How One Thing Leads to Another

Tags

acquard Inkjet Fabric Sheets, fabric sheets, giraffe, homemade stuffed toy, stuffed animal, stuffed giraffe, year of the giraffe

Yesterday, by about 4pm, I was floundering. I didn’t seem to be getting anything done! And the little bit I had tried to sew…

… had ended up in the trash (after cutting out the good linen from the back).

I was TRYING to make a simple stuffed giraffe kind of like this one…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sashadewittstudios/8528485354/in/pool-2119101@N24

… by printing this image on fabric:

Since I don’t have my sewing machine here, I tried to hand-sew it, and it was terrible. Blech.

So I printed out another copy, and decided to paint the fabric to give the giraffe more of an outline so that when I sewed it, it made sense. I wanted the paint to be transparent, but I was too lazy or whatever to figure out the right way to do it. So I used the watercolors on my table:

The back side looked cool, too:

Just for fun I ran the whole piece of fabric underwater and the paint DID NOT wash out! Just a little color ran, but for the most part, the watercolor seemed to be semi-permanent on the  Jacquard Inkjet Fabric Sheets.

Note to self: Play more with this.

But then, when I was scanning the image in, the scanner did a weird thing for a moment and the giraffe suddenly looked like this:

So I saved that copy and went on to play with other versions digitally in Photoshop:

  

I then printed out the last version on watercolor paper, and tried to “improve” it with more paint. Unfortunately, things got ugly, and I ended up using sandpaper and gesso to try and save it:

Not so much. Oh well!

Then I went home, after what turned out to be a really fun day!

Stuffed Giraffe and Self Doubt

Tags

giraffe, homemade stuffed animal, sewing a giraffe, stuffed animal giraffe, stuffed giraffe, year of the giraffe

This month we are sewing the giraffe!

I spent a day in the studio last week embroidering the spots with silver thread.

It was a truly good use of my time, even though especially because I had so much computer work to do. It cleared my head and I was more productive afterwards!

* * *

I weighed in on an article over at psychcentral.com yesterday on Creativity and Self Doubt. Here’s the link if you’d like to read it:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/03/03/10-ways-to-overcome-creativitys-no-1-crusher/

* * *

Have a great week!

Hodgepodge

Tags

bird painting, drawing animals, giraffe, giraffe drawing, painting animals, painting birds, scribbly elephant, white bird

“White Bird,” oil pastel, pencil, gesso.

“Scribbly Elephant,” pencil, oil pastel, pastel, pen, ink.

“Giraffes,” pencil and marker.

* * *

This has been an experimental month for me. Lots of quick drawings, trying different media… mostly giraffes, but every once in awhile a bird or an elephant sneaks in.

I found this quote by Alan Alda last night and wanted to share it with you!

Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You cannot get there by bus, only by hard work, risking and by not quite knowing what you are doing. What you will discover will be wonderful: Yourself.

“The Giraffe and the Pizza Drawing”

Tags

drawing giraffes, drawing on pizza box, giraffe, pizza box drawing, world pizza, year of the giraffe

Once upon a time there was a fairly tall giraffe named Carla.

She liked to draw and paint and make stuff, and also taught art classes. She decided to host a year-long class called Year of the Giraffe, which was described, among other things, as “a creativity experiment.”

One day she ordered a pizza from World Pizza in Seattle, Washington. When the box was handed to her, there was a really cool drawing on it.

On the way home she thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to ask that pizza girl to draw a giraffe next time?”

Then she thought, “Nah. Too shy.”

Then she thought, “Wait a minute! This giraffe thing is a creativity EXPERIMENT. Experiments are inherently risky. Come on… DO IT!”

So she did.

The next week Carla the Giraffe ordered another pizza.

She asked the girl (whose name turned out to be Emily) to draw her a giraffe.

And she did!

Thank you, Emily Hyde!

And thank you, World Pizza, for being a cool place to eat and draw!

_____________________________

Last call! There is still a day or two to join the Giraffe Fun. It’s been a wonderful month already, and there’s 11 months to go! Details for the year-long online class/experiment here. (Come on… DO IT!!!)

“Picasso Giraffe”

Tags

colored pencil, drawing animals, drawing class, giraffe, giraffe drawing, giraffe painting, giraffes, picasso, picasso giraffe

“Picasso Giraffe,” colored pencil on handmade paper. 
***

We just did the “Picasso Dogs” exercise in the Draw! workshop and I thought it would be interesting to apply the exercise to giraffes (because of the Year of the Giraffe!). Weird, but I like it, especially because it works both ways:

I’m having so much fun with both classes!

Hope you all are great.

Happy Last Day of 2012!

Tags

drawing giraffe, giraffe, giraffe creativity experiment, giraffe drawing, giraffe painting, new years, painting giraffes, year of the giraffe

Did Somebody Say, “Giraffe?”

Wow… tomorrow begins the giraffe creativity experiment and I’ve been so touched by the response. Thank you for all of you who signed up!

There are just five spots left, I was able to open up a second “section” of the class, if you would still like to hop on the giraffe wagon. I can tell already that the group is a unique, self-selected group of wonderful, enthusiastic, and slightly kooky people (as no “normal” person would sign up for a class like this… just kidding!).

* * *

I’m really looking forward to this coming year. Did I mention that my son and daughter-in-law are expecting another boy in March? We are all very excited. And my youngest, Wes, is graduating from high school in June… life is busy and full and good.

My very best wishes to all of you, and I hope you have a blessed 2013!