I took a photo about a year ago that I’d like to turn into a painting. This is a first sketch so I can do a few rehearsals. Originally I wanted to use oils, since that’s what I’m most comfortable with, but I know watercolours would be better for the look I want – if I can get the sketch right. Lots of practice required. 
art
Taco dragon
Today my boss/ toddler asked me to draw “taco dragon”, her toy that came with “Dragons Love Tacos” by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri.
Turned the Pinterest fail into a win… and into a fail again
I tried to paint over a logo on a T shirt last week and labelled it as a Pinterest fail, which isn’t quite fair because it was a trial run of my acrylic textile medium. (I’m not sponsored by that shop).
The medium works, but isn’t opaque enough to hide a bulky printed logo. It did however provide a nice surface to apply more paint to and reduced the contrast between the white print and black T shirt.
I disguised the logo by incorporating it into a design, a bit like a cover up tattoo.
If you want to paint on a T-shirt with acrylic paint and textile medium, definitely put cardboard inside the shirt, because paint soaks through and can stick the front and back of your shirt together. Yes, I used cardboard 😛
Before:
After:
I’ll have to see how well it survives the laundry to decide whether it’s a big win, or just a fun experiment 🙂
3rd September 2019 update: after 2 washes it’s looking really bad. There isn’t an obvious reason why some bits have peeled and others haven’t. Some pure textile medium bits are fine, others are really bad. It’s the same story with the bits painted over the logo, so I don’t think the medium or original print are the problem. Next time I’ll either accept an unwanted logo, or use appliqué. 
Pottery painting with Van Gogh
My family goes to a local pottery painting place every year, but I rarely know what I want to paint until I get there. This time I thought I’d try something in Van Gogh’s style, because although they tell you to paint 3 layers to get an even colour, I know from experience that it looks patchy when I try to do blocks of colour. I find it easier to go for pointillism or impasto.
I started off with Van Gogh’s brush strokes, but changed to pointillism halfway through when I realised I was going to run out of time. I was also working from an image as it appeared on an iPhone that kept timing out! Here’s the picture I was working from:
And here’s my pottery version:
I think the white speckles came from someone else’s palette, when I was running low on a colour and didn’t realise they’d got the speckled version.
I’m not sure I’ll try this technique again, but everything’s a learning experience.
Art versus bored toddler
I know she’s too young to actually learn technique, (the red scribbles are her colouring in), but you’ll try anything to stop a tantrum while waiting for food. Well done Franco Manca for providing pencils, paper and food in quick succession, before my little art critic could kick off.
Look at that face. “Mummy, this is not art. Where’s my juice?”
Leafy sea dragon 2003
Yeah I know, I’m posting old art again. Oil pastels on card. 
I got stuck
Something the art challenge has revealed is that if I get stuck on a piece, I stop making art completely. So here we go; this is the piece that messed up my challenge. I’m going to move on to another project now. I just don’t know what yet!
African radio
I was given an old African radio about 10 years ago, which is made of recycled electrical components and fencing wire. Its recycled beer can covers had been bothering me for a long time, so it was time to beautify it. It now has pride of place on my kitchen window sill and yes, it still works. Whoever made it was a master of his or her craft.
If anyone plans on copying this… beading onto a frame while dodging fragile electrical circuits was harder work than I expected. I’m not completely happy with the finish, but I am not doing this again.
Unless I find another African radio…
Sleipnir
I was struggling to find inspiration for my one art per day challenge, until I saw my daughter’s Helles Teeth teething toy. My drawing’s not perfect, but at least I made some art.
1artplease 