Sunday, October 18, 2009

All About Faces - Finished Portrait!

So, I finished my portrait. Painting is so addictive; once I am started on a painting I don't want to stop until it's done! Anyway, here is my finished portrait. Unfortunately, the camera didn't capture the depth of this painting. Her skin has a lot more depth to it IRL!



And a close-up.


This painting is really a self-portrait, despite the girl not looking exactly like me (although my mom and Dusty both said she does look like me). I selected snippets of a few of my favorite quotes - the uppermost quote says "There is nothing more artistic than to love people," a van Gogh quote. Then the quote in black says "Every artistic dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures", by Henry Ward Beecher. The last little quote says "Born into color." I love color and these three little words really speak to me, and this is a painting that definitely is from the soul. In the uppermost right corner is the word "inspire," which I clipped from the same note card that held the hummingbird I also used.

In the background, I've included a dandelion seed head - something about those little flowers always makes me so happy, and to me it symbolizes something spiritual; a promise of hope, a newness and a cleanliness of spirit; a gift from God. There is a hummingbird, too, from a note card I just loved and couldn't think of a better way to preserve it. The fish scales are just a visual texture I like in my paintings.

Anyway, so there it is!

Friday, October 16, 2009

All About Faces - Background

So, tonight I started on my background. It's not nearly finished, but while waiting for it to dry, I took a couple of pics.

Here is step 1:


Step 2:


Don't worry, it's not done yet!

Corpse Bride dress

I forgot all about showing the finished Corpse Bride dress. I couldn't get a very good photo, and unfortunately I don't have any of the pics of me wearing the costume at Ornament Premiere, but I will be wearing it for Halloween as well, so if I get any pictures then, I will post. Here's a quick and crappy shot of the finished dress.

After I dyed it, I sewed lace (also dyed) onto the bodice and then hand-painted the bodice. Since I like the petal look of the bodice so much, I left the under pieces without lace, and sewed pearls on them, in such a way to look as though some have fallen off (leaving gaps with only sewing thread sticking out). I cut out a lot of the skirt, to look raggedy, and then painted Burton-esque swirls with blue fabric paint and pearl blue dimensional paint, as well as blue glitter (which is not very obvious but is just noticeable enough) all around the edging of the skirt. I wanted to make some "ribs" to attach to the bodice, but didn't have time.

I was making a wig of out yarn for this, but it ended up being very heavy before I was even half done, and I decided I would probably die if I tried to wear it. So I sprayed my hair blue for the day instead, and painted my skin (I used a mix of foundation and blue food coloring, but for Halloween I will probably just get some body paint). It was fun, and the costume was very well received!

Newest Knitting Inspiration

Almost forgot to post what's inspiring me now knitwise - Ivko! I'm totally going to make a jacket inspired by this:





Which means I need to learn how to embroider. Yikes. My last attempt at embroidery did not go too well.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

All About Faces

I signed up to take Paulette Insall's online course All About Faces. Her artwork is so wonderful, and I'm very excited to have a chance to do this course. I'm a little behind (due to schoolwork!). Tonight, I did my first practice drawing. I'm going to try to do a quick drawing every day. This is just a quick sketch, not a serious drawing. I like how it came out; very whimsical, and I've decided the young lady I drew is most certainly a ballerina. She started out as an impression of me, but she sort of took on a life of her own! Although I do still see a resemblance. She is a fiery redhead, and she has freckles, but they are hard to see in this photo I took with my phone camera. The nose needs some work, but it is nice to know I can still pick up a pencil and get something I'm relatively happy with without much erasing!



ETA: Also, yay, I made a banner! Not a fancy one, but it features my artwork. It doesn't match the blog, and I don't care. I don't know how to pretty up the blog and I hate all of their templates except this one in this color.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Sylvi is ruined

I accidentally felted it. A lot. There's no saving it. I bought new yarn to start over. I am so sad!