
Life With Wee People: Minion Painting 101
You may not think you can paint because you have it in your head that it has to look like something, some place or someone. That's not true. You can express yourself just by your use of color. How you scrape it, blend it, contrast and highlight says a lot about you.
Painting is a very personal thing. When you create paintings for your blog they don't have to be a 20 x 20 canvass like we are using. Get yourself 8 x 10 panels and do what ever you want, then scan those puppies in. You can uses bits and pieces of them to create very interesting backgrounds for your text art to float above.
Step one to being original and pimping your blog (LOL).
Minion Painting is all about expressing yourself with color. You can use one or you can use every tube in the store. Just do it and see what you get... Think happy thoughts. Play some music. Have fun being creative. Stop comparing yourself to other people! Start your first drawing and see where it goes. You may end up with some very interesting spot art for your blog posts (LOL). Just sayin... :-)

Watch the Minion Painting 101 movie and see if you can identify the section of the painting I used to create this background. I started with the background at 100%, then made the first overlay photograph I took of trees on Fifth Ave in Manhattan a transparency at 45%, the CC Ambassadors at 50%, the little minions at 85% and the text art at 100% with a drop shadow of 8.
Playing in layers can be a beautiful thing... Painting your own layers and taking your own photographs to merge together? Priceless... :-)
Stay tuned for Minion Painting 102 (LOL). If you do not have Photoshop you may want to think about it. If you don't have an Outside Blog, e-mail me.
Wordy C Club Chaos Bootcamp requires a team effort. Google domination is serious business. We're going to have lots of fun with the love links... There will be homework assigned (LMAO). Seriously! Gotta get you to page one of Google. Can't do that if you don't do your homework. The grade is your page ranking bay-bay. There will be Skype par-tays involved for the members of the fan pages, so stay tuned for the CyberMinions.net schedule of events and keep your eyes peeled for the Facebook comment links of your Ambassadors. ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/user/CTannStarr
Update: Edit 7/22/2009 on video regarding website URL for CyberMinions.net
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Alicia Anderson: Touched By People Places and Things
Felix Lipov, Official Photographer, Ambassadors of Chaos






C, what a wonderful idea! I have some blank canvases upstairs gathering dust.... may have to get those puppies down and start painting.
Maria, you should. I find it very relaxing and every so often let the cartoons in my head run amuck and come alive (LOL). ;-)
Margaret, my little minions work for M&Ms with peanuts (LOL). Stephen shreds money, so you have to watch him. He'll even put the coins in. That is a horrible sound (ROTFL). I like painting with the kids and they never let me paint alone. While we were having fun Stephen slipped up behind us and swiped a tube. Next thing I knew the TV was orange, my black leather couch was orange, HE WAS ORANGE (ROTFLMAO). The Minion Blur is a trip. :-)
Carolyn - It's amazing how much we learn from our kids......letting go and just BEING is right up there! One of the biggest things I learned from my kids is that I'd have to say things I just never imagined saying....ever.....
Like.....Do NOT paint the hedgehog!
True story. Live hedgehog. You fill in the rest. :)
Noah is very talented! I just love that blue piece! And I'm sure the other little minion demands his special time too! :)
Very cool C! It was great seeing you the other day. Hopefully, I'll be makin the journey again in the near future.
ROTFLMAO @ Coleen. You have got to tell me this story!!! (LOL)
Carol, the Blur Minion is very demanding. He has sensory issues and revels in hyperactivity (LOL). While Noah can stay in one spot and enjoy an activity, Stephen usually has to be chased down and brought back to the point of origin several times. His idea of painting is everything must have a daub of color. The printer. The file cabinet. The couch. The TV... even his hair (LOL).
Erik, it was awesome spending time with you and I am looking forward to travels in KY. Will be posting about our visit soon and looking forward to another. I have to process the pictures off of my simm card. Stephen swiped it from the Nikon, which is why my blogging schedule was interrupted for the last three days. Had to find it. (LOL)
Reading your post is so timely ... I just spent the morning in a seminar on just what you have been schooling us on for months! I'm the "slow learner ... need to see it in person" type of personality. I'm excited about the possibility of video - as you well understand!
Lisa, I love fooling around with video and am working on the next installment right now. Sometimes if people can see it's really not that complicated (if you have a step by step game plan) they will try. I want all my bay-bays to try. :-)
Hey Sista Great stuff here. Trying to get my head above water after returning from vacation. I need to get organized for the assalt on Googledom and for the new work as Ambassador We should talk. Maybe next week one day?
Next week sounds good. :-)
Carolyn: you always have the most beautiful posts - content and appearance. What talent and creativity and I know where those precious babies et it - mom
Thank you, Janice. The wee ones can be a lot of fun. I've been putting them to work on a number of interesting projects. :-)
Hey C...
Who was that famous artist that had other creative talents do the paintings, and then signed them as his own? The signature transformed them into $100,000 paintings!
I use a palette knife a lot, or at least I used to when I panted with oils. And color is EVERYTHING!
I gotta tell you, the kid has talent. I am very impressed.
Thank you, Richard. I really want to see one of your paintings (hint, hint).
I had heard something about that but don't remember the artist's name. I may have to Google it later and see if I can find it.
Noah has the eye. He loves music and art and I'm hoping to find excellent programs to enroll him into as he gets older. Right now, I'm teaching him everything he knows and buying lots of bargain art books from Barnes and Noble so he had study the pictures. He likes Picasso and Cezanne.
We are going to be painting together for my next gallery show. I want his work side by side with mine so he can enjoy seeing it up on the wall. I also want him to help me texture the canvas for a series of children books we're going to be doing together. My fave part is when he starts getting into the music while he paints. He does this little swaying dance while swirling paint that is so cute (LOL). He also makes animal noises (ROTFL) The elephant trumpet is his fave noise to make when he starts talking about painting the jungle. I can't quite figure out his jungle art. Nothing is recognizable but he know exactly what each stroke represents and will tell you the same answers if you ask him what something is (LOL). Go figure... I should take him to see the cave drawings and ask him to copy them. If you ask him to draw something specific that he can look at he does try. That's always fun. :-)
We also splash and throw paint together (LOL). Stephen and I are working on a 30 x 40 abstract right now. When Noah comes home from school I'm sure he'll put his two cents in. ;-)
C - awesome, I really enjoy how you have your family, especially the minions, your (other) interests, and your work so integrated. Especially enjoy the minion updates.
Big Mike, thank you. The kids give me a lot of incentive to think outside the box and do things differently. I try to include them as much as I can so we can enjoy our quality time together because real estate keeps me running the streets and I do miss out on a lot. Bath time is always interesting (LOL).
Hi C, you have an excellent ability to put all this together. How impressive. Can't wait to see more.
Thank you, Kay. Lots more coming up (LOL). The shorties have been very busy with Mama. ;-)
Hey C, Ya know the second painting Noah did was quite good concerning his spoon stokes and color placement :) He's fortunate to have you as an encouraging teacher.
Thank you, Cynthia. Wait until you guys see the others (LOL). We have a lot of canvass sitting around my house. :-)
Well C when you get a chance would you mind posting the colors he used on the second canvas cause I was serious. The color combo is awesome! I'm a Noah fan Woo-Hoo!
Hi Cynthia. Will post another Minion Painting. :-)