simple Analogy

Lest You Think This Is Becoming A Food Blog...

The last several months have been extremely busy.  I haven't had a lot of time to sew, but I did make some time to paint. 

Butterflies...

lots of them!  They were gifts for the sweet ladies in my Bible study class.  I've only ever given my "artwork" to my mom, so this was a big step for me.  I think it means I'm getting comfortable with my painting.

I drew them all the same, but each of them turned out differently.

I think that's my favorite thing about watercolors.  You never exactly know how the paint is going to blend, spread, and bleed.  You never know if that dab with the paper towel will leave some texture or make the painting look distressed and faded.

If you use more water the colors are softer; paint dry and the colors are vibrant.  I love the variations!  Each of these butterflies were a metamorphasis of their own.

My Finger Slipped

So I was editing my butterflies, and look what happened.  My finger slipped on the contrast.  I came out with this. 

Hey, I like it!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Winging It

I am not confident when it comes to scketching.  But when I start painting what I sketched, I find that my sketches arent' as bad as I thought. 

Maybe it's because the paint hides all the imperfections that I know are there.

Maybe it's because my scritch scratch comes to life.

Or maybe it's just that it's hard to mess up a butterfly. 

Anyhow, these little guys are making me happy right now.

On A Wing and A Prayer

Spreading my sketching wings...

Mkay

You may have noticed it's been a little quiet here on the blog lately.  Well, it's not because I haven't been doing anything lately.  Actually it's because I've been working on something really fun (I hope) for YOU!  So, be patient, and we'll talk more about that fun next week!

In the meantime, let me show you a new painting.  I did this one a few weeks ago.  One of Noah's science projects was to dissect a flower.  "Can you dissect a flower?" asked Landon who just finished a year of Biology and dissecting all kinds of critters.  You can!  We were supposed to be able to find all the parts of the flower including the ovary and ovule (inside parts).

I was kind of excited about this because I wanted to sketch and paint the cross-section of the flower.  Mkay, our flower had no ovaries - at least we couldn't find them.  So he just found all the parts he could identify, and we left it at that.  In the big scheme of things, failure to find the ovule of a flower will not greatly hamper my son's education.  But I was kind of disappointed that my plan for painting was hampered.  So instead of the cross-section, I focused on different parts of the flower. 

First up, I painted the whole flower.

Next I focused on the stigma/stamen.

Lastly, the stamen.  And that's my "Anatomy of a Lily".

Latte Doodles

The design of this little painting was inspired by taper weights (torn from Martha Stewart Living) and the colors from drinking iced coffee while the A/C's been on the fritz.  I love the little iced coffee VIA packs from Starbucks.  So handy!  One packet makes enough for two of us to have a good size treat after adding a bit more sugar and lots of milk. 

Only one little problem... All of sudden, while outlining, the caffeine kicked in.  Compared with McDonald's iced coffee, these have WAY more caffeine!  (Duh, it's Starbucks.)  Shaking hands and permanent pens don't go well together.  I thought about waiting for awhile to finish it up, but decided that I'd just plow through quickly.  Any squiggly lines would just give it more character, right?  Sounded good, only I made myself nervous trying to draw like that.  Next time I'll wait until after I finish a painting before partaking of an iced coffee.

I Had To Do Some Too

 
Did you think I could sit back and watch my kids kneading that salty dough (which is actually a tactile delight), cutting out Christmas shapes, and decorating them without making some myself?  You know me by now.  After I saw Katy's intricate designs, I had to try my hand at the red Sharpie version.

I used a fine point sharpie and did them all in one sitting.  My had was a bit cramped at the end which is why there are some peppermint looking snowflakes.  They took less time.

These are for my mom who has a red & white/hearts & peppermint stripes tree theme.  Merry early Christmas, Mom! 

Mountains of Mittens

 
I'm a little off my game today.  We went to the midnight showing of Voyage of the Dawn Treader last night.  So good!  You should go, just not to the midnight show unless you want to be a bit slower the next day.  Slow is what I don't need to be.  You should see the list I have for this weekend!  The main priority is prepping for the Nursery Christmas party for the children.  Like making a ton of salt dough mittens for them to decorate.

Here's hoping you have a productive weekend and get to cross a lot off your list!

Anyone Have the Same Problem?

What to get my dad for a present...  This is a dilemma I face each gift giving occasion.  The things he likes are way out of my price range and I can only go to the clothes well just so often before I get sick of buying plaid shirts and khaki's.  I started thinking about ideas way back in March, but nothing was ringing my bell.

Then I got an inspiration from Wise Craft's new sponsor, Cozy Blue.  Her unique family trees are adorable!  I thought about getting one of these for dad - he's way into genealogy - but hers only have parents in the middle and kids on the outside.  Great for a small family, new birth, or Mother's Day but a little too cutesy for my corporate father.  Plus somehow I thought he'd be disappointed with such little posterity shown.

I perused Etsy, but nothing really hit it.  So, I made him a family tree of my own.  I drew the tree and scanned it into the computer.  I don't have Photoshop so using my paint program I filled the tree with black and added our family name.  I then printed the image using a high quality setting onto thick watercolor paper, which is fast becoming my favorite craft paper.  I tried to add the names with the paint program, but couldn't position them how I wanted, so I wrote the names by hand.  There's nothing that adds more individuality than handwriting.  It offers a bit of who I am to the picture.

I kept it tight as far as family goes - just dad and mom, my family, and my sister's.  With all the genealogy my dad has uncovered it would have taken years to make the whole family tree, not to mention it would have been the size of Texas.  But this way, it focuses on the part he had to play in our heritage and it is a reasonable size (8 x 10).

The frame I bought to put it in really makes the whole thing.  The large width, color, and grain of the wood fit right in with the tree-ish-ness of the whole thing.  I'm having to restrain myself from driving over this very minute and giving it to him early.  And you know how I feel about giving presents early!  I'm just so excited about this one.

You can click on any picture to see it bigger.

Art + Science

 

This smacks of jellies!  Pun intended.  We've been studying marine animals this semester in science and jellyfish in particular this week.  That is the only reason why I know that a group of jellyfish are called a smack.  OH!  Now I get the pun!  What a surprise that this week's art lesson was to draw a scene of the sea.  I told the boys they had to draw at least one jelly in their scene.  As you can see that's all I really wanted to draw!  That poor little fish.  Look how I backed him into a corner, facing that smack all alone.  What must he be thinking?  The lady who drew this was evil - that's what he's thinking.  Maybe he can pull a Marlin/Dory move and bounce right out of harm's way.  Sorry little guy!  I was so caught up with the jellies.

Noah's drawing has a good assortment of animals that we have studied:  sea snake, jellies, sea turtle, anemone, angler fish, crab, sea urchin, fish, shrimp, and his playful take on a box jellyfish.

 Landon's is more of a smack with one scared, inking octopus thrown in for good measure.