50 Canvases in 2014: Text Challenge

This week was my son's last week of middle school.  An organized mother would have had teacher gifts and photo shoots, or at the minimum, a crystal clear understanding of where the boy needed to be - and when - and with what (a cello, a tie, a toga, a bottle labeled "Nectar" for his Midsummer Night's Dream performance, whatever).  Alas, I am not an organized mother.  Let's just pretend that people who make life look easy are dull and unfulfilled, okay?

On to the art!  Earlier in the week, for a blog entry on wonderstrange, I created this background, which I ultimately thought of as a sort of whimsical storybook cover.  And who better to add to a storybook than Red Riding Hood, freshly rescued from her ordeal with the wolf?  I laid down the text to meet the text challenge from 50 Canvases in 2014 on wonderstrange.

I don't know if you can see the text in the pics, but it is faintly visible in places.  I am kind of ridiculously excited to have used red as a shadow color.  That's the type of thing I tend to like in other people's work but don't include in my own.

50 Canvases in 2014: A Long Time Ago, in a Kitchen Far, Far Away

This week, I spent most of my time designing a new amigurumi crochet pattern for the Corpse Bride - as in, the title character from the Tim Burton film - and it was HARD, man! 

Corpse Bride in progress

It was so hard, in fact, that I'm still not finished - which is why my "canvas" for this week is a non-traditional one.

More specifically, my canvas this week is the front of a kitchen canister, which I am working on for my shop, and which I decided to paint up with a Star Wars theme.

 

When it's finished, the top strip will read "Hot Cross Buns" in a Star Wars-inspired font, because let's face it.  She is hot.  She is not very happy.  And she practically defines sidebuns.

50 Canvases in 2014: Word Up!

This week has been nuttier than an Almond-Pecan torte!  After my friend Nancy left, my BFF and business partner Sarah arrived, and I think it took me two full days to recover from all of the late nights and the extra glasses of wine.  (Incidentally, I am perfectly happy with the entire aging process except for that part.  What do you mean, four hours of sleep will turn me into a zombie?!  I'm indestructible!  I'm indefatigable!  I'm . . . oh, wait.  I'm 42.  Never mind.  Totally destructible.)

I did manage to do a canvas while Sarah was here, and it was the "word" challenge on wonderstrange - namely, to create a canvas inspired by a word that isn't "hope," "believe," "faith," or any other word you can find on scores of other work.

My word was "both," because that's something I really need to work on.  I can have a day that is BOTH productive AND frustrating.  I can have an experience that is BOTH rewarding AND disappointing.  I do not have to pick one or the other.  I can embrace both.

50 Canvases in 2014: Monochromatic

I didn't think I would have the chance to do a canvas this week, since I was hosting my friend Nancy, whom I have known since the third grade.  As it turned out, however, Nancy really wanted to sit in a comfy chair and veg as much as humanly possible, so we traded stories, marveled at each other's drama, and watched a lot of movies.  Like, I don't even want to tell you how many.  I think the people at the video store thought we were going into an underground bunker for a month.

While the movies played, at any rate, I painted an olive oil bottle (it's on wonderstrange, if you're curious), and I caught up a little on the wonderstrange 50 Canvases Challenge by completing the monochromatic canvas challenge that I missed a few weeks back.

While I was painting this, Nancy would periodically pause the movie and come over to tell me how brilliant it looked.  I have no illusions that I created a Monet or anything, but honestly, it is pretty darn nice to have someone come up and act like you're painting the Sistine Chapel every 30-40 minutes.  I highly recommend it and would consider sharing Nancy with you, except for the fact that I rarely get to see her myself.

50 Canvases in 2014: Robot!

This week's wonderstrange canvas challenge was deliciously simple: ROBOTS!  I fell asleep Wednesday night picturing a sexy robot in a boudoir pose on a chaise lounge, but when I woke up Thursday morning, I decided to ditch the chaise in favor of a standing pose and an alluring hat, which is sort of a fun juxtaposition of chastity (it's white, with a veil) and carnality (hey, robots have needs, too!).

Here are the progress pics, starting with a background that I decided right away would be monochromatic:

Wait! That's not monochromatic!

But after a coat of Soft Quinacridone red, it plays that way.

50 Canvases in 2014: Atypical Color Challenge

I am doing the wonderstrange 50 Canvases in 2014 challenge, and last week's prompt called for the use of a color palette you wouldn't normally pick - or at least, that's the way I (mis)remembered it.  As it turns out, the prompt was to use an established palette - that is, to pick a palette before beginning the canvas and stick with it, all the way to the end.  Whoops.  Good thing I did that, too!  I just did it with a color palette I wouldn't normally use.  Seriously, this is so far outside my comfort zone that you need a passport and a long conversation with a customs agent to get from one to the other.

Parlais vous pinky-purple?

Okay, to keep everything else simple simple, I decided to work on a 4x4 black canvas, and I made myself a pensive little alien.  I am pleased to report that I had a ball!

The flash really changes the way the colors look!

Before I painted the background, by the way, I Googled some images from the Hubble telescope.  The image I chose was associated with an article called, "Galaxy 'Spills Its Guts' in Space."  Who can resist a tell-all galaxy?!  Secrets of the Universe, come sit by me!