Another Creative Endeavor

Hello Friends….I know, long time no hear from…where have I been!

The Lady Laughs A Lot has been up to her creative ideas again. If you haven’t heard, I started another business and have been putting alot of attention to getting it off the ground. You can check out the blog I’ve been keeping for my new Green Screen Instant Photography company called Paparazzi Party Beats.

Here is the website:

http://www.PaparazziPartyBeats.com

And here is our blog:

http://paparazzipartybeats.tumblr.com/

But don’t forget about me here. The mind of this artist can’t sit still. When I need to take a break from the administrative side of marketing Paparazzi Party Beats I dabble with Paint Shop Pro. I have always wanted to create fantasy images using the natural twists and shapes of trees and their roots. I’ve been working with some images on my down time. I’ll post them here soon. The green screen has just opened a new doorway for some creative ideas!

Thanks for following!

Going Native

Capturing subtleties of the face

Good Morning! You may have noticed I haven’t posted for a few days. I’ve been continuing my 20 minute sketches in the morning…but instead of creating a simple sketch each day, I allowed myself to get carried away with a single image and worked on it for a few days.

My practice here was to capture the subtleties of the face. To get a feel for the soft shades and tones that make up expression and features. There really is NO hard lines in the face except around the eye.

To be honest, as my own worst critic, I believe I was so taken by the facial features I fell short around the feathers and the headband. But all in all I’m very happy with how this came out.

As I sat with the image each day, I created this “warrior” as someone who has pride for being a part of his tribe. He is someone who is honored to wear his colors and express the experiences of his family and his history. He is someone who would do anything to serve you and create an empowered world.

Medieval Tip for the Day: A word on chivalry – when you make life be all about yourself and your circumstances, you feel as if you are drowning in a moat. When you make life be all about others and how to be of service for them, you hold the keys to the kingdom.

And the Pencil rises to the surface

fabric and posture

Yes, from time to time I will put the crayons down and let the pencil have some fun too.

The pencil is my favorite medium to work with. There is so much detail you can create with pencil and I have a sense of being in control. As opposed to when I work with color, I get frustrated when the hues don’t create the look I am going for.

So simple black and white, and shades of gray I sketched this “Warrior Girl” from a photo in a role-playing magazine.

The purpose was to practice the depth perception in her posture as well as capture the folds in the fabric. She has several bracers wrapped around her wrist and arms, and her pants are cinched together in several places tied with what I imagine to be leather cord.

The right side of her body has to be drawn smaller to give the impression of depth. So her right hand holding the weapon has to be smaller than the left hand in defensive position. The same goes for the feet.

When drawing a forward foot, in two dimension it can come out looking like someone holding a tube sock…nothing but an elongated “U”, so shading and crease marks effectively create the look of dimension.

The twenty-minute morning exercise has been quite fulfilling for myself. And it has led to an increase desire to take more time to dedicate to sketching and painting. I have begun a portrait of my husband to practice facial features. I am video taping as I create it so I can post  a time-lapse commentary on pencil sketching. Look for that to come out in the next couple of weeks.

Medieval Tip for the Day: Don’t judge a dragon by its size. Your perception of its power does not equal its ability.

Inner Chatter

Most times I don’t paint because I listen to my inner chatter as if it knows what it is talking about. It says things like:

• You know there are other artists out there better than you, more experienced than you.
• You could be out doing something else on your to do list than wasting your time here.

I would go on, but with the training and development I’ve been receiving from Landmark Education, I know I’m making that all up and none of it is true.

This mornings drawing came from my counter arguments to my inner voice, which still does not come from just being…being in the space of creativity and coming from nothing. But again this is practice and I’m celebrating the fact that I’m finally being consistent with my 7:30 am “being in the space of art and unconstrained in sharing myself”.

My counter thoughts were to: come from a place of trusting my ability, not needing a model to draw from, but allowing the arm and hand to move freely while testing my skill at shading and dimension. Drawing and sketching from “nothing” sends that inner voice into loud speaker mode….it’s crooked, the shading is all wrong, who would want to learn art from you, you’re really going to post this on the web!?, it looks like a kid did it.

A study on shading and dimension

You know, I allow myself 20 minutes to be in the practice of art. There is no agenda, no Louvre to qualify for, just white space and the feel of waxy crayons. So while I hear the echoes of fear, doubt and worry in every moment I recreate myself as purposeful, thank my thoughts for their opinion and ask the crayons what they think.

Medieval Tip of the Day: Brave knights know the realities of mortality and put on their armor anyway. In the moment of action, they come from a place of skill, practice, and being in the moment, coming from nothing and allowing miracles to flow through them.

Tuscany?

When creating a painting, I’ve heard say some artists will do a “study” of the piece before creating a final version. I’ve never had the patience to sketch or paint portions of a scene as a litmus test over and over again, only to have to paint it one last time for a final piece.

However, I’m growing up now…so I’ve been told, and feel it’s about high time I start acting like an artist since I call myself one. So first thing in the morning I take a box of 64 Crayola crayons and freely create. (Well, there had to be a compromise between the adult and the child.)

YES, crayons. I find a sense of freedom to freestyle with crayons so I don’t take the practice so seriously. I will create random doodles or recreate the visions of sugar plums dancing in my head. But these past two days I’ve decided to visit my Tuscany dreams.

I don’t know when my love affair with images of tuscany started. Although my family is of Italian descent, no one has every been there. I imagine it started with home decor …you can see images and patterns used in pizzerias and probably elegant model homes which I love to tour.

When I researched tuscany for this blog post I realized that one image burned in my mind comes from the movie “An Affair to Remember” with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. What’s funny is the scene I’m thinking of is in Villefranche, France, not Italy.

There is something about the architecture with it’s arches and simple solid walls with aged stucco married with growing vines dimpled with blossoming flowers regardless of what country….or part of the home it’s in.

I have a space on my kitchenette wall that I’ve promised to fill with my own custom piece since I moved in three years ago. The pass through and doorway between the kitchen and kitchenette are arched, so I had the walls painted a tan and salmon color. I have silk rose vines creeping on the walls and empty box crates I use for shelves holding an empty Italian wine bottle.

I’ve never painted the piece for the wall because I can’t make up my mind what it should look like. Hence the desire to do studies of “Tuscany”. With this first study pictured here I realized it’s a start, but there is alot of empty space. I created this purely from imagination. I didn’t have any pictures in front of me, nor had I done any prior research. It could use a vase of flowers either on the wall or in front of the wall. I’m sure a few sailing vessels wouldn’t hurt either. Well, I guess that’s why they call it a study.

Medieval Lesson for the day: What makes a King’s knights excellent jousters and swordsman is practice. Schedule in at least 10 minutes a day to pick up your sword of choice.