I love painting and sculpting. One will always take me back to the other.Ayala Art
Put a little art in your life today!
About Me
Ayala Art
I loved art since the first time I drew a long magical line that went from my paper to the table, and from there to a wall.
I enjoy working with all kinds of media!
From watercolors & acrylics to pastels; I love painting on fun surfaces like gourds, canvas, silk or simple pieces of wood. I also love sculpting and making Art Dolls. If I don't do art I am not happy. I've been selling on line since the year 2000, and thanks to the Internet my work is now collected in many different countries.
This is what I have been finishing. I am very proud of myself actually! :oD All those little dolls that were left behind have hair, outfits and wings... it would be so cool to have them in the backyard, in the bushes, popping up from corners... Only that I know some are naughty and it would be a big problem to catch them all lol
And also have been painting. See my WIPs I am not done with all the things I want to finish (or the paints I want to start!) But I am loving it...
I love going from periods with tons of texture, to times when I love soft grayish colors and no texture. Always find so exciting to go from acrylics to oils, then rediscover pastels.... I know, it's more marketable to stick to one thing, have one style.... but alas, I am not there yet... or maybe I am not that kind of artist. Who knows, as long as I find pleasure in it, I guess I am fine :oD
Actually I should say four down and one more to go. But anyway, here is another picture with more tiny fairies done, they are a bit less than 3 inches tall. One of them has the tiniest leather shoes I ever made! I think they turned out cute, if I may say so myself :oP
I am also working on some bigger paperclay dolls, and I am holding myself from starting on an Izannah Walker inspired doll. I have the pattern and the general idea, but I need time because it requires a lot of sewing and I am not that fast at it.... But aren't they gorgeous!? Here's a PICTUREof one, from North dixie designs, in case you have not seen one before.
I finished one of the dollies last night, and here's the picture. It was kind of hard to decide on the hair color... I wanted light purple but I think this light yellow looks better. She is the one on the right on the past posting :o)
Now my movie comments.... weeks ago we went to see "Where the wild things live". What can I say? The book is cute. I don't particularly remember it since my kids are older, but I remember I thought the drawings were fun.... the monsters in the movie are awesome, the kid actor is cute and talented, visually the film it is very rich and creative. That part I enjoyed.... but the yelling, the brattiness and specially the end... yuck! I was really expecting some loving words from the mom at the end (As in, don't you ever go like that again :oP lol) or a tender "sorry mom, I'll never do it again!" from the kid. Nada. We went straight from biting mom, running wild, and coming back to chocolate cake. HUH? That only makes me think the guys that made the movie took some large liberties of poetic license and.... they don't have kids! That end needs a good fixing, otherwise it is a deflated balloon.
Somehow I hurt myself again. I was recuperating so well but I over did stuff and now I have to go back to take it easy. Oh well... I decided one way to keep myself put, was to start a doll. So I went to my table of doll stuff and wanted to start another doll, and then I felt someone looking at me. It was all the unfinished dolls I left there, bald and barefooted all the way to the neck... lol so I guess I will be adding hair and dressing dollies for now. :oD
I guess I will skip the trick-or-treaters this year, unless I place a bowl outside and let them grab their own candy lol Last week I had surgery and spent about 5 days sleeping! I still can't believe that! But well, I guess I was supposed to rest anyway :oD Unfortunately I missed the due date on the Halloween doll challenge... also missed tons of emails... I'm just now trying to get back on track, but I feel good.
I'm thinking of milking this as much as I can, since the kids have been doing their laundry and bunch of stuff around the house LOL Even the cat is behaving! But I'm telling you, it is close to impossible to take a decent picture of that Panzon... He plain won't let me :oP
Have a great day and thanks for visiting!
Here he is, relaxing in this autumn weather, trying to catch the last bugs of the season.
What a week! I'm glad is done and over :oD Half of my family and extended family has their birthday in October... 3 of us birthday people live in the same house so, knowing me, I was going to be eating ALL the cake I could, stuffing my face like a chipmunk, so I only allowed ONE cake for all LOL That's it, no more! We had a good time, regardless of the limited amount of icing intake ;o) Once we were all done with he marathon B-days, it all turn Topsy-turby. Belly aches, food poisoning, nasty allergies, hospital visits, tests....
OH! And a terrible dust storm! LOL tumbleweeds a-flyin' trees a-fallin. Fun fun fun... not! I will spare you all the details but today things are much better and it is Friday!! yaay! I actually left this post in draft for several days.
I managed to work a bit on my rodent, her name is Carnation isn't she a beauty? LOL She still needs her tail and details. The little elf has his shoes now but I did not take a picture yet.... See you soon!
