Stat Views and News

Hello friends and family!

Today I took a look at some viewing stats for my new endeavor into online selling with Etsy.

I am now past 100 views on Etsy! Three people have favorited items. I am not shocked by the choices; Sweet Fox and Sun Set Red are favorites in my home too!

I have prints listed on there for now. I'm working on getting shipment options together for some of my larger original pieces next.

Some other viewing stats: this blog has over a thousand!

What have I been doing lately?

I have done a few custom pieces in the past month and will hopefully get some photos to blog about really soon. I have also been drawing the ever faithful man's best friend, dogs. My dog Ruby to be specific. Now I'm working on a basset hound, then maybe a pug, golden retriever, pit bull, chihuahua...why so many you may ask?

I am signing up to be a vendor for a dog themed fund raiser in Lockport in late August. This even benefits the American Cancer Society. So dogs are my focus for the next month.

Dad will be involved on this project. He gets to help me build my booth :)

I will have more to share later about the event.

Stay tuned.

Koda

After doing a commissioned portrait of my Mother's dogs Keeper and Nora, I posted a photo on Facebook and caught the attention of one of my friends. Brian sent me a picture of his family dog: Koda. A black lab that loved going on the boat and passed away this past fall. This portrait was a gift for his Mom. Just in time for Mother's Day!!!

Black labs are always tricky to draw because of the matte look to their fur. Ever notice how hard it is to get a picture of a black lab? Little bright dots for eyes in a black blob! I had a black lab mix named Holly growing up and it was so hard to get a picture of her unless she was in the sun. I was thankful to have such a good photograph of Koda to use! I had to simplify the background to bring the attention to Koda. I used blues, purples, browns, and grey with the black in Koda's fur. All my artwork shows more vivid in person. Pictures as usual never do them justice. I had sent a preview pic to Brian and he said "Excellent." Imagine me puffed up chest-smiling so big my eyes are squinted into slits, and my cheeks are all pink. It happens that way. I'm a living cartoon character. 

I love to know that I do the subjects of my work justice. That I represent with illustration the loved ones of others. I enjoy talking with Brian. How we met was a shared love for a certain otter picture used as his profile picture at the time. No one should be surprised that I would love this!

He is a friend of friend that I adopted. Our friendship grew trading absurdly cute videos and photographs of animals over Facebook. I go see him play for Two or Less occasionally too. Check 'em out. They rock :)

https://www.facebook.com/TwoOrLess

http://twoorless.webs.com/

This is Brian taking his Koda portrait home!

Doing commissioned work for friends and family raises the stakes for me to make sure I give the pieces all I have to give! I do this anyway, but the last phase of the "editing" for my work is staring at it and making minor tweaks. I will put in a place that I can easily see it walking by from any vantage point in the room. This process can take an hour or 8 hours it really depends. For friends and family its usually the later hourly amount of time spent thinking I'm crazy. 

I can let you know though...It's all worth it. 

To my warm hearted friend that sends me videos of penguins getting tickled to make my day...

I am happy that I was able to illustrate Koda for your family. 

Thank you!

Whir Away

This is a 16x20 oil painting. (16x20 is my favorite size for paintings)

I didn't particularly enjoy oil painting in college but I like that you can layer and correct with oil paints. I have mentioned before that I bow down to the talent that watercolor artists have. I don't have the patience for it, I try anyway here and there though. For now I am mainly using oil paint for my work.

Hummingbirds are incredibly popular. I like them too!

The whir of the wings and constant movement are characteristics of the hummingbird. I wanted to illustrate the wings in a new way. I remember watching a pair of hummingbirds near Grandma B's house and they would dive into spirals in the air and zip out of site. They were like little tornado spirits. This  is a ruby throated hummingbird. I love the brilliant red and green colors together.

I had him go up and away and left the trail of his movement as it cuts through the wind. Out of all the colors I use with oil paints the greens are always my favorite to use. I will do hummingbids often, they are high in demand among my family, friends and new customers. This painting will be available in prints on Ultrasmooth Fine Art Paper and Loose Canvas.

The Kind King

The Kind King came to be last summer. I wanted to play with the pastels and capture a new texture. I wanted to use the mane as a "burst" or color and give a defining weight to the profile of the lion. This was the first time I tried to draw one and I managed to make a character. 

I kept his ear angular and his face softer. I asked friends and family what they thought and Aslan from Chronicles of Narnia came to mind for most of them. I was able to find a kind expression on this lion's face. I love the Chronicles of Narnia series so this pleased me to hear! He is one of my favorite pieces to look at. The lines just pull your eyes around the piece and then the expression takes hold in the end.

