January

One of my goals for 2019 is to make a calendar to have ready for 2020. I thought it would not be too much to ask myself to come up with 12 nice designs. There are a few months that I have plans to pull out past pieces, dust them off and give them a face lift. This one will most likely be my January choice.

"January" is from a photo I took at Winterfest in December:

I did a rough layout with color in one of my sketchbooks:

I then scanned it into the computer and finished it digitally.

     Last year I set a goal of posting every Wednesday and did quite well up until November (National Novel Writing Month - where I came within a few chapters of finishing a middle grade chapter book!) I think this year I'm going to relieve myself of the pressure of posting once a week. In 2018 I would walk away from a project I was excited about, just to find something quick I could do to share. I am still aiming for at least a once-a-month post. If you follow me you may find more than that. I just want it to happen more on my own time than on a self-imposed deadline. 

Update: This is the version that ended up in the calendar.

Happy New Year 2019! and Portrait of Sadhguru

The first sketch in my 2019 sketchbook - Sadhguru.

and a quote from him - 

"You're just an imitation of what is around you, it's just that you don't imitate one person; 

you take bits and pieces of a hundred people and make yourself."

    New Year's Eve/Day is one of my favorite times of year. I read the goals I set for myself the previous December 31st. What I planned and what I actually accomplished are often miles apart but that's not important. Each year begins with potential and each year I realize a significant amount of that. My path may have zig-zagged but I'm still in a place with new memories, lessons learned, and hope for all the glorious potential of the coming year. 

    I haven't posted for quite a while because I spent November writing instead of drawing. Then, the holidays were upon me, along with some extra hours at work and the simple desire to bake cookies and shop. 

     What follows is a small smorgasbord of a few of the creative things I've been up to.

Here's how the mask turned out. 

I couldn't post it before because it became a Christmas gift for my son.

To see how the mask started check out my previous blog "Sometimes I Just Get Lost"

Then there was this portrait - also a Christmas gift I couldn't share before.

I did it digitally then dropped a filter over it to make it look more like comic book art.

Next is a little gift I made for my girlfriends - tiny books, quilled snowflakes and handmade boxes.

I also tried my hand at a gingerbread house. 

The gingerbread part was not quite hard enough but it was delicious anyway.

My daughter helped me with the decorations.

On a more personal note, I took my family to Winterfest at King's Island on, 

unfortunately, the coldest night in human history on planet earth 

(I may be exaggerating a little). We still had a wonderful time.

And here are my kids with their cousins on Christmas Eve in one of those cool re-visit photos:

I wish you all a Happy New Year and wish you the best in realizing its potential!

   

Feliz Día de los Muertos

     Have you seen the movie "Coco"? I had never paid much attention to the holiday "el día de los muertos" prior to seeing it. I thought it was simply a Mexican angle on Halloween with prettier skulls. But, it's so much more wonderful than that. El Día de los Muertos is not scary, it's beautiful. It's a day (or rather a couple of days - Oct. 31 to Nov. 2) to honor, remember and celebrate the lives of friends and family members who have died. The characters in the movie invite the spirits of their loved ones into their homes for a yearly visit and they prepare by setting out photos and the favorite foods of those loved ones. The movie is not only touching but visually spectacular! Click the link below for a peek.

Trailer and film clips from Coco

On Monday morning I took a long look at a Halloween decoration I've had for over 20 years:

By early afternoon it was all gussied up and happily celebrating a new holiday, honoring the people in my life who came before, and those I've loved and lost.

Quilling!

Boy oh boy, have I caught the paper craft bug! After all that experience this summer with paper flowers I just couldn't stop so I moved on to this. Here's a link to a youtube video showing how to do that glorious large snowflake on the left - large snowflake 

Quilling is an art form that has always fascinated me. If you google images you will find some incredible pieces of artwork.

To make it easy here's a few samples by artist Sena Runa and a link to her website: https://www.senaruna.com/

I want to be able to do this when I grow up.

I borrowed a couple of quilling books from the library and for only $15 bought a quilling start up set on Amazon. Here's one of the books I borrowed "Quilling Art", along with what $15 bought me 

(there was also a little glue bottle that didn't make it into the photo):

By the way, "Quilling Art" has the instructions for the other type of snowflake at the top of the page.

I'm also planning to try my hand at some book making. Today I'll be throwing acrylics around to make some decorative papers used in that process. 

I haven't stopped painting. The following piece was another study that I shared here several weeks ago. Like last week's post, I decided to finish this one up too. No sense in having a bunch of studies hanging around my studio staring at me. (Literally in this case).

Mardi Gras Vase - 12"x18" acrylic on illustration board.

See you next Wednesday!

Flori Isabella (again)

8"x10" oil on canvas

In 2013 my step-daughter and her then fiancé shared their love of travel with the family and invited us to a destination wedding in Florence, Italy. It was one of the most amazing and inspiring weeks of my life! I took a ton of photos that I've been using over the last five years and, including my 2"x3" miniature paintings, I've done over 20 pieces! 

One of the first ones I did was Flori Isabella:

It remains one of my all time favorites. It was 16"x 20" (I think). I'm both happy and sad to say that it sold back in 2014. 

Before I painted it I did a small 8"x10" acrylic study that looked like this:

It has been hanging around my studio, not polished enough (in my opinion) to sell, but too nice to throw away. A couple of weeks ago I started doing something about that. I began applying oil paints over the top and here's what it looked like after the first day:

And after a couple more days:

I kept going a little here and there until I ended up with the image at the top of the page. So, I now have a framed copy (smaller version) of it back on my wall!

Pinocchio and Friend

5"x7" oil on clayboard

A 5"x7" is so much more fun for me than large pieces.  I wanted to set up a quick composition with these two masks (souvenirs from Italy) and paint from life with no photo reference but I chose to be looking straight down on them and it was difficult to paint from that angle. Not to mention the fact that it was a dark room with one spotlight light source. So, this ended up being painted (mostly) from my photo reference.

Here's the first step, in acrylics:

And one more step after I began to apply the oils:

I'm still working on the mask I started making of my son, but I'm so happy with the way it's turning out that I think he's getting it for Christmas. Haha! I'll share the results after the holidays.