green eyed lady...

Great. Now I've given myself an earworm.

I never said I was a GOOD gambler...

Those that know me, know that I am the unluckiest gambler on earth.  Everyone should want to bet against me - you'll always win. 

I placed a bet with my friend Sue on the Jets/Patriots game.  I am a Jets fan.  Only because of Mark Sanchez... he's hot.  If I find a hotter quarterback, I will consider switching teams. 

The bet was - loser has to create a piece of art in the winning team colors... WELL... I started sketching in the 3rd quarter... knowing I wasn't gonna be winning this bet.  LOL

Here you go Sue... Happy Red, White and Blue...

watercolor... watercolour...

All of a sudden I find myself with lots of British, Australian and Canadian friends and I absolutely love adding a 'u' to the word color.  It looks so much more elegant.  ;-)  If an American does it, does it look dorky?  Probably.


So I've been doing the Suzi Blu portraits class online.  Enjoying her, but still have a LONG way to go.  Online courses take a self-discipline that I lack greatly.  I'm way too distracted by email, facebook and my message boards... I began by just sketching the faces, then trying to learn to colo'u'r them in.  <giggling>  I'm supposed to use colored pencils, but absolutely hated the look of that.  I preferred them black and white over the color.

But then I watched a free youtube video using watercolor pencils... and fell in love.  (I fall in love very easily, don't I?)  So of course that meant a trip to Michaels, coupon in hand... and filled a basket with watercolor pencils, and papers and paints and yada yada yada and LET'S NOT tell HB about all this, ok?  Our little secret?????? OK???????

And when I got home I set myself up on the deck in the sun and played.  Well, the first girl didn't turn out - I turned her face bright yellow.  I'm not good enough yet to know how to make that work - so she'll just be my 'practice what color this is' sheet.  Watercolor pencils are a tricky sort.  They try to fool you, looking all flesh tone and stuff... and then turning out to be bright yellow.

So here are some shots of my progression since starting the class... now keep in mind, the first shots are true Suzi Blu style faces - a bit alien looking.  But they grow on you.  It's all about the spacing and measuring distances and such...

Thanks for looking! (and not making fun of me)

This is one of my girls colored in with regular pencil - I just don't LIKE it.  I stopped after doing her hair, eyes and lips - forget shading the face - I was DONE with that.

And here is the same type of girl done with watercolor pencils.  I have a lot to learn with shading, but it's much funner (is that a word?) to work with than just regular pencils.  I'm still loving just sketching with graphite... I love the depth it gives you.

September at TSS!

This month, our sponsor is Stitchy Bear Stamps! They have generously donated a $10.00 gc towards their downloadable designs - and they are downright adorable! Each of the DT's got one to play with and here is mine... some join us - we have great challenges!!

In fact, every single person that enters my Mixed Media challenge this month gets a prize from my stash... so why not come and play? Here's a link - click me!

custom...

I will be the first to admit that custom work stresses me out to no end.  But I also hate to turn it down... truly one of those rock and hard place issues. 

When someone asks me to create a canvas, that's when I start sweating.  I don't know that this will ever change - I never think I do as well with a custom job.  I think my nerves show through.  I worry to no end that the recipient will be disappointed.  And honestly, would I ever know? What are they going to say? "Wow, Sandi - nice job. Thanks."  In MY mind, they are saying "holy crap - THIS is what I commissioned? I could have handed a three year old a crayon and gotten better work." 

So, while I am SO incredibly honored to be asked to do custom work, just know you are making me twitch.  LOL 

This is an example of one custom job that DIDN'T make me crazy - for some reason it fell together and I like it.  It was commissioned by someone I love very much, for someone SHE loves very much.  The ultimate recipient is a  young person, so it needed to be youthful in design, color and clothing.  I took as much info as I could, and hit the sketchpad... and then the canvas. 

This girl is different than I normally create - I'm much more drawn to darker, more muted colors with a lot of grunge and vintage thrown in.  But I like her.  She makes me smile.  And I hope that the young woman that ends up with this loves it as much as the person giving it to her loves HER. 

Pink...

My latest Garden Girl, done as a custom job for a good friend who liked the original canvas (in Etsy) but wanted a different color group...

she's just a steampunk kind of girl...

and she is more than just the sum of her parts... I got the fabric for her dress on Spoonflower - LOVING steampunk stuff...