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!

 

 







Creepy Cutie doll Samantha. Playing with Paper Clay.

I have this fascination with dolls. Big eyed and a little creepy are my favorites.  I think this goes back to those 70's Margret Keane prints that were up on my bedroom wall when I was a kid.  I love drawing doll faces but I wanted to try to recreate one of my creepy cuties with paper clay.  Sometime last year I started playing with paper clay and I created a couple of dolls.  Then I played around with polymer clay and created another but with not much time to create I decided to put the focus back on drawing and mixed media. Like always I can't seem to focus on doing one thing and so I kept thinking about creating another doll.

When I first started looking to make a doll I searched you tube to find tutorials and I had found one by mlbetterly.blogspot.com called, " How to make a paper clay doll".  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAQys7HMZT8&feature=share&list=UUSJeidDM4rUO9wdBZUgyHsA&index=10  This was a really fun and easy lesson on how to create a doll out of styrofoam eggs and paper clay.  I decided to use this process to create my creepy cutie.
Items needed to create the doll:

• paper clay
• two styrofoam eggs 1. for the head smaller than the body and 1. for the body.
• chop sticks for the legs
• wood block for the base
• acrylic paint and pan pastels
• washi tape
• music sheet or another type of printed paper
• ribbon, buttons and tulle
• felting fabric for the hair
• varnish
• tissue paper and a tooth pick for the the lolly pop
• E6000 to glue the legs into the wood block and tacky glue for the hair and clothes

When I was playing around with doll making last year I created a bunch of my own eyes by using paper clay and small dot stickers sealing then with uv resin.  It was way cheaper then buying eyes since I am still a beginner.  I used a set of the eyes that I had created before for this doll.

I started by sculpting the head and face then attached it with part of a chop stick to the body and covered the body with the paper clay. I created her arms and hands out of the clay and left the left hand down with an opening to be able to hold the lolly pop later.  I inserted two chop stick pieces for the legs and covered them with paper clay. 

I let it dry for a few days then I sanded the doll. trying to smooth out some of the rough spots. I painted her face using titanium buff for the face and black for the body. I painted stripes for the stockings and used a little pan pastel to color in the cheeks and around the eyes.

At this point she is looking more like the character from Despicable Me!

After I finished painting her I drilled two holes into the block base and put a little glue in the hole to hold the legs into place. When the glue dried I created her shoes out of paper clay and let dry.  I sanded the shoes and then painted the shoes and the base black.

Time for the hair, dress and the rest of the details. I glued the hair on the head with the tacky glue then tied them with string into pony tails.  I then glued small strips of sheet music around for her skirt curling the ends with a pencil. I then I used tulle around the skirt then covered the top part where the glue was in a layer of polka dot washi tape and then red ribbon.  I used the washi tape on her stomach and created a collar with with it as well.  I finished embellishing the doll with small buttons on the collar, a heart button and piece of black ribbon on the front of the red ribbon. I covered the base with the polka dot washi tape and then sealed it with varnish. I also coated her body with varnish as well to help hold the washi tape in place.   I created the lolly pop with paper clay a tooth pick and wrapped it with a piece of a lime green napkin.  Ta-day! My creepy cutie is finished!  My son Jackson named her Samantha.  So please meet Samantha my Creepy Cutie Doll.  Samantha ate too much candy and has a little tummy ache!

I think I might try some more doll making, it was a lot of fun to bring something that you have put down on paper to life.  

This years school auction item turned out beautiful!

This year my sons elementary school held their second PTA auction.  My girl friend and I were in charge of our children's 3rd grade class project. Last year I spent many hours and many $$$$ on creating a piece so this year I was really happy that one of the kids in the class grandfather offered to build us whatever we wanted out of wood! We decided a table that we could have tiles in the middle for the kids to decorate it. We really wanted it to be something that although it was kid art it didn't look like KID art.  Since this year the kids are studying Australia we decided to do a little lesson on aboriginal art work and had the kids create some aboriginal artwork of their own.  .

The grandpa created the most beautiful out door table for us and I went to Home Depot picked up 24 4 by 4 black tiles for the kids to decorate.  

We used acrylic paints and cotton swabs.  They started with making dots for the small inner circle and then used another color for the next circle. They were told to go around no more than 5 or 6 times and to make different size and colored circles . They were also told not to let any of the same colors be next to each other and to have the circles go off the tile if needed.  After the tiles dried I sealed them with a varnish and glued them to the table.  The kids really enjoyed making their tiles and I think they did an excellent job!

