Day 72: Shoes

Title: Shoe Gremlin
Assignment: Use all the shoes in your household to make something, or work with a single pair of shoes.
Materials: My meager supply of footwear, the two paper balls that were in my one pair of dress flats.
Inspiration: Initially tried this one at Krystle's place but was overwhelmed by the mountain of shoes that belong to her and Craig. Discovered less IS more, in this case. ;-)

Day 71: Time Travel

Title: Lascaux Long and Prosper
Assignment: Make something that seems like it came from another era in history.
Materials: flower pot shard, charcoal, pastels, a shot from the Lascaux cave paintings, and PS
Inspiration: With all the time travel snafus the Enterprise experienced, I figured it was only logical that they'd end up in the Cave of Forgotten Dreams. In fact it was likely a Red Shirt that made the cliffs collapse.

Day 70: Numbers

Title: 7 8 9
Assignment: Work only with numbers today. You could make a unique image using numbers, make something into number shapes, do something involving a calculator, or...?
Materials: Watercolors, pen.
Inspiration: A splendid day of conversation, drinking "Stormy Mornings" and whipping out some art with Krystle in her backyard. She reminded me of this old playground joke and so I made the two creatures out of the numbers.

Oh and here's the recipe for a Stormy Morning!

1.5 oz Rathman Créme de Violette 

1.5 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur 

1 oz fresh lime juice 

4 oz Champagne 

Lime wedges to garnish 

Day 69: Puzzle

Title: The Little Mermaid-VAMPIRE HUNTER
Assignment: Make a puzzle or make something using pieces from a puzzle.
Materials: One LM puzzle from Goodwill, Acrylics, pen.
Inspiration: A riff on the glut of zombies/vampires vs classic lit and historical figures out and about now. And I had fun putting the puzzle together, too. ;-)

Day 68: Papier-Mache

Title: Medusan Mask

Assignment: Create something with papier-mache.

Materials: Flour, water, strips of newspaper, acrylic paints, a styrofoam head for the model, tin foil for lining.

Inspiration: Qaxacan wood carvings. Unlike how I usually work - this was completely free form. I didn't sketch down any idea or plan for the mask, but just let it develop.

Day 67: 10 Word Sci-FI

Title: Veni, Vidi, Vici

Assignment: Write a ten-word science fiction story. Bonus: illustrate.

Materials: watercolors, pen, pencil, PS 

Inspiration: This one is for Christopher Diani, who loves robots.

Day 66: Groceries

Title: Aloha

Assignment: Go grocery shopping and pick up something new specifically to work with. Extra credit: make the work at the store itself.

Materials: A bin of coconuts, a bin of limes and a taro root, a bit of PS for accent.

Inspiration: These are for Matthew. I went to our local asian market, knowing I'd find some Hawaiian produce that is as wild and wonderful as he was. I rearranged the coconuts so that their shocked faces would all be looking out, and the stunned look on the face of the little taro root monster pretty much captures how I'm feeling too.

Day 65: Tangram

Title: Tangram Zombie

Assignment: Work only with the classic tangram shapes 

(Tangram: a classic Chinese puzzle composed of 7 flat geometric shapes, which can be rearranged to make a variety of images, usually provided only as silhouettes).

Materials: paper, pencil, scissors, pen.

Inspiration: I played around with the shapes a long time before finding anything remotely horror-inspiring, 

 then used that as a springboard for what I thought the tangram might be turned into.

BTW - 65 down, only THREE HUNDRED MORE to go!

Day 64: It's all about you

Title: Party O'Animal
Assignment: Incorporate yourself into whatever you make. It could be by wearing the work, by creating a self-portrait or...?

Materials: Pencil, pen, crayon, photo I took of myself making an evil grin, PS touchup.

Inspiration: It being St. Patrick's Day today, I thought I'd draw a portrait of myself as an evil leprechaun. I am a quarter Irish, after all.

Day 63: Behind the Mask

Title: Wickerman

Assignment: Create a unique mask with whatever materials you like. Bonus: Document yourself or a friend wearing it.

Materials: Two paper plates, tempera paints, pen, gaff tape and a chopstick for the handle, PS touch up.

Inspiration: One of my favorite movies, horror or otherwise, is THE WICKER MAN. (The original, please!) I was quite pleased with how this turned out and how it looked more 'wooden' in the different light.

