Illustrated Selfie

I so loved August Wren's sketch book selfies that I had to do my own. A snowless wintry day where I am portrayed in typical black with a bit of my fave color turquoise.  I'm partial to the wrap I'm wearing that a sweet Aunt bought for me. Yes indeedy very relaxing these quick sketch exercises are proving to be! Have a fab weekend!

I only have Eyes for you.

One of the first thing's I remember drawing in concentrated detail as a kid was eyes. I love them, they are the most fascinating feature of the face. I've drawn painted, carved and printed eyes on clothing, and here in my sketchbook I just plain ol' felt like loosely painting lots of eyes. I'll never tire of my fascination of them. Have a lovely weekend .

Yellow Bird

Well here we are starting a new year... 2015.... I love how that number sounds, way better than 2014. May this year be filled with art, happiness, the accomplishing of productive thing's. For me I keep my eyes on the prize,and hope to always, always do my best at whatever task's and responsibilities I have. In between the work art refreshes me and keep's the creative side from being overwhelmed by the daily tasks. It takes planning to make time for art just like anything else you find important , but it is well worth it and a true enjoyment. Yellow bird is another page in my sketchbook and I hope this year allows for many more bird's and such.

Happy Tuesday!

El Tigre

Ever since I saw Pee Wee's Big Adventure I wanted his awesome tiger he sported on the handle bars of his bike. I've looked online an haven't found one thus far..bummer. Meantime I love tiger's and old circus animals and images, probably because my great grandfather was a lion trainer and his son my grandfather was a monkey trainer and did wonderful shows and was an artist as well who painted his own prop's and scenery. It was a child's dream to spend time with my grandpa and be behind the scenes with him at the zoo. Anyhoo I'm getting all nostalgic and I just really wanted to come up with a fun tiger drawing that I can possibly print on fabric and make myself a garment. Here's a few with some potential, either way I enjoyed this days sketch.

Birdie on a Bottle

I'm a bird lover, so no doubt you will see many in my new sketchbook project. I feed lots of little tweet's on my back deck and thus have constant inspiration. My Grammy and I made little terrarium's and other little nature craft's when I would come stay  over and this watercolor remind's me of those lovely times with her.

Happy Tuesday!

In my sketch book

Ok so i have sketchbook's galore yet have not one complete, so I am going to try my darnedest to fill an entire book with what I will call artistic discipline. I feel the need to train myself to not only stimulate my creativity if possible on a daily basis but also fight the procrastinator in me and eventually hold an entire work in my paint bespeckled little hands. I admire so many artist's who have volumes of work and so here I go with mine. Oh and since time has always been a giant factor in my willy nilly ways, I'm going to try to give myself 30-60 min max so I can motivate myself to squeeze art in as much as possible! Aaaand page one starts with me watching Emma and admiring the dance and all the lovely gown's and here's my take.

 Happy( and hopefully an artsy) day to you!

Elouise

Well here she is. Here is Elouise and how I imagined her in color. As soon as I painted a rosey cheeked smile on her face I too had a smile of satisfaction and continued to let the paint and brushes reveal her sweetness. One of the  last thing's to paint was her dress and I love a good blue and red combination! Finally her bouquet of flower's and she was complete. I really enjoyed painting her, and will miss her when she goes to a new home but in the mean time I will admire her on my sideboard and paint another hopefully right away to keep her company. Xox

A painting I will go..

.. A painting I will go, high ho the merry oh, a painting I will go!!

Excited to be done sketching my newest inspiration. I absolutely adore lost, and forlorn old photos of people that I don't know but can look and just imagine how they felt in that moment of time. For instance, this lovely lady is in I imagine a park like setting in the 50's according to her hair and dress. The dress is sprinkled with maybe blue, pink, and yellow flowers , and she is holding a freshly cut bouquet that perhap's her sweetheart just gave her maybe taking the picture because he wanted a momento of his girl and her lovely smile at that very moment. 

Ahh, I know I am totally reading into it. But what I do know is someone once cared for this person enough to want to capture it, and that is something I appreciate and feel compelled to save and sometimes reinvent their forgotten face's with paint, brush and care. 

Have a wonderful week. Xo Dawn

Bracelet Trio

My friend Em always wears the prettiest, delicate jewelry. She really knows what looks good on her. Recently she wore a lovely stack of gold's and trinkets  that made me want some of my own. Now I'm not the biggest fan of gold jewelry but brushed or antique finish gold is more my style so I gathered my materials and made my own trio. I love that it looks so pulled together as a group or can be worn individually , win, win, and win!

Oh and of course I'll make some for shows!

Rosie Posey Tote

  Once upon a time    I purchased a couple simple cotton totes for a project for my nieces, but we ended up doing bleach pen t-shirts instead( I'll be sharing that later this week).

Well after they went home toting their new T's, I was still in a makin mood so I cracked open the new box of  Pentel FabricFun Pastel's and went into grown up coloring mode , that is after I sketched some flowers on my tote. I had in mind a softer, pretty bag than the others I own, and I was abundantly pleased by the waxy, vivid colors that I was getting. 

I finished around 2:00 am ( cause that's how I roll baby), then I can't hardly roll outta bed, but hey I have a custom tote to show for my puffy eyed look eh?!

Oh and one final thing : the colors need to be heat set with an iron and a piece of paper which gives the art that over all softness I wanted...

Happy as a clam I am!

Xox Dawn

I never tire of Art Fair 's

Mother's Day weekend features my fave art fair (Laumier Sculpture Park) and I haven't missed attending but once. Well I almost missed again because of my crazy cram jammed weekend's. My only chance was to go on Friday night, which meant we would miss the hand's on art tent on Sat, aaaand we would have to take all the kiddo's. You see my sister Rachel and I usually love to go together and really chill, as we leisurely meander( I like that word) through all the booth's enjoying all the work's. Oh don't get me wrong, we enjoy outing's with our little angel's .... When they are not whine baggin it every 10 min repeating" Are we done yet?" Or making artist's twitch as they can't resist putting their little paws on the art, or you get the comment, " Oh those are YOUR children", as they are clobbering each other with water bottles... Long, long, sigh. Needless to say we really didn't get to look too well, and the only chillin we did was when the sun went down and we froze. Alas what we did see was wonderful and inspiring, and hey we did nosh on some mighty tasty Gyros. All in all we were happy to be there and are looking forward to next year! Happy Friday !

It took 4 shot's before mom felt she had the picture ..

Can you see those mischeivious look's?

Can you see our disgruntled looks?

This was amazing!!

beautiful, and oh how they moved in the wind

This was just a total hoot!

Now this had to be touched to appreciate fully!

You know your giggling right now...

DIY Washi Tape

Simply put, I love washi tape. I really should look up the history of this brilliant alternative to plain ol' Scotch tape.
In the meantime I have for quite some time now been making my own version, and stashing them in a mint tin that I decorated .
One day I found my little old Xyron , that puts a sticky back on anything from ribbon to paper, and thought hmmm, I could make my own tape! So I took some old quilt strips full of different patterns and then copied them on paper. Then i cut strips to fit in the Xyron, pulled them through so they then had a sticker back, and next I cut them into individual pieces.
And there I had my own washi tapes to tape up ideas, or seal a gift for my sister , etc. One hint I suggest is to use permanent sticky back on your handmade tapes. They stick better. So get out that dusty scrapbooking tool and have a go at your own! Happy Tues/Wed! Xo Dawn