Something Old, Something New

Hello Blog,

We've been through a lot together: the journey from high school to college; the chaos of roommate changes; art shows and busy schedules; the adventures of counseling; and learning to love.  Though I love to post my musings and doings on this little blog, I am afraid that the primary purpose for my posting is slowly changing and I can no longer continue in entirely the same way.

I have started another blog.  A more professional blog that will showcase my work, both the client and freelance work that I do as well as the personal.  This will be a blog that I can refer clients to those who are interested in my work, but not in my personal life.

Feel free to check out the new blog and follow (subscribe via Email or Blogger on bottom right)

I plan to continue posting on this blog, but the majority of this will remain a personal blog, with various thoughts and experiences, but only the artwork that stands out as either purely personal or highly competitive (shows).

Last Minute Paintings—School is Beginning!

Some last minute illustrations between meetings and school prep this week.

You can request (custom) these illustrations at my etsy shop until they officially become available (probably not the fish), but more than likely the "story time" piece on the left.

All Caught Up — A Cat & His Toy

This was a fun piece to do—although I didn't really do it all at once.  It was one of those projects that I work on a little, then leave and work on something else, then come back and work a little, then... well, you get the idea!

Anyway, I'm becoming more of a cat person as an increasing number of my friends have become cat owners—I think cats are hilarious in their devious ways!  They just make me laugh, though we will likely never have one due to Superman's allergies.  So all you cat haters are safe to visit me :)

"All Caught Up"
Kitten tangled in yarn

My favorite "cat persona" is when they are caught doing something and just look at you as if to say "who... me?"  And that is what I tried to capture here.

This print is available in my etsy shop, and the original is still up for grabs (6x9in)

Watercolor... & More Birds

I finally think I have figured this watercolor thing out!!

Maybe... I'll let you be the judge :)
But I've been struggling with the "freedom" of the watercolor media.  Like, really struggled.  I'm just not programed to be as loosey-goosey (as my professor used to say) as watercolor demands... But last night I decided to watch my husband (a fabulous painter) while he worked his magic.  I strove to mimic his techniques and then I added the ink outline that I use for my vintage style work.  The result:

Little Wren

And... I love it!  I'm really enjoying it anyway, and I think this may be the style that I will incorporate for my children's book (okay, I've said that a hundred times, but this time I mean it!).  It has the realism that I require from myself, the freedom to add some character into the subjects and the softness of a standard Children's book.

Here are some more that I did while I was on a roll, haha—I'm afraid that my steak will end and I'll be a clutz with the brush again!

Rose Breasted Grosbeak

Sparrow

Etsy Shop—OPEN!

My Etsy shop is officially open for business!  Head on over to check out the prints and note cards that I have available for sale!  If there is anything that you don't see that you want, feel free to send me a message or comment here and we will work something out.

Well, what are you waiting for?!  Check out MY SHOP!

Anniversary... quickly and, well, late

Our anniversary was on Sunday!  I have a post in the works with photos and little blurbs about the past year.  But clearly that is not my priority right now, or I'm just lazy, but I would rather that you believe the former :)

Anywho, here's a quick watercolor that I did this week to commemorate the event: (Let's try not to be harsh critics now—it's not easy learning to watercolor when your husband is Mr. Paint... and this is only #2 for me!)

Don't you love how classy I am, posting an instagram photo rather than take a real one myself?  Click on the image to find/follow my instagram and actually keep up with my art :)

I promise, the blog will be under better management when I finally get this little shop off the ground!

A Little Bird Told Me...

Here are some of the illustrations that I have been working on over the past few weeks!  Lots of little birdies and plenty of tea-themed ascents to keep the cravings down.  These pieces will soon be available for sale in my etsy shop!

Once I get that all set up... heh—there's a lot of legal stuff that goes along with selling merchandise!  But in a few weeks there will be 8x10 prints available of those posted below along with some of what I have posted already.  If there is anything that you do not see here than you think I should include/create, let me know!

My first commissioned piece in this style

 No bird or tea, but it was the night before my sister's grad party so I was just killing time between getting ready

Please don't judge my hummingbird! We fought for a long time but I couldn't seem to get him to turn out any better.

He's... special... (another commissioned piece)

No bird, but my teacup is in there along with the roses that grow along the path to our little apartment.

Superman will sometimes pick a few for me :)

My most recent... the plate still needs some more work, but here it is so far.

This One's For the Birds

I'm in the mood to draw birds, birdsa and more birds!  I think it might be because a few of my students are doing projects that have to do with birds / creative birdhouses.  Their theme paired with my own love for birds and the new hummingbird feeder in the backyard has given me the push I needed to draw again.

Here's another that I began working on this week:

Again, poor quality from my iPod, but when it's complete I'll take a better photo.

Prismacolors at Tea Time

I don't work at the school on Mondays so I typically spend the day doing house-work and preparing for the rest of the work week (when I don't have a freelance job breathing down my neck).

Today I really wanted to get something done for my mom but I don't have my watercolor paper at the apartment and my first attempts at drawing did not turn out well—let's just say that I will not be posting them.  Frustrated and tired I reached for my pastel paper.  I'm not sure exactly what I was planning to create because I had not thought past opening the pad itself.  Out fell a series of drawings—still in the sketching phase of life.  I had entirely forgotten about them—I can't even remember when I actually started the project, but some point during the great series of illness that I ran into this winter.  I was particularly drawn (hah, pun totally intended) to the sketch I did of a stack of teacups.

