DIY- Above the Kitchen Cabinets

We've been in this house for several months now, and the kitchen will never be my favorite room. I like how big it is and the sunshine it gets, but the floor, counters and cabinets are not my favorite and since it's a rental, I can't change those things.

But what I can change, is how it's styled. One nice thing is that the cabinets have a bunch of space above them and I really wanted to use that to bring some decor into the kitchen. 

You can see I was already beginning to place items, but I wasn't pumped about the way it looked, so I decided to add some baskets, which are inexpensive but versatile. So I 'borrowed' a bunch from my mom and spray painted them white. I also snagged an old metal bird cage and painted that as well. Lastly, I wanted to make a sign that I seen while surfing Pinterest. I used some thin wood pieces that I had from backing other paintings, I measure out and traced the letters and images that I wanted. Then I painted the letters white and mixed up a nice light blue to paint the background. 

So here is the final cabinet decor... I still wish the cabinets themselves where different, but at least they have something going on now!

A Peak Inside my Portfolio: Flight Series

My students are currently working on an assessment drawing of a still life and photo students are in the film developing stages. Although I was tempted to post some still life pictures, I know we all know how to lead a project like that and it's not a terribly new idea. So for times like this, I decided to have posts either about project I'm working on or artwork I'm creating. Hence the last post about my home decor and now this post about my current work!

I'm taking some graduate level courses and right now and I'm in the thick of a studio painting class. We are working very large scale which is awesome and sometimes intimidating. For these paintings, I wanted my inspiration to come from flight. If I haven't shared this yet, my husband is a pilot and we are currently building a plane in our garage. So flying and flight have a huge impact on my life right now.

When I began thinking about flight however, I wanted to stay away from the idea of clouds and wind and blue etc... I didn't want the theme to be immediately obvious or cliche. Then I started thinking about the plane, the only way that humans can fly. The only way that we can experience flight is through a metal box and metal wings, hard and unyielding, which is totally at odds with the open and and wind currents and clouds.

To that end, I chose to do a series of paintings of plane parts that my husband has been working on. Primarily in monochromatic color schemes. To keep the idea of flight apparent, since these pieces don't appear to be plane-like yet, I made the background very airy and cloud-ish.

I haven't actually finished any of them, but they're all awesome works in progress and I'm excited about this series.

Just finishing the background area of the first painting.

Here's my sketch of the basic shapes.

Blocking in darks and lights.

Refining...

And more... it's almost done, this is how far I am :)

Number 2, same process.

Pretty much finished I think...

Third piece, this is the only one that is for sure finished.

DIY- New Home Makeover!

So we moved into a house! Woohoo! And the unpacking/decorating has gone slowly. However, I think a couple of rooms are ready for before and after pictures. Not to say they're completely done, but they are looking more or less how I'd like them. First of all, I apologize for the before pictures, my husband took them with a phone when we were signing the final papers, so they might be a touch blurry.

Here's the front of our cute little red-doored house!

This is the main floor living room with me!

And after....

Now for the main bedroom before...

And after...

This dresser has it's own before picture as well!

Last room to share, pardon the picture-heavy post! The downstairs family room before...

And after...

Thank you for taking a look see! Hopefully the bathroom, kitchen and office will be ready for viewing soon!

A Peek Into my Portfolio

Some of you might remember that I painted a red panda for my brother, who is an animal enthusiast, over the summer. He asked me to to do one of a one-horned rhino right after he got the red panda. Of course, it has taken me from the summer until this week to finish it. Getting married and beginning at a new school put a stop to extra creative projects for a little bit. Anyway, it's done and I love it. What's better, my brother loves it too! Here is the progression of my one-horned rhino painting in oil paints:

These are obviously just in the beginning stages, laying down a lean layer of paint to block out where I want the basic shapes, and then beginning to fill in darks and lights.

I finished filling in the large areas of dark and light and begin on the background. I used a metal palette knife for the background to give it some texture and suggest foliage.

Then I added texture. As you might imagine, there is a ton of texture on a rhino. In a lot of places, I only hinted at the texture.

Then I decided that I didn't like the muzzle portion so I painted over that area, re-doing the darks and lights and then blending them together and re-adding texture. I also redid the horn.

And here is the finished piece! Thanks for taking a peek inside my portfolio!