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:

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:

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!

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?  :)

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! 

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

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:

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: