5 dog commission DONE!

Smokey:

Sparky:

Lightning:

Storm:

Thunder:

Updates to the Newton Boys!

Here is Lightning with a few minor adjustments:

And the sketch of Storm:

Lightning

On to the third dog. He's proving to be a bit tricky. Then again, white dogs typically are harder to portray on white paper! But doesn't he just have the most gorgeous eyes! I'm still not done with him, but he's getting close!

And the painting with all 3 of them I have worked on to date:

Some Christmas Card designs

Here are a few Christmas card designs I have done.

Smokey & Sparky

Just a little bit of an update on these two!

The Newton Boys!

I am currently working on a large portrait of 5 dogs. I had the great pleasure of meeting 4 of them when I took a trip up to New Hampshire. They are wonderful, friendly and lively dogs. And meeting them really makes my job in painting them easier. Their owner worked with me to get the layout just right. She claims to not really have an artistic eye, but I think she has more than she realizes! The final painting will be 16"x20". Here is the layout we decided on:

I started on Smokey(who is the dog in the upper left-hand corner). I am almost done with him, but will save the final detail until the end so that there is a continuity to the entire painting. Here he is:

I started working on Sparky last night. He is the dog in the upper right-hand corner.

Check back for more updates!

Gift tags

I'm going to a joint baby shower on Friday. Two of my friends had little girls a few months apart. I have met Lucy and she is SO cute. I cannot wait to meet Caroline! So I made these little gift tags for thier presents:

Labbie get well card

My father in law is in the hospital for back surgery. So I made this card for him. Its a little inside joke about their dog. He always chased the squirrels in the backyard. And they usually ran away from him. But one time one of them paniced and ran through the dogs legs. Their dog tried to follow and ended up falling over because, well, you can't run through your own legs! So anyhow, I'm hoping it cheers him up because he is having a tough recovery!

Doodley Circle borders

I just made a few circle shaped doodled borders. Something fun and quick. There's 4 in the set:

Dog & Bone

Cat & Fish

Rose

Flower & Bee

Here's the preview:

And you can get it here

Have fun and if you like it please leave me some love!!!!!

Baseball Baby Announcement

So a really good friend of mine from high school is due with a little boy ANY day now! I offered to do her announcements for her and this is one of the ideas I came up with.

I painted the glove and the ball separately, scanned them in, cut them out and assembled them. The stitching is real thread and the ball opens up to display the baby's picture(when he comes) and all his info! Here's what it looks like when you open it:

Pumpkin Spice

Well, it that lovely time of year again, where the air is crisp, the sun is bright and the leaves are like jewels falling from the trees. I thought I'd create a fun doodly kit to celebrate this wonderful season.

You can get it free here

I'd love to see what you create with it so please leave me some love on my blog!

And my dear friend Leslie has created an awesome free coordinating paper and element pack. You can get it at her blog.

Sweet on You-digiscrap doodles

I know its been forever since I've updated this. Life just has been busy and I haven't had much time to paint and the well of inspiration has been a bit dry. Anyhow, I thought I would try and create some doodles for digital scrapping to keep me at my art table. If you like them, then by all means help yourself. But leave me some love here so I can see your lovely creations! The paper is not included though, it was just a background I used to help the doodles stand out!

Get it HERE

Daddy's Hands: FINISHED!

I think it is done. I finished it up this afternoon. But I may give it a few days before I totally decide that it is done. You never know what I might notice.


Some closeups:

Daddy

Daddy's hands: more progress

Ok, here is what I have so far. Have quite a few more details to iron out, but I'm getting very close!

Daddy's Hands: A fair way in

So I've gotten a fair bit done on the painting. I tried scanning my progress earlier, but my scanner has decided to play with colors and make it look very much unlike what it actually does. I managed to tweak some of the settings and that seemed to help a bit. But its still not quite right. I actually have done a lot more on the painting today which I will scan in and show later. I think I would have finished this one by now if it wasn't for the 95 degree heat and the lack of air conditioning in my studio combined with a lovely headcold!

Daddy's hands: Sketch

On to my next project which is a painting for my husband for Father's Day. I snapped this picture of him and Meri on Mother's Day and knew I would be painting it. It seemed a fitting painting to do for him. And can you believe that though we've known each other almost 10 years and have been married for 7 years I have never done a painting for him. So here is the reference photo:



And here is the initial sketch:


I may get some painting in later today, but its supposed to be in the 90's today so it may be too hot and uncomfortable in my office. We shall see!

Solo: Finished

I finished this up late this afternoon! I really enjoyed painting this entire portrait. From the eyes, to the nose to the collar. I really had fun!

Some closeups:

Solo: Details eyes, nose and collar

So I got a good amount of work put in this morning while the wee one slept. She was ever so kind today(so far). Here is the updated portrait so far:Here's a closeup of the eyes:A closeup of the nose(you can see I removed the masking fluid to reveal the preserved white paper):

And a closeup of the collar(I'm really loving painting the details on this collar):

So a lot of work accomplished this morning, but some more to go. I hope to finish this one either today or tomorrow.

Solo: We have a background

I was out running through the woods with my weim(scout) this morning and thinking what the best background would be for this painting. As I was moving along I thought that a nice deep blue would go well. It would make Solo stand out. And it would accent the brown of his collar and the gold nameplate. So here it is:

Solo: Day 3

The train woke me up early this morning. Now that summer is almost here I'm trying to get used to having the windows open. Not an easy task with the commuter train at the back of our property and chorus of birds who seem to think that 330am is when I need a wake up call. So I got about 20 minutes of painting in before Meri decided she needed to get up. I worked in a bit more detail overall.
And started in on the nose. Weims are somewhat tricky as thier noses are brown and gray at the same time(oh and perhaps a bit of reddish). The colors I use are burnt umber+prussian blue+a dab of cadmium red. Then I drop in the gray mixture I use for thier coat(ultramarine blue+raw umber). The light blue shiny stuff on the nose is the masking fluid. It will be removed shortly with an eraser.
Check back later for another update(hopefully).