Sunday 9 November 2014

The Making of Magic Wands

Because the weather has come out to say hello, I thought creating things outside would be a lovely idea indeed.
For a prize in a game, I created hand-made magic wands. There was plenty of tips on the internet about how to do this, and it was a fun experience.
So, tool list -


  • Sticks
  • Wooden beads
  • Glue gun with glue
  • Paint
As you can see, I chose dowel sticks and chopsticks for my wands to create a variation in styles.


To create the forms, I take the glue stick and I add glue in any style. There are plenty of images on the web for inspiration. On the right image, you can see there is already one glued up. 


While I'm outside, may as well make the use of what's available to me. I stuck them in the ground while they were drying. Handy, as the beads had a tendency to want to rebel against being attached to the wand in either direction. Making the shape is ridiculously enjoyable.


Using acrylic paint, I painted on a base coat.


Here are some of the finished products. I didn't manage to catch a photo of the two wands that were given out as prizes, but the other four look pretty amazing. My boyfriend, being well skilled at painting miniatures, painted the detail. He enjoyed looking at the shape and working out how to colour it as much as I enjoyed making the shapes.



Wednesday 5 November 2014

5 and 10 minute sketches

What doing quick sketches does is free you up so much. Very often, we have an idea in our head, we get to the canvas or paper and think "I'm going to paint the best painting ever!" What happens nexts is we get tight and careful. We go away, practice every little aspect of the painting and then realize that our studies are better than the final product!
One lady in my art class comes into each work without an image in her head, and everything she does is an experiment. Everything comes out beautifully.

I need to learn not to srtive for perfection, goal setting or aims. I just need to just do and just be.

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Midnight sketch and the importance of failing

When I set myself out with an agenda, I fail. Always. When I have the end product, how I want people to react, I fail. When I set time tables and goals and care what people think about what I'm doing,  I fail.
I've learnt to do art backwards. In VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) we are told to create a mood, an idea, it's about what we want our audience to see.
The thing is, I've never been good at people pleasing. I have never figured out what people wanted from me. If I dive into an artwork thinking "what am I trying to tell my audience", well then, how can I see into the depths of my artistic spirit when I'm focuses on shallow eyes looking at me who aren't even there?
An artist needs space to fail, to grow, to learn. I see the term "happy accident" when reading blogs all the time. It's so much easier to see those when you're not on a time limit, have an agenda, or audience focused. You will never stop learning. You will always make mistakes. You will annoy yourself, your critics, your patrons (aka my dad). As soon as I focus outward and not inward, I lose the plot trying to gain approval with a perfect performance instead of trying to get what is in my heart to create out.
This is my midnight sketch. I want to call it "As Far as the East is from the West".
I know what it means to me. Do I know what it will mean to you? Of course not. I can't see your head. Will it have the same meaning as me? Probably not. I can't control that. It's out of my hands.

So here is a midnight sketch. It's messy, spontaneous, but let's see if it goes somewhere.