Game Boy was published.

Exciting news! Game Boy the art doll that Jackson and I created for the Anthropomorphic Doll Challenge was published in the magazine.   Even more exciting is that it has it's own page!

Cover

 Page 122

 

 

Thank you Art Doll Quarterly/Stampington & Company you made Jackson and my day!

Newest Creepy Cutie Jesse and Chi Chi

I started drawing Jesse and Chi Chi when I was sitting at my booth at Odd Mall at the beginning of June and I have finally finished putting her on a background and adding color.
She was created on a 11 by 14 wood canvas and she has some fun old papers that I have stashed in my studio.  Some of the old papers are from my great Aunt. She loved to write recipes on all kinds of papers and what not.
I used acrylics and some stamps and stickers for her background.  She is colored in with water color crayons, acrylics and pencils.  I used some twinkling H20's on her eyes.  Chi Chi was painted with acrylics and water color pencils.
I love how she turned out and while she isn't too creepy, Chi Chi is!  I was inspired by an artist that I met at the show Jessica Wilkinson. She makes the most adorable monster pottery!
Prints of Jesse will be for sale along with other Creepy Cuties in my Etsy shop as well as at Redmond Arts Festival August 15th through 17th at Redmond Town Center.  Vala will have an art installation at their new arts center and I was one of the artist picked to have a piece represented in the installation.  I'm very excited to be a part of this installation.
I finished up one more piece today called, " Sisters".  I have been missing my lil sis and so I created this piece thinking of her.
It was a fun productive day in the studio I loved it! Haven't had one of these days in a while.
Hope to be able to spend some more longs days creating again soon!

Jesse and Chi Chi 11 by 14 mixed media on wood canvas

Sisters 14 by 18 mixed media on canvas panel

Unforgettable (will be in artist installation at VALA)

Inspiration jar.

Most of the time I have tons of ideas going through my head, my brain never stops thinking about what I can create (sometimes too much thinking).  Then every once in a while my brain freezes and I get stuck.  I know I should really carry a note book around with me so I can write down all my ideas so when I do get stuck I can refer back to the note book.   Then again that would require me to remember to bring the note book with me!  The other day I was sitting there looking at a blank page very stuck.   I couldn't think of one thing.   I decided to look up words that describe, people, feelings or moods and write them all out. Words like brave, elegant, compassionate were some for the over 50 words I wrote down. I then cut out the words and put them into a large glass jar. My inspiration jar as I called it was now ready for me to use.  All I have to do when I get stuck is reach my hand in and  pull out a word to use as a jumping off point.

I used the jar the other night and the word I pulled out was"elegant".  Elegant makes me think of a fancy dining room or elegant dress so I decided to create the background with the word elegant in mind.

I first used washi tape, tissue paper with music notes, and dictionary pages to cover my background. Then I used water color crayons in, beige, salmon and yellow to cover the page. Next came a layer of titan buff and titan white rolled on with a roller.  After the paint dried I used a tear drop stencil and molding paste to create some texture.  When the molding paste dried I used some tan and brown water colors to wash over the tear drops.  I then started on the drawing of the girl.  I decided I wanted her to have a side profile and a long dress. One of the stencils marks came through on her arm and I thought it looked like a tattoo so I went with it.  I choose to color her hair lavender and used neo colors, pencil, pro markers and titan buff to color in her face and body.  I used a water color crayon in aqua and twinkling H20's for her eyes along with pencil and pro markers to complete them.
I finished up the piece by adding some stamping with a butterfly stamp and words then used distress inks in Vintage Photo by Tim Holtz for the corners and on the tear drops.   I used a rub on of the words, " stand boldly" in small writing next her.  

I really like how she turned out and I look forward to my new word that I will jump from.

She stands boldly in her elegant world.

Fairyland Zine

This year along with life Book I have been taking another year long online class Called, "The Year of the Fairytale" created and taught by Carla Sonheim. www.carlasonheim.com.  Carla is the author of The art of Silliness and the Drawing Lab. She lives here in the Seattle area too.  Although I haven't really had much time to do all the work from the class I have enjoyed her lesson and discovering old and new to me fairytales.  Plus I have learned a few new technics to play around with. 
Recently we did a lesson on the Princess and the Pea and Carla asked all of us to participate in creating a zine.  We had to think of something other than the pea to put under the bed and so I created Princess and the Dragon.  In my illustration the princess doesn't know what she is going to do with all these dragons.  My illustration is on page 71.  It was fun to create this little piece and I love seeing other classmates illustrations too.  Click the link below to be taken to the zine.  Hope you enjoy!

 http://carlasonheim.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/fairylandfinal.pdf



 



Game Boy an Anthropomorphic Doll

Recently my son Jackson and I created an art doll for a challenge in Art Doll Quarterly Magazine.  The challenge was to create an Anthropomorphic Doll. 

