Derailed by Disney World...

My birthday was last week and you know what that means...  Yes, I failed miserably to meet my 50 paintings by 50 goal.

I'm trying to think of where it all went wrong and all I can come up with is "Disney World".  There are few things scarier to me than spring break crowds at Disney World, but my sister and I still decided to take the kids to Disney World over break.  I'm just a bit of a planner and I''m all for crowd avoidance, so this meant hours spent on fast passes, dining reservations, parade routes, wait times for rides, etc.  Maybe I do had too much time on my hands!  Had I just accepted the crowds, I might have stayed on track.

We did have a blast on the trip and my crowd avoidance techniques worked like a charm; however, my painting was derailed.  After Disney, I was planning an event for Peanut's elementary school, then a trip to Ireland, then summer already.  Next thing I knew it was my birthday.

I guess you could say that life got in the way again.  Now that I'm 50, I'm older and wiser (yah, right!) so I'm not going to sweat it.  I'll just set a new goal!

Temper Tantrums, House Guests, and the Flu

I haven't posted for over 2 weeks due to a temper tantrum, house guests, and the flu.  So, I'm not the one who was sick, but having a sick husband and kid distracted me from getting any painting done... or was it having house guests two weekends in a row.  Don't get me wrong...  both visits were lots of fun and I really appreciate friends and family travelling to visit us, but it meant getting the house "company clean" (which is quite different than our "regular clean") - twice!

I suppose if I'm honest,  illness and guests contributed to my procrastination, but the real reason I didn't paint was because I was having a temper tantrum. Let's just say you shouldn't wipe paint away with a cloth that has thinner on it.  Instead of removing the top layer of paint from the face, you will remove the entire face.  Bummer!  After making that blunder, I was really frustrated and needed to pout for a couple of weeks.  I'm over it now and have finished the underpainting to Peanut's angry portrait.

I having a little trouble getting the face right because so much of it is in shadow and I was working from a rather small photo.  Here is a little cheat that I sometimes use if I can't figure out where I'm going wrong.

I copy the photograph in black and white, adjusting the size of the face to be the same as in the painting.  I then slip the photo into a plastic sleeve and trace the major areas with a sharpie.

Once you remove the photo...  voila!  You've got a roadmap.  (I slipped a white paper in the sleeve just so that you could see the outline better.)

Using this as a quick guide let me to see that the face I painted was too squashed.  Her eyes needed to be higher and closer to the brows and her mouth needed to be brought down a bit.  They are unusually close together because she is tipping her face forward a bit.  I needed that facial tilt to add to her pouty face.





Here's her cute little face now...  ready for some color!

My Crabby Child and Another Way to Paint Portraits

Those of you that know Peanut have probably seen her looking grumpy at one time or another. On the flip side, you've probably also seen her literally jumping for joy.  Seriously, when she is really excited or happy about something, she jumps up and down.  [I wish I was compelled to do the same - just think of how many calories I'd burn jumping up and down throughout the day.  I'd be thinner, but I doubt I'd have many friends left as this isn't "normal" behavior for an adult.]

The photo of Peanut below was taken when she was about 3 years old, although we've seen this expression of her quite often.  She and The Oldest had these great, old-fashioned looking dresses that gathered on the sides.  We had a little photo shoot while visiting my parents.  After awhile Peanut had enough!

For this painting, I'm going back to a full sepia underpainting.  To do this, I start with a toned canvas. Usually I use burnt umber mixed with white, but this time I chose to use raw umber and white.  Raw umber has more green in it, while burnt umber has more of a red tone.  Sometimes I feel like I fight with the brassiness of a painting, so I'm hoping that going with a grayer, greener brown will help.

My big easel has clips that I can use to hold my photos when I paint, but since we moved I've been painting in my kitchen and using my portable easel.  I had been using masking tape to fasten my photo alongside my canvas, but it tends to droop after awhile.  Using binder clips to fasten the photo (taped on a folder) to the back of the canvas works much better.  No more drooping!

