Exciting news! The online shop is up to date and ready to go.
The market was a wonderful success this weekend, and there are still a few of the new products available for purchase.
We have THREE new gnomes, two new bookmarks and SHIRTS! Don’t wait to place your order. All in stock items are first come first served, while supplies last, while the shirts are only available for pre-order until October 25.
Take a look here to see what we have available.
As soon as I started my Halloween list I knew a witch gnome had to be there. I had an image of a ridonkulously large hat and it was a done deal.
This one was beyond fun to build and I am so happy with this little witch and all of her friends. I liked playing around with some of the Fresco brushes and layering effects so that I could get a really cool effect for the “eye of newt” potion coming out of the cauldron.
This witchy beauty will be available on prints, cards and stickers at my Thanksgiving market and online the week after. Keep an eye on the socials to see when and where you can grab one for yourself.
The gnome that almost wasn’t. I had a vision for this gnome a while back, but when I went to illustrate it, I hit a roadblock. Usually the ghost has eyes cut into the sheet. However, one of the main features of my gnomes is that you can’t see their eyes. Hmmmmm. I had a few sketches with eyes cut out anyway, but it was tough to see what was going on. Then I thought just a sheet would work, but it was confusing to name the shape overall.
I was talking with my neighbour at a summer market and she mentioned the idea of maybe having the nose cut out instead. While I was on a call I picked away at that idea, and you know what? It didn’t work too badly.
I am so happy that this guy finally came together. It was such a great concept and would have been a shame to be without it. This is just another good example that some pieces need a little more trial and error than others. If you keep picking away at it, you can eventually get there.
This gnome will be available in prints and cards at my market Thanksgiving weekend. These items will also be online the following week ready to ship right away. Keep an eye on Instagram and Facebook for updates on when and where you can grab one for yourself.
Happy September! I am starting the month with a new Behance Story for us all. I give you the Phoenix!
Read moreWhew! What a week. Don’t worry, she’s here. This month’s Behance Beauty! Check out my process here.
I finished this beauty last night. She was done. I went to go do my uploads, and two hours of work was gone. Just gone. Like I hadn’t been drawing the perfect jewelry for the past hour. UGH! It’s all ok. Lessons were learned, I am still really new to the iPad app. We’re good. I did lose some of the depth that I thought I had yesterday, but I think that overall she has come through really well.
This was my first shot at dramatic lighting. As soon as she decided (yes…!) that she wanted to be in the dark, I knew that this would be a whole new challenge for me. Lighting is not something that is a super strong point for me. I understand it, but I rarely apply it for too much depth in my pieces. Usually it’s a drop shadow of sorts to get my paper cutout look. Here there needed to be a different level. I did a lot of research, my Pinterest is full of reference material, and overall I am really happy with how she came out in the end. There is always room for improvement, but I am really proud of this first attempt.
This lady looses a little bit of the paper cutout feel that I am usually including in these pieces. You can see it in her hairband, and the cloth around the table a bit, but that’s it. I don’t think that that is a bad thing though. The lighting just takes more of a leading role here. I do think a full on paper cut out piece with this kind of lighting would be awesome! Gotta wrap my head around that one first. Please hold. She does make up for the lack of paper cutout with movement though, whew!
Overall, I am very proud of how this beauty came out. I already have a super different idea for next month and I am getting the ball rolling right away. For those of you that would be interested, I am going to try some live streaming while I develop this month. My file issues put me off schedule, but I am going to try to go live this Thursday, if not, next Thursday. Follow me on Facebook or Instagram to get the details.
Thanks so much for dropping in today!
As all of you lovely readers know, I hit a bit of a wall at the start of the year. I have been doing everything that I can to get the creative juices flowing. One of the suggestions that other artists have for getting things going again is mini challenges. There are so many out there. There are Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest daily prompt accounts. There are “Draw this in your style” challenges, which I am going to look at next. There are challenges where you limit yourself somehow, either through time, number of colours, supplies you can use etc. One “tool” that I really enjoyed on this line last year was Sketchbox.
