Woman portrait painting – Inga (in progress) lesson 1

Woman portrait painting - Inga (in progress) lesson 1

I found this on Learning Vicariously today and thought it fit perfectly with Tuesday’s theme of Fun in the Kitchen.

Simply spread some cranberry sauce on a cookie sheet or freezer paper and let your child go at it with their fingers!!! Yummy!

(picture from Learning Vicariously)

It is a known fact that living room gathers the most numbers of visitors. A living room represented the identity and lifestyle of the owner. The decoration of your living room is important to so that you portray the right image to your visitors. Most people try out home décor the most in living room.

They use decorations accessories such as painting, area rugs, ceiling lamps, antique objects and pillows. Furniture is also very important in this aspect. Furniture made from pine wood is highly in demand for living room. Pine table and chairs, benches, bookshelves, armories and dressers are some of the authentic pine furniture often seen in the living room.

Pine furniture can give a mixture of country side and modern living room environment for your home. For example, a Victorian table made from pine wood can be quality antique style statement. Pine furniture can further enhance the aesthetic appeal of your living room. Combined with perfect background color, fine pine furniture can be very delightful and earth colors further intensify its glory beautifully.

You should start looking for suitable pine furniture to be included into your living room.

I painted a few pieces for this year’s Día de Muertos exhibit at Tether. I am not that good with the painting, but I have fun. I think I’m getting better though. Here are a couple:

calacamor

Here’s one I did last year but I  never posted. I think it turned out ok. A good friend bought it by the way.

Santísima

Loosely stated, my art process comes down to 2 basic stages, with a lot of feedback between the two.  I call these the IDEAS stage and the STUFF TO MAKE OTHER STUFF WITH stage.  Or maybe just the Stuff stage. 

The Idea stage usually happens while walking, commuting or trying to sleep.  When I’m away from art, visualizing out of boredom or as stray notions hit me.  These are the architect’s blueprints.

The Stuff stage is the hands-on creation of the materials that make up the building the Idea blueprints describe. 

The 2 stages are often completely separate.  I make Stuff without consideration to the Ideas it will be used with.  Once I have some Ideas, I will use what Stuff is available.  Obviously sometimes the ideas dictate that specific Stuff is made, but even then, I usually have leftover Stuff afterwards that will have to be incorporated elsewhere later.  And sometimes I have to come up with Ideas to get rid of Stuff I haven’t used in 2 years.  To make room for Stuff I have to create for a specific idea. 

Here’s 1 of 12 purple sheets I made a few weeks ago to clear out some tubes of paint I hadn’t used in years. To make room for some of the paint tubes I recently inherited from my Grandfather:

Or sometimes I make Stuff to use up leftover pieces of other Stuff.  Here’s 1 of 11 sheets of linear collages I made out of leftover sheets from
the “Gossip” piece a few weeks ago:

Do I have any idea what I’m going to use this Stuff in? No. I’ve had a few Ideas, but nothing too convincing. Chances are I’ll put it away and come back across it when looking for Stuff to use with a new Idea.

More Stuff after the jump.

Masking tape from the dropcloth posted last week. I think I ended up with 7 or 8 of these sheets.

This is a painting on paper. I don’t remember why I made it. Maybe I was bored? I dunno. I may have wanted something to match the purple. The stripes are made with masking tape (of the sort that covers the sheet at the top of the post). I have a lot of random sheets like this that I don’t remember why I painted them. Not that it matters.

I cleaned my pallette knife on this paper:

Here’s 2 paintings on canvas that I made to sketch out some color ideas for a piece a friend asked for a year ago:

I literally have drawers full of stuff like this. To say nothing of the closets of paint on canvas. Or paintings given to me by others.

I also have notebooks filled with ideas. Maybe the area I need to improve most upon is finding ways to work the 2 together more often. Use some of my surplus of both to create a surplus of art. Maybe.

Or maybe I’ll see where it leads me.

