Quirky Dame's Art Blog

The Quirky Dame is back!

2011-06-12T23:17:00.000-08:00

So it’s been a while!

I had a lovely vacation in Hawaii and it ended up being such a good break from reality. I went with six other lovely people and it was so hard to leave. So hard, in fact, that I had quite the difficult time getting my groove back when we returned. It took at least a month to finally settle in to something resembling normal.

Complicating matters was a certain little neighborhood rabbit. You might remember I mentioned Hopper in my last two posts. (If not, well, it has been a while!) While I was in Hawaii, my wonderful and talented brother-in-law built a fabulous hutch and rabbit run. It is truly an amazing little home for a rabbit and better than anything I could have bought at the store. (Believe me, I looked!)

So, less than a week after getting back, Operation Rabbit Rescue commenced. At 8:30 am on a Saturday morning, I was able to grab a very surprised rabbit and put him safely in his new home. The next few weeks were full of adjusting to having a new pet and helping the new pet adjust to us!

I have enjoyed every second I’ve spent getting to know Hopper and learn about his unique personality. I can’t believe what a blessing it’s been. He’s become such a happy, loving little bunny and a special part of our family. And he’s also become a major focus of my artwork. Every day after I get home from work, I go outside and let him out into his special playpen for two hours, twice as long on the weekend. I sit out with him and spend lots of time petting and playing with him, then I use the rest of the time to read or draw. I just received a portable easel for my upcoming birthday and will be using that to start painting out there.

Spending this time with him has given me the chance to observe him endlessly and record it with photos, videos and drawings. I am inspired and now rabbits are popping up everywhere in my art! One of the goals I am working on is to build up my collection of rabbit art and I plan to donate a portion of every sale to a rabbit charity. These furry little critters have hopped their way into my heart and it has become an important, heartfelt goal for me. Plans are in the works and I am having a good time putting those plans into motion.

The latest piece of art that I am concentrating on is a block print. A local gallery, the Upstairs Studio, features art challenges very month or so that anyone can participate in. This time around they are doing a summer block print challenge. I have completed my sketch and plan to start carving the linoleum this weekend. I’ve been working on some others, as well. It’s been great fun to get back into this medium. As soon as my entry is completed for the challenge, I will be sure to post it on here. (In case you are wondering, it does include a rabbit!)

I hope that all of you are having a wonderful summer so far. I promise it will not take nearly as long for the next update!

New pet portrait in progress!

2011-04-03T16:45:00.000-08:00

Meet Hopper.

I mentioned him in my last post and he’s still hanging around. (He just started showing up around our house around the end of January.) He just makes my heart melt. I go out every night and feed him by hand while talking to him. Slowly building up the trust with him and hoping one day I’ll get to hold him. I took this picture recently and it’s one of my favorites of him. I felt inspired and decided to do a portrait of Hopper using this photo as inspiration.

So I grabbed my sketch pad and pencil, then got to drawing. First step was to create a sketch using the photo. I’ve done a couple of simple quick sketches of him, but this portrait will be a more realistic version done in oils.

Next I transferred the sketch to the 16×20 canvas I’ll be using for this painting. Then I grabbed some burnt umber oil paint and painted over it.

After letting the underpainting dry, I then mixed up some paint and added the initial blocks of color to the painting. Because this is a more realistic painting, I am using oil paints.

Then yesterday I got down to work. I painted in the background and the branch on the upper left of the canvas. Next up is to make any changes I feel are needed to both of those, then I get to start on the rabbit himself. This painting has been quite wonderful to work on. I felt a little lost with the background at first, but I’m pretty happy with it now.

I won’t actually be putting this painting up for sale. I’m being selfish and keeping the original painting for myself. I really want a special piece of art honoring this adorable little critter. However, I do hope to add prints to my shop and will be using the image for my Zazzle shop, as well.

I’m hoping to finish this painting by the time I go on vacation, which is April 14th. I’ll be sure to post updated pictures as soon as I can!

Red hat owls and bunnies, oh my!

2011-03-12T11:53:00.002-09:00

Just finished a brand new 7×5 custom acrylic painting for someone very special in my life. I visited my aunt in November and, knowing that she’s been interested in my owl paintings for quite some time, we sat down and figured out just what she wanted. She’s the one who came up with the idea to add the purse and I just love it. I’ll be taking pictures this weekend – for possible prints and to add to products in my Zazzle shop – then I’ll be mailing it off on Monday. I can hardly wait for her to get it.

Some new projects in the works involve a little critter named Hopper (thanks to my seven year old niece) who has decided to adopt us and steal my heart.

I’ve gotten some great photos of my little buddy and used one of them to do this quick little sketch Thursday night. I’ll be working on some art featuring this fun little fellow soon.

I’m off to go run errands now then hopefully do a bit of creating. I really must finish up the last of the Art-o-mat blocks, as they are almost out of them. Then I’ll be ordering 80 more and starting the process again! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

And the winner is...

2011-03-07T03:00:00.002-09:00

That's right, it's time! I checked all my blogs and the mailing list, gathered names and let random.org work it's magic. I'm pleased to announce that Staci Sharp has won the giveaway celebrating my new Zazzle shop!

Thanks to everyone who entered. Y'all are fabulous and I appreciate every wonderful comment. I hope you all have a great week. :)

Quirky Dame Designs on Zazzle!

2011-02-23T21:53:00.002-09:00

That’s right… I now have a Zazzle shop! I’ve been busy setting it up over the past few weeks. My paintings are available on a variety of things so far – mugs, note cards, magnets, plus tote bags and I am adding new items every week. I’m retaking photographs of my paintings so that I can add the images to an even bigger selection of products. I’ve had a lot of fun with this and along the way, I’ve ordered a few things to see how they turned out. I’ve been pleased with the results! (I ordered myself one of the mugs with my Rainy Day Owl painting and it’s quite a kick to drink my morning coffee from it every day. )

I decided that, in celebration of the Zazzle shop opening, I would give a prize pack of Zazzle products away!

I will be giving away a tote bag and pendant featuring Quirky Dame (the painting that I use as my avatar and on my banner), plus an assortment of five note cards!

My shop opening was announced late last week in my monthly newsletter (click on the link to subscribe!) and the newsletter subscribers already have two entries in the giveaway. Want to enter? New newsletter subscribers will get one entry. Also, check out my ArtFire shop and then come back to this blog and leave a comment on this blog post telling me what item is your favorite in my shop. That will get you another entry in the giveaway. Make sure to leave your email so that I have a way to contact you in case you win!

You have until the end of the day on Friday, March 4th to enter. That weekend, I will gather all the entries and will choose the winner through a random drawing. I will announce the winner on Monday, March 7th. The winner will have three days to respond to my email. If the winner doesn’t respond, I will then choose another winner and give them three days to respond, etc.

I’m excited to have this chance to say thank you my wonderful fans. You guys are the BEST!

In honor of Valentine's Day...

2011-02-13T16:07:00.000-09:00

I'd like to present my latest (almost) finished painting titled, "Thinking of You."

A bunch of artist from ArtFire are starting up a blog where we choose a monthly theme and create a piece of 2D art according to that theme. This is our first month, so we went with Valentine’s Day. It’s been cool to see how everyone interprets it and what they’ve created. Here’s my (almost) finished painting:

I still have a few tweaks to make and then the sides to paint. After she dries a bit, then she’ll be listed in my ArtFire shop. She was quite fun to work on.

I’m also hard at work on a new collection of paintings for my shop! I have three completed so far and I’m planning to finish up at least five more before I introduce them. I’m getting a new delivery of 5 inch round canvases tomorrow and those will make up half of the initial paintings, while the rest have been done on 5×4 inch canvas paintings. My little inner child has been enjoying these mini paintings and I really hope that you’ll like them, too. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can finish up the other five this week and introduce them the week after.

Wishing you all a very creative and blessed week and I look forward to sharing the latest news with you soon!

New Year Updates from Quirky Dame Designs!

2011-01-10T22:29:00.000-09:00

Hello everyone! I hope that your new year is off to a good start. I’ve got several projects in the works right now and there is excitement about each of them. Plus the ideas are bombarding me constantly. I’m making plans, writing notes and taking steps towards turning these ideas into actual pieces of art!

Early last year I came up with a sketch of a woman with flowing hair and a bird perched on her hand. I loved the sketch and immediately started to paint it. Right from the start, things went wrong. Horribly wrong. I ended up putting the painting aside after keeping it out for a month. I just kept staring at it and every time I saw it, I felt worse.

Last month, something sparked in my brain and I came up with an idea that used that very sketch. I made a few changes, added a background and a foreground, and voila! I love this sketch even more. I’ve transferred the sketch over to an 18×24 gessobord and the painting has begun.

Here is a look at the sketch for the painting. The first layer of the background has been applied and my next step is to fill in the foreground and the woman and bird. I used photos from my recent trip to Hawaii as reference material for the jungle. I visited the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens in Hilo and was blown away by it. The beauty and diversity of plants and trees was overwhelming. The path through the gardens ends at a spectacular view of the ocean and I was in tears. I snapped hundreds of pictures and am so happy I did, as I can use them to inspire new artwork in the future. I’ll be talking more about this (among other things) in the first newsletter for Quirky Dame Designs that will be sent out later this month. If you are interested in receiving it, you can sign up at http://eepurl.com/o4tP.

Another project is the next series of 30 Art-o-mat blocks! They’ve already sold over half of the first batch and are running low, so I’m continuing work on the remaining 30 that I have left.

A preview of four blocks that are completed so far. I have a total of seven done. Once I finish them all, I’ll be ordering 80 more blocks and the work will continue! I’m thoroughly enjoying my experience with this project and am so happy to continue participating. I also found out that my blocks have been available in Winston-Salem, NC at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art. Not sure if they are still available there, as I know that some have sold.

I’ll be back again soon with more news from Quirky Dame Designs. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog!

New Oil Painting titled Mutual Admiration

2010-12-26T21:26:00.000-09:00

A few years back, my best friend and I started a tradition. For our Christmas gift (or at least part of it) we would create something for each other. I’ve given paintings each year and in return I’ve gotten a wonderful hand-painted plaster mask, a painting and this year, a wonderful piece of art done with watercolor pencils, plus a gorgeous handmade necklace and earring set. I’ve been very spoiled!

This year, I was pondering what to do. I started out with the idea to paint a realistic nude and the initial sketch came out gorgeous. Somehow, things went downhill between finishing the sketch and transferring it to the gessobord. I didn’t like the composition and I found I wasn’t very excited about it and realized that I needed to rethink things. I do enjoy the challenge of painting realistically, but honestly, I don’t want to do that every time. And this time I wanted to do something different – something fun and colorful but not too realistic. By the end of the day, I had a new sketch of a woman and her cat completed. And I found myself getting excited about painting this one. It just felt right. By this time, it was already into December, but I knew that I wanted to do this one in oils.

So, I got to work. The skin tones came together fairly easily. Painting in oils was the right choice. I’m so much more at ease with the oils, especially when it comes to painting people. Working on this painting helped solidify my decision to focus more on oils this upcoming year and less on acrylics. Some things, such as my owl and the Art-o-mat blocks will still be done in acrylics. But the rest will mostly be done in oils. And I’m really excited about that!

Above you can see the finished painting. I’m pretty happy with it and feel that I made the right decision to scrap the original idea for now. Best of all, it was done before Christmas and in time to exchange today, though just barely! Thanks to thesunnysidebiz on ArtFire, it has a name, which is Mutual Admiration. (I’m simply horrible at naming paintings and when I mentioned it needed one on the forums on ArtFire, she put forth her idea. I’m very grateful!) It was done on a 9×12 stretched canvas.

My next project is another owl, a special custom painting for my darling aunt. This owl will be a red hat owl and it promises to be a fun project. After that, another oil painting and I’m narrowing down the possibilities out of several promising sketches. I hope to spend New Year’s Eve doing what I love best… painting!
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and may the New Year be filled with many blessings!

Now Available in Art-o-mats!

2010-12-10T22:34:00.000-09:00

That’s right, I just received word that my mini paintings have been shipped to the following three locations:

The Smithsonian in Washington D.C.
The Studios of Key West in Florida
The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas (Opening on December 15, 2010)

Ah, now I’m wishing I could arrange a long weekend in Vegas! It feels great to know that my paintings are now out and about and available for purchase. I have started painting backgrounds on a few of the remaining 30 blocks that I have left to paint. Ideas are brimming in my brain and I’m excited to start creating some more pieces soon! If you have found this page after purchasing one of my pieces, please comment or email me. I’d love to hear from you and find out which painting you received!

While I was in Seattle at the beginning of last month, I had the pleasure of visiting a delightful shop called Venue Ballard. It was full of wonderful jewelry and art. I found a charming owl print that I just couldn’t resist.

And how did I discover this business?

Art-o-mat! Yes, they have one there and I was lucky enough to pick out six wonderful pieces, though I’m wishing that I had gotten a few more! I took the pieces back to my Aunt’s home where we were staying and had a great time checking out the pieces I had purchased. Here’s what I got:

The little robot dude makes a great pendant. My aunt was kind enough to give me a silver chain and I ended up wearing him to the Art Walk the next day. I’m looking forward to the day when I have another chance to visit one of these machines!

Holiday Happenings at Quirky Dame Designs!

2010-12-03T23:35:00.000-09:00

I am back from a much-needed, very restful vacation and am getting back into the swing of things creatively. I’ve added a few new items to my shop. Above is the Fantasy Flower pin and there are two more featuring cats. I also have some hand painted pendants in the works. I’ve been having fun playing around with the smaller scale pieces. I love unique, playful jewelry and creating it? So much fun!

While I was away, I was gathering inspiration. I spent two weeks soaking up the sights in Hawaii and have come away with many wonderful photos to use as references and a couple of sketches. I attended two one-hour demonstrations featuring Hawaiian musicians and hula dancers. I am fascinated by the hula and plan on studying it more in-depth. In the meantime, I worked on a sketch of a hula dancer and hope to turn it into a painting soon. I’m also working on a whimsical 8×6 oval painting of a mermaid.

