Horton Hears a Who

For my youngest nephew's birthday, I decided to continue with my new tradition (or what I hope to be a new tradition) of taking my neice and nephews to a movie. We decided to see "Horton Hears A Who", and they all loved it! I think I actually loved it more than they did though. It was so adorable, and they all stayed awake and seemed to greatly enjoy it. I loved that they kept it close to the book, too. Dr. Seuss' books are so wonderful and I'm glad they didn't change it too much and that they even kept in some of the rhyming. I also really loved the artwork of the movie. It looked so real at times.

I definately recommend this movie and I can't wait until it comes out on DVD so that I can watch it again..and again..and again. :)

What does this have to do with any of my artwork? Nothing really, except that because of seeing this movie, it kept me from doing anything new this weekend, so I don't have anything new to post for now. Stay tuned though. I should have something new in a day or so to share. :)

Umm...?

This was just something I created the other day on my wacom tablet. Not sure what to make of it. The background doesn't match the rest of it, so I need to play around with it some more and see if I can create a better picture with it.

More spring creations....

Here's another spring ensemble I put together. It's not as good as the owl, but I thought it was cute. It's just a couple of birdies, in case you can't tell. :)

The Colors of Spring

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. Autumn is the other, and Summer and Winter come last for me. But with Spring, I always find that I get so many ideas just from the colors around me. Maybe it's all the flowers in bloom or the fact that Winter is so bleak and white, like a blank canvas, but for some reason, Spring makes me feel creative. So, I have been caught up in the whirlwind of my cut paper, a.k.a. "Scrapbooking", technique again, and here's what I've come up with.

An OWL! :)

Happy (early) Easter!

Happy (early) Easter!

I know it's a bit early, but I probably won't have time to post a picture this weekend, so I figured I should do it now. Here's a picture I created on adobe. It seems the Easter bunny is a little bit stressed at the fact that Easter has come early this year and he's still not ready. :)

Spring is coming...

Spring doesn't officially begin until this Thursday (March the 20th), but it seems to have come early for me. I can't wait to start spring cleaning and for the weather to get warm. I've even started creating some cutesy little spring like pictures out of some awesome scrapbook paper I had. I just can't wait for spring to get here! :D

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I've been alittle behind this week and haven't gotten to create very much new art, so I don't have any of my own pictures to post at the moment, but here are a few websites you can go to to make your own art and crafts for this green filled day. :)

1.) Kaboose - Print your own Irish pictures

2.) Creativity Portal - Make crafts and learn about the history of St. Patrick's day

Enjoy being green today! :)

Heavenly Notes

These are so cute! I love the colors and the fact that they're sticky, like post it notes. They're from Hallmark. My mom gave these to me and I plan on leaving them everywhere for everyone. :) Oh, did you notice the bright, colorful blanket in the background? I just got it and I love it! :) It' so bright!

Take the time to read a book.

I drew this a few weeks ago on my tablet. I've nicknamed this little owl "Hootie" for now. It seems he has quite a has quite a handful of kids that want him to read to them. :)

Random sketches

Here's a page out of my sketchbook. A few fruits and veggies that seem to have come to life, and some animals who look very confused and just plain out of place. At first I wasn't too fond of the brown pages, but they seem to be growing on me. :) Plus it's a small book so that I can pack it anywhere without it being to cumbersome. I need to just take the time to draw in it more often. :)

Do you see what I see?

I have a question for you. What do you see when you look at this piece I created?

I see the beginning face of a robot. Minus the eyes, nose, and other gadgets a robot would have on his head, of course. It probably just looks like a blog of watercolor paints swirled around together to most people. Or perhaps you see a pool with fishes swimming around inside. Or something completely different. Hopefully once I tweak it and work with it in Adobe, everyone else will see what I see. But this makes me wonder, does anyone else 'see' pictures and art in the world around them? For example, do you see a plain old tree, or a giant piece of brocoli yet to be made? Does that hill look like a mound of dirt or a dragon laying down, growling at the tiny people living on his back?

Maybe it's an artist thing or maybe I'm just going loony from all the paint fumes, but this is how I've begun to see things around me. Ideas just seem to pop up out of nowhere sometimes, which sparks a vision for a new illustration or artwork.

Is this something that all artists do or just children's artists? Is it something everyone does in their every day lives? Who knows. But if you've got any stories or pictures to share where you've 'seen' some new artwork or it sparked a new idea, then I'd love to hear from you. I would love to do a post of some pictures of what someone 'sees' and what they created from that. If you'd like to share anything to do with art, you can email me at mindylouhagan at yahoo dot com, or just leave a comment. :)

WooHoo! Snow Day!

We had a MAJOR snow storm this weekend, leaving at least 6 or 7 inches (or more!) at our feet. So what does that mean in regards to my artwork? I didn't do it! :D I played in the snow instead. Hey, it was a snow day after all. And once you're out of school, those come far and few between. :) I don't have any snow day pictures to share as the ones I took were fairly boring (since I couldn't take too many pictures with my gloves on) but I do have a few new pieces of art to show you that I created last week. This one started out as just a scrap piece of paper used while figuring out my watercolors, but somehow it turned into a fish.

My mom found me a watercolor dvd that I have been watching and trying to learn from, so to use the terms I have learned so far, I believe this is a wet on dry piece. I really like the wet on wet technique, since it produces the sort of image that I have shown below. (On which I also like to use salt, as you can see by all the white dots.)

I think I'm going to try and make some sort of picture out of this on Adobe, but I haven't decided yet. I'll have to play around with it and see what I can come up with. Also, if you're trying this technique out, be sure not to use too much water, as it will run and crinkle your paper if you're using fairly thin paper. I believe mine here was 90lb., so you may want to get something a bit heavier to start out with.

Colored Pencil Instructions?

With the addition of some new Prismacolor colored pencils to my art utensils this week, this article really hit home ... and made me chuckle! With all the new age 'technology' in our world, everything has become so detailed in the instructions. But what about everything that doesn't really require a manual? What about things that require you to use common sense to use them? Well, this person decided to make an instruction manual/guide for colored pencils, and it is hillarious. Be sure to check it out and if you use colored pencils, you'll probably think of this article every time you use them afterwards. :)

Heave, ho!

This is also a digital picture done in Adobe. It's more a rough sketch though. I'm not sure what I was originally trying to make, but I ended up making this strong guy. Too bad he couldn't really take the garbage out for me. :)

Finally, some new pictures!

I've been so busy lately, I haven't had much time to put up anything new, so I decided I would put up a new picture to show. Enjoy! :)

*Note: I call this picture Pinky, but it's actually a digital copy of a real painting I did. I did this one on Adobe. I prefer the real one though. It's much cuter. :)

Absolutely Beautiful

There has been so much technology in the world that it's amazing what we can see and do today. Apparently yesterday scientists 'saw' an avalanche on Mars. How amazing is that? I know you're thinking, what does this have to do with art? Well, just go here and you'll see the most beautiful pictures of stars and colors I have ever seen. The pictures are truly amazing and it shows just how big the universe really is.

Oh no, it's the Design Police!!!!

"Design Police: Bring Bad Design to Justice!"
I stumbled across this website from another blog, though I'm not sure which one. I thought the idea was cute. :) They have "Design police" labels for you to put on your work, or other people's work. Some were things about how an idea was stolen or that an artist or illustrator or writer is needed. Basically, they're all kind of funny things to add some color to your work and to give you a little chuckle. You can go here to download the sheets you want to print.