Paints, ATCs and inks

I've been busy making art and working on various projects so I haven't been a good poster lately. Plus,. to be honest, it's always a struggle to write something to accompany the pictures. I'm more of a "here's my painting" type than a blog writer. So boring I know.

I'll set some new year art and posting goals and try to stick to them for 2015. I know that 30 Paintings in 30 Days is happening in January 2015 and I might join in there though I'm more of a markers and ink type than a painter. Painting takes me such a long time. Holy slog fest.

I started a painting this afternoon! Woo!  It's just acrylic right now but it will end up being a mixed media piece. It's pretty big. I think this is the largest size I've ever painted at 30 x 40". I tend to stick to my comfort zone of 9 x 12 " MAX. There's so much more surface and I'm going through a lot more paint than I'm used to. I can see myself making a trip to the art store for some big tubes. Anyway, hope to finish this one up over the next couple of days... before the chaos of visitors and holidays.


Below are a few of sets of ATCs I made for some art friends over the past few weeks. Mostly markers and ink - smokers, lovers and fancy animals.

Happy PPF! :)

Halloween Art-A-Thon

Wow, it's been another long time period between posts. I've been busy with work and all of that, yada, yada. The usual! I'm finally posting a bit of recent art. Most of these are art cards from the Halloween Art-A-Thon over at illustratedatcs.com, my fave trading place. Above are a couple of acrylic Calavera girls and below is a mix of barely scary Halloween art in marker and ink.

And here are the lonely 4 inkings I did for Inktober. I wanted to participate for the entire month but it just didn't work out. I ended up making all 4 of these into digital stamps (of course).

Mucha style! Sort of :)

Happy paint party Friday!

I'm busy working away on coloring books along with a set of ATCs for yet another trade with fellow artists. Right now I'm working on portraits of my fellow traders in the style of Mucha. Ok, so they're not a great Mucha style but some elements are there!

These portraits are done in markers and gel pens because gel pens are fun and sparkly.

I was at life drawing yesterday and had a lot of fun drawing our wonderful model. He always comes up with the good standing poses and they're super ones to draw, especially with the pole prop.

These life drawings are done in pen.

Ok, ouch. I just had a massive book fall on my wrist. How is that possible you ask? I was reaching to find a pencil to jot a note and I jostled a pile of books on my rolling art tray that I had placed (very precariously) on top of a pile of uneven sketchbooks and it all came barreling down on my left wrist. Good job I'm right handed or I wouldn't be getting much work done today.

GAH!!


And another set of digistamps, a couple of new ones and a couple I'd drawing before and just added.

New digital stamps and a few ATCs + WOYWW

Here are a few ATCs I made last week for a portrait swap in the style of your favorite artist. I have TONS of fave artists so I went with Egon Schiele, Joe Sorren, Dave Kinsey and Klimt. These are mostly in markers and colored pencils. These were made for a swap on IllustratedATCs.com, my favorite card trading place.

Below are a bunch of new digital stamps that I just added to my Etsy store. A curvy mermaid, a sexy witch for Halloween plus a few cats and a whimsical toy robot because robots are awesome. I'm working on a few silly and dark stamps this week. I just can't make fairies and mermaids all the time even though that's what many people seem to want. I have to make something utterly ridiculous and gross now and then to feel right. Thankfully, there are plenty of card makers and digistamp users out there who like the ridiculous and the dark more than the cute and the fluffy. YAY!

Here's what's on my desk today. It's a mess of Copics, pencils, old tea bags and a dirty spoon, some art cards I'm working on as well as various bits of stuff. Same old mess! At least the dirty tissues didn't make it into the photo.

A WIP and a few stamps

Here's an illustration that I'm working on over the next few days, a pretty nature goddess. I'm still working out the composition and colors so things are likely to change. It's a WIP. I still have no idea what she's going to be holding in her hands! Flower maybe? An earth?