But first, I must paint my Christmas present for my best friend. Each year, we create something for each other instead of just buying something from the store. I love having the chance to dream up and create something special with her in mind. That’s also one of the things that I love about custom orders. Being able to tailor something to another person’s taste and vision is quite a challenge and it’s so rewarding when you have managed to capture what they wanted and even more in a piece.

Okay, I had to share the picture of this crazy cat! It is another one of the hand painted pins. He was a fun one to work on! If you are looking for some colorful, quirky items as gifts for Christmas, I do have a few special deals at Quirky Dame Designs.

First, all prints, cards, hand painted magnets and pins ship USPS first class for free! If you need quicker shipping, please contact me. I will deduct what the first class postage would have been from the total of the faster shipping cost.

Also, all mini paintings with easels, such as the one to the left, are 20% off! I do accept custom orders, so if you see anything you like, but would prefer different colors, etc., please contact me about having something special made to your specifications.

Be back again soon with more news from Quirky Dame Designs!

Done! Well, mostly...

2010-10-24T17:28:00.000-08:00

That’s right, the first 50 Art-0-mat blocks are done! Okay, mostly. I still have to paint the sides, sign them, print and attach labels, then package them along with the inserts. Oh, and I want some photos. LOL! So a bit more to do, but the hardest part is done. I will be ready to ship them out by or before next Monday. Which is awesome, because I leave state on Tuesday. I’ll get to attack the next thirty blocks when I get back.

Woo hoo! Feeling very happy and productive today. Now to celebrate by making dinner. :)

Update on the Art-o-mat blocks!

2010-10-23T17:22:00.000-08:00

The last time I updated, I had just received the blocks. It’s been a crazy few weeks and I’ve been fighting to balance my time, making room in my schedule for everything that needs to get done. I’ve had to curtail some art time until recently. I’ll be going on a glorious three-week vacation to Seattle and Kona as of November 2nd, so it’s been a little nuts around here, trying to finish various tasks at the day job and home, wrapping things up all while doing three house-sitting jobs. By the time I leave, I’ll be needing that vacation!

Well, despite the harried schedule, I just finished my 45th block and wanted to share a little peak at the blocks. It’s been fun trying out new colors and ideas. My goal is to finish at least 50 blocks before I go. No problem, I’ll be over 50 by tomorrow night. (I’d love to finish all 80, but that may be a little ambitious!) Then I’ll send that batch out and finish the rest when I get home (and bring a few along on the trip to work on at night when I need an art fix!)

For now, it’s time to head back to the pets. It’s getting near their dinner time and I’ll have this sweet little guy begging for his meal. Remember this face, one day next year, he’s going to be the subject of an oil painting. I’ve been house-sitting him for a few years now and I’ve known for a while that he was going to be the subject of a painting. I’m still working it out in my brain and can hardly wait to dive into it. I plan on playing around with it and integrating the quirky style of the acrylic paintings I do into the oil painting. It’s going to be fun!

Art-o-mat Update

2010-09-08T23:19:00.000-08:00

I came home from work today to find 80 Art-o-mat blocks waiting for me.

I carted them downstairs to my work area and lined them all up. Then I got out my gesso and got to work.

I went through and did two coats of gesso on each block.

And now I’m ready to start painting! I’m going through my sketches and deciding which one to do first. Mapping out my strategy. Looking forward to beginning this process.

My Artsy Weekend

2010-09-08T22:27:00.000-08:00

I’ve been enjoying the long weekend and being very productive. It’s been a nice change from the previous weeks and the weird mood I’ve been in regarding my art. I haven’t been very productive at all and it’s been bugging me. But I finally dove in this weekend and ended up working on several things. What’s really nice is that it was a mixture of realistic and non-realistic. I like a little of both.

First, I’ve been putting the final touches on the pet portrait. I was going back and forth between painting the sides brown or gray. I consulted a few friends and finally decided on gray. I’m rather happy with the results. It was a bit nerve wracking painting them, but I took it slow and easy and I didn’t get any gray on the front of the painting. Success! It’s now hanging and drying, waiting for the retouch varnish. I’m trying to decide on a name. That is my least favorite part of painting.

After working all that time on such a realistic painting, I wanted to just play around and have some fun with something less realistic. I had taken a photo of a poppy earlier this summer (which you can find in an earlier blog entry) and that poppy has been sticking with me. I finally decided to do something with it. So I watered down some acrylics and put them in some small spray bottles then grabbed a series of three canvases I had bought on impulse the other week, then sprayed them with the paint. Then after it had dried, I sketched some poppies and started painting them. They were quite fun to do.

Saturday I had some running around to do, but I wanted to have a little fun, too. I was in great need of some coffee, so before I left the house, I grabbed my sketchbook and pencil. I decided to stop by Barnes and Noble and sketch for a spell in the cafe. I’m a little addicted to the Starbucks Frappucinos and they have that delicious M&M blondie blast treat. Mmmm!

I have a photo of my best friend that I’ve wanted to do something with for a while now. Just on a whim, I grabbed that, too. So, after getting my sugary treats, I sat down and did a few sketches for the Art-o-mat blocks (which are on their way!) and then whipped out the photo and got started.

I worked on it for quite a while, at least until a couple sat down next to me that I thought would end up breaking out in some violent spat. That got a little uncomfortable. I’ve continued to develop the drawing and will be updating this blog as progress continues. I’m hoping to get an even closer resemblance by the time I’m done. I need and want to challenge myself more often by attempting this. I love to do the quirky, fun sketches, but it’s just as important that I do realistic, as well.

Saturday night I sat down to get caught up on some TV and I grabbed a small 5×5 canvas that I had painted previously. It had this hideous pink background that I couldn’t stand, so I thought I’d just slap some paint on and see what came of it.

The summer we’ve been having here in Alaska can be described with one word: rainy. It’s been driving me crazy and I keep dreaming of the vacations I have planned for November and February. I’ll be going to my future home of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. One of the things I love seeing in Hawaii is those gorgeous palm trees against the brilliant blue sky. That’s what I ended up painting on that little canvas. I can hardly wait to see the real thing in two months, but until then (or until this piece sells) I’ll enjoy seeing it on the canvas.

While working on the sketches for the Art-o-mat blocks, I’ve stumbled across some girls that I call The Quirky Girls. They’re a little kooky or nerdy, but I love that in a person. These girls have been great fun to create.

I had an 11×14 hardboard and another 5×5 canvas lying around, so I have used both of them to bring two of the Quirky Girls – Quincy and Frankie – to life. Above, you’ll see Frankie. She was done on the 5×5 canvas and, like the palm tree and summer poppies, is available in my ArtFire shop. I’m still working on Quincy, but she’ll be making your acquaintance soon. It’s been good to do these pieces and it’s helped me to work out a few things for when the blocks get here this week.

So that’s the update for now. I tend to do longer updates for this blog every week or two, rather than shorter updates a few times a week. However, if you follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, I do show pictures of works in progress and update people on various projects.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I’ll be sure to post my progress on the above projects soon!

It is done!

2010-08-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

Finished the pet portrait tonight! For now, I will put it away for a week or possibly two, then take another look. If there are any minor touch-ups that are needed, I’ll make them then. Plus I will be emailing a photo to Linda, the artist who taught the pet portrait class I took in June. If she has any suggestions, I’ll be addressing those as well.

This portrait took longer than I expected, mainly because I hit a bad patch with it. There was something not quite right and it took me a while to figure it out. I spent way too much time avoiding painting so that I wouldn’t have to work on it. Not the best way to handle it! But yesterday I had a breakthrough and the changes I made just seem to turn the painting (and my attitude) around. It was such a relief to finally be happy with where the painting was heading and to actually want to paint again!

Now the only other major decision I have is whether to paint the two-inch sides a dark brown or a dark gray. Decisions, decisions…

Fun With Flowers!

2010-08-07T22:13:00.001-08:00

I have a Nikon Coolpix P80 that I hadn’t seen in months. Maybe as long as a year. I loved this camera – 10 megapixels with an 18x zoom. So fun to play with it and I’ve really missed it. I had a simple point and shoot that I’ve been using for pictures of my art to post on ArtFire, but recently I misplaced that, too.

I decided it was time to replace the Nikon. I needed to list paintings in my store and I have a trip to Seattle and Hawaii coming up in November. So I ordered a new one, a Kodak camera. Unbelievable zoom and 14 megapixels. The day after I ordered it, I found both of my other cameras. Go figure.

Thankfully, I was spared the hard decision of whether or not to keep the new camera, even though I knew I shouldn’t. It came and I eagerly put it through it’s paces. And it SUCKED. I happily sent it back the next day. I ordered a new battery charger for the old, beloved Nikon and was thrilled to receive that on Friday.

Today, I decided to pull out my Nikon and have a little fun. It’s been months since I’ve been able to just play around and shoot hundreds of photos. And I had forgotten how very much I loved doing it. So I started out with birds. We have a bird feeder outside the windows in our living room. I spent 30 minutes crouched in the recliner, poised to grab a shot whenever I could. I wished I could have opened the window so I didn’t have to shoot through it, but the birds were banging into it repeatedly today and they would’ve flown right into our house if I had. Here’s a few of the pictures I took:

That whetted my appetite. My mother and decided to take a walk and knowing where we would be walking, I grabbed my camera and took it with me. I knew we’d be around a lot of flowers and I thought it’d be the perfect chance to grab some pictures. Try over 200 of them! Thankfully, I have a very patient mother who was willing to sit and wait while I indulged myself.

Out of the 200+ pictures, so far I’ve gone through and edited 14 of them that are my favorites. I’m going to take another look at the others, but I thought I’d share a few of them.

If you’re interested in seeing the other 10 pictures, you can find them posted on my Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/quirkydamedesigns. I could’ve taken hundreds more and I do plan on going back. So many more flowers I didn’t even get to explore. Hope you enjoyed seeing these!

So many projects, so little time!

2010-08-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

So I’ve been spending my time working on a few different things. Thought I’d take a moment to post a little update on each one…

First, the cat portrait. I’ve made slow progress on this. I’m posting a picture of mainly the cat, as that is what I’ve focused on. I’m thrilled to say that I’m almost done filling in her fur. She’s got pupils, so she’s looking a little less creepy. I was over at my friend’s house this weekend and spent a little time with Penny. I took a closer look and realized that her eyes are actually much greener than the picture I’ve worked from. So I will be correcting that as I complete work on her. Once I’m done with her, I need to turn my attention to the bird and the feeder. My goal is to finish this by the middle of the month, so that she’ll have a little over a month to dry before the auction.

I started this piece as a way to get used to painting in oils again after an eight month break from them. Plus I have a bigger mermaid painting forming in my mind and this was a good way to work some things out. About all I have left to do on this painting is to add some detail to her tail and touch up a spot or two on the water. Then I’ll be listing her in my ArtFire shop.

I’ve also been sketching away, coming up with some fun new ideas for the Art-o-mat paintings. I’m having such a good time indulging myself with all sorts of fun ideas. I’m looking forward to getting the wood blocks so I can finally get it going. Some (especially ones that don’t make the cut for the Art-o-mat pieces) I’m even contemplating expanding and painting in a bigger format. Many thanks to my best friend Alicia who came up with many ideas for titles during our lunch this weekend. I’m awful with titles and she’s such a fantastic writer. I’m so blessed to have her input!

Another fun thing about these tiny sketches? Seeing the delightful drawings that my six-year-old niece comes up with when she sits down to copy them! She’s been adding her own art to the pages and I love seeing her put her own twist on things. Here she’s decided to copy one of my pictures, but to do it with a real bunny instead. Love it!

So that’s the latest on things. My main objective over the next week or two is to get the cat done and set aside to dry and then to get the mermaid done and listed. That way I’ll be free and clear when the blocks arrive. Plus I have many other unfinished paintings to create and a Christmas project to continue doing. Just wishing there was more time in the day to do all of it!

Awesome news to share!

2010-07-23T23:21:00.000-08:00

About six weeks ago, I was perusing the forums at Etsy. I did a few searches for “art” and “artists” just to see if I could find any hints or advice from other artists. Maybe learn something new. I came across a thread about something called an Art-o-mat. My curiosity was piqued, so I took a look.

What are Art-o-mats? I learned that they are old cigarette vending machines that have been repurposed to vend miniature works of art instead. (They have a website at http://www.artomat.org, check it out!) How cool is that??? There are over 90 machines and for $5 at most locations, you can buy a small piece of art, jewelry, or even a little sculpture, for example. I was enchanted by the idea, absolutely smitten. What a creative way to recycle and put these old machines back in use. And I love how it makes art friendly, accessible and affordable for people.

I spent some time browsing Art-o-mart’s website, Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-o-matR-Dont-Go-Round-Artless/234778157983) and even a group on Flickr where artists submit photos of their work and people who have bought some can post their pictures, too. I studied the artwork and realized that my art might be a good fit for this. Feeling energized and inspired, I went for it.

I ordered a sample of the wooden block (pre-cut to the exact specifications they need) that they have available. I love painting on wood, so that was the perfect choice for me. While waiting for it to arrive, I started working on possible designs. The painting must measure exactly 2 1/8″ x 3 1/4″ so I created a template in Word with 8 squares that size on a page, then printed out multiples copies and started sketching my ideas in the squares. I also developed and created the designs for the promotional card to be included with the work and the placard that they would use to advertise my art on the machine itself.

Once the block arrived, I decided on the design to use, then transferred it and painted. Then I covered the sides and back of the block with black gesso and then, after letting it dry, I sprayed it. Then it was time to put it all together. Your submission must be complete and vend-ready. For the back of the block, I printed out a label with the title of the painting, my name and my email address. Then I wrapped the block and the promotional leaflet I had designed with the strip of acetate. I packaged that up with my application and placard and sent it off around the first of the month.

Then I waited. That was the hard part! It was only three weeks, but it felt like three months. But while I waited, I continued to sketch out more ideas in case I was accepted. I’m unbelievably thankful now that I did that.

This morning I arrived at work before it was time to punch in. So I decided to finish checking my email. And there it was… the email saying that they had accepted me! I was giddy all day. Made it very hard to concentrate on the day job! But now the fun part of gathering the supplies and finishing up the designs commences while I wait for my package of 50 blocks to arrive. (Plus I have to finish the pet portrait!) I’m going to be a very busy painter, but I’m so excited to have this chance.

I’ve not yet had the opportunity to visit an Art-o-mat in person yet, but I’m visiting relatives in Seattle come November and there is one there! I will be visiting it and starting up my own Art-o-mat art collection. I’ll also be in Hawaii, but Kailua Kona. The Art-o-mat there is in Honolulu. Oh well, one day. They have a list of locations on their website. Check it out… maybe you’ll discover one in your hometown!

Just a little update...

2010-07-04T20:04:00.000-08:00

Happy 4th everyone! I spent Friday night and most of Saturday at my parent’s cabin with my family. They’re still staying out there until Monday, but I can only take so much of the woods (I’m more of a beach/ocean person) and I needed a little alone time, too, so I came back after one night. Plus a three day weekend? I needed one of those to work on some paintings!

Here’s the latest update on the cat painting. I’ve filled in the fur on the body – though I have to make a few corrections – and have done a little over half of her face. So much fur. LOL! I finally had to step away to give myself a break and let some of the paint dry. I’ll be working on it some more tomorrow. I’m hoping to finish up the fur. Then I get to tackle the bird and feeder. I’m not happy with how they look.

In the meantime, I’ve dragged out my unfinished acrylic owl painting to work on for the rest of the night. It’ll be a fun one to work on and a nice break from trying to do a realistic animal.

Day Five of Pet Portrait Class!

2010-06-30T17:00:00.000-08:00

Tried to post this earlier this week, but my internet connection was down. Giving it another try!

So… I’m a few days late. I pushed myself a little too far last week and my brain and body just shut down this weekend. I needed a long time out to regroup.

Friday night was a rough night. Mentally I was working against myself, overthinking things, doubting myself and any ability I might have, comparing myself to others (unfavorably, of course) and such. It was a hard night of painting. The painting wasn’t going well, the colors just weren’t right. At one point, Linda and I were talking and studying the painting and determined that the values of the cat weren’t right. Which mean I got to paint the undercoat all over again. But that was a good thing as it corrected something that needed to be fixed and I loosened up a bit in the process. The class ended on a positive note with me feeling much more confident than I had felt at the beginning. And yes, that’s yours truly posing alongside her creation. (Picture is courtesy of Kristen, another student in the class.)

I learned so much from this class. It was a good way to throw myself back into the oil painting again. And this time I really have vowed not to let it go. While I didn’t work on the cat this weekend, I forced myself to sit down tonight and mix up some paint colors. Then a little while later, after an impromptu visit from a friend, I sat myself down to start the process of painting in the fur. Linda warned us it would look and feel weird at first, but that as we continued the process, we would see it start to come together. Well, Penny is looking a little weird right now. *g* I can see a few spots where the values aren’t quite right and will fix that tomorrow. However, you can’t see it in the picture (sorry for the lousy iPhone pictures – I can’t find my camera) but on the right side in the dark patch of fur on her body, I started to fill in the hair a bit and I can see how it will come together.

I’m pushing myself to keep at it, to keep learning and playing and experimenting. It’s just little moments of fighting the fear of messing up or making a horrible mistake or just painting bad and doing it anyway.

Day Four of Pet Portrait Class

2010-06-24T22:34:00.000-08:00

As I was typing this entry, talking about how tired I am and how this entry would be short and sweet, my &%#$ laptop decided to shut down and install some updates. So now I start again.

So today in class we went over painting fur and cat eyes. Very helpful. I’ll be using that tomorrow night! Tonight I finished filling in the background. One of these days I will learn to actually fill in the background as I go along, instead of trying to painting around say, a cat and bird. I know better, but still I don’t do it. I’m learning, slowly but surely!

Now I get to start adding in the fur and all the other details. Fun! One last class to get some hands on help from Linda, though I guarantee you I’ll be emailing her a picture to get her input.

Tonight I’m keeping this entry short. I’m giving myself a break tonight and will spend oh, 45 minutes or so playing with the new computer game to relax (got Sims 3 Ambitions!) and then it’s time to get ready for bed. Will write a bit more tomorrow night!

Day three of pet portrait class!

2010-06-23T23:07:00.000-08:00

Day three of pet portrait class and we’re now more than halfway through. Despite the killer schedule of having class every night, I could really use another week at least! Thank God Linda welcomes us emailing her with pictures if we get stuck or have a question. Since I’m hoping to donate this painting for a silent charity auction later this fall, I will totally be taking her up on that! There’s no way I’ll be able to finish this painting by the end of class on Friday, but I hope to make great progress the next two days.

Today she went over a little bit about colors then we all got busy working on the paintings. I had experimented with mixing up some colors last night to help speed things up tonight and boy, was that a good thing! I got a nice gray mixed up for the undercoat and started blocking in the cat. I hate this part. This is the part where I want to give up and walk away from the painting. But I know if I stick with it, I’ll get past this part and it’ll get better.

Really doesn’t help that I hadn’t painted with oils for around 7 or 8 months before taking this class. I will NEVER go that long again. This is my new resolution and I will be sticking with it. I take a class and make great progress, then once the class is over with, I stop doing it. Then when I take the next class, I feel like I’ve been thrown in the deep end and I’m struggling to get back to where I was before. Then just when I’m feeling like I’m getting there, the class is through and again, I stop. I’ve done this with various things through my life when it comes to art and slowly, I’m starting to mend my ways.

Anyway, I persevered and kept on painting and finally, I started to get to a place where it began to actually resemble the cat. That was a good moment! I started to feel hope that it might all turn out well in the end. I finally did finish the undercoat of the cat. I can spot a few areas that aren’t quite right, but overall, she’s looking so much better than I thought she would be!

Towards the end of class I started to move on and got the base of the bird feeder blocked in. I have to look for a few reference photos for the bird so that I can be prepared to work on him. I think that blocking in the rest of the painting will go much faster, especially since it’s not as detailed as the cat itself and then I can get started on adding the layers of fur to her.

Anyway, now I’m off to go finish up a few things and hopefully be in bed by midnight. As much as I would love another week of this, I really need sleep! So thankful I was able to take this class. I always learn so much in Linda’s workshops.

Be back again tomorrow night!

Day Two of Pet Portrait class!

2010-06-23T00:14:00.000-08:00

Pet Portrait – Day Two

Back from class and ready for bed. But before I hit the sack, I wanted to get this written and posted.
Headed to class again, this time prepared to sketch the cat onto the gessobord. Got there a bit early, chatted with folks, looked at their sketches, then started to finish up mine.

The picture I”m using of Penny was taken when she was sitting on the window sill. I was driving home last night, thinking of how she used to jump up there, then sit and chatter at the birds on the feeder outside. It made me laugh every time. Then it occurred to me that I could add a bird on a feeder in the upper left corner, along with a bird peeking it’s head out. So I added that to the sketch and decided to use that. I wanted to do something that would reveal part of Penny’s personality and that reminded me of her. Perfect!

While we worked on sketches, Linda got things set up for the talk/demonstration. Once she was ready, we gathered ’round and listened hard. A lot I was already familiar with, but it never hurts to get a refresher course. Plus sometimes you catch something that you missed last time and that was the case today.

She went over a little color theory, strategies for deciding how to attack the painting, and demonstrated by sketching on her canvas, then she sent us all off to do it ourselves. I cleaned up the sketch and then mixed up my paints. Opened up the odorless mineral spirits and dished out some Neo Megilp. (The strangest product name I have ever heard. I want to know how they came up with it and what possessed them to use it!) Then I got to work.

I switched between the sketch and the black and white photo. I spent a lot of time trying to make sure that all the measurements worked out and tried to get the best resemblance possible. The better a job I do today, the less mistakes to fix and the less reworking to do later in the process.

I will admit that I dragged my feet a little. I was nervous about figuring out the colors and actually taking that next step, so I hemmed and hawed. I fiddled around and thought a lot about the color scheme I was going to use. Then suddenly it was 8:45 and since class got out at 9:00, well, why bother. I excel at this kind of stuff, can you tell?? I ended up stopping at this point, rather pleased with the results, but wishing I had pushed myself to go a little further. Only three more sessions left.

All the way home, I kept thinking that I really should break out the paints and mess around with the paints tonight. Try out a few color combos and see what works and what doesn’t. I really didn’t want to, but I decided to make up for my earlier procrastination and save myself some time in tomorrow’s class.

I got home, whipped out the paints and got to work. I knew I wanted to go with the complimentary color scheme of blue and orange, but the colors just weren’t turning out right. I figured out the orangey brownish color of her fur early on, but the gray was escaping me. But as I continued to work, I started remembering bits and pieces of things I had learned before and after 45 minutes, I found the color combinations that would work for a good part of the painting. Unfortunately, by the time I found these color combos, the canvas board I had been using to test them was nearly full. But I dabbed some of the correct colors on there and made a couple of notes.

I’m so very thankful that I sat down to work this out tonight. This way tomorrow I can get to class, immediately whip up the colors I need and not have to waste valuable class time struggling to get the shades right. I”m so looking forward to working on this painting tomorrow.

I was speaking to Linda about being asked to donate a painting for the Mayor’s Charity Ball this fall and she suggested that I could donate this one. It hadn’t occurred to me to do that, but I’m keeping it in mind. If this painting turns out, I just may set it aside and save it. It would be wonderful to have that project done and not hanging over my head.

Coming tomorrow will be the recap of the third day and more pictures!

Day One of Pet Portraits Class

2010-06-21T23:45:00.000-08:00

Today I started the first of five classes (one each night this week) on painting pet portraits in oils. I have several portraits I’d like to do, all based on some of the darling animals that I pet-sit, as well as the cat and dog that we had while I was growing up. I no longer have pets of my own due to allergies, but for the special people in my life, I drug myself heavily and pet-sit for them. It’s how I get my pet fix and earn some extra money, too.

I had printed out a number of photos, then I had to narrow down the choices. I ended up choosing the picture of my best friend’s cat, Penny. I’m really pleased with the picture and still can’t believe I was able to get her in such a good pose. It has some good contrast going on (especially once I played a little with it in Paint Shop Pro) and it just brought back a lot of memories from when I watched her that time. I was thinking of some of those memories driving home from class and they’ve given me some ideas for the background. I’m still not sure which I’ll end up using.

It’s a sweet picture of a sweet, affectionate cat. She is, by far, the most attention craving cat that I have house-sat. Most of the cats will come up every once in a while to be loved, but this sweet girl would hang around for hours. Books and laptops don’t deter her, she just plops down on top of them, demanding to be petted.

Anyway, back to class. I arrived and got settled. Recognized some old faces from previous classes I’ve taken with the artist, Linda. Chatted a bit amongst ourselves, then got down to business. We introduced ourselves, went over some basics and talked about drawing the animals, trying to get the angles and proportions right, etc. Then we settled down to sketch.

There are times, rare and marvelous times, when I sit down to sketch and the lines just seem to flow on the page with little effort. This was not one of those times! Trying to figure out what’s beneath all that fur, getting the angles right, double and triple checking measurements, and then erasing it and starting over again. That’s how my night went. But thank God I love a challenge! I get riled up and refuse to quit. I refuse to let the sketch defeat me.

Linda stopped by as she made her way around the room and she was able to pinpoint what was messing me up. I knew something was up around the mouth area, but just couldn’t figure out what was going on. Once she took a look and steered me in the right direction, things started going much, much better.

I spent the last bit of the night working out the last of the kinks. By the time class was over, I was quite happy with the results. I gathered up my things, hopped in the car, and stopped for some Haagen Daz on my way home. I figured all that hard work deserved a little treat!

Tomorrow during my lunch hour and before class, I’ll be playing around with different background ideas. The thing is, my favorite idea involves adding yet another creature to the painting. LOL! I guess I really do just like to challenge myself. Then once I get to class tomorrow night, we’ll begin the process of sketching the drawing onto the canvas, or gessobord in my case, using the paints. So yes, I get to do it all again!

Mermaid Update

2010-06-17T23:10:00.000-08:00

After nearly falling asleep on the couch after work today, I roused myself up and headed down to the studio area. I decided to work on the Christmas project first and actually did more on that than I intended. Once I get going, I just want to keep going at it. Very hard to make myself put it down and walk away. But I finally did.

I’ve been feeling all day like I wanted to tackle the mermaid painting again. Taking advantage of that mood, I moved on to the mermaid. I mixed up the grays for the rock and dug in. I did have a sketch that I was working off of, but I also just played around with it a bit. It’s been months since I painted with oils, so I’m trying to get used to working with them again and I’m letting myself experiment. However, I’m really happy with how the mermaid is coming along, so I don’t want to mess things by playing around too much. LOL! I had a bad moment where I messed up the tail a bit, but I think that I rescued it fairly well.

I still have more work to do on the rock, then I also have to add in highlights and the foamy water around the rocks. And I have to fix a few areas of the water. I’m shooting for finishing it by next week. I want to take it to my class to have Linda take a look at it and see if she has any feedback before I declare it complete.
All right, time to get away from any and all things digital so I can settle down before hitting the sack. Happy dreams everyone!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2010-06-17T17:06:00.003-08:00

Well, in my studio anyway! I’ve begun work on some new items just for Christmas! The bright reds and greens are quite festive and I’m looking forward to seeing it all come together. Though it’s quite strange to be doing Christmas in the middle of summer.

I’ve also been quite busy working on several other pieces. Not done with the mermaid yet, but I want to finish her by the end of this weekend. I also have a new owl that I’ve started. Want a sneak peek? Here ya go!

