Fred the Praying Mantis

Just a short post of a quickly done painting of a praying mantis I did for my best friends daughter. Happy Easter! 

PS.  I am having so much trouble posting images from CS5 online or sending them in emails. I keep getting server rejections and having to shrink and shrink it again.  It's like it is saving them so much larger than it says it is, but then the last time I did a thumbnail for IF it ended up pixel-ated before it would let me post it.  I am not sure what the problem is and it is so aggravating.  Anyone else having this problem?

Tie Dyeing for Charity

 

 

Sorry I've been neglecting my blog.  This is a little of what I have been up to for the past few weeks.  My daughter and I did a  tie dye project for charity. 10% went to Japan through the company we purchased the blanks from, and 10%  will go to the Center for the Visually Impaired and  for LCA research. It was so much fun that we ordered more shirts. We spent half our time figuring out how to do it so I am sure this batch will go much more quickly.  So now I've got two boxes of shirts waiting to be tied and dyed. I also found a product to remove the dye from my hands because somehow, even with gloves I kept getting dye on my skin. I do the same thing when I do a lot of ink work, perpetually stained fingers ;)

IF_Layers WIP

curtains? what do you think?

No time to finish this weeks post either, and it's very last minute, again.  Actually, I just realized it's already Friday.  Oh well, better late than never.  

Yay for Presidents Day!

because it gave us a long weekend and that allowed me to finish this up.   So yay! Freedom to create.  Maybe I'll even get to finish something new... and no headache!

IF_Sweater

Here is my last minute entry for IF for last week.  There will be a new one in a few hours, but I really wanted to get something up.  I started several different ideas for this, but just never really liked any of them.  I guess I was just in a mood because I've had one continuous headache all week long.  Can you believe that my husband has never had a headache in his entire life?  How does that happen?  Anyway, it put me in an I hate everything I do mood.  I didn't even like any of my sketches and trashed them all. So, I threw this together today.  I don't know if I will finish it or not.  What do you think?  Is it worth finishing?  Thanks for stopping by. 

Surrender

Well, I finally got this one finished.  I think... it's one of those illustrations that seemed to take me forever and I just finally decided to stop messing with it.  I will quite possibly change my mind when I look at it tomorrow. lol    I'm having deja vu, I must say that a lot. 

I'm already working on an illustration for IF's prompt Sweater and I'm determined to do something quick and simple, so I can get it posted this week.  That being said,  I'm not so great at simple; Sometimes I can do quick.  I say this to myself often and then the illustration takes on a life of it's own and becomes, well, complicated.  I envy those artists who can make a few lines or a loose sketchy image and simple color into a creative and solid piece of art. There is something to be said for simplicity and for me anyway, it's harder than it looks to make something very simple, yet very special. 

Fighting the Slack Monster and the Little Red Hen again...

  

2/1/11

2/2/11

2/3/11

2/6/11

 I have been so slack about posting lately.  I'm trying to get back into the habit of posting more often. So, to start it off I am posting not one, but two WIP's. I'm trying to get myself back into the painting or at least sketching every day mode. I did so well for over a year.  And then it happened, I let the slack monster sneak up on me and pull me away bit by bit. Whispering in my ear little negative things like, "your tired, you've done enough today" or" you've already been on the computer all day, do you really want to spend more time straining your eyes?, you know you are tired" He's very beguiling, this slack monster.  So, now I'm fighting back, bit by bit. I started working on another little red hen illustration a couple of weeks ago and I hope to get a chance to paint it soon, but I haven't really decided on the the finished sketch yet. Yes, I know, the slack monster is still whispering in my ear.  Actually, I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with the background and the whispering is distracting me. So, I decided to try to get in an Illustration Friday first.  I haven't done one in a while; this is for the prompt Surrender. I hope to get it painted in the next couple of days.  I will, I will, I will... 

...that's the plan anyway!