Tessandore Creative

Jammies with Bear Ears

A little drawing I made of my friend's baby girl, cozy in her p.j.'s.

~ k

Mandolin Girl

An idea I'm working on for a painting.  Sketched her during a staff meeting at work.  :)

~ k

Back to the Beginning

When I first started this blog, which is really when I first committed to making my creative life a priority, I was drawing girls and then coloring them in Photoshop.  On this rainy weekend I decided to mess around with that process again.
The nice thing about using Photoshop is that nothing is permanent if you make a mistake.  It was so scary the first time I tried to use paint on canvas - no erasing!  :)  On today's girl I like how the color came out, but she seemed a bit too serious.  So...
I was able to add just a hint of a smile.  Better I think.  Then I had to play with some of the PS filters...
Fun.  :) 

~ k

Butterfly in the Tropics

Finished up my butterfly girl while sitting in my new "studio" last night...
Always good to work by tiki-torch, right?  :)  Ok, obviously not really my studio.  But a darn nice place to paint while I'm on vacation.

~ k

Maui, again...

That's right.  I visited Maui in February and it was so, so good that I'm back already.  :)  So I thought I'd show you the little butterfly girl I started working on during my first day here.  This is the spot I found at our hotel to sit and draw...
Very peaceful.  This is the view from my chair...
And you can see that even in this tropical weather, my coffee isn't far from me.  I love the pool here... 
We've certainly done more than hang out at the hotel, but I thought I'd start with these few photos and show you more of our travels as we go along.  I hope to get my butterfly girl painted too so I can show you the finished version soon.  I really love having my watercolors with me while I travel. 

Hope you're having a lovely weekend!

~ k

Happy Halloween!

Reaching back into the archives here.  :)  I drew Pumpkin Girl in 2007 when I was just learning to draw characters.  She looks a little worried, but still pretty cute I think. 

♥

Girl at Play

Maybe it's the color combos, but these critters remind me of the Calico Cat & the Gingham Dog storybook I had as a kid.  Or maybe they remind me of stuffed animals I had...I don't quite recall, but there's something nostalgic for me here.

It's all thanks to Carla Sonheim that I started doodling tonight.  Have you seen her book?
What a fun bunch of exercises!  I was working on #8...Imaginary Creatures.
The elephant (ok not so imaginary, but certainly in unreal colors!) started out like this...
Following Carla's directions, I started to see Miss Elliefont and then she appeared!
Just like all my girls, I had to give her some pretty eyelashes.  :)
After she was done, I thought she needed a friend so along came this little bear...
So fun! 

I've been recommending the book to everyone I know ~ there's such great inspiration inside.  I think it would be especially good if you always wished you could draw, but don't think that you can.  I bet she could coax out your inner artist.  :)  There are no fancy/expensive materials required and even if you don't follow the exercises exactly, I think you'd be delighted by what you can create.  Let me know if you give it a try!

♥

Hansel & Grethel

This is the first in a series of Grimm's Tales paintings for my August show.  {I know...one month away and I'm only just starting!}  I always thought it was Hansel & Gretel, but when I picked up my old book of tales I noticed the "h" in her name.  Gretel must be the Americanized or English version.
The canvas is 20x20" so I have a lot of room to play.  I like this stage of layering, building the texture & sketching before the painting starts.  Now for the hard part - painting Hansel.  I've never drawn a boy before!

♥

Tuesday Mish-Mash

Just a few unrelated things to show you today.  This is the girl I drew during my lunch hour.  I was stuck without a car, so I made the best of the rainy afternoon and had a creative lunch break at my desk.  I like the way her lips turned out...my girls tend to look so serious, but I'm always trying to make them smile a bit more.

I'm actually working on a commission right now.  Well...circling around starting it.  :)  Here's a snippet of the background layers...
It will probably end up being covered by paint, but I like that hand-written list.  It's taken from an old notepad that was used by a seamstress - pages & pages of lists and measurements.  Kinda neat, right?

The last thing on my random list today is Jonathan Coulton.  Do you know his music?  My daughter introduced me to him and I'm just loving this song right now.  {Which will give you a clue about my sometimes dark sense of humor!}  Such a lovely tune, but listen to the lyrics...

My other 2 favorite Jonathan Coulton songs are Creepy Doll & Code Monkey.  {Two of his most popular I think.}  He's got a funny one about Ikea too.  You can listen to all of his songs here.

♥

Snapshot of My Day

For the next couple days I'm in Fairbanks (about 350 miles north of Anchorage) for work.  I lived here for about 10 years, so visiting is nice...I already know my way around & it's always interesting to see what's changed since I moved away in '92.  On my flight up we had beautiful clear skies which made for this great view of Denali (aka Mt. McKinley) - the highest peak in North America.

I'm staying at my favorite little cottage right downtown.  The owners always leave a bottle of your favorite kind of wine & a gourmet chocolate bar too.  Can't beat that, right?  After work I stopped by another favorite place - Gambardella's Pasta Bella - to grab some dinner that would go well with the Syrah.
No, I didn't eat that whole plate of spaghetti!  :)  But doesn't it look tasty? 