At left is a quickie portrait from a recent life drawing session. This model is one of my favorites. She has such a wonderful profile and I always try to find a spot to her side so I can draw her nose. Plus she's a fabulous model, always spot on with the poses. She reminds me of a master drawing (the one at right is from way back, an ATC in watercolor).

Happy PPF!

Blackwall, the beer lover!

I don't know if I've ever posted this before, but I'm a ridiculously huge Dragon Age fan (and Mass Effect too of course!). Dragon Age Inquisition is out soon and this is my favorite new companion, Blackwall. I had to draw him. Hunky grey warden who likes beer and swords? I'm all in! Sold. I had to draw Blackwall loving his beer.

Daisy on the couch

Here's Daisy, from the comic I've been working on (forever). I was trying out a grittier and darker style and think I'll go with this. I scanned the inks on Bristol board and then colored in Photoshop. This is the SFW version. The NSFW version is on my Tumblr.

Halloween Digital Stamps

I added quite a few new stamps to my Etsy store today since I noticed people are already searching for Halloween items. And who can blame them? Halloween is the BEST time of the year! My favorite holiday season. So here's a bunch of darker style stamps to start off the fun season. Ok... one caveat... these stamps come from older lineart I had so they're not exactly new. But they're new to you and that's what counts! Woo! The "Party of Evil" is my personal fave (at right).

I have an upcoming set of brand sparkly new Halloween stamps that will be released on the Design Team Challenge Blog on September 22. Woo! Some cute, some scary, some inbetween. Those will be available on Etsy on Sept. 22.




Below are a set of Zombie Tarot ATCs for a swap I'm in on a trading website. I'm not at all into Tarot cards but I am into zombies. It's still a good combination. Eventually, when the swap is completed, I will have an entire set of Tarot cards featuring ugly zombies from a whole bunch of different artists. That's pretty awesome. Maybe I'll learn how to use Tarot cards one day.

Sorry for the gore! Couldn't help myself.

Back next week :)

Zentangley Fashion Pop Art

Zentangley Fashion Pop Art is a whopper of a title but that's what this is really, a zentangle lady in pop art style with a fashion edge. Works for me! And it took fooooorrreeevvvverrrr to complete. Drawing the girl was easy, making lineart for that zentangled hair was a monster job. I'll probably make only a few of these ones! She's available in my Etsy store now.

It's zombie time now I think, gearing up for Halloween and zombie walks. Next stamps are horrible, gross and dark, I promise.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It feels good to be back posting again! And even better--it's almost time for school! My favorite TV commercial is for Stapes office supply stores. They have an ad with parents dancing in the store aisles picking up school supplies with, "It's the most wonderful time of the year" playing in the background. That's totally me. One daughter went to camp for a couple of weeks and the other was busy with work and her horse but when you work at home, summers can be hectic and unproductive work-wise.

Here's the lovely little nature fairy digital stamp I started yesterday. She's all complete and in my Etsy store now. I had actually sketched this one out during a life drawing session this summer but she sat in my sketchbook waiting. Sadly I have tons like that, all waiting for the line art to be completed. If only drawing the lines was a little more fun. I love the sketching part best I have to admit. I could never be an inker.

Below are a few images from a recent life drawing session. I used a pencil which was strangely weird since I never use a pencil, mostly colored pencils or a pen. I had to get used to it again! It's sort of like handwriting. If you use a computer all day for years, your handwriting skills tend to go funny.

Hello again!

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I posted. June! It's not that I haven't done any art, I've just been so busy with people, family and summer that I haven't had a great deal of time to post and comment on blogs (sadly). I had visitors for much of July, then more visitors this month as well as heading up to the cottage with family. And now, finally as of today, I am free again! WOO! I'm coming around to visit my blog friends after I post.

