My One Year Extravaganza!!

  Where has the time gone?! A whole year!! What an awesome thing that has been happening in my life with my first year in the journey of learning to draw. I am having a wonderful time and have been learning a great deal about myself and what I can do.

   This is a drawing I did a few months ago for a very dear friend of mine Andy. She has been a catalyst in my life these past four years that I have known her through Facebook. I totally adore her and wanted to draw something special to thank her for all she has done for me. I am quite honored to know that it's hung up in her apartment! It is my first try in drawing something realistically. I learned the coloring through an instructional video on youtube Bergma Studios. I would have never thought to use dark blues with orange to make that look so nice! I spent about 50-60 hours on this one getting the colors just right. I am looking forward to drawing this again. I took the coloring page from the youtube video and drew it.

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My gift to Andy. She did a fabulous job with the mat and frame!

    One thing I like about drawing here in my chair is that I can have the laptop right there too so I can look up and see what I am doing wrong. Space is limited, but with a book it gets clunky. I still use my books all the time though!!

   

A Boy and His Bat

     This one is just me working a bit with clothes, bats, and anime/manga characters. I took what I have learned from Mark Kistler also on having items look 3-d. I cannot stop drawing animals and cute little creatures...it makes me happy.

     One thing I love about the Zentangle method is the calmness I feel while drawing the repeat patterns. I also can sometimes get out of my head with the chronic pain to try to get a hold of how much I let it get to me sometimes. It is hard. When it gets to where I do not go on, I try to surround myself with color.

Gaming Favorites

       I also play video games, those that know me well already know this. I have not really tried to draw them, so I gave it a go with the help of Dragoart.com's tutorials.  Here you see Wall-Nut, Pea Shooter, from Plants VS Zombies, Pikman, Butterfree from Pokemon, Mario and his Mushrooms, and Polterpup from Luigi's Mansion. I hope to be drawing more Pokemon especially.

Birdie and Friends

     Another bird I have seen from how to draw books on Amazon, I have a bunch in my wish list but some of them have previews of the books, or fun drawings just on the covers and I give it a try. I think this one turned out really nice. I like how it came out, I may draw a bigger picture of this!

Hearts and Flowers

     This picture I drew for another dear friend of mine Ginny who is going through a tough time right now. I wanted her to know what her friendship means to me and to also have a reminder when things get so hard that someone cares. I also hope that she can look at this and see new things each time. This one took about 40 hours to draw and get the colors right.

     

Alice In Wonderland Tribute

      This has been an awesome year. I also had someone send me artsy supplies as a surprise, or have gotten them as gifts. I have been asked to draw things for people, it is so super awesome!! I have learned a great deal and cannot wait to see what I will be learning for this coming up year!!

I adore Pokemon!!

     I am truly inspired by all the incredible artists out there! There is one young man in art school with a Deviant Art account named Birdychuart. Birdy's Page! I watched a few times him do a speed drawing and coloring of Bulbasaur Wearing a Venasaur Onesie. I decided to give it a try. I have to say this was one of the hardest drawings I have done. I was so nervous and wanted to do the picture justice. 8 hours later and here it is!

First Attempt

      I know that it needs a ton of work, and the coloring looks horrible. I have to work very hard at getting the same blending that Birdy does. I am thinking it will take a lot of practice. I look forward to the challenge and despite my insecurities, I will keep trying. I hope one day for Birdy to look at my work and be happy that I am trying to draw as well as he does. I just hope he does not think badly of me for drawing something that was originally done by him.

      If Birdy does ever happen to stumble upon this, thank you so much for sharing your talent with the world. I love watching your youtube videos and hope one day to be as talented as you are! Thank you for always inspiring me!!

Spring Spring Spring!!!

     This means BUNNIES!!!  Yay!!  I have been watching tons of youtube videos to learn more about blending and colors, I get so inspired, I have a mega list of things I want to learn how to draw, but they are all so complicated and over my level. I get nervous and full of doubt too. When this happens I try to break down the picture to a few basic shapes and slowly make it into what I am wanting. That is what I did with that dragon.

