Steampunk art

So it's that time again.... deadline for our current Artistic Kaleidoscope theme!! The current theme is a piece inspired by Steampunk. I really enjoy drawing characters so for this piece I created my own steampunk character with her trusty sidekick... Monty the  flying rabbit. Okay, so he can't really fly on his own, but this hat with balloons attached does the trick!

Beauty- Fairytales continued...

I have finished another piece to my series on Fairy-tales. This one is the depiction of Beauty and the Beast. Enjoy!!

Chicks and Chat Paint Nite with Snacks

So I meet with a group of ladies once a month for a bible study and fellowship. For December we decided it would be fun to have a night of fellowship where we exchange cookies and I teach a painting lesson. I was super excited about it so below you will find three samples of pieces I whipped up for such an occasion.

A little sketch for a little friend

Yesterday I worked on a sketch of a ninja in a pink outfit for a little girl I know who is going to be a pink ninja for Halloween. She was excited to tell me what she was going as. We had a short conversation about it and at the end of the conversation I said I would draw her a pink ninja. Below you will find the colored sketch.

The Storm

A few post back I posted a painting I did for the Artistic Kaleidoscope group entitled: Rain. I was thrilled with how that one turned out I decided I would attempt to do a whole cloud series. I have recently discovered that if I want to grow as an artist I need to do studies of subjects and through that I will develop into a better artist. So this series will be just that .... studies of clouds with other elements incorporated into them.

Easton Chalk-The-Block Event

Every year  for the past three years my sister and I have participated in the Easton Chalk- the -Block event held in September. This year my sister and I decided to do a piece around a Botanical theme. My sister did research on various plants and choose a plant that is very unique. It's called the Corpse flower which stinks and it only blooms once a year. We thought it would be fun to draw this flower and incorporate some kind of humorous aspect to the piece. The end result ended up being the flower with a Gnome reading a book and holding his nose while seated on a mushroom right next to the stinky flower. The piece was 10 feet by 10 feet. Below is the finished piece.

Snow White and the rest of the gang

 I am proud to say I finished another art piece for my fairy tale series. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a great fairytale. So many films have been made of the tale with there own little twist. I decided I would create my snow white in a more abstract manner to give you the jets of the tale with as few elements as possible. After completed the snow white piece I decided it would be interesting to see all the pieces together as a college on the wall. I was so excited to see them all together on the wall. I think this would be a lovely collection in a child's bedroom with the various tales and frames. So fun!! Would love to do one for Belle and on one for Frozen but I still haven't come up with a clear concept yet.... any suggestions??

Artistic Kaleidoscope- Theme #3

My sister and I created a Facebook page and group called: Artistic Kaleidoscope where artist can create works focused on an overarching theme. We select a new theme every few months. The current theme was Another Place Another Time: If there was an answer he would find it there. The theme came from a page in the book: 'The Mysteries of Harris Burdick', By: Chris Van Allsburg. I thought if would be fun to do my own interpretation on one of  the phrases in the book. The book is truly worth checking out. It has great illustrations. Below you will find my finished piece and below that you will see the illustration from the book.

Fairy Tales Continued

I finished another piece that is apart of the Fairy Tale collection I've been working on. I've been at a stand still with it for a little while. However, I finally created something I like. I also found a pretty awesome frame at Hobby Lobby that completely works with the piece.... super happy!! Check it out below:

Ever since I was young I have had a fascination with trees. I enjoyed countless hours as a kid climbing them. As a teenager I loved drawing them and now as an adult I love to paint or draw them. I especially love willow trees. There is just something about nature that always draws me in. I believe its the sense of peace and beauty that it possess.

So the past two years or so I have created three different willow tree pieces. The first one I did I was merely doing it as a way to experiment with techniques such as the peeled acrylic. From that one piece I have gone on to do several more pieces with different focuses. I did a couple animal pieces and then one piece of a juice box using the same technique. I did one more willow tree in between some of those piece. And I just finished another willow tree piece. With each new piece I find I learn more about what I like and don't like regarding how I put the paint down. It's been a fun process.

Rock-the-ville

This month one of our local towns was hosting a music and art event called Rock-the-Ville (https://www.facebook.com/RockTheVilleUptown) where they asked local bands and artist to participate. We were a couple of the artist who volunteered to participate in their event as chalk artist. The theme was music, art, dance, and theater; all things artsy. We came up with an original design to paint out on the streets behind some of the local stores. It was the perfect day for the event as it wasn't too hot. Below you will find our piece. We won 'Best of Show'!! We felt so blessed and honored to be chosen as the winners this year!

Commissioned piece for an Anniversary

50 years

A couple months ago I ran into a dear friend of the family who was looking for an artist to do some work for her. She asked if I was up for the task. I was thrilled at the opportunity. We meet in my home a few weeks later to discuss the project she was desiring to have done. 

