A St Patrick's day card

Yet another late display and share. Its a St Patrick's day card I "homemade" for a friend, about last year. 
Simply made it quick and I had about lots of odds and ends lying around and I thought why not. So I made it with some scrap water colour paper, a few fake gems, some acrylic paint some other cardboard, some card stock and some coloured paper. Oh yeah I used a nice gold marker for some of the lettering. I guess I even used a bit of coloured pencils in which I forgot to mention in the description at my personal website. Oh well. Oh did I mention the big clover with the gems springs out at you? Well it does, cause I made a mini springy thing so that it kind of pops out at you. A neat little surprise for your eyes.  😊

Sign Man 9 update.

Now uploaded to my personal website. Next post soon. 😊

Sign Man Set 9

Now out Sign Man Set 9 the gradient version. Actually been out for quite awhile now. Just haven't really had the time to post. Soon in my personal web site as well.  😎

Sign Man Set 4

Been out for awhile now, so I thought I mention it. The non gradient version now out for your honestest purchasing and using pleasure. 

Sign man update.

Late again. Sigh.... 
Anyways Sign Man set 8 now in my personal web site.

Sign Man set 8 and 3

Now out Sign man set 8 with gradient shading and before it 3 with out. 

 Also I think I may have found a new place to display my life drawings. Will have to do a detailed inspection of the place. 😊 but if able I would still like to keep my original account with the old place even if Blurb is eating up the latter. But will see.

New art work in there.

Now featured Humming bird feeder 2 at my personal website. You know where to go. 😉

Humming Bird feeder 2

Humming bird feeder2 is made out of an old Ferrero Rocher egg I collected years ago. Then I burned several holes at the top of the egg and burned an opening at the top as well so that I can pour the food in. I later placed a cork on that opening and as usual glued some nice fake flowers and beads to make the openings for food access look more appealing. Then I put it on another ring of grape vines I collected from the garden together with a small plastic net I also collected years ago. Good for stability. I have yet to see if any of my feeders will attract the little hummers since I was way too busy with yard work this year.

On the hunt......

Looks like Flicker is getting eaten up my Blurb. Time to look for an alternative gallery to show off my life drawings. Needs to be something where I can set rules and limitations since some of the drawings contain nudes. And well you know. Time for some research.

Sign Man set 3

Here it is Sign Man Set 3 non gradient version. Now out.
Please note that I have taken a small break from ShutterStock till they fix their image theft issues. 
Hopefully that's soon. 😒

 

Hummin bird feeder 1

I have yet to make some food for at least one of these. Recently actually earlier this year I decided to make some feeders after years of spotting the little hummers every so often around our yard. I hope to get some nice photo ops. I also hope these things will work and not just leak all of their contents all over the place. 

The first one you see here is made out of an well washed old plastic bottle. I also used a few old plastic flowers that were actually carnations I took apart and made something a hummer would be interested. I made a hoop out of grape vines I found growing around the house. They needed trimming any how. Some twine and an old plastic container. I burned some holes using a small nail I heated with a candle and held with pliers of course. Put it all together with hot glue. Painted the container with green spray paint. Didn't work out as well since the paint was kind of old. Glued flowers and beads and wala a feeder fit for humming birds. I hope.  😃

 

Sign Man set 7

Sign Man set 2 and 7 are out now. 
Enjoy. 👍😃

 

Sign Man Set 2

Now out Sign Man Set 2. The one with out the gradients of course.

Added Farm magnet.

Finally got around to adding that Farm magnet to my personal web site. Look for my site under the list on the right side. 😊

Farm or Chicken magnet

I kind of mistakenly bought this little magnet thinking it was a pack of sampling canvases and lo and behold it was a little magnet. I wanted to buy a pack of sampling canvases so that I could make a few tests for a project I was working on at the time. So I took advantage of it and converted an old chicken fridge magnet in to a farm scene magnet. I hand painted the little farm in the background and then added the old chicken magnet on top. Turned out pretty nice. 😊

 Its kind of tiny so its not that detailed. But it is cute. 😊

Sign Man Set 6

Now out, the gradient version of Sign Man Set 1 marked as number 6. Its marked 6 since that's how I have it in order of completion. Its as simple as that. 😉

Sign Man Set 1

Finally out there after much delay but well worth the wait I think. A simple project originally that grew over time. 
Its basically a paper Sign Man character for use with multi purpose media advertising in many lovely poses. This is a simple version with no gradient added. The other versions coming soon. 

