Holiday Paint Out: Community

I'm doing the Holiday Paint Out over at Creative Catalyst Productions, and this is my first entry. The prompt was the word "community" and I thought about Thanksgiving. I was trying to evoke a sense of being around a table but your perspective is up through the flowers. As I learn to draw better hopefully I'll do a better job at capturing gesture and all of that. But until then, basic human shapes it is!

I used a mix of Anne Bagby 2 (Pattern & Form: Advanced Collage Techniques) and Jane Davies (DVD release set 2012) for the papers.

To see the steps, click "read more" down at the bottom.

Weekend Wax, "First Rain"

Here's my weekend's attempt at beeswax collage. I always forget how slow beeswax collage is compared to collage where there's paint and mediums flying. So yes, there was a little fight with the new skill set but it was completely worth it and I'm hooked.

 Click read more at the bottom to see the step by step.

CraftAmor Etsy Shop

craftamor.etsy.com

Table Try 1 Million

Here's an image from the table design I'm trying for our wedding. You can kind of see some of the fabric flowers I'm working on.

Ellbee Equation

Vector art of a friend's dog.

Bunny

Paper and Tulle Flower

Flower made of cupcake wrappers and tulle. And a stapler. The stapler really makes the difference.

Easter

My fiance really likes a certain type of cartooned animal. I made this with him in mind.

(Click on the image for a larger view.)

Deathtrap poster

This is a poster I'm working on for the local community theater. I did not do the main design but am rather working from a concept sketch someone else gave me. I added the line up and down of the t and p and I'm hoping it passes muster. I'd like to really play around with it more but in all things life, probably don't have the time. Originally I was hoping this would be a chance to try some poster ideas I've seen popping up on various design blogs I read. Maybe next time. :)

Birthday Card

This was my first foray into the awesomeness that is Happy Tape. There will be more. Maybe next year's valentine's day cards will be Happy Tape accessorized.

This was a birthday card (a hoooorrrribly late birthday card) for my friend whose name starts with N.

Happy Birthday Monster

I made this card for a friend who was thinking about boycotting her own birthday. I share the birthday mixed feelings thing (ooooh and I'm coming up on one!) so I felt that it was appropriate that the little monster was eating the Happy Birthday.

I was really excited about this design and may use it again. Little birthday monsters may be going out to all my friends for years.

Man Painting

This is a painting (drawing?) I did recently. I played around with background options in Photoshop. Another thing I'd like to try is to take stamps and stamp in words in a horizontal line behind him. Fill almost the entire space with this stamped word.

Show Cards

Show Cards

These are the cards I made for my castmates for my most recent show. The show was called "String of Pearls," and I thought about trying to use pearls as a motif but couldn't quite figure out something I liked. Instead I went with chairs. We each brought a different chair and spent the entire show on stage (even when we weren't playing any characters.)

Painting/Collage Practice

Here's something I worked on last night. I like it better on the computer than I do in real life. In real life it seems too light. I need to make it darker but I'm not exactly sure how.

I think in my next try on a different piece I will try to create texture all across the page (face and background) and then mask out the background or then hit it with more colors and texture. On this piece I painted in the face and then worked up the background texture but after adding to the background, the face looked completely mismatched with the activity going on behind it.

Also, I should say that it was great being able to use things I'd learned in Ann Baldwin's 2nd DVD ("Text and Texture in Mixed Media Collage") in a way that wasn't necessarily exactly what she was teaching. That's a big step for me. Also made me realize I need to review the individual techniques in that b/c I was having trouble remembering the different times Ann suggests using molding paste vs heavy gel gloss.

Candy Boxes (by me)

I made these as thank yous for a show I was recently in. It was called "String of Pearls" so each candy box is wearing felt pearls. These were part of crew gifts. I also made photo magnets, which are sooooo easy. I love love love them. We had someone take a picture of us holding large paper "pearls" I made out of construction paper. I had to fiddle with it a bit in Photoshop but I made the "Thank you so much!" legible and then just printed them out on somewhat expensive magnet paper. It's truly magical.

These would be great for a Mother's day, Father's day, or even Valentine's Day for friends. Dress them up as favors at a bridal shower? All sorts of box possibilities!