Snow Girl's Gift

 
I decided to create my own Christmas cards this year. I love snow people and this sketch really seemed to sum up the joy of a recieving a great gift. I also enjoyed coming up with the little snow creature for the snow girl to be getting as a present. In my first drawing it was a bunny, but it seemed to be looking rather hungry gazing up at the carrot on her face - I could almost picture the next panel as a gory scene... so, I changed it to a kitten with little twig whiskers and I can imagine her naming it "snowball". I never did a pen drawing of this picture because, I wanted it to be more of a painting. I came up with the final sketch then painted it with watercolors and used pen and ink to add details at the end.

Lola Watercolor

Painted me a pretty pooch! I was doing my Watercolor Workout class for the Marysville Art League and couldn't decide which of my pets to paint and I remembered that my bro-in-law's sister has the most beautiful brindle dog that I always thought would be really fun to paint. So, I painted her instead! I love how it turned out and it makes me want to paint more pets :)

Amandolin Kitchen Logo

I created this lovely logo for a lovely woman who makes lovely cookies! I hand painted the mandolin with black acrylic paint then scanned it into photoshop for cleaning and coloring. I then finished the logo in Freehand and voila! A handpainted logo - that is music to my ears.

Visit Amandolin Kitchen's website to see some beautifully artistic cookie decorating:
http://amandolinkitchen.com

Veggie Bags

For Christmas this year I did a series of vegetable paintings on white denim and then turned them into bags and filled them with goodies to give to friends and family. Here are the paintings - I painted with acrylic then heat set them with an iron so they would go through washings when needed. Doing this project, I've realized I really, really enjoy painting vegetables a lot and probably need to do more veggie projects in the future.

Watercolor Workouts

I've been teaching some watercolor classes at the Marysville Art League this summer. Here are a few of my paintings from "Watercolor Workouts":

Art Hanging in Gallery 264 at the Houston House

Not sure why I haven't uploaded anything on here lately. I think I got busy with a lot of things and just got out of the habit of updating my art blog. But, it's never too late to get caught up! Here are some pics of my salvaged cupboard door art being displyed in Gallery 264 at the Houston House in Marysville, Ohio. They are both woodburned and painted with acrylic.

The Marysville Art League has been doing some amazing things in our community lately - they offer lots of classes and put on art events and if you are interested, you can visit their website to see classes I am going to be teaching there as well.

www.marysvilleartleague.org

 

Mamapalooza T-shirt

Probably would have been nice to get this up before the event... but, this is the t-shirt I painted and donated to the silent raffle. If you'd like to learn more about Mamapalooza Columbus and Mom-driven, Mom-celebrating events in Central Ohio go to the facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Mamapalooza-Columbus/313253943877

Or visit the website at: http://www.mamapaloozacolumbus.org/

Star Jacket

I bought two second-hand jean jackets in order to do a little art project for my girlies. I just finished Stella's Jacket and she is super happy with it. I used a starry theme for my little star. You can't tell from these pictures, but each star is also painted with glitter paint, which I hope will mostly stay put when we wash it. Now I need to get started on Marie's jacket before it gets too warm for her to wear it. It is going to get warm one of these days...

Enlightened Auction

I have decided to go ahead and auction off my newly finished piece "Enlightened". There has been a lot of interest, and I would like to find a happy home for this very joyful-looking piece of artwork. I had a lot of fun doing my art auction last fall on the website, but I think running it from here on my blog might actually be easier.

I will take bids by e-mail (vanessa_prentice@yahoo.com), accepting the first bid at each highest increment.

Auction begins now and will end at midnight on Saturday, March 26th, 2011. Winner of the auction can pay by Paypal or check. If the piece needs to be mailed I will add a $10 shipping charge. But, if I can drop it off in Columbus for you or meet you to exchange there will be no charge.

Since this piece was started at the OEFFA conference - I am also going to donate 10% of the winning bid to OEFFA. I will send them a check immediately after payment from the winner is received.

Enlightened by Vanessa Prentice
9" x 27" salvaged wood cupboard door stained with homemade dyes made from turmeric, beet, purple cabbage and coffee. Woodburned and detailed with acrylic paint. Sealed with clear matte acrylic and ready to hang in your home or office.