I fell down a crazy subscription box rabbit hole last fall. I quickly subscribed to a couple and immediately cut myself off haha. One of my favourites was Sketchbox. There are multiple ways to subscribe, one month, three months, six months, and there are basic and premium boxes available depending on your level of interest. There are also unboxing videos for each box which will show you all of the contents if you can’t wait for your box to arrive, but will also go through different ways to use the tools in your box. So, if you get something that you have never used before, be not afraid, there is guidance to show you how to start using everything.
When I signed up I bought three of the past boxes, and signed up for the six month subscription. Each box had a different medium collection in it. One was marker based (my favourite), chalk based, water colour based, mixed media. All kinds! I really like this because a lot of my art is mixed media, I rarely do something start to finish in just marker, or just digital, or just pencil crayon. I am always mixing something in and the more I have at my disposal, the more opportunities I have at my finger tips.
This is a great subscription box for anyone who is looking to learn a few new mediums, looking to expand their knowledge on mediums they are familiar with, and challenge their way of working. It has also been a great way to try tools I have been interested in, but didn’t want to commit to a full set of just yet, in case the tool wasn’t for me. Each box suggests that you create a piece using only the contents of the box. You can obviously do whatever you would like, but I tried that with my first few boxes and I came up with some really interesting projects.
Some of the great tools that I discovered with this subscription are:
I have all of my boxes now from my first round of the subscription. I did put my subscription on hold, but only because when I was in that creative rut earlier I didn’t create with the boxes, and they were starting to overwhelm me. Now that I have a clearer vision forward, I am going to pop each one open, one at a time, and start creating. Once I am caught up I will start my subscription again.
My next box is focused on ink, I am very excited for this one. Please keep an eye out for the finished piece on my Instagram and my Facebook pages.
I am here today with this past month’s Behance project. I was 100% inspired by the release of the new Disney movie Cruella last week. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but this character is someone I am very familiar with. 101 Dalmatians, both animated and live action, were staples in our house growing up. Disney’s new version appears to be their take on this character and her background, so I thought I would try my hand at my own visual take. Here she is!
This is my first completely digital Behance beauty. Using my new upgrade tools, I went from concept, to sketch, to finalization. I am so excited with where this is going to bring me.
I found that I made a few more deliberate choices with this one. First, was in the paper choices. In past projects I have gone through my collection and made my decisions based off of colour alone. This month, the fur colour of her wrap and sleeves speaks to the character’s interest in all things fashion. So the paper that I chose is part of a sewing pattern (you can see a pocket near the sleeve), and obviously we needed to included the spots (even though the puppies, thank goodness and spoiler alert, are saved in the end).
Although she becomes a little unhinged towards the end of things, her initial impression is always that she has a bit of an edge. She’s put together, she is high fashion, but she is very confident in every move that she makes. I see a bit of Miranda Priestly in this character. She knows what she wants and what she is looking for.
Finally, to make sure I am covered. The cigarette. I took a few minutes to ponder whether I wanted to include this or not. I don’t smoke and I don’t promote or encourage smoking. I just felt that she was a little incomplete without it. Looking back at my time watching 101 Dalmatians, I have a bit of an ask taste in mouth. She always had that cigarette in it’s holder and it was a character on its own. I think of the scene where she is at Anita’s house just pouring ashes and smoke everywhere. It’s not a good memory, it’s not a positive memory, and it definitely didn’t encourage me to smoke at all hahah. This just felt like such a strong part of her character and the sketch felt empty without it.
And, I think that that is it. May, done! Off to sketch for June right now. Happy Friday all!
Again, I am a little late with this one. Different reason this time. It wasn’t because I wasn’t motivated, or didn’t want to work on this. I worked on her every single day. It’s probably just easier if I show you.
Queeeeeeeeeen! Yes, Medusa! I have always loved the design potential that Medusa’s story had to offer. I am not a huge fan of snakes, but their potential in an illustration is undeniable.
