Happy New Year!

Hi there! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a fantastic New Year!

Sorry again for my lack of updates, but now that Christmas is over, I wanted to show you the gift(s) I painted for my dad. My dad is a card collector and one of the types of cards he collects are called sketch cards. They are cards with sketches on them (I guess as the name might imply) done by artists of tv characters, movie characters, whoever. My dad didn't want me to spend any money on him this year for Christmas, so I decided I would do a few sketch cards for him. I used a theme of his favorite tv characters and I thought I'd show them here.

Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

for each card, I sketched out the portrait in pencil then inked it with the 005 Micron, as well as outlining each silhouette with the Sakura Brush pen. I wanted a sort of emphasis there. I have been reading graphic novels lately (the Jane Austen ones by Nancy Butler, if you must know) and I noticed that the illustrators (like Janet K. Lee) often use a heavier line to outline. I liked the way it looked, so I tried to incorporate that with my style. For color, I used a monochromatic approach with a simple wash of watercolor and a little bit of walnut ink for some added tone. I tried to match each color to the character being presented.

Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead

Walter White from Breaking Bad

Dexter from, well, Dexter

Violet Harmon from American Horror Story

These were actually really fun to make. I might do some Doctor Who ones in the future since that is my favorite show. My dad really loved these too. It goes to show that you don't need to spend a ton of money on a gift that someone will love, and it shows that I can paint more than just teapots and cupcakes.

Holiday Greetings!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve, all!

I know I've been absent from this blog for nearly two months. In my defense, a lot of things have been going on to prevent me from updating regularly. One of them being, I got a job. It's not an art job, unfortunately, but it is paying the bills, which is mostly what matters right now. I can still do art outside of work, which I have been doing.

This year, I designed Christmas cards for both my family and for my aunt. I thought I'd show them now. It may be a little too late to purchase them, but they are for sale in my online shop ...in case you want to get a head start for next year.

This is our family Christmas card this year, designed according to my mom's specifications:

front:

inside:

And the one I designed for my aunt, it's a bit of a different style. She wanted a sense of movement and something involving birds.

front:

inside:

Anyway, I hope anyone reading this enjoys the art and has a wonderful holiday and a very healthy and happy New Year!

<3 Emily

And it's finished!

So, I don't know why I haven't updated lately, but I finished the four-piece flower set I was doing for my aunt about two weeks ago. I guess I have had a few things going on since then that have prevented me from posting it on here, but here is the final piece finished:

 Those are Cornflowers, which before I did some research on, I knew very little about. They are actually really pretty blue and purple flowers. I gave all four paintings to my aunt a couple weeks ago and she was really pleased with them. I was so glad. I held them up against the wall in her living room and they coordinate with the room's color scheme very well. I had been keeping that in mind the whole time I was doing this project. I am also happy with this set. I would gladly hang them on my own wall, but I'm especially happy that my aunt liked them.

I also have been just working on random little paintings here and there. Sometimes I just get the urge to doodle, and with that, comes the urge to paint that doodle. It usually happens late at night too, like as my eyelids are starting to droop and I'm yawning every five seconds. That is just how my mind works, I guess. So I thought I'd just show you some of these little doodles.

 I actually did this because I wanted a new icon/profile picture for some websites I am on, like twitter, facebook, tumblr. So far, I've only put it as my twitter icon. I wanted a look to my twitter account that was completely done by me. So this is me in a nutshell, surrounded by some of my favorite things as cute little icons--a starfish (for my love of the ocean and the beauty of the sea), a teacup (do I need to explain this one?), a heart (because I follow my heart, not my head, usually), a bunny (because I love cute animals), a poppy (my favorite flower) and nail polish (because I like to paint my nails). It's a more cartoon-y, cute drawing of me. I am not that cute, but I think it still looks like me because of my purple glasses, scarf and of course a cardigan. I also, am exploring the idea of my own handwritten font/logo. Whenever I hand-write things, they always end up in this sort of style.

 

 

two more logo designs with a tea theme...which leads to the next set of doodles...

Guess what. These are actually painted using tea! Go ahead and call me crazy, though I really don't think it is that insane. I am definitely not the first person ever to paint with tea. And it is actually not the first time I, myself, have ever painted with tea. When I used to work on school projects in Grade School and Middle school and it required an aged look to the paper or something, we used tea to do that. Tea staining gives an antique look. I used that same idea here. But I wanted to be literal about it. I drew some little teacups (each with their own unique pattern and shape), then used hot tea to do a wash over them, then added watercolor. I used Earl Grey and Green Tea. The Earl Grey, being a black tea, gave a darker wash to the paper, while the Green was a lighter, more yellow-toned color.

I actually used the teacups as my twitter background. I like how it came out. I think I will be doing more tea paintings in the future.

Two more finished!

For the past month or so, I've been working on this series of four pieces for my aunt. So far I've finished three and am currently working on the fourth one. Just wanted to show the two newest ones to you all.

 Hibiscus - I really like how this turned out. As I am painting these, I am noticing that I go through many stages of how I feel about piece. I start out hopeful that it will turn out nice. Then I become frustrated that it doesn't look good and I don't like it. And then eventually I grow to love it. When I was working on this piece, the hibiscus flowers were my main source of frustration. Flowers are difficult to paint. I think it's because they are so delicate, you want to say as much as you can without making it look too heavy. The good thing about the style I work in, is that I'm not going for realism. I'm going for a likeness, but in a breezy, illustrative way.

