Halloween Art Celebration Part 2- Paintings

So, but the time I finished the backgrounds, it was late in the afternoon and I started loosing patience haha.

The first painting was the first one I have done by Angela Anderson.  She has some very interesting techniques that I actually found really hard.  I will definitely try her again though to learn more about the way she paints.  I was a little disappointed when she didn't teach how to draw.  If you don't know how to draw the things, you just need to trace them.  I'd rather learn to draw, so I chose to do the simpler of the two choices.  (Click Here to take her class.)

The second was by the Art Sherpa.  It was made for kids, but for some reason I found it harder than her adult classes!  My husband won't let me put his cat in a costume, so I say this is what he would look like!!!  I wish I would have known about her when I was a teacher.  She really talked about some great stuff about dealing with hard times in life in a great way for kids (and adults).  If you have kids, try this one with them!!! (Click Here for the class!)

Of course, my cat is all dressed up for Trick or Nipping!!!

Halloween Art Celebration Part 1- Drawings

I decided to do a bunch of fun Halloween art.  I'm still working on the paintings, so I will put them on later!  I had more fun with fun2draw on youtube! So cute! Click Fun2Draw to visit her channel!

This was actually from two days ago,
but I never posted it.
I did it with my nephews
 coloring kit haha

I love this little cutie bat!

Frankenstein's daughter!

An adorable witch!

Fun2Draw week 1

So I've decided to go back to working on my drawing as well since it has been so long since I've drawn.  I found some super easy classes for drawing called Fun2Draw.  She does some awesome drawing and coloring classes!  Super simple.  I can already see improvement.

So This one was pretty cute.  It was my first try! 

  I learned that my colors are not what their lids show on this one!

This one turned out pretty cute!

My favorite!  Showing great improvement, especially on the eyes!

HALLOWEEN SALE!

Using the coupon code HALLOWEENSALE you can get 10% off anything in my store from now until Halloween! https://www.etsy.com/shop/MidnightOilPaintShop?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Halloween Song

Last Friday I was home alone and watched WAY too much Tim Burton (if that's possible).  So, what did I do?  I ran around in a cape making up songs for his movies.  No alcohol was needed.  #noshame

 I have seriously got to improve my piano skills so I can improve my craziness.

Rocky Horror Painting

Still haven't seen the musical, but had a blast painting the lips!  Click Here for the class by the Art Sherpa.  Mine didn't turn out great, but as I always say, not bad for a first try!

Class- Painting Eyes

Today was another class by The Art Sherpa (Click Here to go to her youtube video).  It was my first time working on painting eyes.  I really need to invest in some glaze because I used too much water and accidentally ripped my paper.  This is one of those classes I would like to compare my yearly progress, so I can see how much I've grown!  It is so detailed and she always catches me right when I am about to give up!  (I swear she can read my mind in the future).  All in all, not bad for my first try!

Halloween Bouquet

Today I got to take a live class by The Art Sherpa!  So much more fun in real time!  You can find her free classes at https://theartsherpa.com/.

So of course I started with my wishes, prayers, and praises on my page before ever beginning!

I made a huge mess!  You can see I was using 3 pallets plus every brush I own.  I haven't mastered the how to use brushes without messing up the colors.  It was such a crazy mess that I almost dipped my brushes in my coffee (to the left of my pallets off camera) multiple times!

And here is the finished product.  I love the look.  I did a little more of a spider look with my bowl while she had more of a flowery look.  I agree that this would be the perfect bouquet for Patricia Adams!  Available for purchase: https://www.etsy.com/listing/472687398/halloween-bouquet

Skin Color Class

So if you haven't noticed, I go back and forth with using The Art Sherpa.  She has some great videos on youtube (like the one I used today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDwPfMyCzAA ), but she also tends to get off track a lot and a video that should take 30-45 minutes is about 1 hour 15 minutes.  If you don't mind fast fowarding and pausing a lot, she's super helpful and really positive!  The lighting of my pictures suck, but they really are beautiful skin colors.  You can see a lot better on my pallet!

