"Lilac Roller III"

This is my final and last entry in the Colored Pencil Magazine July 2013 Art Challenge.  I had shared a copy of my previous drawing with my Mom and she thought it would look better with the foliage included, as in the challenge photo ...

I thought about it and tended to agree ... so here is my third and final entry into this month's Art Challenge.   This one has been completed on Strathmore Toned Tan Sketch Paper with a watercolor pencil (wet application) under painting followed by dry colored pencils for shading and details.

Hope you like it!

"Lilac Roller III"

this is the reference photo...

Take care ... wishing you a happy and loving day,

Karen Anne Brady aka Ireland Brady

CPM "Lilac Roller" Challenge Entry .....

I have done a bunch of new pieces in the past few weeks but really haven't had much time to sit down and post them in my blog.  So I thought I would take out a few minutes today to share my latest piece with you.

This is my second Colored Pencil Magazine July 2013 Challenge Entry "Lilac Roller".

I went large for this entry ... 4 inches x 6 inches (hey, that's large in comparison to ACEO size of 2.5" x 3.5"! - LOL!).

Anyway, I used my new Aquarelle watercolor pencils for the primary layer followed by Verithin pencils, SoHo pencils, Faber-Castel pencils, a dash of white Gelly Roll pen, and a smidgeon of Prismacolor fine line markers ... all mixed together on a bed of Stonehenge Paper. Hmmmm, kinda sounds like a recipe doesn't it? LOL!

I must say, I am really beginning to like laying down a watercolor (pencil) under coat and then proceeding with the dry pencils. It is a very useful technic for people who are less patient with the cp layering process.

My rendition of the "Lilac Roller"

and the challenge photo

Happy Day everyone!

Karen Anne

PS I didn't like the sky in the entry I posted yesterday for the July 2013 Challenge, so today I worked on it and I am now much happier with the piece ...

Four more "Winter Berry Maidens"

I have just finished four more of my zentangle inspired goddess/fairy type ACEOs.  I seem to be calling them my "Winter Berry Maidens" simply because I have winter berries in each of these recent ACEOs.

Winter berry shrubs have green foliage and berries; in the winter the green leafs drop off the bush leaving only the beautiful red berries on the twigs.  I like adding them to these latest pieces because they seem to add a bit of a magical element.

Here they are in the order they were created:

"Cleopatra"

"Hummingbird Protectress"

"Rainbow Guardian"

"She Who Loves Yellow Flowers"

I have been having fun creating this little maidens and I hope you are enjoying my efforts.

Take care and happy day!

Karen Anne aka IrelandBrady

Strathmore Artist Papers - New Product - Featured Artist ....

I have been keeping a "secret" since early May of this year.  I've just been bursting to share it, but I promised I wouldn't say a word to anyone (except Jim) until it was made public.  Well ... yesterday I saw it advertised at Amazon.com so I figure that is about as public as something can get!

Let's go back to 5/7/2013 when I received an email with the subject line "Zentangle Art for Strathmore".  Well naturally that piqued my curiosity, what artist hasn't heard of or worked on Strathmore paper?!  I opened the email and here is the first part of that message:

"Dear Karen,

My name is S___ S______ and I am with Strathmore Artist Papers (www.strathmoreartist.com).

We are in the process of developing a new product line called “Artist Tiles”, to be used for meditative art, patterning, and “Zentangle” style artwork. As I was doing research, I came some of your artwork and Zentangles. We really love your style and wanted to get in touch with you to see if you’d be interested in having your artwork featured on the packaging of our new product. One of the products we are creating for this line is 4”x4” Artist Tiles in retail packs. The paper used for these tiles would be our 400 Series Watercolor. We thought your style could be a great fit for this product specifically." 

I'll tell you, I was so stunned I nearly fell off my chair ... you could have knocked me over with a hummingbird feather ... Strathmore, contacting me?  Surely this has to be a joke some one is playing on me ... this can't be real, can it?  Well, it sure looked pretty real to me so I thought "OK ... I'll bite ..." and I responded.  They responded back! And with a contract no less!  We came to an agreement, they sent the product for me to work on, I created a piece of Zentangle watercolor artwork, sent it off to Strathmore and sat back a waited.

In the meantime I still kept thinking ... this is the best dream I have EVER had!  The original piece of art was returned and I had been compensated for my time but still it did not seem real, that is until yesterday when I was once again contacted by S.S. at Strathmore.   Then I googled "Strathmore Artist Tiles" and lo and behold .... there it was!  A Strathmore product with my art work on it!

It's NOT a dream, it is real!  Now I can share what I have been keeping a secret for what seems like forever ... the new Strathmore product with the artwork of your's truly on the front!  Ta-da!

And here is the original art piece ....

This day is certainly filled with a LOT of sunshine and Thank You very much Strathmore!

Happy day all!

Big hugs,
Karen Anne aka Ireland Brady

Gelly Roll Metallic and Stardust (glitter) pens arrived!

I recently purchased some Gelly Roll Metallic and Stardust (glitter) pens and a fairy or goddess just seemed to be the right subject to try them out on. While the Gelly Roll pens attributes are not truly captured on a scanned image, they are very attractive when seen up close and personal.

It is certainly a bunch of fun to play around with these pens!  I've even got one pen with clear ink and glitter, works really great on hair and eye lids.

Here are the first two miniatures (ACEOs) that I have created and embellished with my new pens!

"The Mystic"

"Bunny Love"

It is a beautiful day, hope all of you are enjoying it as much as I!

Happy Day!

Karen Anne