The Results Are In...

Majority wins with black outlines!

I really like the white though, so I just might have to do a second piece.

As soon as I get back in town and have a sec, I'll outline that sucker and show you guys the finished product. I think it'll look good. 

Thanks for all your help! I really appreciate everyone who commented here and on Facebook. 

Y'all are the best!

Your Opinion

I have started this painting and can't quite decide what to do about outlining, 

so I thought I'd get your opinion.

Which do you like better? ...

(no outline detail of the piece)

(this is the whole piece just with Photoshop outlines in black and white)

So let's take a vote. Leave a comment as to which you prefer. 

No outline, white outline, or black outline?

Thanks for your help!

Time for Watercolor!

My goal with my Etsy shop is to make quality affordable artwork. I feel like everyone should have the right to buy original artwork and not have to always buy prints of their favorite pieces.

With that in mind, since I have mainly acrylic paintings on canvas for sale (which can tend to be a bit pricier), I wanted something cheaper to offer customers. So I started making smaller watercolor paintings on paper this week. And I enjoy it much more than I thought I would. The same care and attention to detail goes into my watercolors (sometimes even more) so it's still quality original art, just cheaper!

Here are my first two 8x10 watercolors.

Click here to check out my store and see more of my watercolor paintings.

Red & Blue

I liked the red and brown flower painting so much that I decided to make another one with brighter colors. 

What do you think?

16x20" Acrylic on Canvas

Earth Tones

With all of my paintings (with one exception-and it's my least favorite) I just start painting. I usually don't have a sketch of what the finished composition should look like (unless it's a commissioned piece). But that's hard for me because I require my students to have at least thumbnail sketches before they start a piece. I feel like it's a double standard. Then again, I can start over as many times as necessary and I don't have a due date like my students do, so it is different. Right?

On my next painting, I wanted to mix circles and squares, but wanted to keep it pretty geometric. 

I like the texture under my subject matter, so I knew I wanted to keep that aspect. 

I wanted more muted tones this time in case someone's home decor wasn't bright colors. 

Here's the end result...

 16x20" Acrylic on Canvas

Detail

This painting is for sale at my Etsy store.

Clean or Dirty?

When I showed my husband the wet clothes magnet I made, 

he loved it and wanted one for our dishwasher. 

Great idea!

I knew I wanted one to match our kitchen (aka, not the bright pink colors). I found some cream and brown scrap paper in my paper box and got to work. I was so proud of my first creation (I guess I don't have pics of it...sorry!) but it was two magnets. One said clean and the other said dirty. Problem was it was two magnets. Silly me. It needed to be one magnet that we turned around for clean or dirty. 

Here's my second attempt. It's about 2.5x4"

New Acrylic Paintings

I updated my Etsy store a few days ago with these three paintings.

I hope you like them. 

14x18" Acrylic on canvas

14x18" Acrylic on canvas

12x16" Acrylic on canvas

Reminder

I am really good about starting laundry. 

I am really bad about leaving the wet laundry in the washer. 

Overnight. 

For days.

My solution: 

It's a magnet to go on top of the washer (about 4x6 in)

I found some old marbled paper that I made in high school that was very bright and colorful and would be really hard to miss. 

So I'll (hopefully) never forget again!

Crafty Time

I had the joy of hanging out with my niece, Graceanna, the other day. We had lunch and then snow cones, painted on canvas,  and then she showed me something really neat that I thought I'd share with you. She said she learned it from her grandmother. Very cool, Nana!

We made Kleenex flowers.
I had seen these as large party decorations made of tissue paper, but had never made one myself. Graceanna showed me how and we wore them in our hair all day. 

I just wish I had taken a picture of us.

Thanks for such a fun day, Graceanna! We'll have to do it again soon :)

Roses

I decided I loved the red roses I made for a friend so much that I made a smaller version for my shop.

If you like it as much as I do, spread the word. I'd love for it to be hanging for someone to enjoy! 

Acrylic on canvas 12x12 inches

Illustration Friday - Giant

Here's my Illustration Friday submission for the week.

Nothing like the last minute, huh?!

Collage 5x7 inches

I was in the mood to collage today so I flipped through an old magazine and found a picture of a large mascara wand. I knew I wanted to use it. And on the next page were little mascaras! I wanted to have the giant mascara chasing the little ones. So this was my first draft (and the way it is in my sketchbook). 

While posting this, I decided I wanted it to look more animated...they needed limbs! So I added them digitally....

I think it's cute slash creepy. At least it's something different from what I've been doing lately.  

I hope you enjoy it!

Red & Brown

One of our dear friends, Clint, got engaged this weekend (YAY!) and his fiance, Lisa, stayed with us while they were in town this week. I had not met her yet because she lives in NY, but was so excited to have her staying with us and wanted to fix up our guest room so that it was a special place for her to enjoy.

But I needed to clean it!!! 

So I cleaned out all the junk we had just thrown in the room, bought a khaki bed skirt, put a cranberry red duvet cover on the bed, and picked red daisies from our garden and put them in a small vase on the dresser for her. The only thing it needed was something on the wall. 

A painting above the bed! 

The problem was that I didn't have much time, so I knew it had to be simple and quick. I knew I wanted khaki and red to match the bed and I was thinking stripes at first, but that didn't feel right. It needed to be a bit more feminine, but not super girly. Yep. Flowers. But abstract (no time, remember!)

Here's the final product:

Acrylic on canvas 24x36"

And the best part about this whole thing is that she absolutely LOVED it! Turns out red is her favorite color and she loves it paired with brown (who knew?!). 

So I gave it to them as their first wedding present!

I loved meeting her and couldn't be happier for the two of them. They are perfect for each other! Congrats you guys!