Oil Pastel in mixed media

I've been doing a lot of photo manipulation in Photoshop lately.

I got the idea to try using the digital manipulation (digi-art) and oil pastels as a mixed media.

I started out with this photo of puppies I took at The Buddy Foundation

http://www.thebuddyfoundation.org/







I cropped the photo in close, removed distractions and started playing with filters to get this:







At this point, I felt that I had a nice image to use as a logo for an online store I just create.

http://www.cafepress.com/Buddyforlife

I've recently begun volunteer work for The Buddy Foundation and wanted to create a way to help them out with my artwork. Hopefully, over time, I will be able to do that.



So back to the mixed media idea.



I cut down a piece of Bristol Vellum paper to fit in my inkjet printer and printed out this digi-art.  I used it as an underpainting to my oil pastel.

I like the way it worked, although not too happy with my color choices for the puppy on the left.







This idea of oil pastel and digi-art as a mixed media is one I will explore more.

Jurist for Cray Pas Wonderful Colorful World contest

Recently I had the privilege of being a juror at the 2009 Cray Pas Wonderful Colorful World contest sponsored by Sakura of America (makers of Cray Pas oil pastels).

http://sakuraofamerica.com/

This contest is a national art contest for children grades K-8.

Sakura of America began this art contest over twenty years ago.

This year 4000 entries were reduced down to 150 finalists. These were put into 3 age groups: K-2, 3-5 & 6-8. These three groups of 50 were then hung on the walls of The Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) in downtown Oakland California.

http://mocha.org/







MOCHA is an art gallery and hands-on teaching workshop for children and teachers alike.

Once all the finalists paintings were hung on the walls at MOCHA, then the 6 jurists had to decide which were the top three award winners in each group.

This was so hard!

We each went through and graded each painting. Then we got together as a group to discuss our top picks and decide on the top three in each age group.

Here are some of the finalists on the wall in the Grade 3-5 group.

This piece  won 1st place in the K-2 group for his creativity. Every judge walked away from this painting with a huge smile on his or her face.

Here are the finalists in the grade 6-8 group.

And these are the 2nd, 3rd & 1st (L to R) in the grade 6-8 group.

All 150 of the finalists received a t-shirt with their own artwork on it from Sakura of America.

The 9 award winners, their teachers and their schools all receive a generous supply of art materials.

To view all the finalist paintings, go to

http://sakuraofamerica.com/?q=Craypas-winners-2009-k-2

So if your child’s school could use some art supplies, and you’d like seeing your child’s artwork recognized in a nationally, ask your child’s art teacher to think about entering the Cray Pas Wonderful Colorful World contest next Fall.

Go ahead, make it even harder for me to pick a winner next year! I’d love it!