Blogaversary Part 2

Continuing with the challenge to use a different medium, I tried one more oil painting, an oil pastel chalk drawing, and a watercolor painting.

This is my oil painting.  A nice winter painting, if you're ready for that sort of thing!

Available for purchase at: https://www.etsy.com/listing/484649181/winter-dreams

This is the attempt at watercolors.  Underneath is the picture of the pastel attempt.  I think I'm going to stick with oil and acrylic paint for now!

Happy Blogaversary

Today is the 2nd blogaversary between this blog and I.  I hope you enjoy flipping through it as much as I enjoy using it.  I was challenged to hit 200 views today for the 2nd birthday and to try creating with different mediums.  I painted with oils paints for the first time today.  That was way harder than I thought it would be!  Plus the clean up was awful!  Ya'll are crazy!  I'll keep trying some other oil paintings throughout the day, but I wanted to share my first one!  Maybe it'll get easier the longer I work at it, but personally, I already miss my acrylics!

Available for purchase at: https://www.etsy.com/listing/484625717/into-the-waves?ref=shop_home_active_1

Also, my sweet husband got me a blogaversary gift to help me try oils!  A lot of paint thinner!

Sister's Birthday Present Last year

I always love looking back on old paintings.  My sister requested these for her birthday last September.  I wrote poems to go with each of them.  It's amazing to see how much I've grown.

September Creative Writing Meetup Part 3

This one was a lot of fun.  It's called Headlines Prompts.  We were given 12 headlines with the directions, "write either a newspaper article, or a firsthand account from someone involved in the story using one (or more) of these headlines as a prompt."  Yes, these are read news articles.  Write your fiction version before reading the real versions!

Headlines

1.  Falling Chunk of Ice Creates Hole in California Resident's Home
2. Alligator Removed from Detroit Home
3.  Airline Passenger Tasered over "Man Purse" Dispute
4.  Alabama Woman Arrested after Trying to Break Into Jail
5. This Sleuth has Hunted the Loch Ness Monster for over 22 Years
6.  Army Vehicle Mysteriously Disappears
7.  Man Accused of Killing Lawyer Receives New Attorney
8.  Alton Attorney Accidentally Sues Himself
9. Motorists Uses Underwear to Dodge Fines
10.  Fugitive Monkey Caught, Order Restored to Kentucky Town
11. Man Cited for Driving 112 MPH on Way to Traffic Court
12.  Woman Attacks Man with Bowl of Spaghetti

Sleuth has Hunted the Loch Ness Monster for over 22 Years- Recorded First Hand Account

        It's been 22 years since I first saw it.  The dark had engulfed the home I was staying at on the cape.  Only a sliver of the moon showed over the lake.  I didn't believe it at first.  One of the most renown detectives never would believe something so incredible.  It was only visible for a few minutes, but I know something was going on.
        At first, I was positive it was either criminal activity or a government cover up.  There was no one I could trust.  The first 13 years I spent creating a deep government cover.  I did everything I could to become involved in any activity involving that lake.  Nothing came to light.  9 years ago, I realized the government was holding me back from the truth.
        They were sending me on these goose chases to keep me from discovering the real cover up. The Loch Ness Monster is real.  I immediately went off the grid to continue my investigation out of the governments reaches.  Though I have yet to gain sustainable proof, my followers and I will expose the truth to the world.  I'm not sure how you found me, but you can help.  Print the truth.  Print the truth to the world.

I did two more, but I'll another tomorrow!  Your turn!  Add your fiction story to the comments!

September Creative Writing Meetup Part 2

On this prompt, we were asked to make ABC advice or anything with the ABC's.  It was so much fun again seeing the different ways people took this.  One person even wrote ABC's to surviving zombies!  Feel free to write your own version in the comment section!

