A few fish

Throughout college, my goldfish tank provided an endless supply of inspiration for mindless sketching. I loved watching my fat little Oranda Peaches and her Ranchu buddy Max bumble about the tank in search of alge or a lost flake of food. I owe many of my 100-level art class assignments to their antics.

I no longer have the vast fish tank I once had, but I still love to paint fish when I can find them!

I hope everyone is having a nice start to the holiday season! I've got a few cards left to mail, some cookies that need baked and of course a ton of unwrapped presents to attend to - but I'll get there. More coffee!!

A Postcard for a Good Cause

I sent in my watercolor piece for the Fowler Art Collective; Year Two Postcard Exhibit on Friday.

My postcard will be up with others for sale at the event on December 7th - with 25% of the profits generated going to NYFA's emergency relief fund for Hurricane Sandy.

The show looks to be a great event, I just wish I could make it up to New York to see it. If anyone finds themselves in the vicinity, let me know how it was!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve everyone!!

Though I've been battling the mother of all colds since last week, I've been trying to prepare for my first S.Florida rendition of Thanksgiving as well as ready my little art shop for the weekend's sales extravaganza.

I didn't do any sort of promotion last year as I was out of the state (and therefore away from my studio) for the whole week. This year however, I am excited to be in my studio fulfilling orders and working on new projects! This will also be my first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian, so I am anxiously awaiting my first bite of a Tofurky. I am always all about the sides anyway (mashed potatoes, cranberries, yams... yum!) so I am not too worried about skipping on the turkey. AND it means I totally don't have to feel guilty about filling up on greenbean casserole. And pie.

But back to the 2012 Thanksgiving Sales Extravaganza!!

I am super pumped to be able to offer a few promotions this weekend in keeping with the holiday spirit. (Or shopping spirit I should say...)


Black Friday: 15% off any order!
Enter code 'FRIDAY12' to recieve your discount. Code goes into effect Friday at 12:00am

Small Business Saturday : Buy 1 print - get a second print free!!
Just pick out any print in my shop and head to checkout. In the 'notes' section, leave the title of the print you would like to receive for free!

Cyber Monday: Free Shipping on any domestic order!!
Enter code 'FREESHIP' and pay nothing for shipping if within the U.S.! Code goes into effect Monday at 12:00am

If anyone has any questions on the ordering process, feel free to leave a comment here or on my facebook page.
Happy Thanksgiving to all and happy shopping!

(Im off to buy more pumpkin mush - can never have enough pumpkin mush!)

Paintings from magazines

I love my Tuesday night watercolor workshop.
Here are a few paintings from our last session, all painted fairly quickly from random magazine clippings.

It's been a very long while since I've painted people in a non-digital setting, so I was a bit unsure at the start of the exercise. But I'm happy with how they turned out and have been collecting images all day that I might be able to use to make a few more tonight :)

Little ChickenBrick Update

It's been awhile since I've shared what I do as Lead Artist for ChickenBrick Studios.
We just started work on a nifty little tip calculator - - and I got to create a robot.

I love robots.

It's a really simple little app, mostly just for fun. Should be on the market soon!

Gray Wolf in ink -- Step by Step

I was out and about this afternoon and felt a *real* cold breeze. Being in Miami, one can experience the occasional "ocean breeze" which is a refreshing degree or two cooler than the current temperature, but a true 'cold breeze' is rather hard to find.

WELL I found one today :)

And as soon as it washed over me and encouraged me to bunch up my sweatshirt against my neck, my head was swimming with thoughts of cinnamon, cider, snow drifts and wet crunchy ice. So, as soon as I got in the door - I lit my 'winter' candle (from bath and body works!), put cider on the stove and started to draw out something from a colder climate.

It had been awhile since I've done a purely ink painting, so I got my trusty pen out and ready to go.

From there, I taped down my canson bristol board,lightly made a pencil sketch and went over it with my pen.

Adding the water!! I am using a #14 watercolor brush and not really paying a lot of attention to where I spread the inky water, just making sure I leave the highlights white. Here is a good place to put down some masking fluid - if I was ever good about keeping masking fluid. The goal on this pass is to complete the majority of the middle tones so everything is basically a light wash. I'll add the darker values next time.

I've started to darken a few areas, namely the mouth/nose and the area around the eyes.

Even darker! Here I am actively trying to shape the puddles of color to emphasize the volume in the skull and fur.

Woo finished.

I scanned it and did a test run of the print and it works out very well, I am very happy with this final product. Which, at the end of a run of several failed paintings is a very nice feeling.

Prints of the Gray Wolf are available on from my store!
Also, make sure to check back in a few days -- I am hoping to have some coupon codes for the upcoming weekend of shopping posted :)

Fus Ro Halloween!

I'm sure there is a better shout to combine with Halloween, infact - I am positive there is one, I just don't know what it would be. Suggestions?

So my freetime for the last few weeks was mostly devoted to the creation of my Dovahkiin halloween costume. I can't really sew and have never actually made a costume before (cutting a shower curtain into a tabbard doesn't count) so this was some pretty new territory for me. The helmet and shield took the majority of my time and were made from cardboard, masking tape, hot glue, mod podge and acrylic medium. (And paint, of course!)

Starting the helmet.

Creating the horns from twisted masking tape.

Construction of the shield.

Gauntlet and painted shield. 

Finished Helmet!

Unfortunately, I ran out of time at the end and had to purchase the midsection piece as well as the rubber gauntlet/shin guards. The "fur" beneath it was chopped up six dollar bathmats from Target.

We headed out to Lincoln Road which is the hub of Halloween night here on the beach. The streets fill up with terrific costumes and everyone has a blast, ourselves included.

Now that I've washed and packed up my costume (totally going to wear it next year too!) I spent a bit more time with another piece of Skyrim-related art; the poster I haven't touched in weeks.

I think it's almost ready for color. After adding the eyes, it's feeling a bit cartoony to me, so I'll probably go back into each of the faces and tweak their expressions a bit. Uthgerd also looks a bit *too* pretty, need to make her a bit more rugged. After ignoring this piece for so long, I am pretty pumped to finish it :)