Fashion Diva Series Continues

I haven't posted any of my Fashion Divas lately, but just so you know, the series has been quite successful for me, and I just sold the original of Amanda last week at the Artists Guild Gallery on Anna Maria Island. There are no prints at this time. Here's what Amanda looks like (on the right).

The selling of Amanda has prompted me to create Molly. I had the song "Devil With The Blue Dress" running through my mind as I created this painting. Molly is the star in the lyrics of this old 60s (I think) song. It brings to mind a funny thing that happened when I was in college.

The memory that runs through my mind here is my freshman year in the dorm, a few of us who lived on my floor had a party one Saturday night. At that time it was totally illegal to have alcohol in the dorms. Some other girls had gotten caught smuggling beer into the dorm in a pitcher (dripping, I think) earlier in the year, so we knew we had to be smarter than that. One of my friends came up with the idea of getting our beer in by putting it into one of those year-supply size of Kotex boxes, and it worked like a charm. We had a great party, complete with dragging out someone's red dress and a wig hat to dress up in and dance in all decked out, when this other song with those lyrics was played on the radio. (I can't remember how that song's title or how it goes right now). We all had a fabulous time, didn't endanger anyone by driving, we didn't get caught, and nobody got hurt - except for my roomie who ended up with a big hangover.

Anyway, Molly is shown above on the left. She's going to make her debut at the end of this month at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, for our Studio1212 display there in March and April. She is an acrylic with tissue paper collaged on over magazine pictures and a recycled acrylic painting underneath. So there were many layers involved in the creation of Molly. The base is 140-lb Arches Cold Press Watercolor Paper.

On The Spot

Producing a painting a day does tend to create some perplexing moments for me. There are paintings of size and complexity that cannot be finished in a day. So then I start another, smaller painting. There are other paintings which do not turn out well, so I either push ahead and continue working, or I put them aside for another day. (Sometimes that day doesn't come for months. It has to talk to me.) Of course, there are days that I shouldn't even begin to pick up a paintbrush! In any event it challenges me and has a tendency to make me want to produce more, and that is a good thing.

On the Spot is the painting of the day. I was going to call it Left Behind, but I discovered I had already titled one by that name. This painting is on a 5 x 7 x 1-inch little canvas. The sides are painted, and it does not need a frame. I will take some additional photos to show 0ther views tomorrow, but I have sent this painting up to Flourish Boutique, a new shop opening June 1 in South Bend, IN. Look for it there.

Today I made some changes to another painting I've had on the blog for quite sometime, Babette from the Fashion Divas Series, and I will put them, before and after, side by side. I had had a critique on that one, and the consensus was to stop. It was done. I was never pleased, and my husband had made one of THOSE remarks, so after a couple of months had passed, I decided to change it. I think I like the new version better. (I did have to use a flash on the photo, because it was after dark, so the photo quality is not quite as good this time though.


What do you think? Before, or after?

Fashion Diva Cards

No new painting today. Instead I'm going to show you some of the Fashion Diva cards that I've been making. Have to create a new supply, because they've been a hot item around here. So I thought I would create a few more for tomorrow's Studio 1212 opening reception.

These are all hand-drawn and handcrafted images. The ladies are stylin in their chic, new chapeaux. (Don't know the plural of chapeau.) So I guess I should just say, "hats."

Finished Up One Fairy Shoe and New Art Too!

So this is how my Fairy-Kissed Fashion Slipper turned out when I got back into it today.

The background color is more of a burgundy than it shows in the photo. I needed to darken the background, because I noticed after studying it that the values were too similar. It helps to step back, in fact step away and take some time off, then come back with fresh eyes.

Also I had to go back in and work on the little fairy. I wasn't too happy with the way I left her last night.

Today I worked some again on a new "Fashion Diva." This one is on canvas, and she has a Western look. You'll get to see her when she's done. In the meantime, here is Adrienne, my daily art offering for today. She will be joining my Fashion Diva series section on Etsy.

Adrienne is a 15 x 7-inch watercolor fahion illustration with the line drawing done using a black Sharpie Poster Paint pen. The black on the sides is just Photoshopped in to make the illustration square, and I used black to make the paper look whiter. I need to figure out how to color balance the camera to make the paper look the color it is, but the illustration/painting is on Arches Cold Press Watercolor paper which is as I saw described somewhere else as "the good stuff."

Painting on lesser quality watercolor paper just isn't worth it. It makes this artist's temper flare to have to deal with paper that just won't handle the color like it should. Why risk a failure by using cheap, cheap paper? Not worth it!

Adrienne will be up on my Etsy shop (DreamON) this evening and available for purchase. Fairy-Kissed Fashion Slipper has now been sent up to Flourish Boutique in South Bend, IN for the grand opening in June.

Fashion Divas Series

At the end of the year, my new inspiration for a series has been the Fashion Diva collection. It started with making cards, and rapidly spread into paintings. There are now three. Claudette had taken up residence on my blog for a week or so, but yesterday I received word that she had been sold at the Artists' Guild Gallery on Anna Maria Island, on Florida's West Coast, so I will have to replace her with Babette or Marcee. In the meantime I AM dancing the happy dance.