some sort of me :)

this weeks assignment was to create a painting of MYSELF! easy enough right!? i've looked at this face in the mirror everyday for the last twenty years, so i SHOULD... should be able to make a decent picture of me! the catch here was that the picture is supposed to be a caricature! you may have seen these zaney portraits walking the streets of disneyland or other theme parks! basically a caricature is a face that has been exaggerated in certain areas. i decided to exaggerate the features that i thought may be most attractive... the eyes and lips... AND HAIR OF COURSE! my mama's from texas, i know a little somethin about big hair so i absolutely HAD to include some great big exaggerated curls! i'm still not completely satisfied with the painting yet... but i can't put my finger on what needs to be fixed up! HELP ME BROTHER BURR!

inspiration from alexa

HOLY COW THIS WOMAN'S INCREDIBLE!!! what a creative idea! she does these beautiful paintings of people!... there's a catch though! 

instead of painting a picture of a person on a canvas, she actually paints a WALL, and a FLOOR, and she literally puts PAINT ON A PERSON'S FACE and then photographs that person in the painted background! 

when i saw her work i thought it was a lie! my husband came upon her on the internet and called me over to look at these pieces and he was trying to explain to me her process and i just wasn't understanding! after THREE tries, it finally clicked that she's painting ONTO real life objects! and it looks incredible! 

check it out, but prepare for your brain to go into OVERDRIVE for a moment! http://alexameade.com/index.html

REVISION JIG

i became so entranced with my ballerinas that i overlooked all the many flaws that it had! (which OFTEN happens, i'll fall so in love with a piece's beautiful moments and I'll just forget about the downfalls of these projects). 

a couple of things came out in the critique from my class--- the pink ballerina's hair is too specific against all these general marks, her tutu needs some more interesting marks just for the sake of variety, there should be some more line work in the background to keep it consistent, and the background needs SOMETHING! this orange-ish plain background just wasn't cuttin it! 

so, i went back to work :) and tried to adjust what needed to be adjusted! 

HOPEFULLY it's doing work!... HARD CORE

DANCING QUEEN

this week's digital illustration assignment was to create an arbitrary color piece, meaning an image in which the colors are completely random! like a blue pumpkin, or a green sky, or ETC! i decided to use subject matter that i LOVE! 

when i was five years old my mother signed me up for piano lessons! then came the theater practices and the choir concerts and the report cards and the student government and all that jazz! in the mix of all those wonderfully fun activities, i never got to play sports and i never got to DANCE! 

i watch dance performances and just LONG for that talent! i would LOVE to be able to leap and fly through the air! or to lift my leg into an effortless extension! it would be SO cool to be able to stand in a point shoe and look like a natural born dancer! 

sadly, i can't dance to save my life, but i DEEPLY respect those that can! so i chose to do an arbitrary painting of dancers for this week's assignment!

CHECK IT OUT HOMES :)

cake :) again

ANOTHER yumo chocolate cake recipe! had this for FHE last night and people wanted seconds! definitely full of choco-goodness that can't go wrong! :)

Black and White Cake (makes sixteen servings-520 calories)

½ cup butter or margarine

4 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate

1 cup water

1 ¼ cup white vanilla baking chips

1 package cream cheese, softened (3 oz.)

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

½ cup sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla

1 bag miniature semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups, 12 oz.)

3 tbsp. half-and-half

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12-cup fluted tube cake pan with shortening (do not use cooking spray); coat lightly with flour. In a small microwaveable bowl, place butter, unsweetened chocolate and water. Microwave uncovered on High for 1 minute; stir. Continue to microwave at 15 second intervals until butter is melted and chocolate is smooth.

2. In another small microwaveable bowl, microwave 1 cup of the vanilla baking chips uncovered on High for 1 minute; stir until chips are smooth. In small bowl, beat cream cheese and 1 egg with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in melted vanilla chips on medium speed.

3. In a large bowl, mix butter-chocolate mixture, remaining 2 eggs, sugar, flour, salt, baking powder, sour cream, vanilla, and 1 cup of the semisweet chocolate chips on low speed just until mixed. Spoon 2 cups of the chocolate batter into cake pan. Drop cream cheese filling by teaspoonfuls onto batter in pan, being careful not to let filling touch sides of pan. Spoon remaining chocolate batter on top.

4. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted into chocolate cake comes out clean (while filling may cling). Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours.

5. In small microwaveable bowl, microwave remaining 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips uncovered on High for 1 minute; stir until smooth. Stir in half-and-half until smooth. Spoon over cake, allowing some to drizzle down sides. In small plastic food-storage bag, microwave remaining ¼ cup vanilla baking chips on High for 30 seconds or until melted. Squeeze bag until chips are smooth. Cut small tip from one corner of bag; squeeze bag to drizzle melted chips over cake.

memories in the making

dillon and i have really been trying to make a bigger and better effort to get to know people lately. i believe that everyone has a story to share and i have something to learn from every person i pass, every person i encounter, and every friend i have!... it's just a matter of getting to know that person well enough to learn their story! so, we've been seeking out new friends and been making some good memories! not going to lie, i get nervous going out on a limb at times, but it's ALWAYS worth it. i see things in people that i love, things that i want to emulate and bring into my character! it feels good to look for the good in people and to FIND it! it's a blessing to be surrounded by INCREDIBLE people! truly a BLESSING! i feel overwhelming love for my neighbors and friends and family. i am who i am because of them. thank you for sharing your personalities with me and my husband and for creating some FOND, to say the least, memories :) we are blessed.

