Pumpkin Art (sort of)

My pumpkin family is about twenty years old.  They were such a simple yet fun project to do.
My dad cut me a log and then here are the steps:
I de-barked the log (not an easy thing to do) basically by roughly cutting and then sanding the post.  
Then I cut it into sections with a chain saw.  I made the sections all different sizes.
Now for orange OUTDOOR acrylic paint - several coats.
Drill a hole in the top and glue in a dowel you painted green.
Draw and paint faces once again using OUTDOOR paint.  
And you are done.  Every year they will weather a bit more and you will find that everyone loves these permanent jack-o-lanterns.

A little story about my pumpkin family:
You will see from the photo that there are nine left in my little group.  There once were twelve.  I gave one to my daughter for her own front step when my grandson was tiny.
The other two kind of walked away.  About ten years ago, a little boy stopped by my home a week or so before Halloween, rang the bell and asked if he could have one.  How could I say "no"?  And then a few years ago, a little boy was trick-or-treating and when he was leaving, he just picked up the littlest one I had.  His dad told him to put it down and he started to sob.  As a result, that pumpkin found a new home.
Just like in a real family, apparently my pumpkins sometimes feel the need to leave the nest.
Happy Halloween.

Frankie Halloween Canvas

It has been a bit of time since I could do any mixed media work but I got a chance to work on another Halloween canvas the last couple of days.  This one is a cute Frankenstein.

When I got him done, I looked at changing his stubby fists but decided I kind of like them.  They remind me that he was put together of different body parts.  Contrary to the original Frank, he is a bit shorter so that his big head can draw a lot of the attention.  I love his juvenile expression.  He is pretty close to my original sketch other than I added striped socks (just because I like them).  Here is my sketch:

I think this is the last of my Halloween canvases but - if I have time - I want to do a haunted house...my favourite symbol of Halloween.

Bye for now!

More Halloween Art

I am back at it again. Another Halloween canvas.....this time a witch.

My little witch is a cross between grumpy and sweet (if that is possible).  Her face looks a tad stern or "witchy" if you want but the rest of her is like a little girl.  I used sheet music for the background and I could not get one wrinkle out - but, oh well, I can live with that.

Here is my original sketch:You will notice that my final work is very different from it.  I decided to soften her nose and make her much taller and thinner than the original. I also did not include the bat and moved the jack-o-lantern to the middle and to put a black cat in it.  I also liked the idea of making her pumpkin and cat 3-d so that is what I did.  Since the witch has darker clothes, I decided to make the background base yellow with orange and green accents.  The raised dots are molding paste mixed with orange paint.
Hope you have enjoyed my Halloween pieces as much as I have.  I may be finished with them - but, then again, maybe not.
Thanks for stopping by.

The Grim Reaper

Yet another Halloween piece- this one of the Grim Reaper (cutesy style).  It was more difficult working with a dark figure.  I did a lot of the shading in white or grey.  It was also a bit harder working on the background knowing my figure would be dark.  For my foundation, I used anatomy book paper and, if you look hard enough, you can see a bit of the skeletons in the background.

And my original sketch:

The sketch was a bit chubbier and his head a bit rounder but once I started working on an 8X10 canvas I needed to make him tall, dark and handsome - LOL.  He is a cutie in either version and I really like him ALOT!!
Thanks for visiting!

Halloween Art

Well, for my first real post, I wanted to show you a couple of canvases I did which are inspired by the Cider and Pumpkins workshop I am taking on line from Christy Tomlinson.  She is an awesome artist and an amazing teacher and I am having the greatest time with these little Halloween paintings.
My first is an owl all decked out for the spooky night:

And here is the sketch I did to start from:

As you can see, he underwent quite a few changes from sketch to finished piece.  I am trying to get into the habit of sketching before I jump to the canvas.  This does not mean that I have to copy the sketch, it just is a starting point.  It helps push me in the direction I want to go.

The second one is a little pumpkin boy:

And here is his sketch:

As you can see, this little fellow went through quite a metamorphosis to reach his final shape.  His head is rounder, his body fatter and his clothing is just a bit different.  I had originally envisioned his head sort of checkered but decided to make it all orange and his hands now wear dotted mittens.

Please let me know what you think of my little guys - good or bad.  They are my vision, yours could be quite different.  That is what makes art - art!