Trick or Treat?

Do you like sweets? I have some eye candy, for all the artsy trick-or-treaters!
A collection of a bunch of ACEO mini paintings I have done through the years. I did not include kitties and a lot of other stuff because of the time limit. As it is, it lasts 10 minutes...
The sound will not work till much later tonight, sorry about that :o)

Hope you like it!

All done and pretty.

I finished the cards from last post and if I may say o myself, they turned out purty. ;o)
I did pattens I never did before, just went nuts with the circles hehehe I particularly think the one with white circles turned out quite different from anything I've done before. Same for the one with the piggy and the bubbles. I wish I had a profound reason to it, (piggies and bubbles?) but the reality is that I was stuck, and instead of going for a solid color background I decided to make a pattern. Since I like polka dots, I just went polka on it :oP

Sometimes the result of being stuck is good, it can bring new elements to our work. Some other times... we remain stuck.

A tip I'd like to share for those times when we get blocked somehow: Get out your magazines, books, or go online for something unusual for your style. Get inspiration from shapes and patterns you have not done before. I was actually aiming for diamond shapes but ended up with circles.

 

I will be listing tonight in my Etsy shop with bigger pictures.

What should I title this?

My monitor got sick. It started to blink, then flash, it was more time in the black than in the light till it finally, quietly, fainted. So after a couple of days of that, we reluctantly went shopping for a new one. I did not want to spend the money nor did I want to change to a new one, so we also tested the cable.... then another machine.... then a couple of other geeky things and finally after a couple of days, instead of spending 300.00 we spent 4.00 bucks. Cool hey?

I was really happy! Turns out a huge number of parts for Taiwan were bad, making many monitors flash (thanks google!) so my two heroes (hubby and son) got their soldering stuff out and voila! fixed it! Don't ask me exactly how, because I have no clue. I am just happy they picked up the mess and the monitor is back to normal. And I don't have to use that dreaded portable with the tiny keyboard!! I really don't understand how some people surf on their cell phone. I don't care how fancy the phone, I need a decent size monitor and keyboard, thank you :oP

Now, for the artsy update, I have been sewing more than I bargained for :oP and also spend a few peaceful hours drawing then inking some new ACEO. I am ready to add color!

I will be listing this week.

10-10-10

I just had to post in this cool date, and at 10 minutes past 10 o'clock too ;oP

Our Birthday

Today is my birthday. And my daughter's birthday. And my dad's as well. Oh, and John Lennon's too.

My plans for the day? Going to the movies to see something silly, then lunch, most likely pizza or sub sandwiches; then coming home to listen to loud music while eating cake. All of this in the company of a bunch of 13 year old girls.... LoL
That should be invigorating ;o)

pic by Clk

 Update: 

We had a great time today. We went to see "You again" and I loved it, was really good and the end really punchy, great music! They had an Art show in the Plaza outside the movies and we went to see all the wonderful art, which was pastels on the parking lot black top. Such marvelous work, so sad to know they will wash out! There was live music too, they were playing The Beatles! It was a lot of fun. Lunch was fun too and when we came back home I had some pretty flowers waiting for me from my sweetheart :o)

Plus we had chocolate cake! 

 Another Update: 

Turns out that the Annoying Orange share's the same birthday too! LoL

How to paint the "bone" look

Here's a little tutorial on how to give the appearance of bone:
Sculpt the figure you want in white clay. Can be polymer, paperclay or any other air dry.

1- First thing you do is gesso it, with the solution a little diluted with water so you don't lose detail. In this case I had a lot of "cracks" that I wanted to show. Use a soft brush so it won't give you deep brush marks. Let it dry well.

2- Once it is dry, give it a coat of watery black acrylic paint. Not too watery, so you really stain the gesso. Let it dry for a couple of minutes.

3- Get a wet sponge and rub the piece until most of the black paint is gone but not so much that it shows the white gesso again. Let it dry. Make sure you stain your under your fingernails as well, eww!

4- Once it is dry you will give it a dry brush coat with just the tiniest drop of yellow paint, dust the brush on all the bumpy areas, making sure it looks transparent and not solid yellow. If you painted it too much, get the sponge and rub gently. Let it dry, that should be really fast.

5- Give it another dry brush coat of white paint, making sure you neither cover the black or yellow, just highlight the bumps.

6- Detail with more black paint as needed, dry, varnish with Satin finish and you are done! You can do a whole body or just parts. In this case I added a magnet.

You can have a cookie now :o)

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Halloween and Dia de los Muertos

I have been doing a lot of sewing, and a bit of claying. The sewn items (hats) are all sold to my delight, thanks to my kid who is turning out to be a great advertisement machine LoL but now I have nothing to list in the new shop. I guess everything will have to be listed as custom, so I can have the listing up.
The clay work is mostly skulls. I have been having so much fun making them! Here's a sample photo:

 

Many layers of paint and satin varnish and you have the bone look. Only that I also added a magnet so they can decorate your locker or fridge in a macabre style :oP

Usually I go for the whimsical and sweet, but this time I went more for texture and dark.

Quick post

Wow, October already! It's Sunday night and I have been busy with all kinds of house things this weekend, including some very sweaty gardening. I have great plans for my back yard, but Scruffy insists on helping so things will go very slow.
At least she is ready for Halloween! Yup, she's going to be a hot dog hehehe

And here's Panzón, a reluctant model for our New Shop, where we are listing all kinds of little crafts.

 

He told me that for Halloween he wants to dress as a penguin.... :oP