Oh in case your wondering I didn't place it in the "new artwork" category cause I'm waiting to issue the image with gradients for that. Coming soon of course. 🐱

Classic Tomato Plant Extra

And I'm back. For a bit anyways. Now working hard to trim those bushes in to submission and anything else relating to the yard. (I cut the electrical cord today by mistake) (momentary distracted though) 🙀
Anyways perfect for this time of year, oh wait not summer yet, but almost.  Now out. Actually I made this months ago but now issued. Its an Extra version of the image not the usual vector image although I already issued those, again months ago. Enhanced in PhotoShop because you can't have those FX in a vector. 

Coming very soon some new characterized sign men that took me a bit longer then anticipated. But worth the effort I think.

more Little Ballet Girl suff

Just a small heads up. Conte drawings now in my Flicker account. Link located in the Life drawing section of my personal web site. Also uploaded now to my personal web site the finished painting. Also located in the Traditional illustration section of course. 🐱

Little Ballet Girl 2 painted up

Now that most of my distractions are taken care of I can post my other painting of the Little Ballet girl. Just as before, painted on canvas in water colour with a bit of acrylic. Painting is 8.5 x11

The original reference⇑

The finished painting.⇑

Close up of face.⇑ 

As I said before, a little different as in position and added a sort of a flower arch in the bg but still in keeping in the style of the other one I painted earlier. I was able to make her more prevent this time around since I did not have to make the skirt/dress as wide. 
As before the original owner was very pleased.  🐱

The previous painting. 

And see the previous process that eventually ended up the Little Ballet girl 2 painting. 
Click on pins. 📌📌


 

Classic Tomato plant 2

Now out there Classic Tomato plant 2. Its basically like other one where its based on a tomato plant we had in a blue plastic makeshift pot. Because I had added more details such as gradients, I had to remove most of the detailed background. Otherwise you would have a plant that you really could not see. In other words it looked too busy. But Had I been able to blur the background, then that would have been alright to keep it as is. Must keep it a pure vector after all. 

See previous post and version. 

Little Ballet Girl 2 final before painting.

Sorry, got sidetracked as usual. Here's the final before I traced it on to canvas and painted it all up. I had planned up adding a nice flower arch to go in the background. A bit different from the other background but still in keeping with the other painting I did. Still have to add the other drawings to my flicker account. 

 Soooo much to do and yet always someone that adds a wrench in to my plans. 🐱😖
See previous post. 

Little Ballet Girl 2 polished drawings

As always here are some polished drawings of the Little Ballet Girl 2 project as I like to call it phase 2. 

I later ended up combining the two in favour of the other head and leg.
Still had a bit of an issue in spots like the skirt.  🐱

Previous post. 

Little Ballet Girl 2 conte drawings

Merry Christmas every one. 
Anyways I have new drawings from my second commission. Just completed the whole project a few days ago actually just haven't had the time to post n such. But yeah all painted up. 
Its the same little girl just in a slightly different pose. I drew lots of heads, a few bodies and a number of right legs just to get the position right
I really worked on getting the skirt height just right as well. You can see I goofed up a few times. 
Of course the recipient will get her completed painting after new years. After the celebration craziness is done with and life returns to normal. 
As always the drawings will also be in my Flicker account soon. 😺

 

Little Ballet girl 1 completed

Wow! We got some new stuff here. Anyways here's the completed version of the Little Ballet girl 1. Painted on canvas in water colour with a bit of acrylic. Painting is 8.5 x11
Here's the original photo of the little girl. Remember no taking! Seriously No! After all this is someone's loved one and I had the permission to use this image. 

