Twelve!

Playing with colored pencils this time...

Faces 4 and 5 - the challenge continues!

 

Posted with Blogsy

2 more faces for the challenge - working with some colored pencils this time.

Portraits 2 and 3

I've doubled up this morning - here are number 2 and 3.  I used the same markers (Prisma and Copic ) but a different type of paper. Much smoother - I liked the way the markers responded much better.
I promise these ladies did not plan to wear almost the exact same thing LOL ;)

Portrait No. 1

The first portrait for 29 faces is complete!
This was done in artist markers on watercolor paper - ACEO

Small wonders

 

 

Small format art, or SFA, includes any work measuring no greater than 14 inches, or 35.6 centimeters, in either direction. These miniature masterpieces are an enjoyable and affordable way to bring art into your home, either as additions to your decor or as part of a new or growing art collection.

As an artist, I love using my imagination to create little scenes that will fit on an ACEO,

 

or a 2" x 2" canvas.

 

Little works of art such as these can be displayed as a whole collection on a shelf, or matted and framed together on a wall in your living room. I hope the miniature scenes you've scene here have struck your fancy or have peaked your interest, and that soon you'll have your own little SFA collection!

 

Posted with Blogsy

So what does weekday morning traffic have to do with art....?

If you've ever wandered over to my other website and caught a glimpse of my little blog I have there,you might have seen my post a little over a month ago about how I had just been inspired to begin a new piece.



Weeks have passed since I began work on the piece, and I'm happy to say that I have finally finished!



You can see the detail more clearly here:



This abstract landscape began with a glance out of a car window, then continued its journey as first a drawing in stark black and white, and finally was given bold strokes of color.


As of right now this mixed-media abstract artwork has earned the name "View 59-1960", because inspiration does not always mean a creative title.

Stepping into Another World...

Halloween is just around the corner, and the theme for this week on Illustration Friday, "Haunted", fits perfectly with tales of ghosts and goblins and strange and scary things. My contribution seems to be a glimpse into another world...another dimension... Or is that other place catching a glimpse of us? Are we being watched?

Wordless Wednesday September 26, 2012

 

 

And a new listing preview...

 


Must taste like candy!

Posted with Blogsy

what is this and tell your friends math CAN be cool...

I'm continuing my dabbling and messing around in Procreate(tm), which I first mentioned here, and I've added even more nifty cool fun to my repertoire via a fractal generating app. Now, fractals have always fascinated me, even though I've never been able to wrap my head around the mathematical equations used to produce them.

Image by Free-StockPhotos.com


Yes. OMG math. what is this I don't even...



Math is supposed to be boring and numbers and why do we have to memorize this stupid quadratic equation and NO! you tell ME how to find X, because I have better things to do...



So I've started combining some cool fractally wonders and some other cool and nifty artsy ideas, and have come up with something like this:






Of course, now I'm stuck not knowing what to call this colorful...fun ...strange...fractal...thing...



So...I'd love to hear some ideas on a title. What words come to mind when you look at the piece? What catches your eye first? I'd love to hear from you!

Getting a little procreative...

A few days ago I downloaded a really neat app onto my iPad (okay besides the blogging app I'm using and still floundering at) - called "Procreate". I've explored and played with brushes and textures, and have even downloaded a few extra brush sets. So far I've really enjoyed using it, and have created some pretty cool art in the meantime...

 

This one was my first - I just felt like playing with colors in the background - I think that's either the "decimal" or "halftone" brush in the background (the dots)

 



Loved the brushes in the retro set - can you tell?

 

 

This one started with a photo of clouds taken in my backyard - see them in the background?

 

This is my latest - inspired by the fireworks displays on the Fourth. The fireworks themselves were made using a modified brush from the "luminance" brush set.

 

Soon I hope to have a few new additions to my "pretty little pixels"section!

Posted with Blogsy

A story In which the Lady wearing Glitter Nail Polish wields A Hammer...

So one day this lady that does artsy type things was asked to take part in a Gallery Opening and Craft Show. After much pondering about this craft show, she realized she needed stuff to hang her artsy type things on so that the good people could see them and maybe want to buy them, since artsy stuff hung up is way better than artsy stuff just lying around.

So... she went to a store that looked kindof like this:

only the one she went to was way more crowded and the parking lot didn't have as many spaces.

and she bought stuff for making things to hang art on.

She bought 3 sheets of pressboard, which is much heavier than she realized when trying to carry more than one sheet at a time, a few packages of narrow hinges, and four strips of one by...2 (she thinks) pine board.

