I traced my drawing, preparing to transfer it to my canvas with transfer paper, when I got an idea! Why not just print my drawing right on my canvas with a digital printer! Why didn't I think of that in the first place?
Here is the stapling order, which is in the video, in case it goes by too fast, or you want to click on the photo to get a bigger picture.
And here is a photo of the two tucks in the corners that you make when you do a gallery wrap, which means the staples are around the back instead of on the sides. Again, you can click on the photo to make it bigger.
This is my second Persian kitten drawing. This one is even smaller than the first, and I am going to try to paint in three by four inch miniature, using acrylic paint. I am still struggling with how to transfer the drawing to the canvas without creating pressure that might warp my tiny canvas. I wish I had an overhead projector, or an opaque projector, or some kind of projector!
I'm debating over filming this, the painting part, that is. I'm leaning toward filming, but I'm trying to alternate painting with sewing, which leaves little room for a tripod. I may also need to use a magnifying lamp, which might block the camera view.
I was trying to get organized today, and put all my brands of acrylic paint together by color. I've got the higher grade Liquitex and Golden paints, and I've got many brands of craft paint. They have different consistencies, some being more fluid than others. They also have different opacities. The professional, or artist's grade paint varies from some craft paint in that it doesn't have additives, and there is, generally, more pigment in the paint. Additives theoretically weaken the chemical bond that holds the paint together to some degree, and thus, weaken the adhesion of the paint to certain surfaces. Water does the same thing. It is best to mix acrylic paint with mediums instead. Mediums are acrylic polymer emulsions, which is what the paint itself is made of, only the paint has pigment added to it.
By contrast, these are my boxes of watercolor paint. Not nearly as large a collection. Here's the deal...Watercolor mixes so much more nicely. The colors are soft and natural looking. I can also mix watercolor instinctively, probably because I grew up watching my mom paint. I'm sure I passively absorbed a lot of mixing knowledge.
Acrylic, on the other hand, is so vibrant in its purest form, the professional grade, that it can be frustrating to mix. Colors don't do what I expect them to do, and they come out too strong for my taste. The craft paint comes in hundreds of soft colors that I like much better. So, to compensate for the possible additives, I try mixing craft paint with, and coating it with acrylic medium, and then coating it with varnish. Mediums can also be like glue that lock things in, like when you do decoupage. I also mix both grades of paint together. Sometimes it isn't clear from the labels on the acrylic paint brands that you find in craft stores, which grade they are, or if they have additives at all. The only thing I can say is that the pigments are not as strong, which can work to your advantage in some instances.
Oil, with its more natural-looking colors, is of course an option for anyone who doesn't mind the smell, the longer drying time, and the cleanup issues. I like to take the non-toxic route and clean up with water. I can't stand the oil smell either.
I shrank a loose canvas recently, but then someone furry, with pointy ears and a tail sat on it. It got all saggy again. I had some unprimed canvas, and this morning, I pulled the factory canvas off to replace it. I had to staple and re-staple to get it right.
I finally got two canvases done, primed with gesso, and coated with a couple of layers of white paint. The texture is still not as smooth as the factory canvases, but I can't keep fussing! Sometimes these small, fix-it projects aren't worthwhile. I think these will work out okay though.
Still fusing the world together, one piece at a time
Okay, yeah, that would be an ambitious project, and I'm not sure a necessarily good one to take on. I am, however, still fusing my appliquéd pieces together for my Lucy dolls. I know these don't look all that different here from the last time I posted about them, but I've gotten more done on them. They just don't look like "something" until they come together, all sewn and stuffed, and they take a long time to make. I'll be embellishing them next.
I'm a finalist in the Etsy Handmade Kids Challenge! I'm so happy! Gerard, my "Hug Me! Slug" is is in the toy category. Please, please, please go vote for him (and me!) here. All you need is an Etsy user ID. It's free and easy to get one. You can vote only once in each category and, by voting, you get a chance to win an Etsy shopping spree. You can read all about the Handmade Kids Challenge and Sweepstakes here.
This is Gerard. He has already found a home, but you can still see his listing here.
The photos on the voting page rearrange themselves, and so you might have to look for him a little on the page. Etsy will be having a guest panel of judges from Boingboing, Cookie, decor8, Martha Stewart Living, Ohdeedoh, Parents and Treehugger. I'm so excited. I have been on Etsy for some time now, hoping to be found amidst the many handmade items by all sorts of artists and craftspeople. Thanks Etsy!
Gerard is happy about it too, or I'm sure he would be. I hope someone will tell him!
I'm still making my dolls. They got dresses, stockings, and shoes today, or some of them did. I'm making progress.
I'm gessoing some little, very little, canvases this afternoon. The canvas looked wobbly and loose on one, and so I dunked it in hot water to shrink it. I should have done that before I added more gesso, since it did shrink and my new coat of gesso came puckering off.