ABC's to a Full Life
Always be kind
Be courage at least once a day
Create beauty whenever possible
Demonstrate compassion to everyone
Evaluate all options before choosing
Forgive at all times, yourself and others
Go on adventures
Help anyone who asks
Include everyone
Join groups, clubs, and gatherings
Keep mementos from different parts of your life to remember how you've grown
Love, even when you don't want to
Motivate everyone you can
Never give up on a dream
Open up to others
Patience is hard, but it's always worth the wait
Quality friends are more important than the quantity
Rest, take time to rest in your thoughts
Stop letting others determine how you live your life
Train your mind to learn instead of regret
Unarm your defenses, let others help
Victories should be celebrated, no matter how small
Wander through unknown places physically, mentally, and spiritually
X-cell at everything you do
Yearn to make yourself a better person
Zest your life with new adventures

September Creative Writing Meetup Part 1

So last month, I went to a creative writing group.  It was a blast.  We were given 3 different prompts and then allowed to share if we wanted to.  With all the different writing styles, it was a blast!

Prompt # 1-
  We were given 7 common saying that we had to make up explanations about.  If you knew the true explanation, you couldn't write it down.  These had to be fictional.  Feel free to add your own stories in the comments!  It gets hilarious!  We only had 10-15 minutes to do as many as possible!

1.  Bite the bullet- "This comes from the old cowboy days.  One of the cattle ranchers was annoying everyone with all his whining.  The other cowboys started to make him bite down on a bullet every time he complained too much, getting gun powder in his mouth.  Eventually, he learned to confront the worst pain in silence."

2.  Break the ice- "People were so bored while ice fishing, they used to pick at the ice to pass the time.  Eventually, the ice would become so brittle, it would break with them on it.  The goal became to come up with an interesting conversation before someone broke the ice."

3. Butter someone up- "This came from the tradition to keep a stick of butter in your purse or bag.  If you needed to impress someone, you could show how much butter you had in hopes of having the most butter.

4.  Mad as a hatter- "In old England lived a man who made and wore 2-3 hats everyday.  He refused to wear any less and insisted it was extremely stylish.  Eventually he started adding hats to his shirts and even his shoes.  The townspeople warned their children to stay away from him and eventually no one bought anymore hats because they were too afraid to speak with the crazy hat maker."

5. Cat got your tongue- (my favorite)- "Once upon a time a young woman was cursed to never be able to tell people the truth.  If she tried, a tiny cat would appear in her mouth and bite her tongue giving her awful hairballs.  Eventually, the young woman stopped speaking and began to be known as the silent milkmaid.  One day in the woods, she saw a giant wolf.  She decided she would rather die than continue this curse.  She stood in front of the wolf and tried to yell, "I want to die!" As soon as she began trying to yell the truth, the cat appeared.  Seeing the wold, the cursed cat tried to run.  The wolf, seeing the cat, changed his target and attacked.  Giving the girl time to run.  Finally, the maiden was able to speak freely again.

6.  Barking up the wrong tree- I didn't have time for this one!

7. Turning a blind eye- "A store keeper once saw someone breaking into a neighbor's store.  When he tried to stop the robber, the robber stabbed him in his left eye, rendering him blind.  The next time he saw an act of violence, the keeper turned the left side of his face towards the crime and pretended he couldn't see it.

YOUR TURN!

Working on Trees

So I'm doing a few days of being "unplugged-ish".  Obviously, I still have my computer.  What else would I be typing on?  I took a break from TV, text, and social media.  So, that means no painting classes from youtube or netflix.  Back to the old book!  Haven't done this in a while.

So in the book, I found some of my old attempts like this mess.  I don't even know what happened here!  This was done about two years ago.

This is fun to look at!  The left painting is from about two years ago.  The right was from today!

Here are the rest of the silhouettes.  Not perfect, but definitely improving!

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