10 minute sketch: Seashell

Here is today's 10 minute sketch. I used watercolor to complete this sketch. I love seashells and have a small little collection of them. Hope everyone is having a nice week so far. I am crazy busy as usual...I am hoping for a snow day tomorrow though! We are supposed to get 4-6 inches by tomorrow. I am crossing my fingers! Have a fantastic evening!

I is for Ice Cream

Hello! I have been kind of bad about posting lately! I have started two online masters classes (I get to blog a lot on the class forums....good thing I have lots of experience on here!) so I have been super busy and unable to do any art or to write much of anything on here! I am still working on my 10 minute sketches...they are my little indulgences right now! I will post some soon. Right now all I am thinking about is summer or spring for that matter...I am DONE with this cold! I am posting one of my illustrations that I am doing for my children's book I mentioned a while back. I am slowly but surely still working on it! I am hoping in the summer to have a lot of time to work!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

10 minute sketch: Pink Heels

Here is today's 10 minute sketch. It is of one of my favorite spring shoes. These are cute pink heels I got at Banana Republic a couple of years ago and they never seem to go out of style (at least to me they don't!) The only thing is that they are not the most comfortable shoes if you have to be on your feet all day! I did this sketch with a green colored pencil and some watercolors.

I also have some swatches of paper and fabric that I found recently that have really inspired me. Here is a piece of fabric I found in an old box of fabric we have at school. I just love the colors and the flower shapes. I will definitely be using these flower shapes in my artwork sometime soon!


Here is some beautiful paper that I got when I was in Venice about 2 years ago. I bought some jewelry at a boutique there and it came wrapped in this paper. I just love the paisleys and the floral pattern.


What inspires you?

10 minute sketch: Crazy electrical socket

Here is today's 10 minute sketch. It is of a crazy electrical socket in my Grandma's basement. Every Tuesday I go to my Grandma's house to paint, draw...basically anything art related. I love this so much! I completed today's sketch using a blue pen (not waterproof!) and watercolor.

10 minute sketch: Clothes for tomorrow

Here is today's 10 minute sketch. It was done in blue pen and with watercolor. It is of some of my clothes that I have laid out to wear tomorrow for school. They are hanging from a door knob. I am such a dork and try to plan what I am wearing in advance each night. I know the sketch is a little rough...I definitely rushed through it tonight (I am stressed with work and my 2 masters classes!) so the 10 minute sketches are getting pushed to the back burner...*sigh*

Mental Vacation

Michigan City sunset painting


My camera is unfortunately dead. The battery needs to be recharged and of course the charger is at school. So...no 10 minute sketch for today. I am going to do one and post it for tomorrow along with Monday's 10 minute sketch. So I thought that since I am in a very cold, snowy place, I would take a fun little mental vacation. I am going to post some fun pictures I took when I was in Indiana in August. Two of my aunts who live in Chicago have summer cottages on Lake Michigan and I have been visiting every summer since I was 9. It is one of my most favorite places to go. It has a beautiful sandy beach, grassy dunes and a great outlet mall. What more could you ask for?

Here is the back of one of my aunt's cottage. It is right across from Lake Michigan and reminds me of a quaint English cottage. Those are my brothers on the back porch.


This is my aunt's lovely little garden


Close up


This painting was actually inspired by my aunt's angel statue in her garden. It is one of my favorite little paintings that I have done. It is something I would never sell, it is very meaningful to me.


Here is the beach and all of the beautiful dune grass

More beach...I just love the red and white umbrella!


Painting inspired by the dunes...I always feel so inspired when I am in Michigan City


Painting of boats on the beach



Ok, I feel better. I really needed that mental vacation. I am so sick of the snow! Hope everyone is staying warm!

10 minute sketch: Nomad's Dream and Mascara

Here is today's 10 minute sketch. It is of two of my favorite beauty items: OPI nail polish in Nomad's Dream (very subtle color that looks great always!) and my mascara. I drew this with black pen and then used my Chartpak markers on top for color. I have decided I like colored sketches more than just black and white.

Intro to Art Projects

Here are some of my Intro to Art students' early exam projects. At my school the art department is allowed to give a project to students for their exams. If the students finish the project they do not have to come in during the exam period. It works really well to motivate students to work!

