Flutter by little butterfly

Discouraged by a lack of sales from - or seemingly even interest in - my store, I sat down to design last night with quite a bit of pessimism. I knew it was going to be something with a butterfly, but wasn't sure what. I used a photo my husband had taken last summer of a black swallowtail for my model. Using the airbrush tool in Corel Painter 4, I painted it in a soft yellow and added a few brownish-orange accents. With the same shade, I used the round tip pen tool to outline the butterfly and add a few more highlights. I then applied the watercolor illustration auto paint function giving it the nice, sort of undefined look. I used the variable angle image hose to add the flowers then finished with pairs of lines above each wing to imply movement. I'm quite happy with the outcome proving that I can still enjoy creating whether I believe anyone is looking or not.

A little bird just flew in

Sometimes I worry that the day will come when I finally run out of ideas for designs. Fortunately, yesterday wasn't that day. I had been thinking about doing a design with a bird for a while, but couldn't come up with anything. While I was watching something on t.v. last night I saw a woman wearing a pin that inspired this. In PaintShop I used one of the preset shapes to create the flower. I found a photo of a bird that I liked the shape and position of and used him as my model for painting in Painter 4. After I finished painting him using a watercolor brush, I sent him over to PaintShop where I used the bucket fill tool to add the pattern to his wing. Then, I cut him out and pasted him as a new layer on top of the flower. After a few more adjustments - voila! This button is just one of several things I put him on. The more things I added him to, the more I liked him. I hope other people like him too.

Art and a love of antiques

Whenever I can combine my two passions - art and antiques - it makes me doubly happy. My love of antiques came from my uncle who was an avid collector. I even have a small antiques business that I call "My Uncle's Attic". This digital painting of an antique tole painted coffee pot on an old wooden side table was done from a photo I had taken at his house as we were settling his estate after he passed away in 2007. It ended up having a nice old world look - almost like a Vermeer. I've added it to several items in my Zazzle store, including this print.

First sale from my new store. I'm a happy gal.

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. :-)