Wednesday, August 4, 2010

A day of creativity.


I rolled out of bed today with "the itch."
I didn't know what, I didn't know how...but I had to do something "arty."
We all know that feeling: like you can't sit still and you're full to bursting so you've just gotta grab a utensil and a surface...(any utensil and whatever surface)...and get it out!!
But what??
A strange epiphany came to me as I had my morning pee. (ew! haha sorry.) Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I glanced around groggily as I sat upon my porcelain throne of creativity and thought..."my bathroom walls are white...how boring!"
And so I was on a mission.
I have no house paint or tools (Say: Behr, Ralph Lauren, Sherwinn Williams brand in big buckets, rollers, Tom Sawyer wide bristles, that blue magic tape, the "get-in-the-corner-sponge") to speak of whatsoever.
So I improvised.
I sqeezed out one of my Apple acrylic paint bottles in it's entirety into a tupperware tub, watered it down, stirred, and went at it with a washcloth.
First coat I did vertical, second coat horizontal, third coat sponging and dabbing.
Because the paint was so watery and I varied application techniques-and it was acrylic so it dried super fast-I achieved an awesome textured effect in a loamy earthy green. I'm quite pleased.

Then, later on, I made a failed attempt at assembling an Ikea sliding drawer side table...too many parts, forget it. So instead, I cut up the giant box it came in and will use the wonderful wide squares of cardboard as canvasses. (I can't afford actual canvass right now so these will do beautifully.)

I brainstormed for a while and started sketching ideas of what to put on my first 2 by 4ft slab of cardboard and this guy came on out. A little fifteen minute sketch, mostly me erasing and re-drawing and erasing and re-drawing some more to get the angle of his head and his hands just right. I wish I had spent more time on the way his fabric hangs, the way it falls over his arm and such...but it is just a sketch after all. Anyway, he seems to feel pretty peaceful about himself and so I feel I must too.

I don't know yet if he will make the journey from drawing board to "canvass" but for now...he will have to keep seeking enlightenment from my sketchbook.

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