-JD

This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

If you had only 15 minutes per day to dedicate to your creative outlet, whatever that may be for you, do you believe you’d get anywhere? 15 minutes of painting, or writing, or sculpting, or sewing, etc. Do these small chunks of time really add up to anything? Of course they do! Just like if you walk down to the library from your house; you still make the journey one step at a time. Think of 15 minutes as a single step. Let it take you from starting your project to a finished novel, painting, statue, dress, or whatever.

For this week, just try doing what you’d like to be doing for 15 minutes a day. Wake up 15 minutes early or stay up 15 minutes late. Whatever it takes so that you can be dedicated about your 15 minutes. See where you are at the end of the week. I bet you’ll be closer to your goal than you think. Let me know how it goes!

Music: Evanescence live Youtube clips. And Breath No More.

Mood: Excited.

Evanescence played a secret show earlier this month! And now most the band members are on Twitter (and have been for a while!) I can’t believe it took me this long to find out. I haven’t been to Evanescence.com  in too long. I stopped checking it awhile ago. I guess I should have. I miss them but am very excited that they are back at it. It kind of inspires me to get back to the piano and writing and stuff.

So what are ya’ll doing for Thanksgiving? I’m not doing anything. That’s right you heard me, nothing. I’ve decided to take a break from the Holidays this year: no time, no money, no Holiday spirit. Yep me. No Holiday spirit. Some people would be surprised about that. I guess it is a part of growing up. You can no longer pretend that the Holidays are so great. So cheerful. No more Santie Claus. I am watching the Thanksgiving Day parade tho. Can’t break tradition (well not all traditions, that doesn’t can’t as celebrating it does it?)

Radio stations are playing Christmas music non-stop again. I turn them on and feel nothing where usually I’d be soooooo excited that Christmas was coming! Not anymore. Maybe again but not now. Not this year.

I feel I’m being dramatic.

Actually talking about drama! Adam Lambert. I liked his performance. Thought it was thought provoking. I would just like to ask: Why did no one think Lady Gaga’s performance was racy if they thought his was?

That’s all I’m sayin’.

My AF classes ended. They were really good and looking back on them fun! I love painting and this class really did remind me why I love it. I think I don’t actually suck at it too. That’s nice too know. I think next weekend I am devoting to music and painting. It’s time I started doing things I love again.

I got Windows 7 in the mail. I haven’t switched over to it yet though. Am kind of scared. I don’t want Windows 7 paint I like the original paint. Yeah I know ridiculous. But paint is the simplest program to use, that’s why I love it. Don’t change that!

Laptop battery is low. Must be going. More to come (maybe). And if I don’t write again before then (which it’s unlikely I will) Happy Thanksgiving!  (Which I’m not participating in so not happy anything to me.)

~ Sparks Out ~

Orchid painting in watercolor, 8.5" x 11.5"

So here’s the frustrating thing: I learned that the publisher wants me to write the text accompanying the step by step photos as instructions (first do this, now do that) rather than a description of what I’ve done. Sometimes watercolors go as planned and that would be simple to do, because what I did is how I would tell someone else to do it.  But with this painting there was just as much taking off of paint as there was putting it on. Some of that was about softening edges with a damp brush and then blotting, but some of it was just removing paint that wasn’t working. I’ve never seen a “how to” book that says paint on a nice wash. Now wipe it off.

My biggest problem with this painting was the photo I had to work from. Like many artistic photos of flowers, it was shot without shadows or directional light and therefore everything was very flat with little dimensionality. Even more difficult, everything except the front center flower was intentionally out of focus. That makes for a lovely photo but not an easy watercolor painting project. And there is no variation in color: they’re all just cotton candy pink with dark magenta veins. And I picked the stupid photo and thought it would be easy. But for me, what is easy is lots of detail and variations in color, shape and value.

I started over four times, each time getting a little further and then abandoning ship. If I was just painting for myself any of those starts would have been fine and enjoyable to paint but I was finding myself exaggerating shapes and colors and losing fidelity with the photo.

Now I’m not sure what to do: Paint this again in order to be able to do write a logical “how to” that doesn’t include undoing previous steps? Write a “how to” and leave out the do-overs? Enjoy my vacation this week and forget about the whole project? (the latter sounds most appealing)

I think I’ll send a photo of the painting to my editor and see if she even likes the painting. My persistent (compulsive?) side really wants to paint the painting again, trying to do it more simply and cleanly. But my (sane?) side says “Go have a bowl of ice cream and watch a movie.” I wonder which side will win and how late the ice cream shop is open?

