Uncategorized – Page 4 – Gator Girl Art

Tropical Storm

Posted on July 6, 2017July 6, 2017 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

We’ve had a lot of rain here. Even after living in New Orleans for 6 years, I expect the rain to be cold. In California most of the rain happens in the winter. Sometimes, in New Orleans, I make hot chocolate in my air-conditioned house and don’t realize it is 90 degrees outside.

This is “Tropical Storm”.

I like a tropical storm if I can stay inside. A tropical storm can mean a lot of wind and rain. We bring things inside that might blow around the yard.

The unsettling thing about a tropical storm is that it can turn into a hurricane. I live near a lot of people with Hurricane Katrina PTSD, with good reason.

This makes the tension rise.

I painted this during Tropical Storm Cindy. She did not develop further.

Here is some storm information…

In a tropical depression the winds start to circulate. When the winds exceed 38 mph, it turns into a Tropical Storm. The maximum wind speed in a tropical storm is 73 mph. A hurricane has wind rotation with speeds of 74 mph and above.

Hurricanes are rated 1 through 5.

1 is 74-95 mph

2 is 96-110 mph

3 is 111-129 mph

4 is 130-156 mph

5 is greater than 156 mph

Almost all hurricanes happen during hurricane season. Where I live, the season is from June 1 through November 30. Most hurricanes happen in August and September and rarely in November.

I changed the starry sky in the most recent Swamp Girl painting. Looking at the painting close-up, the sky looked ragged. I smoothed it out and added some tiny dots for stars. Painting some stars blue and leaving some stars silver made some stars look farther away.

So far, so good.

Looking forward to a sunny tomorrow,

Gator Girl

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Miskit a Liquid Frisket

Posted on April 6, 2017April 6, 2017 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

I am trying my hand at a video. My weakest area in vlogging is setting up the camera (my phone). I have little patience for some things. Sometimes, in the video, I wish I had been more patient.

If you paint, Miskit is super fun. The little jar is $15 and if you use your 50% off one item at Michaels, it is $7.50 at checkout.

I have only used Miskit for watercolor before. When you watercolor, you have to save the white areas. It is not like acrylic paint, where you can just add white later. The reason I used Miskit with this painting, is that the face was small compared to the tool I was using. If I got the aftro paint on her face, it would take long time to get her skin color back the way it was. Also, I wanted to only think about the wig, not think about keeping her face clean. Lastly, it was super fun to use.

Can’t Stop the Feeling is a song we danced to all last season.

Tonight is the opening for Soul, Soul, Soul at the Old No. 77 Hotel. I have always wanted to have art in one of the shows there. 3 of my paintings were chosen this time. My friend, Cheryl Grace‘s work is the focal point. If you have time, come by and see the show. It will be there all through Jazz Fest. The hotel is beautiful and is connected to Compère Lapin.

Have a great day!

Gator Girl

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Art on the Move

Posted on March 30, 2017March 30, 2017 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

A rainy Spring day is the perfect day to blog. These are the pages that are going out to local publishers. I would like to share the mock up, but the words are not mine to share. Also, it’s nice to have some anticipation.

I have a wish coming true. I have 3 paintings in the art show, Soul, Soul, Soul at the Old No. 77. The show starts on April 6 at 8 pm. It is a beautiful venue.

Were You There? is a large original painting 30 x 40 inches. I painted New Orleans as a statue, depicting the strength of stone. She is holding lilies in one arm signifying rebirth. In her raised hand she is spilling out golden sparkles of hope. Her wings are lined with broken glass. She has been through hell, and you can see it swirling around her in darkness. The words are from a spiritual that is traditionally sung during the stations of the cross at Easter. I replaced he with she in the song.

In New Orleans, Mardi Gras Indians are revered. It is always a pleasure to see them perform. In tribute to this tradition, I painted an Indian using mostly acrylic paint, then I beaded him by sewing individual beads and sequins on the canvas. It is 16 by 20 inches.

I choose to paint Big Freedia because I was part of the Guinness Book of World Records for Twerking in 2014. The crown is based on Queen Elizabeth’s crown.

Big Freedia was the star of that contest. She is beautiful and her personality is bigger than the sky. This painting is 16 x 20 inches.

I have a lot more to blog, but I don’t want to overwhelm. Stay tuned!

All of my love,

Gator Girl

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The Pussyfooters have new costumes.

Posted on March 16, 2017March 14, 2017 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

My cousin, Lisa asked me to paint a new Pussyfooter painting. It seems like a reasonable request because the Pussyfooters have new costumes. We look like superheroes with a “P” on the back of our capes. Lisa is on the costume committee. She is a braver woman than I am.

