Random Mondays: Let's Make Some Art!

Exactly two weeks from now, I (Megan), will be on my way back from Michigan after doing a photoshoot with my cousin who happens to be a BAMF.

The girl would literally lift me up and throw me across a room, which is the point. We need someone strong and bold to play the part of a female Olympic wrestler.

Why not just use a picture of a female Olympic wrestler?

Because of a very complicated set of rights and licensing rules around Olympic content. If I hadn’t mentioned before, I’m also the clearance coordinator and the last thing I want to do is deal with and pay for an actual photo of an actual wrestler from the actual Olympics. I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s cheaper for me to fly to Michigan for a weekend and jury-rig a photoshoot than it is to try and license an image from an Olympic photoshoot (especially because I know how to play the Expedia game).

With only two weeks to go until my overnight flight leaves for the Mitten state, I have a lot to go. This weekend was dedicated to figuring out just how I’m going to pull this off.

Especially on account of I have never done any of this before, but what’s new.

I woke up on Sunday, picked out a shirt to sacrifice to the cause and set to work.

Sorry, old virtual Turkey Trot run shirt!

When I was a kid, we used to get shirts from Goodwill and soup them up with puffy paint. I didn’t think that puffy paint would lend to the credibility of this story so I tried Tulip Soft Matte Fabric Paint. I got a few brushes, a piece of cardboard and set to my work.

I’d painted letters before, but painting on fabric is a challenge because of the stretch. In hindsight, I wish I’d used something to dab on the paint instead of painting it with a brush. That’s something that would have saved me some time.

I also wish that I had better centered the shirt on the board or secured it where it was at.

What I’m glad I did was pick up stencils from Jo-Ann. They had a rather collegiate style, which wasn’t what we were going for, but I figured if I filled in the holes that it might just give us the Team USA vibe we were looking for.

Am I doing this righT?

And I guess I was right.

The finished product was just a test. It literally said TEST, but I’m actually proud of what I made and have hope for the rest of what I have to make.

I gotta tell ya, that’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever felt.

Making these key pieces for the photoshoot have been staring me down for the last couple of weeks. I’ve been dragging my heels on making them because I’ve been intimidated by it being such a large task that I will have to do myself. But when I finally did the thing, I started to not feel as bad. With the help of the stencils, the hardest part is getting it to dry.

Hey, this doesn’t look the worst! It actually looks ok!

If the hardest part of all this is waiting for the paint to dry, maybe I didn’t need to be all that worried in the first place.

-Megan