Watercolor Paintings, Illustration, Inspiration and Creativity

Sunday, August 24, 2014

21 days: a girl and her dragon

A certain someone was very upset with me for drawing this, and will be even madder when she knows I've posted it. But this assignment is about drawing something you're passionate about. I'm passionate about storytelling, about fantasy, and about letting your imagination run wild so that you can pretend to inhabit that story. The inspiration for this drawing is from something else I'm passionate about: my daughter.

While all my kids say it doesn't look like her (and they're correct, though they do share some awesome hair), I told them that it's inspired by her, her love of dragons, and the fact that she does in fact have a staff she likes to walk with that looks just like this one.

You know that Shakespeare quote, "Though she be but little, she is fierce!" - that's my Angela.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

21 days: Rocktopus

Day 6's assignment. He is either playing "Rock Lobster", "Octopus's Garden", or "I Want to Hold Your Hand Hand Hand Hand Hand Hand Hand Hand."

21 days: horse and pony show

This lesson was supposed to be about refinement: to draw a subject many times in many different styles, or to draw the same image again and again with modifications until you've arrived at a happy place with it. You could choose from the following topics: Bigfoot, your boss, a shark, a skull, a pelican, an evil space villain, or a horse. No contest here.

Embiggened!

Friday, August 22, 2014

21 days: keep your hands where I can see them

5 hands done 5 different ways. (I was going to say different flavors, but that just sounds gross.)

More closeups on my Instagram page.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

21 days: picture pages

Fresh challenge! The original reference sheet is full of squiggles. There's no wrong way to fill it out! Mine took a nature-y turn.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

21 Days: all about the line

I will freely admit this was not my favorite challenge so far. I also didn't have much time to work on them, honestly. But all excuses aside, hello, I drew! And better yet, I made time for it.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

21 days: Death Metal Cat

My coworker and I have started doing the 21-Day Drawing Challenge with Von Glitschka from Lynda.com (it's free, join in!) Here's my first one, under the first day's topic: "Cat". The lyrics come from this great Kliban drawing of a folk-singing cat. My friends and I would sing this on the playground back in the day, usually on the swings.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

This way to the Ministry of Magic!

We're continuing our tradition of reading a Harry Potter book each summer, out loud, as a family. You can guess which book we're on now! I made this sign after the kids went to bed and taped it up in the appropriate spot....

Only to find an addition when I got up early the next morning (Angela's handiwork).

The text reads: CAUTION! Moaning Myrtle may appear while using the shower, bath, toilet or sink. Do not mind the constant crying if she enters your home. Sincerely - Ministry of Magic.

I love my children and their amazing creativity SO MUCH. Wonder where they got it from?

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Getting back into the habit

(Just me in my mermaid suit, my pet cotton candy blue fox, and my trusty steed, a red cactus.)

So as some of you may have noticed, I get sidetracked. A LOT. I get caught up with work, and my family, and the kids, and other obligations, and then a little voice that says, "hey, you should go paint" basically gets told to shut up because I need more sleep.

I began using a new program which I just love called HabitRPG.com. It helps reinforce good habits, and help you notice when you're slacking (or when you're engaging in bad habits). It's kind of like Chore Wars except that it's much more personal. And way cuter. I've always been a sucker for 8-bit goodness. Especially when it's color coded and easy enough that I can have my kids have their own accounts too.

So what the heck does this have to do with painting? It's taken me two months,(!) but I've finally added "Studio Time" to my list of habits. And "Blog" as well. And added five entries on my to-do list that are all blog topics. Hopefully these habits will start to stick, because then will I not only actually be spending time on doing creative things for myself, I will be documenting and sharing them.

So watch this space.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Always remember

...which cup has the water, and which has the coffee.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Greenery

Digital sketch on the iPad with inspire pro. Green is still totally my favorite color.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Dress up French Toast Girl!

Ancient history, people…. who remembers this?

http://frenchtoastgirl.com/flash/index.htm

And it still works!

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

Sacrifice and creativity

It's the first day of Lent today, Ash Wednesday. So to prepare, we made some Sacrifice Beads (also called Good Deed Beads) to help act as reminders to help others. Because this was sort of spur of the moment, we used what beads we had on hand - in a few cases, a fish or a heart stood in for the cross. Either way, when you do a good deed as an offering, you move a bead towards one end as an act of love.

Directions to make your own: http://thelittleways.com/how-to-make-sacrifice-beads. I promise it's not hard at all, and children can make them with just a little help and supervision.

Friday, February 14, 2014

happy happy valentine's day!

Another year, another valentine. Are they getting big or what?!

And now let's have a trip in the wayback machine!

(2013)

(2012)

(2011)

(2010)

(2009)

(2008)

(2007)

(2006)

(2005)

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Ponies, cycles, baseball.

Much progress since last post. Sadly, gastroenteritis kicked my butt a week ago, so progress hasn't been as swift as I'd like. BUT! Here are more WIPs.... um.... in progress. (I've been posting more snaps of these along the way to my FB page as well.)

My homegirl Twilight Sparkle, though I preferred her in non-princess, all-geek mode.

TRON lightcycle is coming along nicely. In this case more water = more metallic and fluid, probably owing to the fact that water is a liquid... moving on.....

Matt Kemp of the Dodgers, who I only know about because of my nephew's request. He will either be the hardest, or the easiest to paint. We shall see.

Being sketched and painted next: Spongebob characters, Steve from Minecraft, and bacteria. Because this is Christmas and all the kids get to choose what they want a painting of. Who am I to judge?

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Sketchy

The holiday paintings have begun! I am trying the crazy/ambitious idea of painting four at the same time; then I can move on to the next batch. First up for today: light cycle and rider from Tron Legacy, and Princess Twilight Sparkle. I don't care if she has wings and is a princess and all that. She'll always be my favorite Pony.

(Note for next year: how about everyone gets ponies, huh? Isn't that a great idea? Right? Anyone?)

Reflections aplenty, limited palette. I still think there's one coming up that's going to be more challenging......

Friday, November 08, 2013

Details.

Close to being done. I kind of want to go all over the tree one with fine white outline detail. Or should I leave it alone? As always, click to embiggen.

Thursday, November 07, 2013

Trees and rocks. And purple cats.

More works in progress. I actually really like working on two paintings at once, it gives each a chance to dry and set a bit, and lets me come up with more ideas.

As always, click to enlarge, bc blogger is a resizing fool and I hate it. But not enough to resize and upload everything by hand.

Monday, November 04, 2013

Trees.

Small trees....

...and a work-in-progress.

Sunday, November 03, 2013

One stitch at a time.

I made this stuff. And gave it all away. :)

Octopus friends for babies and older siblings, hats and shoes for newborns.

Friday, August 02, 2013

Walking to Mordor

(Our dishwasher, courtesy of Angela. I did not put her up to this, I swear.)

While I've been creative in lots of pixelated and yarn-related ways, there will be a heck of a lot of paint coming up. So watch this space.

I've been trying to concentrate lately on the sound mind in a sound body theory, with the realization that the sound body really needs to get up and bust a move more often. It's good for stress relief, and honestly, it's maintenance - I plan on being around a long time and my body needs to be able to support all the crazy things I'll probably come up with. So to that end, I completed Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred with awesome results, I'm going to start her Ripped in 30 series, and in between I'll be taking a small break for daily yoga. And walking. Lots of walking. But how to measure this in a tangible way and get my whole geeky family involved?

We're walking to Mordor.

Using a pedometer and other counters (on treadmill and Gazelle) we're keeping a running tally of all our collective mileage. Here's a breakdown in minute, geek-tastic detail, a spreadsheet that keeps a running total for you, and we're also marking up a map to show our progress. Peter remarked, "But MOM! It's going to take us more than a year!" To which we could point out that Frodo and his companions took at least that long, too. It's a way to show slow but steady progress, to provide a little incentive, and to get deeper into a wonderful story on a very real level.

Oh, and because it's wonderfully nerdy and awesome, too.