La Sierra 4, Painting Continues

NOT CRAZY about these pictures of me, but oh well.

La Sierra 3, Painting Begins!

PAINTING begins!

La Sierra 2, Projecting Image

THE WALL is clean and ready to paint white.

MERCEDIE Aquilera, Lupe Diaz and Julio Behena paint the wall. It's not dark yet. That's my beloved Little Giant ladder.

MERCEDIE was an amazing worker!

NEXT, using a black and white photo on clear acetate, we transfer image to wall with an overhead projector.


PHOTOS by Shirley Keller.

BACK tomorrow- Nadi

La Sierra 1, Making of a Student Mural

THE STUDENTS of La Sierra High School, in Porterville, CA., painted this mural last year with my assistance. I hope they had as much fun as I did. If you want to see how it was done, follow this blog for a few days. I'll walk you through it.

WITH THE HELP of Shirley Keller, a volunteer for the school, I met with the art students in the classroom. All students in the school would have an opportunity to paint, but we needed to meet with a core group to design the mural. They were surprisingly quiet and I had some difficulty getting them to open up. I spread out on a table an array of photos and clippings to give them ideas. They liked the idea of masks, and since Shirley and I both brought our cameras, we jumped right in and had them pose for masks. They wanted to include teachers and their principal, Jan Mekeel, so we photographed them as well.


I THINK they were starting to warm up.

I LIKED the photos we took, so I went home and, in Photoshop, created these 3-color images, cutting the tops off their heads to make them look like masks. I created a page in Photoshop the same proportions as the wall, put each mask on its own layer, then played around with a composition, dropping in a colorful background behind.

Character Counts! Mural

THIS IS my Character Counts Mural that I just painted at Monson-Sultana School. It is 12' high by 25' wide. Sorry- I meant to show it in progress, but got behind on my schedule. Posters are available for you teachers out there. Just click on the title "Character Counts" above.

Til next time- Nadi

Turkeys!: Day 4, Finished Painting

I BELONG to 2 women's groups, a canasta group of 8 that has been meeting once a month for over 30 years, and a newer group of 9 women that meet to discuss important parts of our lives (WOW- Women of Wisdom). At the WOW meeting last night I realized that we are TURKEYS! In both groups, we are a rafter of non-laying hens that flock together – too old to lay eggs, but with a lot to live for! So this painting is dedicated to all the hens in my life. Thank you ladies – you are my teachers, my support, my friends. I love you!

COLORS are blocked in.


DETAILS are added. I love it! Thanks for joining me. If you have any questions, just ask in the comment section. I'm happy to answer questions.

Nadi

Turkey!: Day 3, Black Lines and more...

I PAINTED the black lines and started filling in color. I am having so much fun with this picture. I am having 8 women for dinner tonight at my house – the food is all cooked and the table decorated so I snuck away to paint at the studio for an hour or so. I hope to finish this tomorrow!

Nadi

Turkey!: Day 2, Designing Painting

FIRST I decide on a canvas size. I picked a 20"x 24" for this one and then opened a page that size in Photoshop. Next I paint the canvas bright orange, so it will be ready. I've taken a lot of turkey pictures, but I don't have any egg or hatchling ones. So I found this in a book I have, along with other pictures of eggs etc.

NEXT, I need a hen – which this is not. You can tell by the beard hanging and the leg spurs, but mostly because of the pink head. I did like the stance though. I think I can use this.


I FLOP the picture, take off beard and spurs, then add a foot. The background is transparent (not really white).

I DROP in the hatchling picture behind hen.





I MOVE one baby forward by cutting and pasting in front (each piece is on its own layer in Photoshop, and layers can be moved in front, behind etc.) I had to cut hen's right leg, separate it from the hen layer, put it on its own layer, then move it in front of chick. Now it looks like the hen is standing over all the eggs.






I ADD leaves to bottom.



I DROP in several different backgrounds and liked this yellow best. Because the hen is dark, I liked the gold sky behind. But I'm still not happy with the hen's body- not enough happening.


THERE! I can live with that. Now I will print this out (it is already sized 20 x 24). I print out on letter size paper and tape them together. I am now ready to paint black lines on orange canvas.

Turkey! 1

I LOVE turkeys. Maybe because of Thanksgiving – turkey decorations mean great kitchen smells and lots of laughter. But how much do I know about real turkeys? Not much.

IT'S TIME for a treasure hunt. That's what I call the hours I spend researching information that I have let remain undiscovered all these years. So here are some fun facts that I learned today.

THE WILD turkey is smaller than the domestic turkey (which has been bred so fat that he tips over),and has red, instead of brown, legs. The small bumps on the head are called caruncles. The appendage that droops over the bill is a snood. A turkey can fly 55 miles an hour and outrun a man. His eyesight zone is 300º (as compared to an owl's 70º), has acute hearing, a poor sense of taste and almost no sense of smell. The turkey has no homing instinct – if taken to a new environment, he just makes it his new home. Grown turkeys roost in trees at night.

THE MALE (tom or gobbler) can change his head colors in seconds – to warn off other males or to signal females for mating. His snood dangles when he is hot, sexually aroused or fighting. He has a beard that juts out from his chest and spurs on his legs. In spring, he mates with as many hens as he can and takes no part in nesting or rearing of the poults. A male less than 2 years old is called a jake.

THE FEMALE (hen) is half the size of a tom, has a bluish head sparsely feathered, has a tiny snood and a few caruncles. Her plumage is controlled by hormones, so if her ovaries should be damaged, she would grow the feathers of a gobbler. Because the hen can sometimes have a beard and spurs, the most reliable way to distinguish them is by head color. Toms have a pink head, the hen's is blue-gray. After mating, the hen becomes a loner. She will lay from 8 to 13 eggs per clutch. After leaving the nest to eat, she will return, taking a different route each time, often flying the last 100 feet, to confuse predators. Poults open their egg with an egg tooth that will fall off in a day or two. This is called pipping. During the 2 days of hatching, the poults imprint on the hen, and get to know all their siblings. After leaving the nest, the hen will often watch her brood from afar, and even feign an injury to gain attention from a possible predator.

A RAFTER (or flock) of turkeys comes in 4 types: hens with their young, hens not successful in hatching poults ( up to 20), adult gobblers (up to 25 birds), and young gobblers that have left the family flock. There is a peck order and rank is achieved by fighting. There is fighting among gobblers, as well as hens; in fall and winter there is also fighting between flocks, in which whole groups participate.

TURKEYS have about 30 different calls. Here's a few:
Gobble – Come to me, mama.
Whippoorwill – Back off buddy.
Rattle call – Fight! Fight!
Alarm putt – Danger. Danger.
Cackle – only used when flying.
Yelp –I'm lost!
Whit-whit – I hear ya- this way.
Predator alarm – Eek! I'm being attacked!
Distress Scream – My babies! My babies! Help!
Pit-pit-pit – Careful- I have a funny feeling.
Peeping (from inside egg) – Look out world- here I come.
Hatching yelp – Mama's here, you're safe.
(Poults learn their mother's individual voice at this point, while in the egg!
They must also imprint when hatched or they will be confused their entire life.)
Lost call – Maaaa-maaaaaa. Where are you?
Singing alarm – Look up! Danger above! (AT which point, all turkeys look up.)
Purring – Y'all still there? Let's keep together.
Tree yelp – Good morning. All here? Let's have a good day.

MY PAINTING is going to be the hatching event. Stay tuned.

Nadi