Arty Bluejay

Postcard from Philippines #1

2011-09-05T14:06:00.000-04:00

I remember when I was in elementary, we have a project to buy postcards that feature famous World wonders in Philippines. One of them is the Banaue Rice Terraces or in tagalog "Hagdan-hagdang palayan nang Banaue". It's a man made terraces of rice plantation. The indigenous people called Ifugao made it with their hands and man sweat hard work. I haven't seen this spot for real and hoping to see it someday when I visit back to Philippines.

Thanks Mommy Chris of Mommy Journey, I received my first postcard swap from her when I first started this postcard collecting hobby in April 2011.

New Update, Ed's zazzle store and Mel's new hobby

2011-09-05T13:45:00.001-04:00

The feeling of Fall season will start any time soon, so my husband I are planning to do more art stuff indoors. We are productive in this hobby during cold seasons. We enjoy more family bonding outside during Spring and Summer. So yeah, it has been a long time we haven't got back writing in this blog. My husband is busy adding more graphic art to his zazzle store lately. He was so happy to receive his first $50 check 4 months ago so he got inspired in doing online stuff because of that. You can check out his store here: The Thundering legion: Home: Zazzle store.

As for me, I am into postcard hobby which I started this April. I have 40 plus postcards on hand and many more coming. I will be featuring these one by one as I love exploring other places and their beauty. So far I am joining 3 postcard groups online. My profiles are in postrossing.com here, postcrossing enthusiast in Facebook and World in Postcards in yahoo. In postcrossing, you can sign up for free and can automatically send 5 postcards to 5 addresses. In postcard enthusiast, only the moderator can add members there. So be sure to friend her first then ask if you can be a part of the group and start making friends with other members. You can post the available postcards you want to send and the members will be interested to swap with you. In World in Postcards, its my first time to join there yesterday and so far the members are friendly. You have to ask approval of your membership to the moderator. It is for free. And once approved, you can start swapping in their available open polls. I also started an oil painting class in three sessions now and my first painting will be finished soon. I will be joining our local art group's Fall art show this October. So I will be posting my art adventures here soon.

A New Drawing

2011-05-23T19:58:00.000-04:00

I just completed a drawing I was making as a logo for my Zazzle Store.

I had been experimenting with the Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet that I bought when I sold my old (trustworthy and tireless, *sigh*) Toyota Corolla. I was interested in using The GIMP for drawing, but the mouse is not a good drawing tool.

The drawing tablet, on the other hand, gives you the same precision and control that you have with a pencil, although you have to look at the screen rather than your hand to see what marks are made. I learned that it helps to rest your hand on the tablet as you draw; ordinarily, you would never do that while drawing because you have to protect your work from smudging; but the tablet knows that it should ignore everything except the pen tip. I suppose that a serious artist would want one of the more expensive tablets, but this is enough to get you started. There are cheaper tablets, they have half the drawing surface, a very important consideration.

EWC

Working on new Ukrainian easter eggs - - - part 2

2011-04-03T00:47:00.000-04:00

I have been slow in my art stuff lately. I have been busy offline and online doing and accomplish tasks. Boy, I want to stay focus in this precious hobby of mine. Anyhow, I was able to finish the dyeing of colors in this one goose egg. I like the starburst design.

These two different pictures is of the design of one egg. The front and back. I started designing into the white color base of the egg, then I dipped it to the yellow egg dye which you saw in the post before this one, then I designed again what yellow colors need to be yellow in the egg, then I brush painted the green dye to what needs to be green and covered it with beeswax again, then I dipped it to this red dye and thus the result in the pictures.

I t looks pretty impressive even though its not done yet. Because after I covered beeswax to what designs needed to remain red, I dipped it to the black egg dye which was the last one. I finished the process of melting all the beeswax and revealed the actual design lately but I will upload the picture after I refinish it and coat it with varnish. Stay tuned to the next part of this post folks. :)

Working on new Ukrainian Easter Eggs

2011-03-30T15:15:00.000-04:00

Hi guys! It has been a long time I have not updated this blog. It is because I have no art projects a few months ago and now, I am starting to make a batch of Ukrainian Easter eggs. I love making them. Last year, I was using chicken eggs, but this year, I am going to create them using goose eggs. Yep, they sure are big eggs! This is exciting, I hope you will be patient with me in showing to you my art projects. Here is a sample goose egg that I'm working on lately.

Pregnancy Timeline at Wizard Clocks

2011-01-08T08:40:00.000-05:00

I have uploaded my pregnancy time line so that you can add it to your web pages.

I am still struggling to make Javascript work inside of Blogspot, so I can't show a working version here, but you can download the Sample page here. When you save it to your disk and open it up, you will see the hands moving.

Each hand in the clock is represented by an image that has the hand rotated in 60 positions. The Javascript chooses which position is appropriate at any given time, and displays that part of the picture.

EWC

Stork Patrol

2010-12-24T09:51:00.000-05:00

Art can make the events of life more meaningful. As an example, here's a drawing I did to celebrate the coming of my second child.

This unique image will make our pregnancy announcements more meaningful. (The due date is visible in the picture, so it is unique to that little special someone).

Merry Christmas to everyone!

EWC

Sterling Silver jewelry project #2

2010-12-14T12:42:00.000-05:00

I have had this project for a while and tried to sell it in Etsy but it did not last long time there for I was not able to popularize this project in my blogs before. I was just in the mood of making jewelry projects out from precious pieces. I used sterling silver findings on this set. The heart filigree are a nice touch and the red swarovski crystals and black onyx are making it charming too. I suppose I could try to sell it in Etsy again but I still have to wait for my eggs displays there to expire. I want to make more of these too.

My Stamp collection --- part 2

2010-12-01T19:32:00.000-05:00

What I have here is a one cent Franklin stamp dated in 1908-09, Scott # 331. It is in used condition. It can be sold as $0.25. But if you are lucky to have a mint condition, the price ranges from $12-45.00 each. Well, I just kept mine as one of my collection rather selling it each. How about you guys? Do you keep old and new stamps with you? Even now, I am keeping mint condition of the newly released stamps because you will never know that their value is so much more when it gets older and passed on to your children's children. Check the values of your stamps online from time to time too so you will know how much they are valued these days.

A Thanksgiving Batik Egg --- part 2

2010-11-30T11:21:00.000-05:00

Now this is the dramatic part of making this egg, revealing the designs. You can not see your design after you melt and wipe all the beeswax writings and designs in your egg. You just simply light a candle, and use it in melting your beeswax. Get a paper towel on hand to wipe off the wax as it is hot and melted.

The turkey design is a symbol of Thanksgiving. The design is almost revealing in this picture.

The cross is a symbol of Thanksgiving to our almighty God.

The borders of this egg has revealed.

And now that all the design has revealed, you can add the varnish as a coating and protection to the designs of your egg.

Hope you guys will try and enjoy making this art. They can be great Christmas ornaments too.

A Thanksgiving batik Egg --- part 1

2010-11-30T10:58:00.000-05:00

As I was passing by the living room at my FILs house last Saturday, I saw the batik egg I made for my father in law last Thanksgiving. And just yesterday, I found my long missing USB, at last! And I found these step by step pictures I got during the time I was making the egg for him. I call this part 1 because there are lots of pictures and intricate steps in making this art.

I use the kyska, the pen that contains hot beeswax to write and design the egg. Those are the black marks in this egg. In making batik eggs, you should start on the light colors first and dark colors should be the last one. I used a little bit white then my first color was a yellow. You have to dip the egg, slowly to the yellow egg dye.

As you go another color, like this one is red. I probably used orange before this color, you have to mark the designs that you like to be in red colors.

I think in this picture, I planned to make the tail points of the turkey red that is why I covered them with black beeswax. And the parts, I wanted to black, which was my last color, will make all the last parts of the egg dark as black like the picture below.

There is a continuation part 2 next to this post as there are lots of pictures I got.

Te Deum Laudamus

2010-11-25T13:22:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving is really about giving thanks to God for the blessings He has given us, so it seems fitting to write about the ultimate hymn of thanksgiving.

Te Deum, also called the Ambrosian Hymn, is the Catholic Church's hymn of thanksgiving and praise to God. St. Ambrose, the fourth-century bishop of Milan and a significant figure in the history of church music, authored the text for the baptism of St. Augustine, one of the greatest figures of that age or any other.

It remains one of the most set texts in music history. Most of the great composers have set this text to music, including George Frederic Händel, Franz Joseph Haydn,Anton Bruckner, Georges Bizet, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir William Walton, John Rutter, and (most recently) Arvo Pärt.

Arvo Pärt's transcendentally beautiful version is the most familiar to this author; the text seems especially suited to his style. After having written his Te Deum, he was commissioned to write a choral work to celebrate the anniversary, not wishing to write a second version of the hymn, he composed Dopo la vittoria, a cantata whose text was an Italian translation of a Russian music encyclopedia's article about the Te Deum.

In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum!

EWC

A Decoupage box

2010-11-23T16:32:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite art crafts during our MOPS meeting, a decoupage box. It is so easy to make guys. Just recycle some boxes at home and glue the sides together into a box with lid. Get your scrap booking papers together, mix and match paste. Glue them together using a decoupage glue. This glue is different from the ordinary glue. It does not smell bad as a glue either. And what is nice about it too is that it gives off that shiny effect like wax after it dries up. Here are my picture of the decoupage box below. We were instructed to make it so we can put our family treasures inside, like small family pictures. And when visitors come, we could show them what is inside the box. Neat project!

