Media Medley Blog

My blog has received the Blog Lovin’ Award from Pam at the Always Artistic: The Blog. Photography, art and more by Pam Hardy and by some of her favorite artists can be found on her blog.  To see her work just visit her shop at AlwaysArtistic.

I was curious to discover the beginnings of the Blog Lovin’ Award so I Googled it. I believe this award is a recent phenomenon, yet from the Google results, there appears to be quite a bit of blog lovin’ happening.  I had wanted to give credit to to the original award giver for coming up with such a fun and successful award idea.  So I’ve attempted to trace this award back to the beginning, but apparently credit was not always given to the person giving this award. The link backwards disappeared on me.

In my research, I found that it became confusing as to why a blog was awarded, although there were always at least 5 blogs awarded at one time. Some were given this award for being a good blog reader and making lots of comments on a blog. Others were awarding people for having an interesting blog. Since the interpretation of this award is so open, I shall give this award to the following people for impacting my life in a positive way through their works:

1. Tatsuya Ishida | Sinfest the WebComic Blog

2. Rob Cockerham | Have you ever wondered…Blog

3. Jessica Sternapple | Reading Blog 

4. Beth DeLozier-Hayes | Blog about Houston’s Weekly Chic  |Website

5. Sherry Truitt | Blog | Sherry Truitt Studios

Congratulations! And thank you.

The first Adventure painting seems to be a success. I have had people see it and declare their love for it. So when a young lady had her room revamped, I thought it would be fun to create another Adventure painting. My Adventure paintings are action scenes, not postural or still lifes.

As I was deciding on the action to put into this Adventure painting, I knew it had to be a scene that wouldn’t be outgrown by the young lady. But there had to be elements that she would adore such as; the color pink, the color purple, a monkey or two, a unicorn, a dancer that looks like her.

Here is the first sketch. Notice I had a hard time deciding what to do with the horse. I think I have that settled in my mind, now, though.

Well, when I work a large painting, I like to add undertones when possible, so my next step was to add a wash of green on to the canvas. This freaked the young lady. “But I’m not green!” she wailed. Did I respond with an explanation? I hope so. I was absorbed in the process of creation.

The project sat for a few days as I pondered where to go from here. Then, it occurred to me that this was a parade, and all parades need spectators. So I finished the trees and added the first parade watcher.

This came out pretty good so far. Here’s a close up of the deer in this oil painting.

And this is where I’m at now. I’ll post more as this 4 ft 2 ft oil painting gets more action.

Every canvas meant for oil paints does best when gessoed. But it’s a job that this artist doesn’t much enjoy. So when I gesso, I do a whole batch at a time. This gives me a nice stock from which I can immediately pull a canvas and start painting when the spirit moves me to paint. JOY!

Gessoing ACEOs also has to be done, even if they are tricky little things. I’ve found the best way to proceed is to cut card board pieces into sizes that are a bit larger than an ACEO. I use an old CD case as template for the size. Once the cardboards are cut, they can be reused over and over. I then use a couple of small pieces of scotch tape rolled up and adhered to the cardboard. Then I stick the ACEO canvas/paper to the cardboard and gesso the whole batch at one time.

If the canvas paper is thin, it might curl a bit when first gessoed. I’ve found that if I wait a few minutes until the paper is no longer shiny wet, I can then stack the cardboards together and press a moderately heavy weight on them (when the gesso container in the image is full, I’ll use that as a weight). The canvases don’t stick, but they are straightened and flat when I pull them out for use the next day.

I paint an image onto the canvas paper while it’s still stuck to the cardboard. This allows me to handle and move the painting while painting and  move it to the drying location. No need for fingerprints on the painting unless you really can’t wait to test the wet paint!

When the painting is carefully removed from the cardboard, and the tape discarded from the back, what’s left is a clean and professional edge on the painting.

I hope you enjoyed this trick to treating ACEO canvases.