Lizzy D's Art Blog|My art, projects, and life in general

Sorry for the absence; as the summer progressed it became harder and harder to find the time to do anything with my art or anything online.  So I decided to just wait until school started again for my son.  Now that it has, I can get back to work.

This has been the project I have been working on recently. I’ve had this fairy in my sketchbook for a while and wanted to do something with it.  I am starting out with watercolors then using acrylics for brighter colors.  So far so good I think. J

These Fashion fairies were one of the summer projects I started and had to stop until school started once again.  I actually redid the Lily; here is the first one;

It wasn’t what I had in mind in the first place though it does look good it wasn’t what I wanted, I’m happier with the second one.  Now the Hibiscus, if you haven’t recognized it yet, was originally done for a fundraiser for Haiti at Jerry’s Art-o-Rama.  At the request of one of several people I made another one, though slightly different.

Coming up this weekend is CopperCon , it’s here in Mesa so if you are in the area come check it out.  They are not having an art show or art auction, but they did offer several panel spacing in the dealer’s room for artists to show their work. I’ll be displaying some of my original art there. CopperCon runs Saturday thru Monday, Sept. 4-6.

This time around I’m going to try to post more blogs and try to keep you updated on my art.  I must warn you though, I may forget; sometimes I get so into my art that nothing else happens – including keeping the house clean.

What a wonderful weekend! Hiya and welcome to my blog! I had so much fun working the Tiny Army Booth during the Phoenix Comicon. There were so many people to talk to and so many different costumes! To tell the truth, I never been to a convention before (at Leprecon I just put art in the art show and didn’t participate in anything else – that was a mistake) so everything was new to me. I did sell some of prints I brought, but it was the experience that I was there for. I learned so much from my fellow artists and had tons of fun! Here are some pictures that I took:

I was blown away at how awesome these costumes were. I wonder how much time it took to put on the makeup?

This is the booth of the founder of Tiny Army, Daniel Davis. He’s a pretty awesome guy and has a fashionable mustache.

I was actually a little late in taking this picture. What I wanted was what happened before that. The Power ranger guy was walking by a group of kids when one of them stopped him and asked if he was a power ranger. He was immediately surrounded with children that were looking up at him in awe. That was the shot I wanted, but I was a little slow in getting my camera.

There were tons of bounty hunters in fact there was a whole booth for Star Wars, no surprise really.

Speaking of Star wars, my son and husband came in near the end of my shift and we walked around together. Marius (our son wearing the white w/ black lines shorts) thought R2 was so awesome. This R2 moved and beeped like the real thing, it was pretty impressive!

A quick shot of the Penguin.

This guy was pretty awesome. As he was looking at my art I pulled out my camera. He then pointed out that I had one of those “soul stealing machines”. I should have asked him if I could have a piece of his soul but I just asked to take his picture. After that he gave me a flier for the TusCon, a sci-fi/fantasy convention that be in Tucson, AZ in November. After looking it up I’m planning on getting my own booth there this year!

On Saturday my son got to meet Mario!

I wasn’t there when this picture was taken but from what my husband told me Marius mustered up the guts to tug on the Storm Troopers arm to ask him for a picture, then afterwards the Trooper gave him a high five!

This was a must have picture. This guy did an awesome job with this costume!

I asked the blue lady for a picture and got Lando in the background!

Like I said there were some amazing costumes here!

I’m not sure what these costumes are from but I thought they were pretty cool!

Again not sure what they’re from but great costumes.:D

And this one was just plain cute!

Though I spent most of my time in the dealers area there was one place I wanted to go for a couple minutes. Three actors; Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, and Wil Wheaton, from Star Trek The Next Generation were there and I just had to take pictures of them. Yes I’m a Trekkie and proud of it!

Sadly I pulled a stupid and didn’t take pictures of the booth I was at, or any of artists that were at the booth with me, but the least I can do is link you up to their websites.

Fabein: http://fabienbadilla.com/

Fabein was a lot of fun to hang out with and he was selling some awesome stickers about having a emegency Zombie plan.  Do you have a plan in case there are Zombies?

Wesley: http://www.nearbeyond.com/

Wesley is a 6′7″ nice guy whom even though he gets a lot of tall jokes just smiles and laughs with everyone.  And I always love looking at his art.