Wikipedia says the meaning of Decoupage below:

is the art of decorating an object by gluing colored paper cutouts onto it in combination with special paintgold leaf and so on. Commonly an object like a small box or an item of furniture is covered by cutouts from magazines or from purpose-manufactured papers. Each layer is sealed with varnishes (often multiple coats) until the "stuck on" appearance disappears and the result looks like painting or inlay work. The traditional technique used 30-40 layers of varnish which were then sanded to a polished finish. This was known in 18th century England as The Art of Japanning after its presumed origins.

Paint with stencils

2010-11-16T15:45:00.000-05:00

I painted this nice tote bag during the art and craft time with the MOPS group in our area. I am also happy of the simple painting result of this welcome sign in wood. We just used acrylics paint, stencils and paint brush. I like to learn new crafts even its just this simple. How about you guys?

Henryk Gorecki

2010-11-15T11:06:00.000-05:00

Henryk Gorecki died this week. This Polish composer is especially noted for his Symphony of Sad Songs (The Western Confucian has posted a clip from that symphony here.

I first noticed his music when the Wanderer published a review of the third symphony, the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs . Written in the context of an anniversary of the German and Russian invasion of Poland, it showcased a prayer to Mary scratched on a wall in Auschwitz (or was that Dachau) in the first movement, and two other texts in the second and third movements. This work builds slowly from the edge of hearing to a climax of sound, uniquely beautiful and intensely sorrowful.

EWC

Mel Cole's Right side of the brain drawing - - - Part 2

2010-11-09T16:28:00.000-05:00

This is the second part of my right side brain drawing class. We draw much more complicated steps. Our instructor told us to exercise more on the upside down picture subject to draw. He also let us draw our partners. I drew my husband, my husband drew me. Sweet! Anyhow, here are my progress during that day. I am encouraging my husband to share his drawings in this blog as well. It's really cool to look back in these arts. The techniques are still fresh in my memory.

The drawings I got above is not my husband. Our instructor gave us a picture to practice negative space, contour and shading. I just shade the lines and shadows I saw in Einstein picture. The picture on the left is the result. I shaded it with picture upside down. It really helped the right brain worked out that way. The left brain can not argue with it.

After that exercise, our instructor let us try to draw our partners for the first time. Mine is not that good. But at least, it is a person.

Our instructor gave us technique to draw the one above. One should draw the face of a person from a circle, then an inverted trapezoid around its jaw. The result looks like and egg shape head. This view of my husband face reminds me of his real profile. This is my favorite drawing. Instructor Ed gave me a compliment on this one.

Before the final step of drawing our partners the second time, I draw this one from a still life subject. There was a table with a drape, skull, candle and candle holder, a piece of wood and an apple. My instructor warned me again not to use my left brain because he noticed that I kept on erasing.

And voila, our final day subject, to draw our partners the second time. This does look like my husband for real. Amazing that I can do such art.

An interesting Oil painting

2010-11-08T16:11:00.000-05:00

I just want to share an interesting rummage sale find I got, this oil painting. Another junk piece that I could not resist to buy. For only $0.50, I was fascinated by its subject. A Spring season themed painting. At first, I thought its medium being used is an Acrylic paint, but when I saw the prints in its back, its made of Oil. Not pastel but oil painting. Well, I admire artists who use oil painting. One of the arts that I wanted to learn. Enjoy this folks!

Right side brain drawing - Part 1

2010-11-05T18:28:00.000-04:00

I have been busy attending my blogs at Love Home Grow Garden and Hearts content of a mama lately guys. So I hope you are still with us.

A week ago, we got busy attending a 6 days class on Right side brain drawing 1 and 2. It was so fun. My husband wrote a post about it before here. And I felt amazed of what our right side brain can do. These picture are my drawing progress from 1st day to third day of the Part 1 class. Instructor Ed in Jamestown Community College said that my first drawing is a good example of a Left side drawing. Geesh. Why? Because I draw according to my memory and in symbols. Drawing is best used when using the right side of the brain. The right side of the brain catches more details of the subject of your drawing which is in reality or the subject you are facing at present and not by memory.

This is the first day drawing I got. We were asked to draw the face of our mother. I felt nervous because I just can't draw her face from my memory.

We did a couple of exercise before this hand drawing. He let us draw by looking at the details of our hand, at the same time sketching it without looking on the paper. He said he wants us to train our right brain a bit to be not overcome by the left brain's commands.

This was the picture on the last day. We were asked to draw the chair in front of us. It's like a portrait drawing but we just have to draw the outlines of the chair. Negative space inside it. Isn't it cool to know such art?