Next week is going to be crazy! I’m taking a five day intensive class. It’ll be every night next week from 6:30 to 9:00 pm. The class is taught by a local artist, Linda Infante Lyons and it will be focused on pet portraits. I’m very excited about this one and having taken several other classes by her, I know it’ll be a good one. I’ll be sure to post some pictures here.

Mermaid in progress.

2010-06-13T20:31:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was my birthday. In celebration of this day, my best friend came over and we had an art day. It’s been awhile since we’ve had one, so it was great to get together and just create while chatting. She worked on a watercolor pencil piece that she plans on hanging in her newly painted and decorated bathroom at home and I worked on two different pieces.

The first one I did was my mermaid painting. A week or two ago, I dragged out my oil paints and started playing around with them again. It’d been way too long since I’d last used them and with a pet portrait in oils class coming up at the end of the month, I knew I needed to start using them again. Give myself a chance to adjust to them after working solely with acrylics for months. I ended up creating a background that seemed to be perfect for one of the mermaid paintings I’ve been pondering in my mind.

So last Sunday, while chatting with the family over brunch, I whipped out my sketch pad and started fiddling a bit. By the end of brunch, VOILA! I had a sketch done. Happy with the results, I determined that this would be the one I’d use for it. So today, when we got started, I transferred the sketch to the canvas and painted away. Here’s the results so far:

The white you see underneath her is the sketch of the rock that she is sitting on. I will be painting that in next. The other piece I worked on was a new painting. I basically sketched the drawing on the canvas – it’s a surfer girl with a large sun and a huge wave behind her – and now I’m filling in the basic blocks of color in the painting. She’s not ready for a work in progress picture yet, but soon, I hope!

Overall, I am quite happy with the progress I made yesterday and can hardly wait to start back on both pieces. I’ll be sure to post an update when I do get a chance to finish more!

Btw, I have a new site up and running! It's at http://www.quirkydame.com and it also includes a blog (WordPress) plus I've added additional pages, such as a gallery, links where I can be found, and a list of my shops online, though I hope to add local shops in the future. It's one of my goals. :) I will most likely just copy and paste the blog entries from there to here. I'm just happy to have one central place to put all my information!

Twitter Update

2010-06-01T17:09:00.000-08:00

Just a note for those following me on Twitter: I have set up a separate twitter account dedicated to Quirky Dame Designs at http://www.twitter.com/quirkydd. Feel free to follow it if you'd like to keep up to date on my shops that way. Also, if you are following me on my personal twitter account (quirkydame), I will still be posting there, just keeping it mainly personal with some art thrown in. :)

Busy as a beaver!

2010-05-14T09:52:00.000-08:00

After two weeks or so of not painting, I’ve been quite productive!

At first I just grabbed a canvas board – not my usual choice of support – and just messed around a bit, playing with colors and an idea. It was going to be a simple, quick painting for a weathered art swap I’m participating in. That’s where you create a piece of art and hang it outside for a week, then send it to your partner. Well, it started to turn into something that I couldn’t quite bring myself to hang outside. So I kept at it and ended up listing it in my Art Fire shop. I think it was inspired by the gorgeous weather we had on Mother’s Day. I like how bright and cheery it is and I’m still stunned at how straight that freehand wording is. LOL!

Then a few days later, I was at work checking out some pictures of cats and I stumbled across one that instantly reached out and screamed DRAW ME! It was a simple side view of a cat sitting. So I drew just a outline of the cat and it was one of those moments where everything just flowed. The lines formed themselves with almost no correction needed from me. I then made copies of the sketch, so I could doodle around and figure out what to do with this drawing and not ruin the original in the process.

First I filled in the cat silhouette with curvy lines and liked how that turned out.

Then I did a polka dot one, which was fun.

Next was a somewhat boring diagonal line one, but I figured I would create a wild background to add some spice.

Then my brain started brewing and an idea just hit me. Thank God everyone was in a meeting so I could get it down on paper! This was the result:

I loved the concept, but the flowers themselves had to change. So I did a minor edit and was much happier. I then impatiently waited for the last hour of work to end so I could rush home and paint her! And again, it was one of those times when I sat down to paint and it just flowed. No major traumas, no moments when I hated it or wanted to just give up on it. It was an awesome feeling. I tweeted the image that night while I was working on it and a co-worker saw it and just loved it. I brought it in the next day to show it off, even though I still had about 30 minutes left of work to do on it. That same co-worker saw it and bought it on the spot. LOL! Here’s a picture of the finished product.

It looks even better in person! I plan on doing a couple more like this, but in different colors. So much fun and I loved the results.

Then last night, I finally got my new photo editing software! When my other computer died a few months back, I lost the software that was on it. I’ve been using picnic.com. It’s helpful but you can only do so much. So I finally scored an earlier version of Paint Shop Pro for cheap. I’ve been dying to redo my shop banner and avatar for quite some time, so I sat down last night and after three or four hours and probably 20 different versions, I came up with the new avatar and banner!

Here they are:

I was quite happy with the results. They look so much better than the last one I did and this one actually feels “quirky” unlike the old one. It was also a good way to reacquaint myself with Paint Shop Pro, as it’s been a few years since I last used it.

Oh, and one more thing before I end this post. The agency I work for used to be an orphanage many years ago. Back when Alaska achieved statehood, they held a contest for all the schoolchildren in the state to come up with a design for the Alaska Flag. The winner, a boy by the name of Benny Benson, was residing in that orphanage at the time. Every year the agency holds a picnic in honor of the flag on Alaska Flag Day, July 9th. It is a city-wide picnic with food, games, live music and lots of fun. Every year, they also hold a contest for the students and the staff to come up with a design for that year’s t-shirt. Then at our monthly meeting, the staff votes on all the designs and a winner is chosen. I entered a design this year and I’m so happy to announce that I won! Here’s Benny the Moose:

His smiling mug will be featured on the t-shirts and hoodies available for the public to buy at the event. He’s also on much of the promotional material and the tickets. I can hardly wait to see him on the clothing. What a thrill!

I hope you all are having a wonderful day that is followed by a spectacular weekend!

Had to share this, too!

2010-05-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

I had another Art Fire seller, White Dandelion Works, contact me, this time about making plushies based on my owls. I can safely say that I am not talented when it comes to sewing and that's an understatement. So it's something that I didn't have planned, but the idea intrigued me. (I love fun little plushies and wish I did have that talent to make them!) I gave her the go ahead to create one for a toy drop and loved the results! She's made two more for her Art Fire shop and I wanted to share them with you. They're wonderful and I'm hoping to have her make a custom one for me. :)

Here's the first one:

Isn't he adorable? You can check him out at http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=1341833.

And then there's this one, the latest one she has listed:

This sweet fellow critter can be found at http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=1346578.

I'm so charmed by her adorable owls and I hope you guys like them, too!

Have to share this!

2010-04-20T21:50:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by an ArtFire seller - Harlamy - who was interested in making a couple of polymer clay owls in the same style as the owls in my paintings. It was certainly not something that I had planned on doing (my talent lies with paintbrushes, not clay!) so I said, "Sure!" She has listed the first owl and I was so charmed that I requested she make one for me. :) I wanted to share her darling creation with all of you! Here's a picture of it:

Isn't he adorable?! Here's the painting of mine that she mentioned in her listing:

I urge you all to go check out the listing at http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=1317132. Check out the rest of her items as well! She's got some pretty cool jewelry, like this bracelet, which is one of my favorites!

Back again!

2010-03-26T21:03:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the long absence from this blog! The past month has been quite a month. The first two weeks were spent finishing a custom painting, housesitting, packing for my trip and going through some crazy stuff at the day job. But the last two weeks? I spent them in Hawaii... gorgeous, beautiful, warm and tropical Hawaii. And it was just what I needed. :)

I didn't have as many chances to do art related things as I wanted while I was there. But I did make a point to stop at the Volcano Art Center in Volcano National Park and it was incredible! Turns out an artist that I greatly admire was having a show there - though I was a couple of weeks early to see her in person - and I discovered several others, too. You can find their website here and the artist I referred to is Carin Loebel-Fried. But there's several others I loved, such as Dietrich Varez, Linda Varez, Kathy Long, Linda Rowell Stevens, and more.

As for myself, I did a few sketches, started a painting and took a bunch of photos. Right now, one of the sketches is being turned into a linocut, but I think I may also paint it. Here's a look at the sketch:

Here's a peek at the linocut in progress (though I think I'll end up redoing her in the future.) I did a test print a little after taking this picture, after I had carved some more, which helped me to see what needed to be cleaned up:

Here's the painting I started over there. It's the view from the lanai of my sister's condo in Maui. I've still got a lot of work to do on this one before it's ready to list:

As you read above, I have started doing linocuts! I've been wanting to give them a try again for quite some time. I figured my word this year is Expand, so it's time I did just that and start working on them again. Plus there's a Pet Portrait painting class going on in town in June and I plan on taking that class. It's a one week intensive, every night for five nights, from 6:30 to 9:00 pm, at the local art museum. It's with an artist that I love - Linda Infante Lyons - and have taken several of her classes. It ties in with a special project I have planned.

And before I end this post, a quick look at one of the pictures I took in Hawaii. I miss it there already:

Okay, I'll be back again soon. I'm planning on posting an entry about the custom order I mentioned earlier. Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Another owl...

2010-02-04T22:37:00.000-09:00

So, I'm taking a bit longer break than I thought from the bird woman painting. I'm working out in my mind how I want to proceed. But in the meantime, I worked out a sketch the other day that I decided I would try to paint with oils. But I can't buy the canvas for it until this weekend, at the earliest.

However, while I was digging through the canvases and wood panels I already have and happened upon an 8x10 wood panel that I had covered in a coat of blue months ago. It occurred to me that I could do an acrylic version of this sketch, a more realistic owl, and then move on to the oil version.

So tonight, I sat down and got started on it:

At the top of the picture is the sketch I made and below is the first layer of paint for the tree branches. I also wrapped the branches around onto the sides. Here's what it looks like on one side:

There is at least a branch or two that wraps around the entire wood panel - top, bottom, and sides. I love how it looks when hanging up. :) This owl, as I mentioned above, will be a more realistic owl than the usual owls I paint. I'm looking forward to doing the even bigger version in oils. Fun! However, next comes finishing the tree and shading it. Woof. That'll be a challenge, but I'm excited and psyched to do it!

New Oil Painting Listed!

2010-02-03T21:26:00.000-09:00

Just taking a quick second to post about my latest listing on BoundlessGallery.com. My new painting, Tranquility, is available for purchase now, but it will not be available to ship until March 22nd at the earliest. This is so that the painting has time to dry and also because I will be out of town from March 5th through the 21st. Where will I be? Someplace that looks much like the new painting!

Painting has commenced... ACK.

2010-01-30T00:05:00.000-09:00

Here's a new vow I'm taking... I will never let myself go so long (8 months this time) without painting a portrait. Holy cow. Really not smart. I lose a lot of the progress I had made and then getting started again feels somewhat traumatizing. *g* But I have started. Woo hoo!

Got just an initial layer of paint on; however, there are several more, I'm sure, to be applied. As you can see, that lovely sap green underpainting is still very much showing through. Won't be the case when it's done.

I have to work out where the shadows are and get them applied now. Those dark tones can be a little scary to apply, but they are what really makes the painting. The base layer of the hair is on, but it will contain more colors, highlights, lowlights, etc. A lot more definition. My initial try at a background tonight was a total fail. I ended up wiping it off. I need to take a day or two and really think about what to do with it. Which will be easy because I need to give the current layer of paint a day to dry a bit. I actually do think I have an idea for the background, but I'm going to ponder it a bit longer.

And yes, I'll post a picture. I have to give the following caveat: this is only the first layer and, thank God, by the time I finish, this will look a thousand times better. *g* At least I'm being positive! :)

Progress has been made!

2010-01-28T23:11:00.000-09:00

I worked on the bird/woman painting tonight! I got honest with myself and admitted that I was finding other things to do instead of starting on it. It's been awhile since I've done a portrait and I was getting a wee bit nervous. But then I was reading the interview I did on Huckleberry Bumpkin's blog and my quote got me:

“When my doubts about my art surface, I can let them paralyze me or I can push past it and continue to create.“

LOL! Convicted by my own words! I hate that! I decided it was time to push past those doubts and fears. :) One thing I've found helps me when I get like this is to pick one thing, one tiny, simple thing and do it. For instance, tonight I decided to mix up the paint for the skin tones. I have a little recipe from a previous art class that I like and it's all mapped out for me. I thought that was non-threatening enough yet it was a step forward.

By the time I finished that, I was feeling good enough that I decided to go ahead and sketch in the painting with the thinned out sap green paint.

Now all I have to do is wait for her to dry, then I can move ahead and begin the painting! I'm hoping that will be tomorrow. The paints are in the freezer, waiting to be applied to the canvas when it's ready. :)

I'm glad I nipped this in the bud before it got any further. Not so say there won't be any other moments like this, I know better! I haven't mentioned this yet on this blog, but the place I work at was picked as one of four organizations to receive donations from a ball and silent auction this fall. I was asked if I'd be willing to donate a painting for the auction and I readily agreed, as I'd been thinking of volunteering one. So I'm very aware that I can't afford to let myself procrastinate.

I've got several ideas of paintings I want to do and I'm not sure which one will work best for the auction. So I want to finish a few of them. Any others will be listed on http://juliebehm.boundlessgallery.com. That's something I had planned on doing anyway. The last thing I want is to be two weeks away from the auction and rushing to try and finish a painting in time!

Okay, that's it for today. Got to go get some sleep so I can stay alert and awake at work - things are crazy there right now and will be for some time - and so I can continue work on the painting tomorrow night. Yeah!

