Interiors and a sketch book.

Lately I've been experimenting with illustrating interiors of homes. Sometimes they are created from my imagination, but when I started out I focused mostly on interiors from magazines, books, anything that would spark my interest.

Growing as an artist, I never kept a dedicated sketch book to house my thoughts, ideas, basically my 'meanderings' if you will. I think it was always a challenge to carry something with me that would allow me to record my daily life in images. It's kind of frustrating for me because I think that would have been really nice to have later on in life, to look back on. Maybe I should start to keep one.

Do you have a sketch book? Do you keep one regularly, and how do you stay in the habit of keeping one up to date?

Circles Print

Lately I have been working on some different art projects. I really enjoyed making the Circles prints I just put up in my shop.  I made five different originals, and am making more every day.

I really love the different dimensions that the circles bring to the viewer's eye, as well as how the watercolor takes on its own personality.

Watercolor in general has been so much fun to work with; I especially love how you can let the paint take control of the paper - or you can completely manipulate it to your own liking.


Hope to be posting more soon! Another shop update is coming as well.


xo

weekend.

Just a quick post to say hello and wishing everyone a nice weekend.  It's supposed to be beautiful here.

Happy weekend.

back!

Well, I took quite a break from blogging recently (I apologize!) and I promise to return to regular posting from now on.  I have been working on different designs - many of them reminiscent of botanical prints from the past with a more childlike-illustrative approach.  It is sometimes nice to get a break from creating the same thing over and over again.

In other news, the weather has taken a turn for the colder!  I am sitting here in two sweaters and a blanket around me with the heat on.  And it's mid-May!  It is pretty ridiculous.  I'm ready for skirts and flip flops and windows open.  I think some of my artwork shows how restless I am for the warm as a lot of it is succulent-desert based!

And here is a funny picture of a cat looking at something in our backyard:

I'll be back soon!

New item in shop!

Hi there, I just wanted to post quickly to mention there is a new item in my shop. It's pictured below, and I'm happy to say there will be more on there way. I am planning on doing customized cards in the future, along with personalization! A lot more to come soon; very exciting times!

You can see my shop here.

Watercolor.

I have recently been experimenting with watercolor. This has been a difficult medium for me because it takes such control and practice, and sometimes I can be very impatient. For some reason I feel like I have broken through a bit with the medium and dare I say, have gotten a bit better. A tiny bit better. Very small amount. But it's something! Yesterday as I was drawing I discovered how much I love to combine watercolor with graphite. Placing the graphite on top of the watercolor after it dries allows me to add shading and texture subtly which otherwise would be quite difficult for a beginner. I hope any of you readers aren't tired of rabbits, because here are some more!

More photos on my flickr

caffeine = progress. (duh.)

Recently we have been bombarded with day after day of rain.  I definitely get a good case of the SAD from time to time, so it is imperative that I fill these rainy days with the following:

a) copious amounts of coffee

b) art-making (a given)

c) thinking about the chance that there may be a thunderstorm, which always lightens the mood for me

d) a thunderstorm occurs

e) playing good music, loud.

f) more coffee

Hopefully if I am lucky all six listed occur. Today, let's see, five out of six, not bad! (no thunder. boo.) While I am still shaking from all the caffeine I managed to make some artwork and get some new ideas together for future projects.  I also took some pictures of the magnolia and forsythia branches I brought in from my backyard.  I am trying to force them to bloom indoors and today, finally, one of the blossoms did just  that! Success!  I documented my efforts below.  Oh and thankfully, sun is scheduled for the next week or so.  Yay! 

See my flickr for more.

An exciting day!

So today was a really productive day for me. Working on my own, it usually takes me some time to get going and make progress with my artwork on a day-to-day basis. But for some reason I had a lot of momentum and I was finally ready to open my Etsy shop!

Hooray!

And now here are some pretty pictures.

Linocuts

Despite a couple of inches of snow last week, it is finally starting to feel like spring. (It's finally March!)

I'm hoping these bunny rabbits I'm drawing will coax the weather to maybe get to 55 degrees sometime soon. It has been a long, snowy winter.

Above, a linocut I completed this morning/afternoon. I'm going to try to set up the scanner so reproducing them will be easier and cleaner on the paper.

Right now I am craving a nutella latte from Chapterhouse coffee shop in philadelphia. So good! Maybe I will try to make one on my own...

Dinner and drawing.

A deviation from the norm today; a photo with food as the subject. Let me tell you, this is one of the best dinner combinations I have tried as a person with a non-dairy, meat-free (almost) diet. It consists of roasted brussel sprouts (a little oil, salt and pepper, 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, stirring once midway through cooking time), Vegetarian sloppy joe mix (I use fantastic brand, and I follow the recipe for "Mama's Sloppy Joes" which is the following (from their website :

1 package Fantastic World FoodsTM Sloppy Joe Mix
1 Tbsp butter or olive oil
½ medium white onion, chopped
¼ cup chopped fresh basil (I didn't have any so this ingredient was omitted)
¼ cup diced tomatoes (I used diced tomatoes with chipotle peppers from Whole Foods)
2 Tbsp Woodstock Farms® Organic Brown Sugar
3 Tbsp chili powder (I used 1 Tbsp.)

1. Prepare Fantastic World Foods Sloppy Joe Mix according to package instructions. 2. In a sauté pan, heat 1 Tbsp butter or olive oil. 3. Add chopped onion and let caramelize for approximately 2 minutes at medium heat. 4. Add brown sugar, chili powder, basil, and prepared Fantastic World Foods Sloppy Joe Mix. 5. Place mixture on buns of your choice.

We didn't use typical buns as they contain dairy, so we used soft tortillas. So, so good.

The final piece to this meal was vegan potato salad. I simply used small baby red skin potatoes that I parboiled for 10 minutes. In a bowl I mixed 1/2 cup veganaise, 3 tbsp. apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp (appx) sugar and salt and pepper. I also cut up part of a red onion and 2 stalks of celery. Mix all ingredients together and let sit in the refrigerator for 4 or 5 hours, or overnight.

So that's my spiel on the food that makes my stomach growl, in a good way. On to the drawings:

I have recently established a routine for myself to follow daily. I think I have discovered I work best with structure (as most humans do, I assume) and in order for me to be successful I have to chart out what my day should look like so that I actually get things done.

So far, it is working out well. The above is what drawings I did this morning. Most of what I work on is based off of photographs I have taken, but I want to try to get away from that and make art that is more imagination-based.

Sketchy vs. photo real

Most recent work. Not entirely satisfied but I am glad I did something and completed it in one sitting. Not sure how I am to go on from this point but I want to continue self portraits or portraits in general. I have to figure out what qualities can be left out and which ones to add in to give the piece a more illustrative quality. I think I would have a breakdown if I were to focus on photo-real.