Mitts Artistry & Design

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More doodles

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So, I work in a movie theater. When days are slow, I end up doodling on receipt paper. Thought I’d share. :)

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Also for the Clue party, we had to add a couple of new aspects to the game. There were 35 people invited, so we had to change it up. So if anyone ever needs help hosting a Clue party- hit me up. I have all the ideas and stuff you need.

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I made these cards for my sister’s 35 person Clue party back in November. I had to add some extra weapons.

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Enjoy this comic named, "You're welcome."

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Some may consider it childish or nerdy to have posters all over my wall. In some ways it is. Looking at posters of TV shows and video games brings to mind a young person’s bedroom, not the bedroom of a woman in her late twenties. Though this scene is not uncommon with a lot of my friends who, for the most part, are also artists. 

 I think artists, whether consciously or not, surround ourselves with things that inspire us. Usually this means other artist’s works. Whether it’s the layout of a poster, or the colors or techniques used, we want to let the creativity that fueled its creation fuel us as well. I like to look at the posters there to gain inspiration, or to remind myself that I can do good art too. I don’t have to do art any one particular way to be successful. There’s no one way to be beautiful. 

 Having posters like this is also a personal way to express myself to just myself. I have a quiet interest in the macabre, so posters in my private room are also a way for me to express it without concerning the people around me. Which...since this is a public blog, may now concern the people around me. Oops. 

 All this to say, don’t judge what inspires people. Don’t walk into someone’s space and question their design choices. Maybe they don’t have posters, but have mismatched furniture that fit into an idea of comfort that you are not privy to. Perhaps instead of artwork on walls, they have costumes stored in the back of a closet that allow them to dress how they feel internally. It doesn’t matter how old you are, or your gender or where you are in your life; everyone deserves to have a space of inspiration. Things that fuel you creatively and emotionally. For all you know, things you have created may be inspiring to someone else; so let them be inspired. Let them have a space that is just for them and their heart. -RGM

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Comic is a day late. At some point we'll figure out the timing on these. But until then, go listen to "The Adventure Zone" podcast. This comic is called "Duck Carving Day" Keep doodling my dudes.

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A friend of Rebecca’s decided to make a Taako yarn doll to go along with our weekly prompt!. She doesn’t have a tumblr, but if anyone on here wants to follow along with our weekly prompts, we will reblog you on here! Here is what she had to say about her yarn Taako: Christina: Although I have not listened to the podcast, I was intrigued when I learned there was no set canon as to the physical characteristics of the characters. So my Taako is inspired by combining multiple aspects of fan art of Taako alongside the knowledge that at one time he wore a mauve skirt and has an umbrella. The only wire used in this piece is the umbrella - the rest is yarn, hot glue, one tiny witches hat I hot glued yarn onto to change its color, and two plastic gems for coat shoulder pads.

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Our prompt this week was to create a book cover for the first arc in the D&D podcast, "The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins." RRM: The hardest part of these prompts is making one drawing to cover so much. Book covers have to do so much.  RGM: I wanted to try a sort of lighthearted scene for this one. I really like watercolor because I can be messy and it still turns out pretty good. I'm super excited about the rest of these prompts, and hopefully will get better at letter writing

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This week’s prompt was: Our favorite Halloween monster

RGM: The original Phantom of the Opera was horrifying all over, and I wanted to try that out. He's still endearing to me though.

RRM: I was planning to do a mesh of a lot of Halloween monsters, but then Halloween night, one of the trick-or-treaters we got dressed as a hamburger. Reminded me of the burger-spider from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. So I went with that.

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“The late Merle Highchurch rolled a five”

Comic for today. We really enjoyed making this one.

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The Adventure Zone Art Prompts

Hello all! Our weekly art prompts for the next nine weeks (yes we've actually planned that far ahead) are going to be particularly themed. 

We will be designing book covers for each arc of the D&D podcast, "The Adventure Zone." Each week will be a different arc, with each of us giving our own take on it. Rachel and I highly recommend this podcast to anyone who likes fantasy, adventuring, family nonsense, laughing, or role playing. To anyone who has already listened, we know you'll really enjoy these prompts. 

We also encourage you to try and draw along with us! If you have time, please try drawing your own book covers for each arc. Message us your artwork, and we'll share your art along with ours! This week's art prompt will be around the first arc of the series, "Here There Be Gerblins."

Happy drawing fellow adventurers~!

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Monday, Rebecca and I sat down for a few hours and discussed our plan for the comics. Making comics isn’t something that we have ever done. We haven’t found our rhythm with it like we have with the art prompts. So we’ve decided that our comics, for a while, will be based on a DnD podcast that we listen to. It’s called “The Adventure Zone”, by the McElroy brothers and their dad. It’s a hilarious podcast that I want to encourage everyone to go listen to.

