Feels like Christmas Already!

Even though it is not even Thanksgiving yet, in Cleveland it feels and looks like Christmas! We got a couple of inches of snow last night (I had to drive in it-yuck!) and it made everything white and pretty! This is outside my kitchen window looking out into my backyard. Notice the stained glass window...one of my favorite things that I found at an antique store in 3 Oaks, Michigan! All I want to do today is put a fire in our fireplace, get some hot chocolate and snuggle up on the couch! Too much to do today though:)

My husband and I already started decorating for Christmas...slowly but surely. We put out our ornament bowl of blue and green bulbs (my favorite colors!), we hung ornaments from our window (Martha Stewart idea-love her!) and plugged in our mini little tree with the white twinkly lights! I LOVE this time of year...so pretty! Tuesday night we are going to go all out with our decorations. We are going out of town for Thanksgiving so we are doing all of the decorating before so when we come back it will be all set up!

Hope everyone is having a relaxing and peaceful Saturday. I am finally going to pull myself away from this computer and get some work done.

Animal Paintings: Student Artwork

My painting class just finished their animal paintings using a limited palette. Students were to use only three colors plus black and white. I encouraged students to use the primary colors so they would be able to mix any color they needed. Some students did, some didn't.

These paintings were done in acrylic paint on a canvas board. Students started the painting by underpainting the canvas board with a color of their choice-anything to get rid of the white of the canvas board. An underpainting is the initial layer of paint applied to a ground (like a canvas board, canvas and paper.) I usually recommend painting the canvas with a complementary color of whatever is the dominant color in the picture. For example: If the picture has mostly greens and blues I would paint the canvas a peachy-red color. I think it just gives the painting a lot of depth and I like the underpainting to show through in spots to provide some interesting contrast. If you want to keep your paintings more natural and realistic a black and white or brownish underpainting works really well.

Next up we are doing a watercolor landscape, I will post those when we finish!

B is for Bird!

Good morning! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday...half-way through the week! I just wanted to post some artwork from a series that I am working on. I am working on a children's book for my little niece (she is 3 months!) I am going to be illustrating each letter of the alphabet with something that starts with that letter....aka B is for Bird!

So far I have C is for Camera, D is for Dragonfly, F is for Feather and I is for Ice Cream!

I am doing them in a different style than my usual art...what do you think? I am hoping to get this done before Christmas....we shall see about that!

I appreciate any feedback...thanks:)

Treasury!

Today I was featured in a treasury on etsy by OhFaro! If you get a chance please check it out! I feel so honored:)

Treasury

Sketchbook Love

Here are a couple of drawings taken straight from my current sketchbook. They are messy, colorful, sketchy and definitely NOT perfect...but isn't that what a sketchbook is for?! I have many, many sketchbooks and love to look back through them to see how much I have changed as an artist in terms as the media I use and the subject matter I draw. I sometimes love to draw from observation and other times it is strictly from fashion magazines! The sketches shown are a mixture of watercolor, pencil and ink and even a little collage. I just love combining media! Recently I discovered a collection of 1950's National Geographic magazines and am in LOVE!

Keeping a sketchbook is so important as an artist and I strongly suggest drawing, painting, collaging in one as much as possible! You can even sew in one (I am dying to try this!) My favorite book on sketchbooks or visual journals is the book The Decorated Page: Journals, Scrapbooks and Albums Made Simply Beautiful by Gwen Diehn. I bought it when I was student teaching (a whole six years ago!) and I constantly use it as a source of inspiration!

In my classes I assign a weekly sketch that usually we do in class on Fridays. This week's sketchbook assignment is to draw something or someone you are thankful for. I am hoping to get some interesting drawings...usually I get car keys, ipod and cell phone drawings! What is this world coming to!!!

If you had to do this sketch what would you draw?

The pARTsy

I have just been featured on the blog


Yay! Happy Monday!

Oh Deer

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you are doing well! Today I plan on getting some lessons done for school but also hope to work on some new collages for my etsy store. I am posting a collage that I just completed yesterday. It is a little different than my usual art but reflects my love for warm, rich colors in the fall. I seem to like different colors at different times of year...I think we all kind of do! This artwork is called Little Blue Deer and was inspired by the four deer that hang out in my backyard time to time. I love watching them for the most part except when they eat flowers from my garden in the summer!

It is snowing here in Ohio today and I love it! It makes me excited to make more Holiday collages! I just downloaded from itunes two new Christmas Cds that I think are pretty good. They are: This Warm December: Brushfire Hoidays Vol. 1 and The Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs. Usually I love jazzy type Christmas songs like the traditional Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Harry Connick but these Cd's have some of my favorite musicians like Jack Johnson, Rogue Wave, Mason Jennings, Ingrid Michaelson, Lenka, etc. If you are in need of some new Christmas music I highly recommend these!

Well it is back to work on lessons! Have a good one!

Holiday Bird Series

Here is a series that I began at 3 am on Thursday! I woke up wide awake and could only think about art...love when that happens! So I got up and worked until I had to get ready for school at 5:30 am. I just finished them last night and am going to be listing them on my etsy site today after I photograph them:) I think I might turn them into Christmas cards as well!

Book Recommends!

As an art teacher I am always buying tons of art books to help myself and students learn new techniques and tricks. Here are a couple of my favorites:

1. Drawing Nature by Stanley Maltzman

2. Expressive Drawing by Robert Kaupelis

3. Acrylic: Artists' Questions Answered by David Cuthbert

4. Mixed Media Nature Journals by L.K Ludwig

5. Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson

6. Drawing and Sketching by Jackie Simmonds

7. 100 Creative Drawing Ideas by Anna Held Audette


There are a million more that I love but these books have really helped with lesson ideas and creating my own art. I usually buy all of my books through Amazon.com because the books are usually cheaper and you get free shipping if you spend over $25! Yay!

What is your favorite art book? I am always looking for new ones!

Italian Perfection

Hello! Sorry I have not written on this blog for over a week! I have been super busy with school and have had a broken camera so it has been difficult to motivate myself to write without including new pictures!

So...I was going through some of my old photos for inspiration the other day...perhaps looking for an image to paint or draw and I found some of my photos from Italy. I have traveled to Italy twice now and want to go back as soon as possible! Here are some of my favorite pictures from Florence and Venice. Maybe they will bring you some inspiration!