Halloween Girls ~ Mixed Media Canvas

These were so much fun to make. I had this idea in my head ever since I completed this

LifeBook Lesson

, and was inspired by

Finnabair

, who taught this particular lesson. As soon as Halloween stuff started showing up in the stores, I started collecting the found pieces. I had bought the dahlia flowers when the spring flowers went on sale at Michaels.

Here are some progress pictures and some of the process steps:

The idea started with a sketch doodle I did at work, but failed to take a picture of it. I transferred those sketches to a couple of 12"x24" canvases.

I then used modeling paste through a stencil to create the texture of the skulls. This stencil is a Dylusions Skull Stencil.

Then I started painting the faces with acrylic paint.

I first glued down some black twine, then painted the shape of the hair with black gesso. I then planned out and started gluing down the found pieces using a heavy gel medium.

After the glue dried I pained over all the found pieces with black gesso. I also added some of the black gesso to the flowers to grunge them up a bit.

I decided that the skull background might be a to much and added on some crackle texture paste. then painted the backgrounds with acrylic paint. I then took some metallic paint and brought out the skulls.

I used InkaGold metallic wax medium to go over the found objects to bring everything back out.

And then added some white rim highlights to make the silhouette pop a bit, and added some details and finishing touches to the faces.

Here are some close ups so you can see the details.

November Adventures

Another month has gone by in a flash. I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving! The boyfriend made a small typical Thanksgiving meal and we relaxed at the house. I also used the time to work on my Halloween Girls! This is one of those years that the holidays are bothering me a little more than normal. I have always disliked the holidays because of how rude and materialistic they have become. They always seemed a little easier when I could spend time with my Mom. Since she ended up in a nursing home 4 years ago in a minimal condition, the holidays just seem so bleak to me. I end up feeling quite down and becoming more introverted. I have been pushing myself to keep up with my art, because it is the only thing I can do where I just focus on what is in front of me.

Here is the clay moon plaque after firing and adding some epoxy to it. I still need to sand down the epoxy and then paint it. 

These are my new clay projects that I am working on. I am thinking about making them witches but I might make one of the taller ones a demon of some sort. I still need to think about that. The smaller ones I want to look like little kokeshi dolls.

Here is some of the progress shots of my Halloween Girls. I have been calling them Halloween Demons but I decided I don't think they look that demonic, so I am just going to call them Halloween Girls. I have finished this piece finally and I am hoping to enter them in a gallery show tomorrow. If they are accepted they will be up for a month. I plan on discussing the process and more information on these next Tuesday.

I only completed one portrait for my 100 Faces that I want to complete. This one is Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice. I kind of made a bit more realistic version of the cartoon character.

I was able to take quite a few sunset pictures this month.

Finally here are a couple work doodles. I really like the way the selkie came out. I think that might be my next painting.

Death Birdie Clay Sculpture

I have been wanting to take a class on clay sculpting for a few years now. A new clay studio

Peacock Clay Collaborative

opened up in town, and posted they were having classes for beginning clay sculpting. I decided to go ahead and take the class. I am having a blast and really enjoy working with clay. This Death Birdie is my first clay sculpture since I was in elementary school, and I made an ashtray for my Mom for Christmas. 

Not to bad for my first sculpture. Here are some progress photos to see how he was developed. On the first day of class we did a couple of pinch pots and then put them together to create a ball. This became the body of the bird. At this point it kind of looks like a fish to me.

Here we added the shape for the skull face.

Now I just added some details.

Then completed the final details and sculpting. This is before the first firing.

Here it is after the firing. We were so scared it was going to break.

Now time for painting the glazes.

The pink is the gloss glaze.

Here is the final after it was completed.

I have a couple other sculptures I am working on, so keep an eye out for that. Don't forget you can follow my work in progress on Instagram at

@creativelytara

.

2012 Let's Explore Science Cover Designs

I designed these covers for an ongoing series we have called Let's Explore Science. These were from our copyright year 2012. They were written and designed for grade levels 4–6. 

This first book Enterprise STEM discusses the topics of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. It explains how professionals in these fields work together.

This book discusses how fossils are formed, how they are found, and what they tell us about the past.

This title Understanding Biomes talks about the different kind of habitats and the animals that live there.

Science was always one of my favorite subjects in school, so I always enjoy working on these.

October Adventures

October is one of my favorite times of the year because of Halloween!!! I wish I could say because of Fall and the cooler temperatures but it is still hot here in Florida. This was a busy, creative month so there are a bunch of pictures. Let's start off with the sky photos I took this month.

I started the month off with my first painting class. You can read more about that here.

I decided to join the CreativeSprint challenge this month. Basically you sign up for an email of a daily creative prompt to challenge you. I started off with a bang and then about halfway through, I started feeling a bit frustrated by the prompts. I think most of the frustration was I had to many things going on, so I threw in the towel on Day 15. Here are the pictures of what I accomplished:

I am still taking my clay class every Thursday. Here are some progress pictures of my Crazy Dead Bird. I plan on doing a blog post on the complete process of building this sculpture. Which is my first sculpture ever.

This moon plaque is my second clay project. If you look at the last picture you will noticed that it broke. It took us a while to decide what to do to fix it. We decided to go ahead and fire it while it was broke and use an epoxy to glue it back together. I won't be able to use a firing glaze on it, but I think i have an idea for a finish on it. We will see how it comes out, if I don't like it I will rebuild it.

My sister made me this cute steampunk punkin:

Here is one of my work doodles. I did a couple more but they ended up being studies for projects to come, that I am not ready to share yet.

I only got a couple more of my portraits done. I am in the middle of working on another one now.

This is another project I started and I am loving the results so far. This is going to be a mixed media/found objects piece. Inspired by Finnabair's style.

Most of these photos I have shared on my Instagram @creativelytara. To see my progress photos and more follow me there.