Wedding Present

Being the poor artist trying to earn money for school, I don't have any money for wedding gifts for all my friends who are of marrying age, and have found their soul-mates. So, instead of buying one of 5 toasters that they don't need, with money I don't have, I decided a couple years ago to do draw their engagement photos and give them that! It's a one-of-a-kind gift that is very personal and takes a lot of work, and is usually very appreciated by the couple, and is a lot easier on my non-existent budget. I also wanted to have a work-in-progress (kind of) of a portrait I've done. This particular drawing was of a super cute and talented couple who's wedding reception was way too much fun.

Work in Progress- Watercolor Flower

For a while I've been wanting to do a really nice watercolor picture, but I wasnt sure what to do for the first one that I would feel confident in and would make me want to do watercolor again. I found a picture of a watercolor painting on Etsy.com, I cant find it now so I can give it credit, I am not trying to steal the picture or take credit for the idea, but I thought the style was beautiful, so i decided to make one for my living room, where my mom has been begging me to get some artwork for the house. I did tweak it a little bit so it would work better for my house, but I decided to do a work in progress for it. So First, I found the picture I wanted to paint, I made some sketches to practice and try a few things before I put it on the expensive watercolor paper.

I then set up my little studio space in my room with my references on my left side, and then all my supplies and such on my right side, since I am right handed, it would make it so much easier then having to reach across yourself to get water or paints. I have my watercolor paper, paintbrushes and a jar of water, I have my watercolor pencils, my liquid watercolors, a paper towel, reference books and sketches, and my little watercolor pallet where I have some dried watercolor paints, but I also can add the wet paint to mix.

You cant see it in the above photo, but you then lightly sketch out your design, with watercolors, you can erase the pencil marks after the paint is down, so you need to make them really really light. Once you are satisfied with the sketch, you apply the really light background washes, use the lightest colors, because you can always get darker, but you cant erase watercolors very easily. For this I used a very pale lavender and very pale sage green, and slowly started developing the veins in the petals, but didnt get into to much detail, as this will have several more layers painted over.

Once you get the light areas in the petals finished, you let it dry, then slowly add a slightly darker, slightly more detailed layer, and you add layers and layers until it is as dark as you want it. Once it is the right color, you can finally add the real detail, This is where watercolor pencils come in really handy, the fine points were perfect for adding the skinny veins of the petals and detail on the center of the flower.

You repeat this process for the rest of the picture, I moved onto the next flower, then once I was done with that one, I moved onto the stems. This is my finished picture....

Lazy Sketching Day

Today, yes I had the flu, BUT, I was able to have a marvelous day off.
I got to sleep in, then take a nap, I finally got to wear my hoodie, for the first time all summer. Also I had a wonderful time just sketching in my sketchbook while I read art blogs by Emily McPhie and Cassandra Barney, sisters who are artists, and their dad, James C. Christensen is my all time favorite artist. They are all different but I LOVED reading their process and insights into all things artsy and crafty. Everything from felt flowers and paper dolls to walnut medium as an alternate to Liquin because of its toxic nature.
I was just looking at all the sketches I was able to produce today and realized, They are filled with aprons, giant color blocking, symbols, and pretty yet disproportionate women. Love it. It gets me out of my super realistic mode that I like to draw in.

My "Studio"

Every artist needs a workspace. Some people use spare bedrooms, some people use lofts, some people rent spaces in the city, some use the garage, some even the laundry room. My workspace, is in my bedroom.

Art Days with the Kiddos

 Silly kids :)

 Since its called " green thumb" for gardeners, is it " blue thumb" for artists?

 He is so talented.

 I love their focus.

My big canvas was covered in plastic, so i let daniel take a dry erase marker to it, and look at what he came up with!?! That is a pretty awesome duck in my opinion.


A few times a month, the kids and I will have " Art Days" where I get out a few buckets of my art supplies, yes I said BUCKETS. I have an INSANE amount of art supplies, crayons, colored pencils, paints, pastels, charcoal, watercolors, etc. We get decked out in big T-shirts and aprons, cover the table with old newspapers,  and we create masterpieces. These kids are so talented.

The Blogging Experience

 This is that picture of the Afghan refugee from the National Geographic magazine, this was 5x7, with prisma colored pencils and it was drawn on matboard.

 This was drawn during an art exhibition at church, and its one of my favorites :)

 drawn my senior year of high school, i got first place in my school district art fair.

 colored pencil, 5x7, based on a painting by James Christensen I think its called Pandora.

 a commission for someone I go to church with, of her nephew.

me drawing at the art exhibition :P

Hello! This is the first in hopefully a long line of art blogs, so a little about me, I'm 19 years old and I am an artist (if you hadn't guessed that already), my favorite form of art is classic portraits, I don't really have a favorite medium, but I use graphite pencils the most. I've drawn my whole life, but decided I wanted to be an artist when I was 12 and lived down the street from 3 of my favorite artists, James C. Christensen, his daughter Cassandra Barney, and Chris Young. I am currently working and earning money so I can go to school to study art. I've won several awards for my art, and I am looking for more competitions to enter to get my art out there a little more. I am mostly self taught, though I've had some really great art teachers that have taught me a few tricks. There is soooo much more I would love to learn and I'm always looking for inspiration.