Kitty-ween

I like to make felt creatures and dabble a bit with textiles. Creating patterns and seeing how they turn out is fun. I also see what needs tweaking for the next one, but just seeing the outcome and whether or not the pattern was successful is pretty amazing. This is a nice relaxing exercise that helps me think of even more ideas. I never imagined being someone who sews but these are basic stitches that even I can master.

This pattern started out as a sketch in my sketchbook, that I pulled into Procreate and then created my pattern from the sketch. I kept it simple but I wanted to do so much more lol.

I may make a bunch of these and sell them. At the least, I’ll probably mail one to my mom.

Long beaked Cardinal

Another Imaginary Creature pulled out from the page. I drew the beak long and almost erased it, but left it because it isn’t supposed to be representational anyway.

There’s a lot of angles to this guy. He uses them to hide in oak and elm trees.

I also included what the page looked like before I painted him so you can see where I got the idea for him.

Georgie is about to have a bad day

I have a few “prepped” homemade sketchbooks with patterned backgrounds that I use for characters. Sort of like a staged background. Today I used the background to randomly “find” a character.

This guy almost jumped off the page. But then he looks very terrier-ish so that would be normal for a terrier.

Georgie is a happy guy. Everyone loves him except……

The Cat Bully….

Final Inchie Day

The final prompt is “DETAIL.”

One of the things that Amy Maricle encourages during the challenge is to do multiple versions and then see if they can be part of a larger piece. I played with acrylic paint and created a bunch of blue blocks and then followed the brush strokes to find a pattern. This was a surprisingly inspiring process and I found that it’s a good way to create patterns. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.

Overall, if you are stuck creatively, Inchies are helpful. The small size makes doing the art less time consuming and intimidating, while also being portable and a little addicting.

I have quite the little stack after 12 days.

Inchies – Swirling

The theme for Day 11 was “swirling.” Instead of drawing something that swirls, I opted for a completely different idea and grabbed some old art

(see previous post: https://ginalento.com/2021/08/25/i-have-done-something-horrible/ )

and I cut it up into the 2×2 squares. I sprayed the squares with spray Ink and sealed them after they dried so they wouldn’t reactivate. They reflect the light a little and my scanner wasn’t handy so this is just an iPhone photo of the 4.

Happy Labor Day

We are less than a month away from Inktober and that means the return of the Little Witch and her Dragon.

They are taking a vacation at the shore and are enjoying their Labor Day on the beach. Dragons love the sun on their hides. The laughing gulls are wondering if there are any handouts coming. The Little Witch is enjoying her latest issue of Broom Network Magazine where she is picking up decorating ideas, recipes and reading about the new cauldrons and brooms that are coming out this Fall.

Soon, it will be pumpkin and apple picking time!

((This is the raw sketch. There are some things that I would def tweak if I did this digitally but the joys or working with traditional materials are the quirks and happy accidents that make original art…original….))

I used Arches Text Wove paper and didn’t realize that the watermark is on every page of this sketchbook….LOL. At least I know it’s genuine! This paper is a little more textured which makes the pens I use act up a little bit but I am finding ways to work with it. Watercolor would def work better but I have a set color palette for the Little Witch series with Arteza Brush pens.)

A visitor

John and I were watching TV and getting ready to call it a night when something crashed into our windows behind the couch. We froze. John got up to open the door but I cautioned him not to because we have everything from panthers, bears, coyotes, foxes and heaven knows what else living in our part of Florida.

Instead, I opened the slider which was inside our screen house but has a view of the side of the house. There was something hanging in our screen door.

This barred owl stared back at me and I took his photo. I spoke gently to him because he looked a little out of it. He just looked back at me and hung there a bit and flew away, banging into the top of the carport as he left. We have many creatures that crawl around the carport…lizards, geckos and what not so someone missed being a meal.

In the morning, we found that his crash into the window broke the screen. But that’s ok. It can be repaired. We heard the owls later and the next evening so I guess all is well.

Barred owl