Paisley Pachyderms!

I do so love to make illustrations with elephants! They are symbols of strength, temperance, and patience. It makes me think about quite a few things. I think of being a parent. I think of honing one's craft. Specifically, it makes me think of all the support that is needed to pursue your passion in life. Much like a paisley pachyderm, they can come in the most unexpected and surprising forms. I can't imagine not having people to turn to with all my crafty questions or even those that you look up to for having done it, and those that inspire you. I hope to be a paisley pachyderm for my little ones. Cheers to all the Paisley Pachyderms in your world.

Handmade Tags for Hand Sewn goodies!

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that even though my mom sews, and has sewn since before I was born, I know very little about how to sew! My mom even sells sewing machines and teaches classes on sewing. I always tell myself and her that I really need to get a machine. She always replies that she has one waiting for me. There is just never enough time!

Well anyway I thought this illustration "Midnight Mending" would look too cute in the form of gift tags for this upcoming holiday season. I can picture them attached to a little handmade or hand sewn present with a handwritten note on the other side.

The Owl and the Pussycat

What a cute little poem by Edward Lear. Here's my illustrative interpretation of a portion of it. In the poem the Owl and the Pussycat are to be married...well as you can see my little owl below looks a bit unsure about what he's gotten himself into. Maybe he's just now realizing what their kids will look like!

"The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea

In a beautiful pea green boat..."

A bit about the textures in this illustration: The texture in the sea is made up of some rice paper that I marbleized with ink (just fill up a baking dish with water. Drip some ink into the water and dip your paper in quickly). The night sky was taken from a watercolor background that I painted.

Yay a Front Page Appearance on Etsy.com!

I woke up this morning and found a pleasant covo from MoonDanceDesigns letting me know that I my "I Bring Only This" print was one of her selections in her treasury! Well Yay! Then I checked the front page of Etsy later today and found that her treasury was so well done that it was selected for the front page! Yippie! I really have to hand it to those who create treasuries. I've yet to curate one, but love to browse them. This particular treasury was called "Love Monkey." Too cute! Swing on over to MoonDanceDesigns and check out her lovely handcrafted jewelry! I'm especially loving these Hindu prayer bead earrings:

Ha Ha! Also in the time it took me to write this post somebody snatched up my print and just that quickly I'm off the front page! lol.

A Little About the Digital Part of My Illustrations

"Midnight Mending" in Red

"Starry Stroll With a Red Umbrealla"

Yesterday was tremendously productive. I haven't had a chance to paint as much as I'd like to lately so having the opportunity to paint yesterday was absolutely dreamy.
After painting, I took high resolution photos of my paintings, converted them to black and white, so I could color them using photoshop. Sometimes you can scan paintings, and I do on occassion scan, however, I use highly textured, heavy weight arches 300 lb watercolor paper and the camera pics up the detail wonderfully but somehow doesn't pick up too much of the texture of the paper. This way the whites are more white and I don't have to fiddle with the brightness of the image too much.
After taking the pictures and uploading them to my computer I added small punches of color to them. I'm in love with the look of black and red together. I will definitely be doing more of this style soon. Perhaps even tonight! "Midnight Mending" was just the first of a series of three illustrations featuring a handmade theme so I'm axious to finish out the series.
I'm also thinking about making some gift tags out of the Midnight Mending Print? It's funny how you make something and you latch on to it.

A Little Watercolor

I decided to pull out the watercolors today! I love what painting with a limited pallet can produce. In the two paintings above only blue and brown were used. A little pen and charcoal were added at the end.

This next one makes me think of how much love goes into a handmade gift. I think there's a tremendous amount of joy that goes into making something for someone you love. It's like the love is stitched, glued, painted or even baked right into the item. It also make me think of my mom. She sews. It's her passion. She stays up late at night and often her stitching companions are her cats. The next day she'll tell me all about her little disputes with the cats as she attempted to make progress with her sewing project.

All are available in my shop: www.GumballGrenade.com

Even Barbed Needles Can Make the Softest Things

I made a new creation over the past couple of days. It started with a desire to sculpt out my little cat character, Bethezda. She's cute, but also a bit grumpy at times. I couldn't decide what materials I wanted to make her from, paperclay...maybe, polymer clay...not quite, PMC silver clay...tempting! Anyway, I've been wanting to try out needle felting for a while now and was feeling a bit crafty so I gave it a whirl.

If your unfamiliar with needle felting it basically involves repetitively stabbing at a soft little tuft of wool roving until you tangled all of the fibers together get a desired shape. Warning: if you go too fast you will stab your finger. It's not so much the punching of the needle into your finger that hurts, but the pulling it out! It's a barbed needle with several tiny little razor ridges. Ouch! Did it twice, don't plan on doing it again.

Here are the final results. Cute little Bethezda, with a little satin stitched embroidered heart, wearing her finest party hat (that I made of paper, ribbon, and another tuft of wool), sits atop a little treasure box (that I painted, distressed, and sealed with acrylics). Of course a little treasure of some miniature sized prints (embossed corners, rivets, and bit of ribbon) of Bethezda tuck neatly inside the box!

She was quite fun to make. I think I'll make another!

Shop Update! Halloween Goodies!

Yay! I've been waiting to get these! They finally came yesterday and now I've packaged them into little Pin Packs! They are now available in my etsy shop.