A Little Vacation

Queen of the Forest

Every once in a while I need a little break from my usual art routine, so the last few weeks I've been working on learning a little more about photoshop and creating digital art collages. I've never had any formal training with Photoshop, so it has been fun to learn how to cut and paste, copy and color, and use my full imagination. The Queen of the Forest is one of my favorite creations.  She and a few more of similar style can be viewed on my website and in my Redbubble shop.  I'm just about ready to take a break from these and turn back to my usual painting routine.  My Etsy shop is full of original oil paintings, but I need to keep it that way, so I will be getting back to painting with my real, physical brushes and real honest to goodness paint.  Thanks for stopping by.

Digital Designs and Patterns A New Adventure

In addition to my usual daily practice of painting, I have been dabbling in some digital art and design. This image is one I created a few years ago, but is a pioneer for me in a number of ways. It was created with watercolor paint and digital tools. It was one of my first adventures into using digital tools.  It has proven to be one of my most popular items in my print shop. People have asked for it to be placed on numerous items over the years and I have done the best I can, but my prints shop does have some limitations on product availability, so I have branched out.  Now it is also now available on over 55 products in my new Redbubble shop along with some other designs I have been creating.  I hope you will stop by and visit.

Self Administered Art Therapy

This month I ended up in some self administered art therapy sessions. As with many others, I have found myself at home with more time than I ever imagined. With home delivery of groceries, prescriptions, and just about anything else, there is a huge savings of time.  Who knew? Not me.

So much news, so much time, what does one do? I invested some time in exploring learning platforms. I've always enjoyed teaching myself and learning new things, so what better time? It didn't take too long until I stumbled upon Skillshare, a wonderful platform full of all kinds of instructional videos and workshops.

I've been a painter all my life, so the videos on learning to paint didn't really draw me in. I've always practiced drawing skills, but I have too short of an attention span to become an artist with refined drawing skills. Drawing portraits and detailed still life just didn't work for me so I bypassed most of those, too. But then I stumbled upon a video about doodling by Cathy Wu and how it is beneficial to your creativity and memory skills. I used to doodle a lot, but then just drifted away from it.  It inspired me to spend my evenings doodling rather than playing solitaire on my phone. So I began.

Here is a snapshots of some of my initial doodles.

Very basic, indeed, but I kept at it.  Then I found a lot of videos on using Photoshop in your art. I don't have the full Photoshop version, but instead Photoshop Elements, a basic version that has enough features for a beginner. I took a photo of one of my doodles, colored it, and created a png file. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out Skillshare, you can learn.  Anyway, here is one of my images all colored and pretty.

It is quite simple, but it made me happy that I had learned something new. I turned to my printshop and placed it on a t-shirt as well as some other products.

Now I am going somewhere.  I modified the design and created this:

Now I am having so much fun that I am learning about some new venues where my simple doodles look wonderful on a variety of products. I am going to keep creating and hope to turn my doodles into some passive income.  Stay tuned, I'll let you know where I go from here.  In the meantime, checkout Skillshare. It is a great way to productively spend your time and learn a thing or two. Here is a link to a free trial offer. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Little Memories

Another year has passed and I continue to paint! January has been a month of looking back, reviewing photos from my travels, and then creating sweet little paintings.  It is a joy to turn on a little music and revisit my adventures this way.  One in this collection has already sold, but most will be available in my Etsy Shop until mid April. All are 6x6 inch oil paintings on stretched canvas. Hope you will stop by and take a look.