How I Paint

Just for fun, I thought I'd show the painting process for this painting:

This is a painting I did for a friend and it measures 22in X 30in and is done in watercolors (my favorite medium).
So first, I started by sketching it out and then masking of the birds and the branch with watercolor masking. This lets me paint the background without fear of getting paint on the foreground.

You can just barely see the birds masked off. The paper is also taped down to keep it from warping too much (which paper likes to do when wet from say . . .watercolors).
Next, I did my first wash of color:

Very light and basically just doing some color blocking and deciding what colors I wanted to use.
Second wash:

A little darker now, more brilliant colors used.
Third wash:

I actually did another wash after this and forgot to take a picture of it. Oh well! I let it dry completely and then removed the masking. Next came painting the birds, again, done in washes.

This is after 2 washes. You can start to see some details.

After another 2 washes. Time to paint the branch!

The finished painting again - did 2 washes for the branch and touched up the sparrows. I hope my friend likes it!

OWLS!!

A friend of mine has just purchased her first home and she has a thing for owls. So, as part of her house warming gift, I'm painting her owls! I've done 7 so far and may do a few more if the muse hits me ;)
I quite love this barn owl, let's be honest.

This green owl looks very contemplative. Maybe he needs to take a dump and he's deciding which car hood would be best . . .
Both are done in water colors.

Zombie Chicken

Oh yes. I made a zombie chicken of DOOM! Available in my Etsy shop!

CONTEST TIME!!!!!!!!!

Alright y'all, it's about time I hold a contest!!! And this one is stupidly easy!!!!
Here's what you do:
Visit my Facebook Fan Page here and comment on the contest post which zombie animal you'd like to see from me next. Easy, right? If you're new to my fan page and you "like" it, you get an extra entry.
Winner will be chosen via random number generator on April 10th.
Want more entries? Blog this on Tumblr and let me know - good for one entry!
What do you win?
A signature ratty, of course!!!
Like these.
In a nutshell:
Contest runs from March 23 through April 10.
Open to everyone.
Comment on my Facebook Fan Page which zombie animal you'd like to see next - 1 entry.
"Like" my fan page - 1 entry.
Blog this on Tumblr or blogger - 1 entry.
Winner will be chosen via random number generator on April 10th.
I will ship anywhere in the world - no charge to you.


GO GO GO !!!!

It's been awhile . . .and TUMBLR!

Yeah, I've been ignoring my blog again. For several reasons. Here, I'll share them with you.
1. I'm lazy
2. No one comments
3. Views are down (yes, partly because I haven't been posting regularly)
4. I'm lazy
5. TUMBLR!!!!!

Yes. I have a tumblr.
And it is AWESOME.
If any of y'all have a tumblr, I'd love to know!

Iphea and Roe

More Endless Forest fan art. This time it's my doe, Roe, and her mate Iphea.

Found it Friday

This adorable sterling silver moose pendant is from Destiny's Creations. There are TONS of wonderful pendants, but I'm partial to the moose.

More Durrs . . .

More deer character requests from The Endless Forest. I love me some durrs!

Found it Friday!

I found this.
And it is awesome.

Who the hell doesn't need this Christmas ornament???

Check out Creepy Doll's whole shop, too. It's pretty awesome.

I bought this . . . .

Yes I did. Because it's awesome.
I purchased it from Coffin Hunter 13 on Etsy. Amazing stuff there!!
Anyway, I LOVE rogue taxidermy. And this . . . .spoke to me. I mean come on - it's a DEER!!! I LOVE deer!!!! And he has FANGS!!! And pink eyes!!!
I love him. I'll post pictures when he arrives.
*excited dance*

MOAR DEERS!

More characters from The Endless Forest.

Zombies

Lookit the zombie owl! He has intestines! How cute!

And a cute zombie giraffe! Awwww . . .

Both of these are sold, but thought you might enjoy!

Some Deer Art

Ahhhh, yes! I LOVE deer.

Sooooo much!

Have some deer art!

These are all characters from the game The Endless Forest.

Holy Crap

Wow! My last post was on August 3rd. I can't believe how inactive I've been on here.Been spending too much time with the family, on deviant art, and making things.
Yeah . . . .
So I guess I'll get back into blogging. I've got tons of art and critters to post, so . . . .

I made a zombie BUFFALO

This guy was for a custom order. He was quite fun to make.

Zombie buffalo for the win!

New Zombie Bunny

This guy is quite creepy. Check out those chompers.

His chompers and jaw bits are made with polymer clay. His smile is a bit unearving.

And he's available in my Etsy shop!

This is how I draw

I'm always interested in how other people draw or sculpt. I love seeing the creative processes. So I thought, why not share an example of my own?

I'll show you the process of this drawing. It's of two of my deer on The Endless Forest, Fae and Roe.

First, the sketch. It's a little hard to see, sorry. I typically sketch pretty light.

Next, line art. I do all my lines with a fine point sharpie pen.

On to color!! I start with the lightest colors first. It's easy to add dark over light, but very difficult to go the other way.

Added more color and details.

More color and details.

Adding more dark and shadow and different colors.

More details and color added. Fae, the butterfly colored doe, has around 9 different colors. Several browns, oranges, yellows, peach, white, grey and black. Roe has grey, black, 3 blues, white, beige, and 2 greens. Lots of colors! After I'm finished coloring, I go back and re-line everything.
This drawing took around 2 hours from start to finish. I use Prismacolor colored pencils. This is the technique I use on most of my artwork - traditional that is. My process is a bit different with digital.

What have I been up to?

I've had quite a few custom orders as of late. Mostly from people on Deviant Art. This latest plush I finished is one of the most difficult plushies I've done. Not necessarily because of a difficult, technical pattern, but because for some reason I just found making a hyena hard.

It took me awhile to draft the pattern. I looked at sooooooo many reference pictures of hyenas. After I had the pattern drafted, and the basic plush sewn up, I had to zombify him. See, the hyena is a character named Vosha - a zombie hyena with bat wings. He has just bones for the front legs, muscle showing on his rear right leg, and empty eye sockets. The front legs were the most difficult. I started with all fabric - and hated the look. Then, I did all pipe cleaners but the legs couldn't support the weight of the plush. So I settled on a combo of both fabric and pipe cleaners.

Next, the markings. I did them with markers. Yay! And yes, that's totally a maggot in his eye socket. Just for good measure.

Yep. More new zombies from me.

Been productive lately! A zombie dog!

Zombie Easter chicks!! And a zombie ermine!! Aka weasel! All available in my shop!

ZOMBIE Deer Plush!!

You read that right. Yesterday I showed you my new deer. And today, you get to see zombie deer!!! This is my first zombdeer! He sold in 20 minutes!

Zombdeer number 2 . . . .

And an albino zombdeer!!!

The second 2 are available in my shop!