Some Completed Art and Some In Progress!

        HEY! So I haven't posted in a while...much due to the fact that I have started this new thing called college. I have been pretty busy, but recently I have found some time to sit down and let some art come forth!

        There was some lovely fall weather going on here the last few weeks (soon to be blasted away by winter) and I created a simple painting inspired by the view from my window.

        It was really nice to just sit and listen to some music while painting this and tune out all the stress and distractions that can come with college.

        This next one is a continuation of the faces project I started over the summer. (Looks a little bit strange at the moment, but when its done it will look great!)

        Finally, I just started this a couple days ago and I have been making time to work on it since...I hope to add color to it as well! I actually got this idea from Pinterest!

I hope you all have a lovely week and that you find or make time to just relax for a bit and create something!

Sarah

Procrastinating....

I am sure many of you struggle with this. Procrastinating is terrible, because if you are like me, you will even procrastinate on trying to stop procrastinating. Ugh. So I have decided to really try hard this time. With college starting soon, it will not be a good idea to keep up the habit if I want to succeed. So I will do the following:

I will tell myself that I am not a procrastinator. Because if you convince yourself of something, it has the greater potential of happening, I have tried it. If I think about how I am going to be very diligent with my homework, thinking through specific things I am going to do and when I will do them, when I get home from work, then I have a higher likelihood of actually doing it.

I will find someone to hold me accountable outside of family (which will be hard anyway at college). I was trying to overcome another struggle of mine and having a friend hold me accountable actually proved to be the most successful strategy I used.

I will create a schedule. I find that for myself writing down what I need to do and when I will do it helps me to actually complete it. The feeling of crossing a task off your list is pretty great.

I'll keep you posted.

Sarah

Famous Faces

I love drawing faces for some reason. They are all unique and have distinct contrast and interesting shadows. I thought I would find some pictures of famous people to copy, the more I practice the better I get at drawing conceptual faces, or so I have found.

None of the above are actually finished and I don't know if they will be finished, but I have lots more to start!

Some tips on getting realistic drawings of faces would be to draw what you see not what you think it should look like. For example, we have an idea of what an eye looks like, but all eyes are different. Another thing that I would suggest is getting a pretty detailed light sketch of the face and making sure it is right before you start shading. I sometimes struggle with this because shading is my favorite part:)

I use different pencils with different levels of hardness so that I can achieve the dark colors with soft led, and use harder led for the light sketches. Also make sure you have a good eraser to fix any errors.

Oh and another tip, make sure that you do not have sunscreen on your hand when you are drawing or one of your faces will have some beautiful yellow smudges...personal experience.

Have fun drawing!!

Sarah

Out of Boredom Came Creativity

So yes, you guessed it, I was bored -- again. But this time I didn't actually have some other important thing to do that I was avoiding...I had a 8-9 hour long bus ride to endure and I was not ready to sleep yet.

So I got out my sketchbook, and inspired by another artist (Mary Doodles), I began to doodle.

Basically I just scribbled or had someone else scribble on a blank sheet of my sketchbook, then I took that scribble and turned it into a creative drawing.

Example of "random scribbles:"

Examples of what I made from some other "random scribbles:"






Ok I think I have a tendency towards seeing and drawing unique fashion or fashionable animals in these...

I have since found this to be a great way to start drawing when you feel your ideas have been drained or when you just need something to do.

Have fun this week and be creative! Everyone is, just in different ways:)

Sarah

Costa Rica...More Stories!

I am going to tell you a story about how this shy and anti risk-taking girl, me, learned to take risks and overcome the fear of trying new things.

So like I said I, up until this trip, refused to take risks. I am still terrified of the idea of change, but I have learned to work through my fear and take the risk!

I am not a swimmer, in fact I can't stay afloat for long, maybe I should take some lessons from my little brother who is a competitive swimmer:) Besides this I am not necessarily afraid of heights, but I would not say that I enjoy them. So these two things combined equals not happening! Well...I didn't let that stop me.

I knew that if I didn't jump off the rock into the bubbling water at the bottom of the waterfall (no worries it was not that far and we had chaperones that would not let us do anything too risky) I might regret it, but I might not. What I learned though is if I wanted to do it I needed to jump in the moment and not let myself think about it. So I jumped! Yes! I did it!

My next opportunity to take a risk was towards the end of our trip when we had the opportunity to go tubing. When I heard we doing this, there was no way I was going to go. Jumping off a rock into water that wasn't going anywhere was one thing, but tubing down a river full of rapids, rocks, and trees hanging over it was quite another. In my mind it looked like a sure way for me to bash my head against a rock or drown.