Her in-laws 50th wedding Anniversary was coming up in August and she wanted a painting done of the church they were married in. She also desired the painting to include their names and the date of their Anniversary.  Below you will find two images. The first image is of the beginning stages of the painting the one following it is the painting almost complete. I'm happy to state that she loved the piece and will be sending pictures of the piece framed. I will post that as soon as I receive it.

Raining down art onto my Umbrella

One of the local towns is having an art event where they are auctioning off umbrellas that artist paint and the money goes towards a project called 'Bac a Pac' where they use the funds raised to help feed children whoare at risk of hunger on non-school days. My sister and I decide it would be great to participate. We picked up our umbrellas a few weeks ago and have been ferociously working on them. http://www.sharebacapac.org/

First we had to come up with what we wanted to do. That wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. My sister knew right off the bat, I on the other hand thought I was going to do a Pop art theme but after working on some sketches I decide that wasn't the best idea. Instead, I decided to do something a little more nature focused yet, keeping with the bright colors of the Pop art style. When we went to drop off our umbrellas a couple of the people thought we might of done something similar to each other being that we are identical twins. Sometimes people think we have to do and like everything alike.  That just is not the case with twins. We have very different styles as artist.

Below I have posted my finished pieces. If you live locally you might want to keep your eyes open in Westerville, it might be up at one of the shops. Same goes for my sister's piece too.

Other ways to use creative skills

The other day I got a bleach spot on one my favorite shirts. What is a girl too do. Throw it out you say.... heck no. I turned it in to a creative project. I took a drawing I need of a swimmer (Drawing is in one of my previous post) and recreated it on the shirt using bleach and a cue-tip. Then I went on top with a fabric marker to redefine the details. I think it turned out pretty well. What do you think?

                                                                                         

Themed Art

 So I have been trying to do more art that stretches me and I have found that being apart of a group is a great way to do this because we each can hold each other accountable to do some sort of art on a more regular basis. As I mentioned in a previous post I have participated in a group called Sketch Dailies via Facebook. Well, I decide to create my own group on Facebook called Artistic Kaleidoscope. My sister and I manage the page. The goal for the page is to encourage working artist to really sit down and do something every few months. The picture above is a piece I did for the second theme we had: Rain. I love how it turned out. You can see some of other participants work and previous theme by clicking on the link below.
https://www.facebook.com/Artistickaleidoscope?ref_type=bookmark

Once Upon a Time- In love with Fairy Tales

Between the film the Great OZ and the recent shows Once Upon A time and Alice in Wonderland I couldn't help but do some art pieces inspired but theses wonderful flicks. I plan to do a few more pieces and have Fairy Tale series but for now this is what I have completed. Enjoy!

 

The study of a master

So I have been messing around with a lot of sketches for a site on twitter and Facebook called Sketch Dailies 

The site gives themes each day of subjects artist can draw and submit to their two sites. It's been quite fun and in some cases challenging. Also in my free time I have also been working on a painting by the famous Johannes Vermeer - Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Lines, lines, and more lines

Recently I have been doing work where I'm mainly drawing in pen. I find I really enjoy it because there is no mess to clean up once I'm done. Below are my current masterpieces! ;)

This is a piece I did for a possible t-shirt design

I currently have been hooked on fairytale theme for my art and this is a drawing I did for a collage piece I did for a series of fairytale pieces I'm doing.

My selfie sketch for a FB page called Sketch Dailies

 Another drawing for my fairytale series.

Another drawing for a possible t-shirt

Creativity at its best

 So I've been quite busy lately working on some mixed medium pieces that I will post soon but for now I thought I would post some work I have recently been working on. Enjoy!

Paint munch

Hello all, Lately I've been playing with all sorts of creative mediums...paint, pen and ink, watercolor, and paper. I will be posting a lot more this month as I have had a lot of time to do work. Below are some paintings I have been working on.

The first image is of a face I just loved and sketched a while back from a picture I found. I finally did a painting of it.

 I was playing around on youtube looking up videos on art and found on a artist who use to be a forger and who now teaches people to paint like the old master artist. While watching his film he mentioned how a good way to learn and grow as an artist is to copy the old artist, so the image to the right is my beginning of copying a painting by Edward Hopper titled Barber Shop

This is a painting of poppies in a field with a hidden image. I plan to have this piece go along with my peeled acrylic series. It also is a work in progress.

Figurative work

 I'm excited to say that I have been accepted to participate in the Art at the Arnold this year. Last year I went to the Arnold Classic to see the artist work and get a feel for it. There were some amazing artist there last year and there are several amazing artist who will be there this year. I'm super excited because this is my first time doing competition art other then street painting. Below are images of me practicing figure drawings because it's been about two year since I've done any of that kind of work.