Painting the Town Red...Or Me At Least

Before I get started on my current project, I want to make a note about photography.  When it comes to digital photography, red is the hardest color to photograph accurately.  Apparently highly textured red fabric is even harder (hence the reason there are no photographs of the felt fortune cookies I made for Valentine's day).  "But Jen," you must be saying to yourself, "you're a photographer.  Surely you know how to photograph red."  Yes, I do.  But when I'm covered in paint and glue, I'm not really motivated to pull out my $2000 camera.  So, judge not my photography skills when I am in craft mode.  If you haven't had the opportunity, check out my photography website to see my work.

That being said, it seems I've been doing a lot with red recently.  I did the valentines, which we're still enjoying.  I've also been wearing a red shirt lately (this is the closest you'll see me come to a sports metaphor).  I injured my right hand at work at the beginning of this week.  Needless to say I haven't been able to do much since I couldn't hold anything in my hand.  Finally today I was able to do a little bit of work in my studio.

I've been trying to get ready for the Spring Fling that we're having at Church in April.  This year is the second year and I'm really looking forward to showing off all the new stuff I've been working on since last year.  I know it doesn't look like much, but above you is a clipboard I'm working on.  I'm planning to decoupage some of my Hawaiian photographs on it, postcard style, so I'm trying to paint the background to look like a Hawaiian shirt.

I tend to get really impatient when it comes to painting.  I was so excited about what I was going to do when I got home that I started painting the clipboard right away.  After two coats the clipboard looked a reddish shade of brown.  I remembered the lesson I have learned so many times before--prime.  In the art/craft world priming means pulling out the gesso.  Once I applied a couple coats (I had to cover the red paint I'd already applied) I got what you see now.  

The next step is to paint it red.  The first couple coats are drying now.  I found a really cute pineapple foam stamp that I'm going to stamp in white to try to get the Hawaiian shirt effect.  I will keep you posted on how it goes.

As you can see a good portion of the red paint got on my hands.  I have never been able to paint without covering myself in it.  I have no problems keeping it off of my clothes, but just about any piece of skin that is exposed is going to have some paint on it.  So, can you blame me for not pulling out the big camera while I'm crafting?