Well this time I was lovingly forced to go. Some of the college students on the trip said they would make sure that I came out on the other end just fine. I went, and I actually enjoyed it! (I have never done tubing of any sort before). At the end of the section of river we were on was a small cliff, that was higher than the rock I jumped off before. I was hesitant at first because I knew I could not swim well, but they made sure I would have a tube. I jumped. And no I have never screamed in public like that:)

I loved the exhilaration I received from taking risks and I am now less afraid of change and doing new and different things! I will continue telling stories from Costa Rica over the next couple weeks so stay tuned!

Go conquer some fears. The only way to get rid of a fear is to conquer it, and the only way to conquer fear is to face it head on like I did.

Sarah

Costa Rica!

So I went on a trip this summer. I went to Costa Rica on a mission trip. It was a great experience! It was hot and humid and buggy and muddy and sunny and rainy and cold and windy and wonderful! I will post a few stories of the things that happened.

I absolutely loved getting to know the little children while making crafts and speaking in my broken Spanish with them. I think they loved it too. This was the first church we went to:

There was one boy around the age of 11 I met at our first place of ministry, a suburb of San Jose called Desamparados, who I immediately noticed had artistic gifting. Myself being an artist I wanted to talk to him and encourage him in his obvious gift. When I did get the chance to talk to him I told him that I thought he was really good at art and asked if he would continue it when he grew up. He replied with no, but said that he wanted to be a veterinarian.

In his city the poverty is pretty evident and we could see and were told that many people were making bad choices there. I am glad that he was able to be reached by the church we were working with and that if he was not already a Christian a seed was planted and he will stay with God and grow up to become a veterinarian or whatever it is that God has planned for him!

Stay tuned for more stories about the people I met and the crazy things we did!

Sarah

DIY Furniture Makeover

Hello friends!


I have always loved fixing up furniture when I get the chance. This summer I have a little more time on my hands and so I have been doing it more in hopes of having a sale toward the end of the summer. So far I have more or less completed two simple chairs.

Here is the product and the steps I used to get there. Disclaimer: I am all about saving and using supplies I already have. So if you are that type of person I hope this is helpful for you! Also, I mainly work with wood furniture because my forte is painting.

Here are the two finished chairs (I may add more to the second one):

Here is the before look and the after look for the first chair.

You will most likely want to use acrylic paint or any kind of wall paint. I would not suggest using oil based paints unless your furniture is for outdoors and you know how to clean up from using oil paints. (water and soap will not clean it off brushes) If you are using acrylic paint from the art store try to get paint that is in the middle range of pigment. Too little pigment and your color will be see through, too much and you will be paying a lot of money for that paint. I showed the brushes I used and those can be found at the art or paint store.

Step #1: Sand down the surface to get rid of any finish that is on it. The shiny surface that finish creates is not ideal for painting on because the paint will not stick as well. You do not need to be over zealous about the sanding, just a good rubbing over the entire thing. This is the sandpaper I used.

Step #2: Wipe down with a slightly damp rag. You do not want the paint you apply to get mixed with any dust left on the chair from sanding it.

Step #3: Create your new "finish." For these chairs I wanted to create a darker "finish" than what was originally there. I do not have stain in the colors I would like so I used paint. I wanted a sort of black, mahogany color, so I mixed a little blue and red with a larger amount of black. Then I added water to make it much thinner. Do not add too much water though, or it will result in the top left picture below.

Step #4: Come up with a design. A couple of tips: Come up with a final design (if you are using one) before you begin to paint. This may include drawing it out in detail to make sure it will look good. Don't cheat and go too quickly. I did this with the first chair I painted (checkered pattern) and I was not happy with the results. You can see that my yellow paint was not too thick, so I would suggest if you are using a lighter color with less pigment to put on two coats. I got the stencil for my second chair here

Step #5: Apply a clear coat of finish on the chair to seal it. I don't think this is a mandatory step. I have painted other things with acrylic and it has not chipped anymore than it would have with finish. The only reason I mention it is if you want to have a way to make the fake stain color created look finished. I do not know much in the realm of stains and finishes so I am not sure what to use for this. I will do some research though soon.

Leave any questions or comments you have below.

Have fun DIYing your furniture!

Sarah

I'm Back!

Hi readers...if I still have any...I am back after a long time of no posting. I was extremely busy with work and school, but now school is done and I officially have nothing to do...well you know there is always the important boring stuff.

So I have completed high school which includes Honors Art. It was a great experience, one that taught me a lot about myself and other people.

