I haven’t posted much about my flameworking (glass beads) lately. This is a bit of what I’ve been doing, and how I’ve used the finished beads. I like mixing art and functionality, and the surprise of seeing beautiful beads somewhere other than a necklace or set of earrings.
In that same vein, I like to adapt my artwork to calendars or cards or small cubicle-ready prints. There’s always room for more beauty in life…
The Illustration Friday theme this week is “farewell.”
But then, every ending is a beginning of sorts…
I’ve always liked that quote, and every year it seems truer.
(Both pieces watercolor and colored pencil on 7 x 10 Canson Montval paper, with lettering courtesy of Photoshop.)
This was the “April” image from a “Wild World” calendar I did a while back, so I thought of it for this week’s Illustration Friday theme, “wild.”
A nicer version — and other images, too! — are available at Image Zoo.
Artists in Blogland posts a monthly challenge in the form of a quote. I love lettering, and I’m trying to take on new challenges these days, so…
Meanwhile, the Sketchbook Challenge blog theme this month is “spirals”, so I thought I’d try combining the two. So far I’ve got a black-and-white version — fun, but hard to read! I think I’ll finish it off in color, anyway, and then post that when it’s done.
“You take delight not in a city’s seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours.” — Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
The Illustration Friday theme this week is “urban.” In the spirit of the city, where something new and different — a sight, a sound, a perspective — is around every corner, I’m trying out some different styles here. I used my trusty Faber Castell Pitt pens and watercolor on Canson Montval paper for both, because when I venture into new territory, I like to know where I’m going to park!
Sometimes you have to go your own way, no matter what.
The IF theme this week is “egg.” This is a rough from a story about a bird who…well, you can guess. That project “hatched” another idea that never went beyond a sketch in my journal, but I’m including it here (cleaned up a bit in Photoshop) just as a variation on a theme.
Sometimes you have to stop getting ready, and just get going.
The IF theme this week is “Swim.”
Hybrid Technica pen, watercolor, and a little colored pencil in a Strathmore art journal with 140lb. watercolor paper; background and cropping courtesy of Photoshop. For my next project, I’m going to dive into one of my new Stillman & Birn sketchbooks. I’ve got one each of the Alpha, Beta, Epsilon and Delta series, and am trying to find a Zeta. The paper seems amazing — I can’t wait to see how it works out.
