Art by Marcia Furman: May 2012

May 31, 2012

Portrait Group

Yesterday I went to a portrait group at The Art Center in Butler. I've been wanting to go to this for a long time, but being the introvert that I am procrastinated. Finally my friend Mary invited me to go, and that was exactly the boost I needed to get me there! For some reason I felt super self-conscious at first.

It's one thing to paint in your own style, in the privacy of your own home

...and another to do something your not used to in public!!

I quickly remembered how much I loved drawing from life! I'm not gonna say I'm good at it...but it's exhilarating to draw within a group of creative people.

My first sketch ended up being typical "Marcia Furman" style. LOL.

Next I tried to do all the features. It's so much harder to draw from real life, as opposed to a picture. I really need to brush up on these skills. I think I'm going to break out the old books and re-learn the proportions of the face. Ugh! This sketch turned out nice, but it took me 40 minutes and several tries.

The last 20 minute session, I went for the old "super fast sketch" with conte crayon on big news print.

That was so fun!!!!

I really hope I can go to this regularly. It's great practice and nice to just get out with other artists!

May 28, 2012

Then & Now

YAY!!!

I'm not /exactly/ sure, but I think the first picture was taken in 1997.

15 years apart!

May 26, 2012

Lomo Saturday!

More Lomo Saturday here:

Initiator Anki - Nikki - Casper - Iris - Mireille - Marrit - Aujke - Judith

May 25, 2012

Friday Archive Dive!

Both sketch and painting, November 2008

"Who's Pulling YOUR Strings?"

12x12

acrylic on canvas

May 24, 2012

Nick & his tattoo

This is a little (ahem...big!) tattoo I designed for Nick.

They did a fantastic job at In The Blood Tattoo!

It looks so fabulous!

May 23, 2012

Supplies & Making Stuff.

A lot of people ask me about my pouches, and where I get the supplies to make them.

For my pouches, I order the printed fabric from Spoonflower.com. If you haven't heard of them, you should definitely check it out! You can get anything you want printed on fabric.

Not to mention, there's endless fabrics to choose from to purchase. This place is fantastic!

Next, I get my zippers off of a fellow Etsy seller: Kandcsupplies

They have loads of the most beautiful colors, in any length you want! They are very flexible, so if you there are colors that you wouldn't use, you just mention it in the note to seller.

They are super nice, and ship quickly!

My liner fabric is totally random. Sometimes it's bought from the store, sometimes donated to me, sometimes vintage or repurposed fabric. Every pouch is a surprise!

Inside of each pouch, I have a little tag.

It's honestly just opaque t-shirt transfer material like what you can buy any craft store.

I use Transfermations for dark material.

You can purchase my zipper pouches HERE in my shop, or anywhere I am set up for a craft fair!

A day in Staunton, VA.

I love love love Staunton, VA! If there is one place I know I would love to live, that's the place. It's packed full of amazing little shops...vintage, art, coffee...and more! We stumbled upon this "Camera Heritage Museum" and ended up spending an hour in the place. The nice man was extremely eager to give us a tour. He had quite an amazing collection and wanted to talk ALL about it! It was great!

An original Diana!

The Wedding. So beautiful. The weather was perfect...and they were the perfect couple.

I bought a new dress for the occasion. HAHA! I was pretty excited.

It was my Mother's Day gift, along with the shoes.

Congratulations Nathan and Chloe!!!!

May 21, 2012

Art in Washington DC

Oh my...it has been over 15 years since I've been to the art museums in DC. I've been trying to get back down there for years now! We had a wedding in Virginia on Saturday, so we decided to extend the trip a little and hit DC area the day before! WOOHOOO!!

Outside the National Portrait Gallery...we wait for it to open.

Inside: The Art of Video Games!

It was pretty darn cool.

There were several large video games you could try,

along with the entire history of gaming.

They had displays of every consol ever

I especially loved to see my old friend, the Commodore 64.

While Dustin was swooning for an extended period of time,

Travis and I looked through the Portrait Gallery.

Of course my favorite: Michael.

Next up: The National Art Gallery.

There was so much to look at, I couldn't even begin to tell you about it.

After we got through the Renaissance and French Impressionism, my eyes could not look at one more thing. I wanted to go on, but It just wasn't possible. Ugh! I need to go there for an entire week, by myself.

That way I could spend an entire day in smaller sections.

Our net mission was to eat at Ben's Chili Bowl, which was featured on Man Vs. Food.

It was dang good...but suuuper expensive for a hot dog joint! We ended up spending $50 on the four of us! It was good...but I'm thinking $30 good. Hahah!

This was Dustin's fourth "Man Vs. Food" adventure. Fun times.

We had some metro fun as well. Public transportation is always an adventure for me. Butler has a bus, but I don't really need to use it. It's such a novelty to me to ride the metro...hhaha. I'm sure if I lived somewhere where I had to ride it a lot, I would hate it.

It was a fantastic day on Friday. Super tiring, but well worth it.

Tomorrow, a day in Staunton VA, and a beautiful wedding.