With this painting method, I use only brown (in this case raw umber) and white for my underpainting. Before I get too far down the line, I spend a little time laying out my subject - grumpy Peanut. This saves me time in the long run.  It's such a bummer to have a beautifully painted face and then realize you need to move it!

A couple of hours later the kids are coming home from school and my underpainting looks like this. I've still got some work to do -  I couldn't get my whites bright enough because my canvas got too wet. I also need to figure out what I want to do for the background, but I like how she looks so far!

There's something about Mary...

Yes, there is something about Mary.  She's scary!  Who is Mary, you ask?  Mary is a creepy old doll that belonged to one of my sisters-in-law.  Imagine that you bring your beautiful, innocent 1 year old baby to your in-laws and they bring out this eerie doll for her to play with.  That's how I first met Mary, but the most disturbing thing was that my sweet little baby loved her!  I guess she looked past Mary's fused-shut eye, chewed off fingers, and hospital gown style dress...  she just didn't see a creepy doll that would try to kill you in your sleep, like I did.

A couple of years ago, the oldest child jokingly changed the background on my phone to a photo I had taken of Mary.  Guess what?  Mary is still on my phone!  And it's not just because I don't know how to change my screen saver...  I don't, but that's beside the point.  I kind of like scary Mary.

I've been wanting to capture Mary in all her eerie glory for some time.  She was fun to paint, but it was even more fun to see everyone's reaction while I was painting her.  A friend of mine who is afraid of baby dolls asked what was in Mary's hand that you can't see.  Hmmm....  That's a good question!  I think I'll leave that up to interpretation.  The kids all found her disturbing and we joked that they worst-behaved kid of the day was going to have Mary's painting put in their room that night.  Settle down...  I would never really do that!  Although Dear Husband and Peanut tried twice to wake me up with Mary's painting next to my face...  luckily I was already awake.  I anticipated years of finding Mary in a cupboard, on a chair as I pulled it out, in my trunk, as I pulled back the covers on my bed, in the closet, in the dryer, even when I lifted the toilet lid...  you name it.  They're all good hiding places for Mary.

Alas, we never got a chance to scare each other with Mary and the fun has to stop before it's begun. Peanut has started having nightmares about Mary's painting, which  has been drying on our living room mantel.  Oops!  Sorry, little one.  I hope you don't have PTSD because of Mary!  After taking these photos she's moving to the basement, or better yet someone else's house.  Anyone else want to traumatize your kid?

You still have time to send in your pet photos and maybe get a Free portrait!

I will be choosing the subject for my FREE pet portrait at the end of February so you've still got time to submit photos of your pet.  Photos should be sent to CathyFitzsimmonsArt@gmail.com.  Check my prior post on how to take good photos of your pet.

Mural progress: I finished the 2nd mermaid!

I've made some progress on Peanut's mural.  The second mermaid came together so easily.  I just love her for it!  I also added a little clownfish which is one of Peanut's favorite parts so far.  By the way, clownfish look really grumpy - seriously, they look nothing like Nemo!  I painted mine with a little more neutral expression, although it does look a bit vacant.  I finished the treasure chest and added a seahorse where I had planned to have a lobster.  Have you ever really looked at a lobster?  They're scary!  I didn't want Peanut to have nightmares about her bathroom, hence the seahorse.

Do you want a painting of your pet? For FREE!

I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse..  So I've never seen The Godfather (Gasp!), but Dear Husband quotes a line similar to this.  Okay, back to my offer...  I will paint your pet for FREE!  That is, if your pet's photo is the one that I have chosen from all photos submitted.  When finished, I will send it to you.  My normal rate for a pet portrait is $500, but you would only have to cover shipping.  It sounds too good to be true...  when do you ever get something for free?

Paint with me: How to paint clementines in 10 easy steps!

Clementines are so tasty this time of year, I wanted to paint some.  Peanut loves them so much she made an I Love Cuties sticker book.  The synopsis on the back cover reads "In this book I will tell  you how much I love Cuties by colecting the stickers on each page.  There will be a difrent kind of stickers from a Cutie."  She's a little cutie herself!  Although she could work on spelling and grammar... 

