Sneak Peek Friday

As you see, I'm still working on my nutcracker idea.  I came across this pack of  4" x 12" canvas in Michael's and thought maybe this would be a better idea.  So I'm working with flimsy the way I would work as an interior designer. I just sketched these guys quickly to give me a feel of what they might look like.  The backgrounds could be 3 different flat colors.   You could imagine a row of these guys on the wall.  If I made prints, I could mount them to the canvas and paint the sides a color.

Background in watercolor/acrylic

Background in pastel

This is the backgrounds I came up with for what I was working on last week.   I do like the look of  the pastel, but I don't want to start learning a new medium for this.  I'm also tempted to make their faces warmer/friendlier. By stylizing them, do you lose the fact that they're nutcrackers?  I would love to hear your thoughts/ideas. 

If you want to join us in the fun, just click on  "In the Studio"  and give it a try.

Sneak Peek Friday

Not ready to see Nutcrackers  yet?  Me, either.  Here they are all over my desk this week.  In order to be ready for the holiday season, we'd better start now, right?   Well, when I do open my etsy shop, I have an idea of selling these little guys as prints.

So many of my friends go all out with decorating their homes at Christmas and wouldn't it be fun to have a grouping of these little men on the wall?   There's the idea, but I've been stuck on do I do a background or not and if I do, what kind of background.

So, I decided to just start painting them.  I can always print some to fool around with a background later on.   I've tried different ideas...musical notes, lyrics from the Nutcracker ballet, but so far I haven't liked anything yet.

Also on my desk is my new Kodak picture frame.  Instead of printing the picture to paint from, I can put it on the screen and paint a more 3-d version of the subject.  Although with this new printer I just got, the printed picture of the nutcracker was much better than the picture frame.  So,  maybe good for some pictures and not for others.  I'm still experimenting.

If you want to join us in the fun, just click on  "In the Studio"  and give it a try.