A Pirate Dog, Some ATCs, Envelopes and FP7 is DONE

Hello Readers!

Another long break from the blog for me. No good reason for it other than I had other to contend with instead of being timely with posting on the blog. All is well with the water issues now. Keeping fingers crossed that the mess with the well IS all well now! Been almost a week since it was fixed so it looks like it's going to work out alright.

I have a couple things to show from the marathon art session from last weekend.

One of the things on the scavenger hunt list was to make a hat and photograph someone wearing it. Last time there was a scavenger hunt marathon art session, I took a picture of me wearing the hat I had made. This year I opted to let the tin knight do the modeling.

And when Fred dog showed interest in my newspaper pirate's hat, I let him do some modeling too. He wasn't nearly as interested in it as he had originally thought so we only got one shot of him wearing it. And not a good shot at that!

Funny thing about that pirate hat....it's been sitting on the knight's head since I took his picture wearing it and not one person has questioned why the tin knight is wearing a pirate's hat! It's not like no one has seen him wearing it and he's not hidden in some corner. I walk by him hundreds of times a week. Others have walked by him many times as well. I will give the pirate's hat to one of the grand kids next time they show up. Whoever shows interest will be the lucky recipient of the hat.

I had a lot of fun making it!

Another item on the scavenger hunt was to incorporate an origami piece into a project. I whipped up this little book, 4x2.5 inches and folded a crane from a piece of paper that was originally the title to a vehicle. I forget which vehicle, a car of some sort. Not even sure where I got those old titles from...The covers are made from a presentation folder (cardstock), sewn in the long stitch with the crane and small blue button (another of the things on the list) decorating the spine. It has scrapbook paper pages numbering about 15.

Then a few days went by where I didn't do any art to speak of. I hurt my back and wasn't really in any shape to do much of anything but sit in my recliner or lay in my bed. I did a lot of reading for a couple of days. Couldn't sit in front of my computer for any length of time either so I was going through withdrawals from that! 

When my back finally decided it was going to cooperate a bit better after a couple of days, I started drawing.

The ATCs below are pretty much in alphabetical order, not in the order in which they were made. My photo software files them in alphabetical order and that's how I downloaded them to this post (and most every other post I've ever made on this blog!).

Blue Man 

ATC

markers on cardstock

Bubbled Hearts

ATC

markers on cardstock

Little Red Hen

ATC

markers on cardstock

Pink Chicken

ATC

markers on paperboard

Pink Party Poodle

ATC

fingernail polish and markers on cardstock

Purple Cow

ATC

markers on paper board

purple stripes

ATC

markers on cardstock

Red Elephant

ATC

markers on cardstock

Red Monkey

ATC

markers on cardstock

Sitting Green Cat

ATC

markers on paperboard

Shrimp

ATC

markers on paperboard

Elephants were on the muse's radar.

Altered Envelope

markers on white paper

I drew this one after I drew the grey elephant.

Altered Envelope

gray elephant

markers on white paper

I'll address this one with a white pen. The postmark will be a bear to read but what a cool envelope! I like this one!

Evelyn's birthday was the end of July and she always tells me what she wants for her birthday. This year she was a bit contrary. I was a little disgusted with her and her demands for a birthday present. I let it slide more or less cause Evelyn isn't quite with it all the time. She has the mentality of a seven year old despite the fact she just turned 67. She wanted a mug rug for her birthday along with that turkey painting I still haven't finished. I gave her a cute little mug rug shaped like a cupcake. She oohed and aahed over it when I gave it to her and half an hour later she called Ma to complain that it wasn't what she asked for. So she writes me a note telling me just what it was she did want. Well, I read the note wrong and she still didn't get what she wanted but this bowl seemed to appease her. It's a coiled basket/bowl, 7inches across and an inch tall. She wanted a coaster to sit her glass in. Well, the note said she wanted a coaster to sit her 'glalls' in. I wasn't sure what the hell that even meant! I interpreted it as glasses...like eye glasses, so I made this big bowl like thing for her. Ma says that isn't what she explained to her. She wanted a coaster to sit her drinking glass in. She wanted it three inches across and seven inches tall. It was all too much for my pea brain to take in that day and she ended up with this instead! And she's still waiting on her turkey. I'll get it done in the next week or so if the muse cooperates.  

