Paintings By Request

I mentioned earlier this summer that I have been painting much more, mainly because I am finding myself waiting around a lot.  Since I often just need a nudge as to what to paint, I have been asking not just my kids, but other kids near by what I should paint.  Here is a selection of a few this summer.

Maben asked me to paint the rocket ship and alien that is on the side of one of his buckets.

 
One of the kids in Maben's gymnastics class asked me to paint him a sunset.  I love this one. 

Angry birds is always popular in our house.  This is big red bird, also known as Terence.  Did you know that the Angry Birds have names?  Yup, that's how addicted my children are.

This is Lazer Bird from Angry Birds Space.  It's what Chuck (the yellow bird) turned into when he went to space.  

And here is a minion from Despicable Me.  This one is for my husband, he needs some minions.

What I Do While Waiting

This summer has me waiting around, a lot!  I enrolled Maben in swim lessons and both boys are in gymnastics.  This has me sitting around for at least 40 minutes a day.  While, I spend most of my time trying to watch my children in their endeavors, sometimes they have to wait too.  When instruction is given, or another kid is taking their turn, there isn't much for me to do, other than trying to entertain the other child and myself.  I have started bringing a busy bag with me, that contains some busy things for myself too. 

In the past week I have done a few watercolors in my sketchbook and Colton has done a few paintings as well.

The whale was requested by Colton.

I love my travel watercolor set.  You can find it here or at your local Hobby Lobby or other art/craft store.  This has become my go to watercolors since I have been doing most of my painting at the park/pool/gymnastics.  I have fallen in love with the journal too.  I found mind at Hobby Lobby, but you can see it here on Amazon.  The pages are thick, absorb the water well and do not buckle as easily as other watercolor journals. 

Experimenting

Have you ever had an amazing creative idea that you wanted to try? 

Something that just came to you and you haven't seen anyone else do it? 

Something that in your head looks so amazing that you are afraid to try it because it won't live up to the image in your head? 

Yeah, me too. 

I have been mulling over an idea for months.  Seriously months.  I wanted to do something that combined a number of my creative talents. 

This past weekend I sat down and tried my idea.  What do you think of it?  I am SO IN LOVE WITH IT!!!

I took a reference photo of mine of a blue jay.  I free hand drew it onto my board which is 5x8 inches.  I then took my pyrography tools and did a simple outline and details on the feathers.  I then took some wood stains and painted layers on it like a watercolor. 

I wanted this to turn out well, but since I had built it up so big in my head, I honestly thought it would fail.  I am so glad that I was wrong. 

Can't wait to show it off at my Woodworkers Guild meeting tonight.  I am eager to hear what the old guys have to say about it.  I am also eager to hear what you have to say about it. 

So, what do you think?

I Am A Robot

Hey look!  I found the painting I did.  It was in my car.  This was done for my son Maben.  He loves robots and when I asked him what I should paint, he told me a robot.

Completed with Windsor Newton watercolors and Staedtler ink pens on Aquarelle watercolor paper.

Character Pumpkin and Happy Halloween!

I showed a bit of our family's character pumpkin in the Photo 366.  Well, I'm here to wish you a very Happy Halloween and unveil the whole pumpkin.

Maben chose to do, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," again.  You can see where we have done this theme before here. 

The character pumpkins are something our school district challenges the families to do.  Each pumpkin gets put on display for a week in the library at school.  It was a lot of fun and I foresee us doing this every year.  If you want to do it, it's easy.  Let your child pick out a book or character, then paint your pumpkin up with what was chosen.  Everyone in the family has to help! 

Maben and I did the majority of the painting.  I drew out the shapes in pencil, then gave Maben (and a few times Colton) a loaded up paint brush and showed them where to paint.  I came in and did the detail work.  My husband painted one small spot, he's not so artsy and didn't want to ruin it.

Have you ever painted a character pumpkin?  If so, I would love to hear/see what you have done.

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful Halloween.

READ ME: A short story about a bookcase.

I love being able to create.  I love to build.  I love doing things that people will also love.  It's the reason why I volunteered to do the Preschool Class Craft for Maben's preschool fundraiser...again!  I wanted to outdo what I did last year.  I set the bar pretty high and I delivered.  (I am so screwed for next year, Colton will start preschool at the same preschool Maben is currently at.  I need to start planning now.)