Day 62: Dinner

Title: Yoghre
Assignment: Make something with your dinner before you eat it.
Materials: Black guacamole bowl, lime yoghurt, walnuts, dried cranberries
Inspiration: Was racing to rehearsal and had had a late lunch, so this is a bit of a 'minimalist' presentation.

Day 61: Bathroom

Title: Toilet Seat Demon
Assignment: Use only things you find around the bathroom to create something. Extra credit: Make it in the bathroom.
Materials: Hand towel, kleenex box, makeup brush case, nail brushes, razor, hotel bottles inside the box for weight, candle for lighting, PS for the eye lights.
Inspiration: Star Wars Jawas and also an image that has always scared me - a hooded figure that only has pin spots for eyes.

Day 60: Shadows

Title: Shadow Dragon
Assignment: Make something that casts a shadow and document only the shadow.
Materials: Manila folder, Sharpie, pencil, Exacto, scissors, brads that I ripped out of a folder.
Inspiration: I have a carved blow pipe I found in my travels, and the head reminded me of Javanese shadow puppets. I was rather pleased with how this guy came out. A few shots here to show the process.

Inspiration:

Day 59: Mix and Match

Title: Pinhead
Assignment: Work with two materials that generally don't go together.
Materials: Orange and sewing supplies (pins and snaps) Exacto for cutting, PS for touchup.

Inspiration: This guy:

Day 58: Life-Size

Title: Ashes to Ashes
Assignment: Make something as big as you possibly can. If it's something representational, see if you can make it life-sized.
Materials: Scully, Dracula cape, boots, ashes from the hibachi, Barnabas ring
Inspiration: Well. Duh. ;-)

 I put in this long shot to show that he actually is life- (or death-) sized, and the sun was coming through the window frame just right.

Day 57: Plastic Bag

Title: Jellyfish Alien
Assignment: Use  a disposable plastic bag to create something new today.
Materials: two plastic bags, tape, 2 binder rings and a binder clip, PS
Inspiration: I started tying a bag in knots, then blew it up like a balloon and realized it looked a bit like a baggy-brained alien. Shredded another bag and tape the 'tentacles' underneath. Hung it from my shower rod, shot it holding a flashlight under it, then tarted it up a bit with some PS lighting effects and Liquify.

Day 56: Heavy is Light

Title: Castle Drac
Assignment: Make something heavy seem light
Materials: pen, pencil, crayon, PS
Inspiration: Wanted to work with perspective here, so played with the idea of a castle in the clouds, being held up by balloons, then settled on this:

Not happy with the way the hand turned out -and I wish I'd been able to use the same skewed clean lines I found with the castle. 

Day 55: Jingle

Title: Wolfsbane!
Assignment: Create an advertising jingle for something from nature. Bonus - illustrate.
Materials: Pencil, pen, crayon, PS
Inspiration: I've always like antique botanical and animal illustrations, so I used one as my model today.

Day 54: Connect the Dots

Title: Lord of the Flies
Materials: Paper, Black Sharpie, red pen.
Inspiration: This proved more fun that I thought it'd be. I just started doodling, and the faces started matrixing out at me from the dots.

Day 53: Scent

Title: Soap of DEATH
Assignment: Make something in which the sense of smell is the essential component
Materials: Soap making kit, a death's head pin
Inspiration: UGH! This one had me stumped. I finally decided that I'd make something I was interested in, even if it wasn't particularly monsterish, just to get past this assignment. The soaps ARE quite nice; rather than making them smell like death, blood, catacombs or halitosis, I scented them with a variety of eucalyptus, pikaki and lavender. Just what every monster needs.

Day 52: Upside Down

Title: Wolfman

Assignment: Work upside down. Create something in such a way that you have to rotate it 180 degrees to display/see it when it is finished.

Materials: pencil, pen, watercolors

Inspiration: When I took a "drawing with the right side of the brain" class many years ago, I had some experience with this technique, but always used a photo or other drawing turned upside down for my model. This was my first free hand attempt.

I've been immersed in Real Life these last few weeks, and sadly, fell off the Art Wagon. Hopefully inspiration will hit me double, and I'll be able to catch up on my assignments quickly!