Interview with Huckleberry Bumpkin

2010-01-28T06:53:00.001-09:00

It's up! That's right, the interview on Huckleberry Bumpkin's blog that I talked about in my last entry is up. If you're interested, you can read it at http://huckleberrybumpkin.blogspot.com/2010/01/expanding-blossom.html. I highly suggest you read all the interviews on her blog. There's some awesome talent there! Also, she has her own Art Fire shop and you can find that at http://www.artfire.com/users/huckleberrybumpkin.

Wish I Were There...

2010-01-27T22:36:00.000-09:00

So, I ended up working on a different painting than the woman and bird. I did get the sketch from the last entry transferred onto the canvas. I had grand plans to finish the underpainting tonight, but I came home from work and was so tired, I promptly passed out on the couch for over 2 hours and slept hard. It was one of those days. :( I'm just hoping I can fall asleep tonight at a decent hour! Anyway, maybe I'll get to work on the woman and the bird tomorrow.

Earlier this week, I felt inspired to work on another painting - a 7x5 of a Hawaiian beach. It was inspired by a photo my sister took, though you'd never be able to tell by comparing the two! I just wanted to do a very simplified, colorful beach scene. This is the latest version:

Please forgive the tacky paper towel background. This puppy is very wet - I got paint all over my hand just taking this picture!

I think this is the finished version (minus an artist's signature on the bottom right, but it needs to dry a bit first) but then, I've thought the same thing two other times. :) This one's a little unusual for me, as it has some texture to it. Normally I don't have much texture - or any at all - in my paintings. I tend to paint very smoothly, with no visible brushstrokes. But that just didn't seem to be working for this one. It was crying out for something different. Combining that with my desire to experiment and push myself to try new things, I decided to play with it a bit. Do something I normally wouldn't do. Hence the criss cross ocean, the dappled sand and the daubed on waves hitting the sand.

I love the colors and just the simpleness of it. I want to be on that beach, listening to the waves crash and swimming in the gorgeous tuquoise water. The cool thing is, I will be there in less than two months! I can hardly wait. I find being by the ocean to be the most relaxing, peaceful place for me and I just thrive on it. I'm planning on taking lots of pictures while I'm in Kona and hopefully some of them will eventually become paintings!

This poor thing is going to need quite a bit of time to dry, but eventually it will be put on http://juliebehm.boundlessgallery.com for sale.

Btw, I'm thrilled to reveal that I will be featured on Huckleberry Bumpkin's blog this week! I believe it will be on Thursday, but I will be sure to post a link to it when she posts it. She's doing a whole series of interviews with various artists and artisans and I highly recommend you read them. She's found some very talented folk that deserve to be seen. I'm just honored and thrilled beyond belief that she wanted me to join that group. You can find her blog at http://huckleberrybumpkin.blogspot.com.

Off to go try and get some sleep. I promise to post update pictures of the woman and bird painting (really need a zinger of a title for that painting... bird and woman painting just isn't cutting it!) when I get some more done on it!

My latest challenge!

2010-01-24T19:29:00.003-09:00

Hey all! Just taking a little break to write an update. I've been wrestling with financial stuff so that I can file my taxes and boy, has it been a struggle! I'm having to learn a lot about it, with this being my first year to file taxes for my business. But I believe that challenges and learning new things are good for us, they make our noggins work and keep them sharp. :)

I realized the last time I posted an update that most of my posts lately have been about already finished items and not much - especially pictures - of works in progress. Well, if there's one thing I am not lacking in, it's works in progress! At last count, I had over ten canvases in various states of progress. But there's one in particular that is very exciting to me right now, so I wanted to post a little about it.

After half a year, I'm finally delving back into painting with oils. In addition to acrylics, of course. Oils just seem to come more naturally to me, much more so than acrylics. And coming back to them is like seeing my best friend again after a while apart. We're getting reacquainted but the magic is still there. It's also been about the same time since I've painted a portrait with oils. Portraits are one of my favorite things to create and I've really missed it.

A few weeks ago, some of my family came over for brunch. My five year old niece and I were sitting at the dining room table drawing. She's quite the little artist and we can draw for hours together. I started a sketch of a woman's profile with very stylized, flowing hair. I had her with her arms out in front of her, but it just didn't feel quite right, so I set her aside. I needed a little moodling time to figure out how she should look.

Earlier this week, my brain finally came up with the final version. I changed the sketch around and finally, at the stroke of midnight, I figured out what the last little piece of the drawing should look like and what additional changes need to be made or added. Once I finished, I scanned the image. The sketch itself is 8x10, but when I picked out the canvas, I went for an 18x24. It's been a while since I've worked on a surface this big and I'm excited!

I uploaded the image to www.blockposters.com, where they will take your image and enlarge it, then create a pdf file of it. Then you can print it out on multiple pages and tape the pages together to create a large poster. I didn't want to freehand this drawing on the canvas, so I will be transferring it using this poster. In preparation, I did an underpainting of sap green oil paint on the canvas. It is now ready for me to transfer the image onto the canvas and complete the underpainting. Here's a picture of it so far:

I am SO EXCITED about working on this piece! When I stumbled across this bird, I just knew he would be perfect for the image and I love how he's just perched on her hand, checking her out. I've mapped out the colors and am planning it all out in my mind. I will start painting it this week and will be sure to keep you all update on the progress!

Oh, and by the way, I'm very excited to announce that I am now offering a print of my Rainy Day Owl in my Art Fire shop! I have more copies on the way, plus an additional print of Purple and Blue Flower that I will be listing soon.

Okay, enough for tonight. I hope that all of you are doing well and I look forward to writing again soon with pictures of my latest and newest creations!

Thanks for reading my blog and welcome to the new followers!

Julie

Sneak peek of a new Owl coming out tomorrow!

2010-01-17T21:59:00.000-09:00

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I will be listing this adorable little owl tomorrow morning! She'll be available for purchase in my Etsy shop at http://quirkydame.etsy.com. I will be doing another Valentine Owl for my Art Fire shop this week, so stay tuned!

Quirky Dame Designs Update!

2010-01-17T13:36:00.004-09:00

First piece of good news? I just placed an order for a sample print for three of my paintings! I'm nervous, but eager to see how they turn out. If they turn out well, I will be listing them in both my Art Fire and Etsy shops then ordering more. If they don't, I'll continue to fiddle around until I get some awesome prints that are sell-worthy. :)

In other good news, I've listed two new paintings this weekend! The first one is called Night Owl and he's done on the mini 2.5"x3.5" canvas and comes with the 5" easel shown in the picture. He's available at http://quirkydame.artfire.com:

The next one was just me fiddling around with another mini canvas and experimenting a bit. I ended up with Desert Sunset, available at http://juliebehm.boundlessgallery.com

Next on my plate is a mini Valentine's Day owl. I'm going to sign off now and get started! Thanks for reading my blog! :)

New paintings for a new year!

2010-01-04T22:19:00.000-09:00

Hello all! I hope everyone had a wonderful new year. Mine has been quite productive so far. Over the holiday weekend, I started excavating and organizing my studio, gessoed two wood panels for new owl paintings, finished two new paintings and worked up sketches for two future paintings!

Instead of making resolutions, the past three years I've chosen a word of the year. It's worked much better than resolutions ever did. It's amazing when you look back at the end of the year and realize just how much that word affected the year. This year the word I felt called to choose was "Expand." And I'm already expanding! I'm looking into prints and may get samples done soon. This is something I've wanted to do for quite some time. So I'm busy educating myself about this subject and hope that prints will be available later in the year!

I also opened up a new store - in addition to my ArtFire store - that will feature my paintings only. I will still list some paintings on ArtFire, along with the note cards, etc. But I'm exciting to branch out and to have my artwork available at http://jb.boundlessgallery.com/. Right now I have three paintings there. Two of them are the new ones I created this weekend. Here's a sneak peek at them:

Silvery Blue Flowers

2009

Purple and Blue Flower

2010

I also listed a new note card in my shop. It features the painting that I use as my avatar and ArtFire shop banner called The Odd Couple:

I'm really looking forward to this year and to the fresh, new start. I'm excited about what life will bring and I hope that it brings all of you much happiness and many wishes come true! I hope to start a new painting tomorrow. As soon as possible, I'll post some pictures and update you on the progress. :)

In the meantime, if you'd like to keep updated on the new items I post to both shops and any sales and promotions, please visit my fan page on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/quirkydamedesigns. I will be doing a drawing for my fans for a free set of seven note cards on Wednesday. I'm excited to see who will win!

Quick note...

2009-12-30T18:06:00.000-09:00

Due to the holidays, I haven't been blogging much. I do plan on doing a new entry complete with photos soon! I have new items I've listed and a custom order I'm dying to talk about. But I can't until the customer gets it early next month, as she wanted part of it to be a surprise. She reads this blog, so I don't want to ruin it for her!

But I also wanted to let everyone know that I have set up a fan page on Facebook. If you'd like to stay updated with all the latest news, promotions and new items listed to Quirky Dame Designs, you can become a fan at http://www.facebook.com/quirkydamedesigns! I'll be doing a drawing for some free note cards to start the New Year in a good way!

Before I sign off, I'd like to wish everyone a spectacular, blessing-filled New Year! Much happiness to you all! :)

Christmas Gifts

2009-12-22T21:40:00.000-09:00

Like many others, I've been crazy busy the past couple of weeks. Adding to that this year was my decision to create a piece of art for certain people as their presents. As I've written recently, my best friend and I started doing this last year. So I finished two pieces for her. Plus my parents, now retired, have declared that we (my sisters and I) are not to give them presents anymore, exceptions being things we make or bake, etc. Well, I did get away with giving them a digital photo frame as an early gift (and it was a hit!) but I wanted to make them something special.

My father had requested a couple of months ago that I do a drawing for him to hang at his cabin. My father feeds all manner of critters at his cabin, but most special to him is his squirrel that we named Spike. There have been a number of Spike's through the years (we name them all that) but there was one in particular that really stood out. When Spike would hear my father drive down the driveway, he would run to greet him. When my father would call his name, the squirrel would come running. He'd even climb up onto his knee or shoulder to be fed. So when it came time to decide what to draw, it was pretty simple. :) Here's the final piece, a composite of two photos I took this summer:

I also reworked a painting based on a photo I took in Hawaii. I'm giving that one to my mother. I have a similar one that was part of a commission I did for a condo in Hawaii. This one is meant to just be a soothing, peaceful painting with all the blues of the ocean. The lighting on this one isn't the greatest, but I'll post a picture anyway. It's really hard to get a good photo of this one:

Since my last post, I also added a few more mini paintings with easels to my shop. I'm having a blast doing these and am currently working on a custom order for someone that involves two of these. So much fun. Here's a few pictures of the ones I've listed:

All three owl mini paintings have been sold, but I will be working on adding more as soon as possible!

Plus I've added new note cards to my shop as well!

Well, I'd best sign off. I don't believe I'll have another chance to post before Christmas, so let me wish each and every one of your reading this (and your families, too) the merriest of Christmases and may you all have a blessing filled New Year! :)

More experiments with paint!

2009-12-08T23:20:00.000-09:00

So, I had thought I would work a little more on the cat on the woman's head painting. And I will this weekend. I"ll be house-sitting which will leave me with lots of free time. I'm hoping to finish it and list it in my shop by Monday. *fingers crossed* But I didn't work on it tonight.

I went to Target with my mother. And at Target I ended up getting six little mini spray bottles. They are much larger than the previous ones I had been using, which were only 1 ounce. I use these bottles to spray backgrounds for some of my paintings. For instance, the background on the (now completed) paintings for my best friend were done by painting the background burnt orange and then spraying various shades of that orange and gold on it. Here's a few pictures of the completed paintings:

So there's an example of the backgrounds. They are a blast to do. I spread a sheet on the ground - this gets messy - and then lay the canvas down. Then I just start spraying away. The hard part is forcing myself to stop and let it dry after a bit. If you don't, it can start to run and get muddy. Then to top it off, I love to spray a little watered down gold or silver paint on top. Gives it a beautiful shimmer. For the ones above, I used gold.

So when I got home from Target, all I could think about was the spray bottles. I couldn't resist them. :) I grabbed two extra canvases that I had laying around and got to work. On one canvas, I drizzled blue and white paint, then brushed it out until it covered the canvas with gorgeous streaks of blue in various shades. I left the other canvas blank. Then I mixed up the spray bottles using three shades of blue paint, one green and then a beautiful sparkly silver paint. Then I just started spraying away.

I ended up quite pleased with the final results. Here's a photo of the canvases. I used my iPhone to take it, so the picture is not the best.

The canvas on the left is the one that got the intial coat of paint. It's very splattered, quite similar in style to the one I did for my best friend. The one on the right is the one that I didn't cover in paint. It's a smoother kind of background, colors flowing nicely without streaks and splatters. Both have a delicate silver shimmer to them that I just love. Blue and silver is a favorite combination of mine. I love both effects and am now working on the designs to put on each. I'm excited to see how they will turn out!

To be honest, I've got a number of paintings planned out that I want to do. So many plans and inspiriations and so little time to work on them. :) But for now I must sign off. I have to go to bed - must get up for the day job far too early for my taste - plus the computer battery is almost dead. :) Night!

Just listed...

2009-12-05T23:35:00.000-09:00

Had quite the productive day! I grabbed some coffee, ran a few errands, then hauled myself home and started working on the creative stuff. I started my father's Christmas gift - a sketch of a squirrel on a tree stump - then finished up my best friend's present. I'll be posting pictures of that soon. :)

While I was out running errands, I had to stop by JoAnn's to pick up some paint. I ran across some little 2.5 x 3.5 canvases (ACEO sized) and little 5 inch easel's to go with them. Since there was a 50% sale happening, I snapped up four of them. :) After working on my bff's present, I decided to just start one. A little while later, it was complete and I found myself taking pictures and listing it in my shop. Here's a couple of pictures:

2010 Christmas Cards

2009-12-04T09:51:00.000-09:00

At my day job, we have a monthly staff meeting. We all gather in the gym for a free lunch and a 1 - 2 hour meeting, sometimes some training afterward. For the December meeting, we have a potluck, trivia contest, raffle drawing and generally a good time. They dressed up the gym in holiday style, including putting red and green paper on the tables and laying markers and crayons down so that we can draw and doodle during the festivities.

