Winter Blues - Sledding Illustration

Spent my weekend sketching and painting. It's a winter wonderland here in Michigan and that means I'm hibernating. I'm a fan of the snow but not the cold. So I like to look at it from the warmth of my cozy home or live vicariously through my art. 

A little nostalgia for these two kids running errands for the family. Can you imagine a time when kids went to the local grocery for their mom, all by themselves? I grew up in a tiny town and we often went to the corner store to get a treat. Penny candy was the bomb - our poor teeth! We'd find a quarter and thought we were rich. 

I can remember my elementary teacher telling us about inflation when I was in third grade and a candy bar was a quarter. She asked if we would buy a candy bar if it was 50 cents and we all balked, a dollar - no way. But hey, inflation. Okay, that's enough of traveling down memory lane today. It's making me feel old!

This gouache painting is quite the multi-tasker, I'm entering it for two Instragram challenges this week - #12monthsofpaint - their theme this month is blue and Katie Creatie's #wedrawtheyear. Her theme is sledding for this week. My goal for this month is to add more kids and families to my portfolio, so yeah goals! 

Studies

  A few paintings from this week.

A meadowlark in a field of Queen Anne's lace and chicory. I've been wanting to add more nature images to my portfolio so this is the first one. 

The next two were created for the #12monthsofpaint challenge on Instagram. This month's theme is blue. 

This is a study of zebra pansies, which I just discovered this week thanks to Pinterest. I wish these would have turned out more stylized and less realistic but I guess that's the danger of looking at photo references. I need to draw them out from several sources and then draw exclusively for memory to put more of personality into it.

Hello January Wallpapers

I wanted to create a wallpaper for my iPhone and participate in the Instagram #WeDrawtheYear challenge, so I combined the two. One of my goals for this year is to create a wallpaper for each month.

I haven't done this before so hopefully it works this way!

Click on the images to download them in their full size.

iPhone 5 wallpaper

iPhone 6

iPad

Thanks for stopping by!

New Year Wishes

2015 was a whirlwind of writing books, traveling to teach and making beads. I am now the author of 3 jewelry/bead books. That feels pretty awesome!

I've worked on a plan for the new year to focus more on illustrating and cultivating daily habits of sketching and painting. I've given my website an update and will be signing up for Lilla Rogers Make Art That Sells class later this month. I wish I could have taken the live class, but the timing never worked with my travel schedule. 

Here's to a very creative and productive 2016 - cheers! 

Christmas Gift Tag Printables

Merry Christmas! Decided it was time to make a new set of gift tags for the season for my last minute gift wrapping.

They were all inspired by holiday beads that I create.

I'm offering these as a free printable for your personal use. 

Download them here. 

Allegory Gallery Exhibit

My friend Andrew Thornton and owner of the bead shop/gallery space Allegory Gallery in Ligonier, PA invited me to have a solo show in September.

Can't tell you what a thrill it was to see my illustrations framed and hanging on the wall. I really need to get things set up so I can sell my prints online.

I spent the weekend teaching a jewelry workshop inspired by the waterfalls of Pennsylvania and we were fortune enough to take a field trip to Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water House. Wow, what an amazing place! 

I returned home to fall slowly creeping around my home. Milkweed, monarchs and Queen Anne's lace were spotted around the fields and in my sketchbook.

Embrace Change

It's the only constant in life.