ICAD meets Steampunk, again.

For Day #9 of the ICAD challenge, I created another steampunk, animal-lover's drawing. The prompts this week have been primarily based on color and/or food. For Day #9 the prompt was carrot and lemon. By good fortune, the cat and dog starring in my steampunk drawings are orange and yellow. Regardless, I also vaguely incorporated actual carrots and lemons into my Day #9 drawing, as you'll see here:

Can you hit the bullseye?

This piece ended up a little busier than I intended. I guess I was just having so much fun that I went a little crazy!

Happy Friday, bloggers!

ICAD: Day 6

I had some more drawing fun back on the sixth day of the ICAD challenge. The prompt was taxi, and I took a small bit of liberty with this one, as you'll see here:

All aboard!

Ever since the second day of the ICAD challenge I seem to have fallen into an animal-loving steampunk frenzy with my drawings. I created this world of steampunk animals on a whim on Day 2 of ICAD, with the prompt carnival. Remember this one?

The carnival where it all began...

Now I keep going back to that concept. In fact, I will be using today's prompt of carrot and lemon to create another drawing in this new steampunk world of mine. So, stay tuned!

ICAD Catch-up

I've been keeping up with creating my index cards for the 2015 ICAD challenge, but I've been failing to get them posted to my blogs in a timely manner. I have a couple to post now, from days 3 through 5. I completed my sixth and seventh index cards on their respective days, but I still need to photograph them so that I can post them. Just think of it as building suspense.

I'll post my index cards for days 3 and 4 both here and on my mixed media blog. These two are mostly drawings (and writing, as you'll see), their primary medium used being pen, but with some Distress Ink action involved as well. Since I consider it more of a mixed media piece, my index card from day 5 will be posted to my mixed media blog. Visit my Trash to Treasures Art blog using the tab at the top of this page!

The third day's prompt was to draw a map. The fourth day's prompt was mailbox. So, without further ado...

Being an animal lover and human counterpart to a number of four-legged furballs, I drew a map more or less representative of my home. Welcome to the Land of the Pet Lovers.

For the fourth day I decided not to draw a mailbox itself, and instead I scrawled a quick letter and spruced it up (more like roughed it up) a little. Edgar Allan Poe was more or less my muse for this one.

This ICAD deal is really quite fun!

ICAD #2

If you read my other blog, Trash to Treasures Art, you know that I am partaking in the 2015 ICAD (Index Card a Day) challenge for the first time this year. It started on Monday, June 1st, and I've so far managed to get a card done all of the first three days. The first day was more of a mixed media piece, so I posted it to my other blog (if you want to visit my mixed media art blog to see and read about my first index card, just click on that handy tab at the top of this blog). For the second day, I used the prompt given on the Daisy Yellow ICAD Challenge blog, and that was carnival.

After a relatively lengthy staring contest with a blank index card, an idea finally began to form in my mind. This was the result:

Welcome to the Critters' Carnival of Steampunk Fun!

It was nice to just sit down and draw for that one. I had a ton of fun with it.

I also used the prompt for the third day, yesterday, and that was to draw a map. This one was also more or less based on my drawing, but also a bit of other media. So, I'll post it here as well as on my other blog as soon as I get a decent picture of it.

If you aren't already, I recommend you give the ICAD challenge a try! It's fun fun fun!

Art in Honor

It has been well over a month since I last made a post here. One primary reason for my absence is that my beloved 21-year-old cat fell ill, and after a two-week battle I ultimately had to say goodbye to her following a diagnosis of heart failure and widespread cancer.

I had previously shared some drawings I created of her, and here is one of them again:

Her name was Rosie. She was one tough cookie of a cat. She was a true trooper and went through a lot during her 21 years, including an emergency eye removal surgery just this past January.

I have always been a huge animal lover, and my sweet 21-year-old cat was a big influence on that trait of mine. I'll age myself here by divulging that my family acquired this cat of mine when she was just 8 weeks old and I was just 4 years old. I grew up with her. I miss her immensely.

In her honor, I have set up a memorial corner for her at my house. My memorial for her includes a beautiful red rose (a fake one, admittedly, so that it will last forever) and none other than a piece of mixed media art that I created especially for her:

A rose and artwork to honor my sweet cat Rosie.

Creating this piece of art for my Rosie was one of the main ways I coped immediately following her passing. Art in itself brings me a great deal of comfort, and so creating art in honor of my loyal companion of 21 years was very consoling to me during that difficult time.

I don't believe I had ever truly appreciated the full power of art until I created this piece for Rosie. It all came together for me in an artistically healing process, and creating it helped me to feel and stay close to Rosie. I chose the purple and pink color scheme for a reason - my favorite color is purple and so (as a result of my selections) many of Rosie's favorite blankets were purple, and I always loved the adorable pink color of her paw pads and nose. Even the Distress Ink I applied was in direct honor of Rosie - she was a beautiful calico cat, and so I used my Black Soot, Vintage Photo, and Antique Linen Distress Inks to imitate a calico color scheme with the border and background. What's more, the white ribbon I attached to the top of the art piece was one with which Rosie used to play often.

