Art Day #1

Art Day commenced today!
That is, Linds&Lauren's creative-make-something-learn-something time. We have decided that once a week we will set time aside to intentionally be creative, crafty, and learn new things. We've already got a long list of creative things we want to do/try/make and needless to say, we are super duper excited. 

A few days ago we decided that we needed to stick with what we had available to us so we wouldn't have to buy anything... that means we started our weekly creative fest with Painting. Not just any painting- we had a theme. Our initial theme to paint was a bird, any bird and any type of interpretation of one. But this morning as we were leaving the coffee shop Lauren expressed her nervousness of having to paint a bird [she's never really painted before, so it's understandable!]. Seeing a school bus in the parking lot, I jokingly responded with, "we could change our theme to a school bus."  Not expecting her to actually want to paint a school bus, I was surprised that she responded positively, which we laughed about and then went back and forth one or two times on what to paint.  So on a whim we went with the new theme of schoolbus. Odd, yes. Interesting, yes. But it made the day that much more fun. :)

We got to Lauren's room [our current art space] and we set up all of our loot. We had all that we needed- acrylic paints, spray paints [favorite!], some brushes, and canvases. We were quite excited!

With Lauren being new to painting, we talked through a little about how to start- sometimes I sketch out an idea, sometimes I just go for it and paint. It all depends what the idea is and how I'm feeling that day. I told her that what how I prep might be completely opposite of what would come naturally to her or it might be great- Trial and error, I suppose. It's a very individual process. But this time I started by making a little sketch and writing down my ideas for it and Lauren did as well.  But I'm not that into working it out on paper. I'd much rather just work it out as I'm painting. :)

my little idea sketch book & notes

  And so I picked up the canvas and put a sloppy layer of white paint down first. I am so accustomed to painting on wood that painting on a canvas was almost foreign to me- I needed more texture and weight to what I was painting on, thus the layer of bright white paint first. 

I picked up a cheap little paintbrush, mixed three different yellows together [bright, neutral, ochre] and got to it. I painted the rough shape of a big yellow schoolbus and outlined the wheels&windows in brown. As I set that down to dry I got an idea! "What if I put a thin layer of white paint over the bus and make it kinda just shadowy and then freehand outline the bus with black ink?" I really liked what I saw in my head and so I added that to my first little sketch.

Meanwhile, Lauren's inspiration was a memory she had from when she was young- when the bus would drop her off at home after school, she'd watch it drive away. So she wanted to paint the back of the bus surrounded by trees. Her painting was coming along- a deep blue sky, yellow bus and a red stop sign. But she just wasn't feeling it... that and my "it kinda looks like and old tv" comment weren't helping her cause. But she kept on painting [which is a good lesson in finishing what you start because you never know how it will evolve.]

So my yellow bus and white overlay were dry. I got out my ink and and with the eyedropper  proceeded to freehand outline the bus and details. On the body of the bus- where it typically says the school's name- I put two parallel solid lines with a dashed line in between. You know, like a line from an elementary school writing book. So as I finished with the black ink outline [drips and all], I decided that this piece needed color... avocado green did the trick. It felt right. I dry brushed it on in an intentionally haphazard way and kept accidentally dragging some of the black ink around as well. Hey, this project was just for fun so I was enjoying it- not worrying about it!

I looked up and Lauren seemed less than satisfied with how her painting was turning out [which is understandable- it's frustrating to not be able to translate a vision onto a canvas!] She was convinced it looked like a face. I didn't see it- I still thought it looked like that back of a schoolbus [and an oldschool tv]. But now that I think about it, I could see how she saw a face... a yellow square robot face. Yep. That IS what it looked like! [Laur, I'm sorry I didn't believe you earlier.] :)   So, she and I talked about ways she could improve her robot-tv-schoolbus painting. Spray paint, adding trees, adding gloss, etc. All of the above happened in various stages. First, gloss on the windows and lights. Nope, not enough. Then masking off with tape the shape of trees and spray painting the whole painting black [accept the robot bus] so that when the tape was removed there were blue tree shapes [very cool!]. But that still wasn't enough. That big yellow bus was just too... too... there. So then she added a couple layers of spattered spray paint in orange, red, green, and white to almost represent leaves on the trees. That definitely helped. but it just wasn't enough. 

Lauren's schoolbus-robot face-tv painting prior to the spraypaint

As we were standing in the sunshine in the front yard with fall leaves crunching beneath our feet she said, "What if I just paint over the bus? Would that be bad since we had a schoolbus theme?" We both laughed and I said, "It would be ok, I got some photos of the bus, so that's ok! Go for it!" So Lauren proceed to spraypaint black over the entire area where the schoolbus tv was. And the painting changed completely. It now looked like a lake surrounded by trees on a foggy night.  Super cool. Then I added a layer of hi-gloss clear coat on the trees. So, even though our theme was a school bus, and Lauren's painting ended up being a lake on a foggy night, she gets full credit for her original painting and for finishing what she started!

Lauren's finished painting. [pic taken with my phone, thus the poor quality photo.]

So after she finished her painting [yay Lauren!], we went back inside and I sat down with my painting and dry brushed some light blue paint. And remember the lines I drew on the body of the bus? Well with burgundy thread I hand stitched the sentence, "allow them to dream again" with the shapes of a star, heart, square, triangle, and hexagon following.

a closeup of the handstitched phrase :allow them to dream again"  [never stitched on canvas before!]

I referred back to my little sketch and read my notes about what I had wanted to paint. I saw a phrase that I had jotted down in that sketch and knew it was good for the painting. I picked up the ink again and wrote in my normal handwriting "Remember the days..." at the very top. I really liked how it turned out! But then I realized it needed a little more color. Pink, I decided, was perfect. I vignetted the piece with a deep pink paint dry brushed on the canvas and with one more sweep of the original avocado green the painting was done! 

my finished schoolbus painting... the colors didn't quite turn out right in this photo.

 Lauren and I had so much fun on our first roommate art day. We can't wait for next week and our next creations. We have so many ideas [some of which will cost a pretty penny] and we look forward to all of the knowledge we'll gain, fun we'll have, and things we will create!

I would encourage you to try to create something or experience art in new ways- whether you create something, or appreciate what others have made. Dance, sing, paint, photograph, visit museums, go to the theater, go to a public garden, sketch, etc. There are so many ways to express what's in you. And remember, you don't need to be the best. Just be you!

:)

Lindsay