Art Practice: Foxy

I've been in a weird spot, artwise, for the last year or so. I'm working constantly, because I keep seeing these fantastic techniques I want to try, and I feel like I'm thiiiiis close to understanding the first thing about color theory, and of course I'm still trying to train my right hand up with animal sketches (though I haven't posted those in a while, the work continues!)

But all this attempted improvement is seriously slowing down production! So one of the new things I'm trying is a faster coloring method taking blatant advantage of the fact that, hey, I have a new computer and it can do things!

My idea of "quick" turns out to suddenly be "four hours of work", but that's because I felt the inexplicable need to make a fancy new drawing instead of something basic. You see my production problem!

Anyway!

I like the look; I'm gonna mess around a little more with basic line art and fix the obvious spilled colors, but I think this one might actually grow into a real piece one day!

What do you think, blogcomments? How often do you change up your work technique? Do you thing it's worth the hassle? Is there even a choice?

A New Thing: Bubble Paints!

Wow. Look at all of you out there!In the last week, the audience of my wee neglected blog has doubled! I suppose this means I have to start posting more than once in a month.

To Do This:
mix liquid soap and water in a bowl. Mix until bubbly. Add paint, dye, or whatever coloring agent you favor. Drink mix, maybe?

Put a piece of spare paper behind the bowl, as a splashguard. Trust me.

Grab the paper you want to bubble-paint.

Grab a straw. Put it in the soap mix; blow bubbles. Really go to town!

Lay your painting paper gently, directly, flat side down, on the bubbles. The bubbles may pop, they may melt, they may even cluster on the paper and let you push them around with a brush! The randomness is what makes it fun!

Do Not Do This:
Let the cats in right after adding the paint.

Start bubbling the paint before the cats have settled in and gone into furniture mode.

Inhale in shock when the cats decide to use human feet as their Safe Base in Cat-Tag, noted by swiping with a paw.

Inhale about 50 quarts of soap mix and paint.

Spend fifteen minutes coughing, choking, and wondering if the paint has gone far enough up your sinuses to turn your eyes green in a weird fantasy movie way.

Drink a soda any time in the next ten minutes. Owww, ow, fizzy owwww.

But I think I got a rather nifty set of textured papers out of it! Here are just a couple:




What can I do with textured paper? That's another post...but I bet some of you paper crafters are already making up your own answers!

Resolutions, only a little late

Well, obviously I did not resolve to be more punctual this year.

I did, however, microwave several bars of soap.

And join a sample box with Best of Etsy.

And participate in hosting a treasure hunt.

Because my New Year's resolution, belated as it is, is to try at least one new thing every week. In this I am being aided vastly by the internet's vast store of home chemistry experiments, and the wonderful array of artists on Etsy who are so generous with their knowledge and suggestions.

So, besides microwaving soap, I have attempted my first object collages, one still in progress:




and one finished and awesome and listed on my Etsy shop, which you should totally check out, if you haven't-- I put a lot of neat stuff there!

You should also microwave some soap. I'm not gonna tell you what happens, but it's pretty dang keen.

Any new things you're trying this year?

Keeping Busy

One of the quirks of my brain issues (yes, I have brain issues, not in the "oh, I'm so wacky" way, but in the "Hey, I can't see out my right eye!" way) is that often my verbal circuitry will short out. You who have seen me write can guess how much being forced to go incommunicado pains me.

But when I can't write I have to do SOMEthing, so the irony of my bloglife is that usually when I'm not blogging I'm doing scads of stuff I'd like to blog about. Like this!:




Yes, I'm modding an altoids box. This one's gonna be for me and me alone; I've laid some transparent clay along the backside, which I'll paint, and I'm going to have me a nifty unique earplug box (it's a dinky tin). But I'm thinking of making a couple for my shop. What do ya'll think?

The Truth- Revealed!

So, what are those bizzaros from yesterday?

They're hamsas. At least, they're attempting to be. A hamsa is a sort of luck charm, like a God's Eye or a shamrock, shaped like a funky double-thumbed hand. Check them out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsa

Anyway. When I was first starting to work with polymer clay, lo these many years ago, I wanted to get in touch with other clay-people, and this was the most interesting swap I could find that I could also do-- no canework or reputation required, very important for me at the time! We were encouraged to be creative, so I decided to just go with the silhouette of a hamsa and improvise the interior. I made some with turtles, people,and, still surviving here, fish...and cats. AMOzark is the first person EVER to guess those were cats on the first go, for which that one is totally hers, should she want it (and Mermaiden is free to claim the fishies, because I love the idea of a living seaweed Easter basket).

I don't know whether anyone else in the swap liked the hamsas of mine they got; I never heard back from any of them, which had been a theme of my swap of experience, which is why I never do swaps anymore. But I do know I wasn't happy with them. And I know I enjoyed making them, quite a bit. Because as soon as they were done, I set out on another big claying project.

My point, if I have to have one, is this: people try to compliment my art by saying I have talent, and I say no, and right here is some proof. A talented person would have had some modicum of grace in their craft from the get-go. What I have in my work is fun, even if nobody else cares, even if nobody else ever sees it; and because of that, a whooooole lotta practice. And sometimes I get better; I AM happy with the clays in my shop, right now, even while I'm looking for new directions to take it in. Talent is really not part of the equation. And that's...ok. It's fun.

Also, I have very smart blog readers. Thanks for playing along, ya'll! Now I must duck the thunder again...

Playing with Tools

One of my favorite things about anime cons is the amount of raw creativity charging up the air. It's not just the official artists. Anime has a very involved fandom, and almost everyone runs a game, or makes their own costumes, or runs a mailing list, or.... so it's almost impossible to NOT get inspired.

It's also near-impossible to make a finished piece while bouncing up and down, dealing with customers (lovely customers! I mean it! They wear such awesome clothes...) so I use the time for brainstorming and trying out new tools.

Yesterday, I did this with a set of watercolor graphite pencils:



The pencils were very easy to use, and required almost no water. The effects I got-- on some frankly awful paper, and with just a few tablespoons of water and one thin brush-- were like ink wash, without the constant danger of emblackening everything on my table.

I'm still working up the picture-- it's a rare one that's worth saving, I think, so I'm trying to save it (for reproduction, not original sale. It really is horrible paper.). So feedback is welcome!