12/17-12/18
Finalizing the trees, moving up the entire piece to paint the bottom and snow highlight details! Another 8 hours and she was a completed beauty:) What a beast! Wrapping in plastic because of the rain and my husband driving everything 40mph on the freeway ensured it got to the Littleton Center in Galt safely lol. What a magical night watching my little girl dance and shine with her peers.
12/16-12/15
Finally back at it! Put in another 2 hours each day and accomplished big things – the majority of the three amigos:) Tomorrow is a big day! Going to move the piece up so I can finish the bottom of the trees, touch up snow, add shadow details and blend the blue and white levels. Have to finish tomorrow so wish me luck!!! No more posts until after the big day:)
Majority of Chuck complete and Lumber Jack begun 12/16
The big three mostly completed, white snow touch ups on trees and north mountain, tiny felt ice castle added to mountain
12/14-15/15
After a day of rest, I was able to complete the figurines that will stand in front of the backdrop. Took about 3hours of painting, and 2 hours of cutting out/assembly (thank you husband:). Acrylic on wood, 7′ tall, 3-5′ wide. I had two sick babies this week so getting this done was a miracle in itself!
12/12/15
Popped in a couple times today, two hours in the am and four more last night while no one was stirring, not even a mouse (getting Christmassy over here:)
I have affectionately nicknamed the large trees in the piece since I am spending so much time with them (from left to right): Lumber Jack, Bob and Wood Chuck. Bob got some TLC and I painted more snow. Next is to finish Bob, move the whole thing to the right so I can work on Jack and finally take on Chuck.
After that, it’s detail time! Adding Elsa’s ice castle in the distance, shadows on the snow, highlighting the trees, etc. That’s when it really comes alive! Right now is crucial too though since we are laying the foundation.
12/11/15
Started on the smaller trees and am working my way up! Another full day of happy little trees (insert Bob Ross joke here). Also, my assistant, aka husband, cut out the wooden figurines today and will mount them on stands for me! What a keeper.
12/10/15
Day two went well, had a helper which was a god send! We managed to get a lot of the background done so we can focus on the trees today. Lessons learned yesterday on painting day one: plastic on the ground is a must (when not painting in my own space); protect the wall behind the piece when backdrop is porous; and while watering down paint may make it spread easier, it requires more layers to really show up on fabric (especially black).
Mountains and snow today, 8 hours
12/8-9/15
My eldest daughter, Lucy, is performing her honed ballet skills to a song from the movie Frozen in less than two weeks and I couldn’t be more excited: I’ve been commissioned to paint the stage backdrop and characters to stand in front! By far the largest work for K.M. Creations to date. I’m also pretty excited to see how Lucy’s first big performance will go so needless to say, not much sleeping going on right now, haha!!
Here are the beginning stages and I will try to update as I go. Big paint day today for the back drop (12×26 feet), wish me luck!
On Tues, the piece was sketched out with chalk in two hours and Weds. night I sketched out the figurines (another two hours).
Here is a sample of the wintery scene and characters I’m working from
Sketched the backdrop in about 1.5 hours. That little cutie Hayden is for scale. Three feet of the piece is on the floor because we didn’t have a high enough ladder to hang it from the top. It is black sheets sewn together with chalk sketching (I’ve found it is more forgiving).
Characters from Frozen that will be cut out, braces added so they can stand in front of the back drop. They are both a little over five feet. Still need to work on Anna and Elsa’s faces, have a tough time with those! Olaf is still my favorite, hands down.
K.M. CREATIONS 