New Sketches for the Week!

This week's 'Sketch A Day' project has been pretty productive. In the past, I've had a hard time finding the time or energy after my day job to sketch anything. This week I was pretty good about doing something everyday. It's sort of funny though. My week started with me just drawing from my head. Then it was drawing from my head, but inspired by events in my life and by the end of the week I was just drawing from events in my life. This is why I'm loving this project though. It allows me the freedom to just draw whatever comes into my head or inspires me at the time without any sort of constraints. I've also stopped doing my sketches solely in pen and ink and have added watercolors into the mix.

 

Fairies have been a common theme amongst my sketches, but this one has more of a Jane Austin feel about her. Probably due to all of the Jane Austin books I've been indulging in. ;)

 

May 5th, 2014

 

Two of my friends had babies within hours of each other so it only seemed natural that my 'sketch of the day' be inspired by them. Their daughter's names are Winnie and Violet and I drew this sketch as a way of celebrating this happy occasion and welcoming them into our world. This was also my first time attempting to draw a baby and I'm surprisingly happy with the way she turned out. :)

 

May 6th, 2014

 

 

I saw some ducklings playing in the water the other day and took a million photos to capture them.

Once I started drawing them, I realized that I would really like to add color, so I changed my definition of 'sketching' to include watercolors. :)

These two siblings were hiding underneath the lily pads and I just thought that they were too cute!

May 8th, 2014

This little guy had a lot of character. It was really a lot of fun drawing these sweet little bundles of fluff and webbed feet! I just might end up drawing a few more of them...

May 9th, 2014

 

 

 

I haven't seen a blue jay in our neighborhood in years, but I saw this one the other day in my backyard and just had to draw him. The colors of his plumage take my breath away. Nature is so incredible!

 

May 11th, 2014

What sorts of things have been inspiring you this week? Has spring brought about a return of some of your favorite flora or fauna?

From the Land of Faeries to Mermaids...

This week I've started working on my Sketch of the Day series again. I took a slight hiatus, but am back on track now. I'm not sure why, but my mind has been particularly filled with images of faeries lately. Just lots of wings flying about in my head! The only exception is the last one in this blog post. After so many faeries I threw in a mermaid just for fun.

As expected, some sketches I like better than others, but I am trying not to dwell on that as much. This series is about creating, not about creating masterpieces! I always find myself focusing too much on being a perfectionist and have thrown away countless pieces because of it!

 

April 30th, 2014

 

May 1st, 2014

 

May 2nd, 2014

 

May 3rd, 2014

 

 

Are you your own worst critic? We often hear that 'one man's trash is another man's treasure' ,but do we apply this concept to our art? I have often found that when I post a piece that I'm not particularly satisfied with, I receive a comment from someone who is moved by, or in love with the piece. For this reason, I ignore my own inner struggles with my pieces and just post them anyway. I create with the hope that I will give someone a bit of joy, hope or beauty and that's not always going to come from the pieces that I think they should.

 

To see more of my Sketch a Day series, check out my blog post 'Practice Makes Perfect'.

Latest Painting and Hooray for Summer!

Summer is here and that means that I can FINALLY start to focus much more on my art! Every year for about six months our "season" is in full swing. This means that I am working full-time at my day job and am usually so exhausted that I rarely have enough energy to work full-time on my art. My creative energy is usually spent working on commissioned pieces for Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc..  During the summer months things slow down, shifts are cut and I begin to work on my art full-time instead of my day job. This season was particularly hard as I spent a lot  of my time working with a physical therapist on my neck after my accident this past December.
The first order of business? To finally finish my painting of Autumn in my Four Seasons series!

This was the color study that I did for her early on...

And here she is finished....

Autumn

acrylic on panel

6 x 6

        She's surrounded by mums, chinese lantern flowers and a colorful bounty of fall leaves.
              I love all of the colors and textures in this one!
                                   

I have the sketch done for Winter so I should be completing her pretty soon as well.

If you would like to see Summer from this series, click here.

If you would like to see Spring from this series, click here.

Art Prints of Autumn are available here.

Stay tuned to see Winter and have a wonderful week everyone!!

                                 

My Summer Painting is Finished!

                                                                Acrylic on Panel
Just like the title says, my newest painting, Summer, is complete! She's the first in my Four Seasons series. I'm really looking forward to working on Autumn, Winter and Spring! The orchids in my painting are all ones from my garden and the poppies are some that I saw in Monet's garden when I was in France this summer. I love incorporating things that I've seen in real life with the things that I see in my head.

                                                                       detail

Often when I paint, I'm either painting the things in the world around me, or I'm painting the things in the world inside my head. Typically I don't want the two worlds to meet too much, but it IS nice to be able to use things from the outside world to enhance my imaginary worlds.

                                                                     detail

I love how the colors pop in this piece! She will especially make a nice statement when hung next to the other three. I think that I'll begin work on Spring next. I really enjoyed painting the flowers and don't want to stop. :)

                                                                            detail

In other news, my appointment with the rheumatologist is this Tuesday. I've been killing myself with "what ifs" despite my best efforts to avoid doing that. Oh well. It will be nice to get it over with. I'll be sure to let everyone know what's going on as soon as I know.

Until then, have a blessed and creative day!! 

Paradise and the Peri

I finally finished my entry for the Polymer Clay Smooshers Mythology Challenge!

I've been reading a lot of my usual fairy tale books and things and stumbled across Thomas Moore's poem "Paradise and the Peri" (part of his Lalla-Rookh) The peri (a persian creature thought to be a fallen angel or fairy) gives God 3 gifts in an attempt to enter heaven. The first gift is "he last libation Liberty draws/From the heart that bleeds and breaks in her cause", the second gift is "Precious sigh/of pure, self-sacrificing love" and the third gift that gets her into heaven is a "Tear that, warm and meek dew'd that repentant sinner's cheek" It was in reading this poem that this brooch came about.

As the story was written in 1860, a time when the art nouveau sensibilities were emerging, I created this brooch with a similar look and feel.

The wings are a colored pencil drawing that has been transferred onto polymer, they are then painted with mica powders for luminescence and given three coats of varnish. During this time period many pieces of jewelry would have faces carved out of moonstone, carnelian, etc. I wanted to give this piece a similar sort of feeling so the face was created from a transparent polymer. It allows the light inside it to give it a bit of a glow. Overall I'm really happy with the way this turned out. It's the most complicated piece that I've done and I'm hoping to start doing more pieces along the same lines.