can't paint faces. I have tried, and they never look like I want them to. Then I applied the technique I use in drawing charcoal faces, which is looking at my subject in terms of light and dark value, and not a facial features, and found that I could paint faces....a little. I still find that they end up looking like paint by numbers, but a recognizable face none the less. Here are a few that I am working on, and while I am not in love with them, I can recognize who they are. (Well except for the girl, I don't know who she is, but I am sure she looks exactly the way she is supposed to). I took earlier drawings I did of Mick Jagger, where I had already established the whole light/dark value thing, and on top of a whole lot of spray paint, I painted him with black, tan and brown only. The Chris Robinson is not a favorite, but he was a little harder to do for me, since I did not have an earlier drawing to look at, just a photo from a magazine. All in the name of practice. The girl is finished at 12x24 and has an encaustic top layer. The other two are 24x24 and are Tulip spray paint, acrylics and pitt pens.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Upcycled??Recycled?? Painting over crap


So I have decided that I will buy no more canvas, boards, paper......anything to paint on, until I have used what I have, what I have been saving and what I hate. I have many pieces of wood, of canvas board, of framed canvases, that I have started paintings on and then either did not finish, or thought I finished and then couldn't stand to look at it, Many of these were thrown into the corner of my studio. Apparently I have a large collection of these "items" needing to be recycled. This is the first of many that I will do something with before I spend any more money on canvas.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Culture Shock



So here is a page duo asking the question Is the shock of Vegas night life too much for me??? I used Tulip paint cannons, paint taggers and the big phat marker. I love how the paint taggers are a little dimensional and have a nice gloss to them!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Vegas Projects






So here are pics showing 2 of the the 3 class projects I made. I took Stephanie Lee's Selective Seeing, and it was fabulous. Of course I could watch her work all day long, so inspiring. We took large format, high contrasting black and white copies, and then selectively painted out or painted in or just painted what we saw. I loved the four I did using older family photos.
The second project was Thomas Ashman 's Copper and glass mini journal. This was hard work!!! Thankfully Thomas gave us chocolate to calm us down when we got frustrated. I ate all of my chocolate!!!
The third class I took was supposed to be with Judy Wise, but she could not make it. Sad! I love her journal work. I did however get to use one of her Beatles "LOVE" Cirque Du Soleil tickets, though. That was awesome~So I did not post my journal work, as there were no new techniques done during the class. Still had fun though!

Vegas Art and Soul

So my trip to Vegas was amazing. I made a trip to the Bellagio to see the Gardens that they had redone for Chinese New Year. It was so beautiful, I loved it!


















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