Series Inspiration Board

Colonial Farm Series

After practicing around painting for a bit I have a whole list of series I want to do. Today for our fun family saturday adventures we went to a colonial farm. It was amazing to see how they set up their fences, what they had in their homes, and just how the place was set up. My husband and I were in love with it. We were swooning how we wish we could live this simply. After going through all my photos i selected the main photos i wanted as references, each painting idea has a black border while the extra references are smaller with no border. I love making these collages. Pretty much all artists are very visual to begin with. Putting all the photos next to each other helps to see if it would be a good series. Think I'm happy with my selections with a good mix of indoors/outdoors still life/landscapes.

Sometimes a not perfect photo can be pretty too.

Bubbles

Finally I'm feeling better that I can get back to making art again. Here is my sketch for today. I'm feeling kind of lost on what I want to focus on creating. Fooled around with the idea of maybe doing a kids series of all the things my daughter loves. I like animals, nature, cute girls, and just whatever. Thinking it's going to be a few month or more of painting continuously until I find my thing. Boy do I wish there were more hours in a day. My daughter goes to bed later and later. This week it's been 11:30 or 12! That give me no time but nap time to do any steady painting or a few hours on the weekdays. 

“It's not what you are that holds you back, it's what you think you are not.”  - Denis Waitley

This quote really represents me. I have to get out of the mind set that I am not capable of living up to my dreams. 

Half way done with my little painting. 

Strike A Pose Saturday

Just me ..striking a pose

WIP

Working on this small 4x6 painting in acrylic. Think I'm coming down with a cold or something today. Time to relax for a while.

Sketch Dump

Artist Personal Photos

I've been reading tons of articles online about art business and marketing your art. Yeah, I should really get some actual books on the subject. Until then, I'll read articles online. One of those articles was about how art blogs are pretty pointless. They are filled with your work and some description of the end result. The article went on to say how art blogs are not personal so most people lose interest because they feel no connection to the artist. That was when it hit me that it was all true. All the blogs I like were very personal. My favorite blogs make me feel like I'm friends or want to be friends with the owner. Same for artists that I like. One artist I adore and she is always posting pictures of herself, her studio, random pretty photos on tumblr, and her art supplies. Every photo I see from her give me the feeling like I'm there and that I know her. Even on her artist website she has all her selfies and random photos she takes. Add another goal to my list. * Be more a more personable artist.

Here's a start.

Follow me on my artist tumblr. http://www.priscillageorge.tumblr.com

Taking Pictures Of Your Art

Thank goodness for my guest room! Even though I feel like my townhouse gets a lot of light, it really hit me today that it doesn't have the best lighting scenarios. I had to go all the way to the 3rd floor where the bedrooms are to get some nice bright morning light. Even then I'm not positive this the best possible photo I could get of my work.  Either way here is my first official completed artwork. Now I have something to put on my site. I have one other that I need to take a photo of that I did many months back. 

Good Sketches Don't Equal Good Paintings

The Sketch

Yesterday I posted my sketch for a watercolor I was working on. I loved the sketch...loved it a lot! Well I didn't bother to check the facial measurements when I did the sketch on my watercolor paper. Resulted in a totally different looking girl. I'm not too pleased. I'll have to take a better photo in the morning. It's okay but not what I wanted. 

The Final Watercolor

More Starting Less Finishing

I've been practically sitting here all day. It's been over a year that i have been wanting this artist/craft space or myself. I've had the desk or a long time and even the shelves were bought but just not installed for maybe over half a month. Finally I had enough and needed my space where all my art things were in reach.

All those note pads are my calculations on this art fair I am looking into doing in November. It would be my first art fair! Since I'm starting from scratch the price is a bit shocking. I'm a bit worried that I won't be able to do the fair because prints and having them matted is more costly than I thought. 

Nope I haven't finished the acrylic painting from earlier of the fox girl. Instead I started a small watercolor just to try to get more art faster. 

Here is my sketch or the watercolor above. Not really alike but hoping it comes out good. 

Photo References

For years I carried my camera around with me all the time. Taking photos of my surroundings was second nature. Last several years it hasn't been that way and I haven't taken many photos. Instead of finding my camera to be awesome it was cumbersome and bulky. Now that I have started to paint again I realized I had no photo references of my own. Painting Plein Air is something I would love to do. I'm a slow painter and I don't have enough free time to travel to the heavily wooded areas to paint. 

 Here are some of my photos from todays family hike that give inspiration for a series of paintings. Who doesn't love nature and trees paintings?

Working On It

It seems the past few days when I am looking forward to my daughters nap time it's been very delayed. She's really testing my husband and I lately with going down for nap and bedtime. Even though nap started very late today I still pulled out the paints. No more excuses right! I knew once I started to paint it would just flow. If it didn't flow I would just throw it out the window.

 

 It has been forever since I have painted with acrylics. Acrylics dry so fast, plus the sett up and clean up took a bit of time. Once I started I was in my comfort zone. The past year or so I have focused on getting better at watercolors. Well watercolors stress me out. Acrylics make me very zen. 