Skywatch Friday #2

2010-10-22T13:41:00.000-04:00

The sky in our area has been beautiful lately, after the dark rainy days last week. Here's my sky photos to share with Skywatch Friday.

Painting kit

2010-10-21T12:05:00.000-04:00

Hi guys, have you tried painting by numbers? I just got one from my birthday gifts two days ago. I want to thank my husband who think of this as gift for me. I have been meaning to try one these days and couldn't find one anywhere. He has been keeping it in a secret. Ha! Oh well, if somebody here is doing it, perhaps we could visit each other too to see our progress.

Just a short note

2010-10-17T19:27:00.000-04:00

I got a good news today! I received an email notice from ETSY that one of my batik eggs got sold. My gosh, it's my second sale so far. I am so excited! God is so good!

Necklace #1: Pouch Up

2010-10-15T23:10:00.000-04:00

You might be wondering about my title. It's because the pendant of this necklace is a Mommy and baby Kangaroo. So cute. I just beaded a combination of Howlite and Canadian Jade semi-precious stones in this necklace. I added some Swarovski crystals to add sparkle to the one wearing this. I thought this would be a lovely gift for an expecting Mom or any Moms. To be a mother means you will have your primary responsibility to your offsprings.

More Buttons just arrived

2010-10-15T21:20:00.000-04:00

Here are more of the buttons that I bought online lately. Aren't they cute? They will be used as my focal point in making cabochons. Yes, it would be nice to just stick the pin at the back and wear it as it is but I like to put more style. Grins. I hope to start my cabochon projects soon.

The seller gave me the purple one one for free. Isn't she nice? It would be nice to use for Halloween theme.

A glimpse of my Cabochon's focal point

2010-10-07T14:37:00.000-04:00

Hi guys, I thought of sharing to you one of the peices I bought in my Cabochon shopping online lately. It's this moon face cabochon. She's so simple and pretty. And I want to turn her into a Cabochon necklace as soon as I gathered all the materials I bought online.

I'm wishing myself a luck.

Music---My husband's passion

2010-10-07T14:31:00.000-04:00

My husband seemed to be looking for an outlet where he can share his passion in music. So I'm glad he was able to post about some of his favorite music in this blog. How about that folks? A little bit something to serenade us, right? He has been playing some cd's of Philip Feeney's "Dracula". Ok, my husband is not a vampire. He just love to hear music that stirs his heart. This one really made me goosbumps everytime I hear it. He posted a short note a few days ago in this blog about it and he also have another blog called the Thundering Legion. My husband's music passion is not just about haunted music, he also loves to play his Grand Piano. It's a medium sized one that almost fit our whole living room. He has been missing it these days so I want to encourage him to play more because I want to see and hear him playing. I will try recording him playing it and I will share it also in this blog.

Dracula

2010-10-02T15:51:00.000-04:00

I posted an article on Philip Feeney's Ballet music for Dracula on my own blog. This is a tour de force of creepy music, perfect for Halloween.

EWC

Flowers in Saturday #1

2010-10-02T13:42:00.000-04:00

My first entry of Ewa's "Flowers in Saturday" meme. I think this flower is called Geranium. I took a close up picture of it as it was pretty in bloom by the nearby church from our house. For more Flowers in Saturday entries, click above button.

The Doors of Calape

2010-09-29T20:25:00.001-04:00

When I was in the Philippines in December 2007, I was impressed by the church of St. Vincent Ferrer in Calape, Bohol. We visited it when our family was traveling to Talibon to get some Moron, a local delicacy that (apparently) is similar to the farina we make at home with chocolate. On the way home we stopped to see the church.

The first thing that impressed me was the doors. When we arrived, I noticed that there were pictures on the panels of the doors.

The doors on this side had pictures of various popes, in this case Pius V, the saint and reformer, who changed history by bringing together the coalition that won the Battle of Lepanto. Here's a picture of the door with a beautiful woman to make it interesting..

The front doors of the church (in the first photograph) had Eucharistic designs of wheat and grapes, while the doors on the other side (if I remember correctly) had old-testament saints, including Moses.

You could see that the work was never completed; toward the end of the church, the popes become less well carved, and eventually are just scratches in the wood. These scratches were painted over, so one would infer that the project was abandoned. Perhaps the artist died during the Japanese occupation in World War II.

The Calape church is more recent than most of the churches in Bohol. It is the only church I saw there with a gothic design. Most of them are Spanish in style and quite impressive.

A photograph of the Calape Church from Wikimedia Commons

For a short explanation of the importance of art in a church, I recommend Ugly As Sin: Why They Changed Our Churches from Sacred Places to Meeting Spaces and How We Can Change Them Back Again, by Michael Rose.

