Celebrate Oz Blog Party is getting closer and closer...

The Celebrate Oz Blog Party is now just around three weeks away!  If you would like to join in on the fun, fly away to Oma Linda's "Olde Baggs 'n Stuffed Shirts" to sign up for the fun!

I have been enjoying creating Oz character ACEO's for the past couple of weeks and have a few more ideas I want illustrate .... in the meantime I thought it would be fun to do some "eye spying"!   Following are the eyes of several Oz characters ... can you tell who the eyes belong to?

Looking forward to your response comments!   "Eye Spy" a Winkie!  Can you?????

Happy "Eye Spying"!
Karen Anne

Celebrate Oz Party on July 19th at Oma Linda's Blog!

If you would like to join in on the fun of the Celebrate Oz Party at Oma Linda's blog ... here is a link where you can sign up:  http://lindaomasoldebaggsnstuftshirts.blogspot.com/2012/06/post-about-celebrate-oz.html

During the time from now until then I am creating a new series of ACEO's as part of my Celebrate Oz ....

Wonder who these eyes could belong to ??????

 

Time will reveal all ....... on the 19th of July ....

Happy day all my little pretties!

Karen Anne

Return to Celebrate Oz Blog Party - July 19, 2012!

Well, my little pretties, JULY 19TH,  is the "Return to Celebrate Oz Blog Party!" being hosted by the ever so talented and whimsical "Oma Linda"!

Here is a sample of what you may find at my blog during the festivities!

 

I plan on having a few give-aways .... so, come back and visit for details and fun as we get closer to the magical day of July 19th!

Til then, watch out for whomever is lurking behind those evil green eyes!

Karen Anne

Blue Dragon Sea Slug aka Glaucus Atlanticus

The other day I was searching for an unusual subject as the basis of my next illustration.  While I was looking through various images on the internet I came across this extremely strange looking species ... "Glaucus Atlanticus" aka Blue Dragon Sea Slug.  Wanting to complete a drawing that is relatively simple, I decided this litter creature just fit the bill.

A little background on this weird yet exotic critter:   It is called a Glaucus Atlanticus (aka the blue dragon sea slug) and they are often found in temperate and tropical waters. It floats on the surface of the water with the aid of a gas filled sac in its stomach. Because of the location of the sac, this little slug floats upside down. They feed primarily on the  venomous Portuguese Man O' War jelly fish.  They survive by collecting the animal’s toxins and storing them in little sacs on the ends of their feather-like “fingers”, producing a much more powerful and deadly sting.

Beautiful to behold, but I don't think I'd want to come into contact with one!  Prints will be made available in my Etsy Shop.

Happy Day!
Karen Anne

Mom & Dad ... revisited ...

I have been looking at the "finished" pencil sketch of Mom and Dad for the past few weeks and something about Mom just looked "off".  After talking with my oldest brother, he pointed out that Mom's Iris's were too dark and too large.

Finally, I worked up the courage to "revisit" the sketch and see if I could make any minor adjustments to make it a bit better.  So I resorted to the use of my lighted magnifying lamp and picked up my X-acto knife and very carefully began removing outer edges of the iris's and then I lightened up the inner area ... believe me, I was holding my breath during this entire process!

Then, as a final cosmetic touch, I gave a little more volume to her hair in the back and on top.   So, here is my "final" final version ... (I'm now afraid to touch it any further!)

Hope you like the "improvements" I made!

Karen Anne

Mom and Dad "Tweaked"

After studying yesterday's completed drawing I saw areas that needed a bit more work ...
hopefully I won't find more areas or this picture may just never be completed!

Mom and Dad in 1973

I was visiting my Mom the other day and as I was leaving she handed me a part of a page from "The Hayden Island Yacht Club Roster" that had photos of each of them back in 1973.  At that time Dad and Mom owned a nice little cabin cruiser that they christened the "HannaKane".    Mom's name was Johanna and Dad's, Rickane ... so they combined their two names, hence the unusual and unique name!

She asked me if I could fiddle around on my computer and make it look the two photos were actually one photo.  Of course I said, "Sure Mom!  Happy to do it for you!".  Well, I know diddely about combining two photos but I spent several frustrating hours in PhotoShop trying to fulfill her simple request.  Finally, I thought ... why not do a pencil sketch and combine the two photos into one nice portrait sketch!

Here are the photos that Mom gave me ....

They were printed on matte cardstock and were the little bit worse for wear,   I'm sure someone else could have electronically manipulated them and corrected all the deterioration ... but that someone sure is not me!

So, yesterday I sat down at my table with my graphite and charcoal pencils all lined up along with my dependable blending stubs ... said a prayer to God, asking him to guide my hands and began.  Today I finished work on both Mom and Dad and added a kinda smokey background.  I like the results and hope you do too!