I'm going to try some mini animal portraits. I have no idea what that will be like, especially with acrylic paint on canvas. The texture of the canvas and the heaviness of the paint might be a challenge to getting fine detail. They are only 3 x 4 inches. They should be relatively fast to get painted at least, and I need some quicker path to satisfaction while I'm making all my dolls. It's good to make a bunch of things simultaneously because you can be more organized about it, but it's bad in that you have to wait so long to have that sense of accomplishment you get when you are holding something finished in your hands.
I also picked up a new journal for myself. I've been journaling since I was twelve or thirteen, but I've always picked out plain school-type spiral notebooks. I'm intimidated by anything too "fancy". I used to write in them more regularly. In recent years, I've tended to turn to them almost only when I've been sad or angry, and don't want to overburden anyone else by talking about it too much. I hate to think what my life will look like to anyone who might read them someday! I am cheerful most of the time, and I am hoping by having a more cheerful looking journal, I might be tempted to "branch out" again.
I've had this Cat Steven's song in my head for a couple of days now, "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out", from Harold and Maude. I've had a lot on my mind lately, and there have been moments when I've had to stop myself and remember that my life really isn't, and doesn't have to be, complicated. I have a home, enough to sustain me, people (and kitties) who love me, and things to do that I enjoy and find rewarding. I've tried too hard, in recent years, to add one more very-important-to-me thing to my life, a family of my own, and in doing that, I have tried too hard to accept a lot of unhappiness. I feel like I am at a crossroads, emotionally, where I need to choose to release myself from the pressure I feel, choose to have faith in my own future, and not be sad about it. I've said a lot of things would "never" happen for me before in my life, and been very wrong.
I'm still working on a bunch of dolls all at once. They were all getting appliquéd hair today. That is a pile of ponytails-in-progress in the upper right of the top photo with my "Gumdrop Baby" faces.
This one is a Lucy doll in progress. I pull the paper backing off my fusible web as I go, and drop it on the floor. I know that isn't so nice, but there isn't anyone here who is going to complain about it. As long as no paper-chewing pets are in there, it's okay for a while. We have one cat who will chomp on all sorts of weird things if we're not careful. He's not allowed in there. It's important to keep pets away from art and craft supplies they might eat. You just never know what might be intriguing to them and it's best to be safe.
My floor looks like this until I come through with a waste paper basket. I don't like to trip over anything extra in that room. So it's easier for me to leave the waste paper basket somewhere else and come through with it when I need to. I am a clutter-aholic.
I also finally got new sneakers. I have been putting that off for months. I think I mentioned before that I hate to buy new sneakers. Don't you know, they redesigned them, and made the toe area bigger. I am floating in the usual size I get, which I ordered by mail. I don't think I mentioned before that I also hate to return things, and so I will be floating in these for a good long time! I wear sneakers most of the time, even with sundresses. That should be an even better look for me now ;)
My Gumdrop Baby was featured in this treasury on Etsy today. I think it will be up until Friday. Thanks Susan, for including her! It's always a really nice surprise for me when people pick one of my dolls or prints out of the blue like that to share with other people. I appreciate it a lot.
I asked my mom to take a couple of pictures of me today. Today didn't seem like a good day for that, since I haven't been feeling well and just yesterday I was struggling to eat Saltines, but...I actually look pretty healthy. Yay!
I cut my hair recently, and I think I might be close to my natural hair color now. Why is this of interest to me? I don't know...sometimes I can't remember what it looks like and it's come a long way from last summer. Actually, so have I. Maybe that's why I wanted some new pictures, so I can have a new look at myself :)
Now there can be a two-way staring contest. Eleven faces made it to this point, without my goofing anything else up. All that is left is to heat set them with the iron, and then I can begin to match them up with fabrics for dresses, stockings, and boots. I should be having fun right now, but, honestly, I am having such an off weekend. I'm not feeling well, and my car is out on loan, standing in for one that needs repair. So I am cooped up. I have had every intention of turning that into a positive, by getting lots done, which I am doing, but the cooped up part is getting to me. Everyone I know seems to be away for the weekend, and I am imagining them all having fun at the beach or doing something entertaining, which I hope is true. Still, I'm feeling a bit like Cinderella, in more ways than one.
That reminds me...I have been having some very strange nightmares. The other night I dreamt I was getting married. I was wearing a full-length satin gown and all the guests were there, but I had to go talk to a couple of people in a back room. When I came back, most of the guests had gone home, and all the decorations were gone. Only a handful of people had waited for me, to tell me they were sorry. I said that was okay; I wanted to go ahead and get married anyway since whoever would be performing the ceremony was still there and we didn't need the rest. The remaining people thought that was very sweet that I'd still want to get married, without any frills and even though almost everyone had left. I was standing there with a bouquet, wondering what I was supposed to do, and I looked over at the groom. I had no idea who he was! He looked familiar, but I didn't know him. I was panicking and thinking maybe I should call it off, but I felt weird about it after saying I still wanted to go through with it. I couldn't figure out who the guy was. Geez...I guess that's sort of funny, but, it's also kind of terrible! Ha! Thank goodness I woke up!
