Elephant Music

This is a little something I created ages ago and just finally got around to scanning in the past few months. It's very simplistic, but I liked it and mostly made it for my mom who has always had a soft spot for elephants, of all things. ;) I've been meaning to add some digital alterations to it, but have yet to get around to it. :P For now, just enjoy it as it is. ;)

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. :)

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. :)

Family Birthdays

I have 2 family birthdays coming up that both fall on the same day. No, it wasn't a coincidence either. :) My dad was born at the end of September, so my brother and his wife had a planned c-section on his birthday with their daughter, my neice. Therefore, they both have the same birthday. For it, I thought to post some pics of birthday drawings I have, but I don't think I have any scanned so far. I'll have to scan some and put them on here.

Still life

I love this picture. It's sort of a copy of a still life I saw on the front of my notebook. The picture didn't have any color and it was alot different then my picture, but I think I'll keep this in my own collection because I love it! I've not really ever done too many still lifes before. This wasn't a still life either, since it was based on someone elses' art, but I guess it would be considered a still life anyway. :) I used acrylic paint to make it. I used bright colors because they seem to make my art just jump off the page. I've been trying to use more bright colors to do that, but sometimes it's hard to only use bright colors. :)

Chicka chickas

I love this picture, even though it's not my best work. It really doesn't even make sense, but I think it's so cute. It's 3 birds, not penguins, in a tree. I applied the "scrapbooking" technique to this, since I cut out the limb, leaves, and birds and painted them before glueing them down over my painting of the tree. Right now, I have this picture framed and hanging in my room. There's just something about it that I love. :)

Silhouette

I absolutely love the look of these two. One is a silhouette of one bird on a blue background and the other is a silhouette of two birds on an orange background. I thought this style would make a good theme for someone's room.

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.

My Prince

Lately, another friend and I have been talking alot about finding out "Prince Charming"s. For some reason, I keep thinking about fairytales and the young girl who kissed the frog who was really a prince. I even sent her a card I made (which looked more like a brochure) that was like a flyer for a kingdom. In is, I said that "Prince Charming" was missing and had a picture of a frog on the front.

So, I thought over the weekend that this would suit us quite nicely. I have a story in mind for this picture, but have yet to put any of it on paper. I guess I'm still working out the kinks. :)
If anyone else is looking for their prince charmings, always remember that they'll be in the last place you look. And don't forget those swamps! Even in the least likely of places there are treasures! Lol! :)

The Circus

A friend of mine recently had a birthday party for her son with a circus theme. I was asked to come up with the cover for the invitations. I quickly did this picture, even though I didn't go with it. Still, I really was quite satisfied with the way it turned out. The tent is made of tissue paper.

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

Over the Weekend

Well, I've been at it again. :) I always try to create a little something on the weekends, since that's when I have the most time. So now, I have a couple of new pictures to add to my growing collection. :)

I know this first one is a little early, but I just can't help but get a head start for some winter pics. :) I liked this one because it looks so...cozy.

This other one that I did is more summery. :) It's supposed to be a bird flying over a tree and house. I've had the bird for awhile, I just didn't know where to put him.

You know what's funny is that I keep having to tell myself that this is something I can do. It's not really that I don't want to do it, it's just that I keep thinking that maybe I can't. Maybe that I won't be as good as all of those other professional illustrators out there. Maybe I won't ever have any books or art published with my work in them. Maybe I'm not as good as an artist as I thought.

And perhaps I'm not. But I'll never know if I don't try. So if anyone else out there is having the same thoughts, just remember that you can do anything you put your mind to. I know there are other famous illustrators and artists out there who never had an ounce of education, so there's hope for me, too. :) Maybe one day I'll have my work published and it will be the number one best seller of all time. LOL! Here's to hoping!

Where to begin....

Well, this is a first for me. I didn't even know you could do blogs for free! (I'm no where near being able to afford something like that on a professional scale!)
For now, I think this will do to let people know that I'm an artist and that I want to be a children's book illustrator.
If you would like to see more of my work, let me know. Now, about me, there's really not much to say. I enjoy spending time with my family and I love art! I love creating art more than anything. :) It's so much fun to get lost in my own world and to create a world of my own. So far, I don't have any formal art training or education, but neither did Mary Engelbreit, and look at her!