 

 I'm going to frame this and present it to Mom a bit later, Dad passed away in around 1986 but we all feel his love each and every day.

Proud daughter of two wonderful loving parents,

Karen Anne

Water Splash on Black

This time out I attempted a water splash on black card stock ... only thing is, the colored paper had a bit of texture which kept complicating the drawing ... I should have just started over with a smooth sheet of black, oh well!  This one was completed using colored pencils ... the white highlights were a bit on the dull side so I took a watercolor pencil and wetted it slightly to achieve the brighter whites.

Water splashes are NOT easy to do!  But, I'll try a few more ....

"Water Splash on Black"

Again, the original is for sale in my Etsy Shop and I will not be making any open or limited edition prints.

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

"Big Splash In A Small Pond!"

I am now working my way around the structure of water splashes ... this first one is of a stone being tossed in a pond, you can vaguely see stones that are lying below the surface of the water ...  I have titled this first attempt ...

"Big Splash In A Small Pond!"

 

Not too bad for a first attempt ... hoping to improve as I progress.  I have listed this original ACEO for sale in my Etsy Shop , again ... only the original will be sold, no limited edition or open edition copies will be made available.

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

(Off to seek some more images of water splashes to color!)

Two new "Peep" Art Cards

I'm just posting the faces of the cards .... they speak from themselves! 

We heard from our granddaughter on Sunday, she was really homesick and kinda down in the dumps.  I'm sure she is suffering from military culture shock and she just needed to hear familiar voices.   Training Camp is a LOT different than Summer Camp! 

On a whole, she is doing quite well and really likes her "Rack Mates".  They are being well fed, and kept busy from AM to PM with nary a wasted minute in between!  She really likes her "PeeP" cards and was regretful that she had extremely limited personal time to respond; we assured her we understood and that the "PeeP" attacks would a keep on a comin'!  I'm trying to send her one a day ... at the very least, one every two days....

Happy Day my friends,
Karen Anne

Two Last Water Drop ACEO Originals

I finished two more original ACEO's featuring water drops .... I think I now have the concept of water drops down.  Plus, I'm getting tired of water drops!  LOL!

"Mama Water Drop and Her Little Droplets"

 

"Water Drops on Deep Red" 

I look at this one and it looks like a clown face!  LOL!  Too funny!  I think I definitely need to move onto another subject matter!

These two originals are for sale in my Etsy Shop and again ... no limited edition or open edition prints will be made from these colored pencil ACEO's.

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

Oh My! More Water Droplets!

I spent a long time on the internet this morning watching and reading tutorials on how to draw water drops.  I figure a couple more days and I'll have these water drops down.  I think I have already improved .... but would like to get even better.

In my quest to learn I searched for hours and the best tutorial I found was at this link:
http://design-newyork.com/blog/2009/07/28/a-wee-tutorial-how-to-draw-a-water-droplet/
so, if you are interested in learning how to draw water drops ... check it out!

This was the best visual aid that I could locate to print out for reference; but there are several video demonstrations on YouTube that also aided me in my quest for understanding the dynamics of a water drop.

"Water Droplets on Green"

"Water Droplet on Purple"

 

The purple one actually looks more like a tear drop bead, don't you think?

The originals are for sale in my Etsy Shop and I will not be making any limited edition or open edition prints of these pieces.  These are OOAK (one of a kind) pieces of artwork.

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

Sharing some more "Peep" Art Cards!

Uncle Pat and Darien's "Peepresentative"

Danny Boy (our min pin) and Darien's "Peepresentative"

I'm just featuring the front of the card in these images!

Happy Day to all!

Karen Anne

Water Droplets ACEO's

I had time to work on two more little ACEO Water Droplets ACEO's today ....

"Water Droplets In Black"

"Water Droplets in Red"

These original ACEO's are available for sale in my Etsy Shop ... there will be no limited or open edition copies made so they are OOAK (one of a kind) ACEO's.

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

Water Droplets on Blue

I have decided I need to learn how to illustrate water droplets and here is my first attempt.  This was done on a blue colored piece of cardstock using Prismacolor Premier Pencils and Prismacolor Verithin Pencils on an ACEO (2.5" x 3.5") sized format.

"Water Droplets on Blue"

I am selling the original of this in my Etsy Shop and I will not be making any open edition or limited edition copies.  I will be creating more of these little ACEO Water Droplet ACEO's in the coming days until I finally get the hang of illustrating realistic water drops.  I will also be selling all these little originals ... so, in essence, these will all be OOAK (one of a kind) pieces with no reproductions available.

Happy day!