You can see a pretty good picture of the cape in the first photo. Lots of people took their capes off that day because it was so hot. She has her cape tied around her waist. You can see our logo.

The second photo shows our new pieces.

The painting is in the half done ugly-ish stage. I think I will just show parts of the painting this week.

Painting the Pussyfooters this year is different from the last time I painted Pussyfooters. After 5 seasons, I can feel what it is like being in a parade while I am painting. I am tempted to have a zipper busted open or sweat riveting off a body. I choose to try and capture the joy (for now).

This is the only part I am totally happy with so far. It is a bit small. This will be an afro wig and a tinsel wig. The women are close together, but really they should be an arms length apart. I think it will be called “Let’s Dance”.

This is Here Come the Girls. I painted it 4 years ago. I can tell by the corset.

Here Come the Girls_@120 — Here Come the Girls

We are all a little sad about the season being over. I have to go to the rec center to exercise now… and I mean now

With gratitude and best wishes,

Gator Girl

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A Couple of Illustration Changes

Posted on March 1, 2017March 8, 2017 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

A fabulous Mardi Gras came and went in the Crescent City. The weather was in the 70’s and breezy. The weather is kind of a big deal, because whether you are in a parade or watching one, you are outdoors for many, many hours. I am always amazed that I can finish a parade. It turns out to be around 17 miles when you count all of the dancing in place when the parade stops. (Some of the women had Fitbits.)

Here are the Pussyfooters during a pause in Femme Fatale. Eli Mergel took the photo. (click on “Eli Mergel” to see lots of wonderful photography.) There are about 120 Pussyfooters in total. About 50 women did this parade.

This is my sweet darlin’ and me on Mardi Gras day. We parked across the river and took the ferry. Excellent idea.

I revised two pages for the Not-Yet-Revealed author. I like both pages better now.

Pop is dressed more maturely. He is also wearing a wedding ring.

Poppee has grey hair and his goatee is narrower and longer. I like Poppee better, too. I made his eyebrows less prominent while I was adjusting his look. I appreciate a man with good grooming.

I think there is a pause here with the book. I am going to schedule photos of the first 5 pages. The author is going to send these beginning pages to publishers. I hear that publishers want to see 3-5 pages. I hope a publisher is going to love the book and grab it up without too many changes. I will let you know as soon as I do.

Today is the first day of Lent. I am just going to try to be an all around better person. Like making a conscious effort to be more Zen and less reactive.

How about you?

With hope and anticipation for the future,

Gator Girl

Book, Uncategorized

Page 5, Poppee!

Posted on February 17, 2017February 17, 2017 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

Happy Mardi Gras! The first uptown parade is today!

This is me on the front page of the Times-Picayune! (I must be excited because I already used 3 exclamation marks.) The Pussyfooters were the first women’s dance troupe. We started in 2001. My favorite parts about being a Pussyfooter, aside from becoming famous, are that I dance for women who can’t and we raise money every year for the Metropolitan Center for women and children. This year we raised $38,000.

Page 5 of the book is Poppee.

He is grandpa to the baby.

In the painting are some New Orleans icons. On the shelf behind Poppee are cups from . Coffee with chicory and beignets are often the first stop in the French Quarter for visitors to our city. It is open 24 hours.

He is stirring a pot of gumbo and holding a gumbo bowl, with a smaller pot for white rice on the other burner. Next to the stove top are an onion, green bell pepper, and celery. These three vegetables are called the Holy Trinity. The trinity is in most New Orleans dishes… jambalya, étouffée, gumbo…

I wanted to capture the love in Poppee’s expression when baby walks into the room. I like the repeating rectangle pattern in the basket and bricks. I was going to paint Poppee’s shirt in a check print, but thought that would be too distracting. (I still want to.) My favorite parts of the painting are the cups and the trinity.

Poppee is the last of the human characters in the book. You have met them all now.

In lewdness and proudness,

Gator Girl

Book, Uncategorized

Page 4, Tia!

Posted on February 2, 2017January 29, 2017 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

Here is page 4. Tia is Spanish for aunt. Maybe it is her first name, too? Tia is the baby’s aunt. That’s what I know for sure.

I think baby takes after momma in coloring, but I see Tia in her face.

Tia is listening to music in the kitchen. I did want to make sure Tia wasn’t dancing with the mop or ironing. Even though those stereotypes are etched in my brain, I am trying to break free. She just stopped by the kitchen for a cup of coffee. Probably one of the men took care of that other stuff.

