Here is the initial sketch with some inking done...
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Hansel, Gretel, etc.
My sister in law is coming to visit with her family (Pit will spend some quality time with Bella!). I am making a drawing to celebrate her birthday and the fact that we are going to have a new addition to the family soon. She asked for a Hansel and Gretel inspired picture, with the ginger bread house and the children, but without the scary witch.
Here is the initial sketch with some inking done...
Here is the initial sketch with some inking done...
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Taman VanScoy's Landscapes
A couple of weeks ago, Naperville hosted its annual Riverwalk Art Fair. My husband and I have wanted to see it for ages, but typically this time of the year we are away, either in Italy or camping. Now that Isabella is here, we have abandoned camping, at least until she is a bit older, and we went to Italy back in June, so we finally got to visit the Fair.
It was fun, very crowded, and we got to admire works from local and traveling artists. Bella had a chance to flex her developing artistic muscles at the table of the Naperville Art league. Mommy and Daddy instead planned the decorations of the dining room.
We moved last year to a much bigger house, so of course most of our rooms are empty. Little by little we will buy some furniture to fill them and we decided to start with the dining room. We have a nice big groups of Italian friends we spend the holidays with and now that the family is growing we definitely need space for eating together comfortably. So we placed an order for a nice extending table at a local carpenter and then we started thinking about what kind of paintings we should hang on the walls.
As soon as we walked in the Fair, we encounter the stand of Taman VanScoy, an artist based in Long Beach, CA, whose fabulous landscapes immediately captured our attention and fancy. We knew his work would be perfect for our home and oh, I wish we could have bought his entire collection then and there: I could envision so many places those beautiful paintings would bring life to. We decided to invest in two paintings and then we started debating which two we should get! It took a while....
We went home, we came back on Sunday, amidst a deluge of rain, we thought and pondered some more. Taman was extremely helpful and patient. He showed us different paintings, even some he had not planned to display at this event. He even offered to let us bring home a few of the paintings to help us decide which one worked best for us. All of them worked wonderfully....and it was very hard to choose. To top this off, he helped us placing them on the wall and hang them securely.
It was great to meet and work with Taman: we look forward to see him again next year when he will participate to the Lincoln Park Art Fair in Chicago. His art is soothing and dreamy, with vistas of fields inspired by the Wisconsin countryside (where he spent his summers as a child) yet born our of his imagination. Every time I step into my home, now, I smile looking upon the serene beauty of my two new paintings.
Please go and take a look at his gallery or check our whether he is displaying his art at some art event near you.
It was fun, very crowded, and we got to admire works from local and traveling artists. Bella had a chance to flex her developing artistic muscles at the table of the Naperville Art league. Mommy and Daddy instead planned the decorations of the dining room.
We moved last year to a much bigger house, so of course most of our rooms are empty. Little by little we will buy some furniture to fill them and we decided to start with the dining room. We have a nice big groups of Italian friends we spend the holidays with and now that the family is growing we definitely need space for eating together comfortably. So we placed an order for a nice extending table at a local carpenter and then we started thinking about what kind of paintings we should hang on the walls.
As soon as we walked in the Fair, we encounter the stand of Taman VanScoy, an artist based in Long Beach, CA, whose fabulous landscapes immediately captured our attention and fancy. We knew his work would be perfect for our home and oh, I wish we could have bought his entire collection then and there: I could envision so many places those beautiful paintings would bring life to. We decided to invest in two paintings and then we started debating which two we should get! It took a while....
We went home, we came back on Sunday, amidst a deluge of rain, we thought and pondered some more. Taman was extremely helpful and patient. He showed us different paintings, even some he had not planned to display at this event. He even offered to let us bring home a few of the paintings to help us decide which one worked best for us. All of them worked wonderfully....and it was very hard to choose. To top this off, he helped us placing them on the wall and hang them securely.
 |
| Taman with his two paintings |
It was great to meet and work with Taman: we look forward to see him again next year when he will participate to the Lincoln Park Art Fair in Chicago. His art is soothing and dreamy, with vistas of fields inspired by the Wisconsin countryside (where he spent his summers as a child) yet born our of his imagination. Every time I step into my home, now, I smile looking upon the serene beauty of my two new paintings.