Here are some pictures to recap my honors art semester.

Arts A La Carte!

Preparing in my basement.

Final product in the hallway at my school!

The Contracts! (That I did not post about, the others along with my other works are here)

Just about done with the first (possibly my favorite)

and almost half done with the second.

"Source of Light"

"Golden Light"

In the next couple days I hope to be posting pictures of all my contracts as they were in the gallery show at the end of the year. I just have to edit my photos. After that you will hopefully be seeing my projects that I am starting this summer. I will be redoing old/discarded/ugly furniture and I will keep you updated on each piece.

Have to go for now,

Be creative!!

Sarah

Art show!

Hey lovely people,

I am going to be in an art show for my art class this Friday. Here is a picture of my creative processes in my basement

Because I am doing an architecture theme it am using doors to decorate my booth as well as hang my art on. If you have been reading my blogs you will know that I tend to use bits of nature in my paintings and that is why I have all the flowers.

I'll let you know how it turns out...there will be 27 other amazingly gifted creative people from the Honors Art family making amazing booths as well.

Have a lovely week and keep on being creative, because hey, this world would be boring without you!

Sarah

Contract #3...and other bits of advice

Sorry I that I have not posted in a while. I have been so busy with art and school and college applications and so much more stuff! In fact my life is about to get even more busy with AP testing and final art shows coming up. Yikes...but exciting!

Anyway moving on to Contract #3 now in my Honors Art class. Here is my first painting and pictures of the process (or most of it) that got me there. I wanted to go for some more bright colors and detailed buildings.

Finished painting. 

This was my original sketch in my sketchbook.

I took this picture right after I claimed that I hated the painting...I think I was not liking the amount of colorful buildings. The lack of sky also probably had something to do with it. Sigh. When will I just take my own advice and not hate my work halfway through. With watercolor especially, it goes through what my teacher calls "The Puberty Stage." This is when the painting just looks strange, like it might be finished but something seems wrong...you can imagine the correlation with puberty:)

Note of the day: Do not take yourself too seriously! 

Why am I saying this? Well here's what happened at work this week end. I was clearing bread plates from a table at the restuarant where I work. During the process I managed to drop silverware down the back of some guys seat...awkward. Later I was opening the door to the basement to do some laundry (this was also at work in full view of customers) and I opened the door into my face...I sort of bruised my forehead. 

I could have just felt bad and embarrassed the rest of the night...but instead I found myself laughing at my own awkwardness. Hey, have fun live life the to fullest and DON't take yourself too seriously!

Have a happy week!

Sarah

Contract #2 In Progress

Hey there...yeah I lied, posting did not happen this week or last...sorry. Speech team had two consecutive tournaments in the same week...yikes! But hey, we got first place for one of them! Besides that it was midterms and test week in the majority of my classes.

But here I am.

I have started work on my second contract here is the first painting (of three) and the process I took to get there.

Tada!

Below are some of the ideas/sketches I am tossing around for the other two paintings.

I will try to post more this weekend or early next week as I make progress! In addition, I am going to take better photos of my finished pieces to post on here so that you lovely people can see better color and details!

Off to paint!

Sarah

First Contract Done!

Wow. OK. That was interesting.

I finished my first Honors Art contract guys. We critiqued yesterday, today, and will hopefully finish tomorrow. Then on to the next contract!!

I apologize I do not have pictures yet of the final product because it is hanging in the gallery at my school. When I get a chance I will snap a photo to share. I cannot say I am completely content with the result of my efforts. I am probably just being really critical... people gave me compliments. I think critique really helped me to see my work differently and notice things I did well instead of focusing on my mistakes...

OK random interjection: As an artist DO NOT focus on your mistakes! They are about 10% or less of your work and to others they look like they were meant to be there! I do this all the time and it shuts down my creativity and makes me feel really depressed. Focus on what you did well...because, guess what, you did a lot well!

...OK back to blog post. Yeah now I like my paintings better.

I struggled a lot through this contract and because of this I will be changing my subject to architecture with a focus on castles and fairytales.

Have a happy week and I will post pics soon!

Sarah

Update on contract and other randomness

Hey!

I updated my watercolor and ceramics pages with more of my past works if you want to go check them out!

I have also almost finished my second painting for my contract...just need to add some sky and more contrast within the woods!

In the process of working on this one I managed to splatter the sky of the other one next to it with grey paint right next to the left tree :( grrr... Oh well I guess I can add some birds :)

Also cute baby...many moons ago I found this picture of a baby and then I found it again last night and its giggling eyes just brightened my day. I needed some stress reliever so I drew the face. (the original is even cuter) One out of ten people said the baby was creepy....WHAT!? Its all pudgy and cute.