What on earth did she do with that stuff? Oh and it was all brownish and metal-y. No wild outlandish or fun colors. Sorry.

First, she took two of the pieces of pine and nailed them using little tack nails to the rough side of the pressboard.

See, that's a real hammer. And those are real plastic boxes of little nails. She only used one of the boxes, because the other nails were too long. She just kept them in the picture so they wouldn't feel left out.

So the pine strips ended up on both sides of one piece of pressboard.

Then the pine strips were nailed onto the other two pieces, BUT only one one side. Wait what? Why?

Wait, you'll see.

After the pine strips were in place, the artsy lady took the pressboard over to the floor of the living room, because there would be more room than the kitchen table. (even though the kitchen table is obviously the best place to nail things together)

She gathered the things she needed in a fancy tool holder thing,

And got to work attaching hinges to the pine strips.

Now, she had actually put some thought into this part of the thing-making. She attached the hinges so that the smooth side of the pressboard would be what would fold inward. She also attached in sets of three, because three sounded like a cool number. Not because it might be more sturdy or something.

When all the screwdrivering and hammering and putting together was done, a pressboard thing to display art appeared in the artsy lady's living room, right in front of the TV so nobody could watch whatever was on.

And they all painted happily ever after.

The end.

Creativity Among the Craziness...

Oh, boy, has it gotten crazy around here. Between filling paperwork out and panicking over just exactly how much needs to be done before the oldest is out of school and needing a vocational program or residence (he's one of my special needs guys), calling attorneys regarding guardianships, and then AC repair to the tune of more money than I pull in each month... yikes.

In spite of all that, I still have my hair, and I still have my creativity! yay for that!

In the coming weeks, I am going to be doing something a little different: I am going to be trying my hand at scrapbooking! But this is not just any ordinary scrapbooking - this is virtual scrapbooking.

I have been invited to do a review and giveaway...wait... yes... I really did say giveaway! Free stuff - woohoo! :D
The gracious people at My Memories have selected me to share their virtual scrapbooking with you.

Right now I am playing with album pages (you can even add music to an album - how cool is that?) using my artwork as "photos".

I've noticed right off the bat how easy it is to use the program, AND how many choices there are (yes, you can buy extra doodads after purchasing the basic, but the basic program really does seem like a really great buy)

In the coming weeks I am going to be scanning in some old family photos, and I'll create some pages or albums using those. I'm hoping that just maybe I'll have time to whip something special up for my mom - I know she'd love that.

In the meantime, stay on the lookout for updates, and more information on how you can enter the giveaway! :)

"Waxing" Creative... and a little welcome!

First of all, I'd like to give a little shout-out and welcome to a really cool lady with an awesome site to the right-hand side of this blog--> see? look over there! :) My Craft Assistant is a great site that offers assistance to Etsy sellers with SEO, marketing, shop setup, and more. I've been exploring the site and I am quite impressed - go check it out!


And now if my cat will stay off of the keyboard long enough for me to create the rest of this post...

Last night I stepped outside, just to get a little fresh air, and stood out in the front yard looking toward my neighbor's house, up at the moon and stars. I'd say it was close to ten o'clock, and I hadn't yet wound down to head to bed yet.

It's always so relaxing to gaze up at the night sky, and often very inspiring.

I had a wonderful view of the silhouettes of several trees, which framed a few bright stars and a crescent moon. I decided that, although I wasn't going to get out the paints at the time, I was inspired enough to begin a sketch on a canvas - the beginning of my next painting. I hope to get started on it this week!


What has inspired you lately?

Wandering the streets of Gdansk...

This month's Virtual Paintout is Gdansk, Poland, which has turned out to be a city full of wonderfully interesting and colorful vignettes. I'm extremely partial to cityscapes and great architecture right now, so my choices so far have ended revolving around some type of structure.

I thoroughly have enjoyed wandering through the streets with my watercolors and sharpie pen, hunting for a place to plop down and begin painting. I intend to paint perhaps one more scene before the end of the month; the next one might have more of an abstract feel to it, as my contribution last month did.

When I did these particular paintings, I took very little time in sketching and painting, forcing myself to concentrate on the shapes of the structures, the color and contrast that I could see or remember from the map street view. In doing this, I'm attempting to step out of my comfort zone. Since my usual style is abstract, when I want to paint something that leans more toward realism I feel the need to constantly check back with my reference.

As you can see, this particular view featured the most wonderful architecture:

I may end up painting this particular scene again, but in my usual style - which should end up really interesting!

And who knows - one or more of my "Virtual Paintout" works might end up with a rather interesting new look, as my interpretation of a building in St. Petersburg, Russia did just recently:

I'm picturing those buildings in purple and lime green right now... hmmm.....

