today, yesterday...and tomorrow

i did this piece a few years ago and i still love it because: *i love the scripture, *it has a simple design, *this lettering is my favorite, *i enjoy using the heart-in-hand motif in my work, *i love using different shades of purple (especially blue purple!), *and, you guessed it, there are six wonderful little boxes to put all of that fun stuff in! one of the nice things about keeping a record of my work, and then looking back on it from time to time, is that i'm reminded of how much i enjoy doing little pieces of artwork like this. i have been overwhelmed recently...trying to decide "shall i paint today?, shall i draw today?, shall i letter today?". as usual, i've been making the process too difficult. what i should be doing today is take what i love from all of my artwork yesterday(s) and focus on that. of course, all of this is subject to change tomorrow(!).

book day at donna's

last week martha and i drove over to our favorite stamp shop, a small cleverness, and donna showed us how to make this great book. for the pages, we used gridded 3x5 index cards folded in half. we sewed each signature together using the pamphlet stitch (there are 12 signatures total) and then glued the signatures together to create our book block. the spine was finished by weaving narrow strips of calico cotton fabric through our stitches; the middle piece of fabric was kept long enough to also become the tie closure. we added a glass bead to each thread. the covers are made from black mat board, and the image on the front cover is a stamp that donna provided. this was a really fun project and took about two hours to complete. i really love the end result...thanks donna!

joie de vivre

here, finally, i've added some color to one of my drawings! for this piece, i used my favorite watercolor pencils for the flower and gouache for the lettering. i really enjoy creating this type of art...it's colorful and it makes me happy!  joie de vivre! 

puppy love

this is a fun little book that i made a while ago. it has an accordion spine and the pages are held in each accordion fold with an elastic thread. each page has a triangular fold to create a pocket...perfect for holding photos or quotes about your favorite pooch. i especially love the fun, playful colors...the stickers are cute, too! this book takes some time to make, but definitely worth the effort.

scanner 101

firstly, an enormous hug and thank you to my fabulous husband, walther, who surprised me with a new scanner for my birthday!! while i still consider myself fairly electronically challenged, i would have never dreamed that i could be so excited about a scanner! there is nothing more disappointing than to spend a lot of time on a piece of art, and then not have a true image of it.

this image shows a scan of a drawing that i did in black ink (remember my josef siebel shoes?). the "before" image was scanned on my previous scanner...the HP C3180 all-in-one. the "after" image was scanned on my wonderful new scanner...the HP Scanjet G4010. the difference is amazing...the "after" image is a true representation of my drawing and i couldn't be more thrilled! the all-in-one scanner is a great scanner for documents and other basic scanning. but, if you're looking for a scanner that will give your artwork and photographs true color accuracy and high quality images, the G4010 gets my vote!

(for better comparison, click on the image)

rejoice

my very artsy pal martha has created some absolutely wonderful pieces of art using photoshop. she shared some of her tips with me and i'm so happy that i was able to create this piece. the lettering comes from a piece that i did a few years ago and the background is a piece of fabric that i scanned. i had so much fun creating this...thanks, martha, for being my computer-tutor!

books in a box

still getting familiar with my micron pen and trying to incorporate ink into my drawings. baby steps, baby steps. i'm really enjoying this process, though. one of these days i'll start using color, i promise! 

shades of ink

so, finally, no pencil and no shoes! i have been trying to get more comfortable with using ink in my drawing. i like this "sketchy" look, so i've been working on shading with my micron pen. it really isn't a very exciting subject, but it's part of the process, and for some reason i absolutely love to sit and do this shading. and...the sound of the pen scratching on the paper is great!

saddle oxford

you're probably getting tired of seeing shoes, but i couldn't leave my footwear series without including the simple, fabulous, classic saddle oxford. my challenge here was that i no longer own saddle oxfords, so i had to rely on a photo that i found online. to me, this drawing looks flatter, and maybe lacking a little "spark", probably because i wasn't able to see the actual shoe, only an image of one.  this turned out to be a great experiment...i didn't realize that drawing from a photo would make such a difference in the final outcome. perhaps i should go out and purchase a pair of saddle oxfords, draw them,  and then compare the two drawings.....just kidding, walther!

checkerboard vans

i noticed that i didn't have any "lace-up" shoes in my footwear collection yet, so i decided to visit walther's side of the closet and borrow his checkerboard vans.  those of you who know me well won't be surprised to hear that my favorite part of this drawing was shading in all of those little checkerboards!

date night

when i wear these shoes, it usually means that walther is taking me somewhere really special and really fun...which definitely puts this footwear on my top five list! i must be honest, though; i have more fun wearing these shoes than to draw them. i really struggled with the proportion, but i learned a lot in the process. and, i know that i've said before that i'm going to start using ink with these, but for some reason it just works better with pencil...

josef siebel shoes

here is the latest in my footwear series. these shoes are not only cute, but also very german and very comfortable.  i have really been enjoying working with pencil, even though i end up smearing graphite all over the place!  and, of course, my scanner has missed out on most of my light shading...so, i have some ideas rolling around in my head that involve using ink. i think it will be less messy than the pencil and hopefully be more "scanner friendly". we'll see how it goes...

celebrate america

wishing everyone a happy independence day!

train slippers

during a trip to japan a few years ago, walther and spencer were riding on the train, and spencer, while wearing his trendy slippers provided by japan rail, looked down and snapped a picture. it is still one of my all time favorite photos...and i knew that it would be a great addition to my drawn footwear series. so, spencie...here's to you kid! 

mary janes

it seems silly to get attached to a pair of shoes, but i must confess that i'm totally head-over-heels about my mary janes. i've probably walked around the world three times wearing these shoes...they have been with me during some of the greatest adventures of my life. so, when stephanie suggested that i continue on with my "footwear series", drawing my mary janes was a given. (sorry, again, for the poor scan - i'm still working on that!)