From dictionary.com

an·thro·po·mor·phic

/ˌænθrəpəˈmɔrfɪk/ Show Spelled [an-thruh-puh-mawr-fik] Show IPA

adjective

1.

ascribing human form or attributes to a being or thing not human, especially to a deity.

2.

resembling or made to resemble a human form: an anthropomorphic carving.

Also, an·thro·po·mor·phous.

 

While sitting on the couch thinking of the meaning of this word and how to pronounce it correctly my youngest son Jackson asked what I was trying to say and what did it mean. We sat there for a few minutes thinking of things that would be cool to make when my older teenage son came flying down the stairs, through open the fridge grabbed a drink and ran back up stairs to get back on his computer where he was playing an online game with his friends.  Jackson said, " If we were going to make a doll like that of Matthew he would be half computer"!  We both started cracking up and that was when we decided to create Game Boy.

 

Game boy is 5 inches tall and his hands were created as Wii remotes.  Game Boy is made out of paper clay with a tin foil armature. I haven't made too many dolls before but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to create something with my kid. 

 

Game Boy's monitor/head was created using Yupo paper http://yupousa.com/what-is-yupo/ and liquid FX Inks and Dylusions Spray inks.  I dripped and sprayed the inks onto the Yupo paper and Jackson with a straw blew the inks all around the paper. Then we cut out a piece of it to fit inside of the monitor/head.  We then used a thin piece of plastic and glued it on the front to create the outer portion of the monitor.  Game Boy was painted in acrylics and sealed with a glossy varnish. 

 

. 

 

Game Boy was sent of this week to ADQ and I got an email that he arrived but one of his legs broke during shipping :(.  Note to self: Use foil through the legs as well to help strengthen them.  ADQ offered to glue the leg back on and said it was still in consideration for the challenge.  I thought this was so kind of ADQ to let me know what happened and to offer to glue it!  Jackson and I are so excited to have this entered into the challenge and we had a blast making him.  We are crossing our fingers that we will see him in the fall addition of ADQ.  Wish us luck!

P.S. When we were finished making Game Boy we took him up stairs to show Matthew what we created inspired by him and he looked up from his computer smiled and said, "Cool".  

LOL, I think Game Boy represents many teenage boys now a days!

 

P.S.P.S  Anyone a fan of Shel Silverstein? I am and Game Boy reminds me of one of my favorite poems from his book, "Where the side walk ends".  Does anyone remember, "Jimmy Jet and his TV set"?  http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/poemsessays/jimmyjet.html

 

 

Baby's got a new hat.

I have been spending some time creating different looks for baby and I just finished up Baby with her 10 gallon cowboy hat.
I used the same process as I did with the first baby. I did try creating my own rub on's using  Grafix Rub Onz for ink jets and Graphics Fairy's free designs  http://thegraphicsfairy.com .        http://www.amazon.com/Grafix-Rub-Onz-Inkjet-2-Inch-11-Inch/dp/B000WZKCRY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394662773&sr=8-1&keywords=create+your+own+rub+ons 
I loved creating my own rub on's but I will say using the Grafix product wasn't as easy as I hoped. I will give it a few more try's before I decide if I like it or not.  So far it seems way easier to buy them. 
Here is baby with her cowboy hat. Hope you like her. I will have prints available of her in my Etsy shop real soon. 

Meet Baby, the newest addition to my Creepy Cuties.

It's a rainy cold weekend in the PNW so what do you do when it's icky out? You paint! Well, at least that's what I did.  I spent the weekend creating a couple of new Creepy Cutie's and finished this one today.  Below is my process and what I used to create this piece.

 

Here is the sketch I drew out.

 

 

I transferred the drawing to a birch panel with carbon paper.  I love to paint on wood panels more so than canvas. It has such a smooth feel and I like how the paint and inks lay on the wood.

 

My next step was to go over the drawing with pencil and then spray workable fixative. I then used masking fluid to cover the girl so I could work on the background without worrying too much. (I'm a messy painter!)

 

Time for the details. I worked markers, washi tape, stencils with spray inks, stamps, rub-ons and some of my own doodles onto the background.  I painted her knit cap smoky grey and for her hair I mixed some white with bubble gum pink.  I used black and white for her stripped shirt.

 

Here is the finished piece. Baby is on a 11 by 14 birch panel. Her sides are painted with the neon red used in the background as well as some black.  If your interested in a print of Baby I have some available in my Etsy shop just click the shop button on top of this page and it will take you there. I will also have this on society 6 as well. http://society6.com/LesaBarry

Hope you enjoyed taking a peek into the process of making Baby!