Queen Anne's Lace - I became super frustrated with this piece. When I first started painting the stalks, I guess you could call them, they looked like palm trees on a beach in the sunset. Not what I was going for. The purple-y part you see at the top was perhaps a bit too pink at the time and it just looked very tropical. I was going for more of a starry, country meadow look. I suppose the orange frisket I was using (I will get to that later) for the "lace" part of the flower didn't really help. Queen Anne's Lace isn't your typical flower. When most people think of flowers, they think of petals, not little white, furry, bumpy things on the tops of stems. Not to say that this isn't a beautiful flower, but it is an unconventional one. I decided to just go with a speckled white look which makes it look like a cluster of white on top on the stem. While I was painting over the little frisket dots, I decided I needed more of them, so I went through again, over painted paper and made more dots. That is actually the first time I've ever added frisket over paint--surprisingly. I was hoping it would add some depth. I think it helped.

I showed the pieces so far to my aunt last weekend and she really liked them, so I'm excited to see them hanging in her living room soon!

Oh, and the frisket! I finally found a frisket that I love! I had been using Utrecht brand masking fluid for the longest time (which I really didn't like) and I have no idea why I didn't go buy new frisket. Well, when I was downtown a couple weeks ago, I went to Blick and asked one of the employees what she recommended for frisket. She pointed out the Blick Liquid Frisket in the little jar.

 The great thing about this is it is actually liquid-y! My other stuff was all gummy and really difficult to use. This glides on the paper like I'm using paint. It's great. And I like the orange color much more than that ugly yellow. It's easier to see on white paper and under paint.

The Delphiniums finished...now onto the next one

As you know, I am working on a four-piece set of paintings of different flowers for my aunt. The last time I posted, the first one was a work-in-progress. Well, I'm glad to say that it's now finished...

I tried to stay true to my style. I kept it pretty organic and natural this time (as the subject matter is flowers) and I didn't even tape off the edges of the paper, like I normally do. I decided to just stick with a hand drawn edge. I showed this piece to my aunt last week while it was still a work in progress and she was very happy with how it was coming along. I was relieved to hear that because I was just about ready to scrap it and start over. Personally, I love this piece. Blues and purples are colors I love painting with (because they are my favorite colors) and how can you get more light-hearted and ethereal than flowers? Love it! I'm proud of this.

The next piece in the set that I am working on is of Hibiscus flowers, which are another of my aunt's favorites.

 It's coming along. As you can see, it is far from being finished. I plan on working on it a little more today. But right here is two days work (and I don't mean a full 24-hour day, obviously). But I'm keeping with the natural whimsy of it. I'm using frisket again because I like the effect it gave the first piece. I'm trying to stick with the same color scheme (underlying blues, purples, pinks, and teals) as well so all the pieces go together. For this piece I added a hummingbird. My aunt loves hummingbirds. She has a feeder on her back porch and she enjoys watching the hummingbirds come to visit. They are fascinating little creatures. This little guy is going to be a red-throated hummingbird, which are the kind that live around this area of the country. Apparently, there are different ones that live west of the Mississippi river.

Updates!

So the Sons of Turner premiere exhibition was a hit, I am glad to say. Unfortunately, I could not stay the entire evening, but while I was there, we had a lot of visitors, which was great. My parents really enjoyed the show as well. I was glad to be a part of it. I believe the show is going to stay up the remainder of the month, so head out to the Ontarioville Art Center in Hanover Park if you're interested.

me with my artwork

Also, today, I started working on a commission I'm doing for my aunt. She wants four paintings of delphinium and hibiscus flowers to hang in her living room. It was nice painting today because I haven't really flexed my painting muscles in a few weeks...which is awful. I had been temping at my old job for a couple of weeks (which was also great) but it didn't give me a lot of time or energy to work on art. Now that I've got nothing but time, it's the perfect thing. 

I started the first small painting of delphiniums today. It's turning out a lot like an illustration, but I am happy with it so far.

It's quite whimsical (I use that word WAY too much), but I like it. It's really up to what my aunt wants, though. And this is a work in progress. The yellow you see on there is frisket (masking fluid). Ahh, my old friend frisket. Actually, we never really were friends. It's always so clumpy and it completely ruins my brushes. No! I do not use my quality brushes, but even the cruddy brushes I use become more cruddy when frisket is added. Note to self: find better frisket. I'm currently using Utrecht brand that I purchased for my Watercolor I class two years ago. Maybe that is is why it's so clumpy? If anyone has any suggestions as to a better brand of frisket, do let me know!

Also I'm working on a Fluid Watercolor block that I bought at Blick the last time I was downtown. Unfortunately I do not have the kind of money at the moment to be buying expensive Arches blocks, so I thought this would be a good alternative, since a friend of mine recommended them. It's cold press, and I am now a hot press girl, but I don't mind cold press every now and then (that was all they had anyway). The paper is taking the paint well, and I tend to do a lot of wet-in-wet stuff, except the corner is starting to lift up.

Fluid blocks don't have glue all the way around the block like Arches ones do. They are just glued on two sides. I just thought this was kind of annoying. As long as it doesn't come detached all the way around, it should be ok. I guess I'm not going to be working on this for hours anyway. But that's just my little gripe. Otherwise, it's a great block.

Away From Home : The Sons of Turner Premiere Exhibition

 

This Saturday, September 3rd, at the Ontarioville Art Center the Sons of Turner will be exhibiting works from our annual trips that we take around the country. There will be pieces from Santa Fe, NM, Savannah GA, and the Midcoastal region of Maine. 

This is my first REAL art show, so I'm really excited! I'm also excited to see what everyone else has done. We have a lot of talent between us all as a group. 

I have one piece in the show, my Barn & Buoys piece that I painted from a photograph I took at North Creek Farm in Phippsburg, ME. I hope people can make it out and see what we, as the Sons of Turner are all about. Hope to see you there!