Self Portrait

I've been thinking for a while that the side banner on this blog needed a self portrait.  Since I'm not really a big fan of pictures of myself, I was less than enthusiastic about putting the time and energy into actually painting a self portrait, so I decided a photo would do to fill the gap.  Since this is an art blog however, a plain photo right out of the camera wouldn't do.  So, with the help and magic of Photoshop, here is my completed self portrait.

I was inspired by this drawing by M.C. Escher to create an image where I was painting myself.

M.C. Escher is one of my all time favorite artists and I had a poster of this picture hanging in my room when I was a kid.  His art is so magical and thought provoking.  I could spend hours looking at it.  It is so mesmerizing.  I LOVE IT!!!

Here is the original photograph that I created the final image from.  It's a selfie that I took in the forest on our vacation to Seattle earlier this year.  The hand in the final product is also mine, but it came from another photograph, and the paint brush is right out of the Brighton Mural logo.

Overall, I'm happy with the final result (I think it looks a little like the cover of a paint by number kit), but if you want to see some REAL art created from a photograph, and not just someone playing around in Photoshop, you should check out the pet portraits at artpaw.com.  They are amazing works of art created by talented artist, Rebecca Collins.  As an animal lover (and multiple pet owner) I can appreciate the desire to have really high quality portraits of our furry friends that will be around forever.  She really captures something special about each of the animals in her paintings and her use of color is wonderful!  I stumbled across her website on accident and instantly became a big fan.

The Return of Lisaloons!

When I was a kid, my sister gave me one of those "how to make balloon animals" kits for my birthday.  The rest was history.  I really don't remember learning how to make my first balloon poodle (or whatever my first creation was).  It's just something I feel like I've always known how to do.  Making balloons for the neighborhood kids, the random church party or school activity was just a normal part of my childhood.  At one point in college I decided it would be a fun and easy way to make some extra money and decided to market myself as a balloon lady.  I was the entertainment for various non-profit activities, children's birthday parties, and community events.  It was fun while it lasted, but it was never intended to be a long term career move and I eventually got a real job and balloons went back to being a hobby.

Back in the day though, I had a pretty awesome get up.  I branded myself as:

LISALOONS

Pets that don't need feeding!

 

Somewhere I'm sure I have the files of my old "official" logo, business cards, etc.  If I ever find them I'll post an update.  I even had T-shirts made, the whole nine-yards!  My mom made me an awesome vest to wear at events to keep my balloons and supplies in while I worked and that seemed to draw as much attention than the balloons themselves.  It always surprised me how much people loved it (thanks Mom!).  In addition to the vest, my "uniform" consisted of a court jester hat that I would make for myself to wear as the first balloon.  It was part of my "gig."

 

It has now been more years than I care to think about since I've made balloons at an event, and even more since I've been "in business" and this random skill of mine has now become a little known secret to people who didn't know me when.

 

Getting to the point, a friend of mine just opened a new fabric store called "...and sew on" (click on the name to check it out),  and Saturday was her Grand Opening Celebration.  She asked me if I would come and make balloons at the store to draw some attention and entertain the kids while the parents shopped.  I guess by now you can tell that I accepted the invite.  It was fun brushing the dust of the vest and playing balloon lady again.  Here are some pictures of the day.

 

My friend Carolyn Bradshaw, owner of this awesome store, and her daughter (and employee) Jenna posing for the Grand Opening of "...and sew on."

 

Getting out the balloon vest brought back great memories of my mom.  The colors of my hat were selected in her memory (purple is the pancreatic cancer awareness ribbon color).

This mannequin definitely needed a head :).

 

Close up of my new business partner. 

I had a lady ask how much it cost to buy this rabbit. Cute!  She was thrilled when I just gave it to her.

 

The pink poodle... a balloon requirement.

Carolyn hard at work!

This was the first gig I think I've ever had that included a place to sit.  Sweet!  Thanks Carolyn!

Superheroes defending the store against crime!

Monkey in a tree

Love Birds

Bouquet of flowers in the candy dish.



Goodbye from Lisaloons!

Congratulations on your Grand Opening Carolyn! It was a great day.  Thanks for letting me be a part of it.



Art Lesson with Gary Squares- Part 2

Another painting got completed last night from the girls that I started to teach"Gary Squares" to earlier this month.

This is Joelette.  Look what she painted!!

Joelette is a fantastic future artist and I loved her passion for this project.  The palm leaves turned out amazing! and I love all of the colors in the sand and water.  The purple in the sky is so pretty against the shadow of the tree.  NICE JOB!!!!!

"Joelette's Beach" 12"x12" acrylic on canvas
by Joelette Organista, age 15

Old Faithful Photoshop

Last week I went to Yellowstone with my best friend and my nephew.  It was an awesome trip!  Here is one of my favorite moments...

Well, okay, maybe it wasn't a real moment, but this one was:

Kristin was taking this picture, so she wasn't in it

And so was this one:

We took this picture before we found the other sign that wasn't in front of a bunch of a trees.

Thanks to the magic of Photoshop I was able to combine these two photos to create an image where all three of us are standing in front of "Old Faithful" as it is erupting, even though we never actually posed for that picture.

This image, after I merged the two photos together, shows several places where some people appear in the photo more than once.  I had to copy some existing spectators and strategically place them in areas that would help cover up unwanted pieces of the original picture that were still visible after the merge (like my head).  Notice the couple in the green circles got flipped into a mirror image.

 The next step is to delete the guy out of the picture.

 



In this set, the bottom image is a close up the results after removing the man in the black shirt.  In the above picture, you can see where his head is blocking a row of spectators.  In order to remove it from the final picture I had to copy the group of people that you can see in the upper left hand corner of the top image, flip them, and paste them over the head in the upper right hand corner of the bottom image.

Once I was done I decided to crop the image more than I had originally planned, so I could have gotten away without doing some of the people moving work that I did at first, but oh well.  The end result is an awesome group shot.

 

Greetings from all of us in Yellowstone!

 

Art Lesson with Gary Squares- Part 1

I recently taught a small group of young women how to paint pictures using the style of painting that I leaned from Gary and John Collins that I affectionately refer to as "Gary Squares."  To make the project simpler, and so it would fit in the time frame we had, I squared everything off into 16 squares instead of 36.  I was hopeful that they would turn out well and that the reduction in squares wouldn't affect the final outcome too much.  Good call, because it totally worked!  Check out their awesome work!



This is Bryn. She painted this awesome wave.  I love how she captured the movement of the water and used purple in the lower right hand corner.  It looks fantastic!

"Bryn's Wave" 12"x12" acrylic on canvas
by Bryn Koldewyn, 14 years old

This next piece was done by the Potts' family and was a collaborative effort between a mother and her two daughters.  They each worked on different parts of it, but the end result is very cohesive.  My favorite thing about this piece is the shadow of the boat and the way the colors blend from the red trim of the boat, all the way down to the sand.  I also really like the horizon line.  Even though the entire background is essentially all blue, there is no question as to where the water ends and the sky begins.  They opted out of posing in the picture, but here is the finished piece.  Love it!

"Potts' Boat" 12"x12" acrylic on canvas
by Members of the Potts Family

There were two more future artists in the group, but they are still working on their paintings.  I will post them once they are done.

As a side note, these artist's didn't name their own pieces, so the titles I've given are subject to change if they ever do so :).