New Portrait

So I actually didn't think that this was going to work out as a portrait. Mostly it was just sort of an experiment to see if I could use a little bit of color to give a 'glowing' effect. I also wanted to make a portrait that shows more movement because a lot of my work (especially the portraits) tends to be more 'still.'



I got the idea for this one from a couple of photographs I took of my daughter last year. They were really good pictures, but I didn't think that they would really work as drawings. Sometimes photos should just stay photos. But, I've been working on this new technique of combining charcoal and color in a more sophisticated way, and because these photos had such nice color I thought it would be an interesting challenge to see how much color I could take away but still have that bright, glowing effect.

I really like the way that it has turned out thus far. Though I still have an issue with a few elements. Sometimes I think it's better to stop working on a drawing and put it away for a few weeks.

Love it? Hate it? Let me know what you think!

P.S. My husband has also decided to start his own blog. I was going to highly recommend that you follow him, but it's becoming painfully apparent that his only goal is to make me look like a douche.

Illustration Friday - Early

This is my illustration for this week's topic "early." This one is actually the first in a series called "How to Grow a Forest."

Enjoy!

Seven Things You Were Afraid to Ask...

I was recently given the Kreativ Blogger Award by Karen over at Artful Living on the Bluff. Usually, awards come to my blog and die, but I need something to blog about today.



Here are the rules for accepting this award:

The Kreativ Blogger Award
1. Post the award on my blog. (check)
2. Thank the person who gave it to me. (Thank you Cindy)
3. Link to the person who gave this to me. (check)
4. Share a list of 7 things that you probably don't know about me.(see below)
5. Choose 7 great bloggers to give the award to.(see below)
6. Share a link to their blogs.(ditto)
7. Leave a comment on their blog.(will do)

Seven things you want to know about me but were afraid to ask:

1. Socks. I like to wear socks, that if given the proper running start, will allow me to slide from one end of the kitchen to the other. No-slip socks? No thank you!

2. I count syllables. More specifically, I count syllables in sets of seventeen (not as hard as you might think). When I get to seventeen syllables I start over again. If I'm talking to someone and the conversation ends at less then seventeen, I add more syllables in my head to get to seventeen. I also count them when I'm reading, watching television, or listening to the radio.

3. For obvious reasons, I hate circles and even numbers.

4. I HATE, and I mean H-A-T-E being told what to do or what to think. This gets under my skin more then anything! Seriously, I never would have made it in a concentration camp.. the guards would have been like "hey you, go move those rocks" and I would have been like "no, make me!" and they would have been like "we'll just shoot you then" and I would have said "go ahead!" At that point it would have been pretty much over.

5. Whenever I hear a dog barking, I think about soup.

6. My favorite episode of South Park is Make Love, Not Warcraft. It is hilarious! I even have it on my Ipod.

7. I think that blog awards that require me to do things are a little annoying. Do you have any idea how long it takes to select seven people, provide links to their blogs, and then go tell them that they won the award? If I could do it all in one sweep it wouldn't be so bad. But instead I have to select them, go their blogs to make sure they haven't already received the award, get links to their blogs, come back to my blog and add their links, then publish this post, then get a link to this post, then try to remember each person I selected, then go back to their blogs and tell them they won, then post a link on their blog back to my blog. And what about all the people I don't choose? Are they going to be mad at me? Are they going to wonder why they weren't selected? Will I get 'hate emails?' Will the people I did select even bother to pass this along???


But since I have to choose, here are my seven:

1. Izzy of Stone Spirit

2. The Candysaurus

3. Becky of Writing on Rose Petals

4. Lisa of Lisa Lectura Creations

5. Bernie of On My Own

6. Jamie of A Forest Frolic

7. Andrew Finnie Artist and Illustrator

And an hour after starting this post I'm finally done!!

Have a great day everyone!!

Illustration Friday - Fearless

This is actually a custom illustration that I made this week, but I think that it fits the topic rather well :)

It was drawn with pencil, then painted with watercolor and pastel, and finally outlined and shaded with charcoal.



Also, there is still time to enter my May giveaway if you haven't already! Everyone is welcome to participate!!

Fashion Tip From Your's Truly

I think that before one decides to wear any item of clothing or footwear, they should ask themselves one very important question.

"Can I fight in this?"

If the answer is "no" then you shouldn't wear it!

A prime example of a mistake in shoe-ery is Flip Flops.



They are basically a piece of foam that make an annoying noise and remind me of the douches in college who come to class 30 minutes late wearing pajamas, and guess what else? Flip flops!

You can't fight in them, you can't run in them.. you can't even walk fast in them.

Look, I'm not a violent person. But you never know when you're going to get hassled by an old lady in the parking lot at the post office because you didn't know that she wanted the parking space that you just pulled into. After all, you're not a mind reader!

So be smart, be prepared, and just say "no" to flip flops.

Print Sale

This is just a quick post to let you all know that I'm having a sale on all prints in my shop. This month only, prints are marked down 15%!!



Also, don't forget to enter my May giveaway :)

New Drawing!

I just realized that I am only 15 followers away from 200!! Yay!!

This is a drawing I just finished. Matt (husband/creative adviser) did not want me to put in the triangles, but I just love them! I think that they really 'make' this drawing so it's more like Art and not just a portrait. It took around 25 hours to complete. Can't imagine how long it would have taken if he was wearing a sweater.. all those cables!! It was drawn with mostly charcoal, then I used white pastel for the highlights.



I've also been thinking about making some kind of tutorial. Is that something that any of you would be interested in? I haven't quite decided how I will do it, but it's been on my mind lately.

I'm off to get some more work done~ Hope you all have a lovely day!!

May Giveway Time

This month's giveaway is for this cute little key chain.



What do you have to do to enter? Just visit my Etsy shop, then respond to this post and let me know what your favorite item is. Isn't that easy?!

Giveaway Winner!!

I did my drawing today for my April giveaway. I assigned each person a random number(s) and then used random.org to select the winner.



And the winner is Joanna!! Congratulations Joanna and thank you to everyone who entered!!

Joanna has won this 5x7 Print:




Tomorrow I will announce the May giveaway!!