Posted by: quirkydame
on Mar 12, 2011
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Just finished a brand new 7×5 custom acrylic painting for someone very special in my life. I visited my aunt in November and, knowing that she’s been interested in my owl paintings for quite some time, we sat down and figured out just what she wanted. She’s the one who came up with the idea to add the purse and I just love it. I’ll be taking pictures this weekend – for possible prints and to add to products in my Zazzle shop – then I’ll be mailing it off on Monday. I can hardly wait for her to get it. 
Some new projects in the works involve a little critter named Hopper (thanks to my seven year old niece) who has decided to adopt us and steal my heart. 
I’ve gotten some great photos of my little buddy and used one of them to do this quick little sketch Thursday night. I’ll be working on some art featuring this fun little fellow soon.
I’m off to go run errands now then hopefully do a bit of creating. I really must finish up the last of the Art-o-mat blocks, as they are almost out of them. Then I’ll be ordering 80 more and starting the process again! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.
Posted by: quirkydame
on Jan 11, 2011
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Hello everyone! I hope that your new year is off to a good start. I’ve got several projects in the works right now and I'm brimming with excitement about each of them. Plus the ideas are bombarding me constantly. I’m making plans, writing notes and taking steps towards turning these ideas into actual pieces of art!
Early last year I came up with a sketch of a woman with flowing hair and a bird perched on her hand. I loved the sketch and immediately started to paint it. Right from the start, things went wrong. Horribly wrong. I ended up putting the painting aside after keeping it out for a month. I just kept staring at it and every time I saw it, I felt worse.
Last month, something sparked in my brain and I came up with an idea that used that very sketch. I made a few changes, added a background and a foreground, and voila! I love this sketch even more. I’ve transferred the sketch over to an 18×24 gessobord and the painting has begun.
Here is a look at the sketch for the painting. The first layer of the background has been applied and my next step is to fill in the foreground and the woman and bird. I used photos from my recent trip to Hawaii as reference material for the jungle. I visited the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens in Hilo and was blown away by it. The beauty and diversity of plants and trees was overwhelming. The path through the gardens ends at a spectacular view of the ocean and I was in tears. I snapped hundreds of pictures and am so happy I did, as I can use them to inspire new artwork in the future. I’ll be talking more about this (among other things) in the first newsletter for Quirky Dame Designs that will be sent out later this month. If you are interested in receiving it, you can sign up at http://eepurl.com/o4tP.
Another project is the next series of 30 Art-o-mat blocks! They’ve already sold over half of the first batch and are running low, so I’m continuing work on the remaining 30 that I have left.
A preview of four blocks that are completed so far. I have a total of seven done. Once I finish them all, I’ll be ordering 80 more blocks and the work will continue! I’m thoroughly enjoying my experience with this project and am so happy to continue participating. I also found out that my blocks have been available in Winston-Salem, NC at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art. Not sure if they are still available there, as I know that some have sold.
I’ll be back again soon with more news from Quirky Dame Designs. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read this!
Posted by: quirkydame
on Dec 27, 2010
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A few years back, my best friend and I started a tradition. For our Christmas gift (or at least part of it) we would create something for each other. I’ve given paintings each year and in return I’ve gotten a wonderful hand-painted plaster mask, a painting and this year, a wonderful piece of art done with watercolor pencils, plus a gorgeous handmade necklace and earring set. I’ve been very spoiled!
This year, I was pondering what to do. I started out with the idea to paint a realistic nude and the initial sketch came out gorgeous. Somehow, things went downhill between finishing the sketch and transferring it to the gessobord. I didn’t like the composition and I found I wasn’t very excited about it and realized that I needed to rethink things. I do enjoy the challenge of painting realistically, but honestly, I don’t want to do that every time. And this time I wanted to do something different – something fun and colorful but not too realistic. By the end of the day, I had a new sketch of a woman and her cat completed. And I found myself getting excited about painting this one. It just felt right. By this time, it was already into December, but I knew that I wanted to do this one in oils.
So, I got to work. The skin tones came together fairly easily. Painting in oils was the right choice. I’m so much more at ease with the oils, especially when it comes to painting people. Working on this painting helped solidify my decision to focus more on oils this upcoming year and less on acrylics. Some things, such as my owl and the Art-o-mat blocks will still be done in acrylics. But the rest will mostly be done in oils. And I’m really excited about that!
Above you can see the finished painting. I’m pretty happy with it and feel that I made the right decision to scrap the original idea for now. Best of all, it was done before Christmas and in time to exchange today, though just barely! Thanks to thesunnysidebiz on ArtFire, it has a name, which is Mutual Admiration. (I’m simply horrible at naming paintings and when I mentioned it needed one on the forums on ArtFire, she put forth her idea. I’m very grateful!) It was done on a 9×12 stretched canvas.
My next project is another owl, a special custom painting for my darling aunt. This owl will be a red hat owl and it promises to be a fun project. After that, another oil painting and I’m narrowing down the possibilities out of several promising sketches. I hope to spend New Year’s Eve doing what I love best… painting!
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and may the New Year be filled with many blessings!
