Before the holidays.

Just another bunny line up. :)

I also redid the bear that I drew here.

And then I put him in a nice little scene for Christmas. :) I probably won't be on much at all the next week, as I won't be around anywhere with any good internet access. So just wanted to wish everyone a lovely holiday in whatever you celebrate. :)

Some old stuff and something new.

I recently went through some old storage I've had of pictures I drew from when I first started drawing. Pretty much everything from about the first 3 years I started drawing were in the box. I thought it would be fun to share my old style and let some stuff that never saw the light of day get a chance to breathe. ;D As you can see, this is from 2006.

I found this one and thought it would be a fun Christmas picture to share and to show, mostly to myself, how far I've progressed over the years. What amazes me is that I used to have time to actually draw and color all this by hand. I don't have the patience for coloring like that anymore. Digitial coloring is just so much faster and cleaner, obviously, but I didn't get that equipment until later, so this was really the only way I could draw at the time. I was greatly inspired by Mary Engelbreit's work (she's actually the reason I decided to start drawing at all) and I wanted to try my hand at doing some illustrations of my own, similar to her style. As she draws with colored pencils and markers, that's exactly what I used here.

I need to create one of those progression meme's that show how far you've come. Although it would be easier if I wrote dates on this stuff. XD

Another old piece I found in my storage. This one isn't dated, but I imagine it's around 2006 as well. I haven't had time to create much Christmas art lately, so this will have to do. XD Also done with Markers and colored pencils and still inspired by Mary Engelbreit's work. Maybe one day I'll recreate some of these digitally. And then again, maybe it's best I don't. XD

And something new. :) This is the sketch and the completed piece side by side. I may use him in something somehow, but I'm not sure what. I really liked the sketch of this. Even better then the outcome. :p

Holidays and warm ups

Just a warm up of a silly bunny. :3

I'm thinking I'm going to do my Christmas cards by hand, as I don't have that many and I don't always get to draw traditionally anymore. But I can't seem to help from coming up with Christmas ideas digitally. Here's one that clearly doesn't have much pre thought to it. I think it would be a good item for something like a postcard? Maybe a good layout for a letter to Santa? Possibly a calendar page (which is why it says December)? Haven't decided what else to do with it yet, but it's fun to create items for the season. :)

Holiday Tradition

For some it's a holiday tradition to come up with a family photo for their seasonal greeting card. And sometimes, several members of the family can't help but wonder, "Who's idea was this in the first place?" :) Sort of like when you see photos like these here and here.

(And in case it's not clear, those are supposed to be owls floundering around in the snowman.)

Also available on Society6.

Several things to share....

Have quite a bit to share with you guys today. Hopefully it will be worth the overload. :)

First, this is a little piece I created from the Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer classic. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's adorable, even as old as it is. The first layout is my original idea and then, based on a comment from this lovely lady on another one of my pieces, I decided to try it on as a digital ornament as well, which I really liked. :D

This piece I added to my Society6 page. Just something random. :) Been playing around with the 3 dimensional look though, which I really like. Also have some pictures of just the two characters in the piece. They're really the best part of the whole thing. ;)

And finally, because I'm a bit random, I found out yesterday that today is National Button day. And if you know me, you know that I LOVE buttons(Which you can almost glimpse here and here)! So I just had to come up with something new to share. I started out with just the buttons and then thought they'd look better on a pin cushion sort of thing instead. :) Either way, happy National button day1 XD And if you decided to celebrate, feel free to post the link so we can all celebrate with you! XD

Thanks for stopping by and hope you all have a great weekend!

Warmest Wishes

I'm always behind on my Christmas cards, that I thought I'd start coming up with ideas early this year. Hopefully this is just one of many other ideas. Still grooving with the circle theme. :)

Ack!

I'm so behind! I completely missed November. :S The rest of my life has been so hectic and crazy lately though that I just haven't been able to post anything new. I have been creating some art (mostly little doodles and sketches), but I haven't had time to scan them or photograph them to upload them. :S

Anyway, I just wanted to pop on here and let the world know I haven't left My Art World. ;)

I've actually been trying to make a few Christmas gifts for some friends, so that's one thing I'm hoping to post later, though I'm not sure when. :S

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. :)

Merry Christmas!

Okay, I know I didn't finish the twelve days/drawings for Christmas, but I have been so busy buying Christmas presents and wrapping them and everything that I simply haven't had the time. Plus, I got an early Christmas present that I just had to try out. Do you want to know what it is? A Bamboo Fun Wacom tablet! I can't believe I have one now. A wonderful friend of mine got it for me and gave it to me early and I was absolutely shocked. I've never used a tablet before, so I've been trying it out and I love it! Below I've posted some pictures of it, and hopefully once Christmas is over and I have time to set it up right and fool around with it, I'll be able to post some pictures I create from it.

Here's the box.

And here's what was inside.

