Jewelry box: a mural of an owl!!!

Hello folks,

Wooden box from the local art shop

                I am back and this time with some mural work. I thought of creating an ''Owl sitting on a branch of a tree'' on a jewelry box.

Today I also thought I should share two secrets with you'll.
1. What material I use to make a mural and some tricks
2. Antique finish

I used a wooden box (bought from the local art shop). And worked on the mural by using ''M-seal'' (one could also use clay). I would recommend using clay for first timers since M-seal can dry faster, leaving less time to play around :). And then I used tools to shape the owl! Ex: the back of a marker pen for the eyes. A paper tool (rounded bone spatula) for the feathers.

Once the complete mural was done, I let it dry for a day.
For the antique finish, I gave a thick black coat to cover the complete box (it is important not to leave any crevice unpainted at this stage).

Finally I gave a coat of gold to the entire box except for the mural. For the mural, I gently brushed the gold to give an antique effect. Again it is important NOT to fill the crevices this time and leave some black spaces.

Voila an antique finish!! This is how it looked at the end.

This was gifted to a friend on her birthday! I hear she loves it and already has her best jewelry sitting in it.
Hope you get hands on some clay and try your first mural.
Good luck!

I have some special orders already! So keep an eye for some more soon :)

Art class contd..

Some more of the confident strokes from my little kiddo!

    

Art class for kids (age group 5-7)

Hello folks! With the increasing amount of responsibility at work it is really hard to find time for art. Thus, I decided to dedicate some time to my passion by sharing it with kids (age group of 5-7).
I have had two classes of the same and here are some images of the art done by the kids.

Teaching kids is difficult since you have to have patience and a knack of making things easy and interesting. And I must admit that the web has been a boon. I would really like to thank ABC to drawing.


I really look forward to Monday evenings now just so that I can do something I love and enjoy.
Hope to share more stuff in the coming weeks.

End the year with festive season...

Had the time to make some festive season greetings for friends over the globe.

Hope you all have a happy, healthy and prosperous year ahead!!
See you in the new year with more arty ideas..
S
xx

Midnight Desire

A desperate desire for creativity in the middle of the night. 

The urge and determination was immense and it surprised me too as to how I could be awake in the middle of the night and show such ease in doing this piece which otherwise would be impossible for me. People who know me well know that ''early to bed and early to rise'', is my birth motto!! :)

All said and done, I am posting this for the pleasure of sharing the idea. Am not motivated now to explain how to do it. I am sure you have enough leads now from my previous posts, and my inspiration list, as to how things can be done!! More later.

           

                 Close-up of the flowers and leaves

    

 Close-up of the Bee 

At an angle

PS: I think the desire was also because I was gifting this frame to a frien (Ashish Arondekar and fly) when visiting the family for Ganpati (the elephant-head lord). Ganpati Bappa Morya!!!

A Flowery Act!

I am glad, I had the motivation and time this weekend to open up the creative side in me.
Have been extremely busy with the new job, but I made it a point to get the arty stuff out from the attic and paint.

It's been long since I held a brush in my hand since most of my earlier posts comprise of paper quilling. 

And what else could I do with the brush other than one stroke painting. If you know me very well, it is one of my favorite techniques which, I guess, I have mastered to a certain level.

A bit of information for those who are unaware of this technique. In the early 1970’s, the name Donna Dewberry did not draw much attention in the Craft Industry in the States. A self-taught artist, she picked up different painting tips from wherever she could and “learned by observations”. Thirty years later, she is recognized throughout America, Europe and Asia as the innovative creator of the One Stroke painting technique.
So what is one stroke painting? It involves blending, shading and highlighting in one stroke of the brush. A very basic video of Donna explaining the technique here.

Recently, I had bought her book "Painting fabulous flowers". It has step-by-step instructions and pictures on how to paint all kinds of flowers. It has paintings of approx. 50 different flowers using this technique.

She has also categorized the flowers as garden flowers, flowering trees, shrubs & herbs, wildflowers , Tropicals and exotics.  I guess it is a great book to have in your library for mastering the art of one stroke.

I was beginning to fear that I had lost the art since it's been a while but after I went onto the second and the third flower I was happy.
Below is the painting I finally managed to create on the canvas :)

Monogram R

Here is a monogram, I made using 3mm colored strips, for my niece's 5th birthday!!!
Wishing her a colorful  and bright future.

I did the basic outline first followed by all the detailed work and then outlined with the dark colored strip.

Hope you like it and can make it for loved ones.
Cheers