New guitar project for The Rock Boat

So I've decided to work on another guitar.

It was kind of on a whim last night, but that's usually when I have my coolest ideas. But anyway, I had been thinking about doing another one for a while, and I thought it'd be fun to do one for The Rock Boat this year, since it's the 10th anniversary. I'm most likely keeping this one for myself to put with my collection of random music memorabilia.

Anyway, if you don't know what The Rock Boat is, check out the website. A short, easy description that is most often used to describe it is "Spring Break for people with jobs." :-) Basically it's a floating music festival that takes place on a Carnival cruise ship, and there's live music going from the second you step on the ship (and even in the cruise terminal sometimes), until the second you leave. I've been a proud addict since 2004.

So as I was sitting around last night feeling inspired to do another guitar project, I decided to start brainstorming ideas for a design. Once The Rock Boat idea was in my head, I ended up on their website, and thought it would probably be coolest if I used some of the elements from the 'official' look of the cruise this year - so it would match. (Every year, there's a new theme for the cruise - this next one is a birthday cake, since The Rock Boat is turning 10.) So that's where this came from. This is only a sketch done on the template I created for my last guitar...I just decided doodle on it with colored pencils.

I haven't figured out what to put on the head of the guitar yet...but I'm sure I'll come up with something. I really love how everything else turned out. I can't wait until I get my guitar in the mail (I ordered another cheap one on eBay).

Oh, and this guitar WILL NOT be painted. I've got another technique up my sleeve I've been dying to try on something, and I think this will be the perfect project for it. I have used it before, but not on anything that anyone has seen. You'll just have to wait and see. But I think it'll be pretty awesome.

Anyway, here's my initial sketch. (Again, compare to The Rock Boat website to see the theming) More to come soon ~ stay tuned!

Project 365

I read about this online, and thought it was one of the coolest ideas ever. Now I just have to see if I have the will-power to follow through with it!

Jen's Project 365: 1 photo per day for 365 days

I started it on April 30, but didn't want to post anything about it until I really got started, so I didn't just forget about it after 2 days. But so far I've been pretty good at remembering...plus, I tend to take photos of everything anyway...so it's not too difficult. Here is the original idea/article if you'd like to read about how this got started. I've actually seen quite a few of my friends pick up on the idea lately too. We'll see how everyone's turns out!

Enjoy! (and hopefully I'll actually have more art stuff soon...this is an 'art blog' after all.)

Up Next....Peacock!

Moving on now...

I started this one a while ago, but haven't had the chance to work on it lately. I'm aiming to have it as my next completed painting. And hopefully sooner rather than later...lol.

Yet another one with painstaking detail...but I always love how they turn out in the end, despite how much time they take.

I think I took a few more pictures as I worked on this, but I'll just start with these - this is where it stands now. Yes, most of the canvas is covered, but I still have a LONG way to go until it's actually done!

Guitar - Final Update and Auction!

It's done!

I was working right up until the last possible hour before Rock By The Sea kicked off last Friday, and everything turned out great.

I donated the guitar to Rock By The Sea, a 3-day music festival held in St. George Island, FL every year. It went into a silent auction and ended up being one of the most successful items there :-) All proceeds from the auction this year went to UF&Shands Pediatric Brain Tumor Program, Lyrics for Life, and the Franklin County Humane Society. In the end, the guitar ended up going for $500.

Here are a BUNCH of photos (click each one to see it larger):

Putting the finishing touches on the guitar right before the auction started:

Completed Front:

Completed Back:

Other angles:

And last but not least, the auction:

Oh, and FYI, the event itself was AWESOME. A whole beach weekend of great music while hanging out with some of my favorite people on the planet. Can't get much better.

Guitar Update #5

Only two days left until I need to have this finished! It's crunch time...but I think I'll be ok.

I started the sides last night...got about halfway done. I decided to just use a pretty simple swirly/wave pattern. I hadn't used red yet, so I went with that. It's actually not 'red'...it's a mixture of two different pinks, one red, and yellow...but the overall look of it came out red. I think I might fill the other white space that's on the sides now with yellow/tan...maybe a slight touch of green - not bright green though because I don't want the sides to look like Christmas colors.

Anyway...the things I have left on my to-do list:

~ Finish the sides
~ Paint the whole back - will probably not be a huge design or anything, just something that looks nice, but is simple. No one's really going to be paying attention to the back anyway.
~ Paint the notes on the front...those will be green/yellow and will go in the 'wave staff'
~ Paint the guitar head and tuning keys

...I think that's it.

Here are the most recent photos:

Can't really see much of the sides here, but you can a little...

This one's upside down, but you can see more of the side that way:

And a view from the top. It looks kind of symmetrical from this point, but the sides are not symmetrical all the way around:

Guitar Update #4

Yet another update this week! I finally got the front done, for the most part. I need to re-paint the green on there though, because it's not 'popping' as much as I want it too - especially the bottom part that blends in with the blue more. But that's an easy fix.

Next I'll do the sides and the back The design of those areas will be more simple, so hopefully it wont' take me too long to finish everything.












Got the strings all painted too:

Guitar Update #3

So, I guess I'm not going to meet my 'end-of-March' deadline with this...since it's already April and I'm still not finished. But it is still coming along. I took a bunch of pictures between this update and the last one, but never had time to upload them onto here as an official 'update.' Oh well.

Here is where everything stands now. I'm feeling pretty motivated this week to get this thing done, so hopefully after a few days, I'll be in a much better place with it :-)


Enjoy!