Check out my Pages

Monday, July 20, 2020

Looking like an Art Studio

    So for the past couple of months I have been pushing myself to make an art studio a reality.  I have had art supplies and paintings stored away in boxes for the past five years and finally I reached a point where I could unbox my treasures and put them on display.  ( With only 4 more boxes to unpack, my goal feels obtainable.)   To me there is a little light shining through these unusual times.  

Since my husband now works from home.....my studio desk turned into his work desk.  Bummer.  So with a very slim budget and with my little pick up truck, it was time to hunt down some trash finds.  Yes, you can always count on the end of the month for people to put furniture out on the side of the road for trash pickup.  I ended up scoring three nice finds:  a sewing table with sewing machine, a small shelving unit and a rolling cart.  

I removed the sewing machine, lightly sanded and cleaned the table.  Prepping is important for re-purposing furniture.  Then I spray painted the table with Rustoleum painters touch 2x.  Paint and primer.   I love this stuff.  Easily applied and goes on smoothly.  Anyway, I did the same prep work for the rolling cart and shelving unit.  To dress up the small shelf unit I did decoupage the back with decorative paper.  It came out ok. .....a little wrinkled but for the studio......I am fine. For decoupaging I used white glue mixed with water and brushed it on.  Of course I sprayed it with a final clear coat for protection. 

Check it out. 


Looking Like an Art Studio.  The sewing table is to the left. I painted it off white and added bird pull handles which I painted with the same off white.


Check out the decoupage shelving unit:


Shelving Unit with decoupage.  Spray painted off white and used decorative paper.  Rolling cart to the right was spray painted vintage blue.  The cart holds my small printing press.








Oh, I completed another how to (drawing) video.  This one is GLITTER YOUR MANGA CHARACTER.  I thought it would be fun to add glitter to a manga character I created.  I think the kids will like it.  Some lessons I learned.  Vimeo lets you posts your video for free as long as you don't go over the 500 mg once a week.  So the first video I did was 504 mg and I naively thought they would post it.  Well they did for a second and took it down.  So now I know before posting make sure it is 500 or less.  Also, I figured out that my videos can be about 4 minutes and stay below the 500 mark.  This is good to know, so that if I see my clips are too long then I can edit them smaller before turning them into a mp4.  

Here is the link: (will have to update in about a week)

Ok, so if you go over your weekly limit for Vimeo they do not release it the following week.  Instead they lock your video unless you pay for upgrade.  Lesson learned.  So I uploaded my video to my Google drive and then made the link viewable to everyone.

Without further delay, Glitter Your Manga Character How to video:




 Also, here is the first video, How to Make an Abstract Watercolor.  So I went ahead an uploaded it to my Google Drive since I deleted my Vimeo account.




 Stay healthy and safe,

Christin

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

How to paint an abstract watercolor video

Anyone who is looking to make an online video may appreciate Hitfilm Express.    Since my work schedule is a little more flexible these days.....I thought I would try my hand at making a how to video.   A lot of questions came up, such as:  how to add music, how to edit the video, etc.   Fortunately I stumbled upon Hitfilm Express; which is an open source free software.  The software is what you do to put all the magical steps together and export your film into vimeo or you tube, etc. 

Also, I wanted this video to be family friendly.  Maybe a parent will want to create an abstract watercolor along with their child.

Of course you can upgrade and purchase add ons from Hitfilm Express, but I made my how to video with the basic free version.  Also, I googled royalty free music, and downloaded it into the Hitfilm express program.  Lastly, I created a vimeo account.   My video size was small enough to keep it free. 


So, without further ado, here is my first how to create an Abstract watercolor  

Enjoy