Calico kitty cat Halloween costume

We had an early Halloween party at work this year, and I decided to dress as a calico cat, inspired by my kitty Debay which I had until she was 19 years old. She was my best friend.

 

 

It actually ended up being much easier than I thought it would be! I got brown, tan, black, and white fur from JoAnn’s (1 yard of each, though I hardly ended up using that much at all). I made arm and leg warmers, one of each color.
I had never made arm or leg warmers before! I was worried they wouldn’t be the right size, would slip down, etc. I got some pretty wide elastic which I first sewed to the top of the fabric. Then I folded over the end with the elastic, so that you couldn’t see the thread through the fabric. Then I just folded the whole thing in half and sewed along the seam. I thought it would end up sloppy because I didn’t do any proper measuring, just basically eyeballed everything, but somehow they all turned out perfect!
For the skirt, I did it even more sloppy than the arm and leg warmers, but it also ended up looking really good somehow! I basically just patchworked all the different colored furs together to make a big rectangle. Then I wrapped it around me to estimate the width. Then I cut the skirt to the correct width, and sewed velcro along the seam so I could get the skirt on and off. Then I put the skirt on, trimmed up the bottom, and I was done! I was amazed at how great it turned out.
For my face I just got a kitty cat face painting kit at the Halloween store and went crazy. It was super fun. I found that painting on my face is waaaay harder than painting on fabric since skin is so loose, whenever you paint or draw on it, it moves all over the place!
I also painted my nails calico! As you can see in the picture, they are tan, black, and white. Leaving your cats alone on halloween night? read more to know how to keep an eye on them even when you are gone.

 

 

Fan art

I got an email today about some fan art!

Awhile back I sold this painting:

The buyer just emailed me and told me his daughter created some art based on my painting!

So adorable!! And so exciting that I am inspiring little artists :)

My Art Show – Pics!

Just got back from my art show – it was really fun! I had a pretty steady stream of visitors (thank you to everyone who came!) and I even made some new friends!

Here are some pictures of a few of the people who dropped by. I wish I got pictures of all my visitors – it was hard to remember to take pictures the whole time!

My neighbor, Katherine, and her husband and his parents

My friend Pam

Dominion friends

When I got there, the barista told me that the bookmarks and cards have been selling! That was so exciting for me!

I also got an order for a couple custom paintings for a little girl’s room. That should be fun :) And my business cards went really fast – I have to bring more back to the coffee shop!

My friend Fiona bought one of my paintings (one of my favorites actually). It is called “Curious” and it’s a curious little tree.

And lastly, here’s a picture of me with a few of my paintings.

…and now I’m off to illustrate my children’s book! The fun never ends :)

My Art Exhibit at Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Company

It’s finally October! And I just finished putting my artwork up at Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Company! It will be up the whole month of October.

There will be a special Meet the Artist gathering this Sunday October 9th from 1-4pm. If you’re in the South Bay area, I’d love for you to stop by and see me! More info at the end of this post. :)

Here are some pictures from today!

Positioning it just right :)

My friend Pam was such a big help! Thanks Pam :)

Putting the last one in place!

Here’s the left wall…

And here’s the right wall…
Here is my card and bookmark display! It’s near the part where you can put sugar and stuff in your coffee.

I also put some bookmarks for sale right next to the register. I made that little fox painting to show the price of the bookmarks. :)
Hope you enjoyed the pics! And if you’re in the Bay Area, I’d love for you to stop by on Sunday!
Here is their address and hours, in case you ever want to stop by during the month of October:
Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Company
1383 Lincoln Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125
408.297.9077
Special Event – Meet the Artist:
Sunday, Oct 9th, 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Hours:
Monday – Friday: 6:00am – 10:00pm
Saturday: 7:00am – 10:00pm
Sunday: 7:30am – 9:30pm

Children’s book sneak peek!

As you might already know, I’ve been illustrating a children’s book which is why I’ve been so insanely busy lately. The book is about some owls in an enchanted forest, and it teaches kids about money. I’ve been really pleased with my illustrations lately and wanted to share a sneak peek! I can’t really post the whole pages, but here are some portions of my favorite illustrations that I’ve done.

I drew a bunch of different bills and coins – it took me two whole weeks! But I think the end result turned out really awesome. They’re super detailed. While I did this, I discovered that the designs on our money are really beautiful – I had never paid much attention to them before.

There’s one part of the book where the little owlets make a lemonade stand. My favorite part was doing the tree trunk! I loved making the little cracks in the trunk and the rings that tell how old the tree is. I also had so much fun doing the lettering. I first drew the letters just as opaque yellow, then I added a layer mask and drew some semi-transparent lines to make it look like the texture of the tree is showing through.

I love this woodpecker :) I have a thing for birds, and I think woodpeckers are so cute! So I had a lot of fun drawing him. He is the store owner in the story :)

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed the sneak peek :) The book should get printed sometime this year – maybe in a month or so (depending on when I finish the illustrations). I don’t have much left though! Out of 32 pages I only have about 5 pages left. Woo-hoo :)

Card and bookmark display

Only a month until my art goes up in Willow Glen Coffee Shop! In addition to having my paintings up, I’ll also be selling cards and bookmarks that I’ve made from my paintings. I was trying to think of a creative way to display the items available, and I thought of making a painting of some trees and hanging the cards and bookmarks up on a real clothesline! I love the way it turned out!

The painting I made is a 20 x 20. For the clothesline, I used white cloth stem wire from the floral section of JoAnn’s. I figured it would be more sturdy than string. I got the miniature clothespins from the craft section of Walmart. I like this arrangement because if I ever come up with new cards / bookmarks, I can just take these ones down and rearrange.

The little bird in the lower left is holding a sign with the prices. The sign is a separate piece as well, so if I ever want to change it, I can just make a new sign.

Within the next few days I’ll be figuring out how my packaging for the greeting cards is going to look, so I’ll post some pics once I get that figured out!

Snail Mail My Email project

I am so excited to be a volunteer for Snail Mail My Email! Snail Mail My Email is a month-long art project, where users can write a message to a friend, email it to Snail Mail My Email, and a volunteer will hand-write the letter and send it out! I’ve been having so much fun creating the letters. Sometimes users ask for a particular drawing, and sometimes they don’t ask and I just come up with something. And sometimes they ask for a flower petal to be included, too :)

Below are some of the letters I’ve created!

This one was so much fun – I decided to draw a dad and daughter owl, since the letter is from a dad to his daughter.
Sometimes when I can’t think of what to draw, I have to search the letter for inspiration. With this one, it was the fact that she called her husband “hunny” – so I made a whole bee/honey theme!
This one was interesting! The sender is supposed to choose between a drawing, flower petal, or lipstick kiss… This person wrote for me to include “anything origami”… I don’t know origami! But I figured, now’s the perfect time to learn :) And so I learned how to make a crane.
I had no idea what to draw for this one, so I just drew some woodland creatures. :)
So many of these are love letters! I’ve drawn like a kazillion hearts by now :-P
Hope you enjoyed my drawings! If you want to send a letter to someone, you still have 5 days left! The project will run until the 15th.

Children’s book illustration

I know it’s been forever since I’ve posted, but I’ve had so much going on lately! I went out of town for three weeks and worked out of Ireland, so I didn’t get any painting done in that time. It’s been so long since I’ve painted! I just got back a couple days ago, and am so ready to get back into painting.

But, before I paint some more, I have another project I have to finish first! I’m illustrating a children’s book! It’s a book that teaches children about money. I won’t give too many details but it should be done soon anyways. I’m really excited because it’s my first children’s book illustration project ever – and I’ve always wanted to illustrate a children’s book!

I’m doing all the illustration in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet. I had never done this before. My friend at work, Susie, who’s an amazing illustrator (she has created some amazing Google doodles) taught me how to paint in Photoshop using a tablet.

Also, my friend Derek moved to NY recently. He wants me to paint something for his apartment! He wants an abstract painting that will include yellow, orange, and green. I have some really cool ideas and I’m so excited to start it. I will post pictures once I have it done! It will be a 24″ x 12″.

Pin the Tail on the Princess

My friend Tabatha had a princess-themed birthday party for her two twin girls turning 4. Tabatha asked me to draw Ariel from The Little Mermaid on some paper on the wall (really big, like as tall as me) so that we could play Pin the Tail on the Princess!

First I drew Ariel in pencil and then outlined her in black marker.
Pinning the tail on Ariel! Each kid colored in her tail before pinning it onto Ariel.
The final product – Ariel with her colorful tails :)

Eiffel Tower custom painting

My friend Karen’s mom, Pam, had a birthday recently. Pam loves the Eiffel Tower and the color blue. Karen suggested that I make a painting similar to my Peaceful Tree painting – a white outlined painting on blue. So I made Pam a 12″x12″ white Eiffel Tower painting with a blue and teal background.

I tried to make it more interesting than the usual Eiffel Tower painting by giving it some perspective. When I traveled to Paris a couple years ago and saw the Eiffel Tower, it was so huge and it really towered over me. So I brought that experience into my painting.

I also painted dark blue swirlies around the edge to make the background a little more interesting.