As you can see even zooming in didn't help much with seeing every detail. Especially zooming in on the most important part, the nose. The picture was taken the conventional way. So doing lots of sketches and homing in on the more challenging areas really helped a lot.  See previous posts(click on the pins);📌📌📌

Background was not important to the client and she wanted a light hearted look to the portrait painting so the background was painted in a mono tone style. Various shades of pink. I was more liberal to the colour pallets I used on the little girl. Made it stand out really nice. I also used some of the elements from the original pic mostly just the shape of things and changing them in to a marble table with flowers on it. I also added grass and a nice stone path. I was temped to add other things to the painting but I was a afraid that it would take focus off the main subject. 
I also had to keep in mind that the lighting would be different too from the original picture.   
 

So in the end the client was very pleased along with her friends. 
I think it turned out very nice over all but as always there's always room for improvements to the next piece. 
Now on to the next commission. 😺
 
 

Classic Tomato Plant 1

New Classic Tomato Plant vector. Based on a photo I took one summer a whole number of years ago of one of my former pet cockatiels. Well what's in the background actually. A beautiful tomato plant in a makeshift pot. I have a more detailed shaded version of this up next. 

And oh yeah I will have the finished painting of the Little ballet girl soon that I completed and gave already to the owner in a little bit. Just have to make it all neat for display. After all no one wants to see what I painted out of the frame lines.

Uploaded

Earlier drawings of the Little ballet girl now uploaded to my Flicker account. You can find the links in my Life drawings section of my personal web site. 
Uploading soon, my completed painting. I'm pretty pleased with it. Hope she like it.

Final drawing Little ballet girl

Been pretty busy with stuff. But anyways here's the finally drawing finished a few weeks ago. 
Assembled and changed some minor things like the angle of the eyes and mouth. Apparently I overlooked that. Then traced it on to canvas. Currently working on the background which will mostly be in monotone pinks. Just hope the recipient will be pleased with the results. 

 

Little Ballet Girl part2

Some polished drawings completed last weekend based on the conte sketches I made earlier. But since then I have taken those drawings and made a final with a few more changes of course. Some parts of these drawings I ended up not using after all. 

Previous postings.

Little Ballet Girl conte drawings

Its official. I got the a commission to do a portrait. And not just one, but two. Its of a little great grand daughter in a ballet pose at a wedding. Background optional, but I think its nice to have at least a bit of a background of some kind. I'll just painted it in light so that she's not floating in the air.
I already started the drawings on the first one several weeks ago, finished the second phase drawings a few days ago. (Those are more detailed drawings.) The final, going to finish those soon and then of course transferring the image onto a flat canvas for painting. I decided to show the original pic together with the finished painting at the end. Over all of course I have permission to show from the owner which is a rare occurrence these days. 

The following are conte drawings. A series a rough drawings to show and figure out how the body should look and all that. To keep that looseness so that your drawings won't look stiff. I'm sure you've seen those. I could have just traced those but then you're then just neglecting yourself an opportunity for growth. 

I drew heads mostly since I really had a hard time seeing the details on the little photo I was given. Yes I enlarged it but it was still difficult to see. As for that adult head, well I was a bit off the path there and it didn't look like a kid's head and so you know. ;) 
The same problem with the hands. At first to me it looked like she was holding on to her dress but was actually just in the air as she twirled in place. Another difficult to see situation if you don't take a more careful look. As for the body, I only did a few drawings of those and had pretty much figured out how I wanted it to look. 

The best drawings will be preserved on a online photo album. That I still have to update as well since there are a few problems with it. 

Till next time. :)

Some updated links and commission?

Updated some links in my clips section of Traditional Animation. Also coming soon, some new vector graphics based on my backyard tomatoes.
Also I might have gotten a possible commission to do a portrait painting of a little girl in a ballet pose. 
Stay tuned. ;)

Update number5

I forgot to mention that the number 5 version of the blue screen as mentioned in the previous post is now available. Took them long enough. :p

Neon Lights Pub Tap Signs2 blue versions

Now out there. Neon Lights Pub Tap Signs2 blue versions. Well almost. And I say almost because the web site that excepted them first has failed to release one of them. Guess we'll have to wait. 
Also now available to view on my personal web site along with some updated links. 

 NLP Tap Sign2 v4 blue version,  NLP Tap Sign2 v5 blue version,  NLP Tap Sign2 v6 blue version

See previous post. 

