Pencil Designs for Christmas Cards

The best place to start is with the things you have so I grabbed this Christmas stocking I made from a lot of scrap items that were given to me (and which hasn't sold on eBay or etsy) and then I started pulling other items out of boxes of old Christmas decorations and arranging them in different ways to get the creative process going. All you really need is a good idea so just jump in and try something. 

The next decision of course is which media and surface you're going to work on. I selected some 140 pound watercolor greeting cards with lighter weight envelopes and colored pencils. What you see here is the design for the corner of the envelope. The beauty of working this way is that even if I don't get a design that will work for publication or production, there's always someone special that will love a hand drawn card and envelope. Most of the people that I write to say they have great conversations with their mail carriers over my work and that adds even more fun to the experience.

Here's a close up of the envelope.

...and here's the start of my design for the card.

What I really like about this design idea is that it works in either a vertical or horizontal format and leaves lots of room for text boxes, calligraphy or any other way that I'd want to add a greeting to it.

Art Recycle Challenge Painted boxes into other projects

These are panels from 2 different painted boxes. One in progress and the other completed about 4 years ago. The reason for the wide variety of subjects is that I was going to be teaching a community ed class and I wanted my paintbox to display the different types of painting that I'd be able to help the students with.

I almost sold one of the boxes once but the buyer complained that it clashed with something in her room. I still laugh when I think of it because my work is NOT something that you buy to blend in with your decor and I wasn't willing to compromise the concept of the piece by repainting some of the panels to match her place just to make a sale.
I'm glad I kept it now because it gives me a variety of artwork in one place that can be used a number of ways. I store things in the box itself but dumped them out today so that I could put it on the scanner and use the designs on a numbr of different projects that you'll find at http://www.zazzle.com/julia_art*

A Little Fun Between Projects

I couldn't resist "playing" with bits of that last painting and used both of these details on products from postage stamps to shoes at http://www.Zazzle.com/julia_art*

You wouldn't believe how cute these pencils made up on a pair of kids shoes with red, green and blue bindings and yellow laces. They were so bright, fun and cheerful that I couldn't help but smile the whole time I was designing them. I'll bet they give you the giggles too!

The garden lilies are fading fast so I thought I'd better come up with a more dramatic background for my next attempt to capture them this season. I haven't quite decided which end is up with this but I'm pleased with the progress so far. What do you think?

Thoughts from the Garden on Watercolor Painting

This time as I begin to paint I'm not thinking about painting a vase of flowers. I'm taking some time to really look at them and work on the shading and contours of the different kinds of leaves as well as the flowers. I'm taking my time with this and plan to keep at it until I've filled the page and come up with a technique I like. It's more of a study or an exercise than anything else and with everything blooming so fast in the garden I'll have plenty of things to paint in the weeks to come. The daffodils are gone and the tulips are near the end, I just about missed them entirely this year as I spent too much time on a couple of the drawings. This fall I may try to work from a few of the photos I took but in the meantime I've got some germaniums, violas and a fuchsia to work with.