      I love the rubber stamps! I have always wanted to draw adorable things!! I found one and decided to learn how to draw it and then I added a bit of me all over it!

Spring Bunny!!

      I like to make the frames all wobbly to give it more personality. The eggs in the frame were a happy accident, the ones that are not quite all egg shaped. I am very happy with how this came out. My son says that when he looks at my drawings he feels like he has a cavity. I am glad, that is what I am working hard for. I want to be the best artist I can. I feel like I have learned so much, but I have so much to learn!!
    
       My Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (I call it craps for short!) Has been flaring up quite badly with the warm one day, snow the next. I find that drawing takes my mind off of it. Sometimes I leave my drawings inked and then wait to add the color on bad days. I put so many layers and concentrate so hard while coloring that it does help.  I hope someone might find comfort in my drawings or maybe give it a try to deal with chronic illnesses too!

   There is an artist on youtube that draws Pokemon, really fabulous ones. I am going to be working on one this next week, hopefully I will have something posted soon!!

                                Have a great day!!

22 Years Ago!!

     Today is my son's 22nd birthday! I cannot believe he is this old! Such a fabulous kid too! I am very proud of the young man he is. I also look forward to the man he is becoming. He has been the biggest encourager for me with my love for drawing. I probably would not have even tried if it was not for him. I drew this for him. He was surprised and I think he really liked it. I am really happy with how it turned out. I look forward to drawing more!

My First Dragon

     I have also been watching a lot of coloring technique youtube videos and have frozen the image of a stamp. I then draw it freehand by breaking the picture down in small steps trying not to get overwhelmed and taking it one stroke at a time like Zentangle and also Dragoart.com teaches you to. I have also started to work with odorless mineral spirits to blend my colored pencils and this was the first try with it! The stamp is by C.C Designs. Stamp!! I added the link just in case you want to see it!

Pumpkin Patch!

     The more I learn, the happier I become. I watch a lot of speed drawings, trying to soak up everything I can so one day I can be that good!! I watch some of these 15 year old kids draw such amazing things and wish I had started younger!! I try not to get depressed over that though and focus on the fact that I am drawing things I never thought I would be able to a year ago. I mean that dragon, yeah its a bit misshapen, the coloring could be better, but wow....I drew a dragon!! 

     It's been a hard week, I have been missing my mom, she would have loved to see her grandson grow up and become such a wonderful, giving, young man. I also think I could have gotten her to draw or stamp or something that would have made her happy. She wanted to be artistic but was unsure how to. I would have enjoyed getting her to try stuff, not to mention she would love to see the art I am creating now!

     My son was  born at 3:24 am today. He is the absolute best thing that ever happened to me. I was 21 when I had him, he has taught me so many things, helped me become a better person.

I Am The Diva Challenge #105

   Hello there! Here is my entry for The Diva's use my tangle challenge. The pattern is called "Dansk" by Margaret Bremner, a CZT. (Certified Zentangle Teacher) I had a great deal of fun. It is quite hard for me to do just a picture with tangles lately. The critters beg to make an appearance on paper. I had never used this pattern, and found it quite fun. Ar first, I had no idea where to place it, but then it told me it belonged in the sun. The bee is showing up due to the past bee blimp surprise in a different drawing.

Diva Challenge 105!!

   Dust Bunny was a pattern, I had a hard time with in the beginning. I kept working on it and think it comes out pretty well now, I use it often.

   It has been a rough few weeks. Pain wise, it has been very very bad. I am hoping that I get out of this cycle very soon.


   I hope you enjoy it. I also wish to share my sketch of a quoll. I am quite thrilled with how this turned out and decided to show it early.

Quoll Sketch

 ~Pixiey

Mandala Fun!!

     I spent a bit of money on myself! I bought some mandala stencils to help me not draw circles around bowls or use my ever moving compass of doom. A very good friend of mine bought some and she loved them, I love her art so I sent away!! They came from France which is very cool, my first package from that country! stencils!!  I was so excited and tried them out right away. Genevieve Crabe takes all the work out of these very sturdy stencils. All you need is a pencil and something to draw on, it could be the wall, any flat surface! I chose paper though. I know boring right?! So you just use your pencil and make dots. When you are done all that stops you is your imagination! If you have a hard time figuring out what to do, I suggest using Googlefu and searching Mandala or Zendala.  Here are my first two.