Ken Jacobson: http://www.penart.com/

A quiet guy with amazing art (make sure you look in his latest stuff for his picutre of King Kong and Godzilla shaking hands)!  Ken is so nice, I forgot to bring something to eat with me and about when I resalize that he came in a chicken wrap and offered half of it to me without knowing my shortage of food.

Gilead

He is just great to hang out with.  He has wise things to say and funny things also.  You just can’t help but like him!:D

As you have noticed blogging hasn’t become a set habit yet but I’ll get there, don’t worry.  So how did Leprecon go… not so good actually.  I didn’t sell any of my paintings or prints, but I can count on one hand how many pieces in the whole art show were sold so it wasn’t just me.  It was a slow convention this year, and both the artists and vendors experienced low sales. I walked around the vendor area Saturday afternoon and it was empty save one or two people.  I was a little down about it for a few days, but you can’t give up on something just because it didn’t work out the first time.  When you get lemons you make lemonade!  And lemonade is really good!

This weekend is the Phoenix Comicon, and I’ll be helping with the Tiny Army Art Group booth on Friday from 2:00 – 5:00 and on Saturday from 1:00 – 4:00.  I’m planning on selling prints of some of my fairies and other works and telling people about the Tiny Army Art Group.  Not only that, I thought I would have some fun and give a discount on one print to whoever comes up to the Tiny Army Booth and says to me “pink marshmallows”!  Note: there will be other artist at that booth throughout the con, and possibly at the same time as me. This discount is only for my art – I don’t want any embarrassing mix ups. So come on down to the comicon and check out all the neat stuff there and say hi to me! The booth is just inside the entrance its number is T7 in the Phoenix Convention Center South Building. See you there!

Leprecon 36 started started Friday and my art is now in the art show there!  It was almost scary getting to it however.  I had neatly packed all the pictures in the car, some in the trunk and the rest in the back seat.  A lesson in packing pictures in the back seat, DO NOT lean them upright in the back seat, you lay them flat instead.  Which is the smart way to do it but I wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box that morning.

So we are heading to the con when the first light we come up to suddenly turns yellow.  I was trying to stop quick enough but slow enough so I didn’t knock the pictures over, but at the end, they all went toppling over to the foot of the back seat.  All I could do was keep driving (since the con is only 10 minutes from my house) and pray that everything was alright.  When I got there I found that out of the four pictures in the seat only the glass on one was broken.  And it was a standard size so we were able to replace it quickly.  But still its a little scary seeing something you work so hard on having a near death experience!

The art show has some really awesome stuff and it was great talking to some of the artists there also I was able to met some new people and found a Tiny Army friend had works on display too.  There’s one I met who had some fun creative art on display, and his website is pretty awesome too-check it out – http://alexanderscotthughes.com/

Last night the guest artist Charles Vess walked through the art show and first spoke of his art and then gave his opinion of the our art.  He is a pretty amazing artist and had some great advice to give.  Its was a honor being there and hearing what he had to say about my art.

I’ll let you know how it all turned out when it’s over…

With the help of my wonderful husband my website is finally complete! I am so lucky to have such a supportive husband he sacrificed a lot of time into the website and to help me get started with this blog and other things to help get my art out there! So please take a look around and tell me what you think.

If you are in the Tempe, AZ area, today is you last chance to buy a raffle ticket to win a drawing or painting at Jerry’s Artarama. One raffle ticket is $5 and 5 tickets are $20.

I am now starting to get art ready for the Leprecon coming up in May. I have some finished art but there some I need to start on or redo. I’m a little stressed about it but at least I have a plan, normally I don’t have one of those. Here’s a sketch of one of my “plans”:

It’s been a while but I’m back.  This has been a pretty busy month!  My In-laws came down and we actually did some National Parks hopping.  I didn’t realize how many Indian ruins there really are here in Arizona!

The Art-a-thon was a lot of fun and I sadly had to part with this beautiful fairy:

I hope she goes to a good home.

If any of you are interested, all of the art is going to be raffled off this Saturday, 3/27 so if you are in the Tempe, Arizona area please stop by Jerry’s Artarama and buy a raffle ticket – it’s $5 for one or $20 for five tickets.  The pictures will be up for the remainder of the week and they will be raffled off on Saturday.

