'Riding the wave' and Sunday Sketches

Hi everyone, hope you're all having a fun Halloween weekend, we don't seem to celebrate it in Australia like others in the states and UK etc but I've decided that next year I'm going to host my own halloween party! The boys would love it, and seeing how much fun all my blog friends have I want to join in next time :0) we've had a few trick or treaters over the last few nights and the boys got a real kick out of that!

This weekend I've been working on some new paintings to add to my market and to make some pendants from. I've got lots and lots of sketches in my sketch book and I've been buying canvas' of some different sizes. This one that I'm posting today I've called 'Riding the wave' and I've included a few progress shots so you can get an idea of how I work, I must admit I struggled a bit with this one.

I loved the sketch but when I translated that to a painting I found that the figures seemed to become a little lost in amongst all my energetic swirls. So I played around with the colours and I think this is my finished product! I do find that if go away and leave my painting for a while I feel like I can come back with a fresh perspective, so it's a cuppa on our deck I think!!! :0) Happy Halloween everyone! :0)

Oh and before I finish check out what the hubby just bought for my market next weekend. I've been wanting a bust for ages, and these two are really going to help make my stall look that little bit more professional. What a lovely thoughtful hubby! :0) And the little cutie in the middle is Tink (Tinkerbell) our new dog! She's making herself right at home, we got her for a foster dog website a week or so ago and she's settling in nicely!

Some new pieces for the market :0)

Hi everyone just a quickie today as I'm off out the door dropping kids to school and running lots of errands. hoping to paint up some new canvas' this weekend and make up some more of these cuties!

'Moon Dance'

Here is another piece that I have painted to add to the collection that I'm planning on taking to the market.

I have been so busy making more pendants and plan on making more from the prints of these paintings, I'll give you a sneak peek very soon.

I'm thinking that I might add my collection to my etsy shop as well :0)

Sunday sketches

I wasn't feeling so great yesterday so had a bit of a lazy day on the couch and decided to have a bit of a doodle in my drawing book. I just scribbled away whilst watching tele and this is what came out :0)

I think I was inspired by this post by Lisa from The Wright Stuff I really loved the eyes closed pose that she did in her beautiful piece. :0)

'Life' and and exciting post!!!

Well first of all this week has been very interesting! I was contacted through my etsy shop the other day by someone from an organisation in town that was looking for local artists who would like to have a stall at this new weekly market. It's massive for me as it's right in the heart of town and should attract thousands of people!!! So I've been busy busy busy making lots of new pendants, I've made some new ones with added charms and tried a few new ones with prints of some of my paintings too. I shall take photos soon to show you what I've been working on! :0)

This painting is another in my series of this style, I decided to call it 'Life' as this person looks like they are pondering lots of things, it was actually taken from a sketch I did a couple of weeks ago when I was feeling a bit bummed out but I like how I've managed to turn it into something more positive now. I really LOVE working on these they are just so relaxing! I'm going to try making another pendant from this print I think!!

Finally my commissioned painting is finished!

Hi everyone, I'm so excited to finally be able to show you my finished commissioned piece. I was asked to include the 3 children and was told that the girls would get such a kick out of being mermaids so I decided to go with 3 separate canvas' that can either be hung together or in their seperate bedrooms. With the little boy I decided that rather than make the poor thing a merman I thought a bit of humour might work well. So I decided to have him playing with/getting a hug from an octopus heheheh. I really enjoyed working on this one, it was very time consuming in that I wanted their faces to be perfect and I wanted to work in lots of detail, that it was very different from my other work that I've been doing lately. It was a nice balance I think.

The group shot was hard to take as it had a gloss varnish over it and so was hard to take a photo in the sunlight but I just wanted to show how it would look hung together, the individual shots show the colours much better. I used iridescant paint over the girls clothes and tails to give them some extra sparkle and I also used texture paste here and there.

I'm very happy with how they turned out and was very pleased when my client picked them up today, she was going straight home to hang them :0)

Illustration Friday 'Spooky'/Sunday Sketches

I don't know if these little cuties are very scary but they are sure up for a spooky evening! :0)

My market experience!

