Saturday, June 2, 2007

Modified Exemplar

My eldest son graduated from 8th grade last night! WOW, does time go by quickly or what! His principal is leaving our school after this year and we are ALL very sad to see her go. I decided to paint a modified exemplar for her (where on earth do I get these ideas!!!). I called Jake's teacher and asked her if the next day in school she could get the kids to think of one word for each letter of the alphabet that made them think of her. They did an outstanding job. (Just for the record, she is CRAZY about hippo's - hence the letter "H" - just don't want anyone to think they were being mean . . . LOL!)

Jacob brought the list home from school and we got to work. My youngest son, Luke, gessoed the background and gave it one coat of paint . . . . then I attacked it Misty Mawn style to bring in just a couple more colors and texture. Because I had to write all the words on it - it couldn't be too dark or have too much texture.
Then I said . . . "''hhhmmmmm, this could look pretty darn boring, I should paint a portrait of Mrs. Hartmann".

See what I mean . . . . . where did that idea come from ? ? ? ? ? I CAN'T PAINT!!! Oh well, why let something as little as that stop me ? ! ? ! I printed off a picture of her so that I had something to look at, got out the oil sticks and went to town. After agonizing over her teeth!!, I decided that I would just shut her mouth . . . . LOL! Yes, that worked . . . . Cool!


I needed a dress for her - so I cut one out of patterned paper as I didn't want to press my luck painting, attempting the arms and hands was about as far as I was willing to go, but there was still something missing . . . a big hole in the bottom left corner. She looked like she was just hanging out there on the right . . . . it needed something . . . . well, for goodness sake - since the letter "H" was Hippopotamus - why not paint one! Why not indeed! I have just one question . . . . . where on earth was Maggi when I needed her to STOP ME. I googled for a stuffed hippo - found one I liked, printed it so I could look at it and started in with the purple and white oil sticks. Okay - that was relatively easy . . . . good thing! Using a gold metallic marker, I made a leash from the hippo to Mrs. Hartmann's hand! Phew, looking good.


Now I have to add the words! Am I a calligrapher? ? ? Nope, not at all . . . so I found a font in Word that I liked and printed out all the words. With a piece of scratch paper next to me to practice on, I got to work. About an hour later, all the words were on, I added "St. Agnes Graduating Class of 2007 on the top edge, and the names of all the kids in the 8th grade graduating class around the two sides and the bottom and I was done!






NOT! It was missing a POW factor! Since they used "Queen" for Q, I decided to give her a crown! There, that looks nice. Then I remembered that she has some gorgeous diamond jewelry! So I gave her a diamond necklace, diamond earrings, and diamonds on the top of her crown! There, PERFECT!




Okay - still not quite POW! I was losing the hippo and some words into the background! I know, DOTS! I need some DOTS! So I got out a white paint marker and put dots around the hippo, looking GOOD! Then I also added some around the capital letters of each word! TADA! This time I really am done!


BTW - she loved it! LOL!
And here is our graduate:

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