I planned on painting a large bowl of clementines, but we ate too many for that, so I adjusted my composition a little.  I entitled it "Outcast" and I'm sure you can see why...  poor little clementine on the left!

Outcast 8 x 10

I'll show you how it's done in just 10 steps. Grab your supplies and paint along with me!  Don't forget to post your finished painting...  I'd love to see it!

First of all, I set up my still life.  Don't you just love how professional it is!  I uses boxes, baskets, or whatever to get the still life to the height that I want.  So classy!  I usually prefer my subject close to eye level, rather than looking up or down at it.  Also, make sure you set your easel up so that your canvas is eye level, regardless of whether you are look up, down or straight at your subject.

The above photo on the left is my setup before turning on my spotlight and the one on the right is with my spotlight on.  You can see just how much light is coming in my little "window" that I cut into the box.  The clementines look much more vibrant and the light really brings out their form and the reflections on the table.  Much better!  My painting isn't exactly from this angle, but it's close.

Again, this is the pallet that I use.  In the steps below, the "dark mixture" is a mixture of half Ultramarine Blue and half Burnt Umber.

In a prior post - Paint with me:  How to paint a pear in 10 easy steps - I described the sames steps, but it more detail.  Check out that post if you would like additional information about any of the steps.

Click here for Paint With Me - Pears!

Step one:  The Basic Shape

This is just your basic geometric shape painted with your dark mixture, thinned with odorless mineral spirits or whatever you're using for cleaning brushes.  Again, this step is so quick that you might be tempted to skip it, but it's very important.  For this painting, I initially pulled out an 11" x 14" canvas.  I realized after painting the basic geometric shape that the clementines would need to be the size of oranges or I'd have too much negative space.  I wanted them to be clementine-sized, so I switched to an 8"x10" canvas.  Making changes before you really even get started saves you time - and who couldn't use more time!

Step 2:  Draw the Shadow Areas

Using your thinned dark mixture, paint the shadow areas with straight strokes.  Even though my clementines are round, they're going to look like a part of an octagon here.  You are painting the shadow side of your subject, too, not just the shadows that they cast on the table.  You can see on the right that I got carried away and went on to Step 3 before I could snap a photo.  Oops!

Step 3:  Paint the Shadow Areas

Paint your shadow area with cadmium colors added to the dark mixture.    I used Cadmium Red Medium.  The canvas in these areas should be more smooth, so use just enough paint for the white canvas not to show through.

Step 4:  The Background

Paint your background with black, white and whatever background colors you want.  I chose to add ultramarine blue and I usually add a little raw umber to warm it up a bit.  Crisp edges around your subject will make it look cut out, so keep the edges soft and loose.  You want some of your background color to get into your subject and vice versa.  Check out the clementine on the top...  I got quite a bit of blue in there and that's okay.  I blend my background just enough to look right to me...  still loose enough to give you the sense of atmosphere.  The only time I use a flat background of just one color is if the background is black.

Step 5:  The Light Areas

Paint the light areas, loading up the brush for texture.  You can see that the most textured area is toward the center of the light area, getting smoother toward the edges of the light area.  I used Indian Yellow and Cadmium Yellow for my lights.

Step 6:  Reflected Light

Add reflected light, which is light bouncing back onto the shadow side of your subject.  The reflected light is pointed out below.  You can see that there really isn't much of it.  (My colors are a little wonky in this photo.  Sorry!)

Step 7:  The Midrange

Now add the midrange (areas between the lights and darks), using brighter, more saturated colors just a bit darker than your light areas.  I love this step, because then the canvas is now completely covered and you can start to hone in on some of those delicious details!

I'm sure you've noticed that more than the midrange changed here.  Once I put in my midrange my clementines were looking much too yellow and most of my shadow areas were too dark.  I lightened the shadow areas and added a bit more "orange" (cadmium red and yellow).  I also worked on the reflections on the table.

