Day 7 – revisited

Here is the finihsed potholder from day 7:

I was telling my neighbor about the HOT! potholder, and he reminded me that potholders are not supposed to be hot, so on the reverse side, I put COLD. You are only supposed put the HOT! side against hot things and COLD is the side that you touch… if you use it the other way around, I’m not responsible for your injuries. Here is the COLD side:

Below is the pattern that I created to make the potholders. They are 30 stitches wide and 30 stitches tall. I then crocheted the edges together using the gray from the COLD side and the yellow from the HOT side, and added a loop for hanging. Enjoy! (click on the image for a larger jpg)

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Day 9 – 30 Days

So today is a little different, but it’s still creative. I’ve had these miniature red roses for a while now, and they keep blooming and dying and growing bigger and blooming again. I love these little flowers and so I painted this pot I had lying around, a whimsical blue and white spiral, and potted them in it. (I did that about a month ago, so that doesn’t count for today, but it is creative so it counts for something, right?) The only thing is, it always looked so sparse because they really are small flowers, and the pot that I had was kind of large. Oh well, the pot is cute right?

I went to the grocery store today and they had more of these little roses — buy one get one FREE!! I’m a sucker for a good deal, so I bought a yellow one and an orange one, to compliment the red one that I already had. They are going to look so cute in the blue and white pot I have! Plus the red one is quite a bit taller than the two new ones, so it gives it a little height and now it has volume too!

Here’s a picture of the pot with Maxwell sitting so nicely.

 

Here’s another shot of him smelling the roses, or maybe he is eating them…

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Day 8 – 30 Days

Today I tried something different. I tried to paint with my new tablet. I’ve had a tablet for awhile and I’ve used it for photo editing and drawing expressive lines, but never digital painting. I tried it once awhile back and gave up when it came out crappy and not at all up to par with my other artwork. So I put it out of my mind. No. Digital painting was not something that I could do. But I was determined today. I can use most media to create a pretty realistic portait: pencil, charcoal, pastel, colored pencil, pen and ink, watercolor… I can handle pretty much any traditional medium. But digital painting always eluded me. So today was the day… It’s just another medium right?

Here is the photo I used for reference: (This is Sophia my niece, isn’t she adorable?)

And here is what I came up with after about an hour of painting:

I could have gone for another hour… This was a lot easier than I remember! (I’m sure the new Wacom tablet helped as well) I just kept working at it in photoshop and pushing and pulling the lights and darks. It’s not the best drawing, but it’s a quick study and now I know a little more about digital painting. When I have more time, I’ll go back into this and finish it.

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Day 7 – 30 Days of Creativity

Today I decided that I needed another potholder. I’ve made a bunch in the past so I just drew up the pattern and started crocheting. I dont have the time to finish it tonight, so it will have to be an ongoing project. I’ll post the pattern when it’s done so you can make one too!

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EDIT: Click here for the finished version.

Day 6 – 30 days of creativity

Day 6: I’m in NH and haven’t brought my pencil and paper. I thought I would play it by ear and figure something out when I got here. If the weather was nicer I would have gone for a bike ride or a longer walk, but it was cloudy and I didn’t feel like doing much. So I decided to play with the photoshop app on my phone to see what I could create.

 

I started with this photo:

 

 

 

And ended up with this:

I’m not a photographer, so my original photographs are never great, but I’m good in photoshop, so I can make pretty much any crappy photo look good… These effects were courtesy of the free iphone photoshop app. It doesn’t have all the tools that the full version does, but it can do a few cool things. I cropped the photo first and foremost, the composition needed some work. Then I added a soft focus, a vignette border and I brought the saturation down a bit. Last I sharpened it a bit to bring out the wood grain.

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Day 5 – 30 Days of Creativity

Later today I’m going to be running in a race called the Warrior Dash. It’s a 5k with an obstacle course… I’m very excited and a little scared, but super pumped!! We get a viking helmet for running the race, so I decided to today with a theme: Vikings!!

Here’s the viking ship that will be taking us up to Amesbury, MA this afternoon, so we can compete as warriors and succeed as VIKINGS!!!!! AYAYAYAYAYAYAY! (To be exclaimed as only Xena warrior princess can)

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Day 4 – 30 Days of Creativity

A little late today, but I did it. I was kind of frustrated by the end of the day… and I think it shows. Don’t know why I chose to do a self portrait. I guess it’s my go-to subject: always available. Though today I couldn’t get the scowl off my face. Oh well. It was fun to do and it made me feel a little better anyway.

It’s a small charcoal drawing. I tinted the paper first and started with gray, mostly drawing with my eraser. I’m sure tomorrow will be a more upbeat drawing… Stay tuned!!

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Day 3 – 30 Days of Creativity

Back to the basics. I have a lot to do today, so I can’t spend as much time on a finished drawing as I did yesterday. (Although it was fun!) This project is more about doing many small things and not taking on more than I can chew.  So I decided to do a contour drawing without picking up my pen off the paper. (I may have cheated once or twice, but you can’t notice, so don’t tell anyone).

It’s a gardening glove on a wooden monitor stand that my Dad made for me. Sidenote: There’s no monitor on it anymore, because I just got a new one for my laptop which is open on the bottom and that helps it breathe. It is definitely cooler now, and I think I’ll get at least another year out of my laptop now that it no longer has asthma and can breathe properly. ANYWAY…  Day 3 done!

Day 2 – 30 Days of Creativity

Today I wanted to do something with my colored pencils. It’s my favorite medium and I haven’t used them in a while. I wanted to draw something small. I’m trying to not take on too much for this project. I figured I could find something tiny and interesting and draw it larger to add some interest to it.

Looking around I decided to draw one of Jenny’s beads. Jenny makes glass beads and necklaces and has an etsy page here: artsakejenn.etsy.com. Beautiful stuff! Once I give this bead back to her it will be for sale in sale in this shop. I’ll post an update when it’s up!

Here’s the drawing for day 2:

The bead itself is .75″, the final drawing is 4″x6″. Colored pencil on gessoed board.

30 Days of Creativity – Day 1

So I just heard about this today… 21 days late! There is a website called 30daysofcreativity and it basically encourages you to be creative for the entire month of June. I just came across it today, but this is exactly what I need to help my own artwork and motivation. So I’ll do it anyway, starting today!

I will be posting every day for the next 30 days. Since I have a creative job and tend to do creative things every day anyway, I’m setting my own criteria that these posts can not have anything to do with work! They cannot be paid for! They have to be my own artwork/projects/creations motivated by nothing but pure creativity. I am not allowed to post a logo I created that day or a design or drawing I did for a client. I think that would be cheating.

The whole purpose of this exercise is to get out of my comfort zone and create something new. Try something new. Even if it sucks! It’s the effort that counts… right?

I need to think less and do more. I tend to get caught up in the details and the big picture, when I should at the very least do something small, once a day.

So here’s day one of 30 Days of Creativity:

I had some Sculpey Clay lying around and decided to make a character. He started off as just a blob and I didn’t know where he was going to end up. I like pig noses, so I decided to make a pig. He’s cooking now and I will paint him another day. That was fun!

hmmmm… what will I make tomorrow?? I don’t know! Come back and see!