I was inspired after cruising Pinterest one night.  (I will be back pinning soon since the new terms of service are much better than the previous ones, just waiting for them to be active)  I saw a bookcase that was 16 blocks that stated READ YOUR BOOK CASE.  I thought it was genius and decided to take the idea and put my spin on it.

I drew out some measurements (no plans here).  Actually, it was all a bunch of chicken scratches on the top of one of the boards.  Here is a quick photo story of how it all came together.

Dry fit of the cubes.

Assembly started, after dry fit and cutting 20 dadoes.

This was my first time cutting dadoes with a router and I didn't screw it up!  YAY!  Actually, the only thing I screwed up was the measurement of the two side pieces, which had to be re-cut.

Assembly of all the connected shelves.

Backing and floating shelves installed.  Onto painting.

They insisted on helping.

Side note: If I ever build this again, painting will happen before assembly.  Trying to paint all those nooks and crannies almost caused me to go insane.

After a nice healthy layer of paint was applied, it was carted up to the school and I hand printed the teachers and children.  (All names have been removed for their privacy).

I added some lettering, ala the style of Eric Carle after all the hand printing was done.  I love the way it has turned out.  Very fun!

I clear coated the entire piece.  This way dirty little fingers will wipe off much easier.  Once the piece was complete I carted it off to the Woodworking Show in Katy to display it with my woodworking guild's booth.  You are looking at the Vice President of the Katy Woodworkers Guild (soon to be President).  I had to show something off and this was perfect!

So perfect and I love it so much, that I just might have to come home with it after the preschool fundraising auction!  Yes, that means I will probably be bidding on a piece that I know how to build.  I also know how crazy that sounds.  I wouldn't mind building it again, I just really don't want to paint it again!

The only thing missing from it is a copy of, The Very Hungry Caterpillar , to be autographed by the entire class and placed in the bookcase before auction.

Showing this awesomeness off at:
Gluesticks 
Tatertots and Jello
Skip To My Lou
Sugar Bee Crafts
So I Married A Craft Blogger 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I volunteered again to produce the class craft for Maben's preschool class.  Here is a sneak peek at what I did today.  The unveiling of the whole project will come next week.

The egg on the leaf.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

A beautiful butterfly.

I took an entire preschool class and told the story of, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," in three scenes using hands and paint.  I think my homage to Eric Carle would make him proud. 

If you are curious what I did last year, take a look here.

Blast From the Past: Stained Glass Man

I have been pretty well immersed in doing stained glass lately.  I wish I could show you more than just 71 pieces of cut glass, but I am still grinding and fitting them.  A very tedious process.  I am working on window...to be revealed at a later date.  But, it did get me thinking of a painting that I did back in college that I called, Stained Glass Man.

My friend Joe is the man in the painting.  We were assigned in our illustration class to paint a silhouette.  I loved that illustration class, each painting that we did were based on a theme that frequents illustrations.  It left much of the creativity up to us. 

The stained glass window behind Joe is from the Crouse College building located at Syracuse University.  Such a beautiful building with an amazing pipe organ located within it.  Even though this was the furthest building for me to get to, I never really minded because of it's beauty.

Source: here

Just a little FYI for everyone, Crouse College housed the first College for Fine Arts in the United States.

I've Been Vandalized!

I will be the first to admit, it was probably too quiet in my house and I should have investigated, but instead I was enjoying a quiet moment surfing Pinterest. 

Then, Maben (my 4 year old) came downstairs.
"Mommy, come see."  Waving me over.
"What do you want me to see?"
"Oh Mommy, come here."  This time extending his hand out and the sound of worry in his voice had me seriously worried.

I grabbed Maben's hand.  "Mommy, close your eyes."  He is crazy if he thought I was going to close my eyes while he lead me up the stairs.  We reached the top of the stairs and he points to my art room.
"In there."

I walk in and see a very proud Colton, with a giant smile on his face and a black marker in his hand.  He had just vandalized a painting I was working on.