Have a happy week! And if you live in snowy place keep warm and build snowmen! If you live in a warm place do whatever you do when you don't have snowmen to build.

Sarah

Contracts and Art

So Honors Art is in full swing now. We completed our first and only guided assignment, which I talked about in my previous post.

We are now working on our first contract. A contract is basically what it sounds like, an agreement to something, and in this particular case, a self designed art assignment.

Now contracts are much more complicated than that. We have to fill out the size and number of pieces we will be creating, what the subject will be, what the medium will be, etc. We then have to sign and say that this will be what we work on for the next couple of weeks. Not only that but these pieces must in some way related to all the work we create in our other contracts (there are four).

It is really stressful, but very exciting. The first contract is helping everyone, myself included, to really examine what our ideas were for our semester of work and whether or not they will work well.

Here is what I am working on so far. I am about half way done. When I get closer to being finished I will give more details on what the meaning and reason for this subject is.

In the top left picture are the two paintings I am currently working on. There will be another one added soon with the same subject. The top right painting is finished and the bottom left painting is about half way done. The kind of messy random way that the unfinished one looks is the way that the finished one looked to begin with.

Have a lovely week!

Sarah

M&M's and Body Art

Ok so I lied, it is not the weekend anymore. Sorry.

Here is the story.

Our art class was assigned to create a "Body of Work". After some intense staring at the ceiling I landed upon the idea of some sort of dancer as the subject of my work. I was thinking that I would include doodles, henna fashion, with an Identi Pen (small and large tipped, can probably be found in most art stores).

I also thought that I would glue chunks of paper with a color wash in watercolor on for the background. Below is my strange strategy for doing that. I basically just sprayed them with water and then put some water on and let it bleed down.

I rejected this idea when I realized it would be rather hard to do detailed doodles on such  a rough surface. And then the M&M's began... Basically I walked to the living room stared at my painting trying to come up with an idea I felt comfortable with and then wanted more M&M's so I would venture to the kitchen to get some more. This happened at least ten times.

I finally did get a rough sketch down that I had to keep tweaking to get the body proportions right. Below are the pictures I took of the process once I got started.

I wanted to emphasize that the female's body does not have to be perfect, which is why some things are not completely in proportion with the typical photo-shopped body we see a lot in media. I tried to make the legs shorter especially.

The final product is mounted on black paper (the only thing big enough to frame it) and hanging on the wall in my high school's art department gallery.

First project done and starting on the next!

Have a happy week!

Sarah

Honors Art!

Hello!!

So I got into Honors Art! I will be posting what is going on with assignments or contracts as they are called for our class. I actually just finished our first one today called "A Body of Work", which is as it says, art work focused on the body. I will post some pictures of the process later this week end. It involves lots of peanut M&M's...

Happy Thursday!

Sarah

Sculpture of Glass

So every year, starting three years ago, high school students from my school and a local artist work together to create a sculpture. For a year the sculpture will sit in front of our public library and when the year is up the it will be moved to a growing sculpture garden at our high school and a new one is installed in front of the library.

This year we are working with glass and metal to create our sculpture. There is a local artist who has an art studio in his garage. He has a few kilns for both glass (I think it is called a kiln for glass...) and clay.

So far we have just been getting used to working with glass. In fact on Sunday I and a couple other students worked together to create a tube of glass that will be cut into beads. On my own I made a paper weight. They both turned out pretty cool!

I will try to keep you posted with updates (and maybe even some pictures) on how this sculpture of glass will turn out.

Sarah

Boredom...to art!

So I was a little bored and decided to sketch a figure with some fancy clothes.

Then I thought that maybe I could take a picture and add some color with some fun art apps on my iPad.

I found another older sketch and did the same.

Tada!

Now go be creative with your boredom!
Sarah

Throwback Thursday!

So I thought it might be fun to look at some delightful works of art I created in the past. I have been drawing/sketching all my life...well almost.

When I was in between the ages of 8 and 12 I did a lot of people drawings. I liked to take a regular college ruled, one subject notebook and draw a story. Usually the main character was a girl and she started out very young and the story followed her growing up years even until she was a grandma. I probably filled about six notebooks with ten different stories.

Here are some examples...I could not find the ones from when I was 8...

This is my sketchbook as it has evolved over the last couple years.

I will do some looking and see if I can find some even older specimens for you all to see.

Have a lovely night!!

Sarah