Fun Art and Exploration!

Well, we TOTALLY got side tracked this weekend. Everything I planned on doing got thrown out the window for Rib Fest on Saturday and Fan Expo on Sunday. Now I won't talk about all the succulent food I ate on Saturday being that's not very art related. Instead I want to talk about the awesomeness that is Fan Expo! If you are anything Geeky (like I will grudgingly admit LOL) then Fan Expo is the place for you! It's a collection of everything a good geek will love! Sci Fi, Anime, Comics, Gaming and Horror (although I'm not big on the Horror part), All in one easy to get to venue LOL!!!

Fan Expo Canada!!! WOOT!

This was Violet's first Con... at 5 and 1/2 months that's not hard to expect! She was a well behaved monkey and got to have her first celebrity experience. While walking around we briefly met Marina Sirtis better known as Dianna Troy from Star Trek the Next Generation. She went "ooo, so cute!" We smiled and said "Thanks", and as we got further away I told my husband who she was. He's never been great at recognizing people. We kind kicked ourselves for not going back and asking for a pic, but that's all good. I figured she was just as busy as everyone else there.

Marina Sirtis

Aside from the celeb-fest, which included us missing a lot of Celebs and not seeing very many LOL. There is a whole area called Artist's Gallery! This is an AMAZING section where comic, sci fi and generally anyone artsy (usually with a geeky or alternative theme) can set up booths. I wanted to share some of the AMAZING art that we found there!!

Danielle Storey Illustrations

The first artist who created this beautiful piece is a young lady named Danielle who is currently going to Sheridan Collage in Toronto! Check out her site HERE! And she has a Blog HERE!!

Imaginism Studios, this piece is by Kei Acedera

I fell completely in love with the works by these artists. Often a slight fairy tale theme, their stuff completely captures the imagination! I will TOTALLY have some of their work in my house once I get a house!!! Check out their site HERE!

Mike Boldt

I love this Giraffe!! This guy has some AMAZING art that is completely storybook worthy! I am DEFINITELY planning on getting some stuff from him once Violet has her own room!! OOoooo I CAN'T WAIT!!! His site is HERE!! And his Blog is HERE!!!

The Art of Christina Delijanov

Oh how I LOVE these Marionettes! Another artist that I WANT her stuff!! This will not be stuff for Violet's room but more for me. Check out her Blog HERE!!!

Well, although I'm not any further ahead on any of my own art, at least I had a good dose of inspiration into other arts. What I realized?? I miss doing comic related art! I'm really thinking I should get back into doing my own stuff... other than just lesson plans. What do you think??

I hope you had a great weekend with lots of exciting inspiration too!!

Keep Creating!
Angie :)

Creative Expectations

So I have a fun filled weekend planned with visiting friends, eating too much food and generally enjoying the weekend to the fullest before the summer is officially over. There are a few Crafty and Artsy things though that I really am hoping to accomplish, and is usually more possible when my husband is home to watch the baby :).

Acrylic Paint

1) BUY MORE PAINT!

My poor acrylic paints have been needing to be replaced, and it has finally happened! The red paint is now solid all the way through. Not so good for painting but may be an interesting sculpture if I can manage to cut the tube and take it out in one piece. (Knowing my luck, when I do this there will be paint EVERYWHERE! Who needs kids to make a mess LOL)

Hardware Store

2) YAY Trip to the hardware store!

I have a beautiful old baby chair (more a kid chair) that needs a good uplift. I am hoping to buy some sand paper, spray paint and tack paper (the kind in rolls that you can paint around and remove, like stencil-less stencils). My plan is to turn this into a butterfly extravaganza!!! This will be done in Purples, Blues, Greens, Yellows and maybe some (shudder) PINK... I'm not a big fan of pink but with a little girl it is unavoidable.

Tank the dog!

3) Work on my Warm/Cool Tank image!

I really need a few hours of uninterrupted time to finish this image. It's about half way done but has been difficult to finish with a 5 month old who's teething and not sleeping well. Hopefully I will find some time this weekend to finish this.