Let's just say I went to town with the drawing! Plus I requested we do that every month. Hey, some of us listen better when we doodle. *g* But one of my doodlings has now become a design for a Christmas card. Unfortunately, there's no way I can have the cards ready for this year. So I now have two designs slated for cards for next year. The first design is still being reworked. But I thought I'd post a little sketch of the second one, just for kicks:

I'm still working on him a bit, so there may be more changes coming. But I'm REALLY looking forward to painting him. I think this little guy may end up being my own personal Christmas cards, too!

Painting Updates

2009-12-01T22:36:00.000-09:00

So I've been a little busy tonight working on a few paintings. (And trying to get my iPhone to sync Christmas music!) So I thought I'd do a little update. First of all, the cat on a woman's head painting - really need to come up with a catchy name for that one!

Next I have to work on the woman's face - first attempt did not end well. Then I have to clean up the background and this darling painting will be ready to list!

Next two paintings... the ones that are for my best friend for Christmas. Again, should she happen to actually check this - and I'm guessing she won't because I haven't told her that I'm updating it again - DON'T READ THIS! And the sick thing is, she won't. She hates ruining surprises. Doesn't want to peek at presents. Me? I was an expert at scouting out hiding places and slicing the wrapping open to sneak a peek. :)

Here is is:

It isn't complete yet. There's some changes I need to make, but could I find either of my burnt umber paints? Of course not! Couldn't go any farther without it, so I had to stop for the night.

Okay, I need to post one more picture. This one is a new listing in my store and the very first oil painting! It started as an exercise in a painting class and this little red pepper was quite the hit. The original background was just... not good. So I messed around and had a little fun. This fun little painting can be found in my shop at http://quirkydame.artfire.com. Hope you enjoy!

Now I'd better sign off. It's 10:30 pm and I just remembered that we're having a potluck at work tomorrow. I really need to go make something to bring to it. Keep your fingers crossed I win the big raffle prize - two tickets anywhere in the US! Okay, so I'm not holding my breath, but wouldn't it be nice? :)

Free Shipping and New Product Soon!

2009-11-27T22:42:00.000-09:00

Just a couple of news items regarding my Art Fire shop...

I am offering free worldwide shipping on everything in my store through December 31, 2009. I've already had one customer take advantage of this special offer!

Plus I will be listing a new product over the next few days. I will be offering blank notecards featuring my artwork and photography, both single cards and sets! There will be various themes, such as flowers, Hawaii, puffins, and landscape, to name a few. Here is a little preview of some of the cards:

There are more! I'm quite excited to be able to expand my shop and offer more products. This is something that I've wanted to do for a while. This first batch will include mostly my photography, but I plan to feature cards with more of my artwork in the near future.

Thanks for checking out my blog. See you next time!

Work in Progress

2009-11-26T01:33:00.001-09:00

So I took a bit of a break from the latest cat painting to do some work on the diptych paintings I am doing for my best friend.

Alicia, if you actually check this... DON'T LOOK! :)

I'm a horrible friend. We decided last year to do a piece of artwork as our present for each other. She gave me a beautiful hand-painted mask. I started a painting for her, but it went bad. VERY BAD. So, I'm doing the diptych paintings for her - one painting for last year, one for this year. LOL! Thank God I have a wonderful and very understanding best friend. :)

I still have more work to do on these paintings, but it's off to a good start. The background has a subtle golden shimmer to it that I just love and the sides are painted the same dark brown as on the design below. I have to touch up some of the brown, then on the whirls and flowers and birds, I'll be adding flourishes of the burnt orange and gold from the background.

I think tomorrow after the Thanksgiving get-together with my family, I'll be settling down and working some more on both this painting and the one of the cat on the woman's head. I really, really want to get the cat's face painted and then I need to sit down and get the woman's face painted. I did an initial layer of the skin tone, but it just didn't come out right. Hoping the second times the charm!

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving!

Julie

Quirky Dame Designs on the Virtual Craft Show!

2009-11-22T17:27:00.002-09:00

Starting today, my shop - Quirky Dame Designs - has joined the Virtual Craft Show at Cafe Handmade! I am proud to be in the company of other wonderful artists and their gorgeous creations. Seriously, I'm seeing some unique, beautiful things featured. You can check it out at:

http://cafehandmade.com/index.php/category/virtual-craft-show/

Take a peek at the shops. Who knows? Maybe you'll find a present or two for the people on your list. Or a treat for yourself! And if you see something that really catches your fancy, leave a comment or vote for your favorite shop. I guarantee you, it'll make that person's day!

Want to see the latest progress on the painting of the cat perched on the woman's head? Here's a little glimpse of the cat:

My next step is to paint his face. So looking forward to seeing what he looks like when he's done!

Latest Work In Progress!

2009-11-18T23:04:00.000-09:00

So yesterday at work, I found myself daydreaming. Not an unusual occurrence, but an idea came to me that I felt I had to sketch. So when my co-worker came to cover me for lunch (I'm a receptionist, so someone has to cover the desk whenever I step away) I grabbed my sketchbook and pencil. I had that feeling, the one that I have begun to realize is a sign that I need to sit down and sketch immediately. It was one of those moments where the lines seemed to go down on the paper just as I wanted them to, where things just fell into place and I didn't have to draw and erase lines a million times before I got them right. I love those moments.

So I did just that and got those lines down on the page. Just a bare bones sketch, so that I could fill in the rest of the picture when I painted. Here's the sketch:

So today at work, I kept looking at the picture and working it out in my mind. By the time I left work, I had decided to head for the art store to pick up a canvas. I didn't plan on painting tonight, but that's what ended up happening!

I had made a large copy of the drawing on 11x17 paper so that I could paint a larger scale version of it. I ended up getting a 16x20 canvas and plan on doing a somewhat realistic version of it with oils. However, I also picked up two 6x12 canvases while I was there.

Driving home, I realized that the sketch would work wonderfully on one of the 6x12 canvases as well. So when I got home, I ended up transferring the sketch onto the smaller canvas and began to paint a smaller acrylic version. Now, normally I don't allow myself to paint faces with acrylics. It ends up being an exercise in frustration for me. I usually just stick to oils for portraits. I simply adore doing portraits in oils, it comes very naturally for me. Much easier to get that blended look that I prefer. But since only half of her face is showing, I figured what the heck! I'll do an acrylic version.

So I have most of the first layer of paint down on the canvas. I decided to wait to do the skin tones until I had several hours to spend on it. Basically, until I could do it in one sitting. :) So here is the progress I have made so far:

I have also sketched this cat (sitting on a ball, instead of a head) on two aceo's (they are 2.5" x 3.5") that I hope to paint soon. I plan on listing all of this on my Art Fire store as soon as I am finished. But so far I am very happy with the progress!

Speaking of my Art Fire store, I have a special promotion going... free worldwide shipping during the holidays! Please take a look if you're interested... http://quirkydame.artfire.com

Thanks for reading my blog. I'll be sure to post another update on the painting soon!

Julie

Trippy Owl

2009-11-15T13:03:00.002-09:00

I was just sprucing up my blog and preparing to make my next post when I realized that I never posted the finished picture of the owl painting I had been working on. It's now listed on my Art Fire shop (also have one on Etsy) so it's about time I posted it on here! So... without further ado, may I present...

Trippy Owl!

Art Fire Blog

2009-10-25T23:46:00.006-08:00

Hello!

Just wanted to do a quick post letting you know that I am also posting blog entries on my new Art Fire shop. If you are interested in seeing more, please visit me at:

http://www.artfire.com/users/quirkydame/blog

From there, you can read my blog, see past paintings I've done and check out what paintings I currently have for sale. There's also my bio and links to other places I can be found on the internet. I hope you check it out!

I also plan on posting to this one, as well. :)

Julie Behm
Quirky Dame Designs

Hummingbirds and Owls... Oh my!

2009-09-05T21:50:00.004-08:00

Introducing the latest painting added to my shop!

It's titled "The Hummingbird" and it's done in acrylics on a 12x12 canvas. This one came out quite differently than I had originally planned. See all that white on the bird? That was a not-so-pretty shade of purple. :) I do intend to do more of them, trying out different techniques for the background and in different colors.

Remember that sketch of the trippy owl from my last post? Well, I've started the painting! Here's a sneak peek of the progress thus far:

The blue and white stripes even carry over onto the sides. LOVE how that turned out. This one will be done in shades of blue, purple, green and yellow. I'm looking forward to seeing how this trippy little guy turns out! I'll try to post an update on this guy soon. I'm glad I have the long weekend to work on him!

Owls!

2009-08-26T22:00:00.007-08:00

Okay, so as I mentioned a few entries earlier, I've recently become enchanted by owls. They really do seem to have made a comeback, don't they? Well, I decided it was time to put my own unique touch on the subject. And wowzer, have I been having FUN!

This little guy below is the original owl I was talking about. The Neurotic Owl, as I called him, is on his way to Los Angeles to go live with his new owner. I'm hoping they'll both be happy.

After I did the above owl, I had someone contact me about doing a custom order for her boyfriend's soon-to-be 12 year old daughter. It was an awesome opportunity. We talked about what she wanted and once I had completed the painting, I listed it as reserved in my store. Well, before that customer had a chance to buy it, someone else saw it and loved it so much, they bought it instead! So the very next weekend I painted a second one for that customer as well. So now there are two of these critters, one in Anchorage and one in Los Angeles. I'm happy to report that both owners are thrilled with their purchase!

This next one is the latest in the owl series and so far, my favorite. I just completed him last night and I'm quite please with the results. (I have him hanging up in my office until they are spoken for!) So happy that I get to share him on this blog! I'm calling this one "The Odd Couple" and hope they find a home soon. If you're reading this and are interested, they can be found at Quirky Dame Designs.

I have a few more owls to do and the next one will be taking me in a new direction. I'm really looking forward to this next challenge! I'll share a little sneak peek:

This is going to be such a blast to paint! Right now I'm carefully considering the colors to use. I want this creature to be trippy, but not TOO trippy! I should be able to start painting him on Saturday. :)

Thanks for taking a look. Oh, and if you are viewing this blog entry on quirkydame.com and the photos are not showing up, please click on "Imported from external blog" below and that will take you to the original blog with the photos. Sorry for the inconvenience!

August Update

2009-08-17T21:36:00.004-08:00

The past few months have been quite busy for me! I've finished up three custom orders, one of which consisted of seven pieces and have shown my work, along with several other artists, at a local house concert in town. The singer that night was Marian Call and I can't rave about her enough. I urge you to visit her website and learn more. I got to meet some wonderful people, eat some out-of-this-world food, and see some awesome art. Here's a picture of the paintings that I had displayed:

I've been keeping busy with the custom orders, but now that they are done, I'm working on building up inventory for my Etsy store. I have a number of sketches just waiting to become paintings! We're talking more owls, hummingbirds and even a flying pig! I'm currently working on a piece with two owls sitting in a tree. It's nearing completion and I hope to post a photo soon.

I have also set up my own website at www.quirkydame.com. It integrates this blog and my Etsy listings into one site.

Thanks for taking a look at my blog and I promise that the next update won't take as long as this one did!

P.S. If you are viewing this blog on quirkydame.com and the photo is not showing up, please click on "Imported from external blog" below and that will take you to the original blog entry where you will be able to view the picture.

My brain's all atwitter...

2009-05-15T22:08:00.003-08:00

Feeling very ideaphoric today. Not surprising that I tested high on ideaphoria - an experience where one feels a constant onslaught of new ideas, creating a euphoric state of idea creation. (From Wikipedia)

My brain is just so active tonight. I've got so many paintings that I need to work on and hopefully complete by July 10th, but so many more are springing up in my mind right now. Not only ideas for paintings, but for photos, too, that may eventually also become paintings. ACK!

Plus I have this neurotic little owl just waiting to be painted. He's so cute. I seem to be getting this obsession with neurotic, colorful and/or whimsical owls. I'm totally into owls lately. And cupcakes. Not just baking, decorating and eating them - though I certainly do enjoy that - but also pictures and paintings, etc.

I just need to write down my ideas and do quick sketches, then work on the things that really need to be done. If I do feel a strong pull to work on one particular thing, I will take a break and do it. Right now I'd like to finish up my hula girls. I brought them out with me while I'm house sitting so I'd to do a little work on it tomorrow.

Should sign off and hit the sack. I love laying there, painting in my mind as I drift to sleep. Such a wonderful way to drift away into slumber...

At long last... an update.

2009-05-05T20:51:00.007-08:00

It's been a very busy time lately, but the past six days have been heavenly. I took four days off work, plus the weekend and have been painting every day. My sister and her husband will be leaving July 10th to get their hawaiian condo ready for rental. So, I'm on a mission to get as many paintings done before then as possible. I love the challenge that this has created for me. It's got my creative juices flowing and me working on a steady basis.

So the past six days have yielded the following:

The half circle on the top is going to be a welcome sign that says either Aloha or Aloha Friends. Something like that. The big yellow circle will eventually be a sun. The two paintings are the hula girls set. On the sides will be partial palm trees and some taller bushes next to them. A smidgen of sea and sand will be there, too. All three of these are done in acrylics.

This one is an oil painting of a heliconia plant. It, along with the rest of the paintings, is still a work in progress. I had to let it dry a few days so that I could continue working on it.

I did have two more canvases that I worked on - finished the backgrounds of them. However, they are a gift for my sis for (last) Christmas and she reads this blog, therefore, no pictures yet. Once they are in her hot little hands, I will be sure to post a picture. :-)

I've got a number of other paintings planned for it: hibiscus, possibly plumeria and two beachy type scenes. Oh, and a painting that is just sea and sky, in all sorts of beautiful shades of blue, based on a picture I took in Maui last Christmas.

