Day 1: Thursday, August 1
I decided there was no better way to start a big art project than to (attempt to) capture the awesomeness that is my husband, Greg. This took about two hours using the graphic design program, InDesign. What I like about InDesign is that you are more-or-less bound by basic shapes. So, using only squares, circles, and triangles, I created my husband. :)
Day 2: Friday, August 2
In my office at work, I have an entire wall made of windows. The view looks out to the parking lot, which is what I drew. This is on regular printer paper, drawn in pen. I like using pen when I sketch fast and aggressively because there's no "correcting" anything, since pen is not erasable. This took me about 14 minutes to draw... and my hand was aching from pressing the pen so hard to the paper.
Day 3: Saturday, August 3
Greg and I spent Saturday morning at a store where you paint on ceramic things. He and I both picked different variations of coffee mugs. Once we finished painting them, they had to be cooked in the kiln to set in the paint. I picked them up the following Thursday. The one above is mine. (Greg painted the Green Bay logo on one side of his mug and Notre Dame on the other, with a football handle!)
Day 4: Sunday, August 4
This is an example of something that becomes what it is without any forethought from me. I just layered it until I felt it was done. It's paint markers on cardboard. When I get boxes in the mail or from the store, I cut them up to make them art!
Day 5: Monday, August 5
Okay, I realize this isn't a very good "art" project but listen! My Mondays are crazy busy so by the time I could actually sit down to work on something, it was almost 9pm. So, I just whipped out a piece of printer paper and some markers and went to town. It counts. :)
Day 6: Tuesday, August 6
So, the most bad-ass slogan I have ever heard in my life belongs to Lockheed Martin's U2 spy plane, nicknamed the Dragon Lady. It has a logo with a dragon on it similar to this one, so it inspired me to do a sketch. I free-handed all of it except the plane, which I just used a ruler to guide the straight lines (obviously I free-handed it, as the dragon is sort of weird looking but hey, she's my weird looking dragon!).
Day 7: Wednesday, August 7
Back to coffee! I love coffee. It makes me feel calm and time slows down a little when I drink it. I usually have one cup each morning. I also enjoy the artsy atmosphere of a café. Hence, my café coffee art. It's acrylic paint on canvas. I personally really like that the coffee cup isn't perfectly symmetrical, so I left it that way. I am probably less familiar with painting than any other art medium. I feel like paint brushes allow for way less control than a marker or pencil, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Day 8: Thursday, August 8
Busy Caitlin! So, on a piece of scrap note pad paper, here is my art for the day. How creative I am. Tomorrow will (probably) be better. This masterpiece took me 3 minutes, if that.
Day 9: Friday, August 9
After a long week, it was finally Friday after 4pm, which meant the weekend could officially begin! Greg and I went to Chili's for dinner, expecting to have some margaritas and some peace and quiet to bring down our stressful week, to no avail. There was a screaming, horribly behaved child in the booth behind us, wailing on the seat and shrieking for attention (facing my ears). Needless to say, it was not a relaxing dinner. When we got home, I realized I still needed to do the day's art so I took some sidewalk chalk and drew a fun little garden scene with a happy snail... then I drew that little girl in the restaurant. Art is expression, and I wished to express my desire to punch that little girl in the face (really her ignorant and lazy mother). Voila! Art. By the way, the blue thing in the bottom right of the girl picture is a fist, in case you can't see it.
Day 10: Saturday, August 10
My plan for Saturday was to take my camera on our hike but, unfortunately, we could not find the battery charger for it. It was probably better that I didn't bring it because we hopped from rock to rock over a stream... and I fell in... multiple times. Anyway, as we finished our hike and we were taking off our drenched and muddy shoes, I thought I'd better take a picture with my phone to attempt to use it for this art project. So here is my shoe, thrown into Photoshop for a little artsy flair.
Day 11: Sunday, August 11
I sketched this quickly with paint markers, some of which were running low. The fast pace caused firmer lines, as opposed to going slowly and shakily. I didn't really think out the colors. Instead I just grabbed a handful of colors and let that dictate what I was going to draw.
Day 12: Monday, August 12
I love my paint markers!! I cut out some cardboard from a 12 pack of soda and painted on the back of it (the brown, unprinted side). I tend to like layering with the colors behind the black. I also like the concentration and form that's required for this type of picture. The focus forces me to exert excess energy, which is similar to unwinding for me.
