Happy St. Valentine's Day!

I'm usually not one to care for February 14th, but my group of kids this year have warmed my heart. Though most of the sweet gifts are actually sweets. Lots and LOTS of sweets. They've also showered me with wonderful drawings and hugs. A very warming gesture. 

So instead of me posting my own work, I'll be posting all the wonderful art pieces done by my very own little monkeys. Enjoy!

 "Colorfully Abstract"

Jason-1st grade 

"Heartfelt"

Lesly 1st grade

"A Flower a Day"

Yuli 2nd grade


"Queen for a Day"

Melany, grade 1


"Self-Titled" 

Zayden, grade 2

"The Proposal"

"The Bling Ring"

grade 1

"The Pretentious Tutor"

Hey, don't be fooled by the rock that I got! ;P

Oh, the wonderful gifts of a young child. I'm sure some of these were just items they found and/or received and didn't want...so they "gifted" them to me. haha But whatever, I love them kiddos. Maybe I can snag a few pics of the Valentine Owls we were making today. They're a HOOT! 

 Hear dem owls!

The Mother load!!!

 The kids bombarded me with candy as soon as I stepped out. My dress pockets literally looked like a chipmunk when it stuffs its cheeks full of acorns.

Thank you kiddos!!

Te Amo!!

A Doubtful Drought...

I haven't spent much time with my arts collection since my last Landscape Architecture class. I would say that's about a few good years. So I haven't really played around with the various mediums I've acquired over the years. That includes, watercolor paints, ink, chalk, chalk pastels, chalk pencils, color pencils, fancy art markers, charcoal (my personal favorite), crayons, and sewing materials.

When I do decide to pick something up I'm undecided as to which medium I'm actually going to stick to, on each project. It's quite a dilemma. Therefore, you'll find most of my art pieces are mixed medium. For this sketch piece I decided to work with colored and chalk pencils. I'm not a fan of color pencils, because I don't think they blend as beautifully as chalk and charcoal. But they're always conveniently nearby.

Well, that's enough texty-text. Here are i pesci (fish) for this surprise rainy weather.

The B/W version:

Pencil sketch of Angel Fish (upper left); simple fish (right); eel (lower left)

Here's the color version I'm still working on...

Angel fish (top left); mechanical fish (right); eel (bottom left)

....as you can see it's a work in progress.

For those of you that know me or have scanned through my pieces, you'll notice a reoccurring mechanical nature to my figures, and that has a lot to do with my interest in Steampunk and Steampunk culture. There's this wonderful playfulness of soft and hard/harsh textures that make objects so interesting.

I may start over on the yellow Angel fish just because I'm not quite happy with how the chalk took to the color pencil surface....because of the waxy-like texture of the color pencil obvi. ugh. I like my mechanical fishy waaaaay better in blending. I started with the chalk pencils and did some highlights in color pencil. It can use more highlights, and shadowing.

I still don't know what I'm going to do with the eel yet. I want to give it an luminescent look. I may attempt using watercolor for that one. Just because watercolor can give it that transluscent quality.

The background was initially going to be charcoal black..but I didn't want to create too much contrast. Sadly I have not a dark blue medium in chalk. I may just paint over with a deeper shade of blue or stick with a charcoal black background. 

I think I'll play around with my watercolors and ink next. I love the flexibility in light-dark shades of color.

Tutti Amo! <3