Working on pieces for Soundry's Member Show

I've been distracted from updating. A lot has been happening lately in real life, however I am finding time here and there to sneak in some creative things. I have a couple of commissions to finish up, including the Sharktopus for Declan O'Brien. Also I'm finishing some work for the upcoming Soundry Members Show. I'm should have 5 pieces in the show including a good sized plush

Some of the things I'm working on that aren't plush:


Drawing finished just last night. 6x8 inches, color pencil on paper.



Painting in progress. 4x12 inches, acrylic on canvas.

A distelfink?

What is a distelfink?  To be honest I didn't know either until a couple of years ago.  See I grew up in southern Pennsylvania, in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. As a typical teenager, I didn't appreciate anything from the area. That was until I moved for college, and realized that nowhere else would I ever eat a delicious fausnacht, or other local treats.

As I got older, I began to appreciate some of the pretty folk art of the area, especially the symbols and such used in hex signs. A lot of the drawings look similar to Scandinavian and other European folk art as well. One of my favorite symbols were the fancy, ornate birds seen throughout many of the designs. After lots of google-hopping, I found out these birds were referred to as distelfinks.

For a long time I've been meaning to make my own modern version of a distelfink. A few weeks back I felt inspired and doodled one, then decided I'd make it into a carved stamp/block.



This was only the second carving I've done, so I am really pleased with how well I was able to maintain the curves and such.  Also, I REALLY love the Speedy Stamp material. I have some other carving materials, but so far this one is my favorite.



Here is my original doodle, the carving, and a sample printing. As you can see a few details didn't make it into the carving. However, I think as I improve my carving skills, I'll be able to manage such small dots and such eventually.

Chess Girl

This little drawing/sketch has been in a holding pattern for a while now. I really like her, but am unsure of what I'm going to do with her. Make her into a painting? Make her into a larger drawing and tweak the shading by adding some more light areas? So many ideas for her! She is up on the short list of things to do something with in the next month or so... Definitely expect to see more of her.

Baby Canvases II Show is up!

So much of the last 2 weeks has been wrapping up work for the Baby Canvases II show at the Soundry. I finished all 15 works and added little tags to the back of them with my blog address and dropped them off last Wednesday.  This past Saturday was the show opening. There were so many good works. I drank a delicious lemonade fizz served up by the lovely folks at the Soundry.  HINT: The Soundry is a gallery, studio space, and coffee bar all in one!


My friend Katie, who also had work in the show, dragged me over to where my stuff was displayed. I was surprised and thrilled to see that within an hour of the show opening 2 of my works had already sold.  :D I took a picture of my hanging work before I left, and now a total of 5 had been sold! *twirls* I'm very excited if you can't tell. This is the first time I've sold anything I've made, which is super awesome.

I'm so glad some of them (maybe more?) will have new homes. I'll be honest, I had a hard time relinquishing some of these to the show once they were finished. In particular, that little girl with the red balloon. She's modeled after some of the dolls I'll be making soon.  I was finally able to put her in with the rest of the pieces once I decided I'd make myself a bigger version of her for my home.  Turns out my sisters all want a version of her too, as its become their favorite as well.

You can see more detailed views of all of these on my Flickr Account.

Here are the works Katie had up, and below that are the works her sister put into the show. Katie made some really cute kokeshi girls.  I really loved the little blue skull one, so its mine!  We're doing an art trade. Her blue skull kokeshi for a variation of my Stitch Bunny.

The show is up until July 28, so if you are in the Northern Virginia area, you should go check it out. There really are some very neat works, and its just an neat space overall to visit.

Sketches - Curl Girl to Whisp

A few months back I was making nightly sketches (something I really should get back into).  Just getting things out of my brain and onto paper. Most of my sketching is very organic, without too much forethought going into them. I'll have a basic idea, and after that things flow in whatever direction they want to go. I've tried to force myself into a neater, cleaner style, but it rarely turns out right.

I have a pretty set sketching style. Where I use short loose strokes and slowly tighten things up as I see how things are developing, and the image slowly reveals itself to me. Its almost like scratching a lottery ticket to reveal the numbers below. I sit there scratching into the paper to see what exactly is going to end up staring back at me.

