Alright already, I joined Facebook. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? Gawd.
My octopus bag ripped a bit from me jamming pointy-sided heavy objects into it everyday for a year (it’s understandable, the ripping) so I painted myself a new bag. I really didn’t have any idea what to paint on it, but I did like this flourish from a book on ornamental design I recently picked up from Amazon (or The Money Pit, as it is to me). I printed the flourish and then cut it out as a stencil (which was incredibly difficult, thanks for asking) and then painted it in white on my bag. And then I stared on and off at the bag for three hours, wondering what to do next. I put in the rust accents and the sparkly purple dots. Then more pondering for more hours. I decided I needed a monster holding up the flourish (naturally) so I freehand-painted the blue monster. Went off and watched TV for a while. Painted the glitter and red dots on feet. Stared. Painted eyes. Eyes turned out sucky. Gently picked paint on eyes off with an X-acto knife (KIDS: Don’t try this at home. I have many years of practice wielding the X knife, you’ll shred the bag if you don’t do it right). Redid eyes. Put grassy spots under monster’s feet for depth. Was pleased with results. So, including staring and pondering time, this purse took me longer than any other I have ever worked on. I like it, though.
I also recently painted a pair of shoes, which I need to photograph. I’ll get right on that.