My Latest: Portrait of my daughter & her boyfriend

Oh, I know I’ve neglected my art blog..but my new job takes up all my time.  However, I’m  still drawing now & then.  My daughter’s boyfriend has been bugging me for a portrait of the two of them together, so I took a picture they liked and made a portrait of them, and gave it to him for Christmas.  Here it is:

Kim & Mike at the Dells

That’s it!  I think it came out pretty nice.

I really should draw more, dont you think?

Ixchel updated…Finally!

I haven’t been blogging much here lately.  I’ve been busy with my new job, and really haven’t had the energy to get back in the art groove.  But, I finally whipped out the watercolors and did some work on my Ixchel drawing.  I’m still debating the background, but at least I did SOMETHING.  Here she is so far:

Ixchel and her Consort (WIP)

It’s not as clear as I’d like, but not bad for a cell phone pic.  I took it a little while ago in the kitchen (under fluorescent light) using my Sony T650i.  It has a 3 megapixel camera, and I think it really came out quite well for a spur-of the-moment pic.

I still have a long way to go on her…the foreground, and some tweaking on the background, too.  Hopefully, she’ll be finished sometime in the near future.

My cards! And the tools that made them…

Yep, I finally got some business cards made up.  I went to www.zazzle.com and designed my own.

They’re standard business card size, cream colored with all my pertinent info on them.   If you’re in the market for unusual, personalized biz cards, go to Zazzle and let your creativity run wild.  You can even upload a logo of your very own for the face of the card.

Here’s mine.  It’s kind of blurry, but you get the idea:

I’m using a different scanner..so that may be why it’s not too clear.  I must read the manual.  Anyway, the hummingbird logo is cropped from my “Two Rubies” fairy…before I painted it in.  Here’s the crop:

tiny birdie

Another cool tool I found is something called “cool text generator”.  You can make your own logos.

For what,  you ask?  Well..for your website, or your wordpress blog, or just for snicks!

Here’s a logo I made using the generator.  It’s for my son’s band,  “Along The Parallel” (or “ATP” for short):

Go have a listen!

You can choose your text, colors and effects.  Just go here and play around. Then…..

Say you’d like to have a custom-made bumpersticker for your big-ass Hummer?  No problem.  Just make a logo of your chosen phrase or whatever,  & save it to your desk-top.

Then, trip on over to zazzle and upload it.  Tweak it however you want, and there you have it.

(But no dirty words, please.  I will not be held responsible.)

So, there ya go.  Two cool, creative toys for your viewing pleasure.

Koi & Ginkgo update…

I went out today and took a digi-pic of my progress on my Koi. It was a bit too overcast outside, but at least you can see that I’ve been working on it:

Koi & Ginkgo

I was going to make the koi black and orange…but the combination just didn’t look right, so I opted for white and orange. A bit more shading, tweaking the water, etc…and it’ll be done.

Some new stuff…

When I don’t have a commission, (and even when I do), I’ve usually got a couple of side projects going on. These WIPs (works in progress) will get done sooner or later.

First off is “Ixchel”, the Mayan goddess of the moon, motherhood, fertility, etc. I was thinking of doing a series of goddesses from different cultures. Right now, it’s just a thought. Ixchel is shown here with her consort, the rabbit. I’m really happy with her snake head-dress. But, I’ve reached a block with her…trying to figure out the color for the background. I’d like a twilight thing with the moon & stars, etc. Yes, I know that most artists do the background first, but not me:

So, because I’m blocked, I start something new. That helps me to stop obsessing about the blocked project, and sooner or later I’ll get back to it and can proceed.

This is a drawing of a Koi, in a pool with my favorite leaf, design-wise, the ginkgo. All I know right now is that this koi is going to be bright orange, with spots of some kind, which I think will contrast nicely with the blue of the water, and the green & gold of the ginkgo leaves. I might even add some metallic ink to it:

Yes, I know it’s a crappy scan. But have you ever tried to fit a piece of 12″x16″ watercolor paper into a document scanner? Not easy. I usually don’t fill the paper with an image, but I did with this one. I suppose I should bust out the digi-camera, photograph it outside, and then just upload. Yep, that would be easier. The only pic I’ve uploaded that way is my portrait of “Aidan” (on my “Commissioned” page). The rest are scans. But, you can get the general idea, here. I’m very happy with my koi so far. Still a lot of pencil there, and sometimes I can’t wait to start inking, as you can see.

Koi and Ginko

Now..on to my very first zentangle. I posted about zentangles previously. No, I didn’t buy the kit. This was just an experiment. It’s black Pigma Micron pen on a 4″x4″ scrap of Arches hot-press watercolor paper. I like it, but I think I kind of over did it:

So, that’s what I’ve been up to. I’m thinking of posting a WIP page (works in progress), because I think the whole process, from the initial sketch to the finished piece, is pretty interesting to see.

I’ll get around to it one of these days. Maybe.

Lisamarina©1991-2008

NOTCOT!

It’s one of my “artcoolness” links, and I have to tell you, it’s a feast for the eyes. I try to take a look every day or so, because THAT’S the place to go if you’re interested in design, graphics, food, trends, fashion, etc.

Treasures abound. Things you never knew existed. Just go there. And then try to tear yourself away. It won’t be easy.

LiveJournal: Where’s the art?

I decided to take a look over there to try and check out some artists.

All I found was teeny-boppers and people whoring various items to the general public. Yep. PayPal’s really big over there.

I’d just like to know…what is up with LiveJournal? Are they all 15 years old ? Do they all love glitter, the color pink, “hot chicks, dude” and Japanese rock stars? Who the hell IS Kumiko Gackt? Is it a he or a she? I couldn’t find any artists.

I know Audrey Kawasaki has a blog there, so it can’t be ALL bad. But I couldn’t find anything eye-catching there at all. Maybe it’s because it’ s so hard to navigate the site. Or maybe it’s not hard at all. It’s probably that I don’t like the format, or the “myspace” influence there. “Add me”? I don’t THINK so.

LiveJournal is like the bastard child of blogger & myspace.

Zentangles

I’ve seen a lot of them around, lately. And it seems I’ve been unofficially “zentangling” all this time…usually while on the phone. It used to be called “doodling”, and who would have thought that doodles would be raised to an art form?

You can go to the Zentangle website and pay 50 bones for a kit full of “tiles” (paper), and “instruments” (Micron pens, a pencil or two), and an instructional DVD. Oh, and they’ll throw in a icosahedron ( a 20-sided die), and something called a ” Zentangle Legend™”, which has 20 numbered & named patterns. This is basically a prompt, in case you forget how to doodle. You roll the die and whatever number comes up is the pattern you’ll use on the “legend”. OR…..you can google all about it an try it own your own…for free…which is what I plan on doing when I get the time.

It seems simple enough…I have the paper, the pencils, the Micron pens, etc., so why buy the kit? I don’t need the die or the legend….I figure I can call up one of my friends, stay on the phone for 20 minutes, and come up with a pretty good generic “tangle”.

As far as I can tell, there’s nothing “zen” about spending that amount of money for instruction in something we all do every day…while we’re on the phone, or in a boring meeting, or waiting in the airport. See…the key thing to me is: You doodle while you’re NOT thinking of doodling. That’s what makes it “zen”. It’s unconscious, unplanned, and…OMG…original! When you start thinking about it, and have to use pre-made prompts..is it really as zen as it should be? The whole Zentangle process…with its ready-made strings and designs is kind of a paradox, IMO. But sheer genius as far as marketing goes.

Yep. Zentangles are the type of thing that not only make you go “hmmmm”, but also make you wonder: “Why didn’t *I* think of that?