For Emilie

I suppose most everyone in this country was affected in some way by the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook elementary last week. And I'm no exception. The first person to publicly speak about one of the victims was the father of Emilie Parker - a beautiful little blond-haired, blue-eyed girl who looked as if the traditional image we see of angels might have been modeled after her. Her father described her as an incredible artist. That was what grabbed me. When I was her age I was a little blond, blue-eyed budding artist myself, so it really "hit me where I live" so to speak. I knew at that moment I had to paint something for Emilie. 
My first thought was to paint something and send it to her parents anonymously, but I knew they would be inundated with cards and letters and gifts as it was (even if I knew how to get it to them - which I didn't). It also seemed intrusive somehow. If I'm being honest, I suppose I was also afraid they wouldn't like it and maybe it would insult them. (Artists always fear rejection.)
So, then I thought I might just put it on my facebook and hope that, somehow, it would find it's way to them. My fear, then, was people would believe that I was trying to capitalize on the tragedy. (It isn't possible to post to facebook anonymously.) This is something I would never do, but people who don't know me wouldn't know that.
I suppose I could've done one and just never shared it at all but that seemed wrong too. What is the point in honoring her with a painting that would never be seen by anyone? And my point is to honor her memory.  
Still, I knew I had to paint something for her. So I did. I had seen a picture of her wearing a pink sweater so I did it all in pinks. I added a big, twinkling pink heart because most little girls like hearts and because she so captured mine. 
This is my painting for Emilie - my fellow artist:

 

Chic Chevron Stripes Business Card by TheSpottedOlive
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Sweet royal princess girl's birthday party stamps by Jamene
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Japanese Screen & Pink Blossoms Wedding Invitation by sfcount
Browse other custom printed invites on zazzle

And people try to tell me I shouldn't take naps...

After not having slept well the night before (as usual), I was having an afternoon nap. At some point I woke up with a design in my head. I had to fight to stay asleep as this image kept popping into my head. When I did wake up finally, I couldn't immediately get to my tablet as I had a few things to do. I had to keep "repeating" this image in my head for fear it would be forgotten and lost forever.
After the various chores were finished, I sat down to create my "dream design". I made three simple leaves using the digital airbrush - one in lime green, one in Barbie pink and one in pumpkin orange. Then, with the thick and thin pencil, I added a curved line to represent the twig from which the leaves were growing and a few quick lines for veining on the leaves. When I woke up with that relentless image in my head there was something at the end of the twig, but I have no idea what it was and it seemed superfluous anyway. This was the resulting design:I added it to several items in my Zazzle store. For all but the cloth products, I turned it 90 degrees and added a tone-on-tone beige striped background.

Now I think it may be time for another nap. Ya never know. ;-)

Sometimes where you start out for isn't where you end up.

Believe it or not, this design started off to be a fan. I created the pleated red damask pattern intending to make it into some kind of fan shape. I tried a few different tools and that wasn't working out so I went in this direction instead. After I had added the pattern with the little love hearts to the bottom half I still thought it looked kind of incomplete somehow. Back to the damask pattern I went using my favorite tool - the kaleidoscope (I'm addicted to kaleidoscopes) - and came up with the pretty, dimensional-looking flower which I placed on the line between the two patterns. This is the note card I made from the design, but I also made a postcard, a stamp, stationery and a "save the date" card of which I am particularly proud. Now I guess I'm glad the whole fan thing didn't work out. :-)

This time I did a cat with flowers.

Last night when I sat down to do a design I told myself I was going to do something other than a floral. I was halfway through this cat design before I realized it was flowers again! Oh, well. I really liked the way it turned out anyway, so I added to a number of my cat lovers products. My percentage of all sales from the cat lovers section will be donated to animal charities.

Had an unbelievable sale on Zazzle yesterday. I sold twelve of these shirts! It's from an original mixed media drawing I did a while back. I guess it's time I stopped complaining about not having any sales. :-)

A peaceful moment

I wrote this poem this morning during a moment of quiet reflection then added it to this image I had already created. I think it turned out right well.

New Zazzle tie

Made this tie yesterday and I think it turned out just beautifully. I'm quite happy with it.