Chocolate Bunnies Aren't Just for Easter

digital

 What a cutie!!! And he's actually from Switzerland!

My niece brought me this treat, from a business trip, as a thank you for helping her with a writing project. He was delicious! But, before I could eat him, I had to get a photo to remember him by.

I started him with acrylics on illustration board:

Then, I dropped him into Procreate on my iPad and finished him up. 

I used only one brush - "old brush"- for both painting and blending.

My Little Buddha

6"x6" oil on gesso-board

Here's another of my treasured knickknacks. This is an incense burner that belonged to my parents. My mom would often light an incense cone after she had done some house cleaning, as a finishing touch. I would often do the same thing with candles. Like, my candles were too precious to burn in an un-vacuumed space, they deserved fresh air! Is this backward thinking? Should candles and incense be burned when the house needs a good cleaning? Haha!

I've always loved this little guy. 

Here are some steps in the process:

 

As always, thanks for stopping in.

40 Is Just a Number

 Digital piece done in Procreate

This is Ashley, and today is her birthday! One of those BIG birthdays. 

I'm not gonna lie, I leaned heavily on the reference photo for this. I traced her outline so that I wasn't spending so long on getting the proportions correct. But, I added a little more sparkle, and got rid of the background noise. Cheers to you, Sweetheart! 

Here's the original photo.

40 is the new 29.

Shelter

Digital piece, done in Procreate

I wanted to pick a nice, rainy, spring day to share this one, and that's what we have here in Greenville, Ohio.

Who do you identify with? The baby nestled under its mother's wing? Or the one doing the sheltering? 

I think I'm a little of both. I'd do anything to shelter my kids - to keep them safe. My son is 6'5" and we would look ridiculous in a pose like this, but I'm sure you understand the sentiment. I do like taking care of people.

I also like the idea of being taken care of by my mother, an adult who's been adulting longer than I have, but, though she loves me, my mom has made it quite clear to my husband that if he tries to return me, she doesn't want me back. That's my mama for ya! Gotta love her.

Maybe we all should be both. Look after each other when we can, seek help when we need. Weather life's storms together. Be kind.

I did this piece originally back in 2016. It was a prompt back in the good ol' Illustration Friday days.  Click here to have a peek. It's been a work in progress on my iPad for a few years now. I'm finally getting around to polishing off a few of those miscellaneous items and just callin' 'em done.

Wherever you are, whether it's raining or not. Have a wonderful day and know that, as a reward for stopping by my blog, I am cyber-sheltering you in my heart. 

Little Bunny-Girl Whatnot

I don't have a big backstory on this beautiful girl except to say that she sat on my dresser from the time I was a toddler, and she used to have a brother (I think?). I'm not sure what happened to him but I can tell you that they were both covered in a soft layer of white glitter which, over the years, became quite dingy. 

I came across her among my mom's things and asked if she could be returned to me. She is now polished to a smooth shine and stands (or sits) about three inches high, occupying a place on my shelf, as well as in my heart, doing her job, as all good whatnots do. 

This first watercolor was what I did when inspiration struck. I just felt like doing something. Anything. 

I was itchy to paint and didn't have a grand idea at the moment, so I set her up, did a quick sketch of her outline, and painted away.

 

I liked the way she turned out, but the proportions were off from the original knickknack. I started over with a bit more patience on a 5 x 7 piece of textured gesso board. Aqua-board may have been a better choice but I didn't have any. The image below is after the sketch, laying down masking fluid in highlight areas, and painting the background. 

Here's another step between. The background is lighter simply because it had dried.

Below is the finished watercolor. I applied a couple more layers of paint to the background to darken it back up. Also, I sprayed varnish on it, which made the colors bolder. 

Note: I don't think it is a common thing to spray varnish on a watercolor. They are usually framed under glass and no protection like that is even necessary. I thought if I gave the varnish a try, in order to protect her, I could just add a frame like I would to a small oil painting. It has worked so far, but if you choose to do that, I'll deny having recommended it! ;)

She was so cute! I was also, however, in the mood to play on my iPad in Procreate. I dropped the watercolor image in there and, with the "old brush" blending tool, I just worked over her surface,  carefully smoothing everything out. 

AH! Now I could play better with highlights and a few sparkles. (I love my sparkles). 

I end with the image at the top of the page.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by.

My Expensive Bottle Opener - watercolor

6"x9" watercolor

Whatnots, knick knacks, tchotchkes - whatever you call them, they have often worked their way into our hearts as well as onto our shelves. They hold memories.

This cast iron bottle opener belonged to my grandparents. It saw a lot of use in the days when it was a necessity for getting into your bottle of pop (or soda if you prefer). When I was young, it was a dark, mustard-yellow with dull, dark, red and green pops of color on its wings, etc. By the time I was in my 20s the opener wasn't seeing much use, and a lot of the paint had worn off.  Poor, ugly, neglected little thing.

I had the bright idea of giving it a facelift. I wanted it to be a Christmas surprise for my grandparents but. . .  how was I going to smuggle it out of their house? What if I was caught "stealing"? Would they believe me when I told them what I had planned? Would they act like they believed me, yet at the same time fear I was an up and coming kleptomaniac?

I enlisted my dad's help. It was his parents after all. I explained my intentions and gave him a wink as I slipped it into my purse. We then behaved nonchalantly like all good crime families do.

However, as we were leaving the house that evening, my grandma noticed its absence. She began to ask about it and look for it in earnest. My dad and I looked guiltily at each other and, as he didn't really want to see his mother in torment, he stepped back into the house, said "don't worry about the bird," and stepped back out. I've always wondered what they made of that comment.

I painted it up as you see above, and they were very happy at Christmastime.

Several years later, after they had both passed, the bottle opener ended up in a box of miscellaneous items for auction. I wanted that bird. I ended up bidding against a person who must have been a collector of some sort. It was a bidding battle. He was not going to walk away with my prize! 

Thankfully, he bowed out at $30. Who knows how far I would have gone. What would I have given? I do remember family members circling my children protectively just in case the klepto had come entirely unglued.

The parrot sits in my kitchen window to this day, and after 30 years I'm noticing that it needs another facelift. I promise to share the results here with you.

A few steps in the process: