photo references

I've been working on the references for the paintings I want to do. As canvas is too expensive, I need to go get some plywood. In fact, I really want to do the civil rights painting on wood. The phoenix one will look cool on whatever surface. ... I'm really tempted to paint that one digitally just so I can work on something while I wait for materials to do oil painting. At any rate, here's basic reference files just so I can show that I have been working.

I RESOLVE to paint a picture in January.

ideas in my head

images in my head that I hope I will be able to paint this year. (well, if not paint, then do justice in some medium other than mind-drawing where only I can see it.) I am having issues actually performing the artistry. I have no problem dreaming it up. These ideas bounce around my head constantly. Yet I am afraid to paint them. My New Years Resolution is to try to do one a month so I have one for each holiday. Gotta get over that fear hurdle. Of course, that also requires canvas... 16x20 or 18x24.

A painting for the wall across from my entry door. One for each holiday. I need one for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Human Rights Day, Valentines, St. Patties, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, 4th of July, 24th of July?, something for August..., Labor Day, oh, and Veteran's Day. (I have one for Halloween)

I'll start with Christmas:
Christmas: Closeup of Mary's face, not sure if I want a baby Jesus or silhouette of Joseph and a donkey in the background
Human Rights Day: Close-up of Martin Luther King, Jr. - backdrop sillhouettes of ...protesters? buses? or maybe a collage of all of the prominent figures from the 50's and 60's. Malcom X, Rosa Parks, etc?
Valentines: Kitties & Ribbon
St. Patties: an Irish castle with close-up of leprachaun winking
Easter: Mary kissing the hands of Jesus?
Mother's Day: heather's pic of mom & kids in crazy land.
Father's Day: little boy wearing dad's shoes trying to walk while holding onto dad's finger
4th of July:  tattered revolutionary flag interposed over washington & lincoln memorials
24th of July: woman in bonnet looking forward, handcart train behind her
August: no idea. Maybe something summerish and hot, like a child eating a popsicle or icecream cone?
Labor Day: play with incons of labor movment from the early 1900's?
Veterans Day: wwII icons with close-up of a soldier in gear, dirty and gritty, plane flying over?
Thanksgiving: Pilgrim & Indian - she's dirty and haggard and grateful, he's handing her a basket full of maize and a line of rabbit

Also bouncing around waiting to be done:

Spending Time With Emily: A collection of sketches and drawings inspired by Emily Dickenson's poetry.
Charity picture book:
Armor of God picture book: I can see the images of a young woman in various bits of Japanese Armor - very sketchy pencil drawings, I just don't know what the story is. She's definitely an american girl, blond pony-tail. But she's wearing the old armor and using a kitana.
Phoenix Rising - I have all my photo references done for this except for some extra fire pics. woman lying on the ground burned to a crispy char, whilst newborn from the flames she is flying up above her dead self, something new, born again.
Warrior Mountains - I have quite a few photo-refs done for this, just need to start. ink on paper I think. images of pain, sadness, battle, horror, death that confront me everytime I look at the mountains. Spaniards, indians, angry angry gods of battle.
Turtle - deep-sea turtle with images of wendy, lee, sydney, elizabeth, and max worked into the patterns on the shell
fam portraits: same idea as turtle, but different animals for each of Rob's sisters
Values: series of portraits of my kids at various ages. pencil, I think.

idea

I have an idea for the young women. What if I assign them a piece of music that's 2 or 3 minutes long and have them create a "movie/slide show" about something in the Book of Mormon? or well... you can't really "assign" things for personal progress. But what if I suggest it as an idea, and then we can have a movie night and watch each others movies?

Working on Grandpa

every time I try to work on this, the kids try to help me. I have gotten so frustrated, I've just let it sit. I am hoping to do more work on it while homeschooling Jada, but we'll see.

pics!!

some examples of what my students are doing:

teaching!!

Ah  the joys of teaching!!  This is the best job I have ever had, and I do mean EVER!

I like what I do, I love the kids - even the apathetic ones - and I love getting to help these guys explore new things.

It's too bad this is just temporary. I will miss this when it's over. Although I'm sure my kids will be glad to have their mom back.

Last week we did designs (personal logo's and random designs) using basic shapes and concsious awareness of positive/negative space.

This week we've explored textures and made some modern art / torn paper art of the national monuments the kids saw on their field trip, as well as playing with Tessellations and patterns.

i'll upload pics when I get them web-ready. It's been lots of fun!!!!

more poster ideas

I Neeeeeeeeeeeeed to get the young women to let me take their pictures somehow. I have quite a few poster ideas for them, and nothing but sketches to show for it. So far they've told me their favorite values and scripture stories, but we've had no opportunities to take pictures.

"Have an attitude of gratitude and watch it go around"
"Stand Firm" - like David with his sling, Esther and the king, and Nephi with his brothers, I can stand firm in my faith.
"It's the small things that count" - service/good works - an everyday thing people do to make someone else feel better.
"Plant it, feed it, share it" - Testimony
Forgiveness, pure love of christ, -  Do as I'm doing, follow follow me?
Scattering Sunshine all along her way
Valiant, Gallant, and Noble

roughs

Not my pictures, these are just roughs used to give the teacher an idea of what I had in mind. I will take photo's of the band members themselves when the teacher knows for sure what he's after.

speaking of posters...

Mr. S. from the High School has also asked that I create some recruiting posters for Marching Band for the summer. I took my sketchbook along to Isabeau's basketball practice today and came up with quite a few different slogans. I'm still brainstorming images to go with them so Mr. S. has some options to pick from, so here are my notes:

Let the music move you! - stick figures playing various instruments and marching

Got the beat? Want the beat? Move to the beat! - all I can think of for this are lines and colors, maybe an upside down treble clef or something.

Follow the leader? I AM the leader! - close-up of a drummer - specifically one of the snare drums. mostly black and white.  Edgy typeface, like Times New Yorker or !84

Feelin' It / Groovin' It / Movin' It - close-up perspective of a trumpet or trombone so there is big-time lens distortion and the bell looks HUGE, and posterize the colors. Or, mess with the stickfigures some more and see if I can make them funkin'groovin'movin'.

Band Poster

Got an email today from Mr. S. about making flyers for the band concert next week. His words were "classical theme since we are in festival mode", so I made this for him. Don't mind the crappy text. It wouldn't translate from InDesign to Photoshop without trashing the type, so you'll just have to trust me that it really is readable in print.