Show Prep and Christmas Ornaments

Tomorrow I will be participating in an art show at a local animal shelter.  After my recent blustery day show, I am pretty excited to be doing an indoor show.

As typically happens, this week I got ideas for several new projects that I wish I could complete by my show.  I started working on some new Christmas ornaments.

I've accepted the fact that I won't get that many done by Saturday so I probably won't have them out on my display, but I am having lots of fun and am excited to sell them at a future time.

The Evolution of an Idea: Allie and the Dragon

Lately, my daughter has been asking us to tell her stories.  After several stories about princess Allie, I introduced the character of the dragon.  Now she always asks for dragon stories.  I've been having so much fun telling the stories, that I really wanted to illustrate some for her.  However my human drawing skills have never been great; animals are my thing.  But I decided that I should try because the worst that can happen is I draw something really ugly.  Here's a peak at how my sketches have been growing and evolving.  (Please excuse the poor quality of these images- I took them with my cell phone)

Here is the first person I drew out.  She looks about the quality that my daughter would draw.  Okay, maybe a little better.  Her people look like scribbles.

I realized I needed to shift the eyes down a bit and work on proportions.  Better, but still kind of goofy looking (and not in a good way).  Here is my second try.

Third time was the charm.  She looks pretty cute at this point.

Now I moved from my little sketch pad and tried to recreate my drawing on my watercolor paper.  This is typically what I create my final pieces on.

Finally, I added in a dragon.  He ended up looking a bit like a pet dragon, so I drew his tongue hanging out and made him look like he's staring at that ice cream cone.

So that's a peak into my process.  The image is still in pencil so I may do a few edits/additions before I add paint and ink. 

What do you guys think?  It's mostly just for fun and to show my daughter, but I do want to do it well.  The one thing that is troubling me now is that in the stories, the dragon is more of a friend than a pet.  But I thought this could be similar to a Mickey/Pluto kind of relationship.  Thoughts?

New in the Shop: Science Cards

A couple of months ago, I had a custom request for a greeting card made from one of my science paintings.  This inspired me to have several cards printed up.

Lab Rat Card

Guinea Pig Research Card

Cell Culture Card

You can now buy individual cards of each of my science paintings or a 3-pack with one of each.

Notecard Trio

What have you been working on lately?

Sheep Painting

I recently finished a special order for a friend.  She wanted a painting of a sheep with a verse of scripture to hang in her nursery.  This is the finished project.

I'm really happy with it.  I worked long and hard to get it just right.  New moms know exactly what they want so I wanted her to be really pleased.

I struggled with the text and the eyes but am quite happy with how they turned out.  Do you like him?

The Love Story Continues: Hedgehog and Pincushion

I've been working on a few more hedgehog and pincushion illustrations lately.   You may have seen the start of their romance in a previous blog post.  Here are their latest adventures.

Hedgehog wants to show pincushion how much he loves her, so he offers her a flower.  He's still a bit shy.

Next, the celebrate their relationship with a night of dancing.  Doesn't pincushion look lovely in her tulle skirt?

These will be available in my shop as soon as I have a chance to get them printed up.  I'm also starting to imagine a series of illustrations where they re-enact famous love scenes.  So far I'm picturing a Romeo and Juliet situation with a balcony.  Any other suggestions?

Pregnant Moose- An Ode to My Son

A little over a year ago, I found out I was pregnant with my sweet baby boy.  I was excited and nervous.  I was also awkward and nauseated.  At one point, while trying to climb into the bathtub, I told my husband I felt like a pregnant moose.  Since it was late at night and we were already sleep-deprived from our very active toddler, we laughed hysterically.  This led to a conversation about all the things "pregnant moose" couldn't fit into.  Eventually, this got translated into paintings.

Here is the original, poor pregnant moose trying to fit in her bathtub.  Her muscles are sore and she just wants to relax.  Too bad her belly is so big.

Next, poor pregnant moose is realizing her clothes no longer fit.  I wonder if there is a moose maternity store?

Now for all of you out there saying, "Hey!  Wait a minute! Female moose don't have antlers!"  You're absolutely right.  But I couldn't picture pregnant moose without them.  So I looked it up and found that hormonal changes can occasionally cause female moose to grow antlers.  I decided that if hormones can cause pregnant humans to drool excessively, my moose could grow antlers. 

I'm hoping to turn these into a series of greeting cards.  But please, only for your friends with a good sense of humor; not everyone wants to be reminded how big they are.

Science Nerd Art

I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm a huge nerd.  I have a degree in molecular biology.  I have a TARDIS in my living room.  I think logic puzzles are fun.

I'm also a big fan of puns.  My dad is the king of puns and he passed on his sense of humor to me.

So what do you get when you combine these two things together with a little bit of paint?  This:

Cell Culture

Guinea Pig Research

Lab Rat

 You're welcome universe.  Prints are available in my shop.

Peacock Cards

Hey All! 

I just wanted to share some new cards I posted in my etsy shop.  I made these using a print of one of my paintings from the 30x30 show.