Auction is now closed.
Winning bid: $50 by Susan West

Thanks so much to everyone who sent me comments, bids and encouragement :)

"Enlightened" salvaged cupboard door project

I've just completed the cupboard door that I began during my presentation at the OEFFA conference. I dyed the door with dyes which I made from turmeric, purple cabbage, beets, onion peels and coffee. I then woodburned freely around the dyed areas, interpreting the colors as a play of light and dark with a yellow cascade of floating lights flowing up the center. I added some painted highlights and texture then completed the piece by coating it with clear matte acrylic. I'm very happy with the finished piece, but can't pick a place to hang it in my home. I may try putting it on Etsy and see if anyone falls in love with it :)

Natural Homemade Dyes

I've been a natural dye buff for many years. I love the process of creating them and the smell of them cooking. I think the colors that come from nature have such a unique look and feel. I used to teach classes every year at Wild Oats on how to dye eggs for Easter using coffee, beets, turmeric, purple cabbage, onion skins and more. I even went on the news one year to demonstrate my techniques to Anietra Hampur on NBC 4!

In the past few years I've experimented with using natural dyes to make art and I've had some great success with it. This last weekend I was able to present my knowledge about natural dyes to about sixty attendees of the fantastic OEFFA conference in Granville, Ohio. I also led a "paint with natural dyes" activity for about thirty kids during the kid's conference as well. It was so much fun and I just love being at the conference and look forward to it each year.

If you'd like to learn more about Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association you can visit their website at: http://www.oeffa.org/

During the adult session I demonstrated painting natural dyes onto wood using an old salvaged cupboard door. I've continued working on the piece I started at the conference and will be posting it here when it's finished!

Pets with Treats!

I created this illustration for the Union County Humane Society for an event they have coming up called "Treats 'n Sweets" where a Girl Scout troupe is making homemade pet treats to sell to benefit UCHS along with their traditional cookies. I used UCHS's cat and dog characters then added some bones for the dog and made the cat juggling cookies - which I had to look up a picture of to get them right. It's been a while since I ate Girl Scout cookies, lol. The event is on March 5th from 1-3pm at UCHS.

For more info visit their website: http://www.uchspets.org/

Cornucopia

I'm really happy with this cornucopia drawing I did for my October e-mail. I love drawing vegetables and I did the coloring for this with colored pencil first, then finished with some airbrushing in photoshop. I love the textured and bright effect I got from this and will probably use it again even though coloring that much with pencils made my hand cramp up!

Brunhila

I did a drawing of my WOW character Brunhila just for fun and it turned out so cute I wanted to share it! This was sketched out in pencil then I used color pencil to finish it.

Mamapalooza Flyer

I put together this flyer for the Mamapalooza back-to-school event. I love the font I used for "Mamapalooza". It's so fun and funky. I'm also playing at this event at 1:00, so if you live in central Ohio, you should come see me! Lots of talented moms are involved in this event sponsored by Advanced Wellness Center and WCBE . We'll have music, food, belly dancers and mama-made stuff, and we'll be giving away some excellent door prizes :)

Halloween Hand Illustration

I created this drawing from a sketch I did in a coffee shop. I wanted to do a fun halloween montage and include some different elements but tie them together somehow. I liked this sketch because all the scary things were being scared by something themselves - namely the zombie hand popping out of the grave.

First I did a pen drawing of the illustration then on my light table I did a painting of the elements with watercolor. I scanned both sheets then put them together to create the final piece.

The Right Mama

I created a rockin' mama illustration for the Mamapalooza poster, but it turned out to be a little too rockin' considering most of our line-up is acoustic singer/songwriters (like myself). So, I toned it down a little, changed the guitar and the color scheme to go with the mamapalooza colors.

Mamapalooza

I am loving working on the graphics for the next Mamapalooza - here is the logo I've created for Mamapalooza Columbus. The Back-To-School event will be on Saturday, Sept. 25th from noon - 5pm at Whole Kids Pediatrics and Yoga in Columbus. The event will feature music by mamas (including me!) and lots of mama vendors and presenters. Come on out and support some moms who rock!

Shiah's Tree

Easily one of the prettiest t-shirts I have ever painted. I had a picture of this little girl and her tree in my "want to draw or paint" file for over a year and just kept putting off doing it. I finally got the ultimate motivation in that I was dropping off a t-shirt for her mom (a gift from another mom) and I wanted to be able to drop off a shirt for this girl at the same time. I knew it had turned out really nice, but the best part was the look on Shiah's face when she saw it and said "It's my tree!!!" Totally made my day :)

Poppy Painting

I painted this pretty poppy in preparation for teaching a class at the Marysville Public Library. It was called "Watercolor Your World" and it went so well! I am really hoping to teach some more classes there - I love to work with adults who start out so timid, but then create amazing art!