Sunday, February 24, 2019

bears, and sloths, and online store uploads (oh my)

I blogged last time about my bears being completed.  I've since completed 3 more paintings in one day, as I was on a roll.




sloth love!!!  
they were fun to work with!




Saturday morning had us bringing my bears to Bates Crafters Gallery




 pocket-sized bears

"what are you doing"
"you said to get pictures.  I'm getting pictures"


these 3 photos by Fran at Bates Crafters Gallery


 this guy was sold almost immediately.
my mom-in-law saw it was at the store and went to grab it,
so I still have visitation rights



we then went home to the task of putting all these new beauties up in my redbubble and society6 online stores.  the textures really pop with these high resolution uploads

on to the eye candy!  I'll make it quick, though.  


redbubble first
*click on the link below each photo that will bring you to all the items for the painting.   enjoy browsing!



kids tee-shirt


spiral notebook


photographic print (very affordable!)

LOOK~ HE HUGS YOU!
contrast tank

and...
postcards




on to society6
*click link to go to painting- then scroll to bottom of page to find other items with the same art.   enjoy browsing!


"The Bear Guide"


"Strength From Within"


"Resting Sloth"


"Carry the Love"


"Be Yourself"


thats the very full news from the week!

until later,
Jenny




Thursday, February 21, 2019

thinking out loud

I finished my bears yesterday.  heres where they were;




then I got inspired by this dried up bit on my palette


heres where they ended up
"Bear Guide" and "Strength from Within"

I used the yellow I mixed up with a pallet knife and dabbed it down in just a few spots, then mixed some teal and white and carefully dragged it and dabbed it around the still wet areas.  they are so full of texture, and I love them!

I also finished this weeks Lets Face It class with Ivy Newport yesterday.  we learned 'the box technique' where you put a box directly around your subject, hitting all the outermost points, and find the shapes within the box to map out your focal point.  my attempt wasn't as successful as I had hoped it would be as we dont have toner for our printer at the moment, so my proportions were off.  I couldn't map it with my ruler...

got frustrated at the head and face, 
so jotted some notes and left it

yesterday was a really good mental health day for me. mark got home and I was bubbly and talkative and smiling. not one tiny bit of anxiety or sadness. it was a feeling I'd like to repeat as often as I can!
went to bed tired last night, as I usually do. had a hard time settling down, as I usually do. one thing was different, though. instead of anxiety, it was paint color choices that I was excited about for my next minis. subject matter is decided, reference photos found, and now color! I so wanted to skip sleep and start working!
so, today I start working on my newest minis, and varnish my bears which got scanned last night for my society6 and redbubble shops. this weekend has a lot of art business stuff happening, including adding more items to both online shops, and bringing my bears to Bates Crafters Gallery. busy, busy trying to get my name out there!

until later,
Jenny


Monday, February 18, 2019

canvasses in progress, and redbubble shop news

the weekend was busy for painting and life stuff.

I started concentrating on my little bear canvasses out of the 7 little guys I had told you about last time I blogged.  well, I'd had an idea and needed to take action on that as well, so have three more in progress, making it a total of 10 in various stages of completion.

here are the bears


 I think I'm to go back to a more green background for them.
layers...  they make a painting come alive
and help with the decisions


this is collage work, done in a series

as they stand now

and heres a bigger dude I had forgotten to blog about.
he's in a waiting pattern 
while I concentrate on the smaller ones




and, I dove in and did the watercolor portion of last weeks class with Danielle Mack;


the next step in the process uses colored pencil.  hopefully that brings her out, again.  I'm kind of impressed with how the watercolor turned out.  I fully used her instruction, pausing the video as I went, so that helped.  it's not bad for my first real foray into the medium.  I'd dabbled here and there, but never gotten the hang of it on my own.






sweetie and I are working on getting more items up on my redbubble online store each weekend until caught up.   many of my older paintings had been left behind in the shuffle of creating the account.  so many paintings, so little time.  so, we have decided to re-commit to getting it all up, little by little.

our first installment has my three finished bear paintings;


 framed print


spiral bound journal



 photographic print
which is a great deal for artwork!


 drawstring bag

 hardcover journal

front of journal
look at the detail of the textures!




 art board
another inexpensive option

 contrast tank
they have inexpensive postcards, too



so, while my shop at redbubble does have many of the same items as my society6 online shop has, they also have different options, and some of them are a less expensive way to go to get my art into your home.  if anything, I'm all for helping you out, guys!  I know how hard it is to get original art into the home in an affordable way and this is a great way to do so.

until later,
Jenny


Saturday, February 16, 2019

class work in Lets Face It and big news!