I gave Mr. Kitty to my sister last year for her birthday at the end of April. I asked to borrow him so I could enter him in the county fair this year.

She reluctantly obliged. She keeps telling me he HAS to come back home to her! I have every intention of giving him back to her! She isn't getting any ribbons he wins though! This will not sit well with her but the ribbons are mine. Mr. Kitty is hers! He got a new set of whiskers and a coat of varnish to spiff him up for his debut at the fair.

I've been working on Fish Picture 7 also. I wasn't pleased with it at all when I started back on it the other day. It looked terrible to me! I plugged on though cause I am not the one to judge the artwork I produce. As my mother says, 'you are your own worst critic.' And she's right. I am.

I drew these fishes sometime ago....weeks ago...on brown paper from a grocery sack. They're drawn in black sharpie. I then painted them with gold acrylics and left them sitting on the kitchen table for a few weeks.

Time was fast approaching that the fish picture HAD to get finished! 

There were eight fish to start off with. The three larger ones, I did this to. They were all painted with fingernail polish. The three larger ones did not end up on the fish picture but will be used for something else. Not sure what yet.

Here's a close up of one of the fishes that did make it to the fish picture.

there are gobs of things on the fish picture

the little manila colored cones with the yellow dots inside are leftovers from the last fish picture. I'm really glad I didn't chuck those things cause they worked out perfectly for this fish picture. They started out being part of the units for a buckyball that was a total failure! These little pieces were cut off the units so they didn't have any tails. Next to the big yellow blob, to the left of it, is one of the units from the last picture that the little ones were cut from. It's red and blue striped with a fake pearl in the center. I was glad I kept those also!

You can see the units better in this picture. The thing above the yellow blob in this picture is another unit from a failed buckyball. This one is made from newprint, painted dark green and sprinkled with glitter. I didn't cut the tails off of those. The tails tuck up underneath so you really can't see them. The tails make the units stand up off the canvas as where the other ones sit flush.

There are sewn components, braided, components, painted and assembled components. A little bit of this, a little bit of that and it all came together in a pleasing manner. I really wasn't happy with it! Now I am.

I added one more thing after I took these pictures. The white circle at the left bottom, now has a big purple bead in its center. Sorry the picture is so dark. I took it about 3am this morning. Lighting was BAD!

Close up of fishes and strings. aka seaweeds

I used a lot of different fibers for the seaweeds. 

I can see that there should have been a splash of bright yellow on the left hand side to match up with the yellow on the right side. Too late now! I do not have ANY bright yellow ribbons, string or fiber to use so it will have to do without.

This is the finished picture. All that is left to do with it is to put a hanger on the back of it. 

The dark pink braid is quilling paper and the light pink braid above it is crepe paper. Quilling paper was much easier to braid but the braids were short. I only used two quilling paper braids on the canvas. I'm not sure just where the green one ended up. I did a lot of braiding of fibers and whatnot for this picture. I learned a new braiding technique and used it profusely throughout.

This picture is way out of order here! This is the canvas before I sat down and really got working on it again. The seafloor was way too light in color so I got out my metallic green spray paint and hit the canvas along the lower quarter here and there with a spritz of green paint. Darkened it up a bit and it started looking better right away.

I am pleased with the finished picture. A lot more than I thought I would be.

The fair starts today so FP7 and Mr. Kitty must be to the fair grounds no later than 5pm this evening. I'll be heading to town to the fair grounds come 3 or so. Wish me luck in winning a ribbon or two!

I leave you with Murray!

Be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace

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