Today I wanted to share about something that I went through at the end of 2020. I haven't spoken much about it to date, at least publicly. I wanted to talk about this little commissioned memorial pet portrait, and in doing so, talk about that tough part in my life, since this little painting had a big effect on me at that time.

Art Series #18 - "Cheetah Cub" Oil Painting & Chat

Today I am back to show you one of the itty bitty paintings I recently finished. Check out the time-lapse video in this post if you want to see my oil painting process for this little 4 x 4" piece...

Art Series #17 - "Éffluerer" Oil Painting - My Compositions

In this Art Series post I have another one of my oil painting time-lapses for you! This piece is my favourite I've completed to date and in the time-lapse of it's creation I share about how I named it and the feeling/meaning behind it. I also talk about how I create my original compositions, and also about developing my art style and how I feel about having an art style.

Art Series #16 - Hand Study in Oils & My Art Story

Spring has finally arrived here and I'm very excited, for warm weather of course, but, also, because it means beautiful flowers and hopefully lots of practice painting them! Today, though, I am sharing the last of the small oil studies I did in January, "Hand Study", 5 x 7", Oil on Canvas Board. I shared the final painting over on Facebook and Instagram back when I finished it--follow be on social media to get those first looks at my finished pieces--but, in this post you'll get a closer look at it and the detail and colour of it! I am very pleased with how it turned out! I'll also share the time lapse of it's creation and my art story, so continue on for all that...

I really wish that everyone could see it in person because I feel in photos the texture of the canvas gets in the way of the actual painting. From now on I think I'll add a couple of coats of gesso to my canvases before painting on them to get a smoother surface. I got a few GessoBoard panels for Christmas and I can't wait to paint on those. I think for practice paintings I'm going to get some MDF board and prepare some of those to paint on. It's basically the same idea as GessoBoard, but not quite as lovely. What's your preferred painting surface?

That's it for this Art Series post, friends! Check out some of my other Art Series posts here! See you soon!

Sam ♡

Art Series #15 - Eye Study in Oils & My New Motivation

Today I am sharing with you the second of my oil studies, Study of an Eye, before I move on to my first full size oil painting this year. If you'd like to see my first oil study, check out Art Series #14 - Lips Study in Oils. I set up a poll over on YouTube asking my subscribers what they'd like to hear me talk about in this video, and the winner was "my new motivation" with 41% of the votes. If you missed that poll and want to be included in future polls or other things, then subscribe to my YouTube channel to get those notifications over there! So my new motivation is what I talk about while you watch the time-lapse footage of the painting process of this eye...

Art Series - Post #14 - "Lips" Oil Study Time-lapse

In my previous post, Welcome 2018 - These Are My Goals This Year!, I wrote about my goals (or resolutions) for the year, and therein I spoke about my goals for my art career for 2018. In this video I speak a little bit more about that topic while I show you the time-lapse video footage of the first oil study I did earlier this month.

Art Series - Post #13 - Oil on Canvas "Girl Blowing Bubbles"

Well, it's been a while since I've posted -- this is my first post of the New Year! Whaaaaat?! I've had an awesome break for Christmas and New Year, spending time with my family and enjoying a nice relaxing break! The past couple of weeks I've begun planning projects and other things for the blog for this year, and have been thinking of goals for myself as well! One of those personal goals is to be selling some of my art as prints by the end of the year, so that means a lot more art creating--which always seems to be a goal for me every year--and, in return, having a lot more art to feature over here on the blog. So, to kick that off, I'd like to share this oil on canvas piece I did, which if you haven't seen the final piece already it just means you aren't following me over on Instagram or Facebook!

Art Series - Post #12 - "Snowy Sunset" Oil Painting

In this instalment of my Art Series, I'm showing you a painting I did of a beautiful winter scene in oil on canvas board, as a gift for my grandfather. I've decided to call it "Snowy Sunset".

Art Series - Post #11 - Alternative Wedding Guestbook

Hi, Guys! I haven’t done an Art Series post in what seems like forever! It’s been way too long, that’s for sure, and that makes me a little sad. I always feel like I’m struggling to find time to do my art, and that’s not good because it really is one of the loves of my life!

In this Art Series post I’m sharing with you something a little different. When my friend, Carrie, began planning her wedding, she asked me if I would come up with something as an alternative guestbook for her, and, of course, I said of course! So if you go ahead and scroll/read through this post you’ll be able to see my process from beginning to end in getting their guestbook done.

Art Series - Post #10 - "Eye" Sketch in Graphite

Hey there!

I've got another Art Series Post for you all today! It's just a quick little sketch I did in graphite of a close-up of an eye but I love sharing my art with you all.

You may have seen this on facebook if you've liked The Creative Glow over there, but I'd asked if anyone was interested in seeing the time-lapse, so I'm sharing that here today! I haven't got a whole bunch to say about it, just that it was just a quick sketch brought on by my fascination with the beauty and randomness of the human eye.

Alright, that's my sketch, guys! Nothing to involved or too crazy, but kinda neat! If you're having trouble viewing from the embedded video, here is the link that will take you directly there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zM0FWSQlvs, I hope you've enjoyed Art Series Post #10. More to come, of course! :)

Stay Creative,
Sam ♡

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Art Series - Post #9 - "Nanny" in Graphite

Heeeyyy!

In this installment of my Art Series posts I wanted to share with you all a graphite portrait drawing I did of my grandmother as a gift to my mother on her birthday this past April! 

I saw a picture of my grandmother’s huge family from when she was a little younger :)… I think maybe 16 or 17 years old (she just had her 74th birthday this past May), and thought how beautiful she was. I immediately knew I wanted to draw her. With my mom’s birthday coming up, I figured it would be a meaningful gift! Here she is:

Drawing a portrait of someone you know and someone you love and respect so much is difficult because you want it to be just perfect. I’m a perfectionist as it is!! He he. You just want to make sure it does look like them so you need to get certain features just right. This one is still hard for me… it really does look like her and I am quite proud of it… but there are things I’d like to fix. Maybe I’ll do another one. :)

Art Series - Post #8 - Handmade Greeting Cards

Happy Throwback Thursday, Everyone...

I can say that because, sadly but conveniently, I don't have any new art to show you in this week's Art Series post, so I'm throwing back to some greeting cards I have made in the past. 

Closer to Christmas I had shown you a selection of some of the Christmas Cards I had made over the years, and now I get to show you some other cards I've done. I've only got a few to show, I've done several others, but these are the only ones I found photos of and... well... the recipients of those cards have them, so I couldn't photograph them to show. These are all hand drawn, painted with watercolors, and inked with illustration pens. I think, at some point, if I can dedicate the time to it, I will come up with a bunch of new cards and start selling them on an Etsy store. I'll let you all know when/if that happens! Anyhow, for right now, here are some of my handmade greeting cards:

Click to Enlarge (slightly :))

Art Series - Post #7 - Comic Book Sketches

Hey Everybody!

So, as I promised I would do this week, I am showing you some very preliminary drawings of some of the characters I am working on for this comic book project I have mentioned a few times in the recent past. 

As I said on facebook and you may have seen (if you're not following, well, get on that!) I am still scared this week to show this stuff. It isn't that great, in my opinion, at this point, and everything needs a lot more work. But, it's a process, and this is just the beginning so take a look.

First, here is Marianne. She is one of the main characters in the story:

Marianne has been seen by the writer of this story and she won't be changing a whole lot. Next, this is Julie, she is more of a supporting character... at least from reading the first issue, that's what I can tell: 

Art Series - Post #6 - Graphite & Time Lapse

Hi! :D

So, in last week's Art Series Post you might remember me saying I was going to hopefully have some progress to show you on the comic book project I am working on... yes? No? Either way, I did say that and I am happy to also say that I have made some progress with the character designs... but, I'm sad to say that I've chickened out on posting to show you all just yet. :/ I've got one entire character designed and two others that are just faces at this point. I just feel they need a little more... finessing before I introduce them. So, at this point, I am going to aim for next week. Yes, that's my goal, I will show you all next week... no chickening out! :)

Now, for this week, I will show you another old graphite drawing I did back in July of 2009. I wish I had a better quality image and video to present to you all, and I know I have somewhere with old files but I'm not quite sure where they are. I've searched and couldn't find them. Anyway, here is the drawing and below you will find the time lapse video if you're interested.

Art Series - Post #5 - Portrait of a Girl

Hey Everyone!

Today I've got another drawing I did in the past to show you all. This one was done in 2009 and is done with only an HB pencil. Even though I have several sets of art pencils with a variety of hard and soft leads, I have always preferred using just my standard HB pencil. So here it is, I'm just calling in 'Portrait of a Girl':

I love drawing people's portraits... actually, I think people are my favourite subject to draw. When I was in art school my favourite drawing class was, by far, figure drawing! 

