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

Hi ya!

I did this picture a while back with pencils and colored pencils on a thicker paper. It kind of was an experimental piece, because I'd never used that sort of thick paper before. It turned out better than I expected though. Basically it wasn't any different than what I do on regular white printing paper.

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....)

Inspirations

I have had many inspirations for my art. I can only think of 3 famous artists who have made me the artist I am today. One is Thomas Kinkade. I love his work. The only problem, I could never do art like that. But his work has inspired me to be more creative and to try to paint things realistically. The second artist who has inspired me is Mary Engelbreit. My mother bought a calendar of hers a couple of years ago and I have been entranced by her work ever since. It was her work that actually pushed me into art. Before I merely twiddled my thumbs with it, but when I realized that I could use markers and colored pencils instead of paints, it launched my love for art. If I hadn't worked with those mediums first, I don't think paints would have been so easy for me. I learned to mix and create colors with colored pencils first and then I realized how to do that with paint.

Third, the artist who has inspired me for many years, is Bob Ross. I absolutely love watching his shows on the educational channel. He is the funniest artist I have ever seen and I wish that I could have met him. With his artist views of "Happy accidents" and "furry friends" he has played a huge role in the shaping and progression of my art. Recently I studied his work from one of his workbooks that I have and I loved how it came out. I've tried to imitate his work before, just for practice, but have never been able to do so. I always imagined that if I ever did anything close to his work, then I was a true artist. And now, at last, I have created something similar to his. Because it is based on his work, it is not necessarily my own ideas, but I did indeed paint this myself. Of course, if you love Bob Ross' work as much as I do, I'm sure you'll be able to tell the difference. I plan to give this painting to my mother as soon as I can frame it.

What I do

I was just thinking, I haven't explained much about my work. If you look at my cabin picture, you might notice it's a little bit of a 3-d like picture. Well, what I do is what I prefer to call "Scrapbooking". I cut out a picture (such as the trees and cabin and snowbanks) from fairly thick paper (so it doesn't curl too much) and paint it to look like whatever I want. I hardly ever make pieces from my sketches, which I think both helps and hinders me. It helps me stay creative, but it hurts me when I'm not in a particularly creative mood, yet I still want to create something. Plus, I hardly ever can create the picture I want from my sketches. They never seem to come out anything alike.
I also will paint the background, since paint creates a nice, clean background picture (unlike my former medium of markers and colored pencils). Then, once everything is dry, I use just regular school glue (usually Elmers) and glue down everything where I think it looks best. Usually by now I have a picture in my head of what I plan to create.
Once I have everything glued down, I usually sign the picture and that's about it, unless I feel that I can do more with it later, at which point I will save it and finish it at another time. However, I've come to find that the paper still curls once the paint is dry, so I will usually press my work between some thick books, or find a way to make the picture stay flat again. So far, this hasn't been too much of a problem. I hope it never will be.
The reason I refer to this as my "Scrapbooking" technique, is because it reminds me of how people create scrapbook pages. (That and the fact that I also used scrapbook sheets as some of the backgrounds for my work.) There are raised pictures on quite a few of my new works and they have things glued to them, rather than painted or drawn directly on them. Plus, I have found that I like the mixed media look and have put other things on my work as well, such as buttons and string. It's all quite exciting finding out that there is more than one world of art out there. Now I know that I can create so many more things and actually achieve the look and style that I crave. The winter cabin picture below is a great example of that. I love that picture because it is 3-d ish and looks exactly how I would imagine my art to look like. It has that 'cartoonish' feel to it. I just love that! :)
If you have any questions or suggestions about what I do, feel free to leave me a comment. I enjoy the feedback and help! :) And if you haven't tried any new art techniques, I definately think it's something you should do. Even if you're not good at another medium, it helps you learn some techniques you can use in the one you like and you'd be surprised at some of the things you can create. On top of all that, it's just plain fun! :D

It's a small world, after all...

Well, I figured I'd add some images, since I keep saying I love to draw and make pictures. I just have to warn you that all images are copyrighted, so don't even think about taking them!

If you would like to see more of my work or would like to buy some artwork or contact me for a job or whatever, just leave me a comment with your email address or a way to get in touch with you and I will contact you.

Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy the view! Life's too short to waste it! :)