camellia and a canvas

i love my camellia drawing so much, that i find myself using it over and over in different applications. this is a 5x7 piece on a cradled canvas that i made a few days ago. i used vintage paper, golden fluid acrylics, a white gellyroll pen for highlights, pattern paper and...

vintage crocheted trim to finish it off.

now, the question is - what do i do with all these canvases i am making???

daisies and trim

i got an itch to start a new canvas piece and here is the result. if you follow me on instagram (where it seems i am spending all my time :), you would have seen in progress pics.

the daisy is one of my drawings turned into fabric and vintage tatted trim is used for the banner across the top attached with yellow french knots.

i am so happy with this piece and will be a bit sad to see it go, but off to The BoneYard it goes!

celebration and good cheer

i cannot begin to tell you how creative i have felt over the last 18 days. taking time off from my graphic design biz was the best thing i could have done. even though i work out of the home, i have realized that i still hold onto a lot of stress from the job. and that stress reflects in my creativeness.

i finished a bunch of wooden canvas pieces like i showed you last week and i managed to knock off another flower for my calendar. this time it was the poinsettia. since you only buy these one time of the year, i figured i better get on it :)

4 more to go and them i am finished. larkspur, gladiola, aster and marigold.

thread and patterns

have you checked out the we love french knots website yet? if you like fabric and stitching, you will definitely find some eye candy. bari j. has been highlighting various embroidery pattern designers and they are all so varied in their designs. this got me thinking about my own work and how my botanical drawings would translate to thread.

this image is a scan of my first attempt to bring my drawings to life on fabric and i think it turned out rather lovely. i used a vintage sheet as the background to bring in some more interest and detail, then went to town sewing. it came together really quickly and i think because i outline all my flowers in black ink, that they could translated to this medium very well. what are your thoughts? would you be interested in seeing me offer downloadable pdf patterns in my shop?

up next? my tiger lily...

simplicity and a daisy

happy monday! i finished another botanical drawing over the weekend - this time a daisy, the birth flower for april. i was struggling a bit at the start with how to draw a white flower on white paper, but in the end, it came together pretty quickly and i love the lightness of the piece. i am also in love with the leaf, because if you didn't know, i dread drawing leaves. it is really tough for me to get them to look dimensional, especially with this one because the leaves on my daisy were pretty old and shriveled, so there was a lot of improvisation.

up next is a gladiola for august.

art and design

since my days are my own again, i have finally found time to digitally finish my botanical drawings. yay for me!

my prints begin as fully finished colored pencil drawings, then i scan them in and add the words and border digitally. i love combining my two passions of fine art and graphic design to get something complete unique and totally me. this batch brings my total of prints up to 8 which means i only have 4 more to do before i have enough for my calendar dream. well, actually 5, because a hydrangea is not associated with any month, i just did that one because they are my favorite!

what is your favorite flower? i just might throw one into the mix as well :)

drawings and a new lens

here's another small drawing to close out the week. i am really loving capturing the beauty of a single stem. not sure what these flowers are called, but i have been buying them a lot lately. they are full and colorful and last forever!

on another note, i bought a new lens and holy cow - it's amazing! it is a 50mm prime and while it took a bit getting used to, i think it is going to be my go to lens. my other lenses are all zoom, so my hand keeps grasping the barrel, trying to zoom, but hopefully that habit will die out soon. my favorite part is what they call "bokeh". it is what blurs out the background while making the foreground crisp and clear as you can see on the right side of the photo.

what is your favorite lens???

gardenias and sunflowers

something inside of me has been dying to sketch lately. i am craving colored pencils as well as ink which has led me here. these are just some of my doodles of late - a gardenia and a sunflower.

with the kids still on summer break, i don't have much time, so these drawings are under an hour and the perfect little escape in my otherwise crazy days.

what do you do to sneak away from the noise of everyday life?

hoops and hankies - round 2

i am hooked and obsessively searching every thrift store in town for more miniature embroidery hoops! seriously guys, this project is so fun and quick, but gives you huge satisfaction. i'll whip up a tutorial sometime in the next few months, but really, grab a vintage hanky, a hoop and some embroidery floss and go crazy. for the hoop above, i stamped "remember the little moments" around the edge and love the sweetness of how it all turned out.

i didn't get a good side shot of this hoop, but i finished off the outside with some thin grey and red ribbon attached with alene's tacky glue.

if you are wondering how i embroider text onto my pieces, i will let you in on the secret - a disappearing ink pen found in the sewing section of your local craft store. they are fantastic! you can doodle on your fabric as much as you want til you get it right, then stitch on the lines you like. then, give it a little time and all your doodle lines will eventually disappear.

have you made some of these? i wold love to see what you came up with :)

trespassing and a work in progress

to make progress on my flower of the month calendar, i have needed to find an iris to draw. who knew they were such a hard flower to find??? i visited 2 florists and explained that i draw flowers and could i buy an iris stem and they both looked at me like i was crazy and one even added that irises are very temperamental flowers. thanks for the info.

last friday, a friend and i went to a community yard sale in the fanciest subdivision of our little community. people come out by the hundreds to be let behind the gates and sneak a peek at how the other side lives. we stopped at one sale in a culdesac and i couldn't help but notice the un-kept yard next door. this is very unusual because most houses in here have yard crews. upon further inspection, i noticed that a section of the yard was overflowing with the most beautiful irises. i quickly asked the lady running the sale if the house was empty and when i found out it was, i hurried over and snuck away with 3 iris stems safely tucked in my car. score!