Why not?  I hunted down and opened my beautiful Prismacolor pencils and got started.  After about 3 hours I have the familiar cramps in my shoulders from bending over, I am covered with pencil shavings, and I am loving it (but I am still taking a break, lol).
Here's what I ended up with today:

Better quality photo coming after completion—this one was taken with my ipod

Obviously, I need to finish up the handles and decide what to do with the background (and get the highlights to really pop), but for one afternoon of work I am pretty happy! I think I might need to tone down the contrast in my little birdy so that it doesn't grab all of the attention, but the background could fix that by itself.

I am considering making prints of this piece and selling them—if that would at all interest you let me know!

I'm an Illustrator

Sorry I have not been posting very regularly... Life has thrown me for a loop and I it rarely even occurs to me to update the blog!

One of the major reasons I have recently fallen off the face of the blog world has been my increased work load combined with a raw immune system among 250+ germ-y elementary students.  When I haven't been sick or racking my brain for lesson ideas, I've been drawing and working on the design jobs that have been coming in.  In January I spent the majority of my time in bed or with these floral illustrations (one of the series posted below).

While the work was difficult (mostly because of the short deadline and the sickies), I really enjoyed getting to draw again—before this my freelance work was largely digital, though now I am asked to illustrate more frequently, which is great.

It was also cool to research the event that the illustrations were displayed—the National Floral Show in Philadelphia.  This is the largest flower show in America and my work was seen by about 300,000 people!  Talk about exciting!  Below is an image from the specific exhibit that my work was in (you can see my drawings on the posters in the back).

Photo stolen from here

Anyway, that's what I've been doing, or at least one of the major reasons I have not been posting very often.  When I finally get some free time, I find that I would rather spend it annoying my husband.  I'm not sorry.

DIY Sharpie Mug

We had a girl's night last weekend, and we had some Pinterest fun!  Sharpie mug decorating :)  If you've never seen this before, it's rather simple: Get a dollar store ceramic mug and some sharpies (thicker sharpies work best).  After you've decorated it to your taste, throw it into the oven (just kidding, place it gently) for 30+ minutes at 350*.  Hand wash only, and you may want to test it out before you drink anything out of it—the thinner markers tend to wash off, and that's no fun!


Unfortunately, when you're an illustrator by trade, people expect more from you, so I typically don't enjoy group crafts very much—so much pressure it feels like work.  This, however, I did have some fun with just because it was playful.

I'm a Tangled fan (Disney Princess) so it made sense to do a Rapunzel crown on my mug::

But again, I had to go further (Artist Problems) so I added little Pascal to the side!  I love the way his tail curls up to make the handle.

Sorry for the poor quality—these were taken with my iPod and I haven't had a chance to get better photos yet.

God Is Good

I am not even sure where to begin, there are so many things coming together at the moment; So many blessings revealing themselves.

We finally found a church.  Right before Christmas too, it's been so great.  Not only has it been comforting to know where we are going every Sunday morning, and to know that we will hear a solid Biblical message, but God has made it clear that this is the church that He wants us to be at.  When we first went, I was still skeptical.  The pain of waiting to find a church had taken it's toll and I was cynical.  However, every single thing that we have placed before God or that I have longed for in private has revealed to us the very next Sunday.  Even today, I was wondering again how we would get involved more and we were invited to lunch with a group of people from our Sunday school and the young married group—we had a great time!  I love, love, LOVE our church and I cannot wait to get to know more people there and to get involved.

My college roommates also came over to visit this weekend!  We had a blast catching up and recalling memories from our adventures.  But the thing that hit me the most was how easy it was for us to stop and pray together after talking about fears / frustrations / difficulties that we had.  I miss that! 

It challenged me to try and bring this fellowship to the teachers that I work with.  So many we have discussed some trouble that a student is having or a parent situation that has grown difficult.  We always say something like "well, we'll have to pray about that", but why not stop right there and pray together?

Crafting

 Between sick days and large freelance projects, I haven't had a lot of extra time to do crocheting this winter (my usual cold weather hobby)
Thankfully I was able to get a little bit in the past week or so and created these with some yarn I got for Christmas (please pardon the photo quality, I used my iPod to take the photos as I went...):

 First was the baby beany

 Which quickly turned into the baby boy newsboy hat

 And of course, the girl version of the baby newsboy—complete with a flower

 And finally, a polar bear hat

No, I am not pregnant.  I've just always enjoyed making baby things.  Let's face it—they're small and fast to make, and stinking adorable even if you made a mistake!

And now that so many friends are having babies, it makes sense to pass them around!

Today I Drew A Spoon

You may not know this, but my SuperMan is also a SuperCoach.  And because he is so dedicated to coaching and to being the best he can be, he often attends track and cross country conferences to meet with other coaches and to grow and improve.

They're great!  He learns a lot!  He loves them!
They are 3.Days.Long.

And I go along with him.  I don't attend the conference or anything like that—it's really not my cup of tea and why spend the money when I will likely be sitting there thinking of how much I am not a runner (a dedicated / competitive one anyway) and wishing I had an actual cup of tea.

So instead, I brought some yarn and my laptop so that I could do some design work.  And should I happen to hit the shops around town, so be it :)

Only, there was a little blizzard that hit all of Michigan.  Seriously, big storm—they even named it!  [And Nemo was his name-o]  So I'm kind of kept from visiting or shopping today... oh, and the design job?  Well that didn't happen either—the client is currently MIA and doesn't want to share any design information with me at this time.  And last, but not least, the yarn I brought? In natural lighting, the two scans look the same, but in lamp lighting they are COMPLETELY different, so my project is kind of on hold.

So... I drew a spoon.

 
Skype date anyone?