I've been hard at work on new digital stamps as well as art for sale, for swaps and for various other things. At right is a rainbow unicorn ATC I made for a fellow trader on IllustratedATCs.com. And below is a series of 9 cards (one is missing) for another swap on IllustratedATCs.com. This is the extreme color post I think. I am a rainbow lover, I'll admit it. At least that's what I tell my daughter when she asks me what my favorite color is. It's always "rainbow."

On the digital stamp front, I'm sponsoring quite a few digital stamp challenges in 2015 but those are far away. Some of them are for dark, edgy type of challenges and others are for more traditional type of challenges. I do now have a wonderful lady who is running a digital stamp challenge blog for me. Valou Allard has put together a new blog and is actively looking for people to join the design team here:

http://slslinesdigitalstamps.blogspot.ca/

If interested, please contact Valou via the blog!

Here's one of the digital stamps I'm working on. I'll probably get it up in the Etsy shop for tomorrow. This is one of a larger nature fairy series I'm working on. I'll also being doing a set of goth fairies too.

And that's all for now! Back to work for me to try and catch up on some of the art I owe for work and for swaps.

Life drawing and watercolor pencils on kraft paper

I took along some watercolor pencils to a life drawing session last night but I only brought Kraft paper - DOH! If you've ever worked on kraft paper before, you know it's super thin and very prone to air wrinkles. It doesn't take much to ruin the stuff, it's maybe half a step up from newsprint. Needless to say, I didn't get to wet my watercolor pencil bits. Well, I did try it with one but it was a soggy mess of ugly so that was my one and only experiment with kraft paper and watercolor pencils. Next time I'll bring the proper paper. But the colors still look pretty! I decided to work in colored pencil for the body and just add shades of color on the outside. These are all 5-15 minute poses.

Linking up to PPF! :)

ATCs and the World Cup

It's World Cup time! Ok, I'm not really THAT excited but my husband is a soccer fanatic so it's on at our house every single day and I can't help but be pulled in. I'm going for The Netherlands to win it all and pulling a bit for the USA too. Anyone else?

More ATCs made for art trading friends and swaps. At left is a smoking pinup and at right are a set of cards for a swap on Voodoo. These are all done in markers and ink.

Canvas Art, ATCs and Sketchy Bits

It's been a few weeks since I've had a post up but I have been busy making art, I just couldn't show much of it since it was being sent out as secret gifts to art friends. Whew! It's over and I can share! Below are a couple of canvases done in acrylic, Jack from The Shining and The Dude from The Big Lebowski. So much fun making these and I seriously love The Big Lebowski, one of my fave movies of all time.

I also made tons of ATCs and other little bits. Here are a few in marker and ink.

I also made lots of life drawings but the past couple of weeks, I've been turning them into silly doodles rather than proper figure drawings. We had a lovely, curvy model the other week and she become a beach beauty with polka dot bikini and swirly curled hair. The wonderful model we had this week became a king and voodoo master since voodoo was on the brain. The bottom left sketch with men holding their dolls is for a voodoo themed ATC swap. I just sketched out some silly ideas.

Life Drawing & Photos

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post and I have a lot of art to share but I can't share any of it yet! Blarg! Everything I've created this week, with the exception of the life drawing, is for a Secret Solstice swap on an art trading site I belong to. I've made a few arty pieces and lots of ATCs but they're all being sent off to new homes as a surprise and I think some of the recipients might be blog readers. Can't spoil things.


I did the life drawing at right this afternoon. We had a long pose today and it was nice to take some time and work on shading and highlights instead of rushing to get something down before the next pose.


I was away last weekend, in NYC and NJ to visit family and I headed out to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Beautiful! I got to see one of my favourite paintings, Madame X, by John Singer Sargent. It's incredibly beautiful up close. He's such a masterful painter. I saw so many paintings my head was spinning by the time we left. Here are a couple of photos.

I also had the opportunity to see Bouguereau's Nymphs and Satyr painting up close. Quite a few years back I made a master study of the painting which took me many long hours so it was wonderful to see it in real life (it's huge!).