4) Create a few more LESSONS!!

Once I have the paint I will be able to create a few more lessons. YAY! It's very limiting without paint in the house, especially being drawing don't show up very well
when photographed.

Lessons

5) TAKE PICTURES!!

I just got a fancy new camera from my brother :). So I'm hoping to take it out for a little stroll and take some pretty pictures around the area and at the stuff we are going too!! Here's hoping my plan works out!!.

With this list of 5 things I'm REALLY hoping to complete some of them. Knowing my luck that may not happen, but I'm going to try my hardest!!

What are your plans for the weekend?? Any crafting or creating artistic masterpieces??

Keep Creating!
Angie :)

Propa-Canada

So I decided that I was due for a little art history discussion. I've been really thinking this past week about the use of Propaganda in early Canadian art. You might say "what do you mean"? Well, let me 'splain! No, there is too much. Let me sum up! (oups got on a roll there) Anywho we will start with a question... What was the purpose of early Canadian Art?

A View of Fort La Galette, Indian Castle, and Taking a French Ship of War on the River St. Lawrence, by Four Boats of One Gun Each of the Royal Artillery Commanded by Captain Streachy Thomas Davies 1760

Purpose? No, the answer is not for people to hang pretty pictures on their wall. Think harder!

Okay, So early Canada! Heck this can translate to most early North America. We have a European Government that has decided to Colonize the North Americas. They are sending Everyone that they can spare, which means mostly people they don't want, over seas to set up towns and start building the lands. The problem is that the people they don't want are mostly untrained, unskilled individuals from the poorer sectors of Europe. So a plan is needed. They need to draw people to volunteer to go to Canada and build their homes there. They need people who once there may not be able to afford, or are unable to return too quickly. (It's hard to colonize if the people can return on the next boat)

George Heriot "Lake St. Charles near Quebec" 1801

How would you, now in 2011, draw people to an area to live or colonize?? Well you'd start up an add campaign and use positive media (or propaganda) to draw people to your attraction, location or town.

"River Landscape 1" John Elliot Woolford, 1821

Well, the 17 and 1800's weren't much different. In order to draw up media attention and get people with skills (and possibly money) to move to the North American Colonies the British and European Governments sent over artist, new and up coming, to North America to create beautiful images. These images would then be sent back to Europe and be displayed to the public. They would say "See how pretty it is?", "Look how happy people are!", and "Anyone can have their own land!".

Cornelius Krieghoff "Winter Scene with Horse and Sleigh" 1855

They never showed that Snow is Cold and that Food was hard to make. They did, however, succeed in luring many of our ancestors who were up for a challenge or had nothing in Europe.

How would you draw people to Canada now?? What kind of images would you show?? Would you show the images similar to those on the Canada Travel site?? Check out the Brochures there, would your pictures have all the smiling faces and activities??

A Pic I took on the coast in PEI!

This is a pic I took while in PEI on vacation a few years ago. I would love to see what you would create! If you would paint your own picture or use a photo like the Canadian Gov't brochures use??

Until next time!
Keep Creating!
Angie

The Blahs in Blue

Today I'm having a serious case of the blahs... Had to go get some immunization boosters for my new job (being it's at a daycare) and they totally are making me feel yucky. I decided to at least "talk" about some sort of art anyway. In keeping with our interest in Colour in art I've chosen to veer off the path of Canadian artists and talk about the work of a very famous artist... Picasso.

Picasso's "Old Man with Guitar"

Now one of my favorite periods of Picasso is his Blue period, and being I'm feel a little in the dumps I find it suits my mood perfectly. If you remember back to our first lesson on One Colour Painting this would be within those parameters. Instead of doing pure abstract, Picasso managed to use the single colour to create a feel and emotion within the work. If the work (as in the guitarist above) was in different colours then it may not express such a feeling of melancholy.

I decided to use Photoshop (being my free copy will expire soon... so sad :( ) and alter one of the pics of Violet that I LOVE!

