What am I Thankful for...?

I feel so very blessed for all of you, my blog friends! This community has been such a God-send to me. Your encouragement and kind words have done so much to keep me working hard at my art, even when my hope seemed to have gone.
Thank you, my friends! I wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving, and to those of you outside the U.S. I send big warm hugs as well!
Affectionately yours,
Christina

Work in Progress 11-21-08

Here's "Letting Go" with a bit of much needed color. I can't thank you all enough for the lovely comments you left on my last post! It really got me inspired to work more on this. :)
She's getting another step closer to done. I'm hoping to finish her over the weekend. I'm getting very excited about this piece! I'll explain all of the little hidden meanings when I finally get her finished.
It's very frustrating to take so long on a painting! I only have an hour a night if I'm lucky to work on my pieces, so I apologize for the delays!

Work in Progress 11-20-08

Here is my newest painting. "Letting Go", in progress. I wanted her in a grey dress to show her emerging from mourning.

You say Potato, I say Po-tah-to...

Here I am again trying something new! And, of course, back to bunnies, which I am coming to love so very much.
Not only did I want to test out my new waterproof pen in a new way, but I wanted to try acrylic paints on paper. It certainly was an unusual experience for me! I think it will take some getting used to, with such a change in texture from my beloved canvas. I was shocked at the complete difference in feeling and emotion in these two exactly similar sketches after I finished!

Packaging for Paintings

When I first began selling my paintings I stressed out to no end about how to package a stretched canvas painting for shipment. The canvas fabric can be so delicate; even a slight bit of pressure can leave an indentation (I remember once taking a pic of one of my canvas paintings on the floor and my dog ran over it, leaving a lovely dent right where her foot hit). So after much research this is the packaging I came up with:

First I wrap the entire thing in parchment paper. Any other type of paper or bubble wrap laid directly on the surface of a painting can sometimes stick and ruin it. I used to use waxed paper until someone told me that in hot weather the wax can melt...yikes! So parchment paper is the very best thing, though it takes some maneuvering to get the tape to stick!
(please don't mind my very sad looking wood floors; they're quite old!)

After wrapping it like a little present I take 2 sturdy cardboard pieces, cut to the dimension of the canvas, and lay one on the back and one on the front. I make sure to tape them securely so there's no chance of slipping.

Here's my latest ("The Lullaby", going on her happy way today!) all packaged up and ready to be boxed.
I then find a box that will fit my little creation. It's best to find one at least an inch larger on all sides. Make sure especially to protect the corners of the painting with packaging material, as these can get dinged up in the mail pretty badly. And since your painting is already fully protected, you can pack you box with anything at hand that will cushion it and give it a nice comfortable ride to it's new home.
This, of course, can mainly be used for smaller paintings. Very large paintings may require specially built boxes which I have yet to get up the nerve to attempt! ;)

IF - Pretend

My quick little sketch for this Illustration Friday's topic of "Pretend", straight out of my doodle book!

Work in Progress 11-13-08

I literally just finished this sketch. I'll be calling it "Letting Go", and it will be done in watercolors. I came up with a rough draft of it several nights ago, and it just wouldn't leave my head! It's in pencil, so a little light for scanning. I don't know if you can see it, but there's a tiny broken heart she's tying onto the bird's foot.

I've been tagged!

I’ve been tagged twice, it seems! And by two very talented artists, Alicia Padron and
Pease Porridge (thank you for your wonderful compliments, ladies!). They have wonderful blogs and incredible artwork; please check them out!
Now, I am a seriously boring homebody, but I’ll do my best! So here are seven random things about lil’ old me… ;)


1.)I’m married to my high school sweetheart. We were best friends before we became a couple, as well!

2.) I’m allergic to kiwi and pineapple. And I also happen to have a dog named Kiwi (which I’m also allergic too)

3.) I HATE shopping for clothes. It actually stresses me out.

4.) The biggest thrill for me is a trip to the bookstore! I can spend hours just looking over new books and deciding which ones to buy. And I have so many books at home now that I have to store some in boxes! I’m frequently known to be reading 2 or 3 at a time.

5.)When I was a kid I had a wonderful little hamster named Toni (a girl, named after the aunt who gave her to me). And she died while I was on my fifth grade camping trip.

6.) I have a video of myself at 15 years old, with very short and frizzed out hair (from a bad perm attempt) dancing and lip synching to Elvis and the Andrew Sisters. Oh, sooooo bad! But so funny that I love to show people (luckily I was TRYING to be funny!). ;)

7.) My grandpa used to dress up as Santa and go visit the disabled children at Christmas. I didn’t fully appreciate what he was doing until I got older. And when he’d play Santa for his clubs, my sister and cousin and I used to love telling the other children the Santa was our Grandpa. We’d walk around acting all important, like we were royalty. Hahaha!


Phew! Now it’s time for me to pass the torch! Here are the four wonderful bloggers that I’ve decided to tag (please don’t worry if you don’t have the time!)!:

Julie-Ann
Amy
Crystal
Jen

Christmas Card 2008 - Complete!

