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Author: Kathy

August 23, 2011
Kathy
3 Comments

Tiny Hyperactive Warriors With Wings

Posted in Peeking Behind the Easel

Tiny Hyperactive Warriors With Wings

We've been watching two hummingbirds that come into the yard in the late afternoon – early evening during the past week. They move hyperactive fast!  I've been wondering how in the world does anyone get a photo of these little guys?

This is a photo from a copyright free site –  graphicshunt.com.

When I think of hummingbirds, I think  of tiny,  delicate birds, and of all the beautiful photos and paintings of them with  gorgeous flowers.  Do we have that in our yard?  No……. we have tiny hyperactive warriors with wings!

They are charging at each other, up and down, in and out, and chasing each other over a butterfly bush and a handful of bee balm…….. I guess they are so busy creating a ruckus that they've not noticed that  there's an entire hillside of at least 10 more butterfly bushes! 

Watching them, the art side of my brain starts to wander, …..  The juxtaposition of  delicate, cute versus attacking, fierce hummingbirds is intriguing….. do their beaks act  as swords, the green on the top of their heads as tiny helmet…. It could be an interesting fantasy art painting …… hmmmm…reaching for the sketch book.  

Enjoy the rest of your day !

August 17, 2011
Kathy
6 Comments

I’m On Twitter Now

Posted in Peeking Behind the Easel

I'm On Twitter Now

Oh the fun of blogging and online selling! There is always something new to learn and new technology to figure out. Being some what of a news junkie, I've been a Twitter reader for a while. You can read on Twitter without signing up. If there's something happening, it's the folks with phones in hand that are on the scene, tweeting the first bits of news happening right in front of them. Fun for the news junkies : )

Now I've signed up for Twitter for my business. Follow me if you like at  – SibStudio tweets   or the cute little blue Twitter button at the top left side of my blog. The first twitter people I've followed is Etsy, and Etsy's Daniellexo – isn't she great! I was surprised to see how much they tweet and that's I've been missing out on some of the current things happening at Etsy. Especially with all of the changes in relevancy searches. 

One of the Etsy tweets this morning: Reminder: New shop critiques every day this week at 6PM ET! Watch us help sellers optimize shops for Etsy search. etsy.me/onlinelabs    I always forget to check the online labs and as confused as I am on the new system, this looks like one I should check out.

So that's my first 24 hours on Twitter. If you have Twitter links, feel free to put them in the comments.  Enjoy the rest of your day!

August 12, 2011
Kathy
8 Comments

Iris Painting Finished

Posted in Art Work, and Peeking Behind the Easel

Iris Painting Finished

It's finally finished! In a perfect world I'd paint from start to finish in a few days. That rarely happens when juggling  family commitments and I think it works in a weird way.  It's easy to be too critical when you are working up close on a painting.  A number of small break  between painting helps me see it with fresh eyes.  Things I thought were awful turn out to be just fine and having time to mull over the step helps move things along  when I pick up my paint brush.

I surprised a lot of you, my dear readers, with my choice of red for the irises. I have pushed the red to more of a maroon and I think you will love how it turned out.  I dug out an old hard copy photo of a maroon iris that at one time grew in my yard. I used this photo as a guide for the highlight and shadow colors.  If you look closely, you can see the shadows are a deep purple and the highlights in the sun show fuschia, oranges, and a little yellow.  Here's the scanned photo:

And finally – here's the finished painting!

I am pleased with the finished painting. You'll will be able to find this on my Etsy shop over the weekend. Hope you enjoyed following along with this painting and the peek behind my easel!

If you missed the beginning of the painting -links to follow along with the painting:

http://www.sibstudio.com/starting-a-new-painting

http://www.sibstudio.com/iris-painting-update

August 3, 2011
Kathy
8 Comments

Iris Painting Update

Posted in Art Work, and Peeking Behind the Easel

Iris Painting Update

The Iris painting is coming along.  The second step of painting after the background color, was to block in the shape of the irises with white gesso. That creates a clean white for the flower color to show up unaffected by the background color. When painting with acrylic paint, the mid tone colors are applied first, then I work towards the darks and back up to the lights. It is a different way of applying colors than oils or watercolors.

The leaves were based with a variety of light and dark greens, the combination of light and dark leaves create depth in the painting.   I chose a maroon red for the flowers because I love red and  I love the way the complimentary red  pops off of a green background.  I've started working towards the dark colors and shadows – take a peek

Meduim tones blocked in, and first shadows applied

Laying in the shadows on the irises help create the wrinkles and ruffles of the flower. The first layer of shadows on the leaves helps to define their depth and movement.  Stay tuned for the next update form behind my easel.

If you missed the beginning of the painting, you can see where it started from here:

http://www.sibstudio.com/starting-a-new-painting

August 1, 2011
Kathy
4 Comments

Color Is Key For Children’s Art

Posted in Musing About Art, and Reviews

Color Is Key For Children's Art

It's hard to miss all the great back to school sales! This is a great time to pick up some art supplies for your children at a cheaper price. However there is nothing more frustrating to a budding artist  than to have paints or crayons that only produce pale, faint colors.  The best children's art supplies have saturated color ie. color pencils  and watercolors that show show up boldly on paper.

Craonys

From my own experience as an artist and a mom, Crayola beats all the others hands down.  And they are still inexpensive, especially now with the sales. Crayola has done a great job with watercolors and color pencils that paint brightly with saturated color.  Their crayons are also full of color and not overly waxy.   This is a great time  to take advantage of the sales and get some great, fun, and on sale, art supplies.