SugarmanArt

This is a baby gift. How much more fun can you get? My friend had this horse in her family for over 40 years. Her own children loved, loved, loved it and rode the tar out of it. Now there’s a new grandbaby. (He’s beautiful btw). I got to repaint the horse while my handy husband reworked the coin box and wiring. It’s painted with acrylic and coated with 3 coats of polyurethane. It has new bit hinges and metallic paint on the horn and rings. YeeHaw….we ride again!

Having been a Disneyland Silhouette Artist, I had the unique privilege to create likenesses of the Bride and Groom for a custom-made cake topper.  What an honor to be able to craft something so memorable for a couple that we love so dearly. 

Not only was I able to be a part of their special day, but now I have a  new marketing direction.  Anyone interesting in such a personalized and distinctive wedding cake topper, or gift, leave me a comment or call:  (714) 637-1950.

The Chuck Jones Gallery in Old Orange is kind enough to let scout troops use their studio for scouting events.  Today we did a Visual Art’s Interest Project workshop and I had the privelage of teaching the girls the basics of painting holiday windows. 

These girls are talented and inspiring.  Each group only got 45 minutes for their store front and did an amazing job with no spilt paint or ladder incidents.  A special thanks to Byblo’s Cafe and the Hope Chest childrens cloths for allowing us to use their windows to work on also.

I hope I’ve encouraged some of these creative girls to pick up a rainbow of tempera paint and sponge their way across many windows in the future.  What fun and a great way to earn a little spending money.

I didn’t make these but I helped re-decorate them into different characters for a comedy show.  It was a lot of hot glue, yarn, google eyes, and felt.  It was a favor for my daughter and her friends and turned out to be a lot more fun then I expected.     I just LOVE a kitchen full of crafty junk.   What fun.

This painting on a 3 x 4 foot canvas is for a comedy act at the Improv Shmimpov in Fullerton.  I’ve yet to see one of the shows, but I know some of the talented cast….very funny. 

Their act is based on a couple of detective puppets.  This painting is a caricaturization of the two guys that do the act, Eric and Jason.   The canvas sits prominently on stage for all to see. 

Eric and Jason won this round of comedic competition and will be competing again this week.  I wish them all the luck…..wait….I mean, break a leg.

I’m including photos of my progress on this work.  Just scroll down to see more. 

I especially like my daughter’s idea to use a sepia color in the name board.  I tried a bronze that didn’t work and probably wouldn’t have been good with the lighting on stage.  I’m very happy with the finished effect.

Here you can see that I’m working on the floor of my studio.   At this point, I’m only using Golden’s Black.  Any white is just the canvas showing though.

I chose to start on Eric’s face because I had the most trouble caricaturing him.  When I finally got a sketch that I liked, I couldn’t wait to paint him.   Just look at that mug….

I begin by drawing on paper, then sketching directly onto the canvas with artist charcoal.   It’s easily erased using a wet cloth, but only for a couple of times, then the canvas starts getting muddy.   I think the hardest part of any painting is that first stroke.  I sit and look at my sketch for a long time before I jump in with that first sweep of wet paint.   It’s like the first cut into a beautifully decorated cake.  

yummmm….make mine spice with chocolate covered strawberrys……but I digress.

So I took this to the gym today.   Just being there gave  me more ideas.  There’s a lot of odd looking people doing unusual things.     Hummm….no, I didn’t look at myself.

They wouldn’t let me prop the painting up where people could see it, even just for the time I was there.  Something about “corporate bla bla bla.”  At least I got to show it to some friends and tote it around for a while.  I guess that’s better than having it sit in my studio.   

Begining a new painting is like anything else.  It’s hard to get started but once you’re on a roll, nothing else matters.    I’m diving into this one today.

And it begins….