Living an Artsy Life: May 2014

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Stickers and Decals are on their way!

If you’ve been following along here, you know that I’ve been painting on my car and having a great time making it all happy and pretty! Well, what you may not know is that I have ordered some stickers and vinyl decals of some of my favorite images so that you can make your car happy and pretty, too! They are nice reproductions of my work so you can also use them to make your laptop, walls, or just about anything you can stick a sticker to prettier!

I heard back from both companies today, and we’re definitely in business! So, here’s a preview of the designs:

4 inch red hibiscus flower

4 inch yellow and red hibiscus flower

5 inch dove

4 inch "Petunia the anything can happen Pig"

4 inch red eyed frog

5 inch yellow and pink hibiscus flower

4 inch open landed Monarch butterfly

4 inch open flying Monarch butterfly

4 inch Monarch from the side view

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Gladys the Art Car gets some new paint!

Gladys, my 1999 Lincoln Town Car, is transforming day by day as I add art work to inspire joy and happiness on our road-ways. Yes, I get some strange looks, many people ask if I put a bunch of stickers on my car, and just today a man shook his head and told me that I must be eccentric. But, all of this reaction is worth the smiles, thumbs ups, and "I LOVE your car!" comments.

I use one-shot paints that I get from TCP Global because I've found the best price and they get my order to me pretty quickly! I purchase regular brushes from art supplies stores because I haven't learned how to use the quills and I'm getting the results I want with regular brushes. I use LOTS of turpenoid for my brushes, to remove smudges I get all over myself and the car, etc. To get the fun swirly butterfly on the hood I thinned the paint with thinner that is available from TCP as well. When I'm finished working I clean my brushes with The Master's Brush Cleaner which has done wonders to help my brushes look brand new after each use. You can find that at Michaels. I'd recommend buying the big tub and using a discount coupon. You can use the very same tub for your acrylic brushes and it saves them, too.

Since I've been working on her more lately, I thought I'd share some pictures here. In many ways, I feel that painting on my car is sorta like adding tattoos to her body. If you are interested in knowing how to paint your own car, feel free to leave questions in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them all!