Happy Halloween, My Friends!!!

I wanted to wish all of you a very Happy Halloween! I may be fairly busy tomorrow, and wanted to get this in before the craziness starts. Here's a pic of one of my very first watercolors ever, "Jack's Visitor". This was when I was still using watercolor paints like acrylics, thus the strange textures.
And, as a side note, I highly suggest asking your child what you should be for Halloween... Mine wants me to be a chicken, and I've had so much fun planning this crazy costume. ;)
Have a fun and safe Halloween!!!

Another wonderful treasury!!!

I'm in another fabulous treasury, this one by heatherknitz at Etsy! You can see my "Winds of Change" bookmark on the left, second from the bottom. :)

First try at watercolor and ink...

After months and months of wanting to try my hand at watercolor and ink, I finally bought myself a waterproof pen and gave it a shot! I'm actually pretty pleased with the results, and I have a really detailed piece I want to try out with them soon. I usually only have the pencil as an outline, and I really like the crispness of the black ink.

Treasury!

I'm being featured in this lovely treasury by pinkparchmentsoaps on Etsy! You can see my Angel bookmark on the top in the middle. :)

IF - Repair

My new sketch for today's Illustration Friday. I sketch straight in pen, so it gets a little messy. Plus, I chopped my hair off last week and now I seem to be drawing more and more ladies with short hair! ;)

Marigold Wishes and Corn Stalk Dreams...

We took a trip to an incredible pumpkin patch last weekend. But we were all much more interested in these two things: a sea of marigold flowers, and a great corn maze. It was burning hot during the day! Not like fall at all. But as it started to get dark it really cooled down, and then we were able to pick out our pumpkin by the light of the moon.

Three Little Birds

I finally finished my newest painting 'Three Little Birds' over the weekend! It's done in watercolors on 140 lb. watercolor paper, and measures 9x11.
The thing that inspired me to paint this particular piece was a great song (I unfortunately don't know who sings it) that opens with the lines, "Three Little Birds sat on my window, and they told me I don't have to worry." Painting the girl behind a window is really new for me, and when looking at it straight on the highlights aren't as prominent as if you look at it as pictured here from an angle. I hope I didn't over-do it! Any feedback is welcome, as I'm not sure it comes across quite right.
This piece was certainly a challenge, but alot of fun, too!

IF - Late

I am so loving these Illustration Friday themes. They really jump start my imagination!

Illustration Try #1! Need Your Feedback, My Friends!

As many of you may know, my ambition in life career-wise is to become a children's book illustrator. I've decided to really start concentrating on that, and am doing everything I can to go forward with this dream of mine. I decided to try a little mock-up of an illustration in this vein to see how it comes out. It's just a work in progress, but I need all the feedback I can get on it! and please, be as honest as possible (within reason! Hahaha!)

(As a post-sidenote, pencils reallllly don't scan well! There's alot of detail that just didn't show up, even on the darkest scan I could manage! And...it's amazing the problems I can see right off the bat when viewing it not on paper but on my computer! Ugh!)

New Orleans - Revisited

This is one of my very favorite pictures I took while visiting New Orleans last year. They have these horse posts all over the French Quarter, and this one particularly caught my attention, with its (perhaps generations of) layer upon layer of paint.

My New Little Tree!

I love to garden and grow things, though my thumb is far from green! One thing I'm pretty good at is growing avocado trees from pits. This is one of my very favorite foods to eat, and when I'm done I'll sometimes take the pit, stick some toothpicks in it, and place it on the rim of a cup filled with water. A month or so in my sunny kitchen window and I have the beginnings of a little tree!
This one is has really taken off! After pinching it back and waiting a little bit it's finally ready to be planted. You can see how wonderfully the roots grew in the first picture. In the second picture is my new little tree freshly planted in soil!

Sweetest Thing

Here's a painting I've been sitting on for months. I painted the background and sketched out the figure, and then put it aside. Then, this weekend, I pulled it out and finished it! Yippee! Please meet "Sweetest Thing", because, after all, what is better than inspiring this degree of trust in a nervous little feathered friend? She measures 11x14, acrylics on canvas panel, and will be for sale soon in my Etsy shop!

"The Lullaby"

Here is my completed acrylic painting, "The Lullaby"! Measures 9x12 on gallery-wrapped canvas, and will be posted soon to my Etsy shop!
I've never attempted anything like this, so I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I added a mouth to this specific piece as I didn't want it to appear scary or threatening. :)

Illustration Friday - "Strings"

Work in Progress - Shhhhhhhhhhh...I have a secret!

Shhhhhhhh...I have a little secret...

...I'll add mouths to my next few paintings... ;)

So, what do you think? Does it work?

2 Sisters - New Art Dolls!

Here are my 2 newest! I just finished their faces last night. Both are made from cotton and muslin, filled with poly-fill, and with handspun yarn (from theflyingewe on Etsy) for hair. Their faces have been painted in professional quality acrylic paints and sprayed lightly with a matte sealer for protection. Please look in my Etsy shop soon to find Lucia, the lovely lady on the right!

Work in Progress - Acrylic Painting...Yippee!

And just to show you that I'm still working on my paintings even with all this art doll hoopla, here's my latest work in progress (sorry, the picture came out sooo dim)! It's much much darker than anything I've done in the past, but it will still be a happy piece; it just happens to take place at night! I'll be calling it "Lullaby". I've never done a night time piece before, so I'm struggling over the colors and how the light will hit things. It's taking me much longer than a watercolor, but I love the spur of the moment feel I can take with acrylics.

Another try at dolls

Here's try #3 at my dolls. I managed to find some wonderful handspun wool from The Flying Ewe on Etsy and I love how it turned out! I'll be hand-painting the features soon. Any comments are welcome!

Sketchbook Finds - 10/6/08

My doodle ideas of new hairdos for my Jane Austen inspired ladies.

Congratulations Giveaway Winner!!!

Congratulations to Mannie Vincent at MVincent.etsy.com for being the winner of my blog contest! Mannie won a delicate little glass pendant featuring a print of my Halloween inspired watercolor painting, 'Jack's Visitor'!
And thank you so much to everyone who participated!

Sense & Sensibility - Chapter 20 - Jane Austen's wit!

I so loved this line (actually laughed out loud when I read it!) that I had to share!:

(Mr.Palmer to his wife) "I did not know I contradicted anybody in calling your mother ill-bred."

SALE in my Etsy shop!!! - SALE IS OVER

***Thank you, the sale is over!***

I'm having a sale!
It's a spur of the moment thing, really. But you can save some major money! Buy 1 item in my Etsy shop for full price, and get a second item of equal or lesser value for half off!
The sale starts tonight at midnight and will go through October 5th 2008 at 11:59pm. I'll refund the discount through Paypal after the order has been completed. All you have to do to get your discount is to type in the word "JANE" in the 'Notes to Seller' portion while submitting your order!
Click here for a direct link to my Etsy shop! Get a big jump on your Christmas shopping!
Hope to hear from you soon!

Affectionately Yours!
Christina

New Glass Pendants!

Here's the new batch of glass pendants that I'll be posting for sale in my Etsy shop! As you can see, one of them is the prize for my blog giveaway which ends this Sunday evening, so be sure to enter!
These will slowly be added to my shop, so if you see one you like but it hasn't been posted yet, just drop me an e-mail at hoydendesigns@gmail.com and I'll post it right away for you!