the hardest part about drawing flowers is the time constraints. they literally change minute by minute, so you have to draw part by what you see and part by intuition. a teacher of mine said to photograph the flowers, then draw from the photo. i find this really hard to do though because i feel that the photo always looks flat. so i suck it up and sketch as much as i can before the flower wilts. the above photo is after i have done my sketching and before i go in and blend out all the harsh lines.

i can't wait to add this to my calendar pages. february will be checked off shortly!

sleeping and dreaming

here is my latest original piece for my up coming show - a sweet dreamy tulip. i will have a total of 5 framed canvases ranging in size from 8x10 to 20x24. i have a million ideas for these canvases, but am using the show as a coming out party to see how they are received. good thoughts people, good thoughts!

today was supposed to be the day that i checked a lot off my to do list, but instead i woke up wishing i could go back to bed and sleep off a head cold that formed overnight. i have design work to start and a very important leap forward article to write for a magazine, but all i can do is dream about summer and days spent at the pool with my little munchkins.

i always have tomorrow, right?

smiles and flowers

smile, it's monday :)

pretty and pink

here is another new piece that will be getting a frame shortly. (still haven't gotten around to that task :)

the background floral is a vintage sheet wrapped onto a 14x11 canvas frame and is already very cherished by yours truly. i think this is the true test of whether or not you are on the right track with your creative life. the more you dread selling a piece is directly proportionate to the fact that you have finally found that one thing that has been in you all along.

a big thanks to everyone who has cheered me on with this new endeavor. your words of encouragement are exactly what i need.

rain and shine

this past week has been one of those where yuckiness has rained down on me. i have a graphic design client who is trying very hard to drive me nuts, nuts i tell you! but i have to remind myself to push on through the rain. if i let the rain roll off my back, i can shine right on through.

the above image is the second piece i have done since my breakthrough. this time, i experimented with canvas and couldn't be happier. the daffodil is my drawing, appliqued onto fabric which is then wrapped around a sturdy canvas frame. the top is a cream, rain filled sky with a speckled brown muslin for the dirt.

next on the agenda? a chunky white frame so that when someone buys it at my next show in may, all they have to do is put a nail in the wall and hang it. i am actually quite excited to start on the frame, i think it will complete the look very nicely. i have the wood all picked out - all i have to do is get out my miter saw and nails and i will be ready to go!

dreams and life

good morning! remember last week when i talked about all my sleepless nights? well, the above piece is the product of my "likes" list. i just love it so much, i love the color, i love the composition, i love the process. everything - love!

the flower might look familiar to anyone who reads this blog regularly because it is actually one of my colored pencil drawings (and seen in my banner above). i transferred the image to fabric, then hand appliqued it to the stretched canvas. of course, the flower wouldn't be complete without a sweet little milk glass vase. i went a bit crazy with the french knots, but i ask you, what better way to depict a hobnail pattern?

thank you to everyone who cheered me on with this creative break though. i am so inspired that now i cannot sleep again - only this time, it's for a much different reason. all i want to do is make!

roses are red and...

love and appreciation, what more could we hope for out of life?

new print in my botanical series which will hopefully be in the shop soon :)

experimenting and doodling

 

i did it! i finally got the courage to "enhance" book pages. part of me felt like the book police were going to show up at my door and haul me off, but the other part was wildly excited. the book was purchased at a yard sale, so no big investment if i screwed up. i absolutely loved the sweet poems and black illustrations when i found it and knew that colorful doodles would be a perfect compliment. i used black micron pens and my prismacolor watercolor colored pencils. if you know me at all, then you know that painting is not for me. i have nothing against it, i simply have other artistic ventures that i am dying to tackle. if you have this aversion as well, you should try watercolor pencils. you draw on the paper with the pencil, then take a wet paintbrush to the color and you instantly have the look of watercolor. i use a very stiff flat brush because it lets me drag the color exactly where i want it to go (as in the downward motion of the raindrops in the above image). if the page is wet, but you still want to add more color, you can run your brush against the tip of the pencil and the color will come off that way too.

 

after a night of experimenting and doodling, i was so happy with the finished results. while i have no idea what i am going to do with these pages, i am extremely excited that i stepped out of my comfort zone and tried something new. 

what new technique have you tried lately? who knows, i might need to add it to my "experiment" list :)

products and new ideas

there are a few new products brewing over here on linwood avenue. i'm not ready to reveal the whole shebang, but here is a little sneak peek :)

fabric and new ideas

my first spoonflower shipment of fabric arrived today and i am THRILLED! the repeat is perfect, the color is perfect, the size of each flower is perfect! now the questions is what do i make first? 

i have a feeling that the fabric will be hanging over my chairs in this exact same spot for a few days so i can sit and stare, and then i will start cutting it up with a tear in my eye :)

producing and printing

i am getting in full creative work horse mode with the advent of school starting back on august 9th! the fact that i will have 2 solid months of days to myself before a huge festival is perfection.

i will be showcasing a lot of new items this time around and that puts a smile on my face. yesterday, in the mail, i received bookmarks which were printed through my fabulous online printer. the company is 4over and the work they produce is outstanding and super affordable. the bad news is that they are only available for trade businesses, ie: graphic designers with a tax id number or ad agencies, that kind of thing. the good news is, if you are one of those, you will never look for another printer again. i get comments constantly on the thickness of my business cards and the great color coverage on my note cards. give them a try, you won't be disappointed. and no, there was no kick back given for my kind words ;)

back to the bookmarks. i think i am going to add tassels to them out of bakers twine, the red and white striped kind (if i can find it) and sell them for $1-2 each. having something with a really small price point in your booth is always a plus. kids love buying items at festivals, and this won't clean out their parent's wallet.