This is what ended up looking back at me one night. I did the initial sketch one night, and then a few weeks later I added a little shading. Its really neat watching these girls I draw come into existence. I nicknamed her "Curl Girl".

Recently I decided to try and make this sketch into a drawing. So one night I set out to make a cleaned up version. While I like the outcome of this first attempt, it didn't end up looking exactly as I had planned. I ended up nicknaming the drawing "Whisp" because of the whisps of hair flying in the front.

I'll probably try to make her as drawing again, but without getting rid of the "sketchy" feeling entirely and without such thick lines. I really like the character some of the sketchy feeling gives to the original sketch. There may also be more to the drawing next time around, such as more of her, and some other little items, like a background or such.

Busy bee - show applications

I'm going to be a busy bee over the next few weeks. There are some deadlines closing in for work and applications to some shows. The Plush You Seattle deadline is May 10. After that the Strange Figurations deadline is June 30 and the very next day is the deadline for Teeny Tiny Art show #7.

I've got several sketches that need to turn into paintings, as well as several plush ideas. I'll try to get some in progress shots while I work on things.

This little sketch is definitely one I'd like to finish in time to submit to the Teeny Tiny show. I'll be working on her and some others over the next couple of months.

I must say I'm really excited to get some of my sketches out of the sketchbooks and make them into final pieces. Some of them have been sitting in there for a long time, and are starting to get cranky with me.

Skull doodle - oil pastel

This is the result of last nights playing around with my new oil pastels. I'm actually pretty happy with how he came out. At the beginning I didn't think I would be. But I just kept on playing, and slowly things started to look better and better.

And while I didn't get super expensive pastels, I was really impressed with how well they worked. Definitely good enough for me to work with for a while.

I also loved my silicone brushes. The set I got was actually a bit TOO soft. The reviews had said the soft ones were good for pastels, but I think they were referring to chalk pastels. I forgot how heavy oil pastels are. However I also got some chalk pastels, so I'll use the soft colour shapers for working with them, and charcoal, and maybe painting. :D

I did order a kids rubber clay shaper tool, and that was firm enough to really blend the oil pastel, though the tip was a bit large. I'll probably order myself a couple of the firm brushes sometime soon. (oh noes! Suzi has to order more art supplies!) I can't say enough how much I love them. I can already tell that sore finger tips from smudging will be a thing of the past. And I really want to see how they work with paint.

Tonight I'll be doing the water color resist version. Which means unpacking the paint supply box. Then apparently Patriots is starting a Trivia night tonight, that will hopefully be every Wednesday. I've been wanting to go to one of these forever! My friends in other states go to them frequently, and I've been jealous for years.

Skull doodle test subject

I got the disappointing news that I did not make it into the Plush You LA show. While I was a bit bummed out, I'm not too down about it. I really am just starting out. So I'll work on making more cute things and try again next time.

Also I've been switching moods from my Plush Mood, to my Art Mood. I got the idea recently to make a simple little doodle to use to test some new methods. So here is my little skull doodle.

Nothing super fancy. Just something simple that will allow me to concentrate on learning to work with some new mediums rather than being too focused on a finished project. I've traced him onto several 6x6 pieces of bristol and will begin experimenting tonight. Mwahaha!

Here he just has some thick ink outlines. Just for fun. The other methods I'm gonna play with are:
- oil pastel
- water-color resist
- acrylic with resist


And maybe some others. We'll see. If they come out pretty decent, I'm going to donate them to the 6x6 exhibit.  More on the 6x6 show here. Its basically a fund raising exhibit where anyone can donate pieces of art 6x6, and the art center sells everything for $20 a piece. There are no names on the pieces (except on the back) and on one knows who they are buying from until after its purchased. It seemed like a neat idea, and I was going to do these little tests on this size bristol anyway. So basically its perfect! If I have time, I may doodle out some other little pieces, just to get myself into the art groove.

Shading Practice - ACEO

The other day I whipped out a pack ATC sized Bristol board a friend had given to me and decided to do a little shading practice. Its been awhile since I've worked on art, so I'm trying to get my art muscles all nice and loosened up.

She's pretty much a replica of the girl in my previous post. Just wanted to get some tonal values down to see how I want to progress with her on a larger scale. I was pretty pleased with how she came out despite being out of practice. Maybe I'll make her available as an ACEO after I finish the painting.