Art and Late Night Ramblings...

So, today I decided I needed chocolate and beer... for whatever reason. So off to Kroger I went, and ended up coming home with a few day's worth of groceries plus a couple bags of hershey's kisses and some chocolate covered pretzels, as well as a 6-pack of St. Arnold's Christmas Ale. Which, incidentally, goes really well with white-chocolate covered pretzels.

I also decided to get a little creative, and did a little painting tonight. I made a couple of ACEOs, and in keeping with the theme I mentioned inthis post, I created some colorful, glittery cityscapes.

Here's a little preview of them - you can tell by the shine that the paint was still a bit wet when I photographed them!

They have not been listed yet, but I did list a new painting today, or...yesterday, which I'm very pleased with.

I really enjoyed painting this little scene, and I like how it turned out. I'm excited about creating more: hopefully I'll have another to preview and list soon!

some new-found inspirations...CityScapes

Sometimes this week, or perhaps this weekend, I'm going to start working on a painting or two. Of course, this depends on what sorts of fun things the house and kids suggest for me to do - you know, the usual laundry, cleaning, errand-running, etc...

If you have browsed through my paintings you may notice that much of my work revolves around trees and forests. However, I also have a love for interesting cityscapes!

I've decided that my next series will be based on and inspired by photos, memories, and paintings that I have seen of various skylines and cityscapes that I have seen. I'm even considering putting down the acrylics and - GASP! - using watercolor for a change heh heh...

Here are a few pictures that others have produced that have inspired me and gotten my brain churning and conjuring ideas:

There are so many amazing places - I'm going to enjoy this project! :)

Trends? What trends...?

So... Are you a trend follower?

...Me?... hmm.... no...

I can't bring myself to do it.


Which is why my art will always consist of whatever I think is awesomesauce at the time of my creating the thing of art. Whatever that thing of art might be.

Today it has been miniature paintings - two of them, actually. They're not finished, yet, but because I started one, my brain decided I needed to start another YES AT THE SAME TIME RIGHT NOW.

The point of this is not that I suddenly had the urge to create two paintings at once today, but that I chose paint colors that I thought would look interesting, or created textures that I enjoyed the look of. I don't pay attention to whether or not the combination of orange and purple is a trendy color scheme, for instance. I merely start painting and grab colors that catch my eye at the time.

I'll even just start randomly picking colors that transition from one to the other, which, I admit, might be a little predictable, but if I like the result I figure someone else might, as well.

So, when you're browsing my shop for art, you won't find the latest...you won't find trendy...and you certainly won't find fashionable.


Because truthfully, you should NEVER expect fashionable from an artist whose socks never match :P

Snickerdoodle Saturday and those pesky Summer Colds...

Yesterday my mom and dad came down for a one-day visit, which was filled with the usual standing around the kitchen and talking, cooking, and baking. My mother brought the ingredients plus recipes for both snickerdoodles and pumpkin bread - both favorites of mine and my kids'.

One of my favorite things to do is to get into the kitchen and put together something delicious - whether it be a cake, a batch of cookies, or a to-die-for steak dinner. I enjoy cooking and baking with mom, because we can spend time catching up - since she and dad live about 3 1/2 hours away, we don't see each other every day, for obvious reasons.

We ended up with more than 2 dozen cookies, and a loaf plus about a dozen pumpkin muffins - which by the way are wonderful with coffee for breakfast aaannnnnd loaded with vitamin A so I can eat as much as I want.

Soooo... anyway.... part of our kitchen conversation was sortof like this:

Me: ohhh you know what would be good? Snickerdoodle cupcakes! with yellow cake but with cinnamon sugar, and maybe a buttercream with cinnamon sugar...


Her: *odd look* hmm..really?


Me: *eyes glazing over* oohh..yeahhh... *drool*


....and guess what?

They exist!

Adapted from a recipe by Ann Byrn in her book The Cake Mix Doctor(shameless plug: great book, seriously, no really honestly), the cupcakes have that hint of cinnamon and sugar I described to mom and I can't wait to try them out.

Go here for the recipe and try them out yourself!


Oh and yes, among all that fun in the kitchen my body decided to let in a few visitors - in the form of achiness, runny nose, and all over just blah feeling.... so now I'm downing vitamin C, lots of fluids and trying to rest up to feel better before heading in to work tomorrow morning. Gack! I don't have time to be sick! :P


oh and almost forgot! (shameless plug alert)

I finally listed another painting!

You can, of course, find it in my Etsy shop.