EWC

Stained Glass in St. Cecilia's Chapel

2010-09-28T10:43:00.000-04:00

Every time we visited at St. Cecilia's chapel in Holy redeemer parish, I always love to see this magnificent piece of Stained glass art. Aside from this piece, they still have lots of stained glass surrounding the church. It is said that they are handmade by some artist long time ago. Isn't it amazing to create such art?

My story of making handmade Rosaries

2010-09-21T16:16:00.000-04:00

This is a handmade rosary that I made for my Papa. Yes, I made the chains and linked the glass beads to one another. I used the missionary wire, probably mixed copper and nickelsilver. The center of it is made of sterling silver with crystals and the crucifix is made of nickelsilver.

The story of my knowing to do this craft is through my good husband. He is very crafty when it comes to like this. In fact, he also made me my Wedding rosary. That was so thoughtful of him. It is made of swarovski crystals and sterling silver wires, center and crucifix.

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My Latest Drawing

2010-09-18T10:58:00.000-04:00

Here's my latest drawing. Like most of my recent drawings, it was done for a special occasion; in this case I needed a card for a friend who is moving to Florida.
This drawing has more of a cartoon look, because I drew an outline in ink. I plan to make a few things with this design on Zazzle.

Keep drawing!

EWC

Skywatch Friday #1

2010-09-17T12:30:00.000-04:00

Here are my sky watch photos for the week. We went to Erie, PA to see tall ships especially the bounty. The third and fourth shots are interesting. I didn't do any image-editing to it. They're all original. Natural is the best Art. Both of which taken the same day except the weather when we enter the gates to check out that tall ship in the picture, it was threatening. But right after we finished our tour and I came back to the sight again, the weather changed to a good one.

Join more sky watch entries here and click the button below:

My husband's completed 50 U.S. state commemorative quarters

2010-09-15T14:20:00.000-04:00

Here is one of my hobby. Collecting coins which I'm inspired to collect because of my husband's completed U.S. state quarter folder. His collection folder is unique because it has a map of the 50 states in U.S. Do you collect coins too? If so, what kind?

Got a $10 from designing a cabochon necklace

2010-09-10T11:33:00.000-04:00

My husband's friend who got interested in my art craft thing, summon me to make a cabochon necklace out from the cabochon stone she already have. She said her son gave it to her as a gift and she doesn't know what to do with it. I think it's one of those natural stones but I can't figure out which kind of a stone that ends with a suffix "ite". Anyway, she gave me a deal that she can pay $5 to me if I can turn her stone into a necklace. I would've made it for her for free as I'm just a beginner and she's my husband's friend. But in the end, she was very happy and impressed of the result which is the above picture. She doubled the money that she wanted to pay me in the first place. Oh well, wonders of art, I suppose. And hey, what a good idea to earn extra income!

The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects

2010-09-06T08:37:00.001-04:00

The GIMP, as I have mentioned in an earlier post is a powerful, open-source, free graphics editor. It is very powerful, but difficult to learn.

The GIMP gives you a toolbox with many simple tools, but you can combine them to create some fantastic effects. For example, here is something I created using text in the Old English fonts I have on my computer (I think they are from Dover's Old English collection) .

This involved many steps. It required duplicating images, adding blurs, using the "bump map" filters, adding random noise, and much more. I would never have guessed how to add these elements together without reading The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects: Creative Techniques for Photographers, Artists, and Designers.

This book consists of step-by-step tutorials that show you how to use the basic elements in the GIMP's toolkit to create various artistic effects. After working many of the exercises in the book, you will have acquired an understanding of the process of creating digital art, which you can apply in new and creative ways. It is a little expensive, so I would suggest buying it used or asking your library to borrow it from another library for you (assuming that they don't have it in their collection). It is definitely worth taking a few hours to work through the exercises.

EWC

Saving Pictures with Curves

2010-09-01T20:47:00.000-04:00

Photography is a challenging art, and it often happens that a perfect shot is ruined because the light wasn't right for your camera settings. It is often possible to improve a picture significantly with a good photo editor.
My favorite editor is the GIMP, a free and open-source editor available in a number of platforms. The trick I will talk about today can also be done in Adobe Photoshop or other programs.

Here is a photograph from my son's baptism.

As you can see, it is rather dark. But the moment is so precious that we don't want to just throw it away. Rather, we open the picture in the GIMP and choose the Curves tool from the Color menu.

This menu shows a shaded histogram of the number of pixels for each value from black to white. As you can see, there is practically nothing brighter than about 50% gray. We then adjust the line (it is the solid line with the circles on it) to change the brightness of the picture, which gives a much more pleasing picture.

It takes some experience an experimentation to choose the best transformation for the picture. One has to be careful in trying to preserve the colors of the original picture. Colors may shift as you apply a non-linear curve, because the red, green, and blue values for a pixel might be on different points of the curve and be changed by a different amount. In general, you want the curve to be strictly increasing.