My sculptin' mojo attacked me! I have been listing (as you can see in the module to the right) and I actually had a "clay marathon" making 5 heads, then, very unlike me, went ahead and finish the limbs and bodies as well. So I am pretty proud of myself :oD Usually I end up with 3 arms, 7 legs and heads that don't match the limbs, just because I get carried away practicing one thing or another :o} Here is a little hint picture. One of the dollies is for the ADO challenge, and another is for AMA. I just have to hurry and finish the outfits! and the rodent!! I would cross my fingers, but then ...how am I to work? :oP
Plants.... We bought the cutest reddest camellia plant. I am so thrilled!!!! hopefully it will take good roots, because I love its colors and it will look so nice in that spot. It will have to be protected with some cat and dog repellent so they won't mess it up. Sorry Panzon, but you'll have to find another social area. (I have seen him with another Tux kitty, being goofy together) :o)
We went to the fair, walked for 4 hours, had a HUGE cinnamon roll..... we yelled and screamed to my heart's content at the Rick Springfield concert LOL My daughter and I were singing along and I tried to take a cell picture but it didn't work out in hers and mine had a dead battery. I wanted to take one when he's tossing red rose petals all over... it looked cool! lol That was one nice time to remember in my life....
Another time to remember in my life was the shock last week, after they told me how much is going to be for my kid's braces!!! yikes!!! I'm going to need another cinnamon roll, to feel better! right?? ;o)
They say Fall is here around the corner, but not around my corner! We were 101 today, yesterday, and most likely tomorrow as well. Not complaining... I love the warm weather. And I am keeping my fingers crossed so we won't have bad fog this year.... The only thing is that we are holding the planting of new stuff in the flowerbed. I had to get rid of an old plant, was all sick looking and after trimming and clipping and babying.... nada, it just kept getting worse so bye-bye bush... hello new-plant-that-I-think-will-be-a-camellia! Still not sure, but the woman at nursery said that was the perfect spot for a red camellia.... and I LOVE color! So it would be great!
I have been working on some little heads but dont have any pictures yet. but....
I do have a nasty scary picture to show you..... never saw a bigger spider around here before!!! close to 2 inches! yuck!! (Sorry spider lovers!)
So... season's greetings! (no spiders were injured in the making of this post, but the camera woman also known as moi got really nervous when her son had the hand close to the critter! He was about 4 inches away, but looks closer.)
Remember my WIP of a little elf? He's all done and ready to run. I named him Whitte Gaelach, which means White moon. The 5 day listing here HERE and I am very happy the way he turned out. He has the cutest little freckles but I'm not sure they show well in the pictures. I wanted to make his story with a video, but knowing me, it will take me another 2 months to finish that the way I like it, and another one to edit the video... so, I will skip that for now LOL
The people from AMA are running a cool Halloween challenge but I didn't start on time so I will miss it. I will post the winner soon. The winner of the past Classic Fairy tales challenge, was Sandra Arteaga with a beautiful Snow White. Congrats!
Now, for some people sewing is a relaxing easy hobby. For me? it's a love/hate relationship with my sewing machine. I love fabric, and I know a couple of things about patterns, but for tiny size dolls, gosh! I have a stressing time to try new things! :oP I was all happy to make a legless baby onesie.... well, after 3 days I gave up, and it ended up being a pretty cute set of.... long pants pajamas! LOL
I listed Frida on Etsy HERE And I have more pics of her:
Wish me luck!
Oh!! I went to she bookstore yesterday and of course I went straight to check the doll magazines just to find in Art Doll Quarterly: Mealy Monster Land's dolls in there I was so excited to see her there!! I saw Deirdra Doan's dolls from Jane DesRosier's class too! great art dolls! :oD
I had to post today just because the date is so cool: 09/09/09 ;oD
The Frida cloth doll is all finished! Took some pictures and I think she turned out very nice, with her flowers in the hair.
I think she will go to etsy.
I also listed on ebay polymer baby Amber....
I was so stressed when I thought I lost all the pictures! I strongly recommend to burn a CD with your pics, and backup, and maybe keep the favorite pics on the little camera disc. I deleted a bunch although the little thing can hold like 5 years of images heheeh
Well, live and learn!
Can't surf safely online anymore... we have all the protection and anti-virus and anti-junk and still I managed to catch a nasty bug that made a mess out of my hard drive gggrrrr! We spent days trying to fix the problem and rescuing old files (that of course I did not backed up) and more than anything I wanted to save my pictures, that of course I had not printed yet even years later... *sigh* Well... the good thing is that we saved my pictures!! yaay!
I went folder by folder checking and "dusting off" old things and I just had to share this:
The first week of school always makes me feel lost... all the running so early in the mornings then the quiet stillness of the house. Even the cat had a time for a nap. Oh, never mind, he always has time for a nap! :o) So today it's our first Saturday and I have a bunch of tutorial links to post. Some are in a different language but very easy to follow by the pictures:
My son turned 15 today. I can't believe it yet! He's growing so tall and his voice so deep, not the little thing I met lol, but still as noisy. He doesn't play with a plastic hammer anymore but with real tools. Gosh where did time go? :o) I just have a problem, I think I ate too much cake!