My husband holding a diptych we considered as an alternative to the two paintings we ended up buying.
Please go and take a look at his gallery or check our whether he is displaying his art at some art event near you.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Challenge:29 faces (last day, #29 and bonus)
The weekend is almost over, we are sort of settling down in our new rhythms and, after spending an enjoyable afternoon in the sun, we are back home, looking at the pictures we took today and preparing for the new working week.
So, finally I have a little time to spend with the friends of 29 Faces and share my last 2 faces. I'll put this in my daughter's room...
It's been great to play and explore new techniques and it's been especially wonderful to meet so many talented and kind people via the challenge. Thank you Ayala for hosting this initiative and thank you to the participants who shared their art and exchanged suggestions and support. Let's keep in touch!
So, finally I have a little time to spend with the friends of 29 Faces and share my last 2 faces. I'll put this in my daughter's room...
 |
| #29 (and bonus) Pure Love |
Friday, September 27, 2013
Challenge: 29 faces (Day 12: # 28)
Yesterday, my mother in law arrived from Italy and we are very excited, but, because of all the cheering and greeting, I haven't had lots of time for drawing and posting.
So, I just quickly made this thank you note for Ayala which will also be my 28th face. I always wanted to make a face made out of words, and this is the perfect moment for trying! Here it is! A big hug to you Ayala!
I have a little bit more work to do on face # 29 and I am not sure I'll be able to publish it tomorrow. However, I am pretty sure I'll be done by the end of the month. ;)
So, I just quickly made this thank you note for Ayala which will also be my 28th face. I always wanted to make a face made out of words, and this is the perfect moment for trying! Here it is! A big hug to you Ayala!
 |
| #28 Thank you Ayala! |
 |
| Detail |
I have a little bit more work to do on face # 29 and I am not sure I'll be able to publish it tomorrow. However, I am pretty sure I'll be done by the end of the month. ;)
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Challenge: 29 Faces (Day 11: #27)
Good day everybody!
Yesterday night I decided to try something slightly different from my usual coloring technique. I set aside my adored Copics and turned to my Prismacolors. A couple of years ago, I did a small evaluation of how Prismacolors would work for coloring faces, but they seemed way to bright for my already rather saturated palette, so I abandoned the idea of using them for more detailed or delicate projects. Instead, have been using them mainly to cover great surfaces to spare the more expensive Copics
However, since I had made this drawing kind of simple, more catoonish than usual, I thought I could give Prismacolors another chance.
Because I have been kind of obsessed with the inking dilemma during the past few days, in this case, I limited the inks to the minimum and created the contours of the face and hair just with colors. I did not completely follow my own intention, though, as I ended up outlining the arm and hand quite too much (even if I used the grey multiliner rather than the black one)...something to watch out for, next time
I wanted her hair to be fluffy and aqua-blue, and I liked how it turned out, but I had no precise idea about how to do the rest,, so I did a couple of trials (on the right). I picked a pretty yellow-green for the wall and chose to keep her dress and balcony neutral. How does it look?
Notice that while I was using watercolor paper for the main drawing, I did my experiments on an old piece of very smooth lower quality paper from my earlier works with Copics. The colors look so different! Also the feel of the ink going on the paper is different (it does not really sink much, it seems to stay mostly on the surface: I never liked it too much).
I'll try and make another attempt today, but I'll use a different watercolor paper and hopefully I will keep my grey outlines really light.
A big hug to you all!
