Dec 31, 2015

Today's painting up for grabs is:

"Hello My Little Heart"

If you are not able to win this, I have a limited amount for sale in my shop, HERE.


To win this painting, answer the questions below. First person with all correct answers posted on my most recent instagram post wins. Good luck! WAH... just one more painting left after this! :-[) 

1. Where are the Fiskars headquarters?

2. Who was the first historical figure to grace a U.S. coin?

3. Who was the emperor of the Inca empire?

4. What is the biggest physicological change between caterpillar to butterfly?

 [answer found in video] 

5. Who wrote this song?

6. What is my husband's favorite outdoor activity? ;-[) *he does have an instagram account. ;)

7.  Who is the creator of Peter Rabbit?

8. Name one of our Roxy Marj baby rattlers [what is their name?]


Dec 30, 2015

Today's painting up for grabs is:

"Unicorn Paradise"

To win this painting, answer the questions below. First person with all correct answers posted on my most recent instagram page wins. :-[) HOWEVER, if you are not a winner! This print is for sale in my shop right HERE! Three color options, 10 of each color available. :)






1. What is the deepest lake in the United States?
2. How many U.S. Presidents have been shot?
3. What is this a picture of?

4. What is the rarest blood type in the world?

5. What is the smallest country in the world?

6.  In this article, below... it talks about the addictive nature of sugar. In the article it says " Give someone ____ and he'll stop eating at any given time." Fill in the blank :)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/10314705/Sugar-is-addictive-and-the-most-dangerous-drug-of-the-times.html

Dec 29, 2015

Today's painting is:

"Shine Brighter" 

this was painted with myself in mind...sorry, being a little selfish there. ;-] 
But it's a reminder that we always get to keep trying harder, to be nicer, and to shine brighter... 





if you would like to win this little painting, answer the questions below. First person to post the correct answers over on my most recent ig post wins. Good luck!

1. From the movie "Benny & Joon" below,  Sam pulls something out of his pocket, what is it?


2. The instagram account @kingarthurflour posted something 2 weeks ago that is yellow with something white on top...what is this edible thing? 

Name the 4 celebrities eyes you see here:


Over the past couple years I have been on instagram, I've had a lot of people ask me what kind of pens, paint, paint brushes, pencils etc. do I use in my work. For awhile now I have wanted to post something on my blog about this...but just never got around to it. So, today I am finally sharing with you my favorite artist tools and where you can buy them. I hope the pictures and information are helpful in describing their application. :)

Below is a picture of the majority of pens, pencils, markers, paints etc. that I use on a daily basis. The picture is really large so if you click on it, you will be able to read all the notes I have typed up on there.  My fountain pens I get from jetpens.com my muji pens I get from muji.com/usa and the rest of the stuff either from Dick Blick, Utrecht or Michaels craft store. Something that I need to mention is paper. Your paint, pencil weight, markers...will all look different on different paper. Don't skimp on good paper...my favorite to paint and draw on is marker paper, bristol [cold press] and Parsons Paper 11x15" white from davinciartistsupply.com



A lightbox is the best investment EVER! Before getting art supplies, get a lightbox! There are so many to choose from, Amazon is a great place to look [the art supply stores charge quite a bit] but this will help you finesse your drawings. You can use tracing paper obviously to ink your work, but these are a 100x better.  And if you or someone you know is interested in drawing/ designing...whatever, this would be the first thing I would buy...THEN if they are using it at least a couple times a week [getting your money's worth] then I would go and start getting some supplies. 



Application:

Before going to Parsons I ausually just bought cheap art supplies.  I soon learned that you do get what you pay for...so biting the bullet and investing in the good stuff needed to happen.  However, I cringe when I see people who want to start a new hobby, go out and buy all the best stuff... as if having the nicest supplies will produce amazing work for you. If you're just starting out... I suggest only purchasing a few of these materials [EVEN IF you can afford to buy the whole store] starting out with just a few items will help relieve you of any anxiety you may feel in the beginning. You don't need every color in the rainbow, only white, black, red, blue, yellow... but I would even just stick with white, black and your favorite color and just work with that for a little while. Same goes for colored pencils, pens, paint brushes etc. 

In the Fashion Dept. at Parsons we were required to produce a collection every 1-2 weeks and then once we edited those down, we then had to make "Finishes" [what you see below] of the looks you chose to keep in your collection. Each collection had to come with fabric swatches, so you could better understand the feel, silhouette, color of what you created. Another thing we could include in our collection were "Treatments" this was small samples of beadwork, knitting, painted leather...basically we could make anything that would help overall with people understanding what the outfit was supposed to look like. This was my favorite part, but often time consuming.

A few of my finishes from different collections:





 I thought it would be fun to show you most of this collection below that was inspired by sea anemones with an Art Deco vibe. 