 

Quick note

Links updated in Traditional animation section of my personal web site.

NLP Tap Sign 2

New Neon Lights Pub Tap sign 2. Yet another version, out now. Now already featured at my personal web site for a change. ;)

Version 1 Version2

Version 3

See previous version.

There was Twitter Trouble.

Got my Twitter issues mostly resolved. But not totally. What happened next time this crap happens? They still after all never come up with or gave me notice of some alternative thing for those with landlines only. 
Apparently it was another technical glitch that gave me so much Twitter troubles. 
Go fig.

Neon lights Pub Tap Sign1 bluescreen

Well these were completed awhile ago and issued sometime before the Easter holidays but there have been some really irritating things I have to deal with. Twitter for one thing. Haven't been able to log on cause they decided to lock my account for no good reason. Well probably someone tried to hack in to my account but now they expect me to get a code via cellphone. Nope I don't have a cell nor want one currently. You figure they would provide you with an alternative for that for those with landlines. But nope. Very discriminatory and very lazy. Surly those greedy little brains of theirs can come up with something ingenious for those with landlines? Sigh...... 
So if you never see me again on Twitter. There's your reason. Maybe its time to deep fry that bird? 

Anyways yeah here's the blue screen version of Neon Lights Pub Tap sign1. Available soon on my personal web site as well. 

Version 1 Version 2
Version 3

Previous version. 

Neon Lights Pub Tap Sign 1

New footage clips in my classic series Neon Lights Pub sets. A nice series of Tap signs. 

Version1, Version2 and Version3

Oh and don't worry I'll eventually make more vectors and other artworks but for now more footage. ;)
See them soon in my personal web sight as well, under traditional animation.
See previous footage clip.

NLP Cold Beer sign green screen version.

Now out. The green screen version of Neon Lights Pub Beer sign. More stuff coming soon.  Also soon to be featured on my personal web site along with some fixed links among other things. 
Previous version. 

Some adjustments needed

Links now up for the NLP Beer sign in my personal web site. You can find all three links under the Traditional animation section.  But back for some adjustments with the other versions. Apparently the framing is off for some reason. Not sure how but will have to figure out that one. Besides that will have to rework one if I can that is the one with the white background. Hopefully I can remove the background. 

NLP Cold Beer sign

Finally here. It took awhile because it had to go though inspection and they sort of have a back up.
Its based on my classic and popular graphics series Neon Lights. Its a nice little animation which makes a great add-on to other footage or just by it self. Oh if you're wondering that white graphic overlay is just a fancy watermark for a button since I will also have this link on my personal website soon. There will be 2 other versions of this. One with a green screen and a plain white background. 

Didn't think I could animate did ya? Well I can just didn't have the equipment that I needed. But still don't have all of it though. So any future animations will be simple in nature. But that will only be temporary till I can upgrade my equipment. 
Thanks. :)

Click the image for footage link.  

Coming soon to my blog near you. ;)

Coming soon. New animated clip. 
Haven done one of those in years other then a few animated GIfs for avatars and or banners. 
Can't wait to post it. :)

Flamingo Tee shirt.

Ok so I purchase this cheep tee cause I need a tee for mostly when its cold outside. For when its cold out side? Well ya, I like to wear a tee as an extra layer under my shirt when its winter. You know, layers?  But then I'll also probably wear it on a nice day too. You know, hot and sunny? 
So anyways, you know me, when I see a potential blank canvas, and well to me this is a blank canvas, I just had to paint something.  I decided to paint some flamingos on it. Reason, just felt like it. Just haven't gone to Florida in years and well flamingos pretty much fit the bill. Laughing gulls being more of favorite symbol of Florida to me second only to palm trees, white sand and warm weather. But somehow flamingos just seem to fit this tee. 
I decided just to freehand it instead of just putting some kind of guiding lines all over it and just went  at it. Using just pink acrylic fabric paint and memories of the birds applied the paint in a sketchy scribbly style. I went over some spots with more pink paint doubling the line thickness to produce the elision of highlights.  I tried to take advantage of the black tee and the look of the paint as best as I could. Could have finished it in one day but the paint was kind of old and had some difficulty getting it to flow out of the bottle.  So instead of getting frustrated, I just took a few days to finish it, letting some of it to dry while working on another spot. Eventually after completing it, I heat set it in the dryer. 
I think I achieved what I wanted and even got a bit of therapy out of it. 
Not totally realistic but you pretty much get what the point was.