I put in my favorite laminate table from the 1950’s. Baby is too short to see the top of the table, so I put the table top design that I wanted to paint on the cup. You can see the same magnolia bead tree from the garden out the window.

The New Orleans things on this page are only the bead tree and music. The window and the paint color are also typical New Orleans.

I try to keep the family to a moderate income. That’s why the table is her grandma’s and her headphones have a cord.

The painting part is straight forward. When the picture needs some very small details, I use a paint pen or intense pencils. Often I go over this with a brush. I liked the tree better when it was bright green, but I thought there needed to be glass in the window. I mixed a half drop of Golden Titanium White into some matte varnish. I painted the window panes 2 or 3 times with this mixture. I think it looks a little wavy like old glass.

Page five is coming soon!

Love too you all,

Gator Girl

Book, Uncategorized

Page 3, Pop!

Posted on January 19, 2017 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

Here we are… President Obama’s last day as president. It does feel momentous.

I am writing here today to share page 3 of the book I am illustrating. If I seem cryptic about the book, it is because it is mostly top secret. So far, we have Baby, Momma, and Pop. I will be starting Tía soon.

I relaxed slightly while painting Pop. I am about as nervous as if I was creating a commissioned painting now.

Pop is watching a New Orleans Pelicans game. I wanted to give him cigarettes or a beer, but this is a children’s book.

Framed on the wall is Gator Girl’s painting of Swamp Girl. Swamp Girl is also the first page in the book Maggie Pokorn and I are co-writing.

Next to Swamp Girl are Silent Chimes, by the local artist Kat Ryalls. I received, by request, Silent Chimes for Christmas. They look amazing on my bedroom wall. I don’t do them justice here.

This house looks so much like my house.

Stay tuned. There are 19 pages. Pretty soon I imagine my non-painting life will slow down enough to paint maybe 3 pages a month.

Thanks for reading!

lovingly,

Gator Girl

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Page 2, Momma

Posted on December 21, 2016January 19, 2017 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all,

Happy Holidays!

My work ethic is getting a boost. I paint every day now unless I am out of town.

Here is momma.

The New Orleans images are shrimp boots, vegetables that grow well here (eggplant, okra, tulips, creole tomatoes, a magnolia tree), dark Mississippi river soil, a Mardi Gras bead tree, and a shotgun house.

I wanted a garden like this. It seems like you need a lot of money in the city to buy a house with a big garden area. I fudged on this because this is a family with an average income.

Here is a photo of momma in progress.

I didn’t mess around too much with the composition this time. The neckline of her shirt was an accident. I wanted to tell myself when I came back to paint that I wanted the neckline smaller, so I used a paint pen to mark the new neckline. It reminded me of a burnout shirt, so I left it.

I am going to put a little more of her hair on her right cheek (left cheek to you) because it looks too big. The danger in that is that it is hard for me to put the brush down. I am usually changing another thing an hour later.

The challenge for me is that it takes me so long to paint. I think the author might get tired of waiting. Each page is a full on painting, so it does take a while. I hope I reconcile with this soon.

2016 has been a hard year for a lot of people. I hope you are doing alright.

Keep hanging in there.

All of my love,

Gator Girl

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The Book Illustrating is On

Posted on December 8, 2016 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

This is new for me. My next 16 paintings are planned. I am illustrating a children’s book. Even though I get a lot of leeway from the author, it is still different from painting whatever for however long it takes me. There are definitely pros and cons to this gig.

Mostly pros.

Somethings are just different. The easiest thing for me to paint is a woman’s face or an animal’s face. I have avoided painting babies. Babies and toddlers have really different proportions from adults. Their features are on the bottom half of their face and their pupils are very large. Their bodies are pretty square. Fingers are squat. I watched other people draw babies on youtube. I downloaded baby proportion charts.

I usually don’t paint a lot in the background, so I also watched many videos on perspective. I watched them over and over as I am a slow learner. Slow and determined.

I feel like my style lends itself to children’s books. I think I will be happy if this leads to career.

This is page one. I am going to paint something on each page to represent New Orleans. Sometimes it will be obvious to everyone and sometimes it will probably only be obvious to locals and people who visit often. I will always point it out to you.

Maggie showed me what a toddler would draw. It is the picture taped to the wall in the background.

I want to tell you how long I painted this page. I am pretty sure it was a month. I repainted parts of it every day. I started completely over after about two weeks. After a while when people called me, they didn’t even have to ask what I was doing. Then one day, when asked if I was painting the baby today, I said, “No, I am painting the mama.” 🙂

Next up… the mama.

Stay tuned.

With gratitude for anyone who wants to take this literary adventure with me,