Steps 8 & 9:  Cast Shadows and Highlights

Add the cast shadows using your dark mixture, lightening them as you move away from your subject. Paint highlights using a brush loaded with white and/or Indian yellow, gently placing thick paint. Don't blend the highlights!  I always think they look so goofy close up, as you can see in my enlarged photos below.  Remember to take a few steps back and see how they look.

Step 10:  Details

The last (and most fun!) step is adding the details.  Details include -

•  Adding anything that hasn't been painted yet -  I added the stem to the clementine on the left.  

•  Darkening some areas and lightening others to better focus on subject -   I usually darken the outside edges of my shelf so your eyes don't wander off the canvas, but instead go toward the subject.  If the light is coming from the left (I almost always have it coming from this direction.  It just feels better to the OCD part of me!), I usually darken the bottom left and upper right of the background.  I do the opposite with light coming from the right.  I didn't choose to direct the light in the background of this painting, which gives it a softer look and is also why the dark areas I initially painted just didn't look right.

•  Throwing subject colors into background - Here I added some cadmium yellow in various places in the background.  You can best see this in my finished painting way over on the right hand side.

•  Adding "halos" around your subjects -  These are added to the light side of your subject.  I went a little halo crazy and added them to 3 of the 5 clementines.  Sometimes there is only one halo.  It just depends on how I feel about them that day.  I feel like they give a little life to the subject.

• Crisping up some edges and blending out others to create lost edges - I smeared out little bits of my cast shadows with a scrubby, dry brush to create lost edges.  This gives you the sense that the clementines are connected to the table and to each other.

Here is a closeup of the clementine on the left (poor outcast!).  You can clearly see the highlight, halo and lost edge.  I hope you enjoyed painting with me!

The Best Harry Potter Birthday Party! Part 3: The Hogwarts mystery and wizardry classes.

Because only a few of Peanut's friends know the Harry Potter stories (Yes, there are kids who haven't read these books.  Shocker!), we decided to add a mystery element to our party that all the guests could enjoy whether or not they know anything about Harry Potter.  We also wanted them to attend "wizardry classes", so we needed to link the two.

Making potions and reading tea leaves were just a couple of our activities.

Setting up the Mystery

Just before the feast, McGonagall (me) asked all the new "students" to leave their pets and supplies in the Gryffindor Common Room (our living room) during the meal, explaining that it's not sanitary to have dragons, owls, and cats on the table while you are eating.  I told the kids that The Fat Lady (The painting which is the door to the Gryffindor Common Room) retired and that we now had The Thief and a new password, which I whispered to the first girl, then she whispered it to the next, and down the line.  Every time they passed the painting, the girls said "Lucky Charms".  They kept it up even once the organized part of the party was finished - so cute!

After the feast, the girls found their pets locked in an enchanted cage (not even McGonagall could open it!), so we looked around for clues.  They found a letter from Hagrid hidden in the room which explained that there was an imposter (which apparently is more commonly spelled impostor, although both are correct... who knew?) at Hogwarts and that he had left to meet with the giants.  They were instructed to find the four founders items:  Helga Hufflepuff's cup, Godric Gryffindor's sword, Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, and Salazar Slytherin's ring (Oops!  My bad!  This was supposed to be a locket as Peanut pointed out to me after the party.) to get clues on who the imposter is and how to defeat them.  He also said not to trust any of the Hogwarts staff, to go about their normal business.

Click Here for Hagrid's Letter

Once the girls read not to trust the staff, they immediately ran to the bathroom (now the "Girl's Bathroom", home of Moaning Myrtle), and we could hear them plotting and giggling.  They ended up spending quite a bit of time in there throughout the evening - that was their go to place whenever they needed to talk to each other about the mystery.  Seriously, I think they spent half their time in the bathroom!

