Secret Solstice Gifts: Boston Terrier ATCs

Happy Solstice everyone!  The year is just clicking by isn’t it? A couple of months ago I signed up for a Secret Solstice swap on my one of my mail art trading sites:  IllustratedATCS.com.  It’s like a Secret Santa, only we do it in the spring.  Each participant is assigned a person to make gifts

ATC Round Up: Crows

Here’s a quick round-up of crow artist trading cards I’ve been making lately for swaps and trades: Thanks for visiting!  More art soon…

More Ink and Watercolor: Looking Forward

My watercolor experiments continue.  So far my favorite colors for portraits are: scarlet lake raw sienna golden yellow french ultramarine violet a touch of burnt sienna I mix scarlet lake and raw sienna on the palette for the base color.  After that I go wet into wet and and apply an individual color on the

Ink and Watercolor Wash: Back to Sketching

I had been neglecting my sketchbook so I got out my dip pen and did a bunch of sketches.   The best of the bunch is this cartoon of my husband.  I found a picture that I had taken of him more than ten years ago and took a few liberties with it.  I applied an

I’m a Winner! Thanks Karen Blados!

© Karen Blados 4″ x 6″ postcard print Artist Karen Blados recently celebrated her 500th blog post with an art giveaway.  I’ve been following her daily journal post on her Flickr pages for about a year and just recently subscribed to her blog.   She’s one of my inspirations for illustrated journalling.   Being such a

EDM#201 – Draw a Stapler

I thought I would round out the week by posting an Everyday Matters challenge.   These are great for my watercolor practice.  I’m actually not doing too badly with my watercolor experiments.   I’m so proud of myself.  At the beginning of the year I swore that no one could ever convince me to try watercolor.  Now

Having a Merry, Merry Time

This has been a great season for me.  Usually I fall into major winter funks that always seem to coincide with the few weeks before Christmas.  This year is different.  Maybe it’s because I’m spending so much time drawing and painting.  All that creative energy flowing seems to push away any funky feeling.   It’s

Ink and Watercolor Wash: Western Tanager

My ink and watercolor exercises continue.  I made this artist trading card for a partner who liked birds.  I’ve not drawn very many birds, but I’m starting to really enjoy it.

Ink and Watercolor Wash: Drawing a Crow

The other day I finally had some success with an ink and watercolor wash drawing.  Isn’t he pretty?  I needed to do a crow card for a trading partner and I decided I would stretch myself a bit and try an ink and watercolor wash.