"See!" proclaimed Colton...EVER SO PROUDLY! 
"I see baby."  I quietly die a little inside.  If anyone has lost a painting to a little vandal, you know the feeling.  "You aren't suppose to color on Mommy's stuff.  You color in your color books."
"See!  A bird!" 

My little artist was so proud as if it was he that did the entire thing himself.  I couldn't be mad, but my heart hurt and bursted with pride at the same time.  I was hurt that I had lost a painting, one that I was working very hard on.  It hurts to lose something creative that you pour your soul into.   I was also so proud that my little guy is showing the true marks of being an artist.  And it reminds me of how much fun we had doing this.

I guess we need to do another painting project together.  Maybe we will tackle using some brushes this time.

Create

Do you have an inspiration board in your studio/crafty area?  I do and it has pictures of family, inspirational places, small pieces of art and now it will have this.

I created this to help remind me to keep creating.  What helps keep you inspired to create?

Splatter Paint and a Bird

Like I said previously, I have deemed this the year of creativity.  I want to push my boundaries and release my mind from the walls I have put up.  I would like to be a little more like Dr. Seuss and whatever I dream of, can exist...at least on paper. 

So, I took some watercolor the other day and put some drips and splatters on a piece of watercolor paper.

Nothing too exciting here.  The lines at the top made me think that I could make an umbrella.  But, there was still something missing.  I figured out what I wanted to put under the umbrella after I captured this beauty at the park yesterday morning.

Once all of it combined in my head, I needed to put it all to paper.  This is what came about and I love it!

I'm Painting Again!

While up in the woods of Vermont over Christmas I brought my new watercolor set (which by the way is totally awesome, thanks hunny) and a new journal of hand made paper that is perfect for watercolor.

I really love these small sets.  They are so portable.  I feel like I could take them just about anywhere.  They also make it through airport security!  Tube paint will not always make it through, because it's technically a liquid.

This is the new watercolor journal I bought myself as a gift for the trip.  Love the thickness of the paper.  I picked this up at Hobby Lobby.  Can't remember the brand because it's not written on the journal, but you can find it in the sketchbook section.  This one is 9.5x6.5 inches.

Here are two of the paintings I did while on vacation.  Both paintings are watercolor with ink overlay.  There is something about being totally disconnected that is inspiring to me.  Maybe it was the slow internet connection that kept me off of Pinterest and Facebook!

The painting above was inspired by a photo I took of a Common Buckeye butterfly.

The painting above was inspired by a photo I took of a Viceroy butterfly that was hanging out on some Queen Anne's Lace. 

Both paintings aren't perfect in my eyes, but after only picking up my watercolors less times than I can count on one hand last year, not a bad starting off point.  I was worried how well I would do tackling the Queen Anne's Lace, but that is my favorite part of the second painting.  I overworked the butterfly in my opinion, but we are our own worst/best critic! 

Going Bananas

Maben this year is attending two separate preschools.  One is through the school district and is turning out to  be rather fabulous.  Then he will attend the church preschool he went to last year, but for only a few days a week.  This place is also rather fabulous.  So, while I got to share going back to school photos once, I kinda get to do it again. 

The church preschool themes their classrooms and Maben's classroom this year is the "Treetop Jungle."  Think monkeys...and lots of them.  The school provides a bag and the parents get to decorate them. 

So, here is the cute bag.  I came up with the brilliant idea of painting Maben's name on the bag.  That isn't the brilliant part...the brilliant part is that I was going to make all the letters out of bananas!

I gathered up my acrylic paints, the fabric medium and got to town on it.  I think it looks rather cute. 

I wish I could have had crisper lines, but the texture of the bag made it very difficult.

Maben loved it.  That is what matters.  He was very proud to sling it over his shoulder and walk into school yesterday.

That excitement was quickly squashed when we walked into the gym to find his class.  Parents and kids everywhere!  Lots of them, and it was loud.  This all sent poor Maben into full blown anxiety mode and he was no longer thrilled to be there.

However, once he left the gym and got to his classroom, I was assured that he relaxed and enjoyed himself.  He also declared as soon as I picked him up, "Mommy, I love this school!" 

And that statement made my heart melt.