Still Life

I started painting.

I put it out into the universe in January and just like that, the universe echoed "SO SHALL IT BE!", clapped it's hands, and I've been painting.

I'm happy.  I'm really happy.
I've been wanting to paint and draw for a long time, the last time I did any amount of painting was just before Chloe was born in 2012. 

Sadly, I haven't taken my camera out much to document all the pieces I've been working on, though you can find a tonne of them on my Instagram account.  I started off with a fun mermaid + unicorn duo in shades of pink and red for Valentine's Day.  That's all it took!  Then along came orders for Family Portraits and this special Wedding Gift!

I'm really enjoying this medium.  As a Jane of all Trades, my creativity thrives when my brain is able to exercise multiple areas of itself rather than repeatedly lighting up just one spot.  I think it is also just my personality to want a little bit of everything, variety is truly the spice of life. 

I'm really excited for this year as I juggle multiple mediums and projects and I look forward to new things and hopefully collaborations!

Thank you to everyone who has hit me up for painting in the last couple of months, I am so happy to be adding art to your life!

xo
Phanie
 

Mix it Up

Taking a moment to mix things up here with an illustration I'm really excited about!  I have been strangely inspired by cement mixers, one local company in particular who has chosen the clean colours of white with teal.  I used a slight different shade of blue-green and added my own fun details to personalize the mixer for the birthday boy, Ziggy.  Trucks.  They are certainly not something I would normally pay attention to, or so I would assume, but having two boys in the house that both rage about trucks, cars, trains, and transportation vehicles in general, I have been yelled out thousands of times whenever one is in sight. Trucks have become a part of my daily life and vocabulary.

I had the idea last year of creating a technically drawn illustration for a friend's son who is also big into trucks.  I didn't have the opportunity to dive into this project last summer but somehow this year I managed to do it.  I'm still actually in disbelief that I managed to knock it out this year with such a full plate.  It was worth it and I'm considering to possibly do more of these, but we'll see :)  Too many ideas and not enough time...  For now, gotta get this baby printed and framed for the birthday boy!

DIY Light Table

I've been juggling a variety of projects the last few weeks, including a commissioned illustration for my friend Saara.  They will be moving into a new home a few months from now and she wanted to have a family portrait to frame and hang in their entry way.  Long before photography and long before children, I had thought to dabble in illustration and had a collection of prints that I would sell at Craft Shows, a few which she had purchased and inspired her idea to have a family portrait done in the same style.  My illustration process includes piles of sketches that I often have to trace and retrace and retrace, so a light table is really a godsend.  Kevin made me a light table a hundred million years ago which neither of us have any idea on its whereabouts, so he put a quick one together for me the other day.  

Clean, lightweight, and portable with a long long cord and a fantastically sleek LED bulb in place of a regular incandescent bulb which would always heat, melt and warp the plastic over time.  Out of pocket, it cost $7 (Home Depot) for the bulb with everything else being scraps we had laying around the mudroom.  If I wanted to, I would "request" to have these painted in bubblegum pink… or black… or white.  And that gold ring (fixture loop) that the cord runs through I would change that to a flat black or something and obvs that brown cord would have to go… but this was for HURRY UP I NEED TO GET THIS JOB DONE! so i'm all smiles.

Here is a Before and After or rather a With and Without the light table.  I mean, really, I could make out the image enough to trace it but this speeds up the process so much more.  I actually have used my iMac screen as a light table a handful of times, but it's absolutely awkward and uncomfortable.

And another example...

Hoping to have this illustration complete by mid-week… fingers crossed!