After I started feeling better, I got tired of watching tv and reading all day. My face looks like I've been out hunting with Dick Cheney without a shotgun proof facemask and I didn't want to leave the house, so I finished a project I started over five months ago - shopping bags for my little group of childhood friends. I wanted to have the bags finished for our annual summer trip, but part of my procrastination oath was that I would start things and not finish them, and I can't break my oath.
Now I know what you're thinking: This took five months?!! I know because that's what I think too. But you see, I'm not an artist. I'm artistic, but not an artist. The difference being I can think it, but I can't draw it, at least not easily. I knew the picture I wanted to put on the bags, but I can't draw without looking at something, and even then not well.
I had asked a neighbor to sit in a lawnchair and let me take her picture so I could try to make a cartoon drawing from the picture, and she said she had a friend who was an artist and she asked him to draw the picture I described: a pretty woman sitting in a beach chair with a drink, wearing sunglasses and a tiara. It's a nice picture, just not quite what I wanted.
The girl just wasn't quite Diva-ish, and the tiara a little too crown-ish. I didn't know what to do about it, so I did nothing for a couple of months. Then I decided I could take the parts I liked and draw them into what I wanted. So I ended up with a composite sketch that I could draw onto the bags and then paint.
And the back
I only have two bags finished so far. I ran out of the tan canvas fabric. Eeek! I don't even remember where I bought it now. That's one of the drawbacks of procrastination. If I had made the bags right after I bought the fabric, I could have gotten more. Now I have to improvise.
You're probably wondering about the tiara, since it's not really part of the typical Diva ensemble (like I know what is). Several years ago, well nine, in fact, one of the ladies in our group decided we needed to start having an annual weekend together. We had gone on weekend trips together before, but it was usually impromtu and not at all organized. But on this first organized girls' weekend, we met in Dallas, and talked, ate, and shopped. Oh, and laughed. A lot. While on one of our shopping outings, we went into a jewelry/accessories store, and K spotted some tiaras in a glass case. I think the trip must have been around prom time that year. So K pretended to swoon, right there in the crowded store, and proclaimed loudly that she just had to have a tiara - that now that she had seen such a priceless wonder (it was $4.99), she didn't think she could live without one. We all laughed at her joke and at the tiaras, and walked on. All except M, who dropped back and bought the tiara.
The next morning in the hotel breakfast room, M walked up behind K and crowned her with the tiara while everyone else bowed down to her. She hammed it up and let the hotel staff call her 'madame' and 'your highness' and wore the tiara throughout breakfast.
And from that moment on, we were the Tiara Group, kind of like the Red Hat Society, except I think we laugh a lot more.
So you see why my Diva had to have a tiara.
Now I know what you're thinking: This took five months?!! I know because that's what I think too. But you see, I'm not an artist. I'm artistic, but not an artist. The difference being I can think it, but I can't draw it, at least not easily. I knew the picture I wanted to put on the bags, but I can't draw without looking at something, and even then not well.
I had asked a neighbor to sit in a lawnchair and let me take her picture so I could try to make a cartoon drawing from the picture, and she said she had a friend who was an artist and she asked him to draw the picture I described: a pretty woman sitting in a beach chair with a drink, wearing sunglasses and a tiara. It's a nice picture, just not quite what I wanted.
The girl just wasn't quite Diva-ish, and the tiara a little too crown-ish. I didn't know what to do about it, so I did nothing for a couple of months. Then I decided I could take the parts I liked and draw them into what I wanted. So I ended up with a composite sketch that I could draw onto the bags and then paint.
And the back
I only have two bags finished so far. I ran out of the tan canvas fabric. Eeek! I don't even remember where I bought it now. That's one of the drawbacks of procrastination. If I had made the bags right after I bought the fabric, I could have gotten more. Now I have to improvise.
You're probably wondering about the tiara, since it's not really part of the typical Diva ensemble (like I know what is). Several years ago, well nine, in fact, one of the ladies in our group decided we needed to start having an annual weekend together. We had gone on weekend trips together before, but it was usually impromtu and not at all organized. But on this first organized girls' weekend, we met in Dallas, and talked, ate, and shopped. Oh, and laughed. A lot. While on one of our shopping outings, we went into a jewelry/accessories store, and K spotted some tiaras in a glass case. I think the trip must have been around prom time that year. So K pretended to swoon, right there in the crowded store, and proclaimed loudly that she just had to have a tiara - that now that she had seen such a priceless wonder (it was $4.99), she didn't think she could live without one. We all laughed at her joke and at the tiaras, and walked on. All except M, who dropped back and bought the tiara.
The next morning in the hotel breakfast room, M walked up behind K and crowned her with the tiara while everyone else bowed down to her. She hammed it up and let the hotel staff call her 'madame' and 'your highness' and wore the tiara throughout breakfast.
And from that moment on, we were the Tiara Group, kind of like the Red Hat Society, except I think we laugh a lot more.
So you see why my Diva had to have a tiara.
Excellent! Perfect! Well done! I have drawing envy, I could not anywhere near that, I mean, I can barely manage a stick lady, eh?? LOL
ReplyDeleteThank you, but I only redrew and had to have other pictures for inspiration, even for the bottle. Don't envy me, I'm barely beyond stick lady.
ReplyDeleteLove the bags and the story of "why the tiara". Glad you are feeling better.
ReplyDelete