Bounty of the Garden - Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce

It's kind of a wonderful thing when you plant seeds and then plants actually grow. For some reason I always feel like there is no way that any seed I plant will actually do anything. But here is the proof - mmmm... delicious.

Then, being on the creative kick I appear to be in the midst of, I took a few up close shots of the produce that I kind of like. I'm wondering if I could enlarge this, frame it, and put it in my kitchen. Hmmmm... artsy.

My Next Painting - Or - What Should I Put On This Canvas?

Here's a canvas that I painted with bright reds and oranges (as in orange - the color. I can just picture myself using a piece of fruit as a paintbrush - hmmm...). But now I want to add something onto this field of color. I'm thinking sunflowers - or maybe fried eggs. I can't make up my mind. I have a few quick wacom sketches but I'm having trouble focusing on just one idea and refining it. Any thoughts? - Post them in the comment section.

My Finished Pears

So here is the final canvas. I did it with acrylic paint and I can't remember when I finished it. Quite a while ago. But like I said in my last post - I'm cheating a bit. The painting was interesting to do because I'm really not familiar with painting with acrylic. I'm still in the process of learning what works and what doesn't. Are there things that I would like to change about the finished product - yes. Am I going to let that bother me - no. I think drawing and painting - like most creative endeavors - rely more on the fact of you doing them over and over again than worrying about everything you do being perfect. This is something I've had trouble with in the past but I'm working on it. That's part of the reason I like blogging. It's motivation to go work on something if only to have something to post about.

Pears on the Wacom

So, in an effort to stay on top of posting regularly I'm cheating just a bit. I did this wacom sketch a while ago but never got around to posting it. Tomorrow I'll post the painting I made based off of this sketch.

I'm Back

After a long absence I'm back trying to post regularly. I've added some goodies to the sidebar and finally just removed the navbar at from the top. For the past year it had taken up about a 2 x 3 inch square on the left hand side of the screen (if anybody knows how to fix this without removing the bar - please let me know). Anyway I guess my blog is now all cleaned up with places to go so hopefully you'll start hearing more from me soon.

Illustration Friday - E is for...

Elephant. At least that is what first came to mind. Did this sketch really quickly and then thought I should go ahead and just post it. I figure a quick sketch is better than nothing at all (which seems in recent weeks exactly what I have posted). So anyway - a nice quick sketch to get me going again.

A Long Four Weeks

It's been a long four weeks here in Geeky Girl land. Not too long after my last post my husband was in a car accident (no worries - he's fine). Unfortunately, the car was totalled. Add that to the fact that we hadn't really finished Christmas shopping - well you get the idea. Mass chaos.

Unfortunately last night we got a call that my husband's grandma had passed away. She had been in declining health in recent years so it wasn't a complete shock - a fact often stated but never making it any easier.

So for the next week or so I'll be away but I will be coming back - hopefully with no more bad news for a while. Hope you and yours are well and safe and I'll be back soon.

I'm Back From New York

 

I'm back from New York and man oh man, it feels good to be home. I picked up a cold from my nephews that I'm trying to fight off but other than that it was a good trip. Today I had some pictures printed off of my snowman drawing that I'm going to try and put on a card for Christmas. I'm cutting it a little close on this one. I'll post the results when they're done (which should be soon, please let it be soon). 

Will Be Back Soon

Just a quick update. My husband took a little time off work and so I hadn't gotten to the computer. Right now I'm in New York spending some time with my nephews. Except for a nasty cold I picked up from them - I'm having a great time and all is well. Thanks for your concern. I should be back in about a week - with pictures from New York city during the holiday season (it's really beautiful). Hope all is well with you and yours.

Voila - Finished Art

So, after much delay, here is the finished piece. This photo has the truest color of all of the photos. I think it turned out alright. It definitely made me appreciate my Wacom tablet in that I could quickly play around on it before commiting myself to canvas. All in all the whole experience was really fun and I think I'm back in the groove of making art.

And here is the fruit of my labor in its' natural environment: my kitchen. I figure if I really get going with the whole art thing I can get the bare walls covered without spending a ton of cash. Then, as I get sick of stuff I can just take it down and put up something new without feeling guilty about it.

Illustration Friday - Strong

The weather is turning colder and the first snow of the season was falling when I made this yesterday. On a technical note this was my first illustration using Adobe Illustrator. To say I have no idea what I'm doing in that program is an understatement but you don't learn if you don't try.

Look Very, Very Closely...

This doesn't show up well - you probably have to click the picture to get a larger view to even see - but this is a picture of the light pencil drawing on canvas of the Wacom drawing. I kept the Wacom image open on my computer and just kind of used it as a guide. I knew I wanted the flowers and vase to take up much more of the canvas so I made that adjustment at this point.

This shows how I blocked in the background color and the black undercoat on the vase. I wanted the violet color to be kind of streaky and mottled so I kept mixing slightly different shades of purple and adding them. The next picture - though blurry- shows the true color better.

I almost kind of like how it looks with just the black, purple and white. Kind of spooky and melancholy. But I went ahead and painted the rest yesterday and will take a picture and post the results tomorrow.

Oooh... All The Pretty Pictures

So ever since I got my Wacom I've been sketching like crazy and having a great time. I haven't really done much with making art since high school when I got burned out (our high school had a very competitive arts program). So a few days ago my husband and I went over to my parent's for dinner and they suprised me with a set of acrylics and a few canvases. So I've decided to paint some pictures for our new house and the first one I finished is based off of this Wacom sketch. I'll post some pictures from throughout the painting process once I get them on my computer.