After they emerged from the bathroom, we started the wizarding classes.  Here is a brief (hopefully!) summary of each class and what the girls found:

Professor Bins (Middle Child) - History of Magic

Bins droned on for a few minutes giving a very boring history, then gave the girls a quiz.  The answers gave the clue "Find Myrtle".  Guess what - the bathroom again! I put a picture of Myrtle on the inside of the toilet lid while they were with Bins with voice bubble that read "Really!  Of course it's not hidden in the toilet, but the item you seek is in this room.  Close the lid now - I WANT PRIVACY!".  I just didn't want anyone searching the toilet!  Gross!

They searched the room and found the ring (or locket, if I didn't goof up), which said

Clue:  You have seen them today
Spell Part 1:  Expelliarmus

At this point, the imposter could be McGonagall, Binns, Trelawney, Snape, or Dumbledore.

Click Here for History of Magic Exam

Professor McGonagall (filling in for Hagrid) - Care of Magical Creatures

McGonagall told the students Hagrid's Doxys (squishy light up aliens from Dollar General) were loose in the Gryffindor Common Room.  So that each girl would get only one, they were told that Doxys are gentle unless you pick up more than one, then they bite!  Each Doxy had a tag with a number and letter on it, which the girls arranged in order to spell "D office".  In Dumbledore's office (the study was changed over from Gringotts), they found the cup, which said

Clue:  Not a woman
Spell Part 2:  Stupefy

Now the imposter could only be Binns, Snape or Dumbledore.

Professor Trelawney (The Oldest) - Divination

The Oldest was great as Trelawney!  She talked to the girls about calming down, getting centered, and finding their inner eye.  She also played a wooden flute while they sat with their eyes closed. Once they were "centered", it was time to read tea leaves.

We chopped herbs from the garden and glued them onto paper plates in various shapes.  More "tea leaves" were then piled on top of the glued leaves and an overturned cup covered all the leaves.  The girls were instructed to gently shake off the excess leaves and "read" the design.  Our Trelawney was very disorganized, so she had her drawings and meanings written on napkins and various scraps of paper.  The girls had to look through them to find their picture.  Some examples were heart = love, moon = imposter, cup = drink, teardrop = candle, fish = food... you get the idea and can see examples in the photos above.  The girls pictures meant imposter, together, food, candle, steal, four, star - all of which led them back to the great hall where they found the sword taped under the table which said

Clue:  Not a ghost
Spell Part 3:  Petrificus Totalus

We're down to Snape and Dumbledore as the imposter.

Professor Snape (Dear Husband) - Potions

The last class was potions, where the girls measured out and made the following potion:

1 ~ Clear Cauldron

1 ~ Measuring Spoon

1 ~ Medium Measuring cup

1 ~ Small Measuring cup

½ oz. ~ Lobalug Venom

1 spoonful ~ Wartcap Powder

1 oz. ~ Horclump Juice

Pour Lobalug Venom into clear cauldron

Add spoon of Wartcap powder

Stir 34 times

Add Horclump Juice

Horclump Juice was vinegar with yellow food coloring.  Lobalug venom was water with blue food coloring.  Wartcap Powder was baking soda.  You guessed it - when mixed together they got a green fizzy mess!  The girls all added the Horclump Juice at the same time, so all the bubbling happened at the same time.  

Snape then showed them a solution to make messages appear (Dear Husband used Middle Child's chemistry set to achieve this).  I believe the message was something like "Snape is great!" or "Slytherin is the best!".  He let them try it on another paper, which revealed the message "Ravenclaw hang out".  The girls ran to the Ravenclaw Common Room (basement family room) and found the Diadem which said

Clue:  Not a teacher
Spell Part 4:  Accio key

The imposter is Dumbledore!

After practicing the spell a few times, the girls confronted Dumbledore who was disarmed, froze, fell over as if petrified (he was near a couch), and the key was flipped to the girls.  They saved Hogwarts and freed their pets.  Hooray!

We ended the party with cake and ice cream, presents, and a showing of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  Everyone had a great time and Peanut said she felt like she was actually at Hogwarts.  That's just what we wanted and we put it all together in 5 days - Success!