This is of Violet and me on our first days together... she was only 33 weeks gestation (so 7 weeks premature) and the hands and feet are a tattoo of my son Cole's, who we lost at 28days. So it's like my Angel and My Rainbow are in this pic together. I decided to clean up the image by making it monotone and gave it a warm purple-blue colour so that shows the mixture of joy and sorrow I was feeling. I had a really rough first week with her, mostly due to our past experience in a NICU... so I was elated and happy while still having anxiety attacks.

Okay... I'm being mushy and sappy. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow and actually manage to do a bit more on the projects I've started. So off to bed for me! :)

Until Later!
Keep Creating!
Angie

To be Creative

I LOVE THIS IMAGE!!! Find it HERE!!

I've had a total FAIL on the whole being creative this weekend... I decided to take a bit of vacation from the internet partially due to a computer issue and partially to rejuvenate myself. This weekend I totally felt more like a Mummy (as is RARR!) than a Mommy... so I decided to create a treasury of awesome crafty stuff that was MUMMY mom related! I hope you love them as much as me!

'My Mummy!' by Sylvanfire

Some days all mom's feel more like a mummy then a mommy :)

Machine Embroidery applique ... Embroitique $2.99	Mother's Day Card - Mumm... queenofheartsp... $4.25	I love my Mummy screenprint ... SmokinChix $14.00
Mummy Mumbot $20.00	Mummy to Be Halloween Embroi... EmbroideryEver... $13.99	Halloween Mummy Girl and Boy itsybitsycute $9.99
Are You My Mummy Gas Mask Pe... imaginationemp... $19.95	Halloween Monster Mash Stitc... Hudsonsholiday... $6.99	4x4 Print - The Curse of the... nutandbee $6.50
My Mummy Loves Me' Custo... princesstutu $15.00	Ready To SHIP Hollywood Mons... Suburban50s $28.00	Frankenstein's Family Ar... thedreamygiraf... $18.00
Lindo Amigurumi Bear Dressed... OmNomLindos $18.00	Some Mummy Loves You knightrone78 $5.00	Mummy Love - Original Art Pr... thezombified $13.00
Mummys the word bag ChloiesCloset $5.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Thank you Craftzilla for sharing this awesome tool with me, it made sharing this Treasury SO MUCH EASIER!!! If I had lots of money I'd buy ALL OF IT!!! Is it bad that I now have a WHOLE BUNCH of projects in my head that I want to make NOW and I haven't finished the one's I'm working on!?! I hope to have an update on the Tank warm/cool image tomorrow...

Oh!! Other update... I got a new CAMERA!!! WOOT... so hopefully my pics on here will look a bit nicer!

Another update! I got a job! It's only 2 days a week (which is MORE THAN ENOUGH with a 5 going on 6 month old), I'll be working at a daycare. YAY! So the idea of creating a posting "schedule" in the loosest of senses may be in order... I will keep considering and let you know where it leads me LOL.

So until next time...
Keep Creating!
Angie :)

Getting Inspired: Spray Paint

So my Warm/Cool Tank project is actually going pretty well, although I haven't been able to touch it in 2 days. (The problems of a new mom lol) But I'm getting inspired for a new Crafty Project and it all started by going through this post on Curbly! They remake a BEAUTIFUL table with a little bit of spray paint and some tacky paper!

Table art from Curbly!

It's very pretty and I know just what I want to remake! Yesterday I had a visit from my mom and she brought up a little baby chair for Violet. Now at 5 months Violet won't be using it any time soon, but I would like to have it done now before she wants to use it (or it won't get done till her daughter needs it LOL). So I've decided a trip to the hardware store today may be in order!

Spray Paint

What I want to do is get some spray paint and sticky tack paper! Now the base colour at the moment for my chair is just an old stain and some small decals on it. It's an OLD chair and really needs a new lease on life. As you may have guessed I'm not really into Antiques in my house. I love looking and scouring antique stores but most of my stuff tends to be more streamline. I've also found online a bunch of neat sites with AWESOME chairs!