And, of course, I wrote a message upon Rosie's art piece that rings very true for me:

Cats leave paw prints on our hearts.

Web store news!

I'm excited to announce that I have opened a second Etsy shop, this one dedicated to my mixed media art! I am of course still maintaining my MissAdventureArt Etsy shop, which contains my drawings, but after some deliberation I ultimately decided that I wanted to manage my mixed media art and my drawings in separate Etsy stores.

My new shop's name is TrashToTreasuresArt. I chose this shop name because my philosophy in creating my mixed media art is to largely use recycled and upcycled goods, such as scrap cardboard and old books that are otherwise not being put to use. I am working on stocking up this new shop as quickly as possible, but these three art tags are already available at TrashToTreasuresArt:

"You make my heart tick."

"You're my cup of tea."

"You're the cat's meow."

To visit either of my Etsy shops, just click on the links at the top of this very blog of mine!

Good night!

Journal Catch-Up...Again

I've yet again fallen behind in sharing my sketchbook scrapbook journal pages. Here are a couple sneak peek shots of my journal pages from the last two weeks.

Happy Monday!

My Furry Family: Blue Steel

The sixth -- second to last! -- piece in my My Furry Family series is complete. This one is based on a young feline who is handsome and he knows it. He is brother to my little runt kitten but belongs to my parents, just like the Batman kitty I introduced to you a couple posts ago.

Without further ado, here is my rendition of this handsome fella:

I call this piece "Blue Steel", after the male model pose in the Ben Stiller comedy Zoolander.

My family has referred to this little guy as a male model since the day we met him. He likes to pose for us, and he likes to squint his eyes at cameras, making for some dashingly sultry shots. As mentioned above, this little kitty's classic pose is much like the squinty-eyed model pose called Blue Steel in the movie Zoolander. Therefore, in honor of this little guy's natural model skills, I call this piece "Blue Steel".

I have only one furry member of the family left to draw! I can't wait to work on this final piece and therefore more or less close out this fun series of drawings.

My Furry Family: Batman!

My newest My Furry Family installment is finished! This one is based on my little girl kitten's brother, although he belongs to my parents. This little guy's facial markings earned him the nickname Batman early on. I like to call him my little hero.

So, here's Batman (or, perhaps more appropriately, Catman):

I hope you like it! Only two more My Furry Family pieces to go!

Monday Night InspirACEOn

As we all know, sometimes life is difficult. So, here's a little InspirACEOn to pick you up:

"Life is like photography. You need the negatives to develop."

I came across this quote the other day, and I fell in love with it immediately. I hope you like it, too!

Have a great week, bloggers!

My Furry Family: The Belly Roll

The fourth completed piece in my My Furry Family series is based on my little runt kitten. I adopted this adorable little girl after my grandmother found her and her three brothers abandoned. At the time the kittens were only about three weeks old, and this little runt girl of mine didn't even weigh half a pound.

Well, my little kitty is now 9 months old and 9.5 lbs. Not really a runt anymore, but still adorable.

My little kitty likes to do what I call The Belly Roll.

I have three more pieces to complete in this My Furry Family series. And those three pieces will be based on my little kitty's three brothers, because they also stayed in the family -- my parents kept two, and my sister kept the third. So stay tuned for more feline cuteness!

I hope you're enjoying My Furry Family so far!

InspirACEOns on Etsy!

The original illustrated ACEO cards in my InspirACEOns series are now available in my Etsy shop!

"When you have a dream, you've got to grab it and never let go." -Carol Burnett

"Courage, dear heart." -C.S. Lewis

"Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit." -Kahlil Gibran

"Love conquers all."

"Know thyself."

"Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil." -Psalm 23:4

Just click on the Etsy link at the top of my blog to visit my shop!

The above pieces are just the current six original ACEO cards available in this series of mine. I will be creating many pieces in my InspirACEOns series, so stay tuned for more!

Have a great week, bloggers!

A Family Feline WIP

Here's a quick WIP shot of my latest My Furry Family piece, this one based on my little runt kitten.

This little kitty's pose is called "The Belly Roll".

I'll share the completed piece as soon as I finish it. And then I'll have three more family felines to draw!

InspirACEOnal Sneak Peek

I've been having a blast designing and creating inspirational ACEO cards for my InspirACEOns series. Here's a sneak peek of the newest additions to this series:

And here's a group shot of all the pieces in this ever-growing InspirACEOns series of mine:

I'll be making these original ACEOs available in my Etsy shop soon, and I'll let you know when that happens.

I hope everyone's had a great first half of the week! The weekend is just around the corner!

InspirACEOns

I have started on another new artistic endeavor, amongst all of my others I have in the works. I've had some ACEO cards sitting around just collecting dust for quite some time now, and for this new project I decided to put them to use. In short, my new art project involves creating inspirational ACEO cards, or what I like to call InspirACEOns.

I have thus far created two pieces in my InspirACEOns series.

