Lizzy D's Art Blog

Back with Pictures and Cons

Lizzy D. — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:04:29 +0000

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.

Update

Lizzy D. — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 05:40:17 +0000

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.

Phoenix Comicon 2010

Lizzy D. — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:34:54 +0000

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

Comicon and More!

Lizzy D. — Thu, 27 May 2010 22:23:11 +0000

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

Lizzy D. — Sun, 16 May 2010 09:04:58 +0000

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…

Leprecon Preperations Completed

Lizzy D. — Fri, 14 May 2010 06:57:24 +0000

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!

Lightning Sprite Finished

Lizzy D. — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:56:25 +0000

I had intentions to post this the other day but my body went on strike and shut down on me on Thursday. I spent most of that day sleeping and being a vegetable. I guess I was using more energy than I’d thought the last couple of weeks. Listen to your body folks or it will stop listening to you. Friday was busy, then the weekend flew by, and now here we are!

First I finished my painting titled ‘Lightning Sprite’. You can see the a larger version in my fantasy art gallery. There were so many times I wanted to give up and quit but I couldn’t. For one, I would kick myself for the rest of my life knowing I failed at a piece, but the main reason I kept going because my husband wanted to see it finished. I know I say this so many times on this blog but I consider myself a very lucky woman to be married to such a wonderful supporting man.

While we are on the subject of my husband, he gave the most wonderful mother’s day present. He took me to see “Celtic Women” this last week. It was even better than I imagined it to be. We were up in the nose-bleed section but we could see the whole stage perfectly. The concert was in the ASU Gammage, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I thought I would just put that in for those curious. So yes it was an amazing experience and I had never felt so special or so loved in my whole entire life! So again thank you “Love”.

The next morning I had to take my son to the dentist to have some cavities drilled. Because he has autism he had to be sedated first. He had to drink the mixture and then wait for 45 minutes. I thought that the drug would slow him down; instead he started bouncing off the walls! And to add to that he walked up too almost every kid in the waiting room, asked their name, ran back to me to tell me their name and then ran back to the child so he can tell him his name. It was embarrassing but cute. At the end the dentist said my son did great! But he still has to go back in to get the rest of his teeth done.

So this weekend is Leprecon. For those of you that are going to be down in Arizona for this event please stop on by the art show and see the beautiful work that me and the other artists have worked so hard on. I’m a little nervous being that this is my first time I’m putting art in a show but I’m excited at the same time. It will be fun to see how this goes.

Finished Painting

Lizzy D. — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:12:19 +0000

I’m Alive! (sort of…)

I’m sorry I disappeared like that, a lot has happen recently. Multiple family members have came down and visited, my son got scarlet fever (don’t worry he’s fine), and just little things here and there. But now things are quieting down and I can get some work done now. Speaking of work, I spent all of last week working on this acrylic painting:

There you go! “Stubborn” redone. This is done in acrylics and took me about 40-50 hours to paint, compared to the 15 or so on the original (it was a speed painting contest). It definitely looks like I imagined it to be and I’m very happy with the way it turned out. I’ll be including this at the upcoming Leprecon 36 here in Phoenix next month. For reference, here is the original version, done in Watercolor paints:

It has been a while since my last acrylic painting and I forgot how much more detailed you can get with them than with watercolors. My husband has been trying to get me to use acrylics more because he enjoys the bright, vivid colors that they have. I had to go out and purchase several new colors and replacement paints as several of my other ones were almost empty or dried up, and they had a nice sale on paints so I grabbed a few new colors. I plan on using acrylic’s for my next few paintings as well.

I’ve got two 5-foot panels that I’ll have my art on at Leprecon, and planning on putting some stuff in the print gallery as well. A few of my Flower Fashion Fairies will be up for sale as originals and prints, and a few other new paintings that I hope to have finished in time. I won’t be at the booth or the con itself, but if you’re attending feel free to stop by and let me know what you think of my stuff – or even better, purchase some of it .

Phoenix Comicon is coming up next month as well and I’ve got several ideas on what to have there. I’ll be helping out at the Tiny Army booth for a few hours and will have some prints, ACEO’s, and other stuff for sell. I’ll give you more details on that as it gets closer.

Speaking of getting stuff finished in time, I need to get going on the next painting! See ya!

Its Finished!

Lizzy D. — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:07:21 +0000

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”:

I’m Back and Ready to Paint!

Lizzy D. — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:05:56 +0000

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.

Lizzy D's Art Blog

Back with Pictures and Cons

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