This chair is very similar to the base chair I have... so CUTE!

Another craft lady inspiration! I love the little quote idea!

Some neat artsy and functional pieces!

After doing my post on the Art Walls I've been really thinking about decorating Violet's room when we move in May. At the moment we live in a 2 bedroom townhouse with a roommate so she is in our room, but I'm really looking forward to her having her own room. SO I've thought I'd paint the chair and maybe write a verse of a children's book on her wall... I'm thinking of a theme of butterfly's and purple. What do you think?

I'll post the chair and what I do to it when it's finished :)

Keep Creating
Angie

Warm to Tank

Well, I've been trying to figure out something to create lately. I've been wanting to do a lesson/activity, but haven't been inspired at the moment, so I decided to create something purely for me. After making the awesome treasury of Dachshunds, I have become inspired to try making a Warm/Cool image based on my dog Tank.

Tank the Dog! :)

I haven't completed the image, mostly due to the fact that I only have an hour at night to work on it, but I do have some teaser images so far. I'm debating, if this turns out, to make a bunch of smaller ones and try my hand at selling them on Etsy. I can even do other people's animals... and I have done a person once. We'll have to wait and see how it turns out, but I have high hopes LOL.

Initial Sketch from the Picture

Starting with Blues, I decided to treat the ears and the head separately

Added Greens, the Head tones are slightly warmer than the ear tones.

If you want to create your own image check out my older post Warming to Cool-er, this gives you a bit of info on how to go about doing it. As always you are open to create ANY way you want, using ANY materials you see fit. So have fun and try something new. 

I do REALLY love Collage work, so this is a great way to use collage without having the issue of copyrighted images and finding open source material. I'm hoping this turns out good :). If nothing else at least it'll be an interesting image.

Oh, I'm also entering this image of Tank into the For the Love of Blogs picture Perfect Pet thingy... so go click on the button below and vote for Tank Dog :)




Keep Creating
Angie :)

Getting a Perspective

As promised I've been meaning to do some sort of lesson over the past week. I've found it amazing how time gets away from me when my daughter's teething. So, I've finally found the time to create a short lesson. It's not much of an activity (hopefully I will have one by the end of the week) but at least it will help you in your future art endeavors. I have found there are a few basic lessons that are always needed before you can really explore art and this will be one of the last ones... you guessed it! Perspective.

"Highway Leading up to Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island", 1965, Roloff Beny

A general definition of perspective is the use pf size to create spatial relations on a flat surface or how I usually say it "closer things are bigger and farther away things are smaller!" :) The above picture by Roloff Beny is a great example of perspective. You can see the road going further and further away, it starts as a road and ends as a line.

My supplies: Marker, Pencil and Paper

Sectioning off the paper!

I decided to create a few little picture explanations of perspective and things that I find are funny:

First off lets talk about Vanishing Points. These are spots that you would put onto the horizon line (which we talked about here) that help you ensure things are getting smaller equally.

They can be used for a single road (as above) or to help you with the road, and the fence and the telephone wires.

But my favorite part of perspective is the silliness that results from small things. When I'm teaching children they always want to make birds in the sky. To make a bird we usually do a SMALL "v" shape. Why did I emphsise on the small?? Well the next 2 images can explain....

Small "v" birds on the left are GOOD... BIG "V" birds on the right are BAD!!

Unless we are drawing a monster movie scene there is a BIG problem with creating GIANT "V" birds on the right... especially with the reference to the little house.

Little Birds close up vs GIANT BIRDS!

If we kept the GIANT "V" birds in our picture and they decided to fly to the little house the above image is something that may happen. Notice how the Tiny "v" birds turn into our regular size birds where as the GIANT "V" birds could fly away with the house and eat it for dinner.

Well, hopefully we will get a chance to use our knowledge of perspective to create something magnificent really soon!

Keep Creating!
Angie :)