I hope you have a merry Christmas and get everything you all want, too. ;D

On the 6th day of Christmas...

"On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...six geese a laying!"

We made a snow globe...um, I mean snow tube?

Looky, looky! We made 'snowglobes'! :D Me and my neice that is. :) You can check out what we made here, on my other blog. If you're looking for a fun project to do with the kids or something that will keep them occupied for a bit while you're wrapping their gifts, this will definately do the trick. :) Plus, you can make so many things besides what we made. The possibilities truly are endless. :)

Here's a sneak peek at the one that I made.

My own Homemade Sketchbook

Okay, my other sketchbook that I had gotten from Barnes & Noble, I believe, has run out. So, while surfing the web this weekend, I came across a fairly easy set of instructions to make one of my own from my own paper and things. You can see the instructions I used here. This was a fun project to make, especially if you need quick and thoughtful ideas for Christmas presents, or if youjust need something for the kids to do while you're working. Anyway, here's what my second book came out as. (The first one was...well, just horrible.) Once you get the hang of it, it's really not so bad. :)

Update: You can view my other sketchbook attempts here:
Attempt #2
Books, Books, Endlessly Books

On the 9th day of Christmas...

"On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...nine ladies dancing!"

On the 12th day of Christmas...

Today makes it twelve days until Christmas, and I said I was going to try and make a post each day to do with Christmas. So, to stay in tune with the song (On the twelfth day of Christmas....Twelve drummers drumming), I've decided to post this picture of some crazy creatures I made out of leftover scrap paper that I couldn't bring myself to throw away. :) It looks sort of like they would be drummers, since their hands are so oddly shaped.

"On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me....Twelve Drummers Drumming!"

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Yay! It's snowing! The first snow of the season! How wonderful! :D I already decided that the first day it snowed I would post a snowy picture, so here it is. :) Sorry if I've already posted it. It's one I've had for awhile and I'm starting to forget which ones I've added and which ones I haven't! :S

Happy Holidays

Just wanted to say Happy Holidays to everyone. I can't believe it's almost Christmas! I've got lots and lots of shopping left to do....

So much to get, so little time....

Christmas is only about a month away now. (Less than a month, actually! :) So I thought I would post this octopus to show how I'll need about ten arms to get all my gifts intime for the holidays! :) I'm so excited about Christmas this year. Of course, I think I get excited about Christmas every year, but this year seems different. Maybe it's because we have our decorations up early this year, or because it seems like it was just Halloween yesterday and if I blink again, Christmas will already be here and gone.
Either way, I can't wait to see everyone on Christmas morning, and to have that good feeling that comes when you give someone something that they really, truly want. :)

Someone's coming!

Here's something else I did this weekend for the holidays. I 'painted' it on my computer. It's supposed to be someone looking over their shoulder who hears someone coming as they steal a christmas tree. Not a very good thing to teach children, but I thought it was cute. Or, I guess it could be Santa accidentally knocking over someone's christmas tree as they hear someone coming. Whichever you want it to be I guess. :)

One last picture

Okay, here's one last picture with some Halloween-ish colors. I did this on my laptop with my mouse and am extremely proud of how good it turned out. So, I thought I would share it as my last Halloween picture of the year. Maybe. ;) I've already started working on Thanksgiving and Christmas art, so this probably will be my last Halloween pic for awhile. :)

It's all over....

So, Halloween is over. The candy is dwindling, the costumes are put away and forgotten, the decorations look limp and lifeless in the yard, and the thrill of being a little scared is gone. At least for me. My favorite holiday of the year has come and gone. Now what?

Thanksgiving! And Christmas! They're both coming now, and I'm so excited! :D I love this time of the year. I don't know if it's because I'm ready for some cold air after the hot summer we had, or if it's the warm, loving feelings I get from the holidays, but either way, it's wonderful. So while Halloween is gone, there's even more good things to look forward to. :) So, Happy early holidays!

National Grandparents Day

Well, this weekend is National Grandparents' day, so I figured I would post the only thing I have close to a grandparent drawing. This is definately not a final piece I would use, but I have always liked it because I had done things with it that I never had tried with any other picture. One was the Santa Clause. He is one of my favorite parts of this picture and one of the best parts of it I think. Another thing I had never done before this picture was snow. Or at least I hadn't drawn snow that had a frozen pond in the middle of it. It's kind of hard to see the frozen pond behind the shoppers, but I was so proud of this pic at the time, until I got it reviewed and saw that it wasn't as good as I thought. Still, I like it and think it's helped me learn more about art and how I can fix it. And while it may be a Christmas theme, I think it is a good fit for National Grandparents Day.
This picture actually has a story to go with it. The Santa all dressed up is just a man dressed as Santa, which the little girl is all excited to see. But if she would only turn around, she would see the REAL Santa and even his wife, Mrs. Clause. (For some reason, no one's ever known her name....)