Every collection needs a moodboard



I normally kept my swatches in a square or rectangular form, but for this one I wanted them to have a more organice, sealife essence to them, hence the scalloped edge.


These are some of my treatments for the collection. Hopefully you can tell what outfit
they are apart of?  :)




Closeup up the collection. Lots of gouache, pencil and colored pencil were used to help convey the type of fabric, beadwork, texture etc.





I hope I'm not leaving anything out... but if you have any questions or suggestions, comment below and I will be sure to respond. :) Hope this was helpful for some of you? Next week I hope to post a tour of our studio on here.... xo :)





Dec 28, 2015

Today's painting up for grabs is:

"A Sledding We Go!" 

To win this painting, answer the questions below. 
First person with all correct answers posted on my instagram account win! 






The idea for the illustration was suggested by my husband 
and the inspiration came from this cute image.


1. Who invented the first steerable runner sled, the Flexible Flyer? And what century was it?

2.  How many years has My Little Pony existed? 

3. What two islands are miniature donkeys native too? 

4. What kind of Vegetable is nori?




Dec 27, 2015


Today's painting was inspired by these 3 things:

A sketch of a furr-child from my sketchbook,
and some vintage New Years cards! I especially like the Jewish one below...so cute!

* Just in case you're wondering about my gray sleeve with the stars on it?? :-[)  I received this for Christmas from my inlaws...it's a plush onesie...and i'm assuming it was bought with the new Star Wars movie in mind? Either way, it's become my Star Wars marathon outfit. So perfect! ;-p




This painting is titled:

"Welcome New Year" 

[can you tell i'm not the most creative in naming my paintings?!! insert blushing emoji!] 

To win this painting, please answer the questions below
and leave your answers ON MY INSTAGRAM account, not on here....
first person with all 5 correct answers on my most recent ig post, wins.  Good luck! :-[) 



1. What is the name of this color for 2016 from Pantone?


2. millmercantile.com has a Tomboy lookbook, they are suggesting something is relaxed, what are they referring to? 

3. What is another word for Dutch Vermilion? Merriam-Webster answer

4. The first Star Wars movie became the highest grossing movie of all time, BUT I want to know the movie that surpassed that right after. 

5. How many films has Drew Barrymoore been in? imdb



Dec 26, 2015

Today's painting up for grabs is:

"Nature Baby" 

To win this painting, answer the 6 questions below.
First person with all correct answers posted on my instagram account wins.


good luck! :) 


+ FYI, the painting doesn't have my logo painted on it, just put it there for legal reasons.




1. Who was the female lead in Rosemary's baby?
2. In 2007, Gerber was sold to Nestle for how much money?
3. Who is the youngest billionare ever?
4. What animal holds hands while sleeping to keep from driffting apart?
5. What country knighted a penguin?

6. Name the country this picture was taken in.

Dec 24, 2015

Today's painting up for grabs is:

"Love at Home" 

The painting's quote comes from a church hymn we sing called "Love at Home" 
I have always loved that line "Time doth softly, sweetly glide...." isn't it so true!?! :)

To win this painting, answer the 4 questions below.
First person with all correct answers posted on my instagram account wins.
good luck! :) 



This painting has silver leaf on it, which my scanner couldn't really pick up,
hopefully the pic below lends enough information to the elements? :] 





1. Who played Kris Kringle in the first Miracle on 34th st. film?
2.  Who first told the story of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer?
3. What country was the first to start using artificial christmas trees.
4. What year was Christmas declared a holiday in the United States?

Dec 23, 2015

Today's painting up for grabs is

"Snowstem Wallpaper" 

[It hangs in Netty's stairwell in her house...look familiar? :) 

To win this painting, answer the 4 questions below. 
First person with all correct answers posted on my instagram account wins.
good luck! 






Who invented the cotton gin?

What year was wallpaper invented?

 What does passementerie mean?

when was the peak [year] of tulip mania?

Trick question: How does Marth Stewart pronounce grosgrain? :-p j/k 


Dec 22, 2015

Today's painting up for grabs is

"Netty's Favorites"

To win this painting, answer the 3 questions below. First person with all
correct answers on my instagram page wins! :)





1. Name the Architects who designed both spaces
2. Name the woman on the cover of this issue of Vogue

Today's painting up for grabs is

"Deco Noel" 

To win this painting, answer the questions below. First person with all correct answers posted
on my instagram account wins! :-[) Good luck!







Name these three stars and the year they were born. 


What is the first thing Stymie pulls out of his surprise cake? :-[) 


Dec 20, 2015

Today's painting up for grabs is

"Netty Night" painted in gouache and ink

To win this painting, answer the 3 questions below. First person with all three correct questions
posted on my instagram account wins. Comments on my blog here will not be counted. 


Don't you love Netty's little fireplace? I want to live in her home!! 


Both of these people were famous during their time, who are they?


name this group of people

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