matisse OHHH matisse

remember that one painting that i said i was going to have to recreate? the FANTASTIC still life by henri matisse? WELP i went at it today and have decided to call it good! upon beginning my matisse-experience, i started to notice ALL the colors... and i mean ALL of them! areas of the piece that seemed to be ONE color, upon closer examination, revealed themselves to be HUNDREDS OF COLORS! this guy truly believed in making a masterpiece SING with colors! in order to do this painting justice, to the best of my abilities, i decided i was going to have to crop it down to my FAVORITE square. i wanted to put down every color i could see and trying to do that with the entire painting would take weeks! so i've cropped it down and tried to simplify as much as possible! VERY HELPFUL :) 

here's matisse's original

here's my attempt at copying the genius of matisse

mission impossible

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! COME ONE COME ALL! i am in the process of attempting to do the near impossible! my skills will be put to the test as i whirl through paint strokes and textures seen in the traditional work of.... HENRI MATISSE!

i've been assigned to recreate a classic masterful painting by an artist of my choosing. sounds easier then done right?! i am a fan of modern art (MINUS all that dada NONSENSE work) so i chose to recreate a fauve artist's work, namely henri matisse! he was a WONDERFUL painter that focused on color. he had the mind set of art being "visual music". i LOVE that concept! it's just YUMO! :) 

so wish me luck as i embark on recreating this fantastic artist's painting, stroke for stroke, line for line, hopefully you can tell what it is by the end! AHH!

ART REPENTANCE

my teacher seemed to like my textured layered piece and i've decided that i like it too! it's a different look than what i'm used to but the technique produces some SUPER interesting things to look at, so i guess i'm a fan you could say! i was ULTRA impressed with all the pieces that the rest of my classmates made! this field is so competitive it's scary sometimes, but it's beautiful to see other people creating such LOVELY work! it's inspiring more than it is intimidating! and MOTIVATING definitely! so i went back and fixed up a couple of things that had been critiqued and i like it much better now! got rid of the distracting text and embellished a few more textures! VWAH-LA! :)

layered textures

this week's digital illustration assignment was to create an image that has multiple layers and LOTS of texture with some cool "layer modes". this was a particularly difficult assignment for me, because i am a SUPER structured artist! i have a hard time making spontaneous, zaney marks and that's what this assignment was ENTIRELY! it's good for me to experiment and get out of my box! so lesson learned! even if the image isn't so hot, i got my "texture jitters" out and tried something new! this piece was all in the name of experimenting!

hello goodbye autumn

a week ago I attended the general conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as I was standing around in Salt Lake City, waiting to get into the building, I thought to myself, "MAN OH MAN it's hot out here!" It was BLAZING like a furnace/oven/cocoa/FLAMBE! I was literally sweating (ew... that's kind of gross... don't judge!) ANYWAY i was hot, but i was also admiring all the LOVELY, BEAUTIFUL, GLORIOUS orange and red and golden leaves. i was so pleased to see color that is only around at this time of year! 

a week later, here i am back in rexburg idaho and we've had LOVELY, BEAUTIFUL, GLORIOUS rain! i am in love with the smell and the sight and the sound of rain. it is ULTRA relaxing and comforting to me! needless to say, i've enjoyed the last couple of days1 it's just begun to feel like my favorite time of year, autumn! :)

here it is, TODAY, not even a week since i was melting in salt lake city and WHAT?! we just had our first snow fall!!!! SNOW! IN OCTOBER! SAY WHAAAAT!? welcome to my life! i saw snow and literally thought i was in a nightmare! i love the snow, don't get me wrong, but i do NOT love the snow in early october! i suppose it will have to grow on me though! i'll just start singing "it's beginning to look a lot like christmas" a little bit earlier this year :) 

i'm grateful for weather, i'm thankful for hot and cold, i love the summer, i love the fall, and i... love the winter! OPTIMISM WILL GET ME THROUGH :) bring it on sky! let it fall! turn my nightmare into a winter-wonderland dream come true!  

thanks a lot sister whiting :)

once upon a time, my dear friend lauren whiting suggested that i check out this website that apparently has ALL things wonderful and good in this world! but this website is loved by just about every woman, girl, and child on the planet! 

i'm the kind of person that hates to fall in love with anything that EVERYONE else loves! when gauchos were a big deal, i was EXTREMELY hesitant to get involved with those parachute pants. as comfortable as everyone ranted and raved that they were, i couldn't bring myself to wear them! -until of course my mother brought me some home... and then i was OBLIGATED to wear them :)- when twilight was all the rage, i could not STAND twilight! everything about it! i thought that the storyline was over rated and the characters were LAME! i read one book and called it quits because i couldn't stand to be a "go-er with the flow-er"! 

now here i was, faced with this dilemma, do i become a so-called "pinner" or not. i was told that i'd love it, i was told that there was a plethora of incredible crafts, recipes and so on! AHH what to do!?!?...

i did it.... i joined pinterest.... HAPPY WORLD?! :) because I am! it was all that it was cracked up to be! this may be the first time that i feel happy about following the crowd! PINTEREST RULES :) 

this is halloween, HALLOWEEN, halloween

this week's project was to paint a pumpkin... but not just ANY pumpkin! that would be too simple! we were asked to create a TEXTURED pumpkin! this is surprisingly difficult for me! most of my work is either really flat and graphic or smooth and has minimal texture! i was struggling to think of how to apply a texture to this pumpkin! here was my best effort at throwing in some cool textures! i must say that i think i am most excited about painting pumpkins, not because of textures, but because that means it's HALLOWEEN! :) :) :) good times of frights and scares are on the way! let the heart racing and screaming begin!!! AAAHHHHH