Day 13: Tuesday, August 13
I used paint markers on canvas paper for this one. Most of the time I grab a color at random, which will dictate what it becomes. It's a cat on a windowsill (just kidding).
Day 14: Wednesday, August 14
Acrylic paint on canvas. Didn't think about what I did before I started painting. I just threw the brush to the canvas and let it go. It became a simple painting of grass and a semi-dark sky (it looks lighter than it actually is). I must say, I was feeling anxious from my day today until I worked on this. Art melts the anxiety away sometimes. :)
Day 15: Thursday, August 15
This is a logo I designed for Greg's class. He is on a team that needed to create a mock business, complete with business plan and logo. His team decided to make their business "Walt's Waffles," which is basically like a Chipotle for waffles. Anyway, this took me about 20 minutes because I needed to conceptualize it first. It's simple, but hey, logos are supposed to be simple.
Day 16: Friday, August 16
I guess it's logo week. This one was a draft I started for a potential client. Whenever I'm tasked to draft a logo for a client, I start the logos without going into too much detail, then create multiple logos that are very different. This way, the client can see what the feel of each logo is without me spending many hours on them, because in the end they're only going to select one. Once they select the one, I continue and put detail to it. This one was not chosen, but I like it.
Day 17: Saturday, August 17
See above. Enough said. :D
Day 18: Sunday, August 18
Lazy Sunday. I drew a glass of wine on a paper plate. :)
Day 19: Monday, August 19
I started this on Sunday but walked away from it after I threw some red acrylic paint on the canvas paper. A few hours later, I penciled some eyes and eyebrows on the paper. Then, on Monday, I used the paint markers to finish it. I thought I could make the eyes pop a little more. By the way, it was not intended to look as creepy as it turned out.
Day 20: Tuesday, August 20
Layers again! These type of pieces take the longest. I like the flow underneath the sharp shapes. This too is on a cardboard box, and you can see that a little by the rough edge on the bottom.
Day 21: Wednesday, August 21
Kokopelli! For those who aren't familiar, Kokopelli is a Native American deity of tourists. Just kidding, he's actually supposed to be a fertility god or something, but whenever you go to the Southwestern states like New Mexico, he's on all the souvenirs. Anyway, here are a few different versions I drew. Pencil on copier paper. Frankly, I'm surprised I didn't smear the pencil lead way more, since I'm left-handed.
Day 22: Thursday, August 22
This is on cardboard, obviously. Everything is paint markers except for the white part of the flowers, which is acrylic. I ran out of my white paint marker, so I pulled out a tube of white acrylic paint. I always though cherry blossoms were so pretty.
Day 23: Friday, August 23
Bold colors for a bold day. These are paint markers on canvas paper.
Day 24: Saturday, August 24
Here we go, that's more like it. If you look closely, you can see all my left-handed smears. This was pencil on copier paper.
Day 25: Sunday, August 25
I was feeling sort of blank in the art department, so I thought I'd just scribble different colors on some canvas paper. After I did that, I colored them in and boom! Art.
Day 26: Monday, August 26
Acrylic paint on canvas. Again, painting is the hardest for me because I lack control with the brush. I'm learning though. I think you must be the most confident in your work when you use a paintbrush because there's no going back and the strokes, even on a thin brush, are blunt and bold.
Day 27: Tuesday, August 27
Can you tell that this was on the back of a cardboard soda pack? The black circles on the right sort of cover it up, but you can see the circles indented in the cardboard on the left. I used paint markers on it.
Day 28: Wednesday, August 28
More practice with acrylics! Trying to work on shading and smoothing out my brush strokes. Painted on canvas paper.
Day 29: Thursday, August 29
Paint markers are so convenient and easy. No clean up necessary!
Day 30: Friday, August 30
Today's theme for my art is the Drink. Sobriety on the right, drunkenness on the left.
Day 31: Saturday, August 31
And the grand finale! Greg and I painted our master bedroom. The room was originally all tan (top right): ceiling and every wall. We painted the ceiling white (top left), the walls gray (bottom right) and the accent wall a deep blue. Dramatic, I know, but Greg and I LOVE it! The rose painting is more of a place holder until we get something bigger to put there.
AND THAT CONCLUDES ARTGUST!
I found it very difficult to find time to do this each day, and honestly there were days I was simply not in the mood, but I'm so glad I did it. It showed me that, no matter how challenging, I can produce creativity as much as I want. I am not a professional artist, but that doesn't mean I can't express myself with art, and I'm so glad I did.
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