And now that the kids are back in school, I have been working on a personal crusade, to call it one way. I have the goal to finish all the projects I left half way done for one reason or another... and that includes my cloth dolls and mix media. One of them is a Frida Kahlo. Here's a picture of her, still bald. Her face is sculpted and painted. By now she has earrings, a zarape and shoelaces, but I took the picture before that. She will have mohair and ribbons on her head. I am very happy with her dress, I had not touched my sewing machine for a long time!:oD
We went to see Ponyo. I am not into anime, but since I have 2 kids I am into kid's movies. I could take more romantic comedy movies though :o). So anyway my comments on the Ponyo movie... I loved the visual stuff, colors, characters, all the fish and the water in cartoon, very nice! The story? yuck! The mom drives like a maniac, doesn't listen to the guards, endangers her 5 year old kid and then leaves him alone to go back to the same spot where she was supposed to have staid. huh? OK, they needed drama, that's a way to get it hehehe
Once Ponyo turns into a little girl (a bit hyper for my taste too) she made me want to grab my pencil and draw! Which takes me to the next part of the post... we are getting ready for school and after a loooong summer with no math, I felt we should have a little warm up, so we sit an hour of tutoring. They did math, I did the sitting :oP While sitting and getting bored I took my pencil and a leftover paper from my son. He was going to do a sea monster but changed his mind and abandoned the paper. This is the result: The "sea monster" became part of the hat, can you see it? :oD I never made little boys for my little "niñas" but I think it's a good thing. I was pretty happy with it, particularly since trying to make a 3D girl out of my drawings is what took me to the polymer clay and dolls.
Today I received my swap baby in the mail... I'm so happy! Remember when I posted about the one I made to send? Here's the picture before I sent him: Well I guess I forgot to take a picture after I tied the ribbon and added a baby toy to it...
And here's the picture of the one I got, made by my friend Cecilia... Isn't she adorable?? Thank you Cecilia, I love her!
And I also wanted to share a new slide show I made for the AMA group.
Please leave a comment and rate... and you can subscribe also, just click the yellow button!
Thanks to all the wonderful people that participated in this lil' giveaway. I have the video of the drawing and congratulations to the winner!!
It took like 10 minutes for the video to upload.... My daughter picked 3 papers from the basket and from there selected the winner. Congrats Catherine! yaay! I hope you all had fun, I did! And here's to another year of learning, creating and blah-ging!
...of posting random artsy chitchat! wow... 4 years... I never celebrated this blog's anniversary, so I decided to do so this year with something special to me. A giveaway of a 4x4 inches mini painting, painted back in 2005. This is one I kept for a test to see how the colors held and I have to say they look like if I painted it yesterday! Anyone can participate, from anywhere in the world! And if you subscribe to my youtube, your name gets listed twice, so double the chance!! :o)
I actually started to blog after the first reading about it in the Art Divas group. Which by the way now I am helping moderate the Art Divas in ning, so if you hear any explosions over there it was me, having a little accident :o.
I had another blog, then made this one , took me a while to get used to it or remember to come and post.... In time, I got to meet wonderful people from far away places, learned cool new things and different ways people do their art. And also I get to share with others a bit of me, my endeavors, my craft, and post tips of things I enjoy doing, to help others as well.
In this past years I have changed painting methods, subjects, styles, materials... I went from painting back to sculpting; from stitching back to painting again... I went from listing every day, to not listing at all... from large canvas, to small format, to polymer and paperclay.
The only thing that has not changed is my love for creating. I have learned a lot, and hopefully I have helped someone out there to learn something new. So, if you are interested in the Give away, please post a comment here, and week after the anniversary (which will be the 18th) we'll randomly select a winner. Good luck!
I was invited to make a how-to video in Deb's group in ning. I love helping people, but I like helping in a helping way... does it make any sense?? lol What I mean is, I like helping directly to the best of my ability, but never done a video like that, and if I make a tutorial I hope it really helps. I had to sit and think.... how can I make something that will really help... in a video, that also looks good? So... I have been doing a lot of thinking and learning on how to make a how-to video :oP I need a few elements. I have to be clear and helpful (need to make lists and a script)... It has to look pretty (have to clean all the junk from my desk AGH!)... and since it has to be a video, it has to sound good too (which is half impossible with the kids out of school).... *moooom she brought the cat in!! moooom he took the cat out!! moooom I'm hungry.... meeeww!! (that's Panzon asking for food too)
An approx time line of all of the above mentioned steps would be: - Working on a list of things needed- couple of hours - Clear a huge amount of stuff from my working table- six months - Actual video taping once everything is settled- interrupted sequences depending on the noise around, couple of hours a day, several days.... - Editing video till I like it- another six months LOL I guess a good solution would be, hide in the closet with he camera rolling while the kids are having pizza. Oh well. ;o)
That reminded me, over a year ago I made a little slide show demo on how to paint a Frida with acrylics on canvas. I will upload it in youtube again. I had it before and I don't remember why I took it down. But it will be up tonight. :o) I am working on more videos and slide shows (doll related) so keep an eye on my youtube, you can subscribe too!
I want to make some demos on polymer and on painting ACEO art cards. But for now, I'll leave you with the painting of my tropical Frida, circa 2007
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I think she will go to etsy.
