greeting card / game - sruble

I’ve been painting tiny pictures lately (see the elephant here and the bunnies here), in order to fit painting for fun into my schedule. My third tiny painting was a girl blowing a bubble with her bubblegum. I broke out my watercolors and colored pencils and painted a picture so horrible that I had to rip it up. Seriously. All it takes to ruin a small watercolor painting is a couple of misplaced brush strokes. However, I still liked the sketch, so I made the bubblegum girl into a digital illustration. The image is 2″ x 2″ like the paintings.

I like how she turned out, but I still wanted to paint something. A picture of a cow blowing a bubblegum bubble seemed like a fun take on the original, and worked out well, because it fits several art prompts all at once (see list below the picture). I used watercolor and colored pencil to make the image. I’m happy with the way both pictures turned out, but I have to say, the more I look at them, the weirder they look. Of course, if you looked at a photograph showing a side view of someone blowing a bubblegum bubble, that would probably look weird after a while, too.

The CBIG prompt this month is fantasy – a cow blowing bubblegum bubbles is definitely fantasy! Bubblegum Girl also works for fantasy. She wants to blow the biggest bubble ever and win the national bubblegum bubble blowing contest (which they actually have – I saw it on TV a couple of years ago).

The Watercolor Wednesdays prompt for last week was to create a greeting card image for a child – the bubblegum sort of looks like a speech balloon, where the cow could say, “Happy Birthday!” Bubblegum Girl also works for this week’s prompt, to illustrate a favorite toy or game … not that gum qualifies as a toy, but trying to blow the biggest bubble could be a game, so I think that counts (or at least it works for me – I went to art school; I can justify anything).

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is brave – that cow is really brave to be blowing bubblegum bubbles. What if it pops and goes all over her face? Bubblegum Girl also works for brave. She knows what will happen if the bubble as big as her head pops!

Are tiny paintings the next big thing? Maybe not, but I’m having fun with them

Class Halloween Party (a sponge painting) - sruble

I painted this one with cut up sponges (except the vampire). I painted the vampire with brushes to set him apart from the rest of the class. I thought the texture would be fun, and it is, except that the painting was too small (8.5 x 11) or the sponges were too big to make it look the way I wanted it to. Still, it's something I might play around with again in the future, or use brushes to try to re-create the texture. 

Eddie was out sick the day Ms. MacDonald's class decided to dress up as farm animals for the class party. Everyone forgot to tell Eddie when he came back.

Ms. MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O

 The chicken costume is my favorite. 

Class Halloween party

Walter was always a bit of an over achiever! A regular halloween costume just wouldn't do for him...(click the image to enlarge it)

The Colors of Fall - sruble

Here's my painting for The Colors of Fall. 

Fall Kids / Fall Colors

This is another attempt at layering. I like how it turned out, but I think I’ll do a bit more planning next time. Want to see how I got to the finished painting? I posted the process on my blog :)

Young Frankenstein - sruble

I painted Young Frankenstein with his first monster, FrankenTeddy, and his little dog Frankie. I think Young Frankenstein would have worn PJs with his lab coat over them.

Young Frankenstein and FrankenTeddy

Looks like everyone else painted the monster as a kid ... I went with the scientist.

School Lunch

Time has been eluding me lately, so although I do plan on painting it soon, I wanted to make sure I got the sketch up this week at least. Sigh.

So...Voila!

Tory Climer and her classmates at Lake Bristoe Elementary hated school lunch. Not only was Mrs Towner the oldest lunch lady at the school, she was also the worst cook. Although her "specials" were infamous in the town of Bristoe for their repulsiveness, today's "welcome back" lunch had to have topped the chart: Brussels Sprout - Cod Yogurt, and Meat-in-a-Can. "Why do I subject myself to this day after day?" Tory wondered as she gazed upon the Meat-in-a-Can. She could have sworn she saw it slithering across her plate.