Happy Day Challenge Day 44

Tell a New Story Happy Day 44

Working on my Law of Attraction Art Journal makes me happy. I decided to also do it on Give it 100.com. If you join that site, just remember each video clip is only 10 seconds long. I'm finding it hard to make something so short!

Finding Inspiration

Every artist I read about says people always went to know where they get their inspirations. The short answer is 'anywhere and everywhere'. This morning I was watching a random TV show about remodeling a bedroom. A real estate agent was tired of the slow trend in housing sales and decided to go to Southwest Asia to get away from it all.  Once she got home she wanted to transform her boring bedroom into one with an Asian feel. In Asia she had met a street artist and commissioned him to paint her a series of four paintings to hang as a set on her wall.  She liked his work but she wanted something in purples. I took one look and thought I'd love to do a series of four square foot paintings in purple and gold.

We all grow up with color prejudices we get from well meaning parents and teachers and friends.  I remember once I went to work in my favorite red and purple skirt.  A friend took me aside and said, 'My mother would never let me out of the house in that." I said, "You mom doesn't let you wear long skirts."  She said, "No, we weren't allowed to wear red and purple together because they clash."  I was an adult at the time and had a good laugh over that.  Sometime in my childhood someone told me the same thing about gold (yellow) and purple.  So I've avoided that color combination because it clashes.  Yet here were these four paintings on this show that I fell in love with.  I couldn't wait to try something similar.

First I put gesso mixed with purple and gold all over four Bristol Vellum squares. I let those dry. I kept out the one I wanted to do for my daily painting and put the rest away.

I love dancing and dancers, so I wanted a dancer on at least one panel. So that's what I did today and I'm loving it.  And surprisingly I'm loving gold and purple together.  Now I'm thinking we all get stuck in artistic ruts of using the same colors we are most drawn to.  I'm thinking of making a bunch of color squares, tossing them in a hat and randomly drawing 2 or 3 for future paintings, to get away from my own color prejudices.

Square Foot Art Gallery

I'm thinking of starting a new online store, probably on Etsy, for selling paintings that are 12"x12", or one square foot. I've been fascinated with the concept every since I found out on the Internet a few years ago that some art galleries were having showings specifically for square foot paintings.  Last night I found some videos on it on Youtube.

 

I want to combine this with my desire to do a painting a day like an artist I saw at the Laguna Sawdust Festival. He's done a painting a day for something like 18 years. You can see him in the clip below.

First I have to go to the art store and get some square foot canvases.

Day One Doodle Project

 

I like to let my subconscious mind  make the decisions when I'm doodling. It's cathartic when I do that.  I do my best not to over-analyze things and let them have a flow. It's an instinctive way to draw or paint, like process art. With this piece I started with the wavy part on the left side.  I couldn't decide if it reminded me of slides or a giant tree trunk or hilly terrain. Then I grabbed a spool of ribbon from my desk and traced the big circle with a little circle in the center. Next I did the treble clefts.  The circles didn't quite look finished, so I decided to add a stand to make it more like a Ferris wheel. Then I made the spokes. It's funny that this doodle started at McDonald's.  Then I drew in the car (I wasn't the driver). Then I restarted it at home at my desk, then I took it in the bathroom and drew the spokes. The birds were added at some point. I like the birds. Those might look interesting carved into rubber stamps.

Happiness is a Box of Crayons

One day I thought to myself, 'I wonder why everyone assumes crayons are for kids only'. Compared to other art supplies, they are inexpensive, neater than oil or chalk pastels, and much more portable than watercolors or oil paints. You don't have to wait for them to dry and they come in a lot of colors. They don't dry out like felt tipped markers. You wouldn't normally think of using them for fashion illustration but why not? I used them last week to color in some costume sketches so I could keep the color schemes straight in my mind. I've even used them for portraiture. I use the white crayon a lot as an over layer to blend facial tones. So now my white crayon is broken in two and running out. The only down side of crayons is I don't think you can buy just one color.  So I bought a whole fresh box of crayons. This time I got an even bigger set with more colors including some metallics, neons, and other crayons of a different color.

When I started writing for Squidoo I came across a lot of reference links to adult coloring pages.  So evidently I'm not the only one out their who is over 15 and still coloring.  I'll put some of those links here.

Even if you are not an artist, crayons are great for doodling and relieving stress.  They are way cheaper than therapy. They can also be melted for special projects.  And I've used them to draw on Easter eggs before dyeing the eggs (wax resists dye).

When we were kids we used to use crayons to draw on T-shirts and then put a piece of brown paper from paper bags and iron off the excess and set the art with heat.

I still remember bible study when I was a little girl and coloring a lot from the basket full of crayon bits and pieces that sat in the center of every table. It seemed like the red was always missing.

Crayons are versatile and fun. Just don't put them in the clothes dryer. Or leave them on the dashboard.  Treat them as you would lip balm.   Don't take your crayons for granted.  Get them out and enjoy them regularly.

Adult Coloring Ideas 
Peace Coloring
More Coloring Ideas