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Things I've Made!
For the arts and crafts and various creative projects I'm working on! Most of them will be previous, until I do more to fill up this page! It's a variety of acrylic, coloring pages, the occasional digital doodle, watercolor, and painting things like wood and ceramic when I get the chance! I look forward to creating and crafting more art soon!
Ballerina Hamster
This is Becky, she is a hamster. She is also a ballerina and is just starting out. She's doing great! I love how the spotlight turned out in the end, even though it took a few tries. Thank God for version history, because the undo button only goes so far. On magma at least, which is the online drawing program I was using. I've been watching Phineas and Ferb lately and thought of trying their idea of using a lightly darker base color to outline the character and that actually turned out really well! It seems a bit more natural, because I think a black outline would have been too jarring.
Calendar Blocks
Another birthday gift! I'm happy to be able to get some good use out of my acrylic paint markers! I tried making a holder out of cardboard, but I mistakenly put a design in the background which clashed with the blocks, and I didn't have the supplies needed to totally repaint it either. But thankfully, the blocks still work well enough on their own! Simple, yet sophisticated!
A Bowl for Keys and Things
This is actually a birthday gift I made for someone. It was definitely a challenge because it was originally a watermelon bowl at a thrift store and I had to do a few layers of black paint just to get rid of the bumps or imprints of the seeds. Then it was trying to coat it with mod podge but not make the black suddenly look navy. Thank God for spray on mod podge. And the eyes of the dragon were hard but honestly I'm happy with how it came out! It was nice to paint something again, and do art that wasn't digital for a change.
Newbie the Clown
The prompt was clowns for April Fool's day, and I like to tell stories with my art so once I drew the clown with the gradient hair and the big tear, I wanted to draw more. The clown was going to be the stereotypical sad clown - but then I decided on this.
A new clown has joined the circus and feels left out because as you can see on the left, everybody is already formed into their established friend group, so she feels left out. Some of my favorite details are the kid in the fish costume on the dunk booth, and the acrobats in the back affectionately named the toothpaste brothers because of their outfits, haha! Again, perspective is hard but this is good practice! I want to draw digitally and with physical mediums as well! This was a lot of fun!
Two Favorite Movies
I had a hard time figuring out what to draw at first and then thought of drawing symbols or items from my favorite movies. But, after hitting a wall with that I decided on only the locket and built everything else around it. It took a while, especially with the background, the people across the street, and trying to get the perspective somewhat accurate. Coraline was difficult because at first I just couldn't get her head right, but I kept trying and God helped me get to where it is now! I love it!
Fiona's Off to Find the Cure!
Fiona is a fairy or butterfly hippo, who is best friends with a teal-colored Penguin named Petey. Unfortunately, her best friend has fallen sick and desperately needs medicine.
The medicine for his specific illness is an elixir made from rainbow apples. So, Fiona goes to find the apples to make the elixir! This was fun to draw and my first time experimenting with the online drawing platform called magma.
Very much a doodle filled with whimsy!
Coraline Inspired
Coraline is one of my favorite movies that I never get tired of watching! Ironically I saw Christian themes in it before I actually was a Christian. It's nothing profound, just the: Sin looks all attractive and then turns around and kills you. Anyway, this is acrylic on canvas, then details drawn with paint markers. The painting was originally just colorful swirls with no black outline, ribbon, or accessories in the corner but after getting home and wanting the swirls or spirals to stand out more, I tried outlining one and kept going until everything was symmetrical! Love it!
Spotty Dog
This was made with a cheap ceramic of a balloon dog, from Dollar Tree. I painted it with a white acrylic gesso, sealed it with mod podge, then drew on it with paint markers and followed up with a final layer of mod podge. This was such a fun and easy piece to do! Great for on the go crafting honestly, and it's an easy way to make a cute gift or have a little craft night with friends! It was a fun project!
Watercolor Swirls
Circles painted with watercolor and then drawn over with paint markers of opposite color swirls on each side of the page. This was a test of an art therapy technique - the repetitive motions of circles and swirls being calming to the nervous system. And since I was in a very new environment when doing it, I can confirm that doing this did calm me down!
The Comedy Tragedy Masks
This was done quite a few years ago, after my last summer camp. It was hard to make sure the masks didn't come across as creepy (to me at least) and copying that font was a challenge - but I love how it came out! This was acrylic on stretched canvas!
Glass Bead Bracelets
There was a store I used to go to frequently, that had this giant bin full of bracelets like these for a dollar. I would purchase a bunch of them, cut the strings and remove all the beads, then re-string them as I liked!
Most of the glass bead sets I see in stores nowadays are dominated by darker colors, less variety of shapes, and it's harder to guarantee what variety you are getting if you order online. And if you go to a bead store, that becomes expensive (unless you ARE looking for specifics) and takes the fun out of it!
A Theraputic Silhouette
This is a watercolor painting to process the grief of moving and it was inspired by a chalk drawing I received as a present when I was younger. It was done with pastels and had a similar style of the dark silhouette against a gorgeous myriad of colors in a sunset against the water. I really had a thing for silhouettes at one point, because it was easy, very forgiving, and I enjoyed it because I didn't have to worry about all the individual details.
Coloring Page Mandalas
One thing I loved to do was color mandalas, then cut it to a certain shape, and then hang it up on my wall in a circle or oval shape where everything connected and the creative, beautiful, chaos of colors brought me great comfort and joy - even if coloring some of these things DID take me forever. And the only reason they lasted so long was because I laminated them after coloring!
Another Mandala Thing!
This one is extra satisfying because it's rainbow! I colored mandala coloring pages with crayon, then smoothed them out with q-tips, laminated, and then put them up! I love rainbows so much - and they are very lovely and satisfying in patterns!
The Dotted Wing Butterfly
I think I remembered seeing a wooden circle with outlines of smaller circles that made up a mandala. The idea of the item was to use a bottle of paint and follow the dot guide to create a mandala out of perfect dots. I picked out or already had a wooden butterfly, painted it black, then slowly began the process of adding in each dot. It was tedious but at least I could see my progress! It was challenging due to using a paintbrush rather than a dropper bottle, but I LOVE how it turned out!
A Favorite Silhouette
My best attempt at the barbie silhouette / logo. This was a couple of years ago, but I still like it! It's a piece of wood painted with acrylic and sealed with an acrylic sealer spray. This was one of my favorites and one of many silhouettes as I was going through a phase doing a lot of those - but most of them were on paper.
Musical Influence
I haven't had my ipad for long, but I enjoy using it for vent art, among other things. It's the quickest way for me to process things when I don't have the supplies with me, and digital art is very forgiving thanks to the lovely undo button! I drew this after having an experience listening to music I heard years ago, and it instantly transported me back to that time and mindset. Sure, the music was catchy, but the mental atmosphere it created wasn't. Granted, everyone is different so what helps and works for me might not work for you, and that's okay! This is just a visual representation of the struggle I experienced to help me get through it and process it.
A Rainbow of Records
Still in theme with my enjoyment of mandalas, rainbows, and patterns - I slowly painted old records I bought from thrift stores. The first one I painted was the green one actually, and then the blue, and then...either the purple or the yellow. Point is, it was out of order and didn't have the fully rainbow one until somewhat recently. Unless you put a primer on top of it, painting records takes forever - multiple coats of acrylic paint and then some really good sealer. These things are surprisingly durable, and I am very proud of them!
One Last Mandala
This is the smaller one I also have in my room, different from the first because despite the outer triangle pieces being the same, the center is different! Though it is small and it was difficult to get it symmetrical, hence the shorter distance between the center and the triangles, I love it just the same. If I could find a good crayon blender or scraper that would help remove excess wax I would probably do more things like this with crayon, but blending can make my fingers hurt even if I use a blending tool - I grip too hard sometimes. And with a scraper, I'm afraid of scraping too hard and the indent from that being obvious and showing in the finished work. Either way, I can always take breaks!
