lindsaybellejennings.com

BOO!!
hehe

Nothing exciting going on for David and I this year - might watch a scary movie and eat popcorn (yummm), but thats about it! Doesn’t really feel like Halloween down here in Texas - the cool front has kinda died and its warm out again, and the leaves are still green…no fall colours. Oh well

And sadly I have not made any halloween illustrations this year
but I do have a groovy link to the BEST online cartoon out there
I present to you A Halloween Toon from HomestarRunner.com!! <3<3
WOOT!
Enjoy!

Have a Happy Halloween everyone!!
Be safe out there

I am LOVING this weather sooo much!
I actually feel like going out and doing things lol the heat is gone and the cool breeze has stayed!! YAYS!

I finished my first Christmas print this past week - I believe I added it to Etsy on Thursday
I chose to do it all in Photoshop and use a different shading technique. I am soooo proud of little Mr. Mouse!! I must say that the colours for the web-jpg are NOT as bright as they are when printed - sadly the colours I used were not web friendly

I thought it would be fun to show the process of how I made this little drawing, so I took some pics hehe
It began with a very small sketch in my little sketch-book

lol yes there is a water splotch on it but from there I went into Photoshop, brought out my Tablet, and did another sketch

Then came the vector tool - my favourite instrument in these programs it may require alot of point-pushing, but I love the end result!

And finally the shading was added by using a paint brush!

(I chose to keep this one smaller, so when you click it you can see more of the detail.) I think Mr.Mouse is really cute lol He makes me giggle when I look at him - he just looks so happy and proud!!

I was thinking about where I might have come up with the design of Mr.Mouse - he just seemed sooo familiar to me and my husband……then it hit me - its Ginger’s toy!!! lol This is her FAVOURITE toy in the house. We have had it since we got Marzipan, but Ginger seems to be very attached to him. She takes him almost everywhere and keeps him safe from Marzipan lol The tail and whiskers have been chewed off, and hes stained, but she loves him nonetheless!! It’s like her security blanket I suppose She does chew on him, but very gently, and loves to have him sleep beside her on our bed (like in the pics). And as you can see, my little illustration closely resembles this stuffed toy, except mine has a tail lol
Marzipan once had a favourite toy like this, however it was a stuffed pig. She loved to take her frustrations out on him lol she was much more rough than Ginger is with her mouse, and she also loved a toy bear too…..both however did not withstand her chewing, and sadly had to be thrown away (as you can see in the pic, Bear’s eyes had already been pulled off - she likes to blind her prey before eating the rest I guess lol)

Anywho, this blog has had some things added to it - I put more blog links up, by artists which I admire, and I joined the awesome site of Indiepublic, so I added their badge Also, you might notice that I took the Handmade Pledge!! Woot! I really try to uphold that pledge every year - I love to support other artists and crafters. Back in Vancouver I would go to Circle Craft every year, as well as other local craft shows. It was something my mom and I would do together I really miss going. But Etsy is an awesome alternative for Christmas shopping!! So please, buy Handmade everyone!!

Well the sun is still out and the breeze is still blowing, so I think I will try to get some gardening done!

Have a wonderful weekend tout le monde!!

I finally got around to vacuuming the house today. I have been so caught up with drawing and looking at Etsy, that the house started to look like a dog-hair country!! Ewwwww lol but today I did it! Maybe I will get to dusting and cleaning the bathrooms…..later

The weather has been super Fall-esque the past few days, and I really couldn’t be happier!! We have gotten a cold front and I love it - YAYS! The Texas humidity has been blown away temporarily and a cool breeze has settled in
This brisk temperature has also made my little ones super energetic (action shots!) They want to go outside even more than usual and are constantly pulling me away from the computer so I can play with them…..Oh, that Marzipan whine will get me every time…..its so pitiful and sad lol I cant help but get up to see what she wants. Luckily, David and I can take them for more walks now too, so hopefully that will release some of their pent up energy!

This past weekend was great! David and I drove over to the Woodlands and saw The Nightmare Before Christmas is 3D!! It was super fun! I never got to see this beloved-film-of-mine in the theaters when it first came out, so this was a double-ly good experience lol. We also walked around the mall, hoping to get some new clothes pour moi, but instead I found a new Sephora store!!! I decided I would spend some money on a eye makeup kit, rather than clothes hehe. I LOVE their Bare Escentuals - my sister introduced me to this makeup during my wedding, and I fell inlove with it there and then! It is amazing stuff - the minerals are good for the skin, and it feels/looks like you are wearing nothing! Anyways, I have never been good with eye makeup - I am either wearing mascara or nothing these days - soooo I thought this eye kit would be a good way to learn how to do it! lol I have yet to try it out, but I am sure it’s just as awesome as their other products
I recommend that every woman and young lady should try this makeup!! You seriously will not regret your purchase hehe

Anywho…yesterday I was planning on writing this entry, but I got sidetracked by my Movie Tickets book.
This is my little book that contains movie tickets from over the years (starting from 1998)! lol silly as it may be, I am a film fanatic and I thought it would be fun to keep the tickets and make an album out of them - my kids one day can look back and see all the silly films I went to see
I had just stuck them under the clear plastic stuff, but they kept falling out….sooo I got some tacky spray from the craft store, and spent a good hour and a half sticking them in. Now each ticket is safely tucked in the book and will not fall out - YAYS!!

