Some Crafts

Here are some of my latest craft creations. I'm still trying to find my "look" for the plushies but definitely like using needle felting for the face.

Here's a digital collage/painting I did recently. I actually started on the fish painting a long time ago, but just recently finished the ink work. My son, Bennett, decided he wanted to help, too, and ended up getting crayon on my painting. So, now the original is flawed, but I decided to scan it in an use it for digital collaging. The background is a separate painting, and I used Photoshop to blend the two together.

Here is a detail of one of the fish.

New Digital Collage

Here's a new digital collage that I just finished. I think I'm going to do a series of house themed collages. I know they have a tendancy to be overdone, but I feel like doing it anyway. If you stop by, let me know what you think.

New Painting

So I'm trying something new--my first attempt to draw and paint a tiger. I also decided to forego the pen and ink, something I don't usually do. It was refreshing to try something different, but obviously presented some challenges, too. While I can probably draw fish in my sleep, this painting took a little more thought to compose. Ben really likes tigers, so I thought I would try. I may have to do a few more.

Lil Monster

Here's a little monster I made today for a friend's son whose birthday was last week. I've made a couple so far, and am still finetuning these guys.

Tulip Photo

 Here's another edited photo--this one of a tulip from my front yard. I've layered a series of Photoshop brushes on top as well as applied a filter or two. Most of the brushes are from brusheezy.com

Edited Photo

 

So here is a photo I took outside the other day. I edited it by merging it with a painted background I had scanned in. The background was with acrylics and heavy gel medium. It's a bit of a departure from what I normally do. I still want to refine the edges a bit.

Friend Book

Ok, so I did this in Feb, but thought I should post it now. This was a birthday gift for a friend to show her how much I appreciated her as a friend. It is mixed media, dominated by acrylics and collage elements.

Working Smallscale

So here are a few painting I did last weekend. I decided to work super-small so that I would actually get something done. Based on what I accomplished, I think the 1 inch is too small. The 1.5 inch paintings look much better. I think I may try my hand at ACEOs, which are playing card sized at 2.5 x 3.5 inches. I'm toying with the idea of putting the fish up for sale on etsy to just see if they will sell.

On another note, while looking through etsy.com, I was rather dismayed to see quite a bit of artwork that resembled more of my doodle based pieces. Apparently there is a "new" art movement called zentangles where people doodle freeform for ostensibly therapy. I'm not sure how I feel about doodling 1. being commercialized (there is a site that sells zentangle kits) 2. being referred to as a new artform--seems like most of us, at somepoint, have doodled to relax, pass the time, etc. That's nothing new and I certainly don't want people to think I'm "copying" this "new" style. Hmmm . . . maybe more thoughts on this later.

Constructive feedback is always appreciated.

Some Digital Art

I've just been playing around in Photoshop and figured it couldn't hurt to post what I've done. I'd like to be able to create something that looks like an actual oil or acrylic painting--I'm not quite there yet.