Leila in the Jungle

This is who my insomnia created last week.  Meet Leila, she was inspired by the Indonesian jungles.

Go visit Alton in the clouds.

Alton in the Clouds

 Take a look at what's on my art desk right now...

Drawing Frankenstein in 15 Minutes

Every Halloween, without fail Landon asks me to draw Frankenstein, and every Halloween without fail, guess what? I draw him a Frankenstein! He came up with this idea to do a stop motion of me drawing... and I thought, hey why not? He is always so supportive and whenever I start a new art piece he seems to be more excited that I am... which really, could I ask for a better husband?!

I've never showed the process of me drawing charcoal portraits so here's to the first and here's to Frankenstein!! I did this in 15 minutes, and since Frankenstein is a monster, I allowed myself to not over think this portrait and just let it flow. :)

(more to read!) -->

Honey & Her Bees

Honey & Her Bees

gouache on watercolor paper

This is the most recent illustration I've finished and I've got 3 more in the works. 

Doreen was the 1st one you can see here.

Doreen

Here's a little something I worked on yesterday as Landon was out playing basketball with the boys.  I'm soaking up all this alone/free time that I have before I start work in a little over a week! This is Doreen and she likes flowers. 

Here are some of my new designs and illustrations printed!! There will be a boutique open house tomorrow in Rancho Cucamonga, if you're local let me know if you're interested and I will email you the flier! There will be 6 other small businesses/vendors and we will be having a BIG giveaway with light refreshments. If you're local come stop by, maybe I will draw you and give you a free india ink portrait!! :)

Although I've never been to France I know that the Eiffel Tower doesn't sit up on a hill by itself... but for my artist sake it does to me!! Fantine loves his stinky cheese, baked pastries, and of course the infamous escargot!  He loves to paint voluptuous women and is inspired by the Eiffel Tower daily.
Check out the rest of his friends here!!

Airheads

Click here.

Gertrude

I love Grammies, and Gertrude is probably my favoritest one I've ever drawn.

Phillip

As you can see Phillip is obsessed with film cameras, the darkroom and most obvious photography.  When I was in school the darkroom was one of my favorite places to be so I definitely can't blame him. Keep on creating Philly!

Lydia

I've got a whole community thought up for this new series. Meet Lydia the Librarian, I'm embarrassed to say she's read more books than me. :)

Betty

I tried out some digital illustration today for the first time and kinda got carried away with it, hence Miss Betty up above.  I  desperately need an illustration tablet now!

Art Show

This last weekend I got into an art show in downtown LA.  It was an awesome turn out and couldn't of asked for a better opportunity to share my art with others.  Bacon Social hosted it and they provided free bacon, a menu full of bacon treats, 4 local bands, an arcade room (the boys loved that) and lots of art.  There were 20 other artists and it was great to socialize and enjoy their art as well.  By the end of the 4 hours my voice was completely gone and my feet were so sore from the ridiculous heels that I wore. I have to say a big thank you for everyone that came out and supported me!! Especially my brother, sister-in-law and husband Landon! They drove out with me at 3pm and stuck around till the very end!

I'm Back!

Hello there! I've taken a big break from this little blog of mine, I used to post everyday... and then I got into painting...
After 6 years of not touching oil paint, I decided to try out a portrait and have loved it ever since. In January I did 3 oil paintings + this one shown above in December and have another bigger one in the process.  I'm getting them all ready to share on my website so stay tuned!

Custom Charcoal Portraits

After over 1 1/2 years of break time, my shop is back and ready for custom charcoal portraits!!
Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I am having a special of $75 per portrait until March.  So order your portraits today!!
I posted an example of what a family ordered and how they displayed it in their home, I love how it looks!
Click on my shop on the right sidebar!! -->

And an extra little deal is, if you repost this on your blog with a link to my shop/blog and then comment back with a link, you can get $10 off, a deal for $65!! Or you can Instagram it with a link to my shop for $5 off, a deal for only $70!! Do one or the other and save some money on your next portrait!!

Thanks everyone for your support, us lil independent artists really appreciate it!! :)

Christmas Cards 2012

2012 was our first year of Christmas cards, a lot of exciting things happened this year... one being Landon starting medical school, so we felt like it was important to update our closest friends and family with what has been going on!  They were super fun to get ready and gave me mega flashbacks of sending out our wedding invites. We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!

Take Me To the Circus!

I took a little vacay to the circus today, in my living room, yes it was quite a party.  I'm covered in color and so are my circus folks.  I decided to try something fun with color today and the first thing that came to mind was the circus! Here is a little preview of a new series I'm working on for my ever so lonely, ignored shop.  I'm trying to think of more fun sets of series to draw, I have a few more in mind, but do you have any ideas that would interest you? Maybe something to spice up that baby room or spare bathroom of yours?

Also, I'm thinking for my re-grand-opening of my shop, a free giveaway of a few of my drawings!  How does that sound?  It's been ignored for way too long that I figured it's time for some special attention.

House Construction

Being in our own place runs a constant creative stream through my veins... mainly because I have the space to sprawl out, make a mess and well because I have endless walls to fill.  Today I painted 4 pieces for our bathroom, worked on our India video and made these home constructions.
I brought back with me some Martha Stewart magazines from California that were over-flowing with texture.  I'm a hoarder with all things paper and after tearing out the recipes I couldn't simply throw them away, so instead I ended up making these.  It kinda threw me back into the past using magazine scraps, scissors, and paste... something that I definitely loved and will definitely do more of now.  I'm thinking a new Home Construction series for my own sanity's sake and to finish off my wall, it's nice to take a break from editing and charcoal every now and then.

Vera, Faye & Juniper decided to show up early for Valentine's Day.  I'm thinking a few more ladies will come around to join them sometime soon.

Since November I've been on portrait duty x 10.  I've been working one after another after another, and I finally finished my last one for the year of 2011!! (even though it's 2012 already, don't worry they didn't need it until this Saturday).  Although I love drawing portraits, it feels so good to be done and have a mini break. I celebrated today by playing tennis, deep cleaning the bathroom & our room [everything gets ignored when I have work, which is obvious in the photo], doing laundry, and just getting everything reorganized.  Yay!
And if you want to get me back to work a little bit sooner (which I wouldn't mind) you can go to my shop and purchase a custom charcoal portrait there!