Refuge of Light + Birthday Boy+Chalk Board Signs :)

Soooo this week was pretty nuts. My sons birthday was on saturday ( he turned 2 :)!)

Look at that sweet little face :)!! We did a veggie tales Birthday and so I made him a chalk board sign. This season Im featuring custom chalkboards so hop on over to my Pinterest board and check them out. Would love to create one for you!

  I also had several works due this week for clients. HOWEVER I did get to create a piece for donation for the Refuge of Light art show. Refuge of Light is an organization that works to fight human trafficking. 

Here is the piece I created for them. 

Was SO STOKED that it sold! The text in the image is hard to read from the scan. In the background are facts I wrote about human trafficking ( like the average age a girl is sold into sex trafficking is 12 years!! And 25 % of those who are victims of trafficking are U.S. citizens. ) Underneath the drawing of the little girl are scriptures about freedom, healing and Jesus setting prisoners free.  I learned so much about human trafficking while researching to create the piece. Please check out the Refuge of light website if you are interested with  getting involved with the movement that is fighting this crime .

.....ALSO , Im currently taking orders for portraits for christmas. Portraits are great and timeless gifts . I work from your photos, or if you are local we can do a sitting where I take photos to work from. Email me if you are interested and I can give you more information:) 

Chalk Design Boards

Hello friends!!
Its obviously been forever again since I posted (Per my usual time lapse between entries). I have so much work to post :) But for now here is a little tid bit of some thing new I am doing for the holidays.

These are mini chalkboard designs I have for sale. They can be personalized ( family initial, quote you like etc.) . These have been so fun to create and I hope you enjoy looking through them!

                                                           these are all 8 1/2 x 11

This one is quit large, 2x4 feet. This image is one of the design in progress. Wish I could've got an image of the completed piece but you just have to use your imagination :)

Flower Child Work

Below is an example of some custom letters I did for a little girls room. I love to match bedding or work with themes to create specific pieces for kids rooms.

The "Flower Child" is my old logo look Ive created a new sign since that is located at Winnie and Tululas in Athens, TX. Which is an awesome antique store! Its a anthropologie meets antique look. My mom and I share a space out there where several of my sketches and portraits hang.

Summer Workshop Drawing

This summer I had the GREAT privilege of taking a workshop from Maureen Killaby, amazing pencil artist located here in Tyler.
I had such a great time going to the workshop every day and ZONING out on drawing. I love my husband and kiddos of course! But getting to spend a whole week drawing 8 hours a day was so relaxing and refreshing ( I'm sure some of you are like, "what?? Sounds awful !").
These photos are of my workshop drawing in progress. Im so excited to use the techniques I learned in her workshop to further my portrait commissions this year.

mural for Cinderbellas I did last year

This was a pretty massive job I did last year for Cinderbellas in Tyler. I designed and created a stencil for the border of the whole store. Spent I forget how many hours tracing the stencil around the border and then painting ( double coated) the whimsical design. I wish I would've taken a photo that would capture just how much border I painted, but I didn't :) I also designed the little monkey on the dressing room door and painted it as well. I had a blast doing this job :) !

Madeline

Wow its embarrassing how long its been since I updated my blog! Well I have been a tad busy, but I know ,no excuses. This is one of my recent portraits which I am drawing in pen and white charcoal. I wanted to try a few new mediums before my show in May. I REALLY enjoy working with the pen and white charcoal considering how much I love works with deep contrast.

Lillice Long's 80th Birthday Gift

Tim's Grandmother, Lillice , turned 80 this past weekend. It was my pleasure to draw a portrait of Lillice and her late husband , Ted, for her birthday gift! This was a complete surprise to her so I worked from some old photos that were pretty soft and difficult to work from. However it was a perfect opportunity to grow in my skills as a portrait artist. Im hoping to "borrow" the portrait back for my show in  May of 2010.