Flower Power

Kitties Are Staring!

Enjoy!

Diva's Weekly Challenge #103

     Hello everyone! This is my very first ever challenge I did for Laura Harms over on http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/  For those of you who do not know her, she is super talented and the mother of two lovely boys. One of whom is the focus on her challenge. It is based on the string of the Moebius Syndrome foundation's web page. Moebius Syndrome is a congenital nerve disorder affecting cranial VI and VII nerves controlling the lateral movement of the face. Moebius is a spectrum disorder - so some cases are more severe than others.

Here is my entry to this challenge. Having a few chronic illnesses I can relate to some of it. Having a child sick is another thing. I am truly blessed with my son being healthy and I truly wish that they find a cure for this disorder. Thank you for reading. I had a lot of fun with this and have focused about 4 days just on this picture. I hope it brings a smile to the parents, and to the kids.

   Have a great weekend!

       Pixiey

Catnip!

   This is the latest drawing called "Catnip" the title was decided by my son when he was sending me the scan to my laptop. I thought it was perfect for this. I took my time with this Zendala. In fact, I had drawn out the circle months ago before I bought my first compass. The picture got turned the wrong way is all my fault! I had not intended it to be a scene...funny how almost all my art is though!

Catnip

   I am pretty please with how this one came out. I love the cat, I think he is my favorite. I hope you enjoy this one!!

~Pixiey

My Hummingbird Gift

  This hummingbird has a story. When I first learned about the art form Zentangle, I Googled images right away. I saw beautiful drawings of every sort done, I was overwhelmed and also thought mine would never be very good. I found a hummingbird drawn my Norma J. Burnell, and tried very hard to recreate it. Of course mine was totally out of proportion, and just looked plain bad. I kept at it, and drew the one, you can see it in the gallery.

   I was so pleased that if one looked at it, they could see that it was a bird, so this was a great start! After a few more months of drawing lessons, I decided to give it a try, go really slow and see if I could draw a better one. This is how it turned out.

   During my discovery of drawing and that with a ton of hours, I could get so much enjoyment out of this I started to feel really bad that the one person who I knew would be so proud, so excited and wanting to see everything I learned would be my mother. Of all the people in the universe, she would have gotten the biggest kick to see how much I have improved. I am not saying I am a fabulous artist at all, just that she would have loved to see this. In fact, her house probably would be littered with my drawings.

   It is so bittersweet my love of art, I can't share it with her in person, to hear her feedback, for her to smile and tell my how happy my drawings make her. I would have made this for her, the other person I knew would enjoy this would be my aunt and uncle. So I made this for them. I have to be honest, during the creation I cried a lot. This little birdie is full of the dreams I had about drawing, and the fact that I am enjoying it is even better. 

   This drawing took about 3 hours to draw in pencil, then 4 more in ink, and about 30 hours with coloring. Each color has about 8 layers of different combinations to look just right. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did creating it. My son bought a lovely dark wood frame with brass rivets. So it was truly a gift from both of us made with much love. My aunt and uncle are very special people, I love them very much.

~Pixiey

Pixiey's Christmas Card-A-Rama!!

Merry Late Christmas!!  I had planned on updating this far more than I have, but thought I would take a few to post my Christmas cards I made for family and friends this year. Each card got a laminated (most of them) bookmark also. I had planned on making more than I did so each of my friends would feel special but I did not plan properly. Heck, I didn't even think I would ever make cards for people. I had a lot of fun though. This coming year I plan on doing better.

Christmas cards!!

My first attempt at tangling ornaments.

Rudolph is really not sad!

Cutest little elf!!

Even Fish get presents!

I like this one!

One of my favorites!

Squirmee gets a tree!!

Made this special for my aunt.

First ever drawing of Santa!

  All in all, they came out pretty nice I think!! I am hoping to be able to have more ready for the next holiday. I also made my son a 8x10 Christmas card, I will post that after I get it scanned in.