Happy Halloween - Tomorrow

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Ipod Price Drop

Just a quick update on the ipod photo 20 and 60gb models. On Best Buy's website at least the ipod photo 20gb has been dropped to $249.99 and the 60 to $349.99. Now if you're okay with no video I guess it's cool that you're saving 50 bucks - but then I can't help thinking - okay, you're already spending a chunk of change, for only 50 bucks more you get a smaller, lighter version with a bigger screen and video, all with a longer battery life. I guess I knew it wouldn't be a super significant price drop - the cheap side of me was just hoping for a miracle.

My Mouth Is Officially Stupid

I wouldn't have guessed in a million years that I'd be writing a blog today. This morning at 8:00am I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed. To be honest I was dreading it. Now I'm sitting here feeling silly for worrying about it so much. I honestly feel fine. By the time I got home I felt pretty much perfectly normal and am just taking it easy to be safe. Pain-wise doctors have always told me I have a high pain tolerance but seriously, I must be really lucky because I've had migraines and canker sores that made me hurt much worse than this. So I've just taken an ibuprofen to be safe but I don't think I'll worry about taking the harder prescriptions. I've got them if I need them but cross your fingers, so far so good.

The thing that's really killing me is this whole cold liquid diet thing. Literally two minutes after I got home I started trying to weasel my way into some real food. I keep trying to convince my family that cold fried chicken is cold, so it meets one of the doctor's criteria, right?

But really, I am going to be good and force myself to be careful and relax the next couple of days just to make sure everything heals well. So, if any of you out there haven't had your wisdom teeth out yet and are dreading - really, don't - the worst part about the whole deal was how bad I was feeling before the surgery worrying myself about it.

Illustration Friday - Cold

So here's a little sketch I did when I first got my Wacom of a simple little cold snowman. I've been thinking about putting it on cards to send out for the holidays. I'm just not sure about how to go about doing that so that it's cost effective.

Salsa or Salsa?

In an event that was probably nearly as painful to watch as it was to participate in - I tried to learn to salsa dance Saturday night. The company my husband works for held a "Salsa y Salsa" night at a local culinary institute. When my husband mentioned free food I, of course, wiped the drool off of myself and said, "sounds like fun". Now the catch is the second salsa of "Salsa y Salsa" night. That salsa is of the dancing variety. Apparently, the company hired a dance instructor to try to teach us to salsa and merengue.

Now at this point I should mention that I would love to know how to dance. I think dance classes would be fun, but there is a big difference between dance classes and what is basically a corporate mixer where my biggest thought is, "Don't get your husband fired, don't get your husband fired..."

After meeting plenty of appropriately nasty women, (oh, you're a homemaker) the food was finally brought out. It was okay. I mean, let's be honest, a culinary institute is going to make nice fancy food, but good Latin American or Mexican? Please. If it's not some side street, hole in the wall joint it's just not going to be good. The same usually applies to hamburgers and fried chicken, but I digress.

So at this point I'm still thinking it's a moderate success (I've refrained from punching the nasty women's faces and the mediocre quality of the food has kept me from embarassing myself at the buffet). Then we go to dance. It starts out slow enough that I can keep up. So far, so good. The merengue isn't too difficult. But then comes the salsa. Oh God. I sort of understand it if I concentrate and don't go too fast but my husband, I love him to death, but my husband is struggling. By stuggling I mean mashing my toes to bloody hell. Oh, and spinning me into the other people on the floor. You know it's time to get off the dance floor when you're having to ask yourself "Oh, did I just knock that girl unconcious?".

The rest of the night we watched the other people dance. It made me feel not quite so inept. I'm not going to make fun of people because hey, everybody was having a good time and that's what matters. But, just to give you an idea, I will say this, my husband is an accountant. No joke. I actually got to watch a room full of accountants trying to do the salsa. Classic. I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Anyway, to answer the question posed by the post "Salsa or Salsa?", I can say that both the delicious condiment and the sultry dance of love are fun - but I'll stick with the food, it may give you heartburn, but it won't make your toes bleed.

In Case You Haven't Already Heard...

Apple announced the new 30gb and 60gb ipod. They're slimmer. They have longer battery life. They come in white or black. They have a larger color screen. They have, drumroll please, video. Oooooooo...
So apparently the deal is that people will be able to purchase for $1.99 or so, episodes of shows like Lost or Desperate Housewives and watch them, commercial free on their ipod. Now this is a great idea, but to be honest, I'm probably not going to pay money to watch a show I already pay a cable bill to see.
What intrigues me is the thought that someone, somehow, will figure out a way to pull shows from say, a Tivo connected to a computer, and plug them into the ipod.
In any case, regardless of whether people are interested in video or not, the unit will sell as they cost the same as the previous generation ipod photos.
Which brings up the ultimate question for the monetarily unendowed (read: me) - Is there any place where the ipod photo sans video can be purchased now at a discount? Please?

Illustration Friday - Lost

I had some trouble with this one. I don't know if it was a case of too many ideas - or too few good ones. Just be thankful that it wasn't an image of a missing poster with a tooth on it. Pretty much all my thoughts right now are revolving around the impending wisdom tooth (actually teeth) removal. Instead you get a sort of "lost in thought" concept.