Hopefully I will have some comic book progress to share in next week's Art Series Post, but if not, I will show you all another older piece.

Hope you all enjoyed! ;)

Sam ♡


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Art Series - Post #4 - 'Boat Launch' Watercolor

Hey all,

I've got a new Art Series post for you today! I've had to wait a while to show you guys any of this project since it was one that was a Christmas gift for my boyfriend's sister and her husband. Since they live a few hours away from us we had to plan a visit in order for me to give it to them and that was this past weekend. Now I can show it to all of you! They seemed to really love it (that made me feel so happy) and I hope you all will too! 

I'm going to show you the painting as a finished project first, but if you scroll down you'll be able to view the time lapse video I put together from the photos I took of my progress along the way. So, here is the painting in it's completed state:

This painting is done in watercolor. It's painted from a photograph I took in Salmon Arm, BC in June of 2013 as the sun was setting. This is where my boyfriend and his family lived for many years and where he and his siblings grew up. This painting looks out over the Shuswap Lake right next to the Salmon Arm Wharf, which you can see some of in the painting.

Art Series - Post #3

Hey Everyone!

Time for another Art Series post! :) This week, since Christmas is right on our heels, I'm showing you all a small selection (11 below) of the handmade Christmas cards I have created. These have all been hand drawn and painted by me. Even the text. And my preferred media when making my cards is watercolor so that's what all these are done in. Someday I hope to have my own line of cards...perhaps a good place to start would be Etsy, but that part is just a thought at this point.

I've also done cards for many other occasions; Birthday Cards for friends, Anniversary Cards, Wedding Cards, Baby Shower Cards, Moving Away Cards, etc.. I'll show you guys some of those in a future post sometime. Some of the images I have are older and pulled off my very old MacBook so somehow some of the files got ruined. You can still see the important parts, though. Enjoy! :) 

Art Series - Post #2

Hey, pals!

It’s time for another Art Series post. Today I am going to show you guys a drawing I did a while back. I have got a lot of stuff on the go right now like my next video, a second video for my upcoming Holiday Give-Away, some Christmas gift art projects (which I will be showing after Christmas), and Christmas gift shopping. So, lots, lots, lots going on and so that’s why I am showing you some past work this week.

This drawing is one I did for an assignment on cross-hatching back in college. I think it’s from 2001 or 2002. If you look real close you’ll notice that nothing is actually shaded in this drawing, but is all just a series of cross-hatched lines overlapping one another in varying amounts of layers to create dimension and the look of being shaded.

 

The first thing you need to do when creating a drawing like this is to evaluate the highlights and shadows that occur, and then create yourself a scale of about 7 to 10 shades from your brightest highlight (white) to your darkest shadow (black). You only need one HB pencil to do this. It’s best to choose an image that demonstrates a high contrast so that you will have that range from white to black. Once you’ve done that, you can then draw a light, rough outline of your drawing and also block out the different areas in your drawing for each shade on your scale.

Art Series - Post #1

Hey, Everyone! :D

 
So, as I mentioned in my previous blog post, I’ve decided to start doing some extra posts that will showcase my art. I’m really excited about it because I feel it’ll get me back to doing more art, which I have been trying to get back into for a while. I’m always creating but haven’t been doing art nearly as much as I should. 

I’m going to try and have something to show you guys every week. I'll continue to do my usual blog posts once a week, like I have been doing (with videos every second week), but this will be in addition to those Thursday posts. Sometimes it’ll be new art, sometimes it’ll be art I’ve done in the past, sometimes it may just be quick sketches and then sometimes, if I’m working on a longer/larger project, I'll show you how I’m progressing. This will all be on a trial basis for now; I’ll see how well I can manage my time and how much interest is shown in these additional art posts. I certainly hope you like them!

So, today I have the very first of these projects to show you. This is a drawing I did using chalk pastel and a small bit of colored pencil just for the little bug. The paper I used is a black, 75lb, textured Tiziano (Fabriano Brand) which is great for holding the pigments of the pastels. Working on a black surface meant drawing the opposite of what you would if working on a traditional white surface. So instead of darkening the midtones and shadows, I lightened the midtones and highlights. So here is the final drawing: