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Things I've Made!
For the arts and crafts and various creative projects I'm working on! Most of them will be previous, until I do more to fill up this page! It's a variety of acrylic, coloring pages, the occasional digital doodle, watercolor, and painting things like wood and ceramic when I get the chance! I look forward to creating and crafting more art soon!
Coraline Inspired
Coraline is one of my favorite movies that I never get tired of watching! Ironically I saw Christian themes in it before I actually was a Christian. It's nothing profound, just the: Sin looks all attractive and then turns around and kills you. Anyway, this is acrylic on canvas, then details drawn with paint markers. The painting was originally just colorful swirls with no black outline, ribbon, or accessories in the corner but after getting home and wanting the swirls or spirals to stand out more, I tried outlining one and kept going until everything was symmetrical! Love it!
Spotty Dog
This was made with a cheap ceramic of a balloon dog, from Dollar Tree. I painted it with a white acrylic gesso, sealed it with mod podge, then drew on it with paint markers and followed up with a final layer of mod podge. This was such a fun and easy piece to do! Great for on the go crafting honestly, and it's an easy way to make a cute gift or have a little craft night with friends! The only problem is these things sell like hot cakes, so unless you know when the trucks come or wander in at the right time you'll be lucky to find any ceramic animals for that matter. Either way, it was a fun project and I look forward to doing more of these!
Watercolor Swirls
Circles painted with watercolor and then drawn over with paint markers of opposite color swirls on each side of the page. This was a test of an art therapy technique - the repetitive motions of circles and swirls being calming to the nervous system. And since I was in a very new environment when doing it, I can confirm that doing this did calm me down!
The Theatre Masks
This was done quite a few years ago, after my last summer camp. It was hard to make sure the masks didn't come across as creepy (to me at least) and copying that font was a challenge - but I love how it came out! This was acrylic on stretched canvas!
I MISS these beads!
There was a store I used to go to frequently, that had this giant bin full of bracelets like these for a dollar. I would purchase a bunch of them, cut the strings and remove all the beads, then re-string them as I liked! Aside from the blue plastic one in the middle of course. Most of the glass bead sets I see in stores nowadays are dominated by darker colors, less variety of shapes, and it's harder to guarantee what variety you are getting if you order online.
And if you go to a bead store, that becomes expensive (unless you ARE looking for specific types of beads) and takes the fun out of it! That was the challenge - take the whole bracelet, pair it with 3 others then see what beautiful design you could create by restringing them to your liking!
A Theraputic Silhouette
This is a watercolor painting to process the grief of moving and it was inspired by a chalk drawing I received as a present when I was younger. It was done with pastels and had a similar style of the dark silhouette against a gorgeous myriad of colors in a sunset against the water. I really had a thing for silhouettes at one point, because it was easy, very forgiving, and I enjoyed it because I didn't have to worry about all the individual details.
Coloring Page Mandala Mural
One thing I loved to do was color mandalas, then cut it to a certain shape, and then hang it up on my wall in a circle or oval shape where everything connected and the creative, beautiful, chaos of colors brought me great comfort and joy - even if coloring some of these things DID take me forever. And the only reason they lasted so long was because I laminated them after coloring!
Another Mandala Thing!
This one is extra satisfying because it's rainbow! I colored mandala coloring pages with crayon, then smoothed them out with q-tips, laminated, and then put them up! I love rainbows so much - and they are very lovely and satisfying in patterns!
The Dotted Wing Butterfly
I think I remembered seeing a wooden circle with outlines of smaller circles that made up a mandala. The idea of the item was to use a bottle of paint and follow the dot guide to create a mandala out of perfect dots. But, seeing as this was too expensive, tedious, and cumbersome with having to get everything to go along with the wooden circle being sold by itself. I picked out or already had a wooden butterfly instead, and after a failed attempt on the back, I turned it around and painted it black and then slowly began the process of adding in each individual dot. It was long and tedious too but at least I could see the process I was making! It was challenging due to using a paintbrush rather than a dropper bottle, but I LOVE how it turned out!
A Favorite Silhouette
My best attempt at the barbie silhouette / logo. This was a couple of years ago, but I still like it! It's a piece of wood painted with acrylic and sealed with an acrylic sealer spray. This was one of my favorites and one of many silhouettes as I was going through a phase doing a lot of those - but most of them were on paper.
How Music Affects You
I haven't had my ipad for long, but I enjoy using it for vent art, among other things. It's the quickest way for me to process things when I don't have the supplies with me, and digital art is very forgiving thanks to the lovely undo button! I drew this after having an experience listening to music I heard years ago, and it instantly transported me back to that time and mindset. Sure, the music was catchy, but the mental atmosphere it created wasn't. Insecurity, anger, escapism, fantasy fueled by pride and desperation to be noticed, to get attention, to be someone, something, to be worthy of being seen, heard, known, and loved. Needless to say after a come to Jesus moment and taking time to calm down, I switched to a better kind of music and I felt peace, even a little happy. Granted, everyone is different so what helps and works for me might not work for you, and that's okay! This is just a visual representation of the struggle I experienced to help me get through it and process it.
A Rainbow of Records
Still in theme with my enjoyment of mandalas, rainbows, and patterns - I slowly painted old records I bought from thrift stores. The first one I painted was the green one actually, and then the blue, and then...either the purple or the yellow. Point is, it was out of order and didn't have the fully rainbow one until somehwat recently, along with the colorful bars underneath each record to make it look like they were rolling down a road or path. Unless you put a primer on top of it, painting records takes forever - multiple coats of acrylic paint and then some really good sealer. Despite how long its been, these things are surprisingly durable and still always a colorful delight whenever I walk in my room! I am very proud of them.
One Last Mandala
This is the smaller one I also have in my room, different from the first because despite the outer triangle pieces being the same, the center is different! Though it is small and it was difficult to get it symmetrical, hence the shorter distance between the center and the triangles, I love it just the same. If I could find a good crayon blender or scraper that would help remove excess wax I would probably do more things like this with crayon, but blending can make my fingers hurt even if I use a blending tool - I grip too hard sometimes. And with a scraper, I'm afraid of scraping too hard and the indent from that being obvious and showing in the finished work. Either way, I can always take breaks!
