Mermaid

This was supposed to be a loose sketch of a girl looking out over the edge of a canoe… then it turned into a sort of Little Mermaid and a mirror. It’s supposed to be half submerged under sand…the sand that strangely doesn’t extend into the background. You know how Ariel always finds human stuff and collects it? She’d be a garage sale girl for sure. It doesn’t have much resemblance to the characters since it was all kind of an afterthought, but Flounder is totally wrong. He looks like a bubble.

This type of thing is a “play sketch” to me – very quick and not too serious…

….but then if I like the sketch, I might add ink to clean up the lines.

And then sometimes you add color. Problem here is that I had a sketchbook with very thin paper, really bad for watercolor.

I took these with my iPhone since my scanner is still out of commission. It keeps looking too pale, so I tried the “magic wand” edit function on the phone. It’s darker but mainly yellower. Eh…

Flounder: “Ay, check me out!”

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Heart Box

Happy Valentine’s Day!

In honor of Valentines Day (and cleaning up my computer photo files) – here’s a heart-themed post with an art oldie.

Back in 2007 I had to take 3D Design in college, which is clearly NOT my area of skill. We had to pick a personal object that has meaning to us and reconstruct it solely out of paper products (and glue, tape, and white paint). Being a total idiot, I picked a heart shaped box with a hinged lid and 2 drawers. Most difficult thing ever! I’m serious; this was the single most difficult thing I had to do in all the college art classes.

See, the hinged lid opens! And has paper hinges! The drawers had to open too. Geez.
I remember for the drawer “pulls,” which are like little buttons, I cut and layered tons of cardstock, each in progressively smaller circles, and then repeatedly gessoed it and sanded to make a smooth rounded piece. Ridiculous.

Then we had to do paintings of the object in different color schemes. Polychromatic – above.

And THEN we had to do an abstracted version:

Yeah, each of those levels is totally a drawer that opens.

And then we had to do a final paper sculpture…I want to call this conceptual, but maybe this was the abstract? I’ve never been good with art categories (because really, what do they matter? Art is subjective, personal, and far too many other adjectives to fit neatly under just one – some kind of restraining category at that.)

The last thing had to be a conceptual presentation. I did this whole overly dramatic performance piece in front of the class involving this get up:

Valentines candy hearts and fake blood. My bank statement was a lot more exciting in those days. Anyway, you don’t look at a heart shaped box the same after you’ve had to artistically depict it in 8 ways (you don’t see the other paintings). It was extremely irritating, but leaves you with a feeling of pride. If you ever need a refresher in self-confidence, pick a random thing out and make it out of paper. It’ll amaze you what you can do.

Jewelry Designs

Got some leaves almost finished being pressed, and I’m excited about the options. So many ideas for botanical jewelry. Most involve dissembling a chain (to hook onto the charms) which would up my prices, but I think it’s with a shot.