The first stage of clay is slip. Slip is watery clay; it is most often used to "slip and score", which I used to attach the features of the mug to the mug itself.
The second stage of clay is wet. Wet is moist, very plastic clay. Wet is the type of clay I love to use, just because it feels so fresh, and because it is moist enough that I don't have to soften it with water.
The third stage of clay is leather hard. Leather hard is the stage my mug was in after being left on the shelf for twenty-four hours or so. It is easier to cut but very difficult to sculpt.
The fourth stage of clay is greenware. Greenware is completely dry clay that is fragile and breakable. I would say that greenware is an overdose of leather hard for the clay. In other words, leaving clay out for a longer amount of time can turn leather hard clay into greenware.
The fifth stage of clay is bisque. This is the clay after its first firing. If it was grey clay, it is now white in this stage. It is now completely hard and no longer soft in any way. Bisque, luckily, is only one stage away from glaze...
The sixth stage of clay is glaze. This is the final firing and results in a smooth texture and a shiny look. I loved the way my glaze came out. While I was painting the mug, it was more of a ruddy red-brown but when it glazed, it turned out to be this beautiful spotted green.
To help pass time and keep my creativity at the front of my brain, I keep a half sheet handy and challenge myself to fill the page with lines, shapes and shadows before the shift is over. Never a theme planned I let the pen take me on its own adventure. I’m just a passenger.
I always admired those hand-painted signs outside the barbershops, so I made my own. Actually, you look like you need a fresh new hairstyle yourself. I can hook you up
Just a simple little mandala doodle drawing I drew this morning.... getting better a doodle at a time!! Hope to draw better more complex and more evenly spaced out designs in the future. I am a completely self-taught artist who is not at all naturally talented in drawing or any art medium for that matter but am learning and praticing and getting better daily. My advice is if you are a beginner or aren't naturally blessed artistically but have the passion creative mindset and desire to become good at art then keep going keep on praticing and learning from those before you and I promise you will get better and eventually great! YOU ARE AN ARTIST!!
Oils on canvass. This is Charlie. He's the parrot owned by the supermarket where my husband used to work. The owner of the shop brought him in to keep him from getting bored and pulling his feathers out. He has a large cage at the entrance which he often escapes from, and can be found hopping from trolley to trolley on the handles, to amuse himself. He's usually found by a staff member who brings him back. A real character lol
In “I Love Lamp,” Ty Patmore blends nostalgia, humor, and subtle unease into a surreal domestic scene where time, space, and memory feel slightly off-center. A lava lamp—softly glowing with drifting shapes—sits on a worn wooden table, acting as the sole beacon of warmth inside a room that is quietly falling apart. The wallpaper peels back to reveal fractured brick beneath, as if the structure itself is shedding its old skin.
A melting wall clock drips down the surface like time losing its grip, while a framed picture of a UFO drifting over pine trees hints that even the outside world may not be quite right. Every object bends reality just enough to make the viewer question whether this room is comforting… or unsettling.
I had to improvise a bit. I found myself rummaging for colored pencils so I drew my outfit today with the ones I had. Notice that I am painting because I’m out of pencils. My oversized sweatshirt is really a periwinkle blue.
Recently re-watched.....a....certain...movie.....and felt persuaded to do this. I really liked the art style (not that i could do it myself) and wanted to try it in my own way. If you know what movie i'm talking about then feel free to comment it; i'm interested to see how many there are. Also, i would love some feedback on my art, this is the first one i've done with words in it sooo hopefully it "works".
This super unflattering self portrait comes with a good reason. I bought a magazine about watercolor painting today, thinking looking at beautiful pictures in bed would calm me down before sleep. Didnt happen! An invitation to a spring-themed contest was announced, putting my brain to work in high speed. After 3 hours i gave up sleeping and started some preparation work. Draping my head in a scarf, filming myself in the worst possible angle and making a rough sketch was first step. Hopefully i can get some sleep now.
I have a good bit more to do with this but I thought I’d post the progress so far. First time using real software besides stuff like paint. Sketched out the bones of it in pen and scanned to myself.
Sometimes, a good goodbye is also a fresh hello.
As we wrapped up our "Sacred Spaces" paintings, I asked our student teacher to design a one-day project—something playful, earthy, and engaging to ease the class into her care. She brought mud. Literally.
Using mud and simple stencils, students pressed images—flowers, insects, wings—onto the sidewalk behind our school. There's something timeless about making marks with the ground itself. It felt ancient and immediate at the same time.
These prints won’t last long, but maybe that’s the point. A fleeting image, a shared laugh, a new hand guiding the next phase of learning.
Art is about making marks. Not all of them need to be permanent.
Don Cutter (Full name Cookie Cutter) relishes in making their last name self evident. [This was done as a trade for a friend!!!! At present, she has no socials for me to link to, but I will update this if that ever changes!!!! (P.S. the name is *unofficial* but I am campaigning hard for her to canonize it!!!!)] P.P.S. this is the first image I am uploading of my (admittedly rather limited) backlog/body of work, so expect more updates in the near future [followed by a WHOLE lot of nothing for a while (I work SLOW ;-;)]!!!!
Water heals and purifies. It also kills and destroys.
Few symbols encompass both the life-giving and death-dealing properties of water as the sacrament of baptism, which represents both the passing of the old self and their rebirth as a new creature (Romans 6:3-11).
Here, the image of death & rebirth is also reinforced by a dragonfly motif; the dragonfly spends the first years of its life in the deep waters as a nymph, and is completely transformed into a new being as it rises to the surface.
Unlike butterflies, a dragonfly undergoes several molting processes after its emergence, showing that, while the creature is already made new, it is not yet perfected, and must grow in its new identity through what is called progressive sanctification.
The work's title refers to the Christian daimyo, Konishi Yukinaga, whose baptismal name is Augustine, and is the primary subject of this image.
