Day 43

Today I had to make something out of tape. I used blue and black duck tape. The body was formed around a balloon.

Day 42

Today's octopus was created out of yarn and pompoms for the eyes. It could be used as a pin.

Day 41

Today I had to create a scene under water, so I placed seashells, foliage and an octopus in the bottom of a flower vase. They are submerged.

Day 40

Today I need to create a haiku poem. So here goes...

Mysterious Depths
Camouflaged to conceal me
My tentacles wait.

Day 39

Today I needed to use staples or a stapler in the creation. I decided to make a stapled octopus on a post-it note.

Day 38

Today I needed to create a disguise. No one will ever recognize my husband in this tentacle mustache.

Day 37

Today I needed to create something using materials from my yard. I decided to paint/draw an octopus on a rock from my front yard. It is made from white paint and black marker.

Day 34 finished

Here is the finished piece from day 34. The octopus was painted with iridescent red, burnt umber and a bright blue.

Day 36

It is side-ways. Today I needed to be inspired by a dream for my image. I have a lot of dreams with tornadoes in them, so I used that aspect. In the image I have a large octopus that is creating tornadoes that are touching down on a country road. All of my tornado dreams occur in fields or back roads.

Day 35

Today I needed to make something ephemeral, so I used Dawn foaming soap. I squirted it out in the general shape then used my fingers to add details and make corrections.

Day 34

Today I needed to use clay in a new way. I decided to sculpt an octopus out of sculpy and attach it to a seashell that I picked up in Florida. This is before it went into the oven to bake. After it is done and cools I am going to paint it realistically. I will post a picture of the complete project at a later date.  This was new to me because I have never tried to bake other objects with sculpy, hopefully it will not crack.

Just because...

I found this picture that I took while I was in Washington a few summers ago. It is a really cool octopus sculpture made out of rocks, seashells and colored concrete. I just wanted to share it with everyone.

Day 33

Today I needed to work with items from my recycle bin, so I used two soda bottles. The first attempt was with the green bottle. I realized that when I used the heat gun on the legs they curled in, so I inverted the bottle. I really like the tentacles, but it doesn't look a lot like an octopus. I used the bottom of the bottle for the clear one. I like the head better, but again the tentacles curled in. Therefore I couldn't heat them up as much and they don't look as interesting. The details were drawn on with sharpie before they were heated.

Day 32

Today I needed to work with toys. I decided to stage an octopus attack between my octopus toy and the white figurine that I bought at Blick's art store. The octopus is putting the sleeper hold on, watch out!

Day 31

This image is side-ways, but it is a pencil drawing of an octopus crawling over a piece of coral. The pencil drawing has a lot of textures and contrast.

Day 30

This is a pencil drawing of an octopus, I kept the values rather light. The focus was on realistic modeling of the form and interesting shapes in the negative space.

Day 29

Today I needed to create a "bridge" that connected to spaces. I decided to use an abstract plaster scukpture that I had in my classroom as the space to bridge. The octopus bridge is made from blue metallic clay and seed beads.

Day 28

Today I needed to use traditional school materials in a new way. I decided to use sticky tabs and an index card. The octopus has some dimension in the tentacles. It is a fun bookmark now that it is done.

Day 27

Today I needed to use thin wire for the project and paperclips were my material of choice. The entire octopus is made of paperclips.

Day 26

This is a mixed-media octopus that is created from watercolor, marker, and oil pastel. I like the mix of tighter and looser areas and the playful colors. I used energetic lines again to show movement.

Day 25

This is a zombie- octopus that I created out of felt. It resides on my purse and provides me with a smile when I look at its goofy teeth and brain sticking out of its head.

Day 24

I needed to work with markers today, so I used several shades of gray and black. The line work is really loose and free flowing because I wanted to focus on the action of mark making in the piece. The spontaneous lines show the energy of the octopus.

Day 23

This is my tribute to the tour da' donut ride that I went on today. Each location (various St. Louis donut shops) are represented in a donut that was incorporated into the octopus. Enjoy, I am sure it will be delicious for breakfast tomorrow!