5 hours later I had ever bit of white covered. My main goal for the day was to just get an underpainting. I could stop at an underpainting. Still have lots more detail to add in. The face is at the stage that I like it but want to fix some and make it look more realist yet I'm scared to mess it up. The lips need major work. The neck shadows I'm not happy with either but I'll need to dwell on them more. The background is just a base so it'll be worked on too. Not too sure what to do with the section in front of her...detailed leaves, or not detailed leaves.

Starting My Art Career

 

 An artist has to start somewhere. It's been a very slow start with lots of researching and inspiration. I'm an obsessive researcher. I've spent days looking up artist mothers, selling your art, and starting an art business. While I've had moments of feeling overwhelmed this time I am really motivated to just do it. Every year I go down the road of wanting to make my talent and my dream of being an artist a reality. Now I have gotten to the point where it has hit me that if I never start and then keep on painting I'll never be an artist. Instead of making excuses for why I haven't made any painting I'll just be doing them. 

I've got a sketch down of a fox girl to paint in acrylic. Hoping there will be a Wildlife Girls series if this Fox Girl comes out nicely. My acrylic painting abilities are very very rusty. 

It's important that I have a start to this journey.Today I even made the base for my artist website. I can't make cards without a website to direct everyone to! Even blasted my blog on my personal facebook page. There is still lots to set up and perfect. Facebook page, twitter, tumblr, whatever other social media, etc. First the most import part needs to happen..and that is the paintings.

Solitary Artist

Today was the day I have been looking forward to since February 2013. It was the first day of my daughters pre school, well more like pre pre school. Two hours every Friday all to myself. All these ideas of what I could do for 2 hours that I wish I had more time for. Working out, maybe getting a stand up paddle board and doing that, shopping, or painting. Today I was really excited to sketch! A coffee shop seemed like a good starting point today since I don't know the surrounding area to well to know of a good local to paint.

This morning I was late yet I still managed to pack my sketchbook, my tablet (the coffee shops aren't that cute looking), my pencils, and some pens. Ready I was so ready. Until I ordered my coffee, got really nervous and walked outside thinking  I would just sketch outside. Couldn't get WIFI to work so I went back inside. Instead of sketching at all I stayed on the tablet browsing  facebook and my emails. It actually made me so nervous and petrified to pull out my sketchbook and draw. Having people talk to me about my sketches was not what I wanted. What if someone peered at my sketch and thought it sucked? What if I started to doodle and since being so nervous I would  have the worst ugliest sketches of my life? What is someone came over and gave me crap for sketching from photos and not from real life? What if I started sketching people in the coffee shop? THAT IS HORRIFYINGLY SCARY!!! After thinking of all the what ifs I just couldn't do it.

Even when I was in art classes in high school I hated to sit next to any one. I didn't like people looking at me draw. If anyone would step behind me or glance over at my paper I would stop and cover up right away. All my life I was used to drawing alone in my room. If I didn't like a sketch I would keep it in my sketchbook without having to show anyone. While I like to show off my finished works if they are something I like, I hate being so exposed during the process. Art to me is a solitary activity. Yet I want to get out there and do it! I wish I could get the balls to just do it!

Painting Failures

  Months ago I had the artistic urge to paint all the artwork for my daughters room. Woodland creatures of every kind and any kind of woodsy theme. I am dabbling in watercolor since it's fast and easier to clean up and start up periodically throughout the day. This was drawn up months and months ago. I've been staring at it on my board all taped up and ready to be painted thinking that I wanted it done but scared to mess it up. With this new found burst of energy to start painting, crafting, or sketching everyday I thought I would knock this out. Sadly it did not come out the way I wanted.

It's an acceptable painting that I will still hang in her room but it just didn't meet the standards in my head. Plus it's far different from the painting style I normally do. Details are my thing. I love to paint every detail and make it as realistic as possible. Well, I have 2 of those watercolor paintings already for my daughters room. Instead I thought something more simple would even it out. To me this just look amateurish. Again, not pleased but it was an experience in attempting to paint in a different style and FAILING! Each painting is a learning experience and a step towards developing ones artistic skills....right?

Hair Bow Organizer

I've been wanting to make a bow and hair clip holder for my daughters room.. Previously I placed everything into a planter but wasn't pleased with the look. Plus I never dug down in the planter to get to any other bows. I was wanting to make a holder that was ribbons and a picture frame..you can find several pinterest tutorials on it. Then the idea hit me to look in my art closet and see if I could find another way to use ribbon and make a holder without having a picture frame. Thumbtacks and ribbon. perfect! How to make the thumb tacks pretty....I had little wood circles. Okay so gluing the circles on the thumb tacks but now how to make it look pretty.

Well of course the answer to making wood circles pretty in a jiffy was to do some simple woodland animal drawings on them with pen. This led me to sketching and before I knew it my project was complete.