Originally, I wanted to save her for a series of some kind (ladies of literature), so I didn’t put her in the queue right away. But the past couple of months were a little rocky creatively, and I got so excited about the idea of working out a Medusa image that I knew I couldn’t wait any longer. I worked on this project every day this month, and I loved every minute. I learn from each of my pieces, but I really learned a lot from this one. I feel like this one pushed my file setup and style a little further.
I am beyond happy with how this beauty came out. To see better colours, check her out at my Behance site. Happy May all!
Well, February was a creative time, I tell ya. I had a few blips when it came to feeling even remotely productive in this area. Luckily, I was able to work through it and come out the other side (a couple days late) with a new Behance beauty for you all.
Here she is!
You can see all my progress and better colour over here.
The part I got stuck on the most was the composition. I wanted her to be a mermaid, but I really wanted to do a piece that focused in on her face and hair. How does one show that she is a mermaid without featuring the tail that makes her a mermaid? I worked through it and got a few ideas on paper. It was a struggle that took most of the first half of the month, and probably a big factor in my loss of creative steam. It’s really hard to get a sketch to direct itself when you have no idea what you want it to look like even a little bit in the end. Definitely a reminder to work out the ideas on paper, rather than waiting for the perfect one to pop into my head.
I tried doing a lot more with the paper patterns than I did for last month’s ballerina, so I had ran into a few snags trying to keep the final product from blinding us all. I also tried a few new layering techniques that I want to work through on the next project. I also had a full green and teal theme in my head for this while I was developing the sketch, but I loved how the ballerina came together so nicely that I thought I would keep the theme going. Plus, most mermaid are green and teal. She is not most mermaids!
Anyway, that is my February project. We had a bit of a time, but I am really happy with how everything came out on the other side.
Now, off to percolate some ideas for this month! Happy March readers!
Can open. Worms. Everywhere!
If you are new to this term and haven’t looked this up on Google or Pinterest yet, please do so now… see what I mean?
I am not going to step on other blogger’s toes and get into “How to Bullet Journal”. There is a lot of material out there on this already. I am just here to show my approach and share a few things that really helped to clear the waters for me, ultimately hoping to help you a bit too.
I started this process a few years ago, but took a small break for a year. My sister just picked it up in the fall, and she has inspired me to start again, comparing our fun pages is my favourite part! I find this process to be very helpful in keeping me on track and for holding myself accountable for some day-to-day things that I might otherwise let slip by. However, there are so many ways to use a bullet journal that it could be insanely overwhelming to get started.
A lot of people use their bullet journals for life planning: soccer practice, grocery lists, meal plans, food tracking etc. I have a calendar that I use for some of that, so that wasn’t the direction that interested me when it came to this. I wanted to get myself into my sketchbook more, so I wanted to do things that would help with that. I have created trackers for movies and books, trackers for day-to-day things (did you do the dishes?), and trackers for my Hues and Tones socials.
My best advice for anyone starting out in bullet journaling is don’t try to do it all. Ask yourself a few questions.
Once you have figured out what you want to track, and how you want to track it, find yourself a beautiful book to use, buy all the markers (!), and have at it! Keeping in mind that none of this is set in stone. The way I did this style of journalling when I started, is 100% different from how I do it now. I continue to reassess what I am doing. “I did that thing everyday, do I need to track it anymore?” Sometimes some of my tracking felt like a chore or something I was filling out because it was there, so I took it out. If there’s no end value, why stress yourself out doing it?
The scariest thing to starting this activity is all of the results on the internet searches, and more often, people getting hung up on the “rules”. SURPRISE! There aren’t any. There is no “real” way to Bullet Journal, only the way you want to do it. I take all Pinterest results as a suggestion. My sister has made some WICKED pages based off of searches for completely different tracking suggestions. It’s not fun if you stress yourself out doing it. Go with what you feel, track anything (or nothing) that you want, and have fun with this new activity/tool/assistant… how ever you see it… and grow with it!
Hues & Tones 