Peacock Card

This was the first painting I did in that series and I was really happy with it.  Happy as in, I don't think I could ever sell the original.  But thanks to a local print shop, I can share my work with the world.

Note Card Sets

Also, if you are in the area, I will be selling my work at a local show in Duvall, WA this weekend.  Stop by and say hi!

Art with a Toddler

Hey Friends-

Lately I have been having some fun creating some pieces with my little girl.  She is currently 18-months-old and is definitely just learning how to color.  Crayons were hard for her because she couldn't press down on the paper hard enough to make a mark.  So after a little research, I found these watercolor crayons.  They were much easier because if the paper was wet, the color would instantly appear on the paper even with a light touch.  So we started playing.

It is definitely a challenge to my patience.  Half of our "coloring" time is her picking up all the crayons in one hand and moving them around the table.  But it's fun and I love introducing her to a bit of creative fun, even at this early age.

After seeing a few other artists who have created things with their kids art (see here and here), I decided to try my hand at it as well.  I took our finished watercolors and used ink to fill in an image.  I would typically sit there for 5-10 minutes, just staring, trying to figure out what the colors looked like.  It was fun and challenging.  Here's a few that I made:

I will be showing off these pieces at Avanti Art and Design starting this Friday.  A new show is opening up called "Generations in Art" and it's designed to feature all ages of artists.  If you are in the Seattle area, I'd love for you to stop by!

30 in 30 Show

Hey all!

I wanted to share a few pieces I've been working on lately.  In a couple of weeks I'm participating in a show called 30 in 30 at Avanti Art and Design in Seattle.  Participating artists were given 30 canvases and 30 days to paint them.  It's June 12 and I've finished 12 paintings.  Wish me luck.

And just so you know that not all artwork turns out well, here is one of my failed paintings.  I tried to paint an orange tabby cat in honor of my recently deceased kitty Milo.  Sadly, he turned into a scary looking muppet cat.  This canvas was painted over shortly after this photo was taken.

Scripture Art- Two Ways

I've been working on redecorating my daughter's room and I wanted to make some scripture art.  I chose Psalm 4:8 because my little girl does not like to go to bed and I wanted her to know she was safe at night. 

To make this, I started by covering a wooden plaque with patterned scrapbook paper and accenting it with yellow paint.  Then, I cut out the letters from cardstock using my Silhouette Cameo.  I glued them on using Mod Podge.  Finally, I painted on accent flowers and attached a hanging ribbon.

After all this, I realized the leftover cardstock would work great to make another piece of art.  Why waste it?  I glued it onto a wooden canvas. 

I didn't want to worry about all the little inner pieces, so I filled in the letters with matching paint.  If you look closely, you can see I didn't do a great job gluing it on; there are wrinkles and I needed to use some paint to touch up a few letters that tore.  But from far away, it looks good.

So there you go, art in two ways. 

14 Canvases Project

I recently had fun participating in a project called the 14 Canvas Project, hosted by Seattle Handmade.  14 Artists were given canvases and told to make something with it.  We were all challenged to "think beyond the canvas."

Opening night of the show was this past Saturday.  It was really fun to see all of the ways that the artists had interpreted this project.  Each piece was so different.

Personally, this was a big challenge for me.  I wanted to do something different than just paint my canvas.  I started by trying to cut out flower shapes from it.  I was not happy.  So I ended up covering the whole thing with tissue paper.  I didn't like it.  Finally, attempt number three was successful and I created this.

I wish I had taken pictures of the project along the way to show you how my piece evolved.  I was frustrated because I was stuck with this one canvas and couldn't start over.  At the same time, I was challenged to come up with new ways to work with what I have.

Another lesson I learned during this was pricing.  As I start selling more and more pieces of original art, I'm realizing it's really hard to price accurately.  How do you put a number on creativity?  All this is to say, I under-priced my piece and was a bit embarrassed to see the price point of the other pieces on display.  Lesson learned.

If you want to check out any of the pieces in person, they are on display at Luther's Table in Renton, WA.

Hedgehog in Love

For awhile now, I have been working on a series of ink and watercolor illustrations in which a hedgehog falls in love with a pincushion.   I'm not really sure where the idea came from, but once I imagined it, it seemed so obvious.

Their eyes meet across a crowded room.  The hedgehog is spiky.  The pincushion is spiky.  It was love.

Hedgehog Loves Pincushion

As any young couple does, they went on their first date.  To an amusement park.  I hope the seatbelts were big enough to fit around the pincushion...

First Date

On a sunny day, they decided to enjoy the great outdoors with a picnic.  Sadly, some ants mistook the pincushion for a real tomato and tried to spoil the day.

Picnic Disaster

After the picnic incident, they decided to stay indoors and see a movie, in 3D of course.  The hedgehog was the only one who ate the popcorn.

At the Movies

 Finally, the hedgehog decided to declare his love by carving their initials on a tree.  The pincushion was happy to help out with this.

Tree Love

That's their love story so far.  I've gotten some questions on whether I'll add to it or not.  I'm not sure yet.  I would like to leave it simple and uncomplicated (because really, let's not even consider their children).