The only bad thing is that my leave has now come to an end. And I'm feeling sort of sick and depressed that these wonderful days of sitting out on the back porch, painting all afternoon in the sun are over and real life of working the 9 to 5 job and dealing with the over-the-edge curmudgeon at work is back. Oh well. The painting itself won't end and that's what really counts. :-)

Flower Silhouette No. 2 is done!

2009-04-09T19:25:00.004-08:00

Here's a look at the latest acrylic painting...

Done! Listed in my store and on the VAST Team blog at http://vastgallery.blogspot.com/. It's in very good company with lots of other art by other artists.

Now next on my list is to take the hour or two I need to finish the portrait I've been working on. Plus I have to start sketching out ideas for art for the Kona condo. I love it. :-)

Orange painting update...

2009-04-08T21:09:00.003-08:00

I'm in the middle of my latest acrylic painting, very similar to the one in my last post. Here's a not-so-good-but-all-I-have picture of it so far:

The flowers will remain black on this one, too. However, in my next one, the blue and purple one, I think I will experiment with adding touches of color. We'll see. Plus one of my sisters and her hubby just bought a condo in Hawaii. They'll be flying over, probably in July to paint, furnish and prepare it for rental. I'm moodling over ideas for artwork for the condo. I told them I'd do a few paintings with their condo and the color scheme in mind and if they like any, they can use them. I've got a ton of ideas and need to start sketching some out. I've already decided I'm going to take a few days off, probably next month, and just paint my little heart out for those days. I did that earlier this year and it was GREAT. :-)

Latest Painting

2009-04-05T21:45:00.003-08:00

I finished one of the paintings from the last post! I worked on the blue and green one first and here's final result:

The sides are 1.5 inches and painted black, so it doesn't have to be framed. I'm looking forward to working on the orange background canvas next. And I've started a blue and purple one where I will paint the flowers in a dark blue, rather than black. Creating the backgrounds are quite fun and really freeing. I'm already planning the color combos I'm going to use for the next set of canvases!

Color, color, color!

2009-04-01T23:22:00.006-08:00

What wonderful timing! My brand new acrylic paints arrived on the very first day of April. The Creative Every Day theme for April is color. And I've been dying to get my hands on those paints so that I could get the very colorful background for my newest non-portrait paintings going.

I decided to work on two canvases tonight... though I'm itching to go do another one, it's too late and I need to get some sleep tonight! I chose the colors I wanted to use. I wanted vivid, vibrant colors for these backgrounds. On the one, I chose to do a combination of blue and green. The other was a few shades of burnt orange with some yellow mixed in. Here are the results...

What you can't tell in the picture is that the orange one has a delicate golden sheen to it and the blue/green one has a blue sheen to it. It's a beautiful effect when you see it in person.

My next step will be to tape off the sides and paint them black. When that's done, I will paint (in black again) on each one a flowery/curly/swirly design I've drawn and then I might use the background colors to accent the black design. I'll give it a try and see how it turns out. I am so looking forward to experimenting with these! I love the colors and can hardly wait to experiment with new combinations of color.

Studio in progress

2009-03-29T11:47:00.006-08:00

I have had quite the busy week. I am finally fulfilling a dream of mine. I've been setting up a studio in the extra/laundry room downstairs. This has required moving furniture around, sorting through a myriad of belongings, etc. Right now, the space is an unholy nightmare - boxes and boxes of stuff needing to be unpacked, organized and put away. They are just piled on and around the tables and storage cubes in the area. Plus I have two easels taking up room, too.

It had become quite obvious that in order to make any sense of this mess, I needed a lot more storage containers and perhaps even a plastic cart with drawers or two. So I dedicated my Saturday to visiting thrift shops around town. I needed to do this on the cheap, and quite frankly, I'm not too concerned about getting nice, new, matching things. Yes, it would be nice, but I don't want to be worrying about messing up my pretty new things. With this stuff, I can just concentrate on creating and who cares if it gets splattered with paint and hot glue. :-)

I had a BRILLIANT time! I ended up going to five different thrift shops and I scored some awesome stuff. My very first stop, I scored the plastic three drawer cart I wanted for only $5.25! Turns out Salvation Army (or Sally Ann's as they're now being called) was having a 50% off sale all day. :-) So of course I visited two more of them, along with two others in town.

I found bins and little storage boxes, big stacking drawers and all of this for less than I would have paid for just one new three or four drawer cart. I even found a huge frame with glass that I could use to make a big palette for my paint. I turned it into that palette last night and as soon as my studio is up and running, I'll get to start using it. YES! I will finally have plenty of room to mix up all the paint I need. I've been using a 16x20 palette, but I keep running out of room. Not any more. :-)

So now, all I need is the energy and perseverance to go through all of this junk and get it put away. It feels good to know that I'm getting closer and closer to making this dream a reality.

Awesome new art blog

2009-03-29T11:38:00.004-08:00

I love to paint. Especially portraits of women. I like to do fun decorative paintings, such as the flowers and sun that I blogged about earlier, but I'm most passionate about painting women. Even as a child, that was what I preferred to draw. So when I found this newest art blog, I was thrilled. It's called Women Painting Women: Favorite paintings of women by women, with a focus on contemporary, living artists.

It's providing me with much inspiration. Do check it out! I'm being introduced to many new artists through this and hopefully you will, too. :-)

First portrait from class

2009-03-25T00:07:00.003-08:00

Just wanted to post a picture of the nearly-finished portrait from my class. There's one more, but it's still a work in progress. It's amazing how much I've learned from this class. Loving it!

Plus I've become obsessed with some flower sketches I've been working on and as soon as I finish up this next portrait, I'm going to start experimenting with them. Lots of color - bold and vibrant!

Sharpie Doodle ATC's

2009-03-08T01:52:00.008-09:00

I mentioned sharpie doodles in my last post and thought do a quick post on those. I have recently become obsessed with doing sharpie doodle artist trading cards. They're easy, fun, and let me stretch a bit with the imagination. Plus I can do them while I watch my favorite shows. :-) This is the first batch I did:

This is the second and latest batch that I've finished:

I've got a bunch more that I've started. Fun little things and very addictive. Plus I'll be able to use them for swaps!

Finally!

2009-03-08T00:48:00.007-09:00

I am finally able to log onto the internet! I've missed it. On the other hand, I think it was actually quite helpful. I was freed from the temptation to waste hours and hours of time on the internet and instead, I used many of those hours to do all sorts of creative projects, from artist trading cards to sketches to making my resin covered magnets/pins/pendants/keychains to painting. It's been good!

My Portrait Painting in Oils class has been wonderful. I mean, I am learning SO MUCH from it. I just finished up my first portrait from the class. It's a 20x24 portrait of a model named Holly. And I would post a picture of the portrait but... when I went to my house this afternoon, I remembered to take my camera so I could get a picture, but I forgot to get the memory card from my laptop, which meant I couldn't take a picture. GRRRR! But I will hopefully be posting one in the next day or two.

A week ago I started my second house sitting job for my sis Alicia and her darling kitten Penny. I decided to take three days off work to paint. It was the best decision! Dedicating that time to painting just did wonders for me. But having to go back to work on Thursday? That was hard. It was so painful to tear myself away and go back to the normal routine. One day I'd love to have the painting be my normal routine.

Monday I didn't get any painting done, but I did go to see the movie Slumdog Milllionaire. Loved it. Tuesday and Wednesday I painted, painted, painted! The only painting I'd been doing for a while was the portrait and I needed to take a break from it. So I took some little sharpie doodles I'd been doing and decided to do some fun decorative paintings with acrylic.

They came out pretty good, but I'd like to try them in oils. I do better work with oils. I did do backgrounds on two other canvases and I think I will do both of those in oils. They'll be flowers, too.

I started a new portrait in class on Wednesday. I did the underpainting in sap green and I sketched it out on the canvas. The paint is pretty dry now, so I'll be starting on the actual painting soon. I'm trying hard not to think of the class ending this month. I hate to see it end. This class in particular has been the most helpful. I'll have to keep my eye out for additional courses and in the meantime, keep up the painting.

Linda, the artist teaching the course, recommended a couple of books by a teacher at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. That's where Linda took a workshop in portrait painting in January. I received them in the mail Wednesday and have been delving into them. I'm starting with "Classical Drawing Atelier: A Contemporary Guide to Tradional Studio Practice" and then I will continue with "Classical Painting Atelier." They are quite fascinating and the art inside is inspiring me.

I need to focus more on my drawing skills. I've been sketching a lot lately, but it's vague ideas for paintings or my sharpie doodles - like the paintings above. I've always preferred drawing/painting people over landscapes, even as a child, so I need to realy start sharpening my skills by doing more figure drawings. I know of a place or two in town where I could attend some figure drawing sessions, so I'm may try to get my courage up and attend.

I think my experience with them in a previous art class has me scared about it. I felt so inadequate, I was floundering around and doing a crap job with a lot of the assignments and the figure drawings. (It didn't help that partway through the class my life kind of blew up in my face and I was really struggling emotionally. It was BAD.) We had to work with charcoal A LOT in that class. Charcoal and I HATE each other. I despise using it and just can't get the hang of it. Plus I felt like the information presented in the class wasn't always the clearest or complete. But it wasn't all bad and there were times when I was pretty happy with the results. Like this:

This was my favorite of the figure drawings. But honestly? I want to do better. And I know I can. And that blasted fear of doing more figure drawing classes is a sure sign that I really do need to take them. I hate the way that works!

Anyway, it's past 1:30 am and I need to go hit the sack. I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow. :-)

Just in case anyone is actually still reading this...

2009-02-23T18:24:00.002-09:00

I am around and I do plan on updating soon! I've just been house-sitting for a couple while they're in England and as my luck would have it, the connection I get with my modemy-thingie is so weak, I can't get online. This is killing me. At least I can check my email and do some surfing on my cell phone. However, typing out a blog entry using my cell phone? Oh heck no! So I've been sneaking what I can at work, only they've cracked down a bit more there and I'm sneaking home when I can.

However, I have been working on my art and I have been taking some pictures. I will be switching over to a different house-sitting job on Friday and I know for sure I will get internet access there. Thank God! So I will be back soon and showing all sorts of pics. Plus I'll finally be uploading some stuff on flickr.

I miss the internet!

Value Studies

2009-01-24T23:57:00.009-09:00

I was quite productive today... went shopping with my sis, came home and cooked dinner - chiles en nogada and homemade refried beans - then I finished the value study I did in class and did two more.

The whole exercise was to to learn to look for shapes of values first thing when painting. So we each picked out at least one photo to paint. I picked one for class, then three to take home. We were to do a quick sketch on our canvas - nothing detailed - and just noticed the shapes of the lights and darks. Then we would start with the darkest darks, filling them in, and working our way to the lightest lights. We weren't to try and do anything detailed or blend, etc. Here's what I ended up with:

This was the one I started in class. I got about 2/3 of it done in class and finished it up at home.

This was the second one I did. I don't normally paint men, so it was an interesting change to work on this study.

This was the third one I did and the one that Linda demonstrated in class.

A view of all three.

Next class we will be working with color. It'll be on 20x24 canvases. The studies were done on 8x10 canvas panels. I'm looking forward to seeing what Wednesday brings!

Also on my plate is experimenting with creating resin pendents. I will be doing a number of them at the same time, several of them Frida Kahlo ones. One of those will go to my partner in the Frida handmade jewelry swap. That is, assuming at least one turns out, one will go to my partner. If not, I'll be attempting something else!

I'll also be creating several works of art with my beloved four year old niece tomorrow. She's been begging me to paint with her and since we're having a girl day tomorrow, it's the perfect time. :-) I bought a cheap sketchbook with a plain, flexible cover so that she could decorate the cover herself and have a sketchbook to draw in just like her auntie. :-) I am so looking forwarding to hanging out with my princess tomorrow!

La Catrina

2009-01-24T00:46:00.005-09:00

I had done a Dia De Los Muertos sharpie postcard swap a few months back and decided the other night that one of the designs I did needed to become a painting. :-) The perfect activity on a Friday night after a wicked long day at work answering the blasted phone (I was seriously ready to throw it out the window.) Here's the final result:

I actually used this painting as an excuse to try painting on a gessobord... and I loved it! I have two more 7x5 gessobords to use, so now I'll try doing an oil painting on it. I have a feeling I may be doing more paintings on the gessobords then on canvas.

Now my next project is to finish the value study I did in my oil painting class and maybe do another one or two of them. :-)

Opening up a bit...

2009-01-23T12:41:00.006-09:00

Apparently my brain has been pretty active the past 24 hours and I ended up having a very interesting dream. But a bit of lengthy back-story first…

I’ve been in a bit of a reflective mood lately… thinking of hard choices and sticking with them. Doing what scares you. Taking that step and hoping that the net truly does appear and that you don’t end up going SPLAT on the ground. *g* Trying to do what you think is the right thing, what you feel God is calling you to do, trying not to look too far into the future and then start faltering. (My specialty.) It’s hard to press forward, keep the faith, and stay focused on the present. Yep, this is about the whole art thing… from the class I’m taking to etsy to what the future holds.

For instance, I ordered a set of moo cards the other night before I went to bed. You can have up to six lines of text on the back, so I chose to have my name, my email address and… my etsy store address. I’ve been planning on opening my own shop for a while and the other night I got a wild hair and listed the only painting I have available. (I’m hoping to have another couple of things to list within the next week or two.)

What’s the first thing I wanted to do when I woke up the next morning? (Besides go back to bed?) Order new moo cards (because it's too late to cancel the other order) that don’t have my etsy address on them, because it’s not going to work, I only have one thing so far and no one will ever buy it, the new stuff I make won’t be good, who wants my stuff, I’m not good enough, I’m embarrassed to even let people know in case I fail, they’ll all laugh because who is she to think someone would pay for a stupid painting, etc, etc, so on and so forth. I couldn’t possibly send those cards to people.