Yesterday night I decided to try something slightly different from my usual coloring technique. I set aside my adored Copics and turned to my Prismacolors. A couple of years ago, I did a small evaluation of how Prismacolors would work for coloring faces, but they seemed way to bright for my already rather saturated palette, so I abandoned the idea of using them for more detailed or delicate projects. Instead, have been using them mainly to cover great surfaces to spare the more expensive Copics
However, since I had made this drawing kind of simple, more catoonish than usual, I thought I could give Prismacolors another chance.
Because I have been kind of obsessed with the inking dilemma during the past few days, in this case, I limited the inks to the minimum and created the contours of the face and hair just with colors. I did not completely follow my own intention, though, as I ended up outlining the arm and hand quite too much (even if I used the grey multiliner rather than the black one)...something to watch out for, next time
I wanted her hair to be fluffy and aqua-blue, and I liked how it turned out, but I had no precise idea about how to do the rest,, so I did a couple of trials (on the right). I picked a pretty yellow-green for the wall and chose to keep her dress and balcony neutral. How does it look?
#27: Cotton Candy
Notice that while I was using watercolor paper for the main drawing, I did my experiments on an old piece of very smooth lower quality paper from my earlier works with Copics. The colors look so different! Also the feel of the ink going on the paper is different (it does not really sink much, it seems to stay mostly on the surface: I never liked it too much).
I'll try and make another attempt today, but I'll use a different watercolor paper and hopefully I will keep my grey outlines really light.
A big hug to you all!
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Challenge: 29 Faces (Day 10: #26)
Oh my, another mermaid already?
Yesterday, I found this old sketch and, inspired by Uuna (if you don't know her, have a look at her beautiful collection of diverse works on her blog, BTW)'s suggestion to have a completely mermaids-dedicated gallery, I decided to quickly color and shared it here.
Although the face per se is rather small, the rest of the drawing promises to be more complex and long to finish, with waves, bubbles, rocks etc, which I have to research and will take me much longer to finish. So I did not attempt to color the whole thing and limited myself to the lady of the ocean. This is a direct take on the Little Mermaid, so we will call her Ariel.
Have a lovely afternoon!
Yesterday, I found this old sketch and, inspired by Uuna (if you don't know her, have a look at her beautiful collection of diverse works on her blog, BTW)'s suggestion to have a completely mermaids-dedicated gallery, I decided to quickly color and shared it here.
Although the face per se is rather small, the rest of the drawing promises to be more complex and long to finish, with waves, bubbles, rocks etc, which I have to research and will take me much longer to finish. So I did not attempt to color the whole thing and limited myself to the lady of the ocean. This is a direct take on the Little Mermaid, so we will call her Ariel.
Have a lovely afternoon!
 |
| #25: Ariel |
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Challenge: 29 Faces (Day 9, # 25)
Yesterday evening my daughter and I played with markers. I bought her a small box of Crayola with watersoluble non toxic flat pointed markers. I placed a dark blue bed sheet on the carpet (she loved the waves we made while arranging it on the floor, BTW), we sat with our papers, and we started scribbling and making dots. I am not sure she liked to draw with these markers too much: they are made so that the tip cannot be squashed by too much pressure, but the way Bella holds them in her hands (like hammers but not really perpendicular to the paper, that it) makes it difficult for her to actually get a sign out of them. I'll buy her some with regular pointed tips, next.
Anyways..., while she was having great fun uncapping all of the markers and wearing the caps on her fingers, I started dotting a piece of paper and soon I had this new face popping out of it. I haven't be coloring in pointillism for ages (possibly the late 80's), so that felt like taking a time machine and revisiting my middle school years...also no real outline, pencil or ink made, was required, so that took care of my ongoing dilemma for the night. :)
Anyways..., while she was having great fun uncapping all of the markers and wearing the caps on her fingers, I started dotting a piece of paper and soon I had this new face popping out of it. I haven't be coloring in pointillism for ages (possibly the late 80's), so that felt like taking a time machine and revisiting my middle school years...also no real outline, pencil or ink made, was required, so that took care of my ongoing dilemma for the night. :)
 |
| # 25 Spirit of the forest |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)