For this one, as you can see, I just drew a miniature version of another piece that I recently shared. I think I like this miniature drawing better. "When you have a dream, you've got to grab it and never let go." -Carol Burnett

"Courage, dear heart." -C.S. Lewis

I already have a more or less tome's worth of quotes that I would like to illustrate, so this will certainly be a large, continual series. What I really like about these particular pieces is that they are not only fun but also relatively quick to create. ACEO cards are 2.5" x 3.5", so it doesn't take long to fill this canvas. And since I apparently enjoy having a multitude of projects started at once, it's nice to have pieces that I can have fun drawing in just one sitting.

I anticipate that most if not all of these will be pen drawings. What's more, I plan on selling the originals of these InspirACEOns in my Etsy shop. So stay tuned for news on their arrival in my shop!

Have a wonderful day, bloggers!

My Furry Family: Pet my belly. I dare you.

The second piece in my My Furry Family series is complete! This one is based on my almost 2-year-old orange tabby boy. He is a rescue, and he has quite a back story. The short version is that, at the age of roughly six weeks, he was dumped at the front door of the veterinary clinic where I used to work. Accompanying him was a note saying that he had been a barn cat, but a coyote had broken into the barn and killed his mother and litter mates. He survived the attack, but as a result of it he no longer has the use of his hind legs, and he developed scoliosis.

This special kitty of mine can be such a sweet boy, and he loves to cuddle and to be held. But, he can also be quite feisty when he wants to be. Petting his belly is risky business.

"Pet my belly. I dare you."

I'm trying to instill at least some of my four-legged furballs' unique characteristics into these drawings. For this one, I tried to capture one of my boy's typical adorably smug expressions, as well as his scoliosis and the usual posture of his paralyzed hind legs.

I've been wanting to create drawings of my animals for a long time now, so I'm glad to finally be getting around to it. I hope you like them!

My Furry Family: The Queen

I'm working on a new series of drawing that I'm calling My Furry Family. As the title suggests, this series of drawings will be an illustrated record of the four-legged furballs in my life. I love animals, as I'm sure you've gathered from the artwork I post on this blog. There are a number of animals in my life, so this series will not be a short one.

The first furry family member I've drawn is my oldest, dear cat. She is a beautiful calico, and she is 21 years old. I have had her since I was a very young child. She has earned the status of more or less royalty in this family, and she reigns over not only the other animals but us humans as well.

The Queen

I was compelled to create more than one version of my old girl, primarily because, due to a medical emergency, she recently underwent surgery and now has a different appearance.

The Pirate Queen

One-eyed and adorable.

Good night!

Sketchbook Scrapbook Journal

I'm waiting for a sunny day in order to get some up-to-date pictures of my sketchbook scrapbook journal in decent, natural lighting. Until I do so, though, I thought I'd give you a couple brief visuals of my journal's first two weeks of existence. As you'll see below, my journal is more like a decorated, often busy planner.

I first started my sketchbook scrapbook journal during Christmas week. This here is a picture of the completed pages of my journal for that week.

This is the main image I drew for my journal's New Year week.

I am now on the third week of my sketchbook scrapbook journal. I'm having a blast keeping this journal. Not only do I love keeping such a record of my daily life, but each day I look forward to coming up with drawings or finding clippings to incorporate into that day's journal/planner entries.

As soon as I can I'll get updated pictures, including the completed entries from New Year week and the current entries from this week.

Have a good night!

New Year Post-it Notes

As I waited for the clock to strike midnight on New Year's Eve, I worked on a couple more pieces of Post-it art. I'm just having so much fun with these, but I also have an inkling to return to the drawings that I have started both on paper and in my head. If only there was more time in the day to get more done!

Anyway, here are my most recent pieces of Post-it art (this time with the beautiful sun as a light source):

This is my so far untitled pink kitty.

 I again used cardstock folded in accordion style to raise the cat and one of the clouds to the forefront.

I am currently calling this one "Dragon Fire".

Again, I raised the dragon up off the paper with accordion folded cardstock.

So, here is my current collection of Post-it art, which, given how much fun I'm having, is sure to grow very fast:

Happy New Year!

A sketchbook scrapbook Christmas.

I've decided to start keeping a sort of sketchbook scrapbook journal. I was inspired to do this for a number of reasons, but one especial inspiration was Jenny's Sketchbook. I just happened to stumble upon that brilliant blog of Jennifer Frith's not long ago, and I've been wholly intrigued by the concept of a sketchbook journal ever since.

I've always loved keeping journals and maintaining some semblance of records of my daily endeavors. And although I've never actually managed to keep one before, I've also always been interested in the idea of scrapbooking. And then of course there's the fact that I love to draw. All of this together led me to the conclusion that I will start keeping what I'm so far calling my sketchbook scrapbook journal.

I am not currently using an actual sketchbook for this journal of mine. I'm using an actual journal, a beautiful book that an old friend gave me some time ago. Up until now this beautiful journal had simply sat on my bookshelf, empty, with an undetermined use. But now I have found the perfect use for it, and I'm very excited about that.

That all being said, I chose this festive, fun week to begin my sketchbook scrapbook journal. So, here is a sneak peak of my first week's entries thus far:

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!