Old Man Sun

Happy Friday! One week until Christmas Eve, can you believe it?!  Have you got all your shopping done? I'm pretty much done, a few little things here and there.

It's Paint Party Friday! Yay! So today I want to share a drawing that I've actually re-drawn and re-purposed. It was fun to do different things with this piece and I kinda had the feeling of reckless abandon since it was a print. I got the idea from my friend and artist Diane Salter of My Art Journal. If you've not visited her blog, you need to go if for nothing more than inspiration. I'm linking up with her tutorial page.

Here's my original

I drew this with Prisma Colors quite a while back and like it and plan to frame it, so I don't really want to sell it. I've had offers to buy it, but I can't let go. I'm bad about that. So I found this idea on Diane's blog and tried it with my Old Man Sun.

You scan or photograph your original. (I photographed b/c it was too big) Then print it out with some thick paper and do whatever you want on the print. Easy peasy, right? and fun! I wanted to bump up my colors on my print so I ended up drawing the entire piece over again only this time with these new (to me) crayons called Caran d'Ache Neocolor I Artist Crayons. Wow! What color and fun these are. They are water soluble so that just adds a whole new dimension to our projects. As I was getting the link for this post I just discovered they have metallic crayons too! Oh be still my heart. I'll be getting those for sure, cause I love me some metallic.

I ended up doing a few different ones including this one with my favorite metallic shimmery powders and made a treasure box that I'm happy with. I've got it in my Artfire and Etsy shop.

I also made this other one on a board and don't know what to call it, a plaque? or wall hanging? they both sound silly so I haven't listed it yet. Any suggestions?

Here it is, slightly different than the box and for a different use. I love the streaky look of the metallic. Pictures are hard to capture the shimmer, but shimmer they do!

So there you go, new uses for old art. Thanks to Diane :)  Now go visit the other Paint Party Players.

Toodles,

 

New Customized Treasure Box

What do you think?

I made a new treasure box for one of Asher's little friends late last week. He was invited to a birthday party and I thought this would be a good opportunity to make a custom treasure box and then take pics so I could try to sell them on ARtfire and Etsy. She seemed to really like it and all the little kids "oooo'd" when she opened it, which is a great sign and made me feel good. Asher was so proud. He had made her a birthday card and couldn't wait for her to open it.

Five is such a cute age. But unfortunately, with fun, birthday parties and lots of kids come lots of germs. The party was at a gym that has gymnastics and they all just had a blast. There were trampolines everywhere, balance beams to climb on and inflatable bouncy houses. But the star of the show was a sponge pit.

Ick.

I refer to it as the Cesspool of Snot. So... today Asher missed school and has an ear infection. Oh well, goes with the territory. I just hope I don't get it, seems like germs just know when vacation or holidays are coming don't they?

Pirate Ship Treasure Box

My last art show is over for the year and it was fun. I had a roomie in my booth, my friend Amelia and I shared a booth. That makes the day go by a lot more smooth and it's also more fun to have someone to laugh and gripe with. Sales were decent and I did more face painting which is such a kick. I even wore my own snowflake glitter tattoos. Fun :)


If you saw my last post, it was about a painting of a pirate ship I did. I put that painting on a box and many other illustrations with it. It was the very first piece to sell and here it is :)

I used prints of my original paintings and illustrations so I can recreate this box, although it wouldn't be identical which I don't want anyway.

I'm linking to Paint Party Friday =) Check out the talent!

Ahoy me matey

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was wonderful. I had a rather dull one this year. We had plans to eat with Daryl's family but I had been sick and they were 7 and a half hours away, so that fizzled. I had no intention of cooking, so we had to hit the town to see what was open, and not a 2 hour wait. After checking three other restaurants we ended up at Denny's. Woo Hoo. Actually, it was really good but not terribly traditional. I got the turkey dinner, Daryl got a cheeseburger and Asher got chocolate chip pancakes. But we were all happy and we were together so that's all that matters.

On the artfront... I have been busier than a one legged man in a butt kickin' contest! I've got a show this weekend and I'm trying to get some new stuff ready for it and it is coming together rather slow. I've got new ideas but they are not quite coming together, yet.

I've drawn the pirate ship along with other pirate stuff for some boxes I'm making for boy treasure boxes. Or girl, I guess. I mean, I like pirates. Surely some girls do too.. haha

So here it is all painted in. I made the mistake of not using watercolor paper. I used 300 series Strathmore Sketch paper which says it's for watercolor pencils wet or dry, but I got a little ambitious with the water and then added real watercolors on top of it. I tried to iron it with my regular iron which helped a tiny bit, but it still looks pretty warpy. I've seen tricks where they spray the whole sheet of paper on the back with water to straighten it out, but I'm afraid to do that since it's not watercolor paper. Any suggestions?

I'll be 'round to visit all ye skally wags soon.

Treasure Boxes

I've been painting some treasure boxes the last couple days and here's one I call Indian Sun. I have a show coming up and I thought I'd offer some new things for Christmas. Although at the rate I'm creating these, I might not have many to offer!

I had an eye in the center of the sun motiff, but decided I didn't like it. So I filled it in.
 

Then I felt it needed more embellishment, so I started playing around with some bling...

Ehhhh... not big enough and not quite right.

But this... this I like. And so it is.

I have another box that is ready to show you, but I need to take some final pictures to show it off. I will tell you it's a pretty and shiny snake head! If these don't sell at the show, I'll be adding them to my Etsy and Artfire shops.

Thanks to all you guys... my friends, fellow artists, creative minds, and incredibly talented bloggers. You are wrapped up in one as the people who always bring encouragement and love with your comments. I love you guys! Our "little" online world... it is fantastic!