Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The great outdoors


On Sunday I drove with my boyfriend up to Big Bear in California.  Big Bear is known for its skiing but is also awesome in the summer with the big lake and friendly people.  We met a great couple  who volunteered at a local art gallery from San Diego who had just moved to Big Bear the winter before (worst winter in years) and told us all the good places to eat.  

Our hotel was a cabin and they were all themed rooms. The owner of the cabin came to pick us up because we were a bit lost,  It's funny when you print up the directions and the second to last turn of the directions is off and you can't find a detailed map in town.  We were only a block or two away but the owner drove over to get us.  My boyfriend booked a craft cottage but the manager gave us a good deal on a room with a spa tub so we took that.  We ended up with the crystal cave cabin and it was wonderfully cheesy. It was dark inside so you had to turn the lights on to  see everything and the bed was the only furniture.   The fireplace had real bones on it and stalactite were coming down from the ceiling. and the icing on the cake was the cave shower was huge.  We both giggled about the room the entire trip.  

I made paper dolls during the down time, we also swam in the lake (where we were attacked by seaweed), took the ski lift up the mountain and we went hiking. 

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Paper dolls- Happy August


        I've made paper dolls before but I hit the jackpot formula this week and once I did one it was much easier to do the rest.  Basically I took a random full lengh photograph and cut that out for the proportions. In the photo the person was wearing billowy clothes so I'm not exactly sure why this worked out so well.   

       The second step is to make   a rough cut on watercolor paper and then draw in the features.  I just drew and erased until I got the feeling that I wanted from the doll.  The red headed girl is the daughter of a friend and she is going off to college in Iowa in a few weeks so I made her a few paper friends for her to hang around with.  It actually looks like her and I didn't have to draw it a million times but when I went to draw her sister I didn't quite get her face right.  I do need to work on mixing the watercolors so I can acheive more consistant results.   

      I use twinkling H2O and the browns are rather strange as most of them have a green base to them and do not do well for flesh tones.  I figured out that copper works well as a wash for light tones and piled on for deeper tones. 

They fit nicely in the pocket of my overalls so I can carry them around when I am running errands.