How One Thing Leads to Another

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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

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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!

“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!!!)

See you in two weeks!

Tags

drawing animals, drawing giraffes, giraffe drawing, sketching animals, year of the giraffe

Just kidding!

I do have a very busy two weeks ahead of me, though. Besides my “job,” I have a goal to fill up a sketchbook with giraffes by the end of the month.

Did you know that giraffes only sleep five minutes at a time? Or that the average lifespan in the wild is 25 years? Or that they are strong enough to kill a lion, its only predator?

More to come, more to come.

Have a wonderful weekend!

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!

Checking In!

Tags

art class online, art classes online, drawing giraffes, drawing nudes, figure drawing, giraffe drawing, online art class, online classes winter, painting giraffes, winter online art classes, winter online class, year of the giraffe

I just wanted to say a quick hello between holidays… above is my son, Christer, and my grandson, Liam (15 months) on a cool, wet walk Christmas Day. We had a wonderful time with family and hope yours was happy, too!

Here is Christi, my daughter-in-law, with the little cutie pie.

***

I’m really looking forward to 2013… are you? Of course I have the big Year of the Giraffe experiment starting next Tuesday, and that’s super exciting (don’t worry, if you can’t join us for the full class, there will be other, peripheral, opportunities to participate in the experiment later in the year!).

And the Draw! class should be really fun, too. For the first time I’ll have all of the drawing exercises documented in video in one place. In addition, we will be drawing the figure, which I have found so helpful in my own drawing practice. If you want to draw, this might be a fun class to get you started this New Year! Class begins January 10, 2013.

In any case, I’ll see you soon!

Two New Online Classes! Registration Open

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art class, art class online, art classes online, drawing animals, drawing class, drawing faces, drawing giraffes, figure drawing, online art class, online art classes, online classes winter, online figure drawing, painting animals, painting giraffes, winter online art classes, winter online class, year of the giraffe

I’ve been working hard developing TWO new online classes!

The first one, “Draw! 21 Days Towards Freeing Your Creative Self” is a three-week, video-based class for everyone — all levels encouraged and welcome. Click HERE for all the details for “Draw!”

The second one is called “Year of the Giraffe” and is a long-term, group project exploring a single subject matter and culminating in a ‘zine.

Take this class if you:

• Want to practice your drawing, painting, and observation skills.
• Paper maché is something you’d like to make time for again.
• Think giraffes are one of the coolest creatures ever.
• Don’t necessarily care about giraffes at all, but want to learn to think more creatively in general.
• Want to participate in a year-long group project.

Click HERE for more!