As most of the summer has been, it's been a busy couple of weeks! This week doesn't look too busy, but neither did last week and that flew by, haha. Last Tuesday, I had my first 2 Etsy sales! Both wanted one of my
personalized satin hangers. Hopefully, they enjoy them - I certainly enjoyed making them! :)
I also started two more oil paintings last Thursday and two more yesterday. So far, I have 3 1/2 paintings for my sealife alphabet collection! Here's the final result of my first oil painting:
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| A birthday present for my sister-in-law :) |
And here's the collection so far:
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| Jellyfish |
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| Pufferfish |
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| Orca |
The walrus is getting there, but I need to wait until the paint dries to add the tusks and whiskers. The one downside to oil paints, I've found, is the time they take to dry! They require much more patience to work with.
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| I thought this step looked funny :P |
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| all wrinkled up |
The other two paintings, I'm not as proud of, only because they revealed that I'm not good at painting EVERYTHING. I've never been great at drawing reptiles, amphibians, or fish, even though they are some of my favorite animals and I observe them every chance I get!
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| Froggy Friend By The Pond |
I can get the shape and the heads, usually. I'm just not great at the legs and fins. I'll have to work on that, especially since my sealife alphabet involves fish, reptiles, and amphibians, haha.
I'm pretty good at landscape design, it seems, if it is from a distance - the close-up of the rocks, moss, and water did not turn out how I wanted them to, either. I may add some details later to see if I can make the moss more moss-y. I should've added a tiny bit of black to the blue, too, to make it darker - that blue makes the pond look fake, like the streams at mini-golf courses. The other painting is of the supermoon. It's not done yet, because I need to wait till it dries to add some details, but it came out very artsy-fartsy looking, when I didn't mean for that to happen, haha.
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| Supermoon, not quite done yet |
I went by the picture I took of the moon, back when it was supposedly larger, in June, and noticed there were rings of orange and yellow, and then a very clear outline of the moon, itself. Then, on the moon, itself, were darker gray patches. Perhaps the yellow and orange are just too dark and not fuzzy-looking enough. I might be able to fix it with the next coat...
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| Picture of the Supermoon June 2013 |
Speaking of photography, I got an excellent idea that I had considered in the past, from a lovely woman in my Bible study, who has been a professional photographer on the side. There are a limited amount of jobs that wouldn't cause eventual intense pain that is only helped by laying down for at least 20-30 minutes. There are even fewer jobs that allow for laying down when one's back needs a break. It was suggested to me to take a couple courses in photography, just to go beyond the basics I already know and refine my skills.
I've thought of a photography business as needing to be on my feet for whole days or having to crouch down in awkward positions to get the best shot. However, if I just do portraits of posed people scheduled at definite times, that could most likely work. Just a matter of finding clients that don't need me to drive 2 hours to get there (driving is probably one of the worst positions for my back). So, I found
this Groupon (I love Groupon for stuff like this!) for photography courses online at a website that had good reviews. I am signed up to begin "Creative Composition" in September and can't wait to start. At the same time, I have not taken an educational course since training for
my last job, which was intense, mind you, but a lot different, since having the closest thing I could get to my dream job relied on passing it. I suppose I could trick my brain into believing the same for this course, plus I think it should be fun!
Meanwhile, I will keep creating things and see what kind of market there is for it. I have some cute pirate mouse cloth laying around - I don't remember when, why, or where I purchased it. It was probably in a craft store in the bargain bin and I couldn't pass it up. (I find it hard to pass up most things nautical or pirate-y, unless they are really tacky - even then, I have to stop and look!) So, I bought some satin ribbon for edging and I am going to create a baby blanket - I just hope I can sell it for a profit, since the ribbon alone was $13! I also have nautical/lobster cloth that I do remember buying at the same time, but also no idea why. I'm not sure what I will make with that...maybe bibs, but the cloth is too absorbent to be useful for that, so I would need to buy some sort of clear vinyl to protect it. We'll see! I do foresee a trip to Jo-Ann's sometime soon, haha.
I will leave you with my favorite picture of the week, an Indigo Bunting that was at our feeder one day and I have yet to see it since. So pretty!