 Meetso didn't really feel like posing that day so I kind of bribed him with some food. Little did I know, it appears he was sick for a year or so on and off. So who could blame him. Eventually in July the sheep hit the fan and poor Meetso was plugged up because of inferior food. He now eats a good quality food, with occasional natural treats, some kitty candy and the occasional wild caught food he him self he catches.  Oh and he finally got the hint of not eating the heads after loosing his meow due to a sore throat in August. Today he his back to his crazy affectionate kitten self. Well he's about 6 years old but he will always be my little kitten.  ;)

Available for viewing at my web site soon.

Now featured.

The Garfield pillow/cover is now also featured on my personal website. 
Also fixed or rather updated a link in the miscellaneous artwork section. You can now view past misc works.

A little something old. Fandome wise.

How do you like my new pillow/cover? 

Finally got this very old project completed, based on a Garfield calendar I got when I was in my last year of grade school. Yup there it stayed all those years in the back of my little yellow plastic basket collecting years of dust together with other odds and ends of threads and maybe a few dreams too. The other half of the pillow still stuck in my head. Well the tiger patterned cover part. Anyways yeah 1988 all the way to 2015 and finished it a few months ago actually. Just never got around to showing it. The majority of the cross stitching was done on the cover but there was just a few spots that needed to be completed plus the cover. I had plenty of the tiger material left over when I actually had a costume made also in the same year as 88.

Oh the reason why I first made it was well, I was stuck in bed for a few weeks with the chicken pox. Well, more weeks then what was required to recover. That was because it was also a very traumatic time and year. It was just my luck that my mother had yet another bout with manic depression. It was horrible. I had to endure lots of strange behaviour and in later repeating years, all kinds of strange actions, sometimes scary and shouting from her, but that's another story. Then of course there was grade school its self. That always was a real hell hole to me.

I was a kid. Who in the world would stand up, be on my side and protect me from all this craziness? No one. No man as in humans anyways. ;) It was all tough nuggies for me.

Actually I did have for awhile my former next door neighbour and best friends but that welcome was busted after awhile. So much for knowing them since I was a toddler. So much for best friends forever. Life goes on. :_(  *broken heart*

Note;

Please note that my mother's issues are no longer that intense since her hysterectomy she had a number of years ago. That and the fact she now sticks to her meds which is just right for her needs, her and ours walk with Jesus Christ. But she still has her occasional weirdness. Don't we all.

Since being stuck in bed for so long, I had already completed other projects and ran out of the pre-designed needle point and cross stitching stuff. (Some of it hangs on the walls to this day. ) I needed more stuff to occupy and distract me instead of vegetating in front of the TV all day so I made my own design hence that's where the Garfield calendar came it.

Back then I was a pretty big fan of Garfield and besides the comics I was lucky enough to get, I tried to get at least one stuffed Garfield. But that was hard since I had no one to gift those to me. That was pretty much common for me. So many times I would make my own stuff based on my favourite things.

Yeah I eventually managed to get a teenie stuffed Garfield from someplace and an Odie from a Mc Donald’s.

I have those to this day sitting in my bedroom on display on an old handmade record (record player) desk I like to call it. 

This pic obtained from an Ebay user/seller who was selling the calendar. But yeah again I have the calendar myself. Just got too lazy to scan my own. Love this calendar. :)

The illustration I used for the project. Image from someone else's blog.

So yeah here it is my cute Garfield pillow based on a favourite scene from a Garfield Year of the Party 88 calendar. Hopefully I won't have any other really old projects to complete. But hay at least I don't give up on things. That has to count for something. Am I right? 

 What the back of the pillow looks like.

Various pics of my kitty Meetso with the pillow. 

He decided to look out the window for any unsuspecting potential victims. Aka tasty little morsels. ;)

 Hay? where's my face on a pillow?

Pillow featured soon on my personal web site as well.