Starfish

The starfish is a big deal to me and my family. Have you ever read the story? I found one of the many versions of it and copy and pasted it here. The original story was written by Loren Eiseley and has been adapted over the years. 

adapted from The Star Thrower
by Loren Eiseley (1907 – 1977)

Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”

“I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” asked the somewhat startled wise man.

To this, the young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, “But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!”

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, “It made a difference for that one.”

I had been blessed to spend summer days by the ocean in Connecticut with my Grandma Jackie and family. I have always felt such a strong connection to the sea. This starfish story has inspired all of us in some way and it became our thing. I wear Starfish jewelry all the time-gifts from my Grandmother. 

A Starfish is a symbol for perseverance, healing, and regeneration.

Some other fun symbolism definitions I found online:

"The Starfish has been used to represent the Virgin Mary (Stella Maris which means Star of the Sea) who creates safe travel over troubled waters and is also seen as an emblem of salvation during trying times. The Starfish can also be seen as celestial symbol and as such, represents infinite divine love. In addition to love, the Starfish also holds characteristics such as guidance, vigilance, inspiration, brilliance and intuition."

My Mom is a nurse and also teaches in the profession and I went into the travel industry and serve humanitarian missionaries. Not surprising how much this sea creature has influenced our lives. 

Back in my college days we did a lot of still life studies. I chose to paint a starfish, shocking right? This is an oil pastel piece. The original artwork has hung in my mother's dining room and now is in my hallway. There will be more starfish in the future because I need reminders...

to make a difference today.

Sleeping Flatties-Keeper and Nora

Hi friends and family! Its been awhile...I know...but I have been busy!!!

My second custom portrait was for my Mom and biggest fan, and is so far my most time consuming and rewarding piece. Hence why you have not heard from me on top of traveling almost every weekend in April.

Keeper and Nora are two flat coated retrievers in the Adams household and my Mom had snapped a picture on her cell phone of them sleeping together. She has always preferred my ink drawings and this piece is done in a technique called stippling. However, I chose to do this piece as a 18x24 which had my husband laughing at me whenever I worked on it.

For works larger than 11x14 for ink/pastel and  16x20 for paint, I like to get the pictures blown up. This allows me to see shades that I can miss on a small photo file. I loosely trace where the shapes start and end. The quality of the photo can make it difficult to get a real feel for the placement of the subjects. For the gaps that I can't differentiate I feel out in sketching.

This is the first picture of the process. The image blown up in black and white, the tracing paper and the lightly lined piece ready for ink. I was standing on my couch for this picture to try to get them all in the shot. I took these photos on my cell phone camera. I often take pictures throughout the stages and into editing.

So it begins! The below pic is about 12 hours in to the piece.





Getting darker shades in there and the wood grain.

I utilize my cell phone when I get to the finalizing stages, beyond building the ink density and forming the final "lines." I was introduced the smartphones in December 2012 and found that I can draw on my photos. This is great! Why is it great? Well I can take a break from hunching myself over it get up and walk away and come back with fresh eyes and not worry about losing my train of thought. Its a mental game and can last a long time. Its my least favorite part of the process-approaching that fine line of "Should I touch it anymore? Am I really done? Ommigawd I don't want to ruin it!" Sometimes I will put of a piece in that stage for days to weeks until I can tackle it with a determined spirit. Crossing the line in ink can be devastatingly emotional. I learned those lessons in college so now I'm extremely cautious. I circled my "needs work" spots and reevaluate a section at a time. Staring at millions of ink dots up close can make it hard to see the bigger picture for overall shading so I sometimes set it up across the room and walk past it a few times and look at it from different angles.

This custom piece took me over a month to do in my spare hours around my full time job. I lost count of the hours it actually took. I'm guessing closerto 60 hours. The finished product makes me smile. It also helps that I am crazy in love with these dogs. Keeper is our handsome boy and my model sometimes, and Nora is my sweet girl with sass to spare when its dinner time.

 My Mom loved it! (Of course) Dad even said "That's cool." Usually he doesn't say much when it comes to my artwork so I will take it.

I got a simple black frame for this piece and it now hangs in the living room of the house I grew up in.

Here is some close up details:

This was a learning experience on how much is my time worth and I can tell you I won't do another one of these for less than $450.00 My parents get a discount ;) 

My Mom has also given me the OK to make prints of this piece. Titled "Sleeping Flatties"