You can actually take advantage of this to make a picture more interesting. For instance, I took this image of a blue jay.

After masking the blue jay to protect it from change I applied the following curve to the rest of the picture.

That curve is decidedly non-monotone, so you can expect to see some distortion of the picture. What you get after applying this curve (and a little background-glow for the blue jay) is this psychedelic image.

Give it a try, as it can be quite fun. The one thing to remember is that you always, always, always, make a copy of a picture and edit the copy. Your original pictures are irreplacable, and they lose information every time you save them, so be careful.

EWC

Heart's content of a Mama's 2nd Blog Anniversary

2010-08-30T22:56:00.000-04:00

To my fellow artists and artisans, I have been running a giveaway contest at Heart's content of a Mama. I'm inviting you to join. Hop in, and let's have fun! There will be a total of five winners. Giveaway runs from August 25, 2010 to September 25, 2010. See you there!

Trying some luck for the first time in Water color art

2010-08-30T20:33:00.000-04:00

I just made that from a book exercise on doing some water color art. The first page were the basic strokes and the drawings on the left were rough sketches. I am not good at it yet. It's my first time to use this medium. It's hard at first but once you get used to the brush, your energy will just flow and you can do an art. I hope we can do another exercise together again, Hon.

Collection #1: Stamps from France

2010-08-26T19:28:00.000-04:00

Now I'm starting a round to share one of my collections. As you can see, I got into a hobby of collecting stamps last September. I found awesome collectors online and tried to bid in credits, not in money, and got lucky to collect a few of them. I got attracted to it's artistic prints and the fact that it's from other countries like France. I wish I could sell them someday.

Do you like collecting? What stuff do you collect?

Upright

2010-08-24T17:02:00.000-04:00

Last week, I posted an upside-down drawing for you to copy. It is an excellent exercise for training your eyes to take over when you are drawing something. Most people are amazed to see that their upside-down drawing looks much more like the original than what they can produce when they copy the drawing right-side up.

As promised, here is the original drawing.

The original, like many of my original drawings, is gone. I drew this one as a postcard for a soldier who was stationed in Iraq, but it never got to him. Perhaps it was stolen from the mail, or perhaps it was censored. The inscription could have been interpreted as favoring the war:

Non vellicandus draco
aureo in cubiculo suo dormiens;
ira ejus terribilis et ardens.

Which would mean "Do not disturb the dragon sleeping on his golden bed; his anger is terrible and burning." If you believed (and his family did, indeed, believe) that Iraq had anything to do with September 11, this would be a very bellicose message. So I had to put a note on the back explaining that it wasn't. I'm sure the army didn't like that.

I still like this drawing, even though I've learned a lot since its creation.

EWC

Zazzle

2010-08-18T12:28:00.000-04:00

Zazzle is a business that allows you to customize your own merchandise, such as tee shirts, coffee mugs, and ring binders. It is a way to generate a little extra income from your art projects.

Today, I received a notice that someone had purchased one of my products.

Baby Delivery Stork

This is a shirt with the delivery stork I drew for the announcements of my son's birth. The original design was in pen and ink, but I added color to the image with the GIMP. It isn't a lot of money, but selling something always makes me feel that somebody out there likes what I've drawn.

EWC

Upside Down

2010-08-17T21:06:00.000-04:00

I mentioned Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards, in a previous post. That was the book that made it possible to learn how to draw.

Edwards's unifying idea in the book is that our minds have two distinct ways of dealing with the world. There is the left brain, which processes symbols, words, and logic, and the right brain, which works with images and intuition. Both sides are important and necessary, but the left brain tends to take control even in the places where it is not as good as the right side.

Drawing a picture upside down is an old technique for improving your skills. It works, according to the theory, by taking the meaning out of the drawing, so that the left brain gets bored and lets the right brain take over. You then exert your energies in reproducing the picture rather than understanding it.

Here is an exercise. Take your pen or pencil and draw this picture as it appears on the screen. Do not print it and turn it upright to see what it looks like. When you are done, turn it upright and see what it looks like.

I drew the original on a postcard that I mailed to a friend's son in Iraq, but he never received it. Perhaps it was because of the message I wrote on the back asking that it not be interpreted as supporting the war; which might seem a fair interpretation of the inscription. It remains one of my favorite drawings from the time before I learned how to draw realistically. I will post a copy of the original color drawing next week, but, if you are impatient, you can see it in my Zazzle store.

Take the time to do the exercise, because drawing is magical. You will never regret learning how to do it.

EWC

Sterling Silver chandelier earrings with Canadian Jade stones and Swarovski crystals

2010-08-16T18:12:00.000-04:00

I am trying my best to keep up with my art stuff lately. So I made this chandelier earrings with Canadian natural stones and swarovski crystals. The wire's are made with .925 sterling silver, same with the fish hooks and bead caps. And yes, it is for sale. Just contact me and name your price.

