A wedding gift

After scoring my "new" art supplies, I was itching to make a painting. Some good friends of mine were  getting married in a couple of days, so why not make a painting as a gift? Sounds exciting!! It also sounds nerve wracking!!! What if they don't like it? Will they feel obligated to display it in their home out of duty?? These are the kinds of negative thoughts that entered my head, and I know that these thoughts enter the minds of many, many other artists. The only way to get over our fears to is face them. So I went for it and hoped for the best!!

Enter the ominous blank canvas. Where to begin? The wedding colors were fuchsia and gray, so knew the basic color scheme that I wanted.

I recently picked up a color wheel to learn about color combinations, so I checked to see what colors complimented pink. It said yellow-green, yellow and green... but now that I look at the wheel I think I was one off... oh well!!

I love using the liquitex inks and dripping them down the canvas. I can't figure out another way to create paint drips. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

I started adding texture with circles and shelf liner.

Added more paint... some sort of squiggly plant at the bottom (don't ask me why!)... experimented with hearts and flowers.

I knew what I wanted the silhouette to be, so I sketched it onto the canvas with a graphite pencil.

Next I started outlining the people in grays and pinks. I also added 3 hearts for the 3 kids that are part of their family.

More pink! I want more pink!!! Trees too! Because she likes trees!! At this point I kept adding and adding and sometime covering up what I added. Mixed media is all about seeing what works... about trying whatever comes over you (hence the squiggly plant thingie)... and acrylic paint is very forgiving in the sense that if you don't like something, you can cover it on up.

Here is the painting, wrapped and ready to go! Another artist gave me the tip about using cellophane to wrap it and to add a cute little bow. I think this is perfect because it adds a layer of protection while still being able to view the finished product. A friend at the wedding saw the painting on the gift table and asked if I had made it. I was surprised that she knew it was from me, but she said it was my style. Haha! I have a style!!! Awesome!!

Craigslist love affair

As many of you know, though some of you who are newer may not, my company (Lulu's Upcycling Lounge) is based on using used and secondhand materials and upcycling/recycling/repurposing them in my finished products. This has never been a problem for my textile products because I could easily find old t-shirts, sheets, fabric, yarn, fabric samples, neckties etc. to turn into hats, scarves, headbands, purses, brooches, bracelets, necklaces (and the list goes on and on!).

Discovering mixed media art proved to be a new challenge for me. I have been able to find wood plaques and some used canvases to paint over easily enough from thrift stores, but I would have to buy all the painting supplies new. This wasn't the end of the world because I do have to buy some supplies new (i.e. thread, snaps), but as I delved more into the art world, there were more and more supplies that I wanted to have and experiment with!

Enter craigslist. I love browsing craigslist. Love, love, love. I have found items on there to use for my booth display, I use it to find garage sales in my area, I sell nonbusiness related items on there... it's just such a great resource. I've developed the habit of routinely browsing the arts & crafts section to see what items are up for grabs, and just last week I scored some big deals.

It's funny how things work out... I made some art pieces as gifts this past xmas, and I thought to myself "I would like to try painting on some larger canvases." What do you know, I found a man selling his daughter's old canvases that she was unable to bring with her to Seattle. There were 8 in total: 1- 10"x30", 3- 30"x30", 2- 36"x36", 1- 30"x40" and 1- 36"x48". Most of them are gallery depth too!! I emailed the guy to see if I could get a discount if I bought all 8, and he gave me 30% off!! I did have to drive about 35-40 min to get them, but it was worth it! The only downside was that I underestimated just how big these canvases were and I took my small car. Oops!

I did manage to fit them in, but my poor girl looked like she was in a canvas cave!! She didn't mind though. She's looking forward to painting on them with me.

I set them up at home to admire them and take a picture. Sooooo sweeeeeeeeeet!!!!!! Then a thought hit me... "Do I even have enough paint for these?" My paints all fit into one teeny drawer... I would definitely need more... and then destiny appeared...

That very night I found a listing where a woman was liquidating her art supplies because she wasn't as passionate for painting as she thought she would be. She went through and itemized each item, and many of the products were not even used yet! It would have cost me a small fortune to buy each of these items new. I had to have it! I began the email exchange process, and out of the 3 prospective buyers, she chose me :). Yippeee!!! Yahooo!!! Hooray!!!!! I think this may quite possibly be the deal of the year, or maybe the century!! 

When picking up the supplies, I stayed to chat with the lovely lady for about an hour. She is such a sweetheart and has such a creative spirit. She actually lives fairly close to me, so I invited her over for an art playdate :). I felt bad that she was giving up on painting... even though I benefited from it. She said she will take me up on the painting offer, so with some luck, I can make that a future blog :).