Newbies- er, New Bees!

Here is the drawing that I mentioned at the end of my last post! I didn't want to upload it before it was given to the recipients. I know the chances that they *just happen* to read my blog or anything related to it are pretty much 0.00000000000000000000000000000001% but I felt it was more respectful to wait to post it.

So in my head, I've been calling the piece "Nectar," partly because, of course, that's what the bees are feasting on in this picture. But also partly because I had just downloaded Tindersticks' first album and was enjoying listening to it on repeat while I was drawing. One of the songs on it is titled "Nectar" which seemed quite appropriate :)




I'm working on a box with some decoupage of this drawing in there... it'll be up in my Etsy shop eventually, which, by the way, is up and running again!! Yay!

A commission that *did* have a happy ending :)

And now that I know it arrived safely and has been received by the birthday boy, I can post about it. Yay!

(I added the bolts that hold the sign to the post later, hehe)

The painting was commissioned for me to do by the wife of one of my best friends. Route 30 has special significance to him (or as Ruby would say, it's "sensitive," hehe... I just love her). So his wife's idea was to paint the Rt. 30 sign with some local foliage/wildflowers. It was a lot of fun to do this since normally I just focus on ONE foliage or flower in a painting, not a bunch of different kinds. And I learned something interesting in the little bit of scenery included in this piece. I now know why scenery is SUCH popular subject matter for artists:

IT'S EASY!!!!

Bob Ross? Happy little trees? Just start throwing down shapes and light and shade- it's nearly impossible to mess them up. Rolling hills? Curvy shapes, overlap, light, shade, blend, blend, done. It made me want to do more scenery pictures... which is something I always thought would bore me.

Commission Piece Finished!

Pollinators Diptych

A friend of my husband's contacted me last month about creating a couple of paintings for her baby twin girls' bedroom. I love doing art for kids, so I jumped at the opportunity!

She was able to give me a lot of great information from which I could work. Things like: the colors she was looking for (pinks, greens, and purples, with touches of yellow and white), and a couple of photos of the existing decor in the girls' room. She also expressed a lot of interest in the style of art from my fire hydrant- so more illustrative and cartoony rather than realistic. I had a great time painting the hydrant (taking a break from my usual style), and knew I'd have fun doing something similar again!

Starting with the background blends. You can see my digital rendering on the computer screen behind me...

Surprisingly the paintings didn't go as quickly as I had hoped- it turns out I had to do a lot of double or even triple coats with the paint I was using. I also noticed that when I'm painting something in my usual way, like a big flower, I can be more messy and no one is going to know :) I blend the colors and then go over and over them with watery coats of paint to perfect the blend. It's a very, VERY forgiving process! When you've got precise outlines and shapes you're working with, you don't have as much wiggle room. It wasn't a bad thing, just different, and now I have a better understanding of how long things will take if I embark on one of these kinds of projects again.