Sheesh! The battlefield of the mind is one brutal thing. And never-ending! Logically, I know that all of that isn’t true, that it’s that evil, nasty little abusive voice in my head spouting off. :-)

No, the store thing may not work out, it may never take off. Maybe it will. Maybe I’ll sell something in a few months. Maybe I’ll make a contact out of this that will lead to something else entirely. We’ll see. I have to say that joining that Creative Every Day thing and actually posting a link to my site for this week has been awesome, as has joining Swap-Bot and posting pictures on Flickr. People who don’t even know me have been so supportive. I’m stepping out, finally participating and things are happening. Just have to keep the faith and not retreat back to where I was.

I wrote the above to one of my sisters who then kindly corrected my delusions and gave me some straight talking and support. :-) She’s good at it – been doing it for many, many, many years!

So then I was reading another artist’s blog and found this…

"...a Christian, above all people, should live artistically, aesthetically, and creatively....If we have been created in the image of an Artist, then we should look for expressions of artistry, and be sensitive to what has been created for our appreciation....We are all in danger of thinking, "Some day I shall be fulfilled. Some day I shall have the courage to start another life which will develop my talent", without ever considering the very practical use of that talent today in a way which will enrich other people's lives, develop the talent, and express the fact of being a creative creature."

--from The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer

For those who are not religious, feel free to ignore the first part. :-) But I think many people (of all belief systems) can relate to the rest of what she says. How many people in this world feel that way? Do that exact same thing? I know I did for many years. So I had all this brewing in my brain when I went to sleep. That’s when my subconscious had a field day.

I had this dream that there was this werewolf that came out every night to devour people. There were only two things that could protect you… If you were sleeping, he couldn’t get you. But if you were awake, the only way to protect yourself was to be touching canvas. It was like it made you invisible. So throughout the dream, if I was awake at night, I would grip this canvas wallet type thing I had (and when I woke up this morning, the hand that was gripping it in the dream was aching from me gripping it in my sleep.)

The most vivid part and the part I remember the most was the end, where I was in this big room, I think it was a restaurant, and the werewolf came. It was sort of a U shaped room and he entered through the other side from where I was. I stood against the wall, mostly facing it and gripping that canvas thing like crazy. I could feel the werewolf coming towards me. I thought that if he brushed against you, he would figure out you’re there and turn you into a tasty little snack. But when he brushed against me as he passed by, he never figured it out.

After he passed me by, I turned to look at him and I was so surprised. He didn’t look scary at all. Don’t get me wrong, I could sense the danger in him, but he looked like a whacked out grown man with a frizzy bush of hair doing this exaggerated prancing tip-toe thing. Nothing like a wolf at all. It would have been absolutely ridiculous if he didn’t have that underlying sense of danger to him. He made his way back through the room and left. That’s when I woke up.

I'm not usually big on dream interpretation, but every once in a while, a dream will stay with me and be rather obvious. Interpretation? The werewolf is those fears that haunt me regarding my art. Obviously art, because of the canvas. Boy, my subconscious is not subtle. LOL! If I’m sleeping - ignoring my creative desires like I did for most of my life – the fear has already gotten me. Of course he’d leave me alone. If I’m awake and not concentrating on the work, those fears can distract and hurt me and I can let them prevent me from being creative, from working on my art.

The fears can brush against me, but if I’m DOING the work, keeping my attention on the work where it belongs, it won't stop me. And when I really stop and look at the fears, I see how powerless many of them really are, unless I give them the power to hurt me. Now, the fact that the canvas was in the form of a wallet… I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be making money from the art in the future! :-)

All in all, the dream was actually kind of cool and reassuring. :-) Not so cool was the fact that it woke me up at 5 am with a horrendous headache and an aching hand. *g* But it’s given me some food for thought.

Now I'm off to go work on a quick Dia De Los Muertos painting and then finish my value study. I'll blog later about my art class and how it went!

Update

2009-01-16T23:54:00.003-09:00

Just wanted to post the latest update of the oil painting. She's now got (incomplete) eyes and I've layed down the first layer of hair. I've still got to finish her hair, the paintbrushes in her hair, her eyes and the background.

I usually have a hard time adding the darker values. They scare me. *g* When I painted in her hair tonight, I realized that some of the shadows on her face weren't nearly dark enough. And here I thought I had gotten some good dark values in! So I darkened some of them even more. I must learn to lay in the darker values first! It really does help. :-)

Oil Painting in progress

2009-01-15T22:59:00.003-09:00

This past Wednesday I was supposed to start a ten week oil painting class (for portraits - my favorite!) but due to weather conditions, it was cancelled. So, I was sitting around tonight, jonesing to paint something and decided to go for it. Here it is:

I've wanted to do this picture for a while. Last year, on the night before Halloween, I was wandering around the house, wondering what costume I could scrounge up before work the next day. We work with kids, so a lot of us dress up and try to be quite festive. All of a sudden, it hit me... I could be an artist! :-)

This painting was inspired by that. Like the woman in the picture, I pulled my hair up and stuck paintbrushes in it. (Even went to the doctors and the store like that!) Plus I wore my grungy, paint-stained sweatshirt and brought one of my paintings and a few sketches to decorate the office. I even dabbed paint all over my face and carried paintbrushes around with me. I just wish I'd had different kind of palette that I could carry around with me. The ones I do have wouldn't have worked. Anyway, it was awesome!

It was good to sit down and paint again tonight. I haven't done an oil painting since my last intensive class in August, the week before my mother went in to have both her knees replaced. I was one of two primary caregivers for her during that period, so I knew that I wouldn't be getting much painting done after that class.

I'll be sure to post another picture when I work on it some more! First, I have a couple of swaps that I must work on, but I will be painting again sometime this weekend!

2009 Word of the Year

2009-01-01T15:41:00.009-09:00

Every year, I chose one word as a theme for that year. I started doing this in 2007 and chose the word Listen, then picked Artist for 2008. Those words came to me quite fast and I knew right off the bat that those were the right words for me. And at the end of the year, when I looked back, it was amazing how the words shaped those years.

This year was a bit more tough and it took me longer to figure out the word. I finally sat down and just did some stream of consciousness type writing, trying to figure out what I wanted for this year, what I felt drawn to. And finally it came to me:

Be.

I like this word. I have a nasty little habit of trying to look too far into the future, trying to figure out what it is I want, what I hope for my future, but then not believing it will/can happen or that I can do it. That then leads to me losing faith and faltering in the present. This word will help me remember to just be in the present, to concentrate on just being who I am. Learn who I am, continue to follow the path that I'm on, and doing that will get me to where I need to be in the future.

Every year I get a bracelet that has my word on it and the year inside it. Then I wear that bracelet all year long, rarely taking it off and never for longer than 24 hours, if that. It's a good visual reminder for me. I ordered my bracelet earlier this week and I am hoping that it will be waiting for me when I get home next week!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T15:14:00.007-09:00

So... it's been a while since I posted. But it's a new year and I'm considering it a new start for my blog. :-) I've been very lazy about posting in it, but then life has also been quite crazy up until a few weeks ago. That's when I finally got to escape from reality and go on a three week vacation to Hawaii. Absolute heaven!

First piece of business is to post the final picture of my "Winds of Change" painting.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I've got it hanging up in my office at work and have gotten a number of comments on it, which was very nice. :-)

I'm very much looking forward to this new year. One of my goals is to do something creative every day. Work on a painting, tinker with a recipe, do a quick sketch, anything at all at least once a day. And I just happened along a blog by the artist Leah Piken Kolidas who is doing the Creative Every Day challenge. (See the sidebar to the right.) Serendipity, indeed! So I have signed up for that and am looking forward to participating and being inspired by the others who are involved.

Another thing that will help me is the portrait painting class I have signed up for that starts in two weeks. I'm thrilled! And I'll be returning to oils, which is what I love most. It's being held at the local museum and it's with an artist, Linda Infante Lyons, who's done many other classes there, two of which I've taken.

I'm definitely making my art a priority this year and am trying to find ways and opportunities that will support me and encourage me in this endeavor. So far, I'm off to a good start. Now I'm going to sign off and go sketch something while enjoying the beautiful weather outside!

Winds of Change part two

2008-11-10T21:45:00.001-09:00

Winds of Change
Originally uploaded by thatquirkydame

Worked some more on the painting. The skin came out better than I expected, considering this is acrylics and not oils. Still have some minor little bitsy things to tweak on her, but otherwise, i'm quite surprised and happy with how she is turning out! Especially since I just began painting it yesterday!

Winds of Change

2008-11-09T18:46:00.003-09:00

Winds of Change
Originally uploaded by thatquirkydame

On a whim - and a desperate need to paint - I started working on this acrylic painting today. I did this drawing a while back while I was contemplating some of the changes that were beginning to happen in my life. While many of those changes were positive ones, I was still nervous about them and how my life would be different because of them. When I drew this, I imagined myself daring to sneak a glance at my future and feeling the winds of change urging me towards it, despite my hesitations.

I'm a bit nervous about her face. Acrylics and I don't get along when painting people. But we're trying to come to a truce, so it'll be good. :-) I much prefer oils over acrylics, especially when painting people. But for the things I'm working on right now, oils aren't the best thing. However, once I get back from Hawaii, I will be starting a new oil painting and looking out for classes, too. Man, am I looking forward to it!

Collaged Sketchbook

2008-10-26T18:58:00.005-08:00

Just wanted to post a picture of my new sketchbook. I've decided to collage both covers on it and finished the first one today.

For this sketchbook, I wanted one cover to be full of inspiring words and phrases. The other cover will most likely have a Hawaiian theme, as this is the sketchbook that I will be using for my trip to Hawaii in December. :-)

I had fun with this. And since we get so many magazines from my sister, who works for a magazine and book stocking warehouse, I have a huge stash of magazines to comb for material. I'm going to continue to design my own sketchbook covers. It means a lot to me to be able to personalize my sketchbooks.

I've also been working hard on a new sketch, but since this is for my sis for Christmas, I'm not able to post any pictures. ACK! I especially hate not showing it to her, I'm so used to showing her everything I do. But so far, I'm happy with how it's turning out. And I can hardly wait until we celebrate Christmas in January. We've decided that instead of buying presents this year, we're each going to make each other a piece of art. How awesome is that??? :-) So I'll finally be able to post the picture of the completed mixed media painting here and on flickr after the holidays.

I can hardly wait!

Acrylic Transfers

2008-10-17T15:10:00.022-08:00

I decided to start off my second post on this blog by talking about the acrylic transfers that I've been doing. I joined swap-bot.com not that long ago, which is a site where people can sign up for swaps of just about anything handmade, etc. It's awesome!

One of the groups on swap-bot that I joined is the Viva La Frida group. I'm fascinated by Frida Kahlo and her artwork. This was the first group that caught my eye. Each group can hold their own swaps and sure enough, this group had two of them that piqued my interest... one was for a Frida Christmas ornament and the other was a mixed media Frida painting.

I have to admit, I've never really done mixed media, but I have a sister that LOVES it. I started out using acrylics, but once I found oil paints, I felt like I was in heaven. But I've kept my acrylics just in case... and so I decided to take the plunge and jump into this mixed media Frida swap. I started out by finding a photograph of Frida and sketching it. This is the photo I chose:

This is the sketch:

I had planned on using the sketch as a guide to do an acrylic painting of her. That's why I didn't really do as much detail with the hair and flowers, etc. But the thing about acrylics is... I DESPISE using them for portraits! That's why I was happy to find oils. And the pressure was on because I have to actually send this to someone! Then, upon the recommendation of someone in the group, I bought this fabulous book called "Altered Surfaces" by Chris Cozen.

WOW.

That led me on the path to discovering acrylic transfers. And I've been obsessively experimenting with them ever since, trying different methods with different materials. It's been about two weeks, I believe? And finally, last night, it clicked. I found the right combination and the right way to get the effect I wanted. Still not 100% perfect, but I'm pretty happy, though I still have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be making more changes. *g*

I ended up going with the technique that uses transparencies and gloss gel medium. First I started off by taking a picture of the drawing. Then I loaded it into Adobe Photoshop Elements, edited a bit, and played with the coloring so it was more sepia than gray. Then I printed it out as a mirror image on an inkjet transparency. I applied the gel medium then carefully placed it on the canvasboard and burnished it. Had to be careful, because I'd end up messing with it too much and goobering it up. *g* But then I'd remove the transparency carefully, let it dry and put a coat of gel medium over it to protect it.

Here's the final results:

It took a lot of fun experimenting and redoing the picture for a second time to get this effect. Here's a few other ways it came out:

That really horrifically red version in the middle of the bottom row? That was the first edited version of the photo. Once I got a better handle on what I was doing, especially when it came to the coloring, it really made a difference to go back and start over with the original photo!

Now I'm ready to start the rest of the painting. And because my sis and I had an art day last Saturday, where I ended up creating a mock up of how I want to do this painting, I'm now ready to sit down and finish it up. So much fun!!!

Jewels

Introductions

2008-10-16T14:55:00.006-08:00

So... It occurs to me that I should probably introduce myself in the first post, just in case someone other than my best friend/sister reads this. :-)

My name is Julie, nickname Jewels. I'm 35 years old and live in Alaska. I work as an Administrative Support Assistant (basically receptionist with lots of extra duties.) Despite the fact I've been working jobs like this since I was 18, it's most definitely NOT what I want to do when I grow up! For me, that will always be art. And finally, I'm admitting it and making it a priority to incorporate art into my life on a regular, constant basis. And I'm contemplating and pondering just how I want to integrate the arts into my future career(s). But while I'm trying to figure all that out, I plan on just experimenting, digging in and going for it, trying all sorts of things and learning what it is I really love and what my style is and growing along the way!

In this blog, I just plan on talking about the projects I'm working on and posting pictures of them, etc. A modpodge of whatever I feel like posting about. I figure it'll make a convenient place to send my friends and family who want to see my artwork and someplace where I can blather on incessantly about one of my favorite subjects.

Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Jewels