Confessions of an Art Addict

Creative Process

2010-07-02T01:09:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to share our "creative process." My brother and I get together and talk and sketch, surf the web, talk some more, sketch again, then think about our ideas all night, see something and say to ourselves, "Oh, that would make a great addition to our idea!" Do this about ten times and obsess about the design! Stay up all night thinking about how can we make it better, try different color combos, then to practice on our dummy head and finally paint it on our beautiful model.
I hope you enjoy the little slide show.

Eyes Closed theme lately

2010-06-08T13:53:00.000-04:00

I know that lately I have been painting my figures with their eyes closed. I guess the reason why is that I close my eyes when I want to go to "My Happy Place" - LOL
I don't know about you, however, I have been wanting to go there a lot lately ;)
I was experimenting with laying down plastic wrap over the wet surface - to create that rocky background and of course continuing with that Picasso inspired kind of face.
So enjoy my little painting entitled "Take Me Away."

Picasso and Lichenstein?

2010-06-01T17:44:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I forced myself not to think about work and just straight-up, unjustifiably, just plainly relax.
So I brought a blanket to the park and layed out with my two kids and just stared into the sky.
So after some relaxing time, I felt inspired to come home and experiment with a different style of painting.
After many years of painting in a realist type of manner - I really just wanted to play around with some paint, big, black, bold lines (like a coloring book) and what came out was the following painting. It kind of reminds me of Roy Lichtenstein style meets Pablo Picasso (AND Please,do not misunderstand me - I am not comparing myself to those great artists).

In college, I learned so many different things about painting, drawing and so on, but what I wish, is that I had learned how to break all those rules and just be creative and do whatever I felt like drawing/painting.
When I was a kid, I remember how much I enjoyed coloring. I was a "stay-in-the-lines" kind of color-er, but I did have fun coloring the sky; green, the grass;red, the people; purple. Just crazy - but it was fun and therapeutic -LOL.
So moral of the story today - take some time to relax, get recharged, get creative, let loose, and have fun. Who cares about all the rules you learned or you think you have to learn in art.

Confession Time

2010-05-27T18:25:00.000-04:00

As you know this blog is titled "Confessions of an Art Addict." Well, here is a confession. While I was in church - God forgive me ;) - They have a screen which puts up the words to the songs so we can sing along during worship. Well, on the screen they not only had the words, but they also had these beautiful vines framing the words. So because I have issues, I broke out my sketchbook and began to sketch them really quick. It only took a few minutes, but it gave me a nice idea for a "flower eye design." Below is a photo of the sketch and then the design on this very pretty girl from an event I did last weekend.

The Eve of my face painting

2010-05-20T21:54:00.001-04:00

   This morning as I was reading, I came across the verse - "Many plans are in a man's mind but it's the Lord's purpose for him that will stand." Proverbs 19:21. As I read it - it reminded me of how I had these big plans for myself; illustrate children's books, live by myself, no kids, no husband, attend more school and so on.
   My life today is nothing like what I planned - it is way better! I have two beautiful kids, a loving husband, and a job that I never thought that I was capable of doing. It is so funny how we make plans for ourselves, but God has a totally different path for us - usually a better one.
    How I got my start in face painting came all from volunteering at an outreach. My job was to face paint the kids and the pastor's wife told me where I could buy the make up. When I saw that the make up was a lot like watercolors. I remember that i came home after the face painting at the projects, sat on the edge of my bed and asked my husband, "Do you really think that people will pay me to do this!?" As I asked, I felt giddy inside. My husband (because of how awesome he is) said, "Of cousre, Margie, I believe you can do this."
   The amazing part was that the face painting took off by itself. Of course, I spent a lot of time practicing (every Thursday for a whole year at a Hometown Buffet from 6 - 8pm paintig kids for free) to get better, but the marketing of it went smoothly. Which reminds me of the verse - Proverbs 10:22 -The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.
    I love any kind of painting, but face painting is where I found how to combine my love for making every child feel special and painting.
So be encouraged - if your life isn't going as planned, remember that God may have a better plan for you! :0)

Face painting video, Sunset

2010-05-14T17:17:00.001-04:00

A little video we did last year. Please be patient - as I am trying to figure out how to make a decent video, youtube rules on music, and video editing. Enjoy!

How to Face Paint a Butterfly

2010-05-08T00:00:00.002-04:00

I did this when I first began face painting. I plan on sharing more videos in the future, so I was doing a test run with this one.

