Mother's Day Painting - Melted Crayons

I wanted to do something special for Mother's Day. Since I have been painting semi frequently, I thought it was the perfect time to make my mom a painting and a one of a kind gift. The thought behind it initially was to do something with a mother and daughter holding hands. I am also obsessed with the song "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, especially the part "Home is whenever I'm with you" so I wanted to write that on the canvas. Long story short, it ended up looking creepy and I had to do a 180 to get it back on track. In hind sight I realize I had way too many things I wanted to incorporate into one painting and it took some working through to finally get my finished product.

Below is the progression of how I was finally able to finish my Mother's Day painting 1 month later (Rome wasn't built in a day, people!).

I started off with a sky as the background and I used this stencil as the inspiration for the mother/daughter figures.

Next, I added the "Home is whenever I'm with you" into the sky. There were just so many things wrong at this point. It looked like there was a growth on the side of the mom's head(supposed to be a bun) and the writing at the top was just creepy. Also, were these two people floating in the sky? Let's just say I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out.

Finally, after about a month of staring at the painting (thank god I hadn't seen my mom yet) someone sent me a link to a cool new art form of melting crayons with a hot glue gun. You can find the link here.

Once I saw this picture I knew this was how I was going to fix my painting. I wasn't sure how at that point, I just knew it was going to be done!

I searched through some pictures and found this great mother daughter picture under umbrellas. I used it as inspiration and the first step to recovering the painting (it took steps to recovery, kind of like an AA program).

Now we are talking! Looking better already. Next, I decided to add some grass because I didn't like the thought of this witchy mother/daughter tag team floating through space with their umbrellas. I had never painted grass before so it was a fun new experience. I watched a YouTube video and had to get a new wide brush to get added texture. It is crazy how paint can look so real (obviously I'm not at that stage yet, but it is always fun to try out new techniques).

Melting the crayons was the most fun part and the most dangerous. I sealed up the parts of the canvas that I didn't want to get tainted by the crayons (I used tin foil because it was the only thing in my apartment, but I'm sure saran wrap would work great too). I separated out the crayons that resembled rain and only used those. I used some greens and greys as well to add some fun color and life to the piece. Warning: the crayons will splatter and shoot out and burn you, etc. Be very careful and make sure to cover up the area around the canvas you are working on.

In the end, I was really proud of the painting and my Mom loved it too :D

Painting of the Week: Water Hazard

This is my first painting...ever (Well, in my adult life. I'm sure there were some finger paintings done when I was a kid). One day as I was driving to work (I do my best thinking/brainstorming in the car and in the shower) I got a vision of this painting: an abstract-ish golf hole. Given that the odds of success for this painting were very low, I am pleasantly surprised with how well it turned out. My friend Cally named it "Water Hazard" - which I thought was perfect.

I recruited my aunt, who is a great artist, to have a painting day with me (I knew she would be able to help me bring my vision to life and that I would get a fun day out of it too). I drove up to her house in Santa Barbara that Saturday to get to work. We took our supplies to the beach by her house and set up camp. After five short hours, I got a sunburn and this painting.

I am lucky to come from a family that is extremely creative and artistic. I am just now tapping into my artsy side and I can't wait to see where it takes me! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the scenery I was painting in or any progress shots, but here is the final masterpiece.

Let me know what you all think!

Painting of the Week: Leroy

I made a painting for my friend Lilly of her puppy Leroy. Leroy is ridiculously precious! I wanted to bring Lilly a gift to thank her for letting me stay with her and once I thought of the Leroy painting it was game on. He is obsessed with huge Magnolia tree leaves so I used a picture that I found on Facebook as inspiration and subbed out the tennis ball for a leaf in his mouth. Lilly loved the painting but Leroy was afraid of it and barked at it like it was a ghost (or a reflection on the wall that he often barks at too).

I had to do somewhat of a rush job as I was hopping on the plane to Denver in two days when I got inspired to do the painting. Let's just say it was a long night. Halfway through I thought I had definitely bitten off more than I could chew (no pun intended Leroy!). Thank god I had some wine to help me through the finish line.

Inspiration:

Batman Leroy:

So close, yet so far:

Final product:

xoxo
-A