Chicago..where Route 66 begins!

Almost every day I work on some kind of Route 66 drawing, featuring some place in Illinois. They are going to be used in a future project and I'm excited about getting them all done. I'm working down the list of great 66 spots in Illinois.

Painting BIG

Normally, I paint small....no larger than about 12x12, but several years ago I bought this great old easel at an auction, and promptly bought a couple of huge canvases. Then it sat....for years. Suddenly the other evening I decided I just had to paint one!

I decided to go for it and do something kind of like the background I make for journal pages. It helped me get over the fear of that pristine canvas, to just think of it that way, and not worry about how it turns out...after all, if I hated it, I could gesso over it, and start anew.

I used Golden fluid acrylics and some acrylics in tubes. I layered on the colors using brushes and my fingers.

Added some water, and letting gravity paint.

  I painted with my fingers quite a bit. I also used foam brushes, and regular paint brushes.

 

I've not painted anything this large since high school. It was fun! I will definitely be trying this again in the near future.

Uh-oh. Draw what you see.

Here's what happens when you start listening to your brain instead of your eyes. I had a rough outline of the building down, but I quit looking so much and started to draw what I thought was there, and messed up the roof line of the Rich and Creamy ice cream shop in Joliet. Soooo I'll have to fix that, which means pretty much starting over, and paying attention this time!

Update:
Decided to try and fix it with my sharpie white paint pen, which I can draw over. I think it worked pretty well...the test will be when I go get it copied to see if it shows. I've left this fairly simple as far as lines and shading because it's going to get reduced quite a bit.  After I get the copies made I want to try and add some color to this.

Faces from the shop

 This is a young man I met at my shop. He was very upbeat and fun....and he was looking at a country music CD when he told me the story on the page. Then he wanted to know about the singer on the CD. Right at that moment the singer walked in, and they had their picture made together and talked about music for a while. It's a small world!

 This is another customer at the shop. She is from Germany, and you can read the story on the page in the picture below. I'm not happy with this drawing, but it's another one of the 100 done. I cannot figure out shading on faces yet...especially on women. If you leave it crosshatching it looks like whiskers, but I'm not fond of the blended look that I get with a paper stump either. I'll have to hit youtube and see what I can learn.

This is a beautiful redhead I saw on pinterest. I erased quite a bit and it got kind of smudgy, but I like her anyway. Her right eye is rather small.

Face...again

Well here is another face. I love this girl, but I didn't am not up to drawing her yet. I tried to draw her back in 2007, and this is a little better, I think, but still...I need a LOT of practice. Also..I can tell you I think teeth showing makes things harder! Anyway, I committed to showing them all to see what kind of progress I make as I draw 100 faces, so here she is!

Pencil sketches..faces

I finally did a couple more faces. I only have a #2 pencil with me, which I haven't drawn with in a long time...I forgot how easily it smudges! This girl is #7 and she is lady I found when I googled "faces."

This lady is an artist I met on Facebook. She is much prettier in person, but I still think that this is a pretty good try for me.

Ikea Lamp Hack....hand drawn Route 66 Muffler Men

 I've been drawing those muffler men again. This time I put them on an Ikea lamp. It takes a night light bulb and is a nice little mood lamp.

These lamps are made of frosted glass, and after a little experimenting I found Sharpie markers worked the best and take a little gentle wiping to clean the lamp.  I used my rubber stamp again too. I'm so glad I made that thing!

Mixed Media Invades My Sewing!

 I  know I have kept this blog all about painting and drawing and have been pretty strict about it. But now the paints and stamp carving and drawing have started seeping over into other things. Like these aprons. Many of you know I own a souvenir shop on Route 66. I wanted to make Route 66 aprons for the shop. I made a couple, and I loved upcycling the blue jeans, but they looked so plain.......and then it hit me....paints and stamping and doodling!

 So I started stamping some with the stamp I carved not long ago. I used a waterproof ink of course. And then polka dots seemed a good idea, so I added them with acrylic paints for fabric.

 I think they are pretty spunky in that Daisy Duke kind of way, with the blue jeans and ruffles.

 I bought a few pens that are for painting on dark fabrics and they worked pretty well.

This one has the small Route 66 stamp I carved a few years ago.

 I've got a few more almost done. The shop is going to have more things I've made in it this year than it ever has before. I hope people find them appealing!