2010-05-07T19:27:00.000-04:00

I am not much of a journalER...When I was a kid, I had a diary, that my brother found and he read aloud my ONE entry. I was soooo embarassed that I swore I would never write down my thoughts again.
Well, a few years ago I read "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. She talked about a good way to start tapping into your creativity was to start every morning with "morning pages." These pages are pretty much 3 pages of notebook paper where you just write. They don't have to make sense, no worry about capitilization or punctuation. You could even throw them away after you were done (that last part perked my curiosity). Well, the point of the "morning pages" is to dump thoughts, worries and even my prayers to God onto these pages so my mind could be clear to receive those ideas that are ttrying to come, but are getting cut off by all the things that are tumbling around in my head. I tried them and I liked doing it. I found that it did help me to be more creative. Consistency is a problem for me, so I did not keep up with them.
Well, last week I did find something similiar to the "morning pages." It was called "Visual Journaling." There is a book, however, I have not read it.
I am loving this way of journaling. It is not only "morning pages" or "brain drain" but it also involves some drawing. These 'visual journailing entries" have even inspired some new artwork ideas for me. What I love most about it is that it is always a surprise what I end up with. So, here are the steps that I follow below...

1. When you first wake up, write three pages of whatever it is that is in your head.

2. I read a chapter in Proverbs or any other bible passages.

3.Close my eyes and let my pen move across the paper ( I try not to think about anything specific.)

4. I open my eyes and try to see what image or images I can find in my scribbles - just like when you find images in the clouds.

4. Take a sharpie and outline your images.

For me, I am really pleased with the images I am finding.
You can let these inspire some new artworks. Next post will be the collage that was inspired by my first day of "visual journaling." I hope this helps some of you out there with creativity!

New Beginnings

2010-05-07T19:23:00.000-04:00

Hello out there! It is 2010 and I wanted to take this year to start my journey on working on my personal art work.
For the last few years I have been building up my "face painting" business. I get to paint all the time, however, this year I want to work my personal art work; sketches, finished pieces and works in progress.This summer I had the chance to help illustrate a book for a friend of mine - Donna Pilkerton. After working on it - I said to myself, "Margie, you have time to work on everyone elses projects. Why don't you have time for your own projects?"So I am setting out on a journey to be more creative, find a medium/media I like to work in, and possibly begin to sell my art. Creating and selling my own art work has been a dream of mine since I was a kid - better late than never!
So to start this off - here is a finished piece I did recently. I experimented a lot with different media; wood, fabric, gel medium and acrylics.

Pope Park Rec Center Birthday Party

2009-02-18T15:59:00.000-05:00

My brother and I face painted at an awesome birthday party this past wekend. It was held at the Pope Park Rec Center in Hartford, Ct. When I first walked in, I thought it was a company party, because of how bright, clean and large the space was. It had a kitchen, a rec hall with pool tables (for those tweens and teens), then thru some glass doors was the other part of the building where there was a very large hall with tables and chairs. There was also a stage.
Of course there was plenty of parking. I also noticed that at the end of the party, there were people to clean up and put the tables back.
Here's some info. on the Pope Park Center:

Resident rate=$150 per 4 hours(no food) or $200 per 4 hours(with food).
Non-resident rate=$250 per 4 hours(no food) or $300 per 4 hours(with food).
There is an application to fill out and submit to the Dept. of Health and Human Services at 2 Holcomb Street, Hartford, CT, 06112.
The contact person is Mrs.Williams and she can be reached at (860)543-8876.
Please note that the application approval period can take up to 2-3 weeks so requests need to made early on.

Launch of New Online Party Supply Store

2009-01-31T12:00:00.000-05:00

Hello,
I wanted to let all our customers know that we have just launched our new online Party Supply Store - www.FuntasticalFaces.MakesParties.com. We have party supplies for every occasion.
Funtastical Faces is a one stop shop place for all your party needs. Find entertainment, paper goods, gift baskets, candy, toys, accesories and so much more. Take some time to check out our new site!

Places to have Birthday parties 2

2009-01-27T17:10:00.000-05:00

Another interesting place we had to work was The Great Escape in Glastonbury, Ct. Although they did not allow face painting were hired to provide glitter tattoos at the birthday Party.

The kids loved it!! Even some adults wanted them. The glitter tattoos were perfect - the children would come in, line up, we asked what design they wanted, we took the time to interact with each child while we were applying the tattoos and then off they went!

Glitter tattoos last between 3 to 5 days depending how you treat them. Not rubbing them when wet and avoiding lotions or oils. My daughter had one that lasted about 2 weeks. But the life span for them are 3 days. They are also very easy to remove. You just use rubbing alcohol or baby oil.

The The Great Escape provides a party room and then the playscape is available for the kids to play on. There was also some arcade games and you pay an extra fee for pizza.

Places to have birthday parties part 1

2009-01-26T11:55:00.000-05:00

http://www.funtasticalfaces.com/
Since I began face painting, I have been to many interesting places for birthday parties and met many nice people. So I though it would be nice to SHARE some of the places where I have been for some of my jobs. As I remember or go to new jobs, I will continue adding them. I will not be stating prices, however, I will add the link to the place so you can check it out for yourself and see if you like it. I am not promoting these places - I am just sharing my experiences!

The most recent one was the Elmwood Community Center in West Hartford. This was a nice place. There was an elevator, so I did not have to carry all my supplies up the stairs. It was set up like a school. So the bathroom was down the hallway. The room was set up with plenty of tables.

This was one of the guests at the party!