The creativity trickles in...

Three more faces for the challenge. I am finding that I am in the middle of my own challenge, and that is to actually create every day. That's not happening as I would like, since other things that need to get done NOW or close to now seem to get in the way. I think today I'll take a few blank ACEO cards with me along with a handful of markers and see what happens

Three more faces!

Faces 4 and 5 - the challenge continues!

 

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

Portrait No. 1

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

In which Art Squirrels Scamper Through my Head...

So I sat down last night with a handful of art supplies, thinking that I would create something like this:

I

And instead ended up with

 

I'm not quite sure what happened there, or what the squirrels in my head have been eating. I'm pretty okay with how the surprise art turned out, but I really wish I could create what I set out to do every single time.

Somehow my ideas get lost in my brain or on the way to my fingers ( maybe they get lost in my arm??)

So, tonight I'm getting out the pile o' art things again - who knows what will happen! Maybe I'll set out to draw a miniature landscape and end up with a five legged horse. Which would be quite possible because I can't draw horses worth beans.

 

 

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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!

 

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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!

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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!

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.....

The colors of inspiration

For Valentine's Day, I received from my absolutely wonderful "significant other" a bright, rainbow-colored knotted and woven bracelet. Since then, I have worn it just about every day (sometimes being in a rush and forgetting to put on my usual at least three bracelets before heading out the door), and have found myself studying the combinations of colors within the piece.

I have discovered that, even though I call it my "rainbow bracelet", the various color groupings are not of your typical ROYGBIV variety, but interesting variations of the same. I've found that the green-plus-yellow-plus-purple, or the pink-plus-orange-plus-green combinations, along with the others that catch my eye, to be great food for my imagination.

So, this begins a side-trip into the colorful corner of my mind, where I will begin creating art full of enough rainbows to feed all the unicorns in the universe.

Unicorns love sharpie markers.

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

Are you a "Colour Lover?"

As an artist and all-around creative person, I've always loved looking at colors and how they mixed, matched, clashed and complemented each other. It's always fun to pick two or three colors that you would never think of putting together, and having them make the most amazing palette. My paintings usually start with me staring at my tubes of paint and contemplating: which ones fit my mood right now? Is it this one, these two? Oh, now do I want contrast? I discovered a website a few years ago that helps you discovered some really beautiful color palettes: Colour Lovers Colour Lovers allows you to search for palettes by color, or you can browse and be surprised. You can even make your own and submit them, which I believe might require registering on the site. Here are a couple of examples I found:

I actually did this sort of thing with my latest painting, which is a work in progress I'm featuring on my website here I didn't actually submit my palette, but here's what I came up with:

I think that looking through palettes might be inspiring, or it might even help kickstart a lazy art muse into producing ideas - I know that just looking at all the interesting color combinations helps me feel quite creative :)

Industrial HipHop and Major Appliances....

... aww hellzyeah



I've got the batteries to the camera charging so I can take photos of some art, a Dalek mix playing and I'm thinking I might come up with another painting this weekend...

There's still a lot to do around here - like getting caught up on all that laundry I really had to put off without a dryer, grocery shopping, and a few other errands - but I'm sortof in the creating mood. I'll have to see about fitting it all in somehow :P

Trends... or your heart.....

... as artists and artisans, which do you follow? I have found myself thinking that perhaps if I followed whatever "trend" there is in art and decor, maybe I'd suddenly have a massive increase of interest in my art. Yet when I start to paint something that supposedly follows whatever trend in color, style, etc. that happens to be popular... I end up HATING it, and I almost hate myself for wasting time, creativity, and paint. Alright, that sounds a bit harsh - maybe not hate, per se... but I almost feel as if I've let myself down by not tapping into what I truly want to create.

I've never been much of a trend follower, and I suppose that's going to carry through to my art. I think, or I hope, that maybe those who appreciate my art are those who feel the same way :)

____

Speaking of creating.... I finished a painting last night, and I'm really proud of the results! :)