For the early exam project students were to draw a collection of 7 items from observation. They could use their favorite medium or combination of media (we previously worked with all different kind of media such as paint, charcoal, pencil, pen, oil pastels and colored pencils on other projects.) I had in class a box of wooden shapes, a collection of glass bottles, a box of shoes and fake flowers. If they wanted to bring in their own collection they could. My main objective was to have students draw from observation and to shade the objects to make them appear 3-D. I will be posting this lesson to my educator page if you want to check back for it.



Shapes done with pencil


Shapes done in ink on a light gray painted background


There is always one really creative student! This was done with oil pastels on a painted background.


My bulletin board of shapes (this was a popular item to draw apparently!)


Art supplies done with ink on a painted background


Perfume bottles done with a charcoal pencil on a painted background

10 minute sketch: Water and apple...so boring

Here is today's 10 minute sketch. Actually it probably was more like a 5 minute sketch...but I got it done at least! Doing something quick is better than nothing! It is a boring one...I am pressed for time so I drew 2 things on my kitchen table: an apple and a glass of water. I only used pen to see if I liked black and white sketches opposed to my colored ones. I am still deciding...what do you think..colored or just plain black and white?

I actually just started a blog for my art classes and I will be posting artwork on there as soon as I get a second! Hope everyone has a great Friday!

10 minute sketch: My favorite boots

Today's 10 minute sketch is of one of my favorite pair of boots. I bought these boots at Target (one of my favorite stores!) I live in Ohio so therefore I wear lots of boots throughout the winter. These are comfortable, cute, affordable and have 3 buckles! In my book, that is a good boot! Oh and yes the foot on the boot is that small...I wear a 5 1/2 which is freakishly small I know! I rarely can find cool shoes in my size! This sketch was done with watercolor and ink.

Hope everyone is staying warm tonight...it is supposed to be -15 to -20. Usually we would have school canceled for tomorrow but since it is a teacher workday I will be forced to brave the cold!

I will be posting some fun new art projects my students did tomorrow so please stay tuned!

Happy Weekend Eve!

10 minute sketch: Perfume Bottle

Here is today's 10 minute sketch. I drew my favorite perfume. I love Juicy Couture perfume but the bottle is ridiculous. It is so big and and it cracks me up. So of course I drew it:) I used blue pen and watercolor.

I am so tired tonight...it is not even 9 pm and I am pretty sure I am going to go to bed already! Hope you are having a great week...the weekend is so close!

Art Giveaway Winner!

We have a winner for the art giveaway! Entrants 1-30 were on C Beth's blog, and 31-47 were on my blog. C.Beth did a random integer generation at random.org, for one number between 1 and 47. Here was the result:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

9

Timestamp: 2009-01-14 03:09:00 UTC

Congratulations, SUSAN SONNEN! You have won Little Pink Bird! Thanks everyone for playing:)

10 minute sketch: Tootsie Pop

Here is my latest 10 minute sketch. It is of my favorite candy, Tootsie Pop suckers (chocolate flavored!) I did this in watercolor and black ink. It kind of turned out a little weird but oh well. I think I overdid the hatching in the background...hmmm...I will try to control this next time:)

Today has been a stressful day...I hate stress! I am starting two online masters classes and am trying to figure out when I am going to complete all of the coursework and work my full time job as a teacher and still do the whole art business and blog thing! I will just figure it out I guess! Have a great night!

Featured!

Hello! I just wanted to pop in really quick and tell you that an amazing artist named Karen Fields has featured my Midnight Dragonfly artwork on her blog.

If you get a chance check her out. Her paintings are simply beautiful and make you think spring is on the way! Here is one of my favorite's of Karen's. It is called Cottage Bohemian and is an 8 x 10 original painting. You can buy it here.

10 minute sketch: Favorite wedge shoe

Here is my latest 10 minute sketch. This is a sketch of one of my favorite patent leather wedge shoes that I wear daily to school. As a teacher it is very important to have comfortable shoes because I am on my feet 8 hours of the day (seriously.) For me it is very important to also have CUTE, comfortable shoes...so these fit the bill!

This sketch was done with black pen and watercolor. Here is my lovely little cheapo watercolor set that I like to use.