Ruby Tuesday: My Husband's Drawing "My Precioussssss"

2010-08-10T14:04:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, my first time to join this meme. (: Can't help myself to share with you this artwork that my husband is trying to finish. It was leaning by the wall of our computer room and I'm always scared every time I enter to pick up the ringing phone in that room. Anyways, here are the pictures.

The apple or shall we say, the fruit of evil in his drawing is in red so I think it will be perfect for this Ruby Tuesday Meme.

The medium he used are the Prismacolor colored pencils for artists.

A 500,000 Pesos worth Stained glass for Luck

2010-08-06T06:30:00.000-04:00

This is a picture of me way back in March 18, 2008. I remembered the exact date because it was our last day in the room that we rented for two weeks in Sta. Anna, Ermita, Manila. I still have a high fever at that time because I felt sick during my interview day in U.S. Embassy for my VISA. It was my college friend Uncle's building whom a rich Spanish guy in his past life gave it to him from his Will. About the stained glass, yes, it is worth 500,000 pesos and I think it was more expensive than that before but he lowered the price so that somebody worth it will take care of this magnificent work of art. I was still shocked about the price and I can view it in my room, touch it, and hush in awe of how the glasses are arranged piece by piece and the blend of colors in this art. My friend's Uncle told me that it's a symbol of a "Sarimanok", a colorful chicken that brings fortune and luck, and the artist was a very famous one in Philippines and I forgot who his name was. I have to get back to her again in Facebook. But anyway, I took advantage of taking a picture of myself with it because if someday that it will be sold by somebody, I will never see it again.

My Etsy Item for sale#1: Ukrainian Art Easter Egg or Pysaka - Custom design Four

2010-08-03T16:50:00.000-04:00

The important thing about making Ukrainian Easter eggs is PATIENCE. Yes, it taught me so. Making this single batik egg art is not that difficult once you master patience. I broke quite a few eggs the first time because I used raw eggs. And there came a time that I will be using blown eggs from now on. You have to come up with a design first and lay it in a piece of paper of what color you wanted those sections because you have to dip the egg into the egg dye layer by layer and coat it with beeswax. As you can see in the first picture, it's all black. That's not the finished project, that's just the beginning. You have to melt and wipe off the beeswax to reveal the designs. Dramatic, isn't it?

Yes, and after you wipe all and smoothen the egg surface with design, you have to coat it with varnish.

Here's the finished products below:

Learning How to Draw

2010-07-30T15:08:00.000-04:00

Hello, everyone. My wife asked me to contribute to this blog, so let me tell you a little about myself.

I learned how to draw around the year 2000. For most of my life, I thought I simply did not have the talent, but my brother convinced me to try the exercise in Betty Edwards's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (you can buy a copy of the latest version here). Betty Edwards taught that anybody can learn how to draw; the key skill being to perceive things the way an artist does (what she calls the right-brain mode). I gave it a try, working my way through the exercises. Back then I would frequently go to a quiet corner the library and study some subject that interested me, such as Greek or mathematics, so I would bring an object to draw and spend half an hour to an hour on it. Eventually, I mastered the beginning skills and took a drawing course at the local community college.

My primary media are graphite and colored pencils, but I am also interested in computer art. Aside from drawing, I also love to make music which is a great art of itself; perhaps I will talk about it here as well.

Keep drawing!

EWC

How to arrange a stunning pot of flowers?

2010-07-29T08:02:00.000-04:00

Hi guys, do you have flowers in your backyard? Are you thinking of a special gift and non-expensive way to give to your special someone? How about grabbing those flowers in your backyard and turn them into a stunning pot of flowers instead? Here are my simple steps of creating this special gift. I adapt it after watching Rebecca Kolls's tips.

The materials you will need are floral foam, knife, small pot (I like the clay ones), choose your flowers (I got my MIL's peonies here), 1 or 2 skewers, peat moss, and some ribbons (it was before independence day that I made this).

Step 1: Insert the floral foam inside the clay pot. Make sure to poke holes in it so it can absorb and store water. Make the floral foam fit snuggly to the pot. Let the skewer stand at the center of the floral foam, this will serve as a support in standing the stems of the flowers.

Step 2: Insert the stems of the flowers into the floral foam. Make sure they are near the skewers to avoid bending over. Secure the stems together with a twist tie at the center of the stems like the picture below.

Step 3: Place some peat moss above the floral foam to add neatness.

Step 4: Check out necessary arrangements of your flower stems together and the neatness of how you arranged the peat moss like the picture below.

Step 5: Make it special looking by adding some ribbons and turn it into a bow at the center.

