Tag: whimsical art

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My First Art Doll

I recently purchased an online class called Southern Sass by Kecia Deveney.  She is an amazing artist and her art dolls are incredible so I couldn’t wait to start this class.

I have to admit that I am the worst at buying classes and either never taking them at all, never finishing them or finishing them and never applying anything that I learned in class.  I shudder to think of the amount of money I’ve spent on online art classes over the years, but I wouldn’t have learned any of what I know now without some of them, so some of the money was well spent.

Anyway, back to that art dolls.  I watched some of the videos and then procrastinated and finally got started last week.  It is so fun learning something new and getting out of my comfort zone, not to mention it’s a great way to use the fabric paint I bought years ago and put a dent in my stash of fabric as well.

Here are a few pictures of my progress so far:

After I made a pattern I liked and transferred it onto muslin, I started creating the eyes, ears, mouth and nose.  This was harder than I expected and took a while, especially when it came to the hand stitching part.  I spent quite a while getting those pieces the way I wanted them, but I’m really pleased how they turned out.

I then painted the face with colors that coordinated with some of the fabrics I had picked out for the body beforehand.  I have pinned the facial features in place, but haven’t sewn them down yet.

Here I have laid out all of the fabric pieces I plan on using over the pattern.  You can’t seen the shape of the body yet because this is how you do it at first. I haven’t gotten far enough to know what happens next, but I’m excited to see what she looks like after all the fabric is sewed in place and trimmed down.  I also chose the saying I wanted to have and stamped the words out and then sewed them onto felt.  I don’t like the stamps I have so I ordered some different ones that hopefully work better with paint than these did.  I think these would be great with ink, but they weren’t the best with paint.

Well I’m going to get back to it and hope this all turns out how I hope it will.

Till next time.

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Try, Try and Try Again

mixed media collage
Carefree

There are times when a piece comes together almost effortlessly on the first try.  This was not one of them.

I originally planned on creating an abstract floral piece that consisted of a very detailed mixed media background, along with a vase and flowers.  I worked for hours on the background and the vase come out just the way I wanted it to.

Unfortunately, the flowers did not. They were a disaster.  The loose style I was trying to obtain never quite came together.  I tried to fix the flowers, but I only ended up making them look even worse than they already did. I was at the point of no return.

As much as it killed me to do, I had to cover up everything with gesso and start from scratch.  Hours and hours of work, now gone.

Next, I decided to go in a different direction and try some sketchy watercolor type florals.  I just didn’t feel confident enough to try the same technique I had just failed at.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get this right either.  It was just not good. Although I was able to fix the flowers using stencils and acrylic paints, the leaves and stems were still awful.  I was thinking that I was going to have to start all over once again.

It was then that I remembered a vine stencil I had.  I pulled it out and decided to give it one last shot.  I’m glad I did because that stencil allowed me to save the piece.

I don’t think this will ever be one of my favorite creations, but I’m glad that I didn’t quit and that I was able to step back and take a moment and figure out a new direction.

Wouldn’t it be great if we were able to do this in our personal lives as well?  Sometimes, when things aren’t working out the way they should, whether it be a job, a relationship, a personal goal, etc., we tend to become emotional and just walk away.  We quit, we abandon, we sabotage.

I know I have done that so many times over the course of my life. I felt that it was easier to just walk away instead of digging in and doing the work that might have salvaged something and perhaps taken my life in a new direction.

I’m not saying that we should stay in toxic or abusive relationship.  That is never the case.  But I am saying that perhaps a friendship could be saved or deepened or a relationship with a child could be turned around if we just took a step back, took a deep breath and figured out what we need to do next instead of walking away.

So today, I’m going to choose to hang in there and do something difficult instead of giving up and walking away.  I know it won’t be easy, but I know it will be worth it in the end.