Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Rule Britannia!

I have successfully completed the flag canvases for my Son's room...almost 'geometrically correct'! The only difference is the edges of the flags, particularly noticeable in St Andrew's Cross and St Patrick's Cross. The edges of the crosses should be in the middle of the edges of the frame, but because I had to base all the flags on the template of the Union Jack (so they all looked the same), I had to use a little creative licence! At least the middle part of the Union Jack is 'correct', which was my main concern!



It was also tricky matching up the correct colours from a computer screen, and St Andrew's Cross could have perhaps been a little lighter, but I won't be too picky, and I'm sure my Son wont either!



I could not have done this little project without my new best friend....purple low tack masking tape!!!

Despite spending a lot of time on this, I did manage to go on a little shopping expedition and buy something I have been admiring for a while (just needed to wait until I sold my blue bird canvas before I could justify buying it!).

My new armillary!



Not sure where it's permanent home will be, but at the moment it's on the side table in the family room under my bus blind!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Projects On The Go.

Too many things to do, so little time at the moment, but I will eventually get everything done!

I'm part way through painting an old stained and varnished book shelf, but need someone to help me manoeuvre it to get to all the sections to spray it properly! So that is a job for the weekend, but last weekend was just too busy to do any of it! This is what it did look like before I sanded it, and put a coat of primer on:



It will be white, and I am also deciding on the final colour 'white', as they vary so much. It will be in the family room, so it needs to tie in with the colour of my tables. Although they are 'white', I still want to try and get as close as possible to the right tone. Just a plain white based acrylic is far too vivid, and need some colour to it. Once it's finished, it will look so much better!

This will be on the wall above it:



...which will match nicely with my London Bus Blind on the opposite wall.

I have started on some artwork for my Son's bedroom (finally), now I have finished the tutu's for my Daughter. I had a brain wave last week and decided that as he likes the Union Jack so much (partly my doing...) and his room is predominately red, blue and white I'd paint him one! Knowing that the Union Jack was made up of a combination of 3 flags...I'd paint them all!



Shortly, he will have 4 canvases for his walls...although making the Union Jack 'geometrically correct' has been a challenge! The flag is twice the width it is high, and needs to be in order for all the intersecting parts to be in the correct spot. Unfortunately, the canvases I bought are not, so I've had to be a bit creative and crop the sides so it 'works'. 2 days, lots of google image research and numerous drafts later I have come up with something I'm happy with. I'm now pretty handy with a blank piece of paper, ruler and pencil!

For those interested, this site was my saviour! In conducting my 'google research' it was amazing to see just how many are drawn incorrectly! I could have used creative licence, but I wanted it to be 'right'.

Stay tuned for the final results!