ATS member art; Got Paint?

reply to post by AshleyD

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OK - you did - but, I knew you did more than you implied :-)

and I think nobody should ever say never

much of the time it's just about working - practice, practice, practice

sometimes we think it has to be something - go somewhere - and it doesn't

unless that's what we really want

that's when you should start letting it make you nauseous :-)

I love the paintings seagrass, especially the tree.

I wish I could paint I tried it at Art College (studying photography) in my younger days) but I was useless lol. They never looked good lol. I think even the teachers said maybe I should stick to photography lol

Keep painting, we all need to express ourselves somehow.

JQ.

I love photography. I dabble there too. My daughter is majoring in it next year. We all have our gifts.. you also have a gift for the digital art and design.
Glad to see you back at ATS. I just changed my avi to the turtle today..Thanks again.

reply to post by seagrass

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he's the one who did your avatar?

very nice John Q

why do people underrate the digital medium?

ok - this could be a good argument here (not here - another thread)

it's not my forte - but I mess around in it enough to know - it's no different from anything else - it takes skill to produce good work

and the medium isn't the point - is it?

in some ways - no different from working with found objects - is it? :-)

art is art

I agree!!. And yes, he did my mermaid too. I have never attempted it.. you are still lucky I know how post pics.

reply to post by seagrass

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so many different reasons I think

we have this idea that is has to be perfect - and anything less than that shouldn't be shown

we have this inner belief that we could never be good enough to produce anything worthy of being looked at or considered - taken seriously

we think all art has to be taken seriously

it's competitive - and to be sure - if you decide art is your life's work - you enter a whole new world - a terrifying mean spirited world - full of other artists :-)

I know these people - no foolin' - they would eat their young in certain situations

they will definitely eat the wounded - and not out of compassion :-)

but it starts very early on I think - I see kids get turned off and turned away from so many areas of creativity - just when they're starting to get really excited about it

lmao. I am not competitive. I would be eaten alive.
doing it for money would feel weird, as does anything else I do for money.

My wife and I do some muraling on the side, along with our 9-5 jobs. I'm the principal artist, but she's pretty good at going behind what I draw in, and painting also. We started doing them as favors for friends of ours, who have small children.

This was a princess-themed room for a friend's daughter. She wanted a yellow princess castle with all of the princesses in various windows. This was the first mural we did.







This was an undersea-themed room for another friend's daughter. They wanted some realistic animals along with famous characters from beloved movies, etc. Second mural we did.








We've done a few more since then, just need to upload pics of them.


[edit on 8-6-2009 by Gazrok]

reply to post by Gazrok

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how long does something like that take you Gazrok?

both, but specifically the undersea room - looks like a lot of work

Well, keep in mind there's two of us. While I'm drawing on one wall, she'll be painting in on another. We estimated about 20 hours for the princess room, and about 45 for the undersea room (a lot more detail in that one)...

We did it during a couple of weekends...not counting painting the base color (i.e. yellow for the castle room and blues for the undersea room). Unfortunately, I haven't quite mastered how much time to estimate on these, so difficult to develop accurate quotes (and I usually lowball for potential clients to get the job, and end up screwing myself a bit)...

I do some pencil portrait drawings as well, some of which are around here somewhere....need to upload more of those as well.

[edit on 8-6-2009 by Gazrok]

That's what I thought at first..the time.. I can see the amount of work there... I'm still not done with my daughters ONE wall. whew, makes me tired thinking of it. But you guys did a great job!! Even the furniture!

Please do Gazrok! would love to see them.

This is a project I did this year. My daughter's bathroom. I took scrapbooking to the next level with paper on canvas. They look cheap and silly, but it's for kids right?
I saw the idea at Pottery Barn Kids and they wanted a lot of money for stuff I said... I can do that.... so I did...



and an old stool, spiffed up...

reply to post by Gazrok

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I was going to reply hours ago - but then ATS quit working :-)

was it just me?



you mean - there's another way? :-)

that's good - that was less time than I would have guessed - I always wondered how long it took someone to do something like that - like I said - looks like a lot of work

do you enjoy it - working in other people's homes like that?

Well, they were friends, so was more enjoyable.

One project we did was a bathroom mural (I'll post pics soon). This was for the grandfather of the child with the undersea room. He has a ranch a little over an hour away from here, and had an idea for a whimsical bathroom scene. We've grown to be friends with them as well, and it's fun to go there occassionally, ride some horses (my wife will be on horseback all day, me - only for a couple of hours), and make some smores by the fire, etc. The grandparents are some of the nicest people you could ever know.

It was a very small space, and had a lot of nice woodwork, so we had to be extra careful with the paint (and it was a cash paying and barter job). Was also frustrating, as it wasn't coming out (at first) quite how I envisioned. That job took about 30 hours, and it was much smaller than the other rooms. The problem was the detail (and it got warm in cramped quarters with both of us working).

He describes his home as "Florida Cracker Style", and as he's a carpenter, it has loads of nice, beautiful woodwork in it. In the bathroom, he wanted it to look like an "indoor outhouse". He had wood up half the wall, but had about 3' of empty space all around the room. His idea was to have wooden planks (matching the wood below) painted on the walls, and have a Florida Cypress swamp scene through the spaces between the planks. This idea was like doing two murals in one, and contributed to the time. (which I didn't factor at first).

[edit on 9-6-2009 by Gazrok]

Here's the pics of the indoor outhouse (some aren't the clearest in the world, I have better pics, that aren't uploaded yet)... He wanted folks to find new little things each time they went into the bathroom (it's a guest bathroom)...

This is the largest wall, have to look close for details.

This shows you how the painted wood looks with the real wood

This is the wall behind the door. Can you spot the Florida Skunk Ape? (basically the Florida version of Bigfoot).

Closeup of the alligator on the main wall

Racoon in a tree, one of the little critters to spot, also a moth on the wood

Wall behind the throne


seagrass, my wife and her friends all scrapbook, and many have done the same idea in their kids' rooms, with the scrapbook page pics. I actually use a scrapbook as a portfolio, as it just makes for a better presentation.

[edit on 9-6-2009 by Gazrok]

you did a FANTASTIC job! I love the bugs and spiders and butterfly. The wood part looks frustrating especially after a few times.. The first few planks would have been ok.. but then I probably would have quit.

Really good job. I bet it was fun coming up with the animals and placement.
A scrap book portfolio sounds like a great idea.

I did a friends room once for a trade for leather furniture.
She won junior miss rodeo and wanted princess crowns. The wall was painted in an argyle and then at the diamond points I put different crowns and glued on rhinestones and gems. It turned out good. She loved it so that's what mattered. I think the trade was worth about 200 bucks. So I think I won. Although the supplies and stones cost me about 60 bucks. Hard to say with used leather, but it is a decent set, no flaws really.. so I was happy.

[edit on 9-6-2009 by seagrass]

reply to post by Gazrok

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very "Pogo"

I like it

:-)

Pogo???

reply to post by Gazrok

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yeah I don't know either... know it's a game... but...