hand drawn cute and/or creepy critters
I know, no picture today, I’m sad too.
As it says on the tin, I will be taking a hiatus. There’s a lot on my plate at the moment, and it’s hard to find the mental time and energy to make art and take care of… myself, really. I hope that this will be short break (especially compared to the two year debacle), and that I will be able to share many good things with you all once I’m back!
Until then. I hope you all are well, and have many wonderful days ahead. Safe travels!
~Elina
Don’t worry! I’m not disappearing again! Last week was just REALLY busy. There were birthdays, a party, medical appointments, another thing, AND getting ready for General Conference! Combined with the other things I usually do in a week, and I’m surprised I made a coloring page! (it’s for the recovering perfectionist series as I’m going to try to alternate publications)
All that being said, this week was a bit more like I’m used to, and I was able to try an idea I had a few weeks ago. Said idea: press some plants and draw what I see in what they leave behind. If that doesn’t tell you how little I know flower pressing, this next bit might. Only the dandelions left anything, two of which also had brown with the yellow.
However! Not wanting to be deterred from my quest to make SOMETHING this week, I went over them with brush pens and then pressed them, individually, onto the paper… like very annoying stamps… and then proceeded with the rest of the idea!
My thoughts on it? It’s fun and whimsical, while also providing a kind of base to work from. However, it may be a few more steps then I have time or energy for, and I’m not sure how well a larger singular creature would work. Either way, I think it’s good creative exercise.
I hope you all have a wonderful month, and that I will see you here again in May!
P.S. I may need to rethink posting time, as the videos are currently posted at the same time as these, which I think means I can’t embed them till I get up, and I get up LATE compared to most people.
P.P.S. turns out it will embed it once available!
My scanner and I had some disagreements about colors again.
This piece was inspired by my backyard, the growing season coming up, a call to artists at my local art center, and my own wishes for a moment of peace.
In other news: I finally have some author copies on their way, should be here next week. My vinyl cutter is set up and I’ve been having some fun designing things, and now have some fun little sticker things to play with and figure out what to do with. I now have cards with my website and YouTube on them. And my garlic is sprouting!
Here’s the link if you want to watch me make it https://youtu.be/ku1i0_trsQE
Hope you all are well, and can find your own moments of peace!
Pardon the quality of picture. I have a new computer, and am still setting things up, so I’m using my phone for this one.
Playing around with water color again, however this time I have some water color paints from a travel kit I got. So far I’ve found them better for larger areas of one color and mixing the color you want, and I think pencils are better for detail and shifts from one color to another. However it has been a while since I’ve work with the pencils, so my memory could be off on that.
Another thing I’ve started doing for this, is having a little blank note pad to sketch and put the very basic composition and shapes in. Which may seem like a no-brainer to you, however it wasn’t something I was used to doing, and I think that had a huge part in my burn out. Once I drew something, it was done, finished, no need to come back to it. So my sketchbooks were filled with either things I considered finished, messy doodle pages, or unfinished. And when I started sharing my art on here, all of a sudden I felt like all of the things I made had to look good. And the weight of things needing to look good, combined with the one and done-ness of how I was making art, took a huge toll on my creativity and enjoyment of making these creatures. Jury’s still out on the frequency of posting.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and a lovely Valentine’s day this month! See you in the next!
Merry belated Christmas, and Happy New Year!!!!!
As of writing this post, the Cute or Creepy Coloring Book is in review at Amazon!!!! I’m so excited! And I hope you enjoy it when it’s ready!
And apologies for dropping off the planet again. There was a problem with WordPress, life got busy in the little ways, and extra time and energy was directed to getting the book ready.
In other news. There has been a change with how the hosting works, so there is now a data limit, which means posting will be limited to once a month for now. That being said, I will be working on posting more in other places. I have some ideas for YouTube, one of which may surprise you, and am figuring out Instagram as well.
Hope you are all well, and have a wonderful week!
Update! The book is now live!!!!!! https://a.co/d/fRrqj1F
This one was inspired by one of our dogs, who likes to rest his head at the window and watch the world go by.
This one kinda looks like a doll made out of an old button-down shirt, hence title.
BONUS! last month I said I would share something else I was working on, because I make other things as well, and here it is!
Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Do you think a monster would survive under this ‘bed’?
This one was inspired by my bed eating my phone, and it was quite a pain to get it back. I had to take it apart a little, which is not something you want to be doing when you were about to go to sleep. That being said, I’m really happy with how this turned out! Especially considering I didn’t have a reference in front of me, or get up to go look at it!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and sleep well!
My scanner evidently hates colored pencils, because the horns and eyes turned out pretty good, and the sky and grass lost some color and coverage.
On another note. A few weeks ago one of my aunts asked how much I make on Redbubble, and since I’ve only had one sale during covid to one of my brothers, I didn’t know. Since then, I have looked at it, and I figured I’d share my answer here. Everything I have on Redbubble is currently at a 20% markup/artists margin, and the prices you see on there are the base+20%, so I would make .45 on a 2.69 sticker and 57.49 on a 344.96 metal print. I even went and made myself a spread sheet with a lot of the numbers and if it rounded up or down by less than a cent.
I think I was pushing myself a little to hard when I started Redbubble, so it’s kinda on a back burner right now. However, if I make something and you would like to see or have it on something, let me know and you might see it there!
Hope you are all having a wonderful time, and stay safe out there!
It got really hot this week! We were in the hundreds since Sunday, went to 109°F on Wednesday, then dropped down to 93°F on Thursday. The week before that, the highest was a 91°F. So the weather threw me for a loop. Some people I know really enjoyed it, and I’m really happy they did. I think I handled it pretty well. It did cause a can of seltzer to pop in my dad’s car while I was driving it, which made it smell like a baked good for a while awhile.
I was also scared to make a drawing during this time, because I wasn’t sure how the heat would affect my pens, and had a hard time finding an answer to that. I have found some answers to related things, and it seems like it might ok… I suppose it’s one of those “try it and see” things that I’ll do at some point.
Hope you all have a wonderful week, stay cool, and remember to stay hydrated!