Star Horse

Okay, I have not posted anything in over a year, so I am far overdue for an update... I returned to school last year to start working toward my art education and art therapy licenses, so between school, work, and my personal life, I have been crazy busy.  I suppose that's no excuse though...

For one of my field classes we are doing some projects that we can save as teacher examples, so for this project we watched a video on the illustrator Eric Carle and then proceeded to create our own handmade papers.  We then had to use those papers to make a collage of anything we wanted.  I immediately knew I wanted to create an animal and, of course, I chose a horse.  In the past, I've had illustration projects in which we had to create an illustration based on a set of words, so I chose another word to join my "horse" prompt and "star" came to mind.  This made me think of the Horsehead Nebula, so that was my inspiration for this whimsical piece - all made with hand painted papers.

I have a lot more projects to post from last semester - including fun things from my metalworking class!  Cast pewter, enameled copper, and welded steel, OH MY!   I'll be posting pics very soon!

Self Portrait for December

I have not done a self-portrait in AGES, so today I did one on a whim. It's not one of my finest drawings, and I must admit, I didn't put much thought into it... But I haven't done much drawing in a very, very, long time, so this was kind of a "get off your butt and get motivated" sort of thing... I forced myself to do it... I'm going to try and do a self-portrait every month, but I'm not making any promises.

Princess Roxanne

Ohhhhhmygoodness it's been way too long since I've updated!! For my fiance's birthday back in April, I painted a portrait of his beautiful shepherd/rottweiler mix, Roxxy :) Watercolor with colored pencil.

dino valentine-o!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

DerbyShiva!

Derby Shiva will very soon be having an epic clash against the Battle Hipsters of Milwaukee!!!

Stay tuned for more info!

The fantastic battle poster was designed by the amazing Jackie at Lovesick Robot Studios.

So, Derby Shiva was inspired by an actual conversation after deciding we were too poor to attend the roller derby bout:

Jackie "If only there was a way to sneak in... Perhaps dressed as derby girls... HRMMMM"
Tara "We could totally pull that off!! I have my own skates!!!"
Jackie "I don't have skates, but I do have a helmet... I can ride on your shoulders, and we could be DerbyShiva!!!"

sweetness

I received a gift of delicious, homemade, dark chocolate-covered strawberries! So sweet :3

sullen squirrel

Mr. Sullen Squirrel after a long day at his not-so-fun corporate job...

triple C morning!

Chessmasters goes way back to a time much simpler than this: MIAD. 2007-2008. Fourth floor Illustration studios. *sigh*  We had a huge scoreboard and enjoyed our Triple C mornings (chess, coffee, and cookies), which has now I think been officially changed to CCN mornings (chess, coffee, and nuts?). Doesn't quite roll off the tongue as nicely, but I'm quite anti-sugar and anti-flour now, so that's where we're at.
Sorry, Pietro, I couldn't draw you winning that first game because I was just so excited to finally win myself!  To everyone else: I did not actually dance on the chair. Though I probably should have...

I heart music!

So, crazy random assortment of songs. And I have to reiterate: She Wolf is an amazing song and the video rocks my socks. I can't stop watching.  (And yes - I know, I know. Kesha is on this list... I really dislike Kesha, but that song has a good beat and unfortunately it's super catchy!)

christmas for the kiddos!

I have a nephew and two nieces that all got some homemade presents from me this Christmas - including some hand-embroidered felt ornaments! yay! And ever since my nephew was born (almost 3 years ago), I've always taken his gifts, wrapped them in brown kraft paper, and drawn on them with sharpie and paint markers, so now I do it for all of them. Beckett is the only one who's old enough to recognize the drawings, but I still like to do it. Love those kiddos :3