Knitting and stuff

I haven't had focused time that I could devote to working on those portraits since I got the first one finished.  But I hope to resume work on those within a week.  In the meantime, I've been knitting a fair bit.  And for the first time I made my own pattern and am using it to make myself a little cashmere/silk top with this yarn:



Yummy stuff.  I can't wait to see if the top is actually wearable!  I will post my pathetic little pattern sketch up here for all to see at some point.

I also made a few knitted soap covers:

...out of this yarn:


And the first half of a sweater, knit out of bamboo:

Oh my gosh, bamboo is a dream to knit with (if you can get past the nightmare of the balls of yarn which tangle badly if a lot of care isn't taken.)

I've been drawing a lot of airplanes for my son's birthday party (tomorrow):


(scribbles added by said son)


And today I made this little drawing for a birthday gift for another little two-year old friend:

I like the idea of children being given art for their birthdays so they have a collection when they become adults. I read about some parents doing that in a magazine once. So lately our little friends have been getting art from me.

Free Art!! (and other news)

Ok, so I'm feeling a resurgence of inspiration and urgency to restart my art. I think I'm going to start offering custom art pieces for sale here, and to get me going with that I've decided to offer five lucky people free portraits drawn from their photographs. So send in your photographs! It doesn't matter if I do or don't know you, if you're a stranger, commenter, lurker, family, friend, just send in your photo and I will choose five from the batch.  The deadline to get those photos in is Friday, March 13th.  This time Friday the 13th is a lucky day!

Notes about the photos you send:
Make sure you send something of reasonably good quality and clarity. My choices will be semi random, but will also be based on which of the photos I feel will be good candidates for drawing. Classic portraits are generally better if they have simple backgrounds and show mostly just the upper torso and face of the subject. Faces generally should be forward or on a 3/4 angle. Not that I won't accept photos that stray from this formula, but I am more likely to choose the classic shots.

Good luck!


Other news:
I now have a Flickr for all of my art work. So far it shows the exact same images that you can see here, but if you are more of a Flickr person, feel free to subscribe there instead. You will miss my discussion here, if I have any, or news bits like this, but you will have access to all of the images. I'm still deciding if I want to do something extra there that I don't do here. For now, one of the main benefits for checking out my Flickr is all of the sets I've created.

Let's say you're a really big fan of my drawings and paintings but are just not interested in my photography. Well, you can subscribe to just this set:

DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS


Let's say you are only interested in my night photography:

NIGHT/LOW LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY


You can check out all of my sets here and my photostream here.

Illo Friday - Emergency

Tada! My first Illo Friday in forever!

Emergency -- Pen & Ink Wash

When my baby cries this hard, it's an emergency, I can tell you. At least that's how he sees it!

I bought one of the famous moleskin journals recently. I wanted to make a fresh start and encourage myself to start drawing again. The quality of these journals is supposed to be just the tippy tops, so I finally plunked down the money for one, and I love it. It does ooze a little bit with quality. The warm tan tone of the paper will be something I need to get used to, it make it especially difficult to scan in accurate colors, but I do love it. I also decided to branch out just a tad with my usual style and use colored inks for my washes. Single colors, mind you. Not sure if I have it figured out yet, not to the degree that I had the B&W ones down. But it's not bad. Below is my first attempt, and above is my second.

Tree -- Pen & Ink Wash


Back to the full blog...

Butterfly Tabby

Pen & Ink Wash


Back to the full blog...

Sneaky Mouse

Pen & Ink Wash


Back to the full blog...

ACEOs #25 - 31

Did these over the past few days.

#25 #26
#27 #28
#29 #30
#31
ACEOs #25 - #31 -- Pen & Ink Wash
Click on any image to enlarge

Bid of these or other items on eBay.

Back to the full blog...

Illo Friday - Spotted

Pen & Ink Wash

The Spotted American Eagle (Spotticus Eaglus)
The lesser known Spotted American Eagle, (or Leopard Eagle) has adapted to go virtually unnoticed in the dappled light of the forests in northern Wisconsin. A rarity to see, it has recently been placed at the top of the endangered species list.


Back to the full blog...

ACEO #24 - Beach at Dusk

Pen & Ink Wash

Bid on this or other items.


Back to the full blog...

Illo Friday - Speed

Okay this is a stretch, but if I don't put something in, I am in danger of not getting a IF submission in this week.

Boat Race - Pen & Ink Wash

Every summer in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, they have row boat races as part of the Ólavsøka festival. They are great fun to watch and the locals get very excited about them. It's a big deal there. Of course, for the topic of speed, it would be nice to show them actually rowing their hearts out. This'll have to do. It is just moments after the race.


Back to the full blog...

I'm in a Faroes State of Mind

Have Faroe Islands (where my mom is from) on the brain today, so I did some drawings from some of my old FI photos.



Pen & Ink Wash


Back to the full blog...

I'm selling greeting cards!

So I have been making these handmade greeting cards with my original art on the cards. I have about 16 of them for sale at Edla's Yarns in southern Colorado (1.866.280.YARN). So far, I have cards featuring my Motherhood drawings (1 - 5 and 6 - 7) mounted on handmade paper, and my Spring Babies (examples pictured above) and Daffodils with colored paper borders. These are the actual, original drawings, not duplications. So the cards can function as both greeting cards & as gifts of art! Cards are available for $6 - $12.

I am also looking into mass-producing some glossy, printed greeting cards as well. Below are my first two designs. If you are a retailer and are interested in selling these cards, or in seeing other designs, please contact me.






Back to the full blog...

Happy Birthday Elias!

Elias is the ripe old age of 14. But this is how I remember him at age 2.

Pen & Ink Wash.



Back to the full blog...

"Happy Birthday to Moooo"

Happy Birthday María!

María is a big fan of cows. So I thought I would send her a little birthday moosic for her birthday.


Here is the original drawing I did:

Click to enlarge

Back to the full blog...

ACEOs - Sea at Dawn

ACEOs #22 & 23:


Pen & Ink Wash (eBay auctions)


Back to the full blog...

Easter Daffodils - Two ways

Color Daffs - Pen, Ink Wash, Colored Pencil
B&W Daffs - Pen & Ink Wash

A little experiment. Not too crazy with the colors of the first one. Particularly the shading. The colors came out all wrong in the shading.

I will probably make Easter cards out of them.

Back to the full blog...

ACEOs #14 - 17

#14. #15.

#17. #16.
Pen & Ink Wash

See the eBay auctions...

Numbers 14 & 16 are pretty hard for me to part with. I am pretty pleased with how they came out, plus they are of my babies! But, I need to get over getting so attached to all of the pieces I make. So I am giving them up. (Though I almost hope they don't sell.) ;)

I also have to start creating some ACEOs that I don't put up for sale on eBay. I found an ACEO swap in Denver! It's happening a week from Saturday, so I have to get to work so I have something to trade with people. I'm so excited to go. I've heard they are so much fun.


Back to the full blog...

ACEOs #12 & 13 - Ocean Wave

#12

#13
Pen & Ink Wash

Bid on these or other items.



Back to the full blog...

Illo Friday - Spring Babies! (Submissions 2 - 8)

Pen & Ink Wash

Click on any image to enlarge.

Back to the full blog...