A New Cast of Characters

 I'm working on a new mini egg portrait series that I'm going to put up on Etsy along with listings for custom orders.  I'm planning to list some of my small drawings as well.  My goal is to launch my shop by the end of this week, so stay tuned!

 With two months left to go, I'm in the home stretch of my pregnancy (holy crippling exhaustion, Batman!) so it's the perfect time for me to be making small, more immediately gratifying things.  I have a hard time pulling myself away from my work table when I'm in the process of working through a problem.  And since making little things inherently requires less problem-solving than making big things, I can pull myself away more easily in order to give myself little rests throughout the day.    

IF: Proverb

Here's my interpretation of this week's Illustration Friday theme: proverb.  The silver lining came out a little more gray and mushy than I intended, but I didn't want to let the perfect be[come] the enemy of the good [enough].

And here's where I am with my tentacle illustration.  If you click on the images you can get a better look at the details.

I think that tentacles might be my new thing.

In the Beginning

Yesterday I came up with the idea for this new piece and began working on it.  I'm sort of in love with the drawing.  We'll see how it translates into the finished painted version.  I was tempted to leave the white ground alone and only paint the suitcase and tentacles, but I decided to take a leap of faith and see what happens:)  If this turns into a flaming failure, I'll just redraw it.  

Here's where I left it yesterday afternoon.  Today I'll start by calming down some of the blooms and salt effects, and lifting some of the darker areas that are interfering with the composition.

I've been remiss in my blog reading lately.  It felt good to check in with some of my favorites this morning and find these lovely bits:

• Fish Soup, a poem on Chocolate Chip Waffle.
• Cathy Cullis sharing a delicious work in progress.
• A new Missed Connection by Sophie Blackall.
• An enchanted cravat on ArtSpark Theatre.

IF: Dessert

This little watercolor and gouache number is my submission to this week's Illustration Friday theme, dessert.  Delicious!  Tragically, I'm allergic to strawberries, so Justice Strawberry Shortcake there on the right would make my tongue itch and swell up uncomfortably.  But how she tempts me!

Et voilà!  I finished this self-promotional piece this morning as well.  Also painted in watercolor and gouache.

Dancing light in the kitchen on Sunday morning:

And a self-promotional illustration that I'm working on:

I'm making a series of mock book covers and other illustration-y things to build up my portfolio.  I'll probably finish this one today.  Here are some details:

IF: Immovable

It wasn't that he couldn't take a hint.  Or even that he didn't want to leave.

This week's Illustration Friday submission for the theme "immovable," is inspired by real events.  Here's the uncropped version:

And here's a little in-studio self-portrait that I shot today.  For posterity.  I've discovered that my enormous pregnant belly makes a pretty good little table when I'm working on tiny things:

The only trouble is that it jumps occasionally;)

These eggs are a commission that will be a gift for someone who is pregnant with identical twin boys.  I'm thinking that I might put some of my eggs up on etsy, and also take custom orders.  I really love making them for specific people, even if I don't know the peeps personally.

A Cat Among the Pigeons and Crocodile Tears

Here are two more idiom drawing/paintings from last week:

I mounted them on panels that I'd coated with a deep, dark blue acrylic mix.  Then I glued the paintings onto the panels with matte medium.  Once the matte medium had dried a little, I coated the painting with two coats of a thin, watered-down layer of matte medium.  The matte medium securely fixes the watercolor and gouache, and should give the piece some UV protection as well.  You just have to be very careful to spray fix the painting before you apply that top coat, and then be very, very careful and gentle as you brush the gel on top.  Otherwise the gouache will smear like crazy.  When that happens I just touch up the painting with some acrylic.