Clik aqui para ver la animación hecho en el taller de este fin de semana. El taller fue parte de la celebración de la aniversario de la galeria.

I’m hosting a give-away with some incredibly cool prizes, and I thought Steppie had a great idea to promote using Facebook and video.
Unfortunately, someone with a lack of video-editing skills, and a propensity to ramble… blame it on genetics (thanks Mom!)… probably should be barred from posting on YouTube.
My children and cats also worked against me, taking every opportunity to distract me, and causing a ten minute video to take an entire afternoon. Well, I wasn’t able to actually condense it down to ten minutes, which is YouTube’s maximum time limit… so instead, I split it into two halves.

First Half:

Second Half:

If rambling videos don’t suit your style, the contest summary is here:

The Give-away contest starts now, and ends at noon, Sunday the 29th of November.
There will be three winners, chosen by a name drawing.

• Each winner receives one of three prizes:
• …a geisha cat painting on fine-art paper,
• …a custom fantasy portrait,
• …and the winner’s choice of a open-edition print from one of my shops.

To enter the contest:
You need to become a fan of my Facebook fan page.
And secondly, please let me know you wish to be entered in the drawing.
You can comment on my Facebook Wall, or here on my blog. You can Twitter me, E-mail me, or Convo Me.

To gain additional entries into the contest (this was Steppie’s idea also):
You can promote my Fanpage and contest – on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, Etsy forum, refer your friends to become fans.
Send me the link where you mentioned me, use @taraflyphotos or #taraflyphotos in your tweets, or have your friends mention your
name when joining.
When you spread the word about the contest, I’ll add another entry for you.

I will be videotaping the drawing on Sunday; the video will be uploaded to YouTube and posted here, and the contest winners will be notified. I’ll require shipping addresses to send the prizes.

Important Note: I hold the rights to my artwork, and do not authorize anyone to reproduce and/or distribute my pieces for commercial purposes. The winner of the custom portrait may, however, make personal copies for family and friends.

Good luck to everyone!!!!!

The answer to, and winner (if any) for,
our last contest question of:

The celebrated singer Vikki Carr has sung for five US Presidents.
When she was at the White House during the Ford administration, she
asked the president “What Mexican dish do you like?”
What was his response?

IS
“I like you!” Replied the President.

I had no winner.
It must NOT be him.

I don’t
dumb down,
so please
wise up.

Now on to a new Q.:

Win a copy of
my NEW cd CALLED ‘30′! – (first anti-band CD) or
my NEWER cd CALLED ‘NEXT”(‘06)
or my NEWEST cd CALLED ‘THIRDS” (May ‘07)
or my MORE NEWEST cd Called “FOUR-TH” ‘08
or my Just RELEASED MOST NEWEST cd CALLED ‘5-TH’(Nov.’09)
Hunkasaurus.com (has them all plus videos and more)

if you are the first to e-mail me at THIS ADDRESS:
tom-hendricks@att.net
with the correct answer to this art question*

In 2007 25 million internet users were tricked into watching
this music video. It was sneakily posted under other titles!
Name the song and artist.

Readers, IF you like these puzzles and would
like to resend them to friends, post them on any
newsgroup, or any website, please do so.
The more the merrier!
For tons of past quizzes go to,
the musea website at musea.us
or the Musea blog at musea.wordpress.com
And don’t forget the music/videos at hunkasaurus.com
http://www.Myspace.com/Musead (New Friends welcome)
http://www.youtube.com/TomHendricksMusea (all my videos)
Tom Hendricks
(editor of the 17 year old zine Musea)

I’m not even going to try and pretend that this photo doesn’t suck. However, it is just here to quickly show a friend and no, the painting isn’t even finished. I still have some touch-ups to do. Project for university, supposed to pick an object and paint it 12 times with different colors. I’ll post it again (with a much better photo) when it’s done.

