A mini Voodoo King and lots of lineart

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks since I've been ridiculously busy with life and work. Some days just don't have enough hours in them. It's rotten luck when a crazy busy day falls on a day with short hours. Hate that.

I've been doing a lot of lineart lately for my new Digital Stamp and Digital Collage store over at Etsy. I love drawing but I don't always like coloring. It seems so time consuming so this is the best of both worlds for me. I can draw, I don't have to color it.... and then I can sell it!

 

Here's a little mini walk-through of creating the lineart. It always starts out as a messy sketch that I scan and take to Photoshop. I re-do the lines in Photoshop and make them nice and neat. Then color if I have time! Here's my whimsical little voodoo king.

 

Really looking forward to the 29 Faces challenge next week! Hope to see lots of my blog friends participating. I'll be checking everyone's art out for the next month. Lots of fun. :)

Snow Queens

Here's a set of snow queens all done in marker and ink, though the middle one is marker and pencil with a bit of white gel pen for snowy effects. These are ATC/ACEO sized. Today I'm going to make some weird little coloring books for my Etsy shop. Should be good fun.

Life Drawing & Line Art

Above are some of the drawings from my life drawing session this afternoon. They're colored pencil on kraft paper. My usual! And below are some of the digistamps I've been working on for my Etsy store. Lots of fun drawing these.

Digistamps and OWLS!

I've spent most of my free time making digistamps for my new Etsy store. All sorts of designs and themes and different styles. It's been a lot of fun making these since they're nice and easy and I don't have to color them! Not that I don't like coloring, because I do... but it's so time consuming so just having to do the line art is a nice change of pace.

Digistamps and Crows, not together

I've had a very busy week this week, working on Digistamps for my new Etsy store and various other art projects. Here's a set of stamps I made this week, plus a few old ones.

Sadly, I gave up on the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge. I just don't have the extra free time this month and I'm not the fastest painter either, not traditionally at least. I plan on doing 29 Faces again since I can incorporate that into work by making a bunch of digistamp faces - bonus! I'm looking forward to that challenge for sure since it was so fun last time. But the daily time to paint just isn't there right now.  I'm a much faster drawer. I enjoyed making the few paintings I did manage though.

I haven't had time for much other art except for a set of crow ATCs. I so rarely paint or draw animals (except for cats because they're cool) and they're waaaaaaay out of my comfort zone! But I enjoyed making this mixed media set for someone on a trading site. They're acrylic and watercolor and inks.

Disco Dancing Monsters!

I am caught up now and have finished 4 paintings in 4 days though I'll probably stick this one under day 5 since I added this morning's painting already.

This one is a disco dancing monster. It's acrylic on a 5 x 7 canvas board.... which I seriously dislike painting on. I much prefer to paint on a smooth surface but I have tons of these canvas boards laying about and I best use them up. This challenge is the perfect time. An art friend on iATCs suggested sanding down the boards after a bit of gesso and I might give that a whirl. Any other suggestions for getting rid of the grooves?

Whimiscal Glamour Girl

Here's my 3rd painting for 30 Paintings in 30 Days. I'm a day behind but I'm hoping I can catch up, otherwise it will be 29 Paintings in 30 Days for me!

I went for whimsical cartoon style today. A nice change. This one started out on a scrap piece of illustration board that was covered in some papers and some teal paint. I thought I'd go for another mixed media piece and I have a thing for that Golden brand Teal color. This painting is approximately 8 x 10... almost. I'll spray some varnish on it and stick in my Etsy store this week.

Mixed Media Flower Pot Hat

Here's a painting I did today for the 30 Paintings in 30 Days. It's acrylic / mixed media on illustration board. I'll probably stick it in my Etsy shop after a coat of varnish. I think I threw everything in this one except the kitchen sink. There's newspaper, dictionary pages, scrapbooking paper, cut outs of my digitally painted flowers, collage sheet flowers, lace doillies.... and paint! Oh, and marker and gel pens. This one is almost an 8 x 10.

She's sort of scary. That wasn't intentional. Maybe I was feeling sour today.

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to manage the complete 30 paintings in 30 days as I also have to do my regular work during the day and I find traditional painting to be much more intensive than drawing or even  digital painting. I'll see how it goes. I might end up with only 20... or even 10 :)

 At left is a life drawing from yesterday's session. I love this model. He sits so still and he comes up with the most wonderful poses. This is colored pencil on kraft paper. My usual. I need to shake it up a bit one day, maybe break out the charcoal or attempt pastels again (that was ugly).

Happy New Year!

Another new year! I spent most of the last night and day in bed feeling sick as a dog. What a way to start off the year - with a rotten cold. Ah well, it could be worse, right? At least I managed to drag myself off the couch in order to paint a painting for the 30 days of painting. Whew! It's not a good one and I didn't spend long on it but it was done. I just couldn't bring myself to start off this challenge with a no-show.

I also managed to make a quickie digistamp for ArtTrader as a new year gift - Art Warrior 2014. You can grab the high resolution on the ArtTrader site. If you're not readers of ArtTrader Magazine, you might want to check it out. We released Issue 21 yesterday and it has lots of interesting articles for those of you interested in ATCs, art journals and other mail art. Even if you're not into mail art, it's a good read for techniques and how-tos.