I posted earlier about the first 2 LFI 2019 classes of the year, and have had a few more under my belt.  I'm enjoying my challenge to work on or at least attempt each weeks class in this year long course.

this whole first section of 7 classes was going to be a struggle for me from the get-go, just because of the medium of pencil and pen work.  and this isn't the end of my struggles.  later in the course will be more charcoal lessons.  it's ok, learning is supposed to be difficult.

heres my work from week 3 with Lucy Cooke in colored pencil and pen, in the style of van Gogh;

 in attempt 1,
 I used her drawing as a reference using pen to outline.
big mistake; not a fan of the bold pen


 I then found van Goghs painting and left out the pen.
liked it better


 attempt #3 was my favorite out of the bunch



 with #4 I added white pencil along the edges 
to help it stand out


here are all 4 together
a nice, loose class that I enjoyed immensely 



week 4 was with Kellye Fowlkes in graphite.  I succumbed early with only one attempt that I claimed to be wrong, so scrapped it pretty close to the start of the sketch.  


I'm just not used to making lines and erasing lines and re-making the same lines til I get them right.  I'm more of a 'slap some paint down, and if it's wrong, slap some more down to create layers and texture' type girl.


the next lesson (week 5) was with Angela Kennedy.  here we did an initial sketch, with the eyes looking up or down;

she didn't use a reference photo, but I needed one (I won't show the sketch I drew without a reference!)

then we sketched on wood, added ink to the background and used colored pencil to add color.  here I used one of her works as a reference   I'm not finished with the details of this one, though it might be stalled at this point for now.

not horrible
I liked the wood texture coming thru



this week is with Danielle Mack, a talented watercolorist who also layers with colored pencil, which is what we'll be doing.

the sketch portion went well this week;

because the shading will be in another medium.

the difficult part for me will be the watercolors...




and I have huge, huge news on the business side of my art.  I'm now officially an artist at Bates Crafters Gallery!  I've been thinking about it for a while now, and my sister in law, who has a woodworking business, Crazy Crafts, sells there.  Deb makes brilliant signage and home decor.  she was going to the gallery on Friday to bring over some more completed items and I tagged along to ask questions.   I needed a friend holding my hand and initiating things with Fran Bates- who was very nice and didn't bite me.  I ended up going back home to get my mini paintings to set up a shelf right then and there!

my selection is small right now, but I have a foot in the door.
the paintings look great in the store display!



business card holder by Deb at Crazy Crafts

I figure I'd start small and see how it goes, then add larger paintings and some merchandise from my society6 site, along with a binder with info and photos of other items people can purchase online.  

today is the grand re-opening of Bates after remodeling to create more space for new artists (they are around 75 strong as of now!).  I think I got in at a great time!  hopefully the store is getting lots of traffic today, and people smile when they see my tiny little paintings.  

as sweetie and I were doing our Saturday morning errands, a cashier commented about how she loved my elephant tote.  I thanked her and told her that it is made from my artwork, gave her a business card and chatted with her about the grand re-opening literally across the street from where we were, and about products she could buy from my online store, as well.  I told her about all my elephant paintings when she commented about how her daughter loves elephants and would love my tote for that.  she also commented how she loved the artwork that was on my business card, and I told her she could get that painting on a mug.  this was the first time I have been stopped for my tote, and that I was able to whip out a business card and talk openly about my art without stumbling over my words!  it did my artist heart good to have that interaction on the day after I put my work in an actual brick and mortar store!

I'm now ready to start working on my minis again after telling myself they were just way too small to go on with them.  but they are great sellers, and show really well.  and, for around $20 you can get an original piece of artwork for the home.  who doesn't like that?  I went down to my studio and tracked down the minis with backgrounds on them, and now have sketches on 7 soon-to-be paintings for when the shop needs more or if they need a rotation.

3 foxes, 2 bears, and 2 bee paintings in progress,
and ideas brewing for so many more!


so, thats my incredible news, and the scoop for whats happening lately.  my painting area (currently the dining room table) is being used for manly stuff right now, but I hope to get to my classwork before Mondays class comes around.  I was also hoping on getting some images up in my redbubble shop this weekend.  we'll see how it plays out.  sweetie seems rather overwhelmed with the dreaded list o' things.

until later,
Jenny