The auction was held last week and the table sold at the live auction $350! I am really happy how easy it was and how beautiful it turned out.

Busy with "The Year of the Fairy Tale" and "Life Book 2014"

Can't believe it's almost February! This month has gone by really quickly.  I have signed up for two online classes this year, Life Book 2014 over at willowing.ning.com and The Year of the Fairy Tale with Carla Sonheim carlasonheim.com. 
This is my third year taking Life Book and I can't tell you how much it is worth the money! So many teachers and lesson for a little over $100 you can't go wrong. I have promised myself to do each lesson this year and so far so good.
New to me this year is Carla Sonheim's class, " The Year of the Fairy Tale". I am so excited to be taking this class, I have really wanted to explore more of the illustration side of drawing.   This month we are studying the fairy tale called, " The Frog Princess".  This week we have been practicing drawing frogs and princess or princes.  Here are some of my practice pages. 

 Below my son Jackson decided to sit with me on the couch and create some creatures of his own.

I was inspired by this weeks fairy tale theme so I created this one below. A new Creepy Cutie, meet Gracie (Jackson my 8 year old gave her the name) and her Prince.  Jackson created a story that goes with her and it goes like this. Once upon a time there was this girl named Gracie and she found her Prince in a pond deep in the woods. When she brought her home her father said she couldn't keep him and she had to take him back to the pond. She was so said and couldn't bare to let him go...  To be continued.

In Life Book we are one week 5. Week week 4 was with Kelly Hoering and I created this piece. It was a fun lesson, I enjoyed creating this.

Week 5 was with Marike Blokland.  She has a great style, she creates girls with big eyes and mouth.  It was a fun lesson and I LOVED using the neon colors! It must be the 80's girl in me. Here is my journal page from this weeks lesson.  

It's been a fun filled artsy week for me, just the way I like it.  Today I will be finishing up my pieces for a commission that I am doing and then off to my daughters house to watch the Seahawks WIN the Super Bowl.

Happy Creating!

Making the time and a sneak peak....

Wow it's a couple of weeks into January! I realized with going back to work in December, Christmas and life in general I haven't blogged in forever!  It's been an adjustment going back to work, I was only off for 5 months with shoulder surgery but it was just enough time to get out of the swing of things.   Being back at work forces me to be more organized with my time and energy and now that the holidays are over I am ready to fit being creative back into my life.  To tell the truth I MUST fit being creative into my life!  If I go for more than a few days not drawing, painting or just being crafty I start to get restless.  Last Saturday I spent 7 hours in my studio creating, I loved it.  I can't always find that much studio time and balancing everything in life (work, family, chores, creative time) can often be tough going.

As the boys get older they are in less need of my full time attention. Matthew is a teenager now so it's more like forcing him to spend time with us instead of him wanting too.  Jackson loves watching soccer and playing FIFA on the Xbox and fortunately so does my husband.  So when things wind-down for the evening and the boys go off to play their games a little before bed I sneak into my studio for a little creative time.  Now this isn't always how it goes, sometimes there's taking or picking up a kid from a event or watching Jackson's soccer games etc. but the days that all the running around and getting stuff done can be finished before dinner is when I take advantage of some creative time.  Mike and I have become quite the team as far as taking on the chores and the kids activities. Sometimes it feel like he picks up the slack a little more often than I do so that I can be creative but I try to give him his time to relax go get a beer with a friend etc. Team work is what works in our house.  I know a few of my friends have told me they envy the time I have to create and that they wish they could do the same. When I tell them to just do it, they tell me it's not so easy because they don't get the help like I do or the kids never give them free time etc. Just taking 20 minutes to write, draw or doodle most nights is better than nothing.  I guess what I am saying is that if you really want that time then you need to make it for yourself. Lock that bedroom door and tell your husband he's got kid duty for the next 30 minutes or get up an extra 20 minutes early a few days a week to create. If you have little one's give them some paper and have them create with you.  You would be amazed what you can get done in those short times and how relaxing it can be.   As women I think we just get so used to doing everything for everyone that we forget how to take care of our own needs and wants. Then at some point we start feeling like we have lost our selves and can become resentful. Taking the time to create, write or do whatever activity it is that you enjoy is such an important part of being a good mother, wife and person. We need it! It's what's makes us be the best we can be!  We might not get to do these things as often or as much as we like right now in our lives but a little is better than nothing don't you think?  I challenge everyone who reads this blog post today to take the time and be creative or just have "ME TIME"  at least 1 time a week for this year. I would love to hear of your success and strategies in making this happen. Here is are a few of my strategies I will be using to put creative time into my busy life.

1. Get out the door by 7 a.m.  for work for most days.( Mike and I trade off going to work early and taking Jackson to school)  I can get home early get things done around the house freeing up a little evening time for creating.
2. Make list's of what needs to get done and set deadlines.  ( This is my most challenging and the newest for me) I will use these lists for household chores and making sure I am getting my creative work done on time or in a timely manner.  Also making sure I have time to just play in my studio too. 
3. Going with the flow.  Life doesn't always like to go with my plans so knowing that I might have to re-write my schedule or switch it up is important for me to remember. 
4. Keeping family time as number one. With Matthew a teen now and him wanting to spend less time with us, Mike and I want to make sure that we are spending time together as a family.  Space Needle visit is next on our list for a day outing.  Last night the Mike, the boys and I spent time working on this weeks Life Book Lesson with Carla Sonheim. It was so much fun creating our silly characters! We laughed a lot. I really appreciated them doing drawing with me. I think we spent about 30 minutes right after dinner doing this and then everyone went their separate ways. 
5. Patience.  Patience and I haven't been very good friends for most of my life.  I have always found it very hard to be patient and the Verruca Salt attitude of, " I want it now" has been a challenge for me to overcome.  Patience and I are becoming friends, slowly but surely. 
6. Set limits on my volunteering.  I have been getting better with this one.  Right now, after school art club one time a month, art docent for my sons class one time a month and Sunday school at church once every month is all the volunteering I can do. This is still a lot considering I work full time and I want to make sure I have my creative time.  I think giving back is so important for our community and ourselves but sometimes we just can't say no and while it's for a worthy cause we end up losing our time for ourselves and become burnt out.  That little free time that I am talking about is just as important for our sanity even if we have to get over our guilt.  Balance is the key!  I am always telling my kids that too much of a good thing can become a bad thing, so I am taking my own advice.   

One of my artistic goals this year is to submit my artwork to some of my favorite mixed media magazines. If you are into mixed media then I'm sure my favorite magazines Somerset Studio and Cloth Paper Scissors are your favorites too.  Here is one of the girls I will be mailing off for one of their calls.  The theme is Masquerade.

  She was created on watercolor paper using acrylics, pens, inks, markers and molding paste. The diamond background was a stencil I used with molding paste. I let the paste dry and then put Inka Gold in metal finish on the diamonds. I Zentangled her mask and the lace around her shirt. Doesn't she look like she  is on her way to the Masquerade!

The last thing I wanted to talk about is Life Book 2014. It has started and I am loving it as always.  This is my 3rd year, as I have been there from the beginning.   My goal for this year is to do every exercise and create a big book at the end of the year! Last year while I did watch every video I didn't do every lesson.  Here is my first two that I have completed.

Week 1 with Tam.  This is my guardian and my word for the year is, "Believe"  Tam had us do a meditation where our guardian came to visit us and my girl came to me at the beach. I choose ocean blue, lime green and lavender colors to represent the beach.  I choose, "Believe" to remind me to believe in myself and my abilities.  Boy, I was challenged with this the first week, looking at all the amazing guardians that the other Life Bookers created had me second guessing my abilities.  Lucky I am over it (for now) and I re-focused on creating not comparing.

  

 Week 2 with Micki Wilde.  I decided to create this piece on craft paper. I thought the brown bag color and texture would go great with the grey craft paint.  I love how the paper has little wrinkles in it too.  The colors pop against the grey/brown background.  I really had fun with this one. While the lesson was to create this circle and words that say, " In 2014 I will be a " I couldn't resist creating my girl!  So in 2014 I will be a Confident Creator.

If you are not part of Life Book 2014 and are interested in it go to http://willowing.ning.com. I highly recommend it. What you get and how many amazing artist are teaching lessons for the price is an amazing deal!

I am looking forward to finishing up this weeks lessons with Carla Sonheim and will post my results next week.   

Happy Creating!

Thankful

It's a few days since Thanksgiving and I finally finished the piece I was working on in honor of the day.  She started out as a drawing for the 40 portraits challenge that Gritty Jane had posted a month or so ago.  I was hoping that I would have had more faces done by now but it's the holiday season and I have returned back to work full time so not much creating has been done.
So, here she is the before and after. I really like how the color changed her mood on her face. Her face is softer and younger looking in the drawing and the color adds a big of age to her.  The five feathers represent what she is thankful for, family, life, love, friendship and hope.  Her journey in life hasn't always been easy but she is very thankful for the journey and all that has come her way because of it.