As for any “art news”, I added my little Baker to my Etsy store on the weekend - I really like him! He was super fun to make. The cake he is holding reminds me of my wedding cake - we got a Whimsy Wedding Cake from Polly’s Cakes hehe. She is an amazing cake maker Not only did it look wonderful, but it tasted divine too!!
The Baker looks really good with my two brown and red teacup/teapot - great for the kitchen!! *nudge nudge wink wink*

I have almost completed another illustration too - my first Christmas print!!
Yah, I know…it is not even past Halloween and I am making Christmas drawings! Well, seeing The Nightmare Before Christmas again definitely inspired me, and I have a whole Christmas series planned. I am trying something new too! I usually do all my work in Adobe Illustrator, but this time I am doing it all in Photoshop and using a “spray-can” technique on the shading.
I found this awesome illustrator when surfing the web last week, and he also totally inspired me. My shading is nothing like his, but I hope to one day become as good as he is. His name is Stefan Jolet , and I will add his site to my list on the right I think my favourite of his paintings is the Bear with the Honey on his paw hehe. You all should totally check him out!!

oh wow! I seem to have written enough for a mini essay today!! lol oopsy! too much to say today

I am off to make some more tea, and see what Marzipan is whining about now….

Have a super awesome Wednesday everyone!!

Wowzers!
We are already at the end of another work week!!
And what a great week it has been - I sold two more prints WOOT!! I am very happy about that, as you can tell hehe
I would like to put out a big Thank You to Mike and Coral!!

With the past three sales, I have added in a wee thank-you card and some of my new MOO Cards (which arrived on wednesday, yays!!). The MOO cards are small and super cute! I absolutely love them hehe. On the back there is the link to my website - they make perfect little goodies to send along with my prints and yesterday I ventured to Michael’s and bought some materials to make better Thank-You cards I added in the little box that the Moo Cards are held in too The pens are archival inks made by Prismacolor - I plan on using them to sign my prints and colour in the details on my “Once Upon a Time” print. The collage paper is super funky, with many colours and designs, and the cardstock has basically every colour I will need to make my Thank-You cards! I am very excited!! I plan on looking for a cool stamp too, to print onto the cards.
Who knows how long I will be able to keep up with making handmade cards, but for now I am really enjoying putting that extra effort into my packaging. Plus since the holidays are coming up, I plan on taking the advice from those Etsy videos about packaging and make each boring envelope turn into a pretty present!

I am still working on those 4 drawings, but getting very close to finishing off one - sooooo hopefully it should be up this weekend

Oh! and I joined the Etsy BlogRing, which can be found on the sidebar. Every blogger found on this ring sells things on Etsy - pretty cool idea, I think. However, one thing they should do is make it a random selection, instead of the same forward and back - that way there is a greater chance of exposure to new blogs….maybe they are working on that

Happy Friday everyone!!

Yikes! It has been a week since my last post!

But I do have a good reason to have waited this long - getting my art printed and putting it up on Etsy, plus working on more drawings, seemed to take up alllll my time. Add on constant puppy “aggro” (any gamers out there know what I mean ) and going to the gym, and that leaves me with time to eat and sleep and shower (if I am lucky lol). So yah, I do apologize for my lack of posts.

My little art shop seems to be getting a few hits a day, however I think most of them are from friends and family. I am trying to post a new piece everyday, but unfortunately my yellow ink is very very low, so I am worried about printing anything else out till my refills get here.
I did have my first sale last week though!! A very friendly fellow named Orest bought my lovely teacup print
Thank you Orest!!

I added another print today, one that uses no yellow, and I have made it a limited edition of 25. Each print will have the small little red butterfly coloured-in by hand, using some archival pens! So each print will be unique hehe. I think that the colour of the butterfly may be different in each print too, but I have not decided yet lol.

The original drawing for this print was done in pencil, but I was able to scan it in and turn it into a vector drawing, allowing me to resize it and not lose resolution.
Here is the original and here is what it looked like after I was done with making a vector outline in Photoshop

The image was then put into Macromedia Flash and made into my interactive website! For my print, however, I opened it into Adobe Illustrator and tweaked it to produce this

I think I did a pretty good job keeping it close to the original pencil drawing! It looks fabulous when printed out too - the lines are so crisp and clean, and when I paint in that little butterfly, the colour totally pops! This is definitely my favourite drawing I am very proud of it hehe.

I am currently working on 4 new drawings, and hope to put my second set of prints up for the “Teacups and Teapots” series tomorrow and wednesday.

It was nice and rainy today - made me think of living back in Vancouver. I love listening to it fall and cuddling up with a warm cup of tea!
Hope everyone’s day was as good as mine