Let me explain.
I've always been one of those people who throws together some lackluster bundle of birthday nonsense thirty minutes before the party. I wish with everything in me that I could transform into one of those people who bought their gift two weeks before the party because "it was SO you!" Alas, I'm merely someone who recieves a lukewarm "oh, a gift card to Jamba Juice. Thanks!" from the birthday girl. Needless to say, Christmas isn't exactly a prime holiday for me.
That's why when I discovered that I could actually make some form of acceptable art piece, I was elated because I could finally avoid my gift-giving deficiency. Making four paintings can't be THAT hard, right? Wrong!
My stepmom expected me to paint this portrait of her daughter and grand-daughter. I spent half of the first week in my winter break attempting to paint skin tones and finally came to the realization that my attempts were hopeless. Also, smiles were difficult. Any wrong move could turn her beloved ones into portraits of axe murderers.
I decided to just try starting on my dad's gift. This was three days before Christmas since the rest of my time was spent on skin tone and smiles. I first did a practice round in my sketchbook:
Satisfied with my practice round, I started on the actual piece. However, that night my friends Emma and Sydney came over to spend the night. I allowed them over on the condition that they would help me finish my gifts. Instead, we stayed up all night running around my house and causing debauchery.
Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing night. It started off with Sydney, Emma, Jake and I meeting at Denny's, our normal hangout spot. On the side of the road, we found a shopping cart. Being good samaritans and caring for our community, we decided to return the shopping cart to it's destination, across town. And the only way to carry out such acts of service is by carrying someone in it.
Anyway, we came home from Denny's and discovered to our dismay that the internet wasn't working, no matter what we did. How were we going to survive the night? What would we do to entertain ourselves? I mean, before internet was created, people found ways to keep themselves entertained, right? I'm sure we could all huddle together and read a good book under candlelight. Or perhaps even complete a puzzle.
Well, after thirty minutes of attempting to get the internet working, we had to turn to alternative solutions. We basically drank vitamin waters, which had this mysterious way of raising our energy levels off the charts. After finally abandoning my technology cave, we tried watching Pans Labrynth on demand. Then when our energy was at an all time high, we attempted to hallucionate according to the techniques located here: http://boingboing.net/2009/01/12/how-to-hallucinate-w.html. I think we did it wrong, and we didn't have the internet to refer to, so we just gave up on that. After long conversations and watching Natural Born Killers, it was already 5 am. We might as well go on a walk, we reasoned.
Here are some pictures Sydney took from that walk, from her flickr:
Oh yeah, we found a teepee. Isn't that something?
When we came back, we attempted a bowl of cereal. Do you have any idea how hard it is to do anything when your brain is about to commit suicide from lack of REM sleep? Let me tell you. It is probably worth mentioning that by this time, it was now Christmas Eve. Emma was able to stay over for a nice family dinner, and afterward I knew I had to finish all my presents once and for all.
I believe that was what my blog post was supposed to be centered around in the first place.
Well, I decided to redo my gift for the stepmom and use a picture of her grandaughter for it. I made extra sure her mouth was closed to avoid serial killer syndrome. Here's the final result of staying up all night on Christmas eve without any sleep the night before:
They even framed it and everything. How sweet.
Now back to the blue faced stranger. I finished the face part, but I had this huge gap that I knew I had to fill up with designs. I was running out of time and I hadn't slept in like 40-something hours, so it wasn't really my best art piece. Anyway, this is what I came up with:
At this point I knew there was no chance of creating something new for my mom in time for Christmas. It was 4:00 am afterall. I just decided to wrap a piece from my art class that she's never seen before and give it to her as a gift. Unfortunately for her, I had to take back that piece to submit to an art show, and the only time she saw it again was at our school's winter art show and auction. The picture I have of it isn't very good and was taken before I went back and fixed the chin, but here it is anyway:
After wrapping and cleaning up, I was rewarded an hour of sleep before my brothers came in to disturb my slumber. I got some nifty things for Christmas though, and it was pretty fun overall. But if there's anything to be learned, it's that staying up two nights in a row while creating two art pieces is, in fact, possible. Also, returning shopping carts to their rightful owners is always the upright thing to do.
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