It is now summer in Arizona and I’m already looking forward to winter. It’s just freakin’ hot down here! And let’s add a story to this hot weather complaint. It was the first week of June when I was taking a right turn at a light just a minute away from my home. All of a sudden WHAM; my car got hit! Lucky for me they had insurance, but unfortunately for us it was the car with AC. 
It’s been in for repairs it’s taking a while for that to get done. We have been driving our second car that is an old 1990 Toyota Corolla that has no AC. So we have the windows rolled down and hope that all the stop lights stay green- yeah it’s that hot.
What all have I been up too lately? I must apologize for the absence. Since my son got out of school for the summer it’s been hard focusing on my work, but once school starts again everything should settle back into place again. But it doesn’t mean I haven’t done any art, I actually been working on small projects.
These were done for a contest on deviantArt. I was supposed to come up with my own character designs for Fantasy Earth Zero. They were fun to do and were a small enough project I could take them with me when my son was at swim team practice.
Other artsy things I’ve been doing are teaching art classes from home. I’ve been teaching a couple of girl’s watercolors and a younger one arts and crafts. It’s been fun and educational for both me and the girls. I actually find it hard to teach others my techniques because I am so use to doing them myself and they just come naturally with no need for an explanation. Trying to tell someone else how to do it really makes me have to think about each step I go through when I paint!
Another project is something my husband and I are working on. We are making steampunk costumes! He is farther along on his than I am…it’s actually been pretty hard trying to come up with just the right outfit. But once things start picking in the costume making I’ll post the progress if I can.
Tomorrow is the first day of Leprecon! So if you are in town come check it out, it’s at the Phoenix Mesa Marriott here in Mesa, AZ. I have spent this last week trying to get everything ready, with the one thing that took up most of my time was trying to finding mats for the pictures. I knew what colors of mats that I wanted to match with the paintings and the frames I had for them, but after searching through four different stores I had to settle with some second best mat choices. After cutting them I found that they didn’t quite go well with two of the paintings and I wasn’t happy. My husband remembered a smaller art store that we hadn’t been to in years because they were a bit pricey and the store was cramped and unorganized, but I figured we might as well check it out. When we got there, the first mat I saw was EXACTLY what I wanted in the first place!! In fact they had a lot more in store selection then the other places, and their prices were similar to the other places I had checked out.
So now everything is matted and framed and ready for the art show. I must admit this is my first art show so I’m feeling a little nervous. Mostly because I won’t be there the whole time so I can’t protect my art from any bad scrutiny. I know that sounds silly but my art means a lot to me.
I just finished another piece for the art show, one I had as an option should I find some extra time for it. It was done on black paper with prisma pencils, which causes issues getting a good scan out of my scanner for some reason, but here is the original sketch:
She is the second of a light fairy series, this is the first one:
Well, I still have some last minute things to do so I’ll type again soon!
Filed Under (Artist Info, Ramblings) by Lizzy D. on 20-02-2010
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.
Filed Under (Ramblings) by Lizzy D. on 06-02-2010
We made it to the annual Arizona Renaissance Festival on opening day this year. A much better experience for us than when we attended 2 years ago during its final weekend. The crowds were a lot smaller, the people were full of energy, and my son let us enjoy most of it. One of the things I missed was enjoying the musical performances, my son, sadly, doesn’t show much interest in that sort of thing and feels he must express it verbally during the performance. The sacrifices of a mother *sigh* oh well. But with that aside everything else was great! We saw some great juggling and tightrope walking and of course the JOUSTING! We were rooting for the blood thirsty knight – it was pretty awesome!
The villagers were great too, if not a little weird. A man was trying to sell his niece and nephew to us for 2 pence each, I had to turn down his offer as my son is like having 3 children in one, I don’t need more. Not long after that I found myself playing match maker for a young man’s mother…who was a potato. I advised a radish for I thought the potato might find it rather hot! Then there was a fairy, I must admit there was something other worldly about her presence. The children around her (including my son) were just captivated by her mute, innocent gestures and by the music of her two-pipe flute.
The shops were fun to walk through, they gave my husband and I ideas for some costumes that we would like to make and some great ideas for my art. I tried on some feathered hats and a corset that I thought would go well with a costume idea I had. Too bad the prices for those things are outrageously high at the faire’s.
