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.

Baby Canvases II - Tiny green monster

Yet another piece in the set I'm doing for Baby Canvases II. A cute little painting of my little green monster.  You've seen his cousin "in the plush" in this post.

I'm still getting used to this whole shading in color concept.  I've used monotone dry media for so long, that its sometimes hard for me to understand that not just any old dark color will do for shading. I originally tried making the shadows on this little guy in a dark brown. It didn't blend so well, nor did it look too good. So I had to go back over with more greens to finally get it to look how I wanted.

With more practice I'll get the hang of it.  :D

2x3 inches
acrylic on canvas

Baby Canvases II - Stitch Bunny - In a day

One of the many things I've added to my list, is to participate in the Baby Canvases II show being held by The Soundry. I figured it was a nice baby step into painting since I haven't finished a painting in...oh....10 years? Yeah...

So, the other day at lunch I was doodling. Trying to come up with little felt patch designs for the upcoming plushies I'm working on. Instead I doodle a slightly more complicated cute bunny (and friends).

I figured it was perfect to use as one of my Baby Canvas entries. I had even sketched him at the exact size. Perfect!

If you look closely in my messy workspace you can my sketch as well as the painting of the bunny in progress.

I have a feeling him and his friends (not as easily seen here) will end up in my mental que of "Cute things to make into plush form".

Here he is all ready to go off to the show! He told me his name is "Stitch Bunny". I feel I better listen to him and title him as such, otherwise there could be trouble.

Spoonflower Fat Quarter Puppet Contest

I've heard about Spoonflower before. Its a really neat site where you can upload your own fabric designs and get them printed. You can also make your designs available for sale if you choose. When I first heard about it, it was still by invite only.  Now anyone can get their designs printed.

I also just recently learned that they hold contests.  I love contests! So I came up with something simple and cute for their Fat Quarter Puppet Contest. And here he is:

He's just a cute silly little bunny. We all know (or you should anyways) that bunnies are high up on the list of things I love.

The voting just started today.  So everyone go vote! You can vote for several designs, which is good because its hard to choose. Even for me, and I have my own design in the running! After seeing so many cute designs, I'm just hoping to get into the top 10. If I get into the top 5 I'd probably fall out of my chair. My personal favorite is Grrr...arrrgh! by milktooth.


Here are the 4 I voted for:

I'm currently working out the rough spots of my planned plush assembly line for my upcoming Etsy launch.  Launch date still TBD, but I'm thinking you'll see something sometime in June. Also, more doodles and art stuff next time.  :D

Leprechaun Gangster?

Its been so long since my last post.  Oops! I was out of town for a little while for work, and I'm slowly getting back on the crafting ball. My most recent completed item was a little gag gift for one of my sisters. Apparently she thought one of the lyrics in the song "Here comes the Hotstepper" said: I'm a leprechaun gangster. This amused her boyfriend a lot. Enough so, that he contacted me and asked me to make a leprechaun gangster plush for her as a surprise.

I believe you, but my tommy gun don't!

I had a lot of fun making him, even though I ended up having to pinstripe the fabric myself with a ruler and sharpie marker.  I just couldn't find a pinstripe fabric I liked, and in green no less. And I really love his little felt tommy gun.


Also, he's showing off my spiffy new labels I got a few months back.

From what I hear, he was very well received. :D Now I want to make a little plush version of my boyfriend with his fedora that he wears.  Will have to add that to the to do list.

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.