Today’s layer is #3. At this point I have my background design and my black and white illustration. I have the design as the bottom layer, then the b&w picture and now I start removing spaces to show the design underneath. I use the “magic wand” tool in Photoshop to select the areas of white that I want to remove. This leaves the black as a border and whatever is beneath what I have removed will show through. There is no real rhyme or reason as to how I craft the image at this point. I am “feeling” what the image wants to be. I believe that every picture tells a story and I am listening to the universe and trying to be true to the untold story emerging 🙂
Removing puzzle pieces to find the image rather than adding them…..

Colorful Shih Tzu Dog Art

Mixed Media

2015

Everyone who knows me is well aware of how quickly I process. I think fast. I drive fast. And I paint even faster. When I work with acrylics, my work goes in a furious fashion. It’s all over in a matter of minutes usually. There are the huge beasts that require many hours, but the majority of my work is a race to the finish line. It’s just how I roll.

People have the mistaken idea that digital work is easy. It’s true that running something through a filter does not take much effort. But this little cutie took me over 5 hours to create. It is collage work and bit by tiny bit I form the image using one of my original paintings. Cutting and pasting….cutting and pasting….trimming….adding….tweaking…..It’s maddening in a way. Kind of like O.C.D. (which I have been clinically diagnosed with)…

Here Comes The Sun

Stained Glass Digital Designs

A new day and a new opportunity to see sunshine and light in the world. I am realizing lately that I don’t see as much brightness as actually exists. I think that the pattern I made this morning is reminding me that it was there 🙂
My latest art series that I am working on is a multi layered image combining my designs, illustrations and colored paint layers.
I would like to share layer #1 from the current piece I am working on. I am naming it “Here Comes The Sun”
Stay tuned for the illustration layer that I will use as a template for cutting Colored Paint layers from…..

I created this sunflower art many years ago using my signature “Labor of Love” style. When I listed it for sale, it sold immediately…..within minutes!  It’s always been a favorite piece of art of mine.  I am featuring it for the next few days and you can get an AMAZING deal on gallery wrapped canvas right here:

http://fineartamerica.com/weeklypromotion.html?promotionid=163192

This is a limited offer…..So check it out now!

Ta da!  This is my very first hummingbird photo!  A few days ago I hung a feeder outside and it seems the little birds love it.  🙂  It was fun trying to capture them.

One of my camera club members recommended using a flash, however, I don’t own one.  He was going to explain all this at our next meeting Thursday.  It might be something I can get in the not-to-distant future.  Someone else suggested I get a real flower (one that hummingbirds like) and put it on top of the feeder with a tiny bit of sugar water on it.  By doing this I can (hopefully) capture the hummingbird with the flower in the shot instead of the feeder.   I thought that was so clever.  Maybe I will try that sometime.

If anyone has suggestions on how to take hummingbirds, I’d love to hear.  In the meantime…here’s the little guy….or girl…

When I started this art business, it couldn’t have been at a more oportune time.  The housing market was on fire and people were buying and selling like crazy.  All of that moving and redecorating kept me super busy.  I worked 16 hour days sometimes just to keep up!  My income was only limited by my ability to work and the time needed.  Back then I was only selling originals which meant a lot of physical labor for me.  I definitely paid a price for that, but the profit I was making was out of this World.

Then it all came crashing down. The bubble burst!

Like many artists I found myself lost and barely able to stay afloat for many years.  I had thousands of dollars worth of supplies sitting in my studio, but no one was buying much.  I kept creating, but watched so many paintings languish in storage.  I had sales…