Ice Cream Lickers

Happy Friday!

Here are a couple of ice cream licker ATCs for the Art-A-Thon that's happening over at illustratedATCs.com this weekend. These are watercolor and ink. I think the guy in the red shirt has encountered sour lime ice cream judging by his expression or maybe this is about 1 second pre-brain freeze. We've all been there.

A while ago, I did some lighting and action pose paint sketches and they were such great exercises. I thought I'd bring back the idea as a practice exercise a couple of times a week for an hour or so. I didn't spend long of these ones above, probably about 20 minutes each or so though probably longer on the dancing duo. And by the way, I did do a movie still! But it's really ugly. I'll leave it hidden.

I had made a few coloring books a while ago but I've now made PDF versions for my Etsy store. I printed a few off and was coloring them to get a few Etsy photos and it was a lot of fun. Coloring is probably the best part of the artwork for me. It seems like it can be more work to get the sketch done and looking the way you want it, then the lineart is just sort of boring but coloring, it's easy! All of the hardwork is done and you can just fill in areas between the lines. Here are a couple of the images from my Day of the Dead book and The Ladies (adult colouring).

Speed painting Iron Man

Back in the summer, I was going to paint a whole bunch of movie stills with different lighting and action poses as art practice. You know those "I'm going to totally practice my art" speeches we all give to ourselves monthly? Well, I got as far as Iron Man (definitely not finished) and some other movie with a female lead (I can't even remember) and then promptly got too busy or too distracted by shiny new paint to do any others. I still have my directory of movie stills and I am determined use them for painting practice until I've gone through all of them. Maybe I should make it a PPF thing to do one per week. Maybe this goal will stick. I know this looks like another "I'm going to totally practice my art" speeches but pretend you didn't notice that.




I'm not sure what the girls on the left are for yet. I thought I might do a whimsical stylized set of painted cartoony girls as ACEOs. Hope to have a few done for next week's PPF!

Have a good weekend :)

New Canvas Painting

I relaxed over the weekend (still a bit sick) and took some time to work on a canvas piece. This is a 16" x 20" canvas painted in acrylics with lots of mixed media elements (prints and stuff available at Society6). I wanted to do a profile with big blue circle/swirly hair but didn't have a plan beyond that. I think I must have had Klimt on the brain because I'm seeing a style resemblance. Wasn't intentional but I clearly had circles, squares and gold paint on the brain!

I have some more mixed media paintings on the go and hope to have a few more up for sale soon. This one is available! If you want to buy it, send me a note here.

Vomit Fairy

 
I've been missing in action for a couple of weeks with good intentions. I had been trying to aim for an art heavy schedule to get new items in my store and lots of fresh new art to sell and then BAM! Flu! Today is day six of a really evil virus. In honour of laying in bed whimpering like a baby for most of the past week, I made this hideous little vomit fairy tonight. He's not very friendly and I'm looking forward to kicking his smarmy face out of my house. On the bright side, I did manage to catch up on a lot of sleep. Yay?

Below are a few life drawings from a couple of recent sessions earlier this month. Still digging the Staedtler ball point pen a lot. So smoooooth! No correcting mistakes though and I have to admit that I miss my gummy eraser.

I have a bunch of mixed media canvas pieces on the go, though they didn't see much action this week. I should have some new stuff to post for next week though. It's been a fun change up from digital illustrations.

Cowboys and Pretty Girls

Here's a set of old school cowboys done in marker and ink for a trade to an art friend. They're all based on photos (Gary Cooper, Paul Newman and a random fisherman from google). Had lots of fun drawing these. I love old cowboys and classic movies.

Below is my new coloring book, a hand-bound 12 pager of pretty girls for adult coloring. I say adult coloring since there is some minimal nudity and maybe a risque pose or two. Actually, I think all of my coloring books are for adults. I'm not very good at drawing fluffy and cute I guess.