The most time sucking part of it was putting all the bows and clips up. You really notice how many bows there are when they are out of the planter.

Searching...

For the past few weeks I've been really dwelling on the artist mother role. There is another mother that is an artist who I have facebook friended and talked to a few times in person who is also searching for the answer to balancing the mother role and the artist role. We have found it hard to work on our pieces. Also we have unanimously agreed that we are addicted to the internet with all it's inspiration and time sucking abilities.

I came across this blog post today in my online search to find other artist mother who have it figured out. The blog post is titled Need more time for art? and really hits on the head that there is time but you have to find out what you are doing this a time sucker. Four of the 5 things that were listed to be restful but aren't  I do often, if not daily.

• Internet...how I love you and hate you. Sucking all my time but yet giving me this hope, drive, and inspiration to create. Time really flies on the internet.

• I'm not a tv watcher but I do watch a show or 2 during nap time ...so that could count. Easily an hour or 2 some days.

• Facebooking, yep I have the urge to always be up to date. Everyday I'm sucked into keeping up with a select few groups and making sure I don't miss anything interesting on pages I follow.
• Extra housework is not always something I get sucked into doing. In the past it was important for me to have every little portion of the house clean and tidy. It drove me crazy! When we went from a one story house to a 3 story townhouse it become much easier to ignore 2 floors and focus on the one I spend all day on which is the living room and kitchen. 
• Shopping I have to admit I do when I'm bored. Needing to run a quick errand is a good excuse of mine to turn a few needed things into a shopping trip on slow days coming back from something.

After reading the blog post it has really made me hyper-aware of what I am doing that is a time sucker. Today I felt accomplished by getting some crafting in by jarring all my dried goods and prettying up the lids. Doing the sketch of the owl for my daughters baking soda air freshener.  I'll post it tomorrow since I didn't get a picture today since I finished late but I did another little art project for my daughters room. I've been wanting to make a bow and hair clip holder for her room.. Previously I placed everything into a planter but wasn't pleased with the look. Plus I never dug down in the planter to get to any other bows. I was wanting to make a holder that was ribbons and a picture frame..you can find several pinterest tutorials on it. Then the idea hit me to look in my art closet and see if I could find another way to use ribbon and make a holder without having a picture frame. Thumbtacks and ribbon. perfect! How to make the thumb tacks pretty....I had little wood circles. Okay so gluing the circles on the thumb tacks but now how to make it look pretty. Well of course the answer to making wood circles pretty in a jiffy was to do some simple woodland animal drawings on them with pen. This led me to sketching and before I knew it my project was complete. The most time sucking part of it was putting all the bows and clips up. You really notice how many bows there are when they are out of the planter. I'll show you all that tomorrow.

My 10 Minutes of Creativity

Today I got a little burst of creative juice. After coming home from walmart with my haul of glass mason jars, baking soda, scrapbook paper, shower curtain, curtain rod, and curtain rings the last thing on my mind was drawing. Now the curtain supplies had nothing to do with the mason jars. My daughters sliding closet door fell off almost a year ago. Instead of trying to figure out how to put it back on I liked the more open look. As she got older more stuff accumulated in the closet and the open closet look wasn't as cute any more. A curtain was always my idea anyways. While trying to find mason jars are walmart I looked at the fabric section and found nothing I really loved except for this glitter sequin fabric but it was going to be about $30 to do my project and time to sew it. I checked the curtains and nothing was great there either. I thought I would take a look at shower curtains and found a really cute fabric kid one of owls. My daughter picked out the owls :). It was choice between the owls, butterflies or birds in trees. They would have all fit her woodland room theme nicely. Lilianna does have an owl bookstand so the owls got multiplied. As if it wasn't enough that she has now 20+ owls in her room I added one more.

Instead of making her baking soda air freshener out of scrapbook paper that didn't really fit her room I drew up a cute little owl instead. It's salmon pink paper with glitter gel blue ink and white. Those 10 little minutes of sketching this up really got me excited. Even it being such a small amount of time it really put some umph in my day and pep in my step. As a note I did not come up with the owl out of my head. I'm still trying to work on my drawings coming out good without a reference. I google image searched owl drawings and found this one and drew it up myself..tweaked it a bit. I would link the source if I could find it again :(.

The beginning!

Blogs, I have a lot of them. They don't seem to last me long. I'm getting back to my artist roots and really focusing on making time for my art. Since becoming a mother in 2011 I've found it harder and harder to get back to putting the pencil/brush/pen on the paper. Crafting and creating happens here and there. When I look back I feel like I created so much more the first year of my daughters life. I found it hard to find time back then but I still did it. Now my daughter is a little over 2.5 years and  I thought when she was a newborn how much easier it would be when she was older than 2 to carve out more me time. What happened? Here I am making this blog to jump over the hurdle of being a great stay at home mom while making time to be an artist.

I'll be placing my "daily sketches" on here and other creative endeavors

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