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.