This is the final floral arrangement project below:

Neat isn't it? Now it's your turn to try it.

Just a note from the Admin

2010-07-28T13:11:00.000-04:00

Just recently, I encouraged my husband to share his artworks as well in this blog. So, it will be more exciting! It's a combination of our Artistic minds. I'm really looking forward to partner with him. So folks, stay tuned!

My Art Stuff 3: My 1st Ukrainian Easter Egg "Pysanky"

2010-07-28T13:00:00.000-04:00

The picture above is what I designed of my first pysanky. I remember I was afraid of avoiding to squeeze hard on the egg shell so it won't break. My husband taught me how to do it because I liked the pysanky art he showed me during his high school days that he took a Russian subject. I used chicken eggs when I do pysanka. Some arts of it use different kinds of eggs aside from chickens, like goose and any kind of bird eggs as long as it is white and smooth. In creating a pysanky, one should use beeswax and a kyska to write or draw designs in the egg. You have to keep in mind that you if you want more colors in your egg, you have to do it layer by layer like from light colors first to dark ones. After you finish your project, you have to coat it with varnish to preserve the egg dye colors and makes the egg shell more durable because of extra coating. You can either use a raw or blown egg in making pysanky. I used a raw egg in that first pysanky, but later on after making 20 of them, I decided to shift to blown eggs because I broke lots of eggs and I don't like the yolks to mix in my dyes. Blown eggs are nicer but a little bit complicated to work with because it's lighter and it will float in the dye easily. What I usually do is to cage it by putting more steel spoons above it.

My Art Stuff 2: Stained-glass Mosaic picture frame

2010-07-06T13:02:00.000-04:00

This is my simple art work of a stained-glass mosaic picture frame. I made this one yesterday during the MOPS meeting in our Area.

Several mothers come to the meeting which is every 1st and 3rd Wednesday at Calvary Baptist Church, Warren, PA.

During our meeting, we had this art craft design. We were given colorful bits and pieces of glass. There were plain or empty bordered frames, epoxy and tapes. These are the basic materials needed to create your own mosaic picture frame.

Here are the simple steps from what I learned. First, I chose black colored frame from 3 choices with light brown and white. Second, I chose different colors of glass and I lay it down directly on the frame. It's like solving a puzzle. Third, After I arranged the glass the way I like it, I put transparent tape and run it over the glass pieces. I pressed down the tape to make sure the glass is stuck well in it. With a use of a razor, I cut m glass into 4 pieces. Four sections, 2 horizontal and 2 vertical. Fifth, I gently slide the glass strand off out of the frame. Sixth, Squeeze in the Epoxy on the sides the side of the picture frame and spread it with a craft stick. Wait until 5 minutes until its hard. If you want the traditional look, you can spread Grout by applying it to your fingers pushing it into the cracks. There are more steps after that. But what I did on mine is that my frame was black so it was not suitable for putting grout in it because the Grout's color is brown. Our craft moderator said if we choose black frame and without the Grout, it will have a modern look.

Me and many of the mothers in our group liked doing this. They said they saw sunset in my design. Oh well, I'm flattered. Thanks Girls! So the above picture is my final item. I didn't like the result of the colored picture in it though. So I changed it to one of my pictures with Sepia effect in it, which is better.

This is a re-post from my website: Heart's content of a Mama.

My Art Stuff 1: Learning basic strokes in PASTEL

2010-07-06T12:59:00.000-04:00

Last October 1, 2009, me and my husband joined the Art League for the second time in Warren area. Several artists meet there every first Thursday of the month. The main topic of that day is learning how to apply Pastels with basic strokes. Nancy Petruney, one of the artist there taught us how to do this. We brought pastels with us and she showed us hers. Gees, there are lots of brand and good pastels she showed us. There are some that are toxic too. The above picture is my art work that day. You can see different strokes. Short, long, dotted ones and even mixing colors in Pastel too.

I just thought of doing a simple subject. I don't know if this is a good one. Good thing my hubby was bringing a maple leaf at that time. So this is my first pastel drawing.

This is my husband's pastel drawing. It look like a Pear fruit. I thought of it as a nice drawing because it came out from his imagination.

This is a re-post from my website, Heart's content of a Mama. I love working on pastels. Its texture is more vibrant than using ordinary crayons. I would love to do some pastel art one of these days. I hope I get more time.

Introduction

2010-06-24T11:37:00.000-04:00

I am creating this blog to be a haven of my arts and collecting hobbies. It is open to everyone who likes the same hobby as well. My art and crafts will specify on Pysanky or Ukrainian Easter Eggs, Jewelry making (wire, chord, beads), Tie dyeing, Knitting and many other interesting projects that I just started. My collecting hobby are on Stamps, Coins, and other vintage and new collectible stuff. Stay tuned guys for more!