Karen Anne

The Traveling "Peep"

Our eldest granddaughter recently left for the Navy Recruit Training Center ... Yep!  She is a "New Recruit"!  She likes her decision to join and we are very proud of our young lady!

Over the years, she and her Papa (my Jim) have had this ongoing thing about "Peeps" (you know, the sugary marshmallows that show up every where at any holiday) ... years ago, she LOVED her Peeps!  However, her culinary tastes have developed and she doesn't appreciate these little sugary gems as she did in the past.

Now Papa still insists that she loves them and makes sure to shower her with "Peeps" at any opportunity he can .... being a loving granddaughter, she always accepts them with grace and dignity.   Prior to shipping out for training camp, Papa again showered the little dear with boxes and boxes and boxes of "Peeps".   Again, being a lady, she graciously accepted.  But, she had a sad announcement for Papa ... unfortunately, the Navy forbids any food being sent to their new recruits while they are in training.  Papa was very sad, he wouldn't be able to mail her any "Peeps".

Never the less, Papa is a very creative and imaginative individual and he figured out a way to skirt the "No Food Allowed" issue.  He could still "Peep" her with "Peep Art Cards" and a traveling "Peepresentative"!   Now he will be able to shower her with paper "Peeps"!  He is happy and so is our new little Sailor!  (As much as she dislikes the sugary delights, she would be terribly disappointed if she did not receive any Papa "Peeps".)


At Papa's request, Mema (me) set about creating a "Traveling Peep" that will go with us on all of our trips, mow our lawn and partake in many, many other activities; which we will then share with her via "Peep Art Cards".    Needless to say, I spent most of the day sewing and stuffing our new "Traveling Peep" whose picture follows here:

and this is the card that we created to send to our "New Recruit" ... isn't just too cute?

Don't you just love the strange bond between grandparents and their grandchildren?????

Happy day all,
Karen Anne

Beach Scene WIP - Day 12 - Final Day

Well, she is finally complete .... I did bits of detail work here and there, especially on lightening some of the driftwood pieces behind the little girl, and decided I best stop before I really do overwork this piece!

If you would like to see the step by step slideshow video I made of this piece, you can find it right here ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAlJcBqBEXs

Happy day everyone!

Karen Anne Brady aka IrelandBrady

Beach Scene -WIP - Day 11

Today we needed to drop off Danny Boy at the vets for his semi-annual wellness checkup and needed vaccines ... plus major nail clipping.  So we took advantage and did a bit of shopping ... couple thrift stores, topped off with a visit to the grocery store. 

By the time we got back to the house I had about an hour before we needed to pickup up DB so I did a bit more work on the little girl's face and began working on her hair.  With her hair I put in the shadows and highlights using various browns for the shadows and beige and goldenrod for the highlights.  After that was complete I used dark brown and a light brown ink fine tip illustrations pens to detail the strands of hair. 

Tomorrow I will touch up different parts of the illustration and, hopefully, this colored pencil painting will be completed!

Happy day everyone!
Karen Anne

Beach Scene WIP - Day 10

I began today by finishing the hands, complete with sand!  The shoe was next followed by the feather in the sand castle.  Moving along nicely today! 

After studying the illustration awhile, I decided to darken the sand and make it a bit more grainy ... more like real sand.  I accomplished this by lightly rubbing the side of the lead (used several different colors of brown) over the sandy area and the little "hills" still remaining in the paper picked up just a tiny bit of added color and provided more of a sand look. 

Next I got one of Jim's old glass ball floats to use as a reference and noticed it has all kinds of little bubbles in the glass; so I took a piece of tracing paper and laid it over the, yet uncolored, glass float and with an ink pen I drew little circles and dots on the tracing paper which left indentations on the art paper.  I then began coloring in the float with varying colors of bluish green to deep greens, after which I used a very pale green pencil to blend all the layers together and achieve a glassy effect.    I think it looks OK, what do you think?

When I began coloring in her face I started off with my Prismacolor soft core pencils and quickly noticed the lead was a bit too soft to get the detail I was seeking.  So....out comes the museum putty and I removed the first four layers I had applied.  Put those pencils back and pulled out my Prismacolor Verithin pencils and began again.  I have about four layers on her face at this point and find these pencils are providing the softness and delicacy I am looking for.

I am finished for today and am going to kick back, relax and will be studying the drawing and plan how I want to proceed tomorrow.    Then I'll have to figure out "What's for dinner?"!

Happy Day!
Karen Anne

Beach Scene WIP - Day 10

Today was glorious outside!  In the low 80's .... I was so distracted I put very little time into the illustration ... I did mange to finish the jeans and begin working on the hands.

Tomorrow is back down to the low 60's so I'll most likely get a lot more accomplished....

 

Happy Day!

Karen Anne