I’m trying to update my blog regularly, but sometimes I get sucked into my art and forget about everything else. I’m sure you artists know exactly what I’m talking about . I have a goal to post updates about three times a week right now, but it is kind of sporadic on when that happens as you likely have noticed. I’ve incorporated several ways for my readers to stay current with my posts – updates on Facebook and Twitter, subscribing to the RSS feed through one of the several buttons and links around the site, the ability to get email updates sent, and now it will also show on my art gallery’s news page (or at least it will when it’s finished).

Subscribing to my feed or following my activity on other social media sites will inform you when I have updated my blog with a new post so that you can immediately see what I’m up to and be the first to see the projects that I’m working on. Subscribing via email or RSS is very simple and free, and lets you get instant updates of the newest posts. Now I am not saying that I don’t want you visiting my blog any more – I definitely want you all here to participate in discussions and what-not – but rather I’m giving you options to know when I’ve posted something new.

To my current subscribers, my apologies for this solicitation to something you already have, but I am aware that many of my readers are not aware of these options and I want to make sure that everyone has access to, and understands these options. And for anyone who is not sure what I’m talking about with all this internet lingo (Chris had to explain it to me too), just look for an image like this:

Subscribe in a reader

You’ll find similar buttons on the top right of each page of my blog, ones a bit lower down with the social network buttons, including one for email subscriptions, and soon there will be one at the bottom of each post. I’ve also added the option to subscribe to the comments as well so that you never miss out on the conversations that happen outside the posts.

A big thank you to my readers and fans, your support and friendship help me keep going and provide me with the motivation I need to keep plugging away with my projects.

-Lizzy D.

I’ve joined in a fundraiser to help the people of Haiti.  When I found out I was only the second one to join in I thought I would help out by spreading the word.  This is what I got in my e-mail:

Art-A-Thon for Haiti

Jerry’s Artarama will be hosting the Arizona Art-A-Thon for Haiti on March 20, 2010 from 11 am – 6 pm at their store in Tempe.  We are inviting artists to attend and participate in 3 or 6 hour blocks.  Artists who attend the event will produce/donate their piece of artwork for the silent auction fundraiser to benefit the recent earthquake victims in Haiti.  The silent auction will coincide with the Art-A-Thon, as we will invite the public to attend later in the day at which time they can begin submitting bids for the works being produced.

This Art-A-Thon is in conjunction with those taking place in six other states with multiple events happening in March and April.  To get more information please go to the following links:

http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#!/group.php?gid=256074883825&ref=mf

http://www.jerrysartarama.com/blog/labels/Kim%20Ellery.aspx

Artists interested in volunteering for this event should contact the Arizona coordinator, Tina Adair at tucson_artist@yahoo.com, or call 520-248-4108 for more information.  The event will be held in the store and space will be somewhat limited, so sign up soon.  Please let us know which medium you will be using for your painting and what hours you are willing to volunteer.  This will be an opportunity to help the people of Haiti and to get exposure as a local artist!

If you would like to participate but cannot paint at the Art-A-Thon, please donate a piece of art that will be auctioned off during the silent auction.

The Art-A-Thon for Haiti is working with a Non-Profit Organization, OXFAM (http://www.oxfam.org/), which has people on the ground in Haiti and is currently providing clean water to the people of Haiti.  When artwork is purchased, the buyer will make a check out to OXFAM directly.  More information on the structure of the fundraiser will be coming soon as more details are worked out.

This is a national program, not just limited to Phoenix area artists. Check with your local Jerry’s Artarama store to see if they are participating, or check out their Facebook page (link above). To have a chance to help do something good for someone you never met is a great thing.  So, fellow artists, send an e-mail or give them a call, and let’s use our talents for the greater good!

I’m trying to improve my online presence and get my name and art out to the world more so I started up this blog.  I’ll be updating it with projects I’m working on, sketches, places you can find me or my art, and other ramblings.

I’m a freelance artist that loves to do fantasy art, focusing on watercolor paints and pencil/marker drawings, but I can do a variety of work and mediums. Check out my website to see my competed works.