I actually have fancier watercolors but these work for my little 10 minute sketches.

Have a good night! I will be announcing the winner of my art giveaway soon with C.Beth. Please check back! Have a good night!

Art Giveaway: Last day is tomorrow!

Hello! If you have not entered the Art Giveaway please do so by Monday January 12th. The giveaway will close at 8 p.m central time. Thanks to all that have participated in my first one! I cannot wait to give my artwork a great, new home:)

I hope everyone has had a great weekend! I was basically snowed in for the majority of it. I did some artwork, some cleaning and watched old episodes of the Gilmore Girls (one of my guilty pleasures!) Kind of a lazy weekend if you ask me! Tonight I went to a Japanese steakhouse to celebrate my cousin's 30th birthday. Very fun and festive. They through food at you and expect you to catch it in your mouth! I definitely got a shrimp whipped at my face tonight....it did not go in the mouth as planned.



Well here is my 10 minute sketch for today. I did the classic hand pose sketch. I used watercolor and a black pen. Very basic I know...oh well...hands are hard to draw and it is always good to practice them!




Have a great night!

10 minute sketch: Paint bottles

Here is my latest 10 minute sketch. This sketch was of two of my acrylic paint bottles. I drew my favorite colors: Golden brand's Cobalt Turquoise and Liquitex brand's Light Blue.

To complete this sketch I first painted an underpainting using the light blue and some cadmium yellow acrylic paint. I scratched into the wet paint to create designs and then let it dry. Next I drew on top of the painted surface with a black ball point pen. I added highlights with a white watercolor crayon. The lines are very sketchy and loose but that is what makes these 10 minute sketches so fun and free for me.


I am currently reading this great book called Living the Creative Life by Rice Freeman-Zachery. It is so inspirational and cool to read about the artists in this book. It talks about what is creativity and interviews a ton of working artists. So that is my recommend for the day:)

Oh, I also just found a new band that I really like! They are called Company of Thieves. Here is Oscar Wilde, a song you can actually get free on itunes! I downloaded it and ended up buying the whole cd!




Are there any new bands you have discovered lately and would like to share? I am always looking for new music!

I love women in hats....

Apparently I have a thing for women in hats....which is strange because I kind of look stupid in them. Every time I see a picture with a woman with a cool hat on, I want to draw her.

Case in point:



Done in acrylic paint




Done in watercolor and pen



Done in watercolor and pen with collage elements

These were all done in my altered book.

Here are some other artworks I have done in my altered book:






The seed heads of dandelions are my favorite to paint... they are so soft and pretty!

My altered book has been sitting on a shelf for awhile but recently I have been working on it again. It is a nice place to play around with different media and subject matter. Check out a cool altered book gallery here.

As usual here is my 10 minute sketch for today. It is the blender in my kitchen. I used Chartpak markers (illustration markers). My kitchen is pretty much white and black...I totally changed that in my drawing! I like color way too much and sometimes go overboard! So here it is:


Well I am off to have some fun...it is Friday you know;)

Watercolors: Daffodil

Here is a small watercolor painting of some daffodils in a vase. I found the picture in one of my Martha Stewart magazines and just loved it because it reminded me of Spring! I painted it on 4 x 6 watercolor paper and used masking fluid to retain my whites. If you have not tried watercolors yet I strong recommend them! They are so easy transport and clean up very quickly! You can also combine them with other media such as ink and charcoal!

If you haven't checked out my students' watercolor paintings yet, please check them out!

10 minute sketch: Studio Space

Here is my 10 minute sketch for today. I drew part of my little studio space in a corner of a room. I used red pen and some colored pencils.

Tomorrow is Friday...Thank Goodness! Hope everyone is having a great week! I must go and watch the Office now!

Watercolor Sketches

Wow! 2 posts in one day! I will even be posting one of my 10 minute sketches later so that will make 3 posts! I am posting some watercolor sketches my painting students completed awhile ago. I had them hanging on a bulletin board and was unable to photograph them well. These sketches allowed students to play around with watercolors and try different techniques such as masking fluid, rubbing alcohol, salt and lifting out colors. If you would like to see a cool site that has a ton of free demonstrations on these techniques, click here.. If you still have not entered my art giveaway please do so!!!! You can enter here.