Creative Process

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

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?

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

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

   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

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

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.