So, after a 4-day posting break on the Creators’ Blog, there is yet another update to the newly announced Counterfeit Island. This one might actually relate to the word “Counterfeit” in the island’s name. It’s called “At The Station”.

You don’t want to be on the wrong side of those bars!


DR. HARE

So, looks like Dr. Hare is joining the Counterfeit party. It shows what looks like a sheriff’s office, with a poster above the desk reading “Stolen Painting – Thomas Jefferson”. This may relate to a counterfeit art piece being replaced by it so far. This is the first real clue as to the actual plot of Counterfeit Island, although the rest of the pieces still don’t seem to fit. Looks like we’ll just have to wait this one out a bit longer for some more details.

-Fierce Sky

So, I recently graduated from a high school of the arts focusing in the visual arts program doing photography, printmaking, drawing and painting over the course of four years. When I was accepted to FSU I decided art wasn’t for me any more and chose communications as my major instead and hoped that was my true calling. Guess what. One semester passed and I’m now enrolled in the art program, once again. I guess I couldn’t stay away from it. To go along with the theme of Things That Make Me Happy, here’s a few examples of kick ass artists currently producing art in today’s society, followed up by some old school work that inspired me in high school while taking AP Art History senior year!

• Current works from Julian Beever: (this is all 2-D in chalk, btw….CRAZY)

Want to see more?

• This is work by Liu Bolin’s work (no photoshop tricks, legit painting skillz):

Holy smokes, that’s awesome!

Mooooore fun art blogs, if you’re interested:

Funky Fresh Jams

• Now to kick it old school, here’s some of my all time favorite pieces:

Bernini-
Now, check out this detail….keep in mind, this was made from marble….oh damn

Next up….Copely-

Watson and the shark….bad ass

Last, Greuze-

The Drunken Cobbler.

Do they not look like a bunch of party animals?!

This will have to do for now. I think I’ll just leave a bunch of video links at the bottom again for your personal enjoyment, just incase you might be bored enough to check them out. Peace

• Just because she’s awesome and I attempted to be her for halloween: La Roux (Watch the video first then laugh at my attempt to be her below )

• This video, for all the Harry Potter fans, has Brad Neeley doing the voice over and it basically takes the piss out of Harry Potter #1. If you like what you see, look up Dear Reader on youtube. He narrates the entire first movie.

• And this video, well, it just makes me want to dance

Oil on linen, 6″ x 6″. In fond memory of that year when Mom and I were so crazy that we dressed the cat up in baby clothes.

Also vaguely related to thoughts of Lewis Carroll’s Alice.

There’s a good primer on painting (that’s a painting joke… not a good one) that you can find over at AncientBattles.com: Painting101.

While you are at it, check out this fun battle report.

Timely, given that Franaine and I plan to play a Roman action with Basic Impetus next. (Or full IMPETVS if the mailman is quick about it.)

- Dan

I tried this titmouse to keep in line with my new found interest in painting animals.  I used masking fluid to help create the bird’s furry feathers and was almost able to use the same pallet I had out from the giraffe.  This is much smaller than my usual stuff at only 8″x9″, I didn’t want to get too adventerous yet and thought a smaller piece would be easier.   I’ll have to search my zoo pictures for a new reference idea, practice makes perfect, doesn’t it?  Well, it at least makes things a little better…..

Okay, I promised a part 2 of the wish list..but I am so stumped.  And all I can think about is balloons…

So…

balloons would be really nice.

and flowers.

.Tulips please.

♥

and handmade jounals are always nice…the ones from Italy are the best.  Go figure(o;

and I would adore a print of this painting

(via art below the dinglburn)

or

this

painting

(also via art below the dinglburn…both paintings by Jessie MacInnis)

or flowers would be really nice.

.Tulips please.

♥

or you know what would be really nice?

a good set of watercolors.

but…

I just want to be happy

on

my

{20}th

birthday.

love…

ria♥

]]> http://irea.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/miguel-angel-buonarrottimichelangelo-leda-y-el-cisne-leda-and-the-swan-1-530/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:23:22 +0000 Irea http://irea.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/miguel-angel-buonarrottimichelangelo-leda-y-el-cisne-leda-and-the-swan-1-530/