Personalize Me!

I never thought I'd be a business woman, but here I am on the cusp of it. Part of being a business owner is making decisions and sacrifices.

So I looked at my lovely paintings and decided to diversify my business by adding personalized children's prints. Here are a couple that I have for sale at my Etsy store:

The first one is my favorite because of the colors and textures-- I LOVE TEXTURE! I had a blast "cutting" the different papers and splicing them into a cool picture. I think I want to do one with a ship on the ocean. What do you think? What would you like to see?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not changing the direction of my shop, I'm just adding. :)

And I have to confess that The Wiggles are on right now singing in some strange language and... I kind of like it. That Greg isn't a bad singer. Just sayin'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrCNK6UwyXU

Didn't See That Coming...

I've painted a lot of different things, but I gravitate towards people. I love people! I love the shapes of faces and the way shadows fall. I love how skin can be any color depending on the lighting. I love how expressions are infinite and one little paint stroke can change a smile to a look of wonder.

Okay. Enough of that. I'm no Bob Ross with his happy little bushes, but I think you get the point.

Last night I finished a portrait of my friend and posted it on her FB page.

Edit: My friend graciously said I could share her painting. :)

A few hours later, when I checked my FB, I was shocked to see that I had over 40 "likes" and lots of positive comments. That may sound like a small number to some of you, but my pictures don't usually get more than half that.

Of course, I'm not kidding myself. I know the amount of comments is due to my friend having lots of friends who like the picture of her, but gosh, I can't deny that it feels darn good. lol Hey, can't I enjoy a little ego stroking every once in a while? ;)

Livin' like a boss. :P

What's Cookin', Good Lookin'?

So, next on the burner is this random dryad-ish sketch. I wanted to add another picture to my Fall postcard series.

I was sitting at my computer wondering what would make a nice postcard. Naturally, I went with some rich Fall colors balanced with a gray-ish plum. (Look at me acting like I know what I'm doing... pshaw!) I just started sketching a tree, and then I was like, "Let's throw in a pretty woman!" From there it quickly went from pretty woman + tree to dryad magically turning the leaves' colors. Of course, I've just started, but it's been fun to paint so far.

Another one bites the dust.. I mean, I finished it. ;)

After what felt like years (but was actually only months), I finished this book cover:

The book is about sisters who have the abilities to control fire and water. The author gave me total creative freedom. Although it was totally challenging, it was loads of fun. there are still things I'd like to tweak, but I'm calling it done at present.

And I've been sketching in between projects. I do not claim that these sketches are anything more than sketches--albeit rather ugly ones: