Art Journal: Stained Glass Self Portrait - Art Journal Fast Forward

Art Journal: Portraits Like Wow

Here are the second installment of paintings in the daily painting challenge that I'm doing with my Nick and Rose.

I decided that I wanted to draw a portrait for this piece. I had a canvas with the splotches of pink from the previous day's piece, so I just drew right on top of that. I used a photograph I found online as my reference. I found the quote on a film noir website and thought it was perfect.

Since I did a portrait and liked it, I decided to try another one:




She is so odd, but I absolutely love her! I felt so inspired by this piece that I drew a bunch more! I love how each portrait takes on her (or his) own personality. I start with reference photographs, but they soon take on their own life. The last two were drawn just from my head, no reference photo. I love even the ones that aren't that great! Which ones do you like?

Art: Film Challenge

I can't remember for sure if I blogged about the challenge that Nick and I started last week. I challenged him to make a "bad" painting every day for a week. We chose Nature as our theme. The idea was quantity, not quality, though I have to say that we turned out 14 nice looking paintings between the two of us!  This week, our friend Rose is joining us, and the theme is Film.

Here are my first two pieces:

When I heard film was our theme, I knew I'd be exploring film noir. I used a quote I found on a noir fans website (a collection of favorites) and an image of Rita Hayworth, that I altered in Photoshop to look like a stencil. (Who knows: maybe I'll carve a stencil of the design for future projects?). I painted the background purple, let it dry, then painted quin. magenta fluid acrylic on top. While it was still wet, I covered the surface with saran wrap (also a "film") and let it dry. This gave me a cool texture. Made a packing tape transfer of the stencil image, wrote the quote using a Copic marker, and covered the whole surface with gel medium to affix the tape transfer. Finished by adding a layer of self-leveling gel (which is still wet, hence the smoky patch in the middle of the image.)  This is a 12x12 canvas, which is a new size for me, and I love it! Will be buying more in this size today.

Here's my first piece this week:

Also purple... hmm... maybe I'll stick with the same palette all week? We'll see...

Helped Wanted: Baby Craft Ideas!

So... I'm not a baby person. I think babies are cute and all, I just don't wanna own one. So baby crafts = not my thang. Now that my sister has officially announced her pregnancy (you know, on Facebook), I can put it out there that I need suggestions for cute baby-themed gifts that I can make! Got babies? Great! I need your advice! My sister is due in April. I want to make something cool for the nursery (ideally that is cute and functional!) and I want to make something cute for the baby. We don't know the baby's sex yet, so preferably something gender neutral, at least for now.

If you have a project on your blog or know one from another blog that you think is super cute, please add it to this linky! It doesn't have to be a tutorial, just something to give me ideas! Or leave a comment below with your ideas.

Random: My Art Gallery

In yesterday's discussion in my online class, Falling For You, I mentioned that my studio space was my art gallery. I thought I'd post some pictures of the walls in my studio ( / boyfriend's studio / living room) to show you!

Eventually, I'll post pictures of the whole studio to give you a tour, so consider today a sneak peak. This

is the wall right above my desk, which is to the right in the picture. On the far left in my font light that my cat, Smudge, likes to attack when I'm not looking. The white bins underneath the hanging light are where I have sorted my fabric into color families. I have lots of pretty fabric and am working on using it! 

Nick hung all of my paintings (some of which have hand-made frames... they all will eventually) for me. I didn't worry too much about the order, other than alternating framed with not framed, because I basically just needed them out of the way so I could make more paintings! I should photograph and list these for sales, but I haven't gotten around to doing that just yet. The empty space in the line up is from the painting that I sold. (Hurray!) I have about 7 more paintings ready to be hung, so some of the empty space will be filled in soon.

In the corner is a vintage oval photograph that I trash picked. It was probably tossed because a part of the frame was broken off, but I just think it's the coolest thing ever. She is kinda creepy, but definitely my crafty muse. 

The group of four paintings here are the four seasons doll paintings that I created in Doll Dreams. I think Summer (top left) is the best of the bunch. On the right right is my signed Rasputina poster. (Yay!) The painting in the lower left is part of a creepy nature series that I've been working on this week. I'll post pictures of the completed series soon.

This is the main "gallery" wall. Nick has a collection of black & white images, some are photographs, some are his etchings work, and the text piece was a gift from my friend Jen. I decided that I wanted to have a spot in the room where all the pieces would be grouped together. There are still a few spaces in the area so I'll have to make some b&w art (maybe for this week's "bad" painting challenge since our theme is film?)

To the right and below is Nick's studio space. 

The colorful pieces are several paintings by me and three framed prints of my art journal pages. I'll eventually have another row of three above the six that are already there. Below the prints on the mantle are four more canvases, a piano sculpture by Nick's uncle Roger, and some miscellaneous stuff. I'll post better pictures with the next installment.

Art Journal Flip Through

Recipe: Hot & Sour Eggplant

It's been a while since I've shared a recipe here, so I thought that today I would share my current favorite dinner recipe: Hot & Sour Eggplant. This stuff is AWESOME! If I get a hankering for Chinese food, I make this recipe at home. It tastes as good as anything I can order out and it's so very easy to prepare!  With the exception of the eggplant, all of the ingredients are things that I have as staples all the time, so no difficult shopping lists either. Plus, it's vegan, how about that?

Tastes better than it looks!

Hot and Sour Eggplant

You will need:
6 long Chinese eggplants or 1 -  2 regular eggplants*
2 cups sliced bell peppers (any color) -- approximately 2 - 3 fresh or use frozen Melange A Trois from Trader Joes
1 large onion, cut in half then sliced
4 cloves garlic (optional, but delish!)
(Note: You could also use only eggplants, leaving out the peppers and onions. I like to add them in for variety, plus it tastes great!)

* I have made this with both and haven't noticed any difference in taste. I said 1-2 because it really depends on the size of the eggplants that you have available. If it's a huge eggplant, one should be fine. Smaller ones might warrant two.

For the sauce:
6 T. soy sauce (or tamari)
4 T. rice vinegar (any vinegar will do)
4 T. sugar
4 t. cornstarch
2 t. olive oil (sub vegetable oil as needed)
1 T. Wild Thymes Thai Chili Roasted Garlic dipping sauce (to taste! like it hotter? add more! I prefer slightly milder)

Almost time to buy a new jar!

About the Thai Chili sauce: I love this stuff! When I order takeout Nim Chow from my favorite Thai place (Apsara!), I add a little of this to the peanut dipping sauce for zing. Wow! The original recipe that mine is based on called for green chile pepper and chili oil. (My version uses 4 times the sauce, so alter accordingly.) You can buy the sauce online or look for it at a specialty-type grocery store near you. I bought mine at the East Side Market Place in Providence.

Method:

Cube eggplant (no need to peel) and sprinkle heartily with salt (about 2 T.) Cover with cold water and soak for 30 minutes. Rinse very well and lay out on paper towels to drain. The salt removes some of the bitterness that eggplant can have. I don't recommend skipping this step!

Heat 4 T. vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and peppers and cook until softened. Add the garlic (minced) and cook for an additional minute before adding the eggplant. Cook until the eggplant is softened, about 10 minutes.

Mix the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.

When the eggplant is softened, stir the sauce into the skillet. Stir until the eggplant is evenly coated with sauce and the mixture has thickened, about a minute. Serve immediately.

When serving this, I usually serve it over oven-baked brown rice, which if you start it right before chopping and soaking the eggplant, will be ready at close to the same time as the eggplant mixture. Last night, I used a mixture of leftover brown rice and microwaved quinoa. Delicious!