Since I didn't want to haul my painting supplies on the plane, I just brought my sketch books and pencils.  Here's the girl I drew while waiting at the airport this morning...
She came out a tiny bit...I don't know...not cross-eyed, but there's something funny about her eyes.  I really just wanted to experiment with drawing different hair styles.  Plus, I feel like any day where at least some time is spent on creative pursuits is a good one for me.  :)

I also got to visit my co-workers' home and see her chickens this evening. 
Since Fairbanks gets much colder than Anchorage, I was able to get some good keeping-chickens-in-winter tips from her.  I also found out that one of my hens is a different breed than I thought she was!  She's an Ameraucana, rather than an Araucana.  They both lay blue eggs, but the Araucana's are "rumpless" - no tail feathers.  My Camilla definitely has a tail.

So - learned something, made something, ate something good and saw a spectacular sight.  All in all, a pretty fine day!

♥

Girl on Her Homestead

In the corner of my room sits a 16" x 40" canvas.  I can't wait to break into it, but thought a little pre-planning should be done.  So, out came the sketchbook and I made this drawing at about 5 1/2" x 14" to see how it would look.  Since the canvas is so big it seemed like it should have more detail than I would usually add. 

I like how it turned out...even the chicken that looks like she ate something sour!

♥

Chicken Cop

A convergence of two of my favorite topics.  :o)  Pretty silly, huh?  The idea came from a really random bit of conversation about chickens as stealthy police officers.  It made me laugh, so I had to draw it.  Hope it gives you a chuckle too!

♥

Cocoa

I was trying to draw a yummy mocha in a nice pottery mug.  Since marshmallows found their way into the cup though, I decided it was probably hot chocolate sans the espresso.  Either way - I wish I had a mug like that!  ♥

Bock Bock!

My life has taken on a chicken theme lately, so naturally I had to paint a chicken coop.  Why chickens?  Fresh eggs, baby!
Ok, I'm not really that much of an egg devote but I do have an inner farm girl that's been under wraps for too long.  Since my life doesn't seem to be going in the direction of moving to farm country, I decided to bring a bit of the farm life here.  First, I have to build a coop (I'll let you know how that goes) then ~ 3 hens will be coming home to roost!  I'm really looking forward to it. 

One last thing, since I love a good work table photo...
It was kinda stormy here today so the painting started out with a rain cloud.  I played around with using the watercolor crayons & the acrylics together.  That combo may have potential.  ♥

Kinda Sketchy

Not bad, eh?  I can never seem to draw an owl I'm happy with, but I think this one's quirky-in-a-good way.

I've got a BIG canvas in the works right now and was going to show it in progress, but I'm having a hard time photographing it.   Might have to pull out the strobe lights for this one.  Or at least head outside with it this weekend.  It's different from my other work so far, but I can also see that the many steps I've taken {practice, practice, practice...} have landed me here.  That's a nice place to be.  Now I just have to keep moving ahead and not get caught up in the fear of ruining it!  *remembering to breathe*  :)

On my mind today:

"You never know what the tide will bring." ~ a quote from the movie Cast Away that was on tv last night.  Whatever you think of the movie, that sentiment is maybe my favorite one, and the hardest for me to remember. 

This year I've started collecting (in my journal) happy surprises that come up in my life.  When I'm feeling a bit discouraged ~ like I have been the last week or so ~ I like to read those little things.   Anything that makes me smile and think, "wow, I never would have guessed that could happen!"  

When I'm in a down mood, I get to feeling that I somehow know what the future will bring...and of course that usually only includes my worries & not my hopes.  So it's a happy thing to remember that you just never know.   Amazing things are possible.   ♥

Home

Home from Baltimore & a bit under the weather *sniffle*.  But it was a good trip.  The only drawback was getting too used to the spring-time temps.  It's been snowing here for the last 2 days!   ♥

Best. Day. Ever.

I'm not going to elaborate on that.  You'll just have to take my word for it.  ♥  But really...it was an unexpectedly great Valentine's Eve!

What I can tell you is that I made a couple new paintings today.  I'm still really enjoying these tiny watercolor papers.
After finishing this little blue dress, I had an idea for using a left-over candy heart box for a canvas.  I started by just covering the top with gesso, then drawing a cute girl...
She was colored in with my watercolor crayons.
Some details & outlines were added with a fine point marker.
And some background color to finish her up!

Oh, and I also added a nice coordinating ribbon around the edge.
A post from Carla Sonheim started me thinking about using recycled materials for painting.  Check out this great three part tutorial on her blog.  She's using a recycled cereal box as a canvas...neat!  ♥

Utah!

I am SO thrilled to report that I will definitely be going to Art Nest in February!  I'm already poking through my art supplies to see what I have and what I'll need.  This is going to be wonderful and the perfect way to celebrate my 40th birthday. 

I'm looking forward to meeting the instructors & getting to know all the other artists + learning some new things, playing, eating some yummy meals and having good conversations & laughs.  Bliss!  Did I mention that I'm excited?!

The path into '09 is looking pretty good.  ♥