An Apple a Day Swap

These were some of my most favorite art cards that I've made lately. Made for the Apple a Day swap at atcsforall.com. All 3 were created with Prismacolor colored pencils and black art pen.

Approximate time to complete: About 30 minutes to 1 hour each
Original Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches each
Completed on September 28-29, 2010

Marvelous Mermaids

Got my mermaids done!

Pink Haired Girl

Mixed media. Background made with Sharpies, paint pens, and metallic markers. Girl's face made with colored pencil, paint pen, Sharpie, and black art pen.

Approximate time to complete: About 1 hour
Original Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches
Completed on September 25, 2010

Metallic Purple Dots

Made with paint pens and metallic markers.

Approximate time to complete: About 15 minutes
Original Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches
Completed on September 23, 2010

Mouse on Floating Leaf

I had fun with this one. The idea behind it was neat. I participated in a MMH thread at atcsforall.com. MMH means Make Me Happy. The way it works is someone requests an ATC from a list of different categories, then the next person will make one of those cards and add a short list of about 3 ideas for someone to make for them. This was created for Prairiemouse.

Approximate time to complete: About 2 hours
Original Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches
Completed on September 22, 2010

Relaxed Jaguar

(It's finally done!) This is probably one of my favorite pieces and I think I might do a tiger soon.

Approximate time to complete: About 3.5 to 4 hours
Original Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches
Completed on September 22, 2010

Jaguar Work in Progress 2

Work on the jaguar continues:

Outlined with art pen and colored the spots with Prismacolor colored pencil. Also colored the paw and began shadowing.

Wallflower

This one started as a self-portrait, but kind of got a mind of it's own. Mixed media. Started with a handmade specialty embossed paper as the base. Then I layered on scrapbook paper, and hand drawn embellishments on cardstock (markers and Zig millennium memory art pen). The girl was actually drawn with a random calligraphy pen I had laying around.) I sealed everything together with glossy Mod Podge, which, might I add, is awesome.

Approximate time to complete: About 2 hours
Original Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches
Completed on September 19, 2010

Jaguar Work in Progress (Sketch)

Started work on this ATC this afternoon. I haven't gotten to work on any animals lately, the last being "Raccoon in Tree" which was completed months ago, so I was excited to start on this one. I was inspired after a trip to the Tulsa Zoo yesterday and seeing the beautiful jaguar there. I really wanted to draw one. So far I am extremely pleased with how it is coming out. I will scan the stages of my progress as I go along for everyone to see.

Here is the reference photo I am working from:

Credit for photo to photographer Tim Knight from this website.

This is my work in progress sketch:

Altered Photo Album

I made this for my sister who is away at college. She asked if I would make her a photo album. So I used a freebie that I had gotten awhile back and stashed away. I used  scrapbook paper and Mod Podge (For the first time, might I add. I thought it was pretty cool.) and an embellishment with rhinestones and metallic beads from the scrapbook aisle at my local Hobby Lobby. If you look really close you can see the hairs from my cheapo paintbrush that I used to spread the Mod Podge. LOL.

Approximate time to complete: About 2 hours
Original Size: 4 x 6 inch photo album
Completed on September 17, 2010

Blind Drawing Swap ATCs

These were created for the Blind Drawing II swap at atcsforall.com. Had tons of fun making them. Used pictures of the original paintings for reference.

Approximate time to complete: About 1 hour each
Original Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches each
Completed on September 17, 2010