Etsy Artists

What is your favorite place to buy homemade crafts and arts? Could it be Etsy? If it isn't, it should be! I haven't been on there in a while but I am repenting and have found some very neat and great things. I seem to be all about the art these days so of course I was looking up drawings and paints. There are two fantastic artists that I would love to share with you who were so kind as to let me rant about how stupendous they are.

The first artist I came upon was LouisAdroit.
Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LouisAdroit?ref=pr_shop

I noticed some great pieces in my search that came from the same username and checked it out. I loved all the animals I saw that had simple coloring but nice shading and illustration.
I love the Salamander picture above because it is so darn cute, and it reminds me of a time I went salamander hunting. It has great color, simple lines, and clearly shows the subjects beauty.
This shop is a home to two artists. They are working hard in school working on their business majors. They worked at Burger Kind part time before joining etsy and are now hard at work to scale the Etsy ladder.
Good luck to them both! They are already doing a pretty good job as far as I can tell, but you can always use more support.

The second artist I came upon caught my eye with color. There is something delicate but detailed to her artwork that I love to look at. Bellow is one of my favorites from her shop.
Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/MisprintArt?ref=pr_shop

This woman is very delicate looking, with beautiful up swept hair that kind of "becomes" a bouquet of flowers. I'm not too good at describing artwork but you can see that it is a great piece.
Misprint is a freelance graphic textile designer from Melbourne, Australia. She inspired by and loves music as well as "the intricate features in organic forms". Both are evident in the flow, feel, depth, and detail in her artwork.
She first draws her work by hand using "pencils, pen and ink" then scan it into the computer to have some more fun with it.
Misprint is blessed with a High Distinction folio grade from Monash University, worked as a textile illustrator for three years, and has traveled the world.
She now is a freelance artist and can be as creative and doodle as much as she wants to like when she was a child. Except now it is her job.
Her webpage is here: www.melissawilliams.com.au where you can view more of her work besides etsy.

It has been a pleasure to get to know more about these artists. It seems at times as if art listed online doesn't belong to someone, it is just a picture created from nothing. But, as they tell me a bit about themselves and their work there is more meaning. Art takes on a shape, it isn't just a pretty picture. Art is a unique creation brought about by a real individual even more unique than the work they create.

Lime Drawing - the process

What is your favorite medium or material to work with when you create art? Is it paint, wood, charcoal, chalk, something else?

Well, my favorite thing to draw with right now is colored pencils. Prismacolor pencils to be precise. They are so great, a lot of the time they end up looking more like paint on the paper than pencils.

Recently I have been working on branching things out a bit with my art. I feel fairly competent with pencils but I really don't work very much with anything else. I also usually stick to drawing the same things all the time. So, at the urging of someone on facebook I decided that I would do series of work as well as try drawing different things. I chose to start off with edible items such as fruit.
I start off choosing an image I can work with, usually one I have taken myself. I tend to work on and off on my art so I have to work from photos, otherwise I would have still life's sitting all around the house ALL the time. After I get the picture, I do a light sketch of what I will work on. And once that is done then all there is left is to work my way through coloring it in. I don't like to work all over the paper all at once usually. I get bored pretty easy when I don't see any progress. So, will work in bits and pieces and completely finish little snippets of the drawing while mapping out other areas.
It may take forever to finish, but it is nearly always rewarding. It took roughly 7-8 hours to complete this lime drawing.








When you practice you get better. That is a fact.

Fresh Baked Bread!

What does an artist do late at night when they don't feel like creating something on paper?

Well, THIS artist likes to create something of a different kind. And tonight it is fresh baked bread! This recipe is such an easy one, and it makes three loaves of tasty bread! It has been so long since I have made bread I felt like I had to.
I abbreviated the steps, so I hope that you can understand them.

1. In mixer bowl or crock pot, add 2 dry yeast packages.
2. Add 2 cups warm water. Not scalding, let dissolve for 10 minutes.
3. Add 3 more cups warm water and
4 1/2 tsp salt
4 TBSP sugar
4 TBSP soft butter
4. Add 10 cups of flour
5. Knead bread . . . let rise in warmed oven (in greased crock pot) . . . punch
down . . . let rise again
6. Separate into 33 balls and place into bread pans . . . let rise once more.
7. Bake @ 350 for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top. When done brush top
with butter.

Here is the dough after the first time it's risen. I used a crock pot because I do not have anything else. Something that can go in the oven works great though (since putting it in a warm oven works best for Florida).






Here we go, the dough has risen twice and is set back into the warm oven to rise once more before baking. I place a towel over the loaves when I let them rise. When they have risen enough I set the oven temperature and leave them for the rest of the time.





And the final project! They look so fantastic I can't wait to eat them. I will start on one loaf and wrap the others in plastic wrap when they have cooled enough. I will eat bread any time of day, but breakfast is great when you toast some thick slices and put butter and cinnamon on them. Jelly is great too.


I'm going to go eat some right now! Who cares if it is after 1am? Artists don't have the same schedule as everyone else right? :)

New School Year

(You may have noticed a huge change in this blog, it is going to be involving a lot more than it used to, but I'll be updating it more often and really putting a lot more effort into posting things like before as well as the new subjects like art and whatnot. We shall see how it goes!)

As many students and parents know, the school year has started again! It can be a good thing or a bad thing. For me, a little bit of both.

I'm still a student, and recently at my first day back I was sitting there and couldn't help but feel - "I don't belong here anymore". Alas, The hubby is encouraging me to just finish it and be done. I agree so I continue in a somewhat unhappy manner.

I am happy to have something else to do though. School offers some time away from the house and from boredom. It's good to get out of a routine from time to time. Besides school, I've also been attempting to branch out in the art field. I have most of the time just dealt with pencils and now I really want to work in something else and try to be an all around better artist. I'm giving charcoal and oil pastels a shot and in the hopefully near future I will begin painting.

I have of course not given up pencils (colored and graphite), on the contrary, I will continue to use those items and try to learn to draw different things. I will try to be a little more creative and do pieces that are abstract and have meaning as well as try my hand at items I am not usually very good at drawing. I recently drew orange slices to see how I've changed over time and I was happy with the result. Bellow is the finished piece.


I have been prompted by a facebook fan to do a series with citrus fruit or just fruit in general - and I like the idea.

There is soo much to do with art! I just need to try not to feel overwhelmed. . .
On facebook, I'm still planning on giving away a drawing to someone when the page reaches "50" likes, so go ahead and "like" it so you can have your chance! I will do the same thing when we reach "100"!

If anyone has any suggestions or ideas as far as things to draw and art, by all means leave a comment :)