I've been painting new doll faces today with my other dolls looking on. The slugs seem the most curious and eager to see what I'm up to. I need some shelving, maybe stadium seating.
I was making good progress until I had to take allergy medication for a bad insect bite I have on my foot. Nothing else seems to control the awful itching and the swelling, but then I nearly nodded off right in the middle of my faces. I kept going, but one or two didn't come out the way I planned. I hate doing "negative work", a phrase a friend uses for creating more work for yourself by making mistakes. I cut one up just to stop myself from continuing to try to fix it. I always feel compelled to try to fix everything, but sometimes it is just better to start over. Besides, most of them came out quite well. I've always been a perfectionist in regard to what I make, and that can make things unpleasant for me sometimes. I've been told that by the time I reached my current age, lots of things that bothered me before wouldn't bother me so much anymore. In some ways that is true, but I haven't shaken the perfectionist drive.
I am still at work on my Lucy dolls, but I only managed to simplify my pattern by eliminating a seam or two...not much of a difference. I decided she was just going to remain complicated to make, and so I am slowly making progress on those. In the meantime, I took a mini detour and made an Owlie. I made up the pattern myself, fiddling around until I liked the shape.
I added some machine appliquéd details and sewed him up. I made two cute yellow feet for him too. I used some natural, undyed cotton fabric I had from a few years ago for his body. It has a lovely texture with a diagonal woven design. It is the color of oatmeal and is very soft.
Although I tried as many things as I could think to try, I could not get this red polka dot fabric color to show up right in the main photos of my owl. It is a dark red, but it looks too dark in my owl photos. It looks about right, on my monitor anyway, in this photo below:
Mr Owl is about 8 1/2 inches wide by 6 1/2 inches tall.
Other than playing with toys, I got to play with kids this weekend, which was a lot of fun. I think we crammed every kid activity possible into one afternoon. We played with toy trains (I managed to fix the engine part), flew kites, ate ice cream, looked for real trains, played on the caboose at the park, rode on a miniature train, rode the carousel (I picked a bunny), and played tag. And I'm sure I'm leaving things out. I also learned that I am sorely outmatched both in ice cream eating abilities and in superhero powers by a five and a six year old. I needed a lot of pizza to refuel afterwards, but I couldn't help but feel happier when they were around.
My "Hug Me! Slugs" are taking on mutant superhero powers.
This one has an attached cape in case he needs to fly.
He's also got a bit of a potbelly. So, I don't know how much altitude he is going to achieve. He has high hopes, at the very least.
Thanks, G.B., for the "Super Slug" suggestion.
I think today, I am going to take another look at my Lucy doll pattern and see if I can simplify it somehow. She seems to be well loved, but she's a little complicated to make. I can't say, as of yet, I know how to make her less complicated, but my mind is on it.
This is the new pattern I've been working on. I saw them all sitting on my table and they reminded me of gumdrops. So, they became "Gumdrop Babies". I think they are sweet.
They are original, one-of-a-kind, art toys. I hand painted and heat set each one of their pleasantly smiling faces. They are about 10 3/4 to 11 inches tall and they have no removable or loose parts, making them safe for little ones. They are meant to be played with and loved and hugged. I prewashed the fabrics I used, mostly cotton quilting fabrics, with a little rayon on their faces. So they can be gently spot cleaned, rinsed, and set to dry. BTW, I've been using Tide Free for Sensitive Skin when I prewash my fabrics. I like to get that factory smell out of fabrics in addition to making sure they won't shrink or run later.
I'm finding toy making to be therapeutic. No wonder Santa is a jolly guy. I'm not quite jolly yet, but I'm hoping to get there.
"Every blade of grass has its
angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow.'” -THE
TALMUD
"Inspiration may be a form of
superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness - I wouldn't know.
But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness." -AARON
COPELAND
"Whether you think you can, or you think
you can't, you're right" -HENRY FORD
"'But do you know how old I will be by the time
I learn to really play the piano/act/paint/write a decent play?'
Yes...the same age you will be if you don't. So let's start." -JULIA CAMERON
Here is the stapling order, which is in the video, in case it goes by too fast, or you want to click on the photo to get a bigger picture.
And here is a photo of the two tucks in the corners that you make when you do a gallery wrap, which means the staples are around the back instead of on the sides. Again, you can click on the photo to make it bigger.