I finally completed my Christmas card. I'll be sending these out to all of my family this holiday season! I hadn't planned on posting these to my Etsy store, but if anyone would like me to special order some up for you to purchase please e-mail me at hoydendesigns@gmail.com.

Created my FIRST Treasury!

Yippee! I finally managed to get my very own Treasury. And, of course, I filled to brimming with Jane Austen inspired goodies.
Please have a visit with it and leave a comment!

Lazy Weekend and Anne Rice House

I didn't do a blasted thing this weekend as far as art goes. Well, that's not really true. I started sketching a picture for my portfolio on Friday night, but I don't really count it the weekend until Saturday morning rears it's glorious head.
A short while ago I was updating my blog regularly with my insights into a Jane Austen novel, Sense & Sensibility, as I was reading it. But I found that this greatly decreased my joy in reading it, as I was searching each chapter for something insightful to write about. So I abandoned the attempt, and instead just enjoyed my immersion of it. I so love Elinor Dashwood; she's one of my favorite heriones. I find, as I age, that I like the the more serious heroines the best. My favorite of them is Anne Elliot; give me a lady who keeps on the straight and narrow morally any day! Am I a boring old fuddy duddy or what? ;)
Now I'm re-reading (for perhaps the 20th time) Little Women, another of my very favorite books. It's like visiting with an old friend, to open these well-worn pages. I still have markings on the pages of notes I took when I was in high school.
And now, to introduce this picture I have here. I took this last year in New Orleans. We purposely passed by this house, which is Anne Rice's former residence in the Garden District. *Sigh*, such beauty! I spied this lovley red flower over the fence and couldn't help but try for an artistic view point. I'm no photographer by any means, but am quite pleased with how this one turned out. You may know Anne Rice from her books "The Witching Hour" (much of which was set in this very house) and "Interview With a Vampire" (the latter which was turned into a wonderful movie starring Tom Cruise & Brad Pitt). Now she writes faith-based novels, which I am fast becoming a huge fan of (if you ever get a chance to read "Christ the Lord", I highly recommend it!) I just couldn't leave New Orleans without visiting one of my favorite author's former and most famous homes!
And now to end this very lenghty (whew!) post, and wish you all a very happy Monday!

Wise - IF 11-7-08

Here's my very quick and very silly Illustration Friday sketch for the topic "Wise". This poor lady thinks that osmosis will work to help her become wise? I think the owl is doubting her technique...

Work in Progress 11-7-08

Last night I was feeling very restless, so I picked up some watercolor paper and began to sketch, not knowing what I was sketching. I had planned on working on a technique with watercolor and acrylics combined, but this little angel wound up sneaking onto my page instead. I had been planning on painting an image for my Christmas cards this year; I think this is the perfect picture for that!
I'm less than halfway done, but I'm pretty pleased with her so far!

Work in Progress 11-6-08

I know this picture is awful, but I'm stuck. I have 3 options for painting this and I'm not sure what to do:

1.) paint straight over the light pencil lines
2.) ink all lines of the sketch
3.) ink only the main characters and some main outlines

What do you think would compliment this image the best?

Strings - Completed Painting!

I finally finished "Strings"! Here she is in all her glory, watercolors on 9"x11.5" 140 lb. watercolor paper. I think that this will be my very first contribution to Lollishops when it's finally up and running. :)

Work in Progress 11-5-08

I'm about halfway done with my little marionette. I keep going back and forth on if I'm pleased with it or not. I'll keep working at it!

New day...

I typically don't post things like this, but my heart is so full that I can't help myself...
Today is the dawning of a new era. We are so blessed! We saw history being made last night! I will raise my glass to all of my friends all over this wonderful world: here's to peace, and harmony, and hope. :)
God Bless,
Christina

Work in Progress 11-4-08

It seems ages since I've done a work in progress! I've been working on a private project for a little while now, but need to take a break from it for a short time. I liked how my sketch for the Illustration Friday topic of "Strings" came out so much that I've decided to do a watercolor painting of it. Here you can see that I've inked the main image, but I'm keeping the background of the marionette stage lightly sketched out in pencil to bring it less attention. I'll be filling it in with color soon!

Treasury 11-4-08

Oh, I so love this treasury! Much thanks to OffTheBeadenPath for including me! You can see my painting, "The Lullaby", on the bottom right hand corner. :)

Three Little Birds - Encore!

I just realized that I never posted a scanned image of "Three Little Birds"! So here you are, my friends. :)

Post Halloween Update...

Here are our adorable pumpkins! I have to admit, I have no claim to the design on these lovelies; they were created by someone much younger than me (I do take full credit for the carving, however! Have you ever tried to carve a Goosebump pumpkin??? Talk about thick skin!!!)
...and, to my utter mortification, here's a tiny pic of the chicken feet to my costume (yes, those are rubber gloves...) PLEASE don't ask to see the rest of the costume!