We are going to be taking quotes from the podcast, and making short scenes. Some will be very accurate as to how the DnD story went, then for other quotes, we will be making new context. We are pretty excited to try this out. We have planned out our comics all the way until January 1st. And we have figured out who is doing what, and when. 

Working with my sister on an art piece is incredibly fun. We have different art strengths and ideas, so when we add each other together, we can produce an amazing piece. But sometimes, because we are so different in our styles, it becomes a challenge. That is why we are trying this new plan out. I’m going to have the duties of drawing the first sketch of the comic. Figuring out where everything goes, the “scene set up” if you will. Then I pass that to Rebecca who will fine tune it, add detail, and then ink it. Then it’ll get sent back to me, and I will fill in the words and add color.

Our art prompts for the next two months are also going to be about “The Adventure Zone”. There are 8 story arcs in the podcast, and we are going to be designing book covers for each arc. We’ll give you a small synopsis of each one as we go, in case you haven’t listened. We’re doing this to hopefully expand our audience some with fan art. We haven’t given up making comics about ourselves or doing different art prompts. We will go back to that, but this is something that we are both really excited to do.

One more thing: Comics are hard.

Keep doodling my dudes!

RRM

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Our prompt this week was “Mask”

RGM: He’s from the show, Over the Garden Wall. He’s the highway man. He makes ends meet, just like any man. If you cross his path, he’ll knock you out, drag you off the road. He’ll steal your shoes from off your feet. He’s the highway man, and he’s gonna make ends meet. 

RRM: Couldn’t decide on one mask. So I chose a lot of them. I threw in a pair of glasses. Because technically that’s Superman’s mask.

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DISCLAIMER: I work as a children's ministry coordinator and as a preschool teacher. Previously I have been a youth director (6 months), a substitute teacher (2 years), camp counselor (1 summer), and nursery worker (1 year). I am not a parent, nor did I go to school about children development. Everything I say in this post comes from my personal views and experiences.  --- The kids I work with range from ages two to twelve. Obviously, they vary in skill level and interests when it comes to art and crafts that I give them. Some use scribbles to represent people, while others spend several minutes meticulously drawing a single face. What all of them have in common, though, is that they all enjoy creating some form of art. For some it's only coloring; for others, drawing their own scenes on blank sheets of paper. I have one boy who does a combo of tracing and free draw. Several like making paper airplanes or some other paper structure. I was met with great excitement when I brought out bird houses to put together and paint. There was even MORE excitement when I said we would be caring pumpkins. They even liked painting pumpkins with nail polish. Actually I had watched a "How to Marble Pumpkins" video on Facebook, and thought the kids would like that...but they all just wanted to paint them directly. Even after my very cool presentation. The plans of mice and children coordinators, am I right? Kids are inherently not going to follow your plans. True, they can learn to follow rules and for the most part will go along with your "lesson" if only because they're stuck here until their parents pick them up and what else are they going to do? But, there have been many times when whatever, "cool, neato and hip" craft I had planned falls flatter then a pancake. When that happens, I have found, it's better to let the kids take control. If I had forced those kids to do the marbling instead of what they wanted to do, I'm pretty sure they would not have had as good a time. Sure, they would have done it, but would they have been as proud of their pumpkins? Would they have wanted to take them home? I guess we'll never know, but I don't think so.  When it comes to children expressing themselves artistically, I'm a bit of a hippie. I want to expose the kids to as many different kinds of crafts and art projects as I can, but if they want to try something else, I'm open to that. I never want to be someone that a kids remembers as stifling their creativity. Certainly, there are times in the classroom where specific crafts need to be done for grading purposes and for showing to parents that we are teaching them. But beyond that, I want to give every child a space to be messy and creative and to try new things.  I don't mind when they get paint on tables, or pieces of paper fly everywhere, or if slime gets on our shoes, or if someone's coloring goes waaaay outside the lines. If anything, it means that child is really getting into what they are creating. It means they're having fun. I'm sure it can be distressing to a parent to walk into a classroom and see paint and paper and colors and goop you can't identify everywhere, and sometimes on your child. But I hope that they can see the beauty in it all. I hope that they can see that their child found joy in this place; that they realized they could create something and went all in with a confidence I am now struggling to find for myself.  Yes, cleaning up afterwards one of these chaotic creative sessions is hard, and I am often exhausted and covered in just as much junk as the kids are. But knowing that I've given children a good memory of art, or at least a good feeling, is worth all the clean up. It's worth the mess. To quote a famous teacher we should all learn from, "Take chances, get messy, and make mistakes!"  -RGM

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Based on a true event:

High School lunch

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This week's prompt was "Found"

RGM: I didn't intend to do two Bilbo Baggins pieces in a row, but here we are.

RRM: I went a literal direction. And then Mom walked in the room and I added a yellow brick road direction.