Well I made it through my first market! And boy was it a struggle, it's supposed to be the middle of spring right now and in past years it's been about 30c and beautiful!!! This week in Australia, we are experiencing what is being called 'A weather event!' I think this October weekend has been the coldest one I've ever seen since I moved here 17 years ago!!! We woke up this morning to sleet! There was snow on the ranges not far from us and the wind was wild! I really didn't think we were going to be able to go but the rain stopped so we thought we'd give it a go. The market was at a Community centre which also has a pre- preschool so lucky for us it had things to keep the kids occupied and a bouncy castle set up so the kids kept themselves nice and warm. Myself and this other lady who was selling comestic party type stuff were the only ones outside as the inside was packed, normally this wouldn't have been a problem as everyone would have been outside enjoying the sun had it not been arctic like weather. So unfortunetly the amount of people coming along to this event was only a fraction of what it normally would have been. Despite all that though I managed to sell a few pendants and was asked for lots of my business cards as well as a new commission too! So all was not lost and all in all I found it a very postive experience as I got lots of feed back. It was great setting up my stall and seeing it all come together and even if it wasn't as big as what I'd hoped I feel like i got a lot out of it and enjoyed it. It's given me a little bit more of a confidence boost to perhaps try a bigger market in the future when the weather warms up a bit first though.

These two little new pendants were made recently and I have just listed them to my shop. The dragonfly pendant that I showed you a few posts ago was a big hit, a lady bought it and another has asked me to make another one! I shall be doing lots more of these little charms with my pendants as they seem to be quite popular and are fun to make!

Thank you everyone so very much!!

I've been so touched this week by the comments you gorgeous blog friends have left me in response to my last post, I was definately on a bit of a downer but after listening to all your points of view I realised that I shouldn't take this last experience to heart. You all made me remember why I started being creative in the first place, because I LOVE it and it makes me very happy!!

So I got on with things this week, I've just about finished my commission which I can't wait to show you once I have given it to my client and today I've been packaging things up for this market I was invited to do tomorrow, just a small one but my first one which will be a great experience for me.

So I thought I would show you all a peak at how I'll be setting up my stall tomorrow, I thought I'd have a practice today!!!

Wish me luck! :0)

Dealing with 'rejection'

I guess the more I put myself out there the more chance I have of being turned down in one way or another, and I guess this latest experience I just had isn't exactly negative feed back but it has still made me feel a bit down and has me questioning whether I should worry about making my art more than just a hobby? A couple of weeks ago I applied for a spot in this local shop in town which just opened this year. It is for hand made products by local artists and designers and sells all sorts of things. So I sent in my on line application and hoped for the best. I got a brief email response this afternoon which basically said that my jewellery is similar to some one who is currently in their shop already. I did go in the other day and there is someone doing jewellery with Japanese paper.

I do understand that for it to be fair for the person already renting a space that they don't want too many people with similar products but the response also basically wished me luck in the future and nothing else, there was no 'try applying again in the future' or 'perhaps when this current artist has finished their contract perhaps I could re-apply', I also said that I paint and showed them my blog with all my art on but there was no mention of possibly putting my paintings in the shop. So I guess from all of that I can only think that they just don't think my work is good enough :0(......... I kinda feel a bit brushed off I suppose.
I know that if I want to push myself that I need to get a thicker skin and really this is only one negative experience so far and I do have a lot of support from my friends and family and all you online friends that I have made through blogging but I can't help questioning where I'm going with this aristic path I'm on, and whether I'm really good enough?

I think I'm just in a bit of a funk as it took alot of guts for me to apply for that shop in the first place and when it comes down to it I really do enjoy being creative, perhaps I should just stop putting pressure on myself?

Transportation - Illustration Friday/Sunday Sketches

Just a quickie for this weeks Illustration Friday theme.

Had a really busy weekend this weekend, we had my youngest Riley's 4th birthday party! He was so cute, it was a super hero super villain theme and he got a new Buzz Lightyear costume and wore it the whole day and nearly the night too heheheh. I was exhausted by the end of it yesterday but feeling a little better today, pre schoolers are such party animals!

I'm going to do a small market next weekend which is a bit nerve wracking but exciting for me, I've sold about 7 pendants and a painting through my online shop this week which is really exciting for me so I hope people like my pieces at the market! I shall take photos of my set up when we're there so you can see how it went, my lovely hubby is going to come along with me and help me set up and give me moral support bless him!!!

A new idea

Hi everyone well I have been playing around with some fimo and some little charms that I bought with my birthday money yesterday. I've just got some pieces in the oven at the moment so will show you how they turned out when I've figured out what to do with them.

I'm just having a play with that at the moment and it's alot of fun but I don't know what I'm doing hehehehe.

In the mean time I have tried pairing a little charm with some of my glass pendants and I think this one looks quite pretty, should I combine the two or just let the pattern of the paper, or the design speak for its self, decisions decisions.......