October 28, 2014

Art Class

For the past few months, I've been taking a figure drawing and painting class at PAFA on Tuesday mornings*. It has been so, so, SO wonderful to pick up charcoal and paintbrushes again! The class is taught by Doug Martenson, whose approach is so relaxed and helpful and kindly insightful, that the studio is a total joy. Also a joy? The fact that we are getting all Degas up in there, complete with a trip to the ballet studio and a couple of modeling sessions with one of the ballerinas. I've been loving every second of it.

Black and white charcoal on toned paper:



Oils:

(underpainting)



(finished work)



So far so good, I think, although I clearly need to fit the figure better to the surface... Next time.

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* Can I just say that it is wonderful that someone offers continuing ed classes during the day? It would basically be impossible for me to take a evening class. And there are at least two other freelancer or stay at home moms in the class, rocking their brushwork, so I know there are many of us in this boat.

October 26, 2014

Jack Pumpkinhead



Yesterday was a glorious day - one of those breezy, sunny fall days when the sun is still warm enough to satisfyingly heat up the back of your jacket and pants if you stand in one spot long enough.



We made the best of it by going pumpkin picking at Terhune Orchards, which I love for its just-right level of crowdedness. Not so empty that you feel like you're bothering actual working farmers, but not so mobbed that it is basically an outdoor supermarket. Sure, they throw in things like a giant corn maze -



But while you're making your way through, they also ask you to collect the ears of corn for animal feed.



I suspect that the pumpkin patch is really more of a pumpkin drop-off area, since there are not too many actual vines there, but there is nothing like the feeling of lugging a bunch of those bad boys around purposefully on a wagon.



So what did we make out of these?



This morning, we took turns designing, cutting, carving, and shaping, to end up with a motley crew of monsters and victims. Strong plug here for linoleum carving tools for edging the finicky details! Check out the sunlight coming through that chomping one in the back! I don't think the puny light that lights them up at night is going to be nearly as awesome.



Can you guess which one is Jake's and which is Lara's? It's very hard to figure it out...

October 24, 2014

Two Lofts are Better than One

I finally got around to taking pictures of the kids' double loft room! They've been enjoying it for 2 months or so now, long enough for the discussion to segue into the separate rooms conundrum. But still, right now, here is what it looks like:



We went with the cool color scheme the kids had worked out (you can see it in the initial plans we talked about here), with Lara getting a purple square and Jake getting a blue one. How did I work out "squares" when neither the walls nor the ceiling in that room are at all plumb? Through a lot of eyeballing, basically. I found that lining things up with the windows made more visual sense than lining them up with the ceiling and walls, and then I fudged a half inch over several feet here and there to make everything connect without too much obvious distortion.

Lara's new loft bed came with the desk and shelves as one unit, but Jake's loft didn't have any built-in storage. So, I whipped up a matching set of square shelves by surrounding a cheapie Kraftmaid cabinet that happened to have almost the exact right dimensions with some lumber. With some stain and matte polyurethane, you honestly would never know that it wasn't part of that bed originally:



Also, look - fairy lights under each loft! For some reason I have been obsessed with having these things around a bed since childhood. I remember really wanting to have twinkle light around my bed even in high school. Why on earth did I not make this rather easily attainable dream come true until now (for someone else!)? No idea. I remember vaguely worrying that they were too frivolous or something. Basically, apparently I was a very silly person.

October 22, 2014

Do You Believe in Magic?

If yes, then this rainbow wizard has a few things to show you about ice powers! A blast from his ice lighting bolt? Zap! A glowing spell from the ice orb on his staff? Whoosh!



If no, then this illusionist magician will be more to your liking! Behold as she conjures coins from behind ears, flowers from seemingly ordinary magic wands, and cards out of thin air. Marvelous!



I have to say I was very tickled that the kids picked these very complimentary, two-sides-of-the-same-coin style costumes. I did have the good sense to ask them to draw what they were envisioning before getting out my sewing machine. Why good sense? Because my idea of a wizard is Gandalf as portrayed by the delightful Sir Ian McKellen. Jake however, was imagining a rainbow-colored cape and hat, a prickly staff, and a lightning bolt:



What are the odds that the next day after he drew this I would find a plastic light up lightning bolt in the Target dollar bin? Apparently excellent, because that is exactly what happened. And of course when I showed it to Jake, he was entirely unsurprised. Why wouldn't every whim of his imagination be easily and readily available at any given moment?



Lara's more worldly understanding of magicians and their craft is evidenced by this drawing, a nice and sober companion to Jake's fever dream (I wouldn't be surprised if he half-expected that moon and stars to be a constant part of his costume backdrop):



I originally just bought a top hat from a costume store, but it was deemed insufficiently tall. Amazingly enough, I found some swirly felt that almost exactly matched the material for the cape! Again, what are the odds? These costumes were clearly fated to be by the Halloween gods. Here you can see her magic trick: a disappearing feather flower: perfect because it is very easy to perform and to carry around.

October 9, 2014

And a Hug Around the Neck

Do you ever suddenly feel jewelry-deprived? It's pretty high up there on the list of first world problems, I know, but still, sometimes it's nice to have empty neck syndrome be your biggest challenge in life. My solution? Just make some new stuff!

We found this beautiful piece of driftwood in California last year. What made all those whorls and perfectly rounded burrows? Some kind of insect? No idea. I took the world's tiniest drill and super-carefully made two holes and then added some tumbled turquoise chunks to balance the matte rawness of the wood. I love that it's huge but also weighs nothing.



I also took a few larger beads from my grandma Janna's very long strand of semi-polished amber and just added a piece of translucent smokey glass for balance and to pick up some of those great veined inclusions on the biggest amber bead.



Phew. Neck decoration crisis averted.

October 8, 2014

OOooOOooOO ~~ Spook-tacular De-gore-ations! ~~ OOooOOooOO

As wisps of its decaying burial shroud frayed around it, the long silent skeleton suddenly felt itself jerking awake with an almost electric jolt. Gray bone fingers clawed their way through the roots of the dying vegetation that covered its grave, obeying an inescapable desire - no, command - to rise and once more roam the world of the living...



Nearby, in another windswept corner of the abandoned cemetery someone, or something, clad in all black hastily made a quick escape, leaving behind a blood-spattered severed hand as the grisly evidence of a misbegotten act. A shallow grave for a dismembered enemy? The remains of a diabolical meal?



Spinning wildly in all directions, the lidless, spider-wracked eyes of the cemetery guardian took in these scenes and still other, more disturbing ones. A mute witness, it served its time until the curse of its existence could be broken...