Monday, August 1, 2011

July in Review

So, my last post was nearly a month ago. Yikes, sorry y'all. Lots has happened since then. How about a quick recap?

1. Weddings - Was able to travel back to Iowa/Nebraska to see 4 of my friends tie the knot! Cathy + Adam in Fremont, Nebraska and Liz +Brian in Ames, Iowa! In Nebraska we were able to spend time with our family and in Ames we felt like we were back in college at ISU! Good times!


2. Chicago Cubs! 2 of our friends came to visit for a wild weekend in the city. We got AMAZING seats to watch the Cubbies sweep the Astros! We were also part of an engagement surprise for 2 of our other friends!

3. RAGBRAI XXXIX - I was only able to be there 3 days (riding 2 days) this year. It was horribly hot, but we always manage to have a good time! It was my first experience with Team Blonde as well! Fun team, I can't wait to ride with them in the future!


The next post will be the progress of the wedding cut-out. I am about 75% finished and it's really coming together! Less than a month left to totally finish it!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

'Tis Wedding Season!

We don't design wedding invitations very often. In fact, the only other one we've designed was our own! But this year my husband set out to design his little sister's wedding invitation. And I think it turned out pretty darn awesome!

The original idea was to have it all be a folded postcard with a tear-away RSVP postcard at the bottom, but ideas changed, time flew by and the end result is slightly different, but still amazing! What do you think?


Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Summer Wedding Project

Many apologies for the lack of posting! Summer has officially started and I am swamped! Work is picking up and of course so is the social calendar! But I do have some "creativery" to show you today!

I am creating a nearly lifesize painting of my sister-in-law and her husband-to-be for their wedding in August. This is like a carnival piece where the faces are cut-out and people can put their own faces in the holes and take a picture! I think she is going to use this as a guestbook of sorts. Very cute idea.

So, here are a few photos of my process so far. I began by creating a concept in photoshop using a combination of engagement photos and their wedding colors. Then once I figured out the sizing, I went to buy the "canvas" which is three 2' x 4' masonite boards. I painted them white and my lovely husband helped connect them together giving me a final 4 foot by 6 foot blank canvas!
After they were all hinged together, I projected my sketch and traced it onto the boards. It's so much easier than free-handing something that large. Plus it saves me tons of time.
Unfortunately, I could not paint this the normal way one would begin a painting. Paint the entire background first, then add the foreground on top. My projector isn't very strong and I could not see any of the sketch if I projected it on a purple board...so white it had to be and I will be filling in the spaces with a paint-by-numbers approach.

Since the background is very geometric, I was able to use painter's tape and retain my sanity. This was wall paint and didn't dry as quickly as regular acrylic. I was very anxious to rip off the tape!
I used cheap acrylic paint for the blue banner and boy, does that dry a helluva lot quicker than wall paint! I am experimenting with different blending styles for shadows and highlights. So far I like a rough, sponge effect--not perfectly and smoothly blended. We'll see how it goes.
From here we will disassemble the large canvas into it's 3 smaller pieces. It will be much easier to paint and i won't get so much glare from our lights if I can move it around. I cannot wait to begin painting the figures! I really love to paint and work with traditional mediums. It's a great break from all the computer work I do.

What do you think?? Would a cut-out or painting like this be something you'd enjoy seeing at a wedding or other celebration?

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Altered Book #2: "Extraordinary Seeing"

I know it has been a long time coming, but I finally finished my second altered book contribution! I technically should be on my 4th book, but it's hard to coordinate 12 different artists across the country to all be on time! :-) Hopefully I will receive my next book soon!

So this book's cover was a drawing inspired by the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti. The quote on the front said: "Look Within. You are the world." I went online and found a huge archive of quotes and teachings by Krishnamurti and decided to use pieces of a quote in my pages. The quote I found was pretty long, so I just took a few lines from it and designed my art around the concept of the quote.

I started by drawing a body on the pages and using an acrylic wash to add color. Since this quote was about the mind, I chose to doodle a little brain. :-)

Then I added the title, which I got from the quote. "Extraordinary Seeing". I also added some crumpled brown paper (which I had left over from my wedding!)
Finally, I did some stamping and painting to the brown paper to give it some interesting effects.
Here are some pictures of the final piece. I really like how it turned out, and I sort of wish I didn't have to send it away! I am starting my next project which is the large carnival wedding cut out for my sister-in-law's wedding in August. I will definitely post photos of that insane process!!

"Extraordinary Seeing"


Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Skull Quilt Project

One of my projects this year has been to contribute to the Skull Quilt Project coordinated by Noah Scalin who runs the Skull-A-Day blog. I have had a few months to finish this, but of course my procrastination leaves me being creative at the last minute!

Details of the project are simple: create a 12'' x 12'' fabric quilt block with some type of skull imagery. Does not have to be all fabric--it is an art quilt. Mail to Skull-a-Day by May 28th, 2011. Quilts will be put together and displayed for a month in Richmond, VA celebrating Skull Appreciation Day on June 4, 2011. These quilts will be auctioned off and all proceeds will be donated to DC charity Becky’s Fund, which helps survivors of domestic violence. Full details about the exhibition can be found HERE.

So, my quilt square started out back in March. I tried some new technique of bunching and gluing fabric pieces. Didn't turn out like I wanted, so I scrapped it and started over....this weekend. hehe. Luckily, I can perform under pressure. Here's some not-so-great process photos and the final piece before I send 'er away! Enjoy!

I can sew! (sort of). I painted some hemp twine and super glued it to the fabric. The flower vines are supposed to represent and follow the basic paths of the arteries. I could have added more, but I also wanted it to stay simple.

"Untitled"
VIOLA! But it really needs a title. What would you title this piece??

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

CHI to NYC!

Over the weekend one of my friends had a going-away party. She will be leaving the windy city of Chicago for the Big Apple that is New York City! And of course I felt like being creative, so while I had found some Chicago Cubs paraphernalia and a retro 1950's era Chicago CTA map, I still wanted to give her something handmade.

I placed all of my gifts into a brown gift bag, and got a great idea! Paint a Chicago skyline on it! Well, the idea evolved into a more elaborate project than I originally thought! We were alittle late getting to the party because I was still finishing it! But it was a great afternoon project and she absolutely LOVED it!!

1. It started out as just a bag...

2. Splashed some paint on it...


3. And it became a tale of two cities!

CHICAGO WILL MISS YOU, JUDY!!!
[be prepared for some NYC visitors!]

Monday, May 2, 2011

Skull Beads!

Over the weekend my husband and I discovered an amazing bead shop in my neighborhood called Caravan Beads | http://caravanchicago.com/. They offer classes and a super large selection of beads and jewelry-making supplies! I did not plan to purchase anything when I first saw the shop, but I walked away with a great find!

SKULL BEADS!
I think these will make an interesting and conversation-starting bracelet! I will definitely be going back to this shop! If this doesn't fall into your "must-have" jewelry category, what sorts of things do you like? Any inspirational / tutorial websites out there that you recommend?