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Shotgun Angel

Good Morning all y’all!

I feel like I am finally back after the holidays and the flu. It might seem like a crazy thing to say, but being ill and sleeping 12 hours a day, does give a person time to reflect.

My word for 2013 is VISIBILITY. This word by itself might have thrown me back in bed for a few days. I plan on making my art visible to the public. I am thinking restaurants and a gallery. On the first of January, I was totally freaked out by this word until I realized 2013 is a whole year.  I am currently making myself visible in my fish nets and corset. Pussyfooters is turning out to be a fun way to give back to the community. We make events sparkly and pink.

Orpheus 13th Night
Orpheus 13th Night

I found out at this event that the  Pussyfooter women are totally nice. After this picture Miss Camille and Miss Becky tightened my corset until I looked like Miss Scarlet (in my mind). I was grateful. I had no idea you weren’t suppose to breathe.

I am nearly finished with Shotgun Angel.

The first thing I did was spray the canvas with Ink Spray Dylusions London Blue. If you want to try this, it gives a nice continuity to the painting, but be forewarned, the blue bleeds through as many layers of paint that you put on. At some point you might want to stop the bleed by painting some parts in clear gesso. Otherwise, your yellow house will keep turning green.

Next, I dropped paint on the background, straight from the bottle: white, yellow and purple. Then I sprayed alcohol on the paint drops and walked away.

I put layers of paint, drops of paint, sprayed more alcohol until I liked the background.

I drew the wings on the painting with white chalk. Then I laid the cellophane on top of the chalk outline. I drew the wings on the cellophane with a black sharpie a little bit bigger than what I wanted.

I painted her wings by spraying a mixture of glue, Pearl Ex violet powder, and alcohol on the underside for sparkle. I learned this from Bonnie Rose Bryan on Lifebook 2012. On the front of the wings, I painted featherish stuff with Golden Acrylic Titanium White. As an added bonus, the cellophane glows in the dark. Cellophane adds just the right amount of transparency for wings and lays totally flat.

I cut the wings out mostly inside the black lines. They are adhered with Golden Gel Medium.

When I look at the photo of my painting, I don’t like her dress outlined in white.

I do love how the stoops turned out.

I had to resist adding tiny details like birds and cats.

I am planning to frame this in old wood from an old shotgun house.

If there is anything that I left out, that you would like to know… just ask.

Shotgun Angel
Shotgun Angel

I was listening to Billie Holliday Pandora when I painted this. The angel must have been listening, too.

I have my next painting in mind. It is a political statement.

Thanks for checking out my blog. It makes me feel grounded and happy to connect with you.

With abundant love and gratitude,

Gator Girl

 

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Some copyright helpful hints

Hi all y’all,

I am totally happy and relieved today to have completed my first parade as a Pussyfooter. I have an idea now what Mardi Gras will be like. The Krewe of Jingle Parade was 2 and a half miles and family friendly. The Krewe of Muses Parade will be 13 miles and big crowds. I’m thinking insoles.

 

waiting for Nena
Waiting for Nena
My first parade.
My first parade.

 

After the parade.
After the parade.

 

I woke up one morning last week thinking, “I wonder if anyone just downloads my paintings?”. On the blog, I usually post works in progress. I sometimes put low resolution copies on-line. But sometimes I put high-resolution copies on-line. I know some of y’all are doing the same thing or thinking of doing the same thing with your art. I don’t like to think so, but maybe all art lovers aren’t ethical.

I contacted my could-be-daughter-in-law and she sent me this link, http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watermark-images-photoshop/. I downloaded a free 30 day trial of Photoshop CS6. (Make sure you close all windows before you start the download and beware it takes 15 hours to download.)

The things you can do with this program are amazingly fun.

This is so funny… WordPress won’t let me show you my cool watermarks, because they are copyrighted. Good job WordPress!

I will tell you how I made the watermark that I like best:

1. I used a low resolution picture to be double-protected.

2. I drag/dropped the picture onto Photoshop CS6.

3. I made a Text box.

4. In white, I wrote Gator Girl Art in a cursive font.

5. Selected Layer, Layer Style, Blending Options, 50% opacity.

6. To rotate the watermark diagonally,  I selected the Marquee Tool, right-clicked the text, and selected Free Transform. Hovering over any corner, you will see a small curved arrow letting you know you can rotate the image.

There are many, many ideas if you go to the article. The watermark I like the best is embossed.

In a perfect world, my daughter could marry her girlfriend and photo images wouldn’t need watermarks. Someday…

Until next week,

All my love,

Gator Girl

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Stand Up!

Hi All y’all,

I hope this Friday finds you just where you want to be.

I am nearing completion on Stand Up.

Nearing Completion on Stand Up.

I still need to whiten up her skin tone. I am going to keep the comic book outlines. I am portraying her as a shero. She is wearing an outfit like Wonder Woman. She has tiny gold stars strewn through her hair at Maggie’s suggestion. I like the tiny-ness and the 3 D-ness of the stars. I still have those wonderful words from Kitty Cavalier to add. Because it is an extra thick canvas, I am going to type the words and put them around the outside edge.

I am starting a super fun painting called Bee Love. I went to a gardening seminar, put on by the Master Gardeners of Greater New Orleans. I learned some fascinating bee facts. Did you know that the worker bees are female? That drones only exist for mating? And bees have certain jobs like undertaker and hive cleaner? They are amazing little insects.

Bee Love blocked out

I bought a linen canvas for Bee Love. So far I love it. It is tight and smooth. I painted the canvas with black gesso so I can start out on a black background. I haven’t ever done that before, my backgrounds are usually 3 colors. Hmm. She will be a cute little worker bee with curly pink hair.

I got into the Pussyfooters! Woot, Woot-woot! I will be marching in pink! Miss Heather nominated me. Here is a peak at her thank you card.

Thank you Miss Heather

I am taking a drawing class on-line with the fabulous Jane Davenport. Our assignment is to draw a super model. Heather sure looks like a super model to me.

I would love to stay and chat, but my paints are calling.

Until next week,

Never ending love,

Gator Girl