Thursday, July 25, 2013

Tall Pines Vacation

Here are some pictures of my vacation with Mike and our friends Cloey and Sarah!  We had an amazing time. We went to our cottage in Crandon Wisconsin, as usual.





 













 

 

 

 









 
#failed  Consider My Dear
 

 Childish of course!
 


 



These are all of the fabulous pictures that Cloey took with her film camera. One word. SWOON
 





















Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Art Update

It is pretty amazing how  much art I have been producing lately. A lot of it is commissions and some are trades. I'm really trying to work hard on my rainbow pallet. I dont know what else to call it. I have a hard time using it in fur or hair, but it works well in skin and fabric.

The First painting is a commission of a kitty named Sammy. The poor girl passed away about two months ago.  She just looked like a sweetie pie!  I love the way the fabric turned out. I think this was a perfect combination of rainbows and fur.  The customer was very emotional when I gave it to her. I felt so bad for making her cry, but I know she loved it.




This is a painting of the beautiful Anna. She has a fabulous tumblr that you should check out. I wanted to keep up my portrait abilities, so I painted her for fun. It doesn't hurt that I have a major crush. I had difficulties at first, because I was working in crappy light. NOTE TO SELF: always have good light. It came around. Once again, I need to and a mix of more colors in the hair.



This was something I've never done before; paint on drift wood. I had to figure out a few kinks. I had to put down a clear gesso over the entire surface. Painting on wood is nothing like painting on paper. The water color acted more like acrylic. I had to get used to that. I love the way the fade of water turned out. I want to work on other piece like this in the future.



This is the handsome Wallace! Alice at her blog Niceties commissioned me for it. She is an amazing artist so I was shocked that she wanted a painting from me. I paintinted the entire thing and thought I was finished. Then I noticed it looked like my cat, Nala, not hers. I had to change the entire color. Needless to say I fixed it, and it doesn't look like my cat anymore.  Now it is shipped off to New Zealand, the furtherst ever one of my paintings have gone.  *eep*  That is exciting!




Wednesday, July 10, 2013

90 Year Old Paper Dolls

First I want to say hello to all of my new followers from bloglovin! I will hopefully have a lot of great things to talk about in the near future. " Yeah, I hope not sporadically."

Let me talk about these paper dolls. When I was younger I loved paper dolls. On Sunday mornings my dad would take me to the store to buy something little and I would always pick out Disney princess paper dolls.  About a month ago I was at Hobby Lobby there was a Cinderella and Ariel wedding set on clearance. Yeah, I pick it up right away! I was so freaking happy. The clothes are made out of clings (for windows). Even paper dolls change.

These dolls were my great grandmas and great aunts. My great grandma was born in 1910 and I was told she played with these when she was about thirteen. They are from the 1920s and are made from 90 year old paper! That is just jaw dropping. The paper is still in great condition too.

 It's awesome because they weren't just paper dolls they were advertisements. On the back they say how much they were and what number they were so the dresses could be order.  The most expensive ones were $2.45. I had to look up the store they were from because Mendel Brothers is no longer around. The store was in downtown Chicago. Oh, to see what Chicago looked like in 1923.

I know my great grandma will be rolling in her grave with me saying this. Three years after she was playing with these she got pregnant. ::Gasp::  She was sixteen and went to elope with my great grandfather. He was twenty-one  and she was sixteen!  She even lied about her age on the marriage certificate. That's just a little bit of family gossip, which no one ever talked about.

The best part of these dolls are that my grandma made her own outfits also. She drew them and colored them. I can just picture a little Mildred on the floor in 1923 working hard. That passion of art got passed to my grandma, kinda skipped my mom, and then went to me. This is where it exploded. Now I'm going to be going into my final year of art school. That's where it all started. I kind of think she maybe she could have gone into fashion design.  Make sure you look at the hands on the drawn outfit, they are just so darling.

I think my favorite outfit is No. 1612 the cute green one. Whats yours?

xoxo
Rebecca