Song of the Sea

I have a very good friend whose birthday is actually today (I should probably wait and post this tomorrow, after I've given this to her...nope, I'm not waiting!). Recently she took me to see the animated movie "Song of the Sea" - we both not only loved the beautiful visuals of the film but also the haunting Irish music. I wanted to involve the soundtrack for the movie with whatever I gave her as a gift, but online I could only find a digital download of the soundtrack for purchase. At first I was disappointed, but then I realized this was PERFECT - I would purchase the music and make my own personalized CD and CD case as her birthday present.

For the CD case I used a sheet of high quality watercolor paper which I measured, folded, and cut to size. The movie has lots of watercolor textures in it so I decided to take the ink and watercolor route with my artwork.

This photo was taken after I had started the inking process. It still needs more inking before I start painting -my friend loves dogs so although the dog isn't the star of the movie, he got a star spot on the front of this CD case!

More inking and I've started painting

More inking and more painting - plus I've unfolded the paper so you can see the start of my painting on the inside cover as well

A view of the inking and and painting on the inside cover - this is the main character who is a selkie, a little girl who turns into a seal

After I've finished inking and painting - the CD case flat and unglued

After spraying the artwork to protect it, adding a ribbon, and gluing everything flat (I got to pull out my old bookbinding tools, it was fun!) - here's the finished CD case!!

Back of finished CD case with song list

Inside CD case with CD in clear plastic pocket (which holds it in place really well)

Inside CD case with CD removed - along the rounded top of the rocks I have written some of the words from the first verse of the movie's main song

I am really happy with how the CD case turned out - I had a lot of fun painting and inking and I think the end result is beautiful and unique, which is exactly what I wanted in a gift for my friend.

~m.d.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I struggled for quite a while trying to figure out what to give my mom for her birthday. Birthday gifts are hard, especially for someone I've been giving gifts to my whole life - that exhausts a few options as repeats ;-) And I love and appreciate my mom, so I always want to do something special for her. But she refuses to give lists or ask for presents, which makes it all the more challenging to come up with the perfect gift idea (silly mom, of course I'm going to give you a gift!).

Today is her birthday. This time yesterday, I still was struggling to figure out ideas as to what to give her. But as I was sitting at my desk at work yesterday, I realized I should do something with chipmunks. She LOVES chipmunks, and that just seemed like a good idea to go with.

At first I started browsing Etsy and picking prints of photos of chipmunks that I thought she'd like. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized our walls are already full of prints and photos and too much stuff for me to be picking something to take up more space. I needed something small. In fact, why don't I just make something small. . . and that's how I got the idea to create a painting for her.

I worked a 10 hour day yesterday so I came home really tired - but I was determined to get a painting done by the end of the night. I pulled out one of my watercolor postcards and my art supplies and pulled up a reference photo on my tablet. And got started. I didn't take progress shots because I was worried how it was going to turn out - I'm not very confident in watercolor so I was pretty nervous.

After about two hours (and pulling out my gouache to do some highlights), this was my result:

my little chipmunk - actual size is 4x6in.

I'm really happy - and frankly, surprised - at how well this turned out.

The green leaf  and twig were not in the original reference image but I felt like the composition needed that element to balance the piece. I like the touch of golden green too, especially as green is my mom's favorite color.

The piece took a little over 2 hours to complete from start to finish. I then went out at around 1am to buy a frame and a birthday card. This morning I sprayed the piece (to set it) and then put it in the frame. Ta-dah!

all framed and ready to gift!

I'm so happy. I went from no idea for a birthday gift to a beautiful, thoughtful one. I'm so grateful that I've been blessed with the talents that I have, and that they enable me to offer something beautiful of myself to those that I love. ♥ ♥ ♥

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

~m.d.

i love strawberries

My very talented friend Naisi loves working with ink and watercolor, and as I haven't really played in that world I was inspired by her work to take the leap and do some experimenting. My friend works mostly on watercolor postcards, so I bought a pack myself as well as some permanent ink pens in a variety of tip sizes. I already had the watercolors.

The first thing I did was some free play with the pens to get an idea of what effect I could achieve with the different tip sizes. Then I looked around my desk to figure out if there was something worth painting. If you remember, I created a little strawberry pot arrangement out of clay (I have a blog post and pictures here) and I've been keeping it on my desk - so I decided I would paint a picture of it!

I started out, as I always do, with a pencil sketch of the planter. Then, I felt confident enough with my pens to select a tip size to trace over my pencil work to create the ink outline for my painting.

inking over my pencil lines - usually when I do watercolors I will just do pencil and paint directly over the pencil lines

finished ink outline after pencil lines have been erased

I completed the ink work but it was several weeks before I found myself with time again for art (which was last night, I'd had a bit of a difficult weekend so I needed an escape).

My original intention was to play with salting the wet paint to create texture to represent the dimples on the strawberries. Unfortunately, the scale of my painting was too small for this technique to be effective. Instead, I pulled out one of my smaller tipped pens and drew in the dimples.

after painting in the ink outline

I decided after painting my original ink outline that the piece needed some kind of border to look complete. I sat and thought about it for several minutes, then just started with a simple line border and built on it from there.

the finished piece with border

me holding the finished piece for scale - this is under my desk lamp

the painting next to the model - it's about actual size!

I think I'm going to do a few more little paintings like this - I'm glad I tried the technique, it was a lot of fun!

~ m.d.

The art of cats

I love animals, and cats are no exception. Cats in fact hold a special place in my heart - there's something about their long whiskers, curious eyes, and whimsical natures that I enjoy. 

Back in late November I visited some relatives in a different part of the state and met their collection of adopted cats. I was there with my camera to do some family photos, so I figured it was a good warm-up before our shoot for me to capture a few pictures of the cat clan. 

Two curious friends . . .

This cat was so soft and fluffy!

One of their cats was born a little different. His name is Flopsy because he looks like just a bunny - not only is he fluffy like a bunny, but he was born with only one bone in each front leg instead of the normal two. With two larger back legs and shorter front ones, he actually looks like a rabbit. It's crazy!
He can't move very well, but he manages just fine to get where he needs to be and doesn't seem much bothered by his limitations. He is also incredibly affectionate and trusting, which is a bit scary for a little cat that's so vulnerable.

Not to mention how adorable he could be! Here he's reaching out because he doesn't understand why I'm taking pictures instead of petting him. . .


Not only did I have fun photographing their cats, but I really enjoyed my visit